July 26, 2025 • 45 mins
Dive into the captivating life of Marcus Tullius Cicero, an influential orator, statesman, philosopher, and correspondent who emerged as a new man in the chaotic final years of Romes republican government. In this biography, acclaimed novelist Anthony Trollope delivers a passionate defense of Ciceros virtues against critics who question his political and personal strength. Trollopes personal approach offers a unique glimpse into his own thought process and era, as well as those of Cicero. Volume I explores Ciceros formative years, his ascension through the courts and state offices to the Consulship, and his subsequent exile. This version omits footnotes and appendices, which mostly consist of bibliographical citations, Latin quotations, and substantial extracts from other works, unless they are explicitly referred to in the main text. Catch up with Volume II after this.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter ten of the Life of Cicero, Volume one. This
is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
LibriVox dot org. Recording by PHILIPA. Jevons. The Life of Cicero,
Volume one by Anthony Trollop, Chapter ten Cicero after his consulship.
(00:23):
The idea that the great consul had done illegally in
putting citizens to death was not allowed to lie dormant
even for a day. It must be remembered that a
decree of the Senate had no power as a law.
The laws could be altered, or even a new law
made only by the people. Such was the constitution of
the Republic. Further On, when Cicero will appeal, as in fact,
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on trial, for the offense so alleged to have been committed,
I shall have to discuss the matter. But the point
was raised against him even in the moment of his triumph.
As he was leaving the consulship. The reiteration of his
self praise had created for him many enemies. It had
turned friends against him, and had driven men even of
his own party to ask themselves whether all this virtue
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was to be endured. When a man assumes to be
more just than his neighbours, there will be many ways
found of throwing in a shell against him. It was
customary for a consul, when he vacated his office to
make some valedictory speech. Cicero was probably expected to take
full advantage of the opportunity from other words which have
come from him on other occasions. But on the same
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subject it would not be difficult to compose such a
speech as he might have spoken. But there were those
who were already sick of hearing him say that Rome
had been saved by his intelligence and courage. We can
imagine what Caesar might have said among his friends of
the expediency of putting down the self laudatory consul. As
it was Metellus nepos, one of the tribunes, forbad the
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retiring officer to do more than take the oath usual
on leaving office, because he had illegally inflicted death upon
Romance citizens. Metellus as tribune had the power of stopping
any official proceeding. We hear from Cicero himself that he
was quite equal to the occasion. He swore on the
spur of the moment, a solemn oath, not in accordance
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with the form common to consuls on leaving office, but
to the effect that during his consulship Rome had been
saved by his work alone. We have the story only
as it is told by Cicero himself, who avers that
the people accepted the oath as sworn with exceeding praise.
That it was so, we may I think take us true.
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There can be no doubt as Cico's popularity at this moment,
and hardly a doubt also as to the fact that
Metellus was acting in agreement with Caesar, and also in
accord with the understood feelings of Pompey, who was absent
with his army in the east. This tribune had been
to lately an officer under Pompey, and went into office
together with Caesar, who in that year became prital. This
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probably was the beginning of the party which two years
off toward formed the first Triumvirate BC sixty It was
certainly now, in the year succeeding the consulship of Cicero,
that Caesar as pritor began his great career side note
BC sixty two it at forty five. It becomes manifest
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to us, as we read the history of the time,
that the dictator of the future was gradually entertaining the
idea that the old forms of the republic were rotten,
and that any man who intended to exercise power in
Rome or within the Roman Empire must obtain it and
keep it by illegal means. He had probably adhered to
Catialine's first conspiracy, but only with such moderate adhesion as
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enabled him to withdraw when he found that his companions
were not fit for the work. It is manifest that
he sympathized with the later conspiracy, though it may be
doubted whether he himself had ever been a party to it.
When the conspiracy had been crushed by Cicero, he had
given his full assent to the crushing of it. We
had seen how loudly he condemned the wickedness of the
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conspirators in his endeavor to save their lives. But through
it all there was a well grounded conviction in his
mind that Cicero, with all his virtues, was not practical.
Not that Cicero was to him the same as Cato,
who with his stoic grand eloquence, must to his thinking,
have been altogether useless. Cicero, though too virtuous for supreme rule,
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too virtuous to seize power and hold it, too virtuous
to despise as a feat the institutions of the republic,
was still a man so gifted and capable in so
many things as to be very great as an assistant,
if he would only condescend to assist. It is in
this light that Caesar seems to have regarded Cicero as
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time went on, admiring him, liking him, willing to act
with him if it might be possible, but not the
less determined to put down all the attempts at patriotic
republican virtue in which the orator delighted to indulge. Mister
Forsyth expresses an opinion that Caesar, till he crossed the
Rubicon after his ten years fighting in Gaul, had entertained
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no settled plan of overthrowing the constitution. Probably not, nor
even then it may be doubted whether Caesar ever spoke
to himself of overthrowing the constitution. He came gradually to
see that power and wealth were to be obtained by
violent action, and only by violent action. He had before
him the examples of Marius and Sullah, both of whom
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had enjoyed power and had died in their beds. There
was the example also of others who, walking unwarily in
those perilous times, had been banished as was Vheries, or
killed as was Catiline. We can easily understand that he,
with his great genius, should have acknowledged the need both
of courage and caution. Both were exercised when he consented
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to be absent from Rome and almost from Italy during
the ten years of the Gallic Wars. But this, I
think is certain that from the time in which his
name appears prominent, from the period, namely of the Cataline Conspiracy,
he had determined not to overthrow the Constitution, but so
to carry himself amid the great affairs of the day,
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as not to be overthrown himself. Of what nature was
the intercourse between him and Pompey when Pompey was still
absent in the East, we do not know, but we
can hardly doubt that some understanding had begun to exist.
Of this Cicero was probably aware. Pompey was the man
whom Cicero chose to regard as his party leader, not
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having himself been inured to the actual politics of Rome
early enough in life to put himself forward as the
leader of his party, it had been necessary for him,
as a nobus homo, to come forward and work as
an advocate and then as an administrative officer of the state,
before he took up with politics, that this was so.
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I have shown by quoting the opening words of his
speech pro Lege Manilia. Proud as he was of the
doings of his consulship, he was still too new to
his work to think that thus he could claim to
stand first, nor did his ambition lead him in that direction.
He desired personal praise rather than personal power. When in
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the last catalanation to the people he speaks of the
great men of the Republic, of the two Scipios, and
of Paulus Emilius, and of Marius, he adds the name
of Pompey to these names, or gives rather to Pompey
greater glory than to any of them anteponatur omnibus Pompeus.
This was but a few days before Metellus as tribune
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had stopped him in his speech at the instigation probably
of Caesar, and in furtherance of Pompey's views. Pompey and
Caesar could agree at any rate in this that they
did not want such a one as Cicero to interfere
with them. All of which Cicero himself perceived the specially
rich province of Macedonia, which would have been his had
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he chosen to take it. On quitting the consulship, he
made over to Antony, no doubt as a bribe. As
with us, one statesman may resign a special office to
another to keep that other from kicking over the traces.
Then Gaul became his province as allotted ces Alpine Gaul,
as northern Italy, was then called a province less rich
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in plunder and pay than Macedonia. But Cicero wanted no province,
and had contrived that this should be confided to Metellus Keller,
the brother of Nepos, who, having been Prito when he
himself was consul, was entitled to a government. This too
was a political bribe. If courtesy to Caesar, if provinces
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given an up here and there to Antony's and Metelluses,
if flattery lavished on, Pompey could avail anything he could
not afford to dispense with such aids. It all availed
nothing from this time forward. For the twenty years which
were to run before his death, his life was one
always of trouble and doubt, often of despair, and on
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many occasions of actual misery. The source of this was
that Pompey, whom, with divine attributes he had extolled above
all other Romans. The first extant letter written by Cicero
after his consulship was addressed to Pompey. Pompey was still
in the east, but had completed his campaigns against Mithridates successfully.
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Cicero begins by congratulating him, as though to do so
were the purpose of his letter. Then he tells the
victorious general that there were some in Rome not so
well pleased as he was at these victories. It is
supposed that he alluded here to Caesar, but if so,
he probably misunderstood the alliance which was already being formed
between Caesar and Pompey. After that comes the real object
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of the epistle. He had received letters from Pompey congratulating
him in very cold language as to the glories of
his consulship. He had expected much more than that from
the friend for whom he had done so much. Still,
he thanks his friend, explaining that the satisfaction really necessary
to him was the feeling that he had beheaved well
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to his friend. If his friend were less friendly to
him in return, then would the balance of friendship be
on his side. If Pomby were not bound to him
Cicero by personal gratitude, still would he be bound by
necessary cooperation in the service of the republic. But lest
Pompey should misunderstand him, he declares that he had expected
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warmer language in reference to his consulship, which he believes
to have been withheld by Pompey, lest offense should be
given to some third person. By this he means Caesar
and those who are now joining themselves to Caesar. Then
he goes on to warn him as to the future. Nevertheless,
when ye return, you will find that my actions have
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been of such a nature that, even though you may
loom larger than Scipio, I shall be found worthy to
be accepted as your lilius. Infinite care had been given
to the writing of this letter, and sharp had been
the heart burnings which dictated it. It was only by
asserting that he on his own part, was satisfied with
his own fidelity as a friend that Cicero could express
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his dissatisfaction at Pompey's coldness. It was only by continuing
to lavish upon Pompey such flattery as was contained in
the reference to Scipio, in which a touch of subtle
irony as mixed with the flattery, that he could explain
the nature of the praise which had he thought been
due to himself. There is something that would have been
abject in the nature of these expressions had it not
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been Roman in the excess of the adulation. But there
is courage in the letter too, when he tells his
correspondent what he believes to have been the cause of
the coldness of which he complains, corduerer ne cuius animal
more fenderes, because you fear lest you should give offense
to someone, But tell me. He goes on to say,
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that my consulship has been of such nature that you, Scippio,
as you are, must admit me as your friend. In
these words we find a key to the whole of
Cicero's connection with the man whom he recognizes as his
political leader. He was always dissatisfied with Pompey, always accusing
Pompy in his heart of ingratitude and insincerity, frequently speaking
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to Atticus with bitter truth of the man's selfishness and incapacity,
even of his cruelty and want of patriotism, nicknaming him
because of his absurdities, declaring of him that he was
minded to be a second Steller, but still clinging to
him as the political friend and leader whom he was
bound to follow. In their earlier years, when he could
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have known personally but little of Pompey, because Pompey was
generally absent from Rome, he had taken it into a
head to love the man. He had been called magnus,
He had been made console long before the proper time.
He had been successful on behalf of the Republic, and
so far patriotic he had hitherto adhered to the fame
of the Republic at any rate. Cicero had accepted him,
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and could never afterward bring himself to be disloyal to
the leader with whom he had professed to act. But
the feeling evinced in this letter was carried on to
the end. He had been he was he would be
true to his political connection with Pompey, but of Pompey's
personal character. To himself, he had nothing but complaints to make.
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Side note BC sixty two, it at forty five. We
have two other letters written by Cicero in this year,
the first of which is in answer to one from
Metellus Keller to him, also extant. Metellus wrote to complain
of the ill treatment which he thought he had received
from Cicero in the Senate and from the Senate generally.
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Cicero writes back at much greater length, to defend himself
and to prove that he had behaved as a most
obliging friend to his correspondent, though he had received a
gross affront from his correspondent's brother, Nepos. Nepos had prevented
him in that matter of the speech. It is hardly
necessary to go into the question of this quarrel, except
in so far as it may show how the feeling
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which led to Cicero's exile was growing up amongst many
of the aristocracy in Rome. There was a counterplot going
on at the moment, a plot on behalf of the
aristocracy for bringing back Pompey to Rome, not only with glory,
but with power. Probably originating in a feeling that Pompey
would be a more congenial master than Cicero, it was
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suggested that as Pompey had been found good in all
state emergencies, for putting down the pirates, for instance, and
for conquering misredaces, he would be the man to contend
in arms with Catiline. Catiline was killed before the matter
could be brought to an issue, but still the conspira
as he went on. Based on the jealousy which was
felt in regard to Cicero, this man, who had declared
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so often that he had served his country, and he
really had crushed the Catalinarians by his industry and readiness,
might after all be coming forward as another Sulla and
looking to make himself master by dint of his virtues
and his eloquence. The hopelessness of the condition of the
republic may be recognized in the increasing conspiracies which were
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hatched on every side. Metellus Neples was sent home from
Asia in aid of the conspiracy, and got himself made
tribune and stopped Cicero's speech. In conjunction with Caesar, who
was Brital. He proposed his new law for the calling
of Pompey to their aid. Then there was a frackar
between him and Caesar on one side, and Cato on
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the other, in which Cato at last was so far
victorious that both Caesar and Metellus were stopped in the
performance of their official duties. Caesar was soon reinstated, but
tell Us Nepos returned to Pompey in the East, and
nothing came of the conspiracy. It is only noticed here
as evidence of the feeling which existed as to Cicero
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in Rome, and as explaining the irritation on both sides
indicated in the correspondence between Cicero and Mattellus Keller, the
brother of Nepos, whom Cicero had procured the government of Gaul.
The third letter from Cicero in this year was to Sextius,
who was then acting as Christo or pro Cheisto, as
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Cicero calls him, with Anthony as proconsul in Macedonia. It
is specially interesting as telling us that the writer had
just completed the purchase of a house in Rome from
Crassus for a sum amounting to about thirty thousand pounds
of our money. There was probably no private mansion in
Rome of greater pretension. It had been owned by Livius
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Drusus the Tribune, a man of colossal fortune, as we
are told by Momson, who was murdered at the door
of it thirty years before. It afterward passed into the
hands of Crassus the Rich, and now became the property
of Cicero. We shall hear how it was destroyed during
his exile, and how fraudulently made over to the gods,
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and then how restored to Cicero, and how rebuilt at
the public expense. The history of the house has been
so well written that we know even the names of
Cicero's two successes in it, Kenserinus and Statilius. It is
interesting to know the sort of house which Cicero felt
to be suitable to his circumstances, for by that we
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may guess what his circumstances were in making this purchase.
He is supposed to have abandoned the family house in
which his father had lived next door to the new mansion,
and to have given it up to his brother. Hence
we may argue that he had conceived himself to have
risen in worldly circumstances. Nevertheless, we are informed by himself
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in this letter to Sextius, that he had to borrow
money for the occasion, so much so that, being a
man now indebted, he might be supposed to be ripe
for any conspiracy. Hence has come to us a story
through alos Gelius, the compiler of anecdotes to the effect
that Cicero was fain to borrow this money from a
client whose cause he undertook in requital for the favor
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so conferred. ALUs Gellius collected his stories two centuries afterward
for the amusement of his children, and has never been
regarded as an authority in matters for which confirmation has
been wanting. There is no allusion to such borrowing from
a client made by any contemporary. In this letter to Sextius,
in which he speaks jokingly of his indebtedness, he declares
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that he has been able to borrow any amount he
wanted at six percent twelve being the ordinary rate, and
gives us a reason for this the position which he
has achieved by his services to the state. Very much
has been said of the story, as though the purchaser
of the house had done something of which he ought
to have been ashamed. But this seems to have sprung
entirely from the idea that a man, who, in the
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midst of such wealth as prevailed at Rome, had practiced
so widely and so successfully the invaluable profession of an advocate,
must surely have taken money for his services. He himself
has asserted that he took none, and all the evidence
that we have goes to show that he spoke the truth.
Had he taken money, even as alone, we should have
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heard of it from nearer witnesses than Aulus Gellius, if,
as Alice Gellius tells us, it had become known at
the time. But because he tells his friend that he
has borrowed money for the purpose, he is supposed to
have borrowed it in a disgraceful manner. It will be
found that all the stones most injurious to Cicero's reputation
have been produced in the same manner. His own words
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have been misinterpreted, either the purpose of them, if spoken
in earnest, or their bearing if spoken in joke, and
then accusations have been founded on them. Another charge of
dishonest practice was about this time made against Cicero without
a gram of evidence, though indeed the accusations so made
and insisted upon, apparently from a feeling that Cicero cannot
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surely have been altogether clean when all others were so dirty,
are too numerous to receive from each reader's judgment that
indignant denial to which each is entitled. The biographer cannot
but fear that when so much mud has been thrown,
some will stick, and therefore almost hesitates to tell of
the mud, believing that no stain of this kind has been,
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in truth deserved. It seems that Antony, Cicero's colleague in
the consulship, who became proconsul in Macedonia, had undertaken to
pay some money to Cicero. Why the money was to
be paid we do not know, but there are allusions
in Cicero's letters to Atticus to one Teucris, a Trojan woman,
and it seems that Antony, was designated by the nickname Teucris,
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is very slow at paying his money, and Cicero is
in want of it. But perhaps it will be as
well not to push the matter. He Antony is to
be tried for provincial peculation, and Cicero declares that the
case is so bad that he cannot defend his late colleague.
Hence have arisen two different suspicions, one that Antony had
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agreed to make over to Cicero a share of the
Macedonian plunder in requital of Cicero's courtesy in giving up
the province which had been allotted to himself. The second
that Antony was to pay Cicero for defending him. As
to the former, Cicero himself alludes to such a report
as being common in Macedonia, and as having been used
by Antony himself as an excuse for increased rap in.
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But this has been felt to be incredible, and has
been allowed to fall to the ground because of the
second accusation. But in support of that there is no
word of evidence, whereas the tenor of the story, as
told by Cicero himself is against it. Is it likely?
Would it be possible that Cicero should have begun his
letter to Atticus by complaining that he could not get
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from ant Anthony money wanted for a peculiar purpose. It
was wanted for his new house, and have gone on
in the same letter to say that this might be
as well, after all, as he did not intend to
perform the service for which the money was to be paid.
The reader will remember that the accusation is based solely
on Cicero's own statement that Antony was negligent in paying
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to him money that had been promised. In all these accusations,
the evidence against Cicero, such as it is, is brought
exclusively from Cicero's own words. Cicero did afterward defend this Antony,
as we learned from his speech Prodomo sua, but his
change of purpose in that respect has nothing to do
with the argument. Side note BC sixty two, light at
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forty five. We have two speeches that Extant made this year,
one on behalf of p Sullah, nephew to the dictator,
the other for Archias, the Greek scholar and poet, who
had been Cicero's tutor and now claimed to be a
citizen of Rome. I have already given an extract from
this latter as showing the charm of words with which
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Cicero could recommend the pursuit of literature to his hearers.
The whole oration is a beautiful morsel of latinity, in which, however,
strength of argument is lacking. Cicero declares of Archias, that
he was so eminent in literature that, if not a
Roman citizen, he ought to be made one. The result
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is not known, but the literary world believes that the
citizenship was accorded to him. The speech on behalf of
Sullah was more important, but still not of much importance.
This Sulla, as may be remembered, had been chosen as
consul with Artronius two years before the consulship of Cicero,
and he had then, after his election, been deposed for bribery,
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as had also Altronius l Aurelius Cotta and el Manlius
Torquatus had been elected in their places. Also been already
explained that the two rejected consuls had, on this account
joined Cataline in his first conspiracy. There can be no
doubt that, whether as consuls or as rejected consuls, and
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on that account conspirators, their purpose was to use their
position as aristocrats for robbing the state. They were of
the number of those to whom no other purpose was
any longer possible. Then there came Catalan's second conspiracy, the
conspiracy which Cicero had crushed, And there naturally rose the
question whether from time to time this or the other
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noble Roman should not be accused of having joined it.
Many noble Romans had no doubt joined besides those who
had fallen fighting or who had been executed in the dungeons.
Accusations became very rife. One Vetius accused Caesar the prital,
but Caesar, with that potentiality which was peculiar to him,
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caused Vettius to be put into prison instead of going
to prison himself. Many were convicted and banished, among them
Portius Lyka, Vagunteius, Servius Suller, the brother of him, of
whom we are now speaking, and Artronius, his colleague. In
the trial of these men, Cicero took no part. He
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was specially invited by Artronius, who was an old schoolfellow,
to defend him, but he refused. Indeed, he gave evidence
against Artronius at the trial. But this Publius Sulla he
did defend, and defended successfully. He was joined in the
case with Hortensius, and declared that as to the matter
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of the former conspiracy, he left all that to his
learned friend, who was concerned with political matters of that date.
He Cicero had known nothing about them. The part of
The oration which most interests us is that in which
he defends himself from the accusations somewhat unwisely made against
himself personally by young Torquatus, the son of him, who
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had been raised to the consulship in the place of
p Sullah. Torquatus had called him a foreigner because he
was a nous homo and had come from the municipality
of Arpenum, and had taunted him as being a king
because he had usurped authority over life and death in
regard to Lentulus and the other conspirators. He answers this
very finely, and as so without an ill natured word
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to young Torquatus, whom, from respect to his father he
desires to spare. Do not, he says, in future, call
me a foreigner lest you be answered with severity, nor
a king, lest you be laughed at, unless indeed you
think it king like so to live as to be
a slave not only to no man, but to no
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evil passion, unless you think it king like. To despise
all lusts, to thirst for neither gold nor silver, nor goods,
to express yourself freely in the senate, to think more
of services due to the people, than a favours one
from them, to yield to none, and to stand firm
against many. If this speaking like, then I confess that
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I am a king. Sulah was acquitted. But the impartial
reader will not the less feel sure that he had
been part and parcel with Cataline in the conspiracy. It
is trusted that the impartial reader will also remember how
many honest, loyal gentlemen have in our own days undertaken
the cases of those whom they have known to be rebels,
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and have saved those rebels by their ingenuity and eloquence.
At the end of this year BC sixty two, there
occurred a fraca in Rome, which was of itself but
of little consequence to Rome, and would have been of
non to Cicero, but that circumstances grew out of it,
which created for him the bitterest enemy he had yet encountered,
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and led to his sorest trouble. This was the affair
of Clodius and of the mysteries of the Bonadeir, and
I should be disposed to say that it was the
greatest misfortune of his life, were it not that the
wretched results which sprung from it, would have been made
to spring from some other source. Had that source not sufficed,
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I shall have to tell how it came to pass
that Cicero was sent into exile by means of the
misconduct of Clodius. But I shall have to show also
that the misconduct of Clodius was but the tool which
was used by those who were desirous of ridding themselves
of the presence of Cicero. This Clodius, a young man
of noble family and of debauched manners, as were usual
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with young men of noble families, dressed himself up as
a woman, and made his way in among the ladies
as they were performing certain religious rites in honor of
the bonardeas or goddess Sibele, a matron goddess so chaste
in her manners that no male was admitted into her presence.
It was specially understood that nothing appertaining to a man
must be seen on the occasion, not even the portrait
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of one. And it may possibly have been the case
that Clodius effected his sad entrance among the worshiping matrons
on this occasion, simply because his doing so was an
outrage and therefore exciting. Another reason was alleged The rites
in question were annually held now in the house of
this matron, and then of that, and during the occasion
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the very master of the house was excluded from his
own premises. They were now being performed under the auspices
of Pompeia, the wife of Julius Caesar, the daughter of
on Quintus Pompeius, and it was alleged that Clodius came
among the women worshippers for the sake of carrying on
an intrigue with Caesar's wife. This was highly improbable, as
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mister Forsyth has pointed out to us, and the idea
was possibly used simply as an excuse to Caesar for
divorcing a wife of whom he was weary. At any rate,
when the scandal got abroad, he did divorce Pompeia, alleging
that it did not suit Caesar to have his wife
suspected side note BC sixty one eight. At forty six.
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The story became known through the city, and early in
January Cicero wrote to Atticus, telling him the facts you
have probably heard that Publius Clodius, the son of Appius,
has been taken dressed in a woman's clothes in the
house of Caius Caesar, where sacrifice was being made for
the people, and that he escaped by the aid of
a female slave. You will be sorry to hear that
(30:27):
it has given rise to a great scandal. A few
days afterwards, Cicero speaks of it again to Atticus at
greater length, and we learn that the matter had been
taken up by the magistrates with the view of punishing Clodius.
Cicero writes, without any strong feeling of his own, explaining
to his friend that he had been at first a
very lycurgus in the affair, but that he is now
(30:49):
tamed down. There is a third letter in which Cicero
is indignant because certain men of whom he disapproves, the
consul Piso among the Number, are anxious to save them
this wicked young nobleman from the punishment due to him,
whereas others of whom he approves Cato among the Number,
are desirous of seeing justice done. But it was no
(31:10):
affairs special to Cicero. Shortly afterwards he writes again to
Atticus as to the result of the trial, for a
trial did take place, and explains to his friend how
justice had failed. Atticus had asked him how it had
come to pass that he Cicero had not exerted himself
as he usually did. This letter, though there is matter
(31:31):
enough in it of a serious kind, yet jests with
the Clodian affairs so continually as to make us feel
that he attributed no importance to it. As regarded himself,
he had exerted himself till Hortensius made a mistake as
to the selection of the judges. After that he had
himself given evidence. An attempt was made to prove an alibi,
(31:51):
but Cicero came forward to swear that he had seen
Clodius on the very day in question. There had too
been in exchange of repartee in the Senate between himself
and Clodius after the acquittal, of which he gives the
details to his correspondent with considerable self satisfaction. The passage
does not enhance our idea of the dignity of the
Senate or of the power of Roman raillery. It was
(32:15):
known that Clodius had been saved by the wholesale bribery
of a large number of the judges. There had been
twenty five for condemning against thirty one for acquittal. Cicero,
in the Cataline affair, had used a phrase with frequency
by which he boasted that he had found out this,
and found out that comperis ser omnia. Clodius, in the
(32:37):
discussion before the trial, throws this in his teeth, comperis
er omnia crimin abbatour. This gave rise to ill feeling
and hurt Cicero much worse than the dishonored under the Bonnard.
There As for that, we may say that he and
the Senate and the judges cared personally very little, although
there was no doubt a feeling that it was wise
(32:58):
to all men's minds by the present of religious respect.
Cicero had cared but little about the trial, But as
he had been able to give evidence, he had appeared
as a witness, and enmity sprung from the words which
were spoken, both on one side and on the other.
Clodius was acquitted, which concerns us not at all, and
concerns Rome very little. But things had so come to
(33:21):
pass at the trial that Cicero had been very bitter,
and that Clodius had become his enemy. When a man
was wanted three years afterward to take the lead in
persecuting Cicero Clodius was ready for the occasion. While the
expediency of putting Clodius on his trial was being discussed,
Pompey had returned from the east and taken up his
(33:43):
residence outside the city because he was awaiting his triumphs.
The general, to whom it was given to march through
the city with triumphal glory, was bound to make his
first entrance after his victories, with all his triumphul appendages,
as though he was at that moment returning from the war,
with all his warlike spoils around him. The usage had
(34:04):
obtained the strength of law, but the general was not,
on that account debarred from city employment during the interval.
The city must be taken out to him instead of
his coming into the city. Pompy was so great on
his return from his Methridatic victories that the senate went
out to sit with him in the suburbs, as he
could not sit with it within the walls. We find
(34:27):
him taking part in these Clodian discussions. Cicero at once
writes of him to Athens with evident dissatisfaction. When questioned
about Clodius, Pompey had answered with the grand heir of
an aristocrat, Crassus, on this occasion, between whom and Cicero
there was never much friendship. Took occasion to bloord the
(34:47):
late great Consul on account of his Cataline successes. Pompey,
we are told, did not bear this well. Crassus had
probably intended to produce some such effect. Then Cicero had
spoken in answer to the remarks of Crassus very glibly,
no doubt, and had done his best to show off
before Pompey, his new listener. More than six years had
(35:09):
passed since Pompey could have heard him, and then Cicero's
voice had not become potential in the Senate. Cicero had
praised Pompey with all the eloquence in his power. Antepornatur
omnibus Pompeos, he had said in the last catline oration
to the Senate, and Pompey, though he had not heard
the words spoken, knew very well what had been said.
(35:32):
Such oratory was never lost upon those whom it most
concerned the orator to make acquainted with it. But in
return for all this praise for that manilia narration, which
had helped to send him to the East for continual loyalty.
Pompey had replied to Cicero with coldness. He would now
let Pompey know what was his standing in Rome, if ever,
(35:54):
he says to Atticus, I was strong, with my grand rhythm,
with my quick rhetorical passages, with enthusiasm, and with logic.
I was so Now, oh the noise that I made
on the occasion, you know what my voice can do.
I need say no more about it, as surely you
must have heard me away there in a pyrus. The reader,
(36:14):
I trust will have already a sufficiently vivid idea of
Cicero's character to understand the mingling of triumph and badinage,
with a spark of disappointment, which is here expressed. This Pompey,
though I have been so true to him, has not
thought much of me, of me the great consul who
saved Rome. He has now heard what even Crassus has
(36:37):
been forced to say about me. He shall hear me too,
me myself, and perhaps he will then know better. It
was thus that Cicero's mind was at work while he
was turning out his loud periods. Pompey was sitting next
to him, listening by no means admiring his admirer, as
that admirer expected to be admired. Cis Roux had probably
(37:00):
said to himself that they two together, Pompey and Cicero,
might suffice to preserve the republic. Pompey, not thinking much
of the Republic, was probably telling himself that he wanted
no brother near the throne. When of two men, the
first think himself equal to the second, the second will
generally feel himself to be superior to the first. Pompey
(37:23):
would have liked Cicero Betta if his periods had not
been so round, nor his voice so powerful. Not that
Pompey was distinctly desirous of any throne, his position at
the moment was peculiar. He had brought back his victorious
army from the east to Brundisium, and had then disbanded
his legions. I will quite hear the opening words from
(37:45):
one of Monson's chapters. When Pompeus, after having transacted the
affairs committed to his charge, again turned his eyes towards home.
He found for the second time the diadem at his feet.
He says, father, explaining why Pompey did not lift the diadem.
The very peculiar temperament of Pompeius naturally turned once more
(38:08):
the scale. He was one of those men who are capable,
it may be, of a crime, but not of insubordination.
And again, while in the capital all was preparation for
receiving the new monarch, news came that Pompeius, when barely
landed at Brundisium, had broken up his legions, and with
a small escort, had entered his journey to the capital.
(38:32):
If it is a piece of good fortune to gain
a crown without trouble, fortune never did more for mortal
than it did for Pompeius. But on those who lack courage,
the gods lavish every favor and every gift. In vain,
I must say here that while I acknowledge the German
historian's research and knowledge without any reserve, I cannot accept
(38:53):
his deductions as to character. I do not believe that
Pompey found any diadem at his feet, or thought of
any diadem, Nor, according to my reading of Roman history,
had Marius or had Sullah, nor did Caesar the first
who thought of that perpetual rule a rule to be
perpetuated during the ruler's life and to be handed down
(39:14):
to his successors. Was Augustus Marius, violent, self seeking and uncontrollable,
had tumbled into supreme power, and had he not died,
would have held it as long as he could because
it pleased his ambition. For the moment Sullah, with a purpose,
had seized it, yet seems never to have got beyond
(39:35):
the old Roman idea of a temporary dictatorship. The old
Roman horror of a king was present to these Romans
even after they had become kings. Pompey no doubt liked
to be first, and when he came back from the East,
thought that by his deeds he was first, easily first,
whether consul year after year as Marius had been, or
(39:57):
dictator as Sulla had been, or imperator with a running
command over all the Romans. It was his idea still
to adhere to the forms of the republic. Momson foreseeing,
if an Astorian can be said to foresee the future
from his standing point in the past, that a master
was to come for the Roman Empire, and giving all
(40:18):
his sympathies to the cesarean idea despises Pompey, because Pompey
would not pick up the diadem. No such idea ever
entered Pompey's head. After a while, he sullatarized, was desirous
of copying Sullah, to use an excellent word which Cicero
coined when he was successfully opposed by those whom he
(40:39):
had thought inferior to himself. When he found that Caesar
had got the better of him, and that a stronger
body of Romans went with Caesar than with him, then proscriptions, murder, confiscations,
and the seizing of dictatorial power presented themselves to his
angry mind. But of permanent, despotic power there was, I
(40:59):
think no thought, nor, as far as I can read
the records, had such an idea been fixed in Caesar's bosom.
To carry on the old trade of Britle consul, proconsul
and imperato, so as to get what he could of
power and wealth and dignity in the scramble was I
think Caesar's purpose. The rest grew upon him. As Shakespeare,
(41:22):
sitting down to write a play that might serve his theater,
composed some lear or tempest that has lived and will
live forever because of the genius which was unknown to himself.
So did Caesar, by his genius, find his way to
a power which he had not premeditated. A much longer
time is necessary for eradicating an idea from men's minds
(41:45):
than a fact from their practice. This should be proved
to us by our own loyalty to the word monarch,
when nothing can be further removed from a monarchy than
our own commonwealth. From those first breaches in republican practice,
which the historian and Florus dates back to the siege
of Numantia BC one three three down far into the
(42:06):
reign of Augustus, it took a century and a quarter
to make the people understand that there was no longer
a republican form of government, and to produce a leader
who could himself see that there was room for a despot.
Pompey had his triumph, but the same aristocratic heirs which
had annoyed Cicero had offended others. He was shorn of
(42:28):
his honors. Only two days were allowed for his processions.
He was irritated, jealous, and no doubt desirous of making
his power felt, but he thought of no diadem. Caesar
saw it all and he thought of that conspiracy which
we have since called the first Triumvirate side note BC
(42:50):
sixty two sixty one at forty five forty six. The
two years to which this chapter has been given were
uneventful in sists life, and produced but little of that
stock of literature by which he has been made one
of mankind's prime favorites. Two discourses were written and published
and probably spoken, which are now lost, that namely to
(43:13):
the people against Metellus, in which no doubt he put
forth all that he had intended to say when Metellus
stopped him from speaking at the expiration of his consulship.
The second against Clodius and Curio in the Senate in
reference to the discreditable Clodian affair. The fragments which we
have of this contain those asperities which he retailed afterwards
(43:36):
in his letter to Atticus, and are not either instructive
or amusing. But we learn from these fragments that Clodius
was already preparing that scheme for entering the tribunate by
an illegal repudiation of his own family rank, which he
afterward carried out to the great detriment of Cicero's happiness.
Of the speeches extant on behalf of Archaias and p
(43:59):
Suller spoken already. We know of no others made during
this period. We have one letter besides those Atticus addressed
to Antony, his former colleague, which like many of his letters,
was written solely for the sake of popularity. During these
years he lived, no doubt splendidly as one of the
great men of the greatest city in the world. He
(44:21):
had his magnificent new mansion in Rome, and his various villas,
which were already becoming noted for their elegance and charms
of upholstery and scenic beauty. Not only had he climbed
to the top of official life himself, but had succeeded
in taking his brother Quintus up with him. In the
second of the two years BC. Sixty one, Quintus had
(44:42):
been sent out as governor or proprietor to Asia, having
then nothing higher to reach than the consulship, which, however,
he never attained. This step in the life of Quintus
has become famous by a letter which the elder brother
wrote to him in the second year of his office,
to which reference will be mad in the next chapter.
(45:02):
So far all things seemed to have gone well with Cicero.
He was high in esteem and authority, powerful, rich, and
with many people popular. But the student of his life
now begins to see that troubles are enveloping him. He
had risen too high not to encounter envy, and had
been too loud in his own praise not to make
(45:24):
those who envied him very bitter in their malice. End
of Chapter ten
Chapter ten of the Life of Cicero, Volume one. This
is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
LibriVox dot org. Recording by PHILIPA. Jevons. The Life of Cicero,
Volume one by Anthony Trollop, Chapter ten Cicero after his consulship.
(00:23):
The idea that the great consul had done illegally in
putting citizens to death was not allowed to lie dormant
even for a day. It must be remembered that a
decree of the Senate had no power as a law.
The laws could be altered, or even a new law
made only by the people. Such was the constitution of
the Republic. Further On, when Cicero will appeal, as in fact,
(00:46):
on trial, for the offense so alleged to have been committed,
I shall have to discuss the matter. But the point
was raised against him even in the moment of his triumph.
As he was leaving the consulship. The reiteration of his
self praise had created for him many enemies. It had
turned friends against him, and had driven men even of
his own party to ask themselves whether all this virtue
(01:08):
was to be endured. When a man assumes to be
more just than his neighbours, there will be many ways
found of throwing in a shell against him. It was
customary for a consul, when he vacated his office to
make some valedictory speech. Cicero was probably expected to take
full advantage of the opportunity from other words which have
come from him on other occasions. But on the same
(01:29):
subject it would not be difficult to compose such a
speech as he might have spoken. But there were those
who were already sick of hearing him say that Rome
had been saved by his intelligence and courage. We can
imagine what Caesar might have said among his friends of
the expediency of putting down the self laudatory consul. As
it was Metellus nepos, one of the tribunes, forbad the
(01:53):
retiring officer to do more than take the oath usual
on leaving office, because he had illegally inflicted death upon
Romance citizens. Metellus as tribune had the power of stopping
any official proceeding. We hear from Cicero himself that he
was quite equal to the occasion. He swore on the
spur of the moment, a solemn oath, not in accordance
(02:14):
with the form common to consuls on leaving office, but
to the effect that during his consulship Rome had been
saved by his work alone. We have the story only
as it is told by Cicero himself, who avers that
the people accepted the oath as sworn with exceeding praise.
That it was so, we may I think take us true.
(02:35):
There can be no doubt as Cico's popularity at this moment,
and hardly a doubt also as to the fact that
Metellus was acting in agreement with Caesar, and also in
accord with the understood feelings of Pompey, who was absent
with his army in the east. This tribune had been
to lately an officer under Pompey, and went into office
together with Caesar, who in that year became prital. This
(02:56):
probably was the beginning of the party which two years
off toward formed the first Triumvirate BC sixty It was
certainly now, in the year succeeding the consulship of Cicero,
that Caesar as pritor began his great career side note
BC sixty two it at forty five. It becomes manifest
(03:19):
to us, as we read the history of the time,
that the dictator of the future was gradually entertaining the
idea that the old forms of the republic were rotten,
and that any man who intended to exercise power in
Rome or within the Roman Empire must obtain it and
keep it by illegal means. He had probably adhered to
Catialine's first conspiracy, but only with such moderate adhesion as
(03:43):
enabled him to withdraw when he found that his companions
were not fit for the work. It is manifest that
he sympathized with the later conspiracy, though it may be
doubted whether he himself had ever been a party to it.
When the conspiracy had been crushed by Cicero, he had
given his full assent to the crushing of it. We
had seen how loudly he condemned the wickedness of the
(04:04):
conspirators in his endeavor to save their lives. But through
it all there was a well grounded conviction in his
mind that Cicero, with all his virtues, was not practical.
Not that Cicero was to him the same as Cato,
who with his stoic grand eloquence, must to his thinking,
have been altogether useless. Cicero, though too virtuous for supreme rule,
(04:28):
too virtuous to seize power and hold it, too virtuous
to despise as a feat the institutions of the republic,
was still a man so gifted and capable in so
many things as to be very great as an assistant,
if he would only condescend to assist. It is in
this light that Caesar seems to have regarded Cicero as
(04:48):
time went on, admiring him, liking him, willing to act
with him if it might be possible, but not the
less determined to put down all the attempts at patriotic
republican virtue in which the orator delighted to indulge. Mister
Forsyth expresses an opinion that Caesar, till he crossed the
Rubicon after his ten years fighting in Gaul, had entertained
(05:10):
no settled plan of overthrowing the constitution. Probably not, nor
even then it may be doubted whether Caesar ever spoke
to himself of overthrowing the constitution. He came gradually to
see that power and wealth were to be obtained by
violent action, and only by violent action. He had before
him the examples of Marius and Sullah, both of whom
(05:33):
had enjoyed power and had died in their beds. There
was the example also of others who, walking unwarily in
those perilous times, had been banished as was Vheries, or
killed as was Catiline. We can easily understand that he,
with his great genius, should have acknowledged the need both
of courage and caution. Both were exercised when he consented
(05:57):
to be absent from Rome and almost from Italy during
the ten years of the Gallic Wars. But this, I
think is certain that from the time in which his
name appears prominent, from the period, namely of the Cataline Conspiracy,
he had determined not to overthrow the Constitution, but so
to carry himself amid the great affairs of the day,
(06:18):
as not to be overthrown himself. Of what nature was
the intercourse between him and Pompey when Pompey was still
absent in the East, we do not know, but we
can hardly doubt that some understanding had begun to exist.
Of this Cicero was probably aware. Pompey was the man
whom Cicero chose to regard as his party leader, not
(06:40):
having himself been inured to the actual politics of Rome
early enough in life to put himself forward as the
leader of his party, it had been necessary for him,
as a nobus homo, to come forward and work as
an advocate and then as an administrative officer of the state,
before he took up with politics, that this was so.
(07:01):
I have shown by quoting the opening words of his
speech pro Lege Manilia. Proud as he was of the
doings of his consulship, he was still too new to
his work to think that thus he could claim to
stand first, nor did his ambition lead him in that direction.
He desired personal praise rather than personal power. When in
(07:23):
the last catalanation to the people he speaks of the
great men of the Republic, of the two Scipios, and
of Paulus Emilius, and of Marius, he adds the name
of Pompey to these names, or gives rather to Pompey
greater glory than to any of them anteponatur omnibus Pompeus.
This was but a few days before Metellus as tribune
(07:45):
had stopped him in his speech at the instigation probably
of Caesar, and in furtherance of Pompey's views. Pompey and
Caesar could agree at any rate in this that they
did not want such a one as Cicero to interfere
with them. All of which Cicero himself perceived the specially
rich province of Macedonia, which would have been his had
(08:07):
he chosen to take it. On quitting the consulship, he
made over to Antony, no doubt as a bribe. As
with us, one statesman may resign a special office to
another to keep that other from kicking over the traces.
Then Gaul became his province as allotted ces Alpine Gaul,
as northern Italy, was then called a province less rich
(08:28):
in plunder and pay than Macedonia. But Cicero wanted no province,
and had contrived that this should be confided to Metellus Keller,
the brother of Nepos, who, having been Prito when he
himself was consul, was entitled to a government. This too
was a political bribe. If courtesy to Caesar, if provinces
(08:49):
given an up here and there to Antony's and Metelluses,
if flattery lavished on, Pompey could avail anything he could
not afford to dispense with such aids. It all availed
nothing from this time forward. For the twenty years which
were to run before his death, his life was one
always of trouble and doubt, often of despair, and on
(09:12):
many occasions of actual misery. The source of this was
that Pompey, whom, with divine attributes he had extolled above
all other Romans. The first extant letter written by Cicero
after his consulship was addressed to Pompey. Pompey was still
in the east, but had completed his campaigns against Mithridates successfully.
(09:34):
Cicero begins by congratulating him, as though to do so
were the purpose of his letter. Then he tells the
victorious general that there were some in Rome not so
well pleased as he was at these victories. It is
supposed that he alluded here to Caesar, but if so,
he probably misunderstood the alliance which was already being formed
between Caesar and Pompey. After that comes the real object
(09:58):
of the epistle. He had received letters from Pompey congratulating
him in very cold language as to the glories of
his consulship. He had expected much more than that from
the friend for whom he had done so much. Still,
he thanks his friend, explaining that the satisfaction really necessary
to him was the feeling that he had beheaved well
(10:18):
to his friend. If his friend were less friendly to
him in return, then would the balance of friendship be
on his side. If Pomby were not bound to him
Cicero by personal gratitude, still would he be bound by
necessary cooperation in the service of the republic. But lest
Pompey should misunderstand him, he declares that he had expected
(10:41):
warmer language in reference to his consulship, which he believes
to have been withheld by Pompey, lest offense should be
given to some third person. By this he means Caesar
and those who are now joining themselves to Caesar. Then
he goes on to warn him as to the future. Nevertheless,
when ye return, you will find that my actions have
(11:02):
been of such a nature that, even though you may
loom larger than Scipio, I shall be found worthy to
be accepted as your lilius. Infinite care had been given
to the writing of this letter, and sharp had been
the heart burnings which dictated it. It was only by
asserting that he on his own part, was satisfied with
his own fidelity as a friend that Cicero could express
(11:24):
his dissatisfaction at Pompey's coldness. It was only by continuing
to lavish upon Pompey such flattery as was contained in
the reference to Scipio, in which a touch of subtle
irony as mixed with the flattery, that he could explain
the nature of the praise which had he thought been
due to himself. There is something that would have been
abject in the nature of these expressions had it not
(11:47):
been Roman in the excess of the adulation. But there
is courage in the letter too, when he tells his
correspondent what he believes to have been the cause of
the coldness of which he complains, corduerer ne cuius animal
more fenderes, because you fear lest you should give offense
to someone, But tell me. He goes on to say,
(12:08):
that my consulship has been of such nature that you, Scippio,
as you are, must admit me as your friend. In
these words we find a key to the whole of
Cicero's connection with the man whom he recognizes as his
political leader. He was always dissatisfied with Pompey, always accusing
Pompy in his heart of ingratitude and insincerity, frequently speaking
(12:32):
to Atticus with bitter truth of the man's selfishness and incapacity,
even of his cruelty and want of patriotism, nicknaming him
because of his absurdities, declaring of him that he was
minded to be a second Steller, but still clinging to
him as the political friend and leader whom he was
bound to follow. In their earlier years, when he could
(12:53):
have known personally but little of Pompey, because Pompey was
generally absent from Rome, he had taken it into a
head to love the man. He had been called magnus,
He had been made console long before the proper time.
He had been successful on behalf of the Republic, and
so far patriotic he had hitherto adhered to the fame
of the Republic at any rate. Cicero had accepted him,
(13:18):
and could never afterward bring himself to be disloyal to
the leader with whom he had professed to act. But
the feeling evinced in this letter was carried on to
the end. He had been he was he would be
true to his political connection with Pompey, but of Pompey's
personal character. To himself, he had nothing but complaints to make.
(13:40):
Side note BC sixty two, it at forty five. We
have two other letters written by Cicero in this year,
the first of which is in answer to one from
Metellus Keller to him, also extant. Metellus wrote to complain
of the ill treatment which he thought he had received
from Cicero in the Senate and from the Senate generally.
(14:01):
Cicero writes back at much greater length, to defend himself
and to prove that he had behaved as a most
obliging friend to his correspondent, though he had received a
gross affront from his correspondent's brother, Nepos. Nepos had prevented
him in that matter of the speech. It is hardly
necessary to go into the question of this quarrel, except
in so far as it may show how the feeling
(14:21):
which led to Cicero's exile was growing up amongst many
of the aristocracy in Rome. There was a counterplot going
on at the moment, a plot on behalf of the
aristocracy for bringing back Pompey to Rome, not only with glory,
but with power. Probably originating in a feeling that Pompey
would be a more congenial master than Cicero, it was
(14:44):
suggested that as Pompey had been found good in all
state emergencies, for putting down the pirates, for instance, and
for conquering misredaces, he would be the man to contend
in arms with Catiline. Catiline was killed before the matter
could be brought to an issue, but still the conspira
as he went on. Based on the jealousy which was
felt in regard to Cicero, this man, who had declared
(15:06):
so often that he had served his country, and he
really had crushed the Catalinarians by his industry and readiness,
might after all be coming forward as another Sulla and
looking to make himself master by dint of his virtues
and his eloquence. The hopelessness of the condition of the
republic may be recognized in the increasing conspiracies which were
(15:27):
hatched on every side. Metellus Neples was sent home from
Asia in aid of the conspiracy, and got himself made
tribune and stopped Cicero's speech. In conjunction with Caesar, who
was Brital. He proposed his new law for the calling
of Pompey to their aid. Then there was a frackar
between him and Caesar on one side, and Cato on
(15:48):
the other, in which Cato at last was so far
victorious that both Caesar and Metellus were stopped in the
performance of their official duties. Caesar was soon reinstated, but
tell Us Nepos returned to Pompey in the East, and
nothing came of the conspiracy. It is only noticed here
as evidence of the feeling which existed as to Cicero
(16:09):
in Rome, and as explaining the irritation on both sides
indicated in the correspondence between Cicero and Mattellus Keller, the
brother of Nepos, whom Cicero had procured the government of Gaul.
The third letter from Cicero in this year was to Sextius,
who was then acting as Christo or pro Cheisto, as
(16:30):
Cicero calls him, with Anthony as proconsul in Macedonia. It
is specially interesting as telling us that the writer had
just completed the purchase of a house in Rome from
Crassus for a sum amounting to about thirty thousand pounds
of our money. There was probably no private mansion in
Rome of greater pretension. It had been owned by Livius
(16:52):
Drusus the Tribune, a man of colossal fortune, as we
are told by Momson, who was murdered at the door
of it thirty years before. It afterward passed into the
hands of Crassus the Rich, and now became the property
of Cicero. We shall hear how it was destroyed during
his exile, and how fraudulently made over to the gods,
(17:13):
and then how restored to Cicero, and how rebuilt at
the public expense. The history of the house has been
so well written that we know even the names of
Cicero's two successes in it, Kenserinus and Statilius. It is
interesting to know the sort of house which Cicero felt
to be suitable to his circumstances, for by that we
(17:33):
may guess what his circumstances were in making this purchase.
He is supposed to have abandoned the family house in
which his father had lived next door to the new mansion,
and to have given it up to his brother. Hence
we may argue that he had conceived himself to have
risen in worldly circumstances. Nevertheless, we are informed by himself
(17:53):
in this letter to Sextius, that he had to borrow
money for the occasion, so much so that, being a
man now indebted, he might be supposed to be ripe
for any conspiracy. Hence has come to us a story
through alos Gelius, the compiler of anecdotes to the effect
that Cicero was fain to borrow this money from a
client whose cause he undertook in requital for the favor
(18:16):
so conferred. ALUs Gellius collected his stories two centuries afterward
for the amusement of his children, and has never been
regarded as an authority in matters for which confirmation has
been wanting. There is no allusion to such borrowing from
a client made by any contemporary. In this letter to Sextius,
in which he speaks jokingly of his indebtedness, he declares
(18:39):
that he has been able to borrow any amount he
wanted at six percent twelve being the ordinary rate, and
gives us a reason for this the position which he
has achieved by his services to the state. Very much
has been said of the story, as though the purchaser
of the house had done something of which he ought
to have been ashamed. But this seems to have sprung
entirely from the idea that a man, who, in the
(19:00):
midst of such wealth as prevailed at Rome, had practiced
so widely and so successfully the invaluable profession of an advocate,
must surely have taken money for his services. He himself
has asserted that he took none, and all the evidence
that we have goes to show that he spoke the truth.
Had he taken money, even as alone, we should have
(19:20):
heard of it from nearer witnesses than Aulus Gellius, if,
as Alice Gellius tells us, it had become known at
the time. But because he tells his friend that he
has borrowed money for the purpose, he is supposed to
have borrowed it in a disgraceful manner. It will be
found that all the stones most injurious to Cicero's reputation
have been produced in the same manner. His own words
(19:43):
have been misinterpreted, either the purpose of them, if spoken
in earnest, or their bearing if spoken in joke, and
then accusations have been founded on them. Another charge of
dishonest practice was about this time made against Cicero without
a gram of evidence, though indeed the accusations so made
and insisted upon, apparently from a feeling that Cicero cannot
(20:06):
surely have been altogether clean when all others were so dirty,
are too numerous to receive from each reader's judgment that
indignant denial to which each is entitled. The biographer cannot
but fear that when so much mud has been thrown,
some will stick, and therefore almost hesitates to tell of
the mud, believing that no stain of this kind has been,
(20:27):
in truth deserved. It seems that Antony, Cicero's colleague in
the consulship, who became proconsul in Macedonia, had undertaken to
pay some money to Cicero. Why the money was to
be paid we do not know, but there are allusions
in Cicero's letters to Atticus to one Teucris, a Trojan woman,
and it seems that Antony, was designated by the nickname Teucris,
(20:52):
is very slow at paying his money, and Cicero is
in want of it. But perhaps it will be as
well not to push the matter. He Antony is to
be tried for provincial peculation, and Cicero declares that the
case is so bad that he cannot defend his late colleague.
Hence have arisen two different suspicions, one that Antony had
(21:13):
agreed to make over to Cicero a share of the
Macedonian plunder in requital of Cicero's courtesy in giving up
the province which had been allotted to himself. The second
that Antony was to pay Cicero for defending him. As
to the former, Cicero himself alludes to such a report
as being common in Macedonia, and as having been used
by Antony himself as an excuse for increased rap in.
(21:37):
But this has been felt to be incredible, and has
been allowed to fall to the ground because of the
second accusation. But in support of that there is no
word of evidence, whereas the tenor of the story, as
told by Cicero himself is against it. Is it likely?
Would it be possible that Cicero should have begun his
letter to Atticus by complaining that he could not get
(21:59):
from ant Anthony money wanted for a peculiar purpose. It
was wanted for his new house, and have gone on
in the same letter to say that this might be
as well, after all, as he did not intend to
perform the service for which the money was to be paid.
The reader will remember that the accusation is based solely
on Cicero's own statement that Antony was negligent in paying
(22:22):
to him money that had been promised. In all these accusations,
the evidence against Cicero, such as it is, is brought
exclusively from Cicero's own words. Cicero did afterward defend this Antony,
as we learned from his speech Prodomo sua, but his
change of purpose in that respect has nothing to do
with the argument. Side note BC sixty two, light at
(22:46):
forty five. We have two speeches that Extant made this year,
one on behalf of p Sullah, nephew to the dictator,
the other for Archias, the Greek scholar and poet, who
had been Cicero's tutor and now claimed to be a
citizen of Rome. I have already given an extract from
this latter as showing the charm of words with which
(23:08):
Cicero could recommend the pursuit of literature to his hearers.
The whole oration is a beautiful morsel of latinity, in which, however,
strength of argument is lacking. Cicero declares of Archias, that
he was so eminent in literature that, if not a
Roman citizen, he ought to be made one. The result
(23:29):
is not known, but the literary world believes that the
citizenship was accorded to him. The speech on behalf of
Sullah was more important, but still not of much importance.
This Sulla, as may be remembered, had been chosen as
consul with Artronius two years before the consulship of Cicero,
and he had then, after his election, been deposed for bribery,
(23:52):
as had also Altronius l Aurelius Cotta and el Manlius
Torquatus had been elected in their places. Also been already
explained that the two rejected consuls had, on this account
joined Cataline in his first conspiracy. There can be no
doubt that, whether as consuls or as rejected consuls, and
(24:12):
on that account conspirators, their purpose was to use their
position as aristocrats for robbing the state. They were of
the number of those to whom no other purpose was
any longer possible. Then there came Catalan's second conspiracy, the
conspiracy which Cicero had crushed, And there naturally rose the
question whether from time to time this or the other
(24:34):
noble Roman should not be accused of having joined it.
Many noble Romans had no doubt joined besides those who
had fallen fighting or who had been executed in the dungeons.
Accusations became very rife. One Vetius accused Caesar the prital,
but Caesar, with that potentiality which was peculiar to him,
(24:55):
caused Vettius to be put into prison instead of going
to prison himself. Many were convicted and banished, among them
Portius Lyka, Vagunteius, Servius Suller, the brother of him, of
whom we are now speaking, and Artronius, his colleague. In
the trial of these men, Cicero took no part. He
(25:16):
was specially invited by Artronius, who was an old schoolfellow,
to defend him, but he refused. Indeed, he gave evidence
against Artronius at the trial. But this Publius Sulla he
did defend, and defended successfully. He was joined in the
case with Hortensius, and declared that as to the matter
(25:36):
of the former conspiracy, he left all that to his
learned friend, who was concerned with political matters of that date.
He Cicero had known nothing about them. The part of
The oration which most interests us is that in which
he defends himself from the accusations somewhat unwisely made against
himself personally by young Torquatus, the son of him, who
(25:58):
had been raised to the consulship in the place of
p Sullah. Torquatus had called him a foreigner because he
was a nous homo and had come from the municipality
of Arpenum, and had taunted him as being a king
because he had usurped authority over life and death in
regard to Lentulus and the other conspirators. He answers this
very finely, and as so without an ill natured word
(26:20):
to young Torquatus, whom, from respect to his father he
desires to spare. Do not, he says, in future, call
me a foreigner lest you be answered with severity, nor
a king, lest you be laughed at, unless indeed you
think it king like so to live as to be
a slave not only to no man, but to no
(26:42):
evil passion, unless you think it king like. To despise
all lusts, to thirst for neither gold nor silver, nor goods,
to express yourself freely in the senate, to think more
of services due to the people, than a favours one
from them, to yield to none, and to stand firm
against many. If this speaking like, then I confess that
(27:06):
I am a king. Sulah was acquitted. But the impartial
reader will not the less feel sure that he had
been part and parcel with Cataline in the conspiracy. It
is trusted that the impartial reader will also remember how
many honest, loyal gentlemen have in our own days undertaken
the cases of those whom they have known to be rebels,
(27:28):
and have saved those rebels by their ingenuity and eloquence.
At the end of this year BC sixty two, there
occurred a fraca in Rome, which was of itself but
of little consequence to Rome, and would have been of
non to Cicero, but that circumstances grew out of it,
which created for him the bitterest enemy he had yet encountered,
(27:49):
and led to his sorest trouble. This was the affair
of Clodius and of the mysteries of the Bonadeir, and
I should be disposed to say that it was the
greatest misfortune of his life, were it not that the
wretched results which sprung from it, would have been made
to spring from some other source. Had that source not sufficed,
(28:10):
I shall have to tell how it came to pass
that Cicero was sent into exile by means of the
misconduct of Clodius. But I shall have to show also
that the misconduct of Clodius was but the tool which
was used by those who were desirous of ridding themselves
of the presence of Cicero. This Clodius, a young man
of noble family and of debauched manners, as were usual
(28:32):
with young men of noble families, dressed himself up as
a woman, and made his way in among the ladies
as they were performing certain religious rites in honor of
the bonardeas or goddess Sibele, a matron goddess so chaste
in her manners that no male was admitted into her presence.
It was specially understood that nothing appertaining to a man
must be seen on the occasion, not even the portrait
(28:55):
of one. And it may possibly have been the case
that Clodius effected his sad entrance among the worshiping matrons
on this occasion, simply because his doing so was an
outrage and therefore exciting. Another reason was alleged The rites
in question were annually held now in the house of
this matron, and then of that, and during the occasion
(29:17):
the very master of the house was excluded from his
own premises. They were now being performed under the auspices
of Pompeia, the wife of Julius Caesar, the daughter of
on Quintus Pompeius, and it was alleged that Clodius came
among the women worshippers for the sake of carrying on
an intrigue with Caesar's wife. This was highly improbable, as
(29:40):
mister Forsyth has pointed out to us, and the idea
was possibly used simply as an excuse to Caesar for
divorcing a wife of whom he was weary. At any rate,
when the scandal got abroad, he did divorce Pompeia, alleging
that it did not suit Caesar to have his wife
suspected side note BC sixty one eight. At forty six.
(30:04):
The story became known through the city, and early in
January Cicero wrote to Atticus, telling him the facts you
have probably heard that Publius Clodius, the son of Appius,
has been taken dressed in a woman's clothes in the
house of Caius Caesar, where sacrifice was being made for
the people, and that he escaped by the aid of
a female slave. You will be sorry to hear that
(30:27):
it has given rise to a great scandal. A few
days afterwards, Cicero speaks of it again to Atticus at
greater length, and we learn that the matter had been
taken up by the magistrates with the view of punishing Clodius.
Cicero writes, without any strong feeling of his own, explaining
to his friend that he had been at first a
very lycurgus in the affair, but that he is now
(30:49):
tamed down. There is a third letter in which Cicero
is indignant because certain men of whom he disapproves, the
consul Piso among the Number, are anxious to save them
this wicked young nobleman from the punishment due to him,
whereas others of whom he approves Cato among the Number,
are desirous of seeing justice done. But it was no
(31:10):
affairs special to Cicero. Shortly afterwards he writes again to
Atticus as to the result of the trial, for a
trial did take place, and explains to his friend how
justice had failed. Atticus had asked him how it had
come to pass that he Cicero had not exerted himself
as he usually did. This letter, though there is matter
(31:31):
enough in it of a serious kind, yet jests with
the Clodian affairs so continually as to make us feel
that he attributed no importance to it. As regarded himself,
he had exerted himself till Hortensius made a mistake as
to the selection of the judges. After that he had
himself given evidence. An attempt was made to prove an alibi,
(31:51):
but Cicero came forward to swear that he had seen
Clodius on the very day in question. There had too
been in exchange of repartee in the Senate between himself
and Clodius after the acquittal, of which he gives the
details to his correspondent with considerable self satisfaction. The passage
does not enhance our idea of the dignity of the
Senate or of the power of Roman raillery. It was
(32:15):
known that Clodius had been saved by the wholesale bribery
of a large number of the judges. There had been
twenty five for condemning against thirty one for acquittal. Cicero,
in the Cataline affair, had used a phrase with frequency
by which he boasted that he had found out this,
and found out that comperis ser omnia. Clodius, in the
(32:37):
discussion before the trial, throws this in his teeth, comperis
er omnia crimin abbatour. This gave rise to ill feeling
and hurt Cicero much worse than the dishonored under the Bonnard.
There As for that, we may say that he and
the Senate and the judges cared personally very little, although
there was no doubt a feeling that it was wise
(32:58):
to all men's minds by the present of religious respect.
Cicero had cared but little about the trial, But as
he had been able to give evidence, he had appeared
as a witness, and enmity sprung from the words which
were spoken, both on one side and on the other.
Clodius was acquitted, which concerns us not at all, and
concerns Rome very little. But things had so come to
(33:21):
pass at the trial that Cicero had been very bitter,
and that Clodius had become his enemy. When a man
was wanted three years afterward to take the lead in
persecuting Cicero Clodius was ready for the occasion. While the
expediency of putting Clodius on his trial was being discussed,
Pompey had returned from the east and taken up his
(33:43):
residence outside the city because he was awaiting his triumphs.
The general, to whom it was given to march through
the city with triumphal glory, was bound to make his
first entrance after his victories, with all his triumphul appendages,
as though he was at that moment returning from the war,
with all his warlike spoils around him. The usage had
(34:04):
obtained the strength of law, but the general was not,
on that account debarred from city employment during the interval.
The city must be taken out to him instead of
his coming into the city. Pompy was so great on
his return from his Methridatic victories that the senate went
out to sit with him in the suburbs, as he
could not sit with it within the walls. We find
(34:27):
him taking part in these Clodian discussions. Cicero at once
writes of him to Athens with evident dissatisfaction. When questioned
about Clodius, Pompey had answered with the grand heir of
an aristocrat, Crassus, on this occasion, between whom and Cicero
there was never much friendship. Took occasion to bloord the
(34:47):
late great Consul on account of his Cataline successes. Pompey,
we are told, did not bear this well. Crassus had
probably intended to produce some such effect. Then Cicero had
spoken in answer to the remarks of Crassus very glibly,
no doubt, and had done his best to show off
before Pompey, his new listener. More than six years had
(35:09):
passed since Pompey could have heard him, and then Cicero's
voice had not become potential in the Senate. Cicero had
praised Pompey with all the eloquence in his power. Antepornatur
omnibus Pompeos, he had said in the last catline oration
to the Senate, and Pompey, though he had not heard
the words spoken, knew very well what had been said.
(35:32):
Such oratory was never lost upon those whom it most
concerned the orator to make acquainted with it. But in
return for all this praise for that manilia narration, which
had helped to send him to the East for continual loyalty.
Pompey had replied to Cicero with coldness. He would now
let Pompey know what was his standing in Rome, if ever,
(35:54):
he says to Atticus, I was strong, with my grand rhythm,
with my quick rhetorical passages, with enthusiasm, and with logic.
I was so Now, oh the noise that I made
on the occasion, you know what my voice can do.
I need say no more about it, as surely you
must have heard me away there in a pyrus. The reader,
(36:14):
I trust will have already a sufficiently vivid idea of
Cicero's character to understand the mingling of triumph and badinage,
with a spark of disappointment, which is here expressed. This Pompey,
though I have been so true to him, has not
thought much of me, of me the great consul who
saved Rome. He has now heard what even Crassus has
(36:37):
been forced to say about me. He shall hear me too,
me myself, and perhaps he will then know better. It
was thus that Cicero's mind was at work while he
was turning out his loud periods. Pompey was sitting next
to him, listening by no means admiring his admirer, as
that admirer expected to be admired. Cis Roux had probably
(37:00):
said to himself that they two together, Pompey and Cicero,
might suffice to preserve the republic. Pompey, not thinking much
of the Republic, was probably telling himself that he wanted
no brother near the throne. When of two men, the
first think himself equal to the second, the second will
generally feel himself to be superior to the first. Pompey
(37:23):
would have liked Cicero Betta if his periods had not
been so round, nor his voice so powerful. Not that
Pompey was distinctly desirous of any throne, his position at
the moment was peculiar. He had brought back his victorious
army from the east to Brundisium, and had then disbanded
his legions. I will quite hear the opening words from
(37:45):
one of Monson's chapters. When Pompeus, after having transacted the
affairs committed to his charge, again turned his eyes towards home.
He found for the second time the diadem at his feet.
He says, father, explaining why Pompey did not lift the diadem.
The very peculiar temperament of Pompeius naturally turned once more
(38:08):
the scale. He was one of those men who are capable,
it may be, of a crime, but not of insubordination.
And again, while in the capital all was preparation for
receiving the new monarch, news came that Pompeius, when barely
landed at Brundisium, had broken up his legions, and with
a small escort, had entered his journey to the capital.
(38:32):
If it is a piece of good fortune to gain
a crown without trouble, fortune never did more for mortal
than it did for Pompeius. But on those who lack courage,
the gods lavish every favor and every gift. In vain,
I must say here that while I acknowledge the German
historian's research and knowledge without any reserve, I cannot accept
(38:53):
his deductions as to character. I do not believe that
Pompey found any diadem at his feet, or thought of
any diadem, Nor, according to my reading of Roman history,
had Marius or had Sullah, nor did Caesar the first
who thought of that perpetual rule a rule to be
perpetuated during the ruler's life and to be handed down
(39:14):
to his successors. Was Augustus Marius, violent, self seeking and uncontrollable,
had tumbled into supreme power, and had he not died,
would have held it as long as he could because
it pleased his ambition. For the moment Sullah, with a purpose,
had seized it, yet seems never to have got beyond
(39:35):
the old Roman idea of a temporary dictatorship. The old
Roman horror of a king was present to these Romans
even after they had become kings. Pompey no doubt liked
to be first, and when he came back from the East,
thought that by his deeds he was first, easily first,
whether consul year after year as Marius had been, or
(39:57):
dictator as Sulla had been, or imperator with a running
command over all the Romans. It was his idea still
to adhere to the forms of the republic. Momson foreseeing,
if an Astorian can be said to foresee the future
from his standing point in the past, that a master
was to come for the Roman Empire, and giving all
(40:18):
his sympathies to the cesarean idea despises Pompey, because Pompey
would not pick up the diadem. No such idea ever
entered Pompey's head. After a while, he sullatarized, was desirous
of copying Sullah, to use an excellent word which Cicero
coined when he was successfully opposed by those whom he
(40:39):
had thought inferior to himself. When he found that Caesar
had got the better of him, and that a stronger
body of Romans went with Caesar than with him, then proscriptions, murder, confiscations,
and the seizing of dictatorial power presented themselves to his
angry mind. But of permanent, despotic power there was, I
(40:59):
think no thought, nor, as far as I can read
the records, had such an idea been fixed in Caesar's bosom.
To carry on the old trade of Britle consul, proconsul
and imperato, so as to get what he could of
power and wealth and dignity in the scramble was I
think Caesar's purpose. The rest grew upon him. As Shakespeare,
(41:22):
sitting down to write a play that might serve his theater,
composed some lear or tempest that has lived and will
live forever because of the genius which was unknown to himself.
So did Caesar, by his genius, find his way to
a power which he had not premeditated. A much longer
time is necessary for eradicating an idea from men's minds
(41:45):
than a fact from their practice. This should be proved
to us by our own loyalty to the word monarch,
when nothing can be further removed from a monarchy than
our own commonwealth. From those first breaches in republican practice,
which the historian and Florus dates back to the siege
of Numantia BC one three three down far into the
(42:06):
reign of Augustus, it took a century and a quarter
to make the people understand that there was no longer
a republican form of government, and to produce a leader
who could himself see that there was room for a despot.
Pompey had his triumph, but the same aristocratic heirs which
had annoyed Cicero had offended others. He was shorn of
(42:28):
his honors. Only two days were allowed for his processions.
He was irritated, jealous, and no doubt desirous of making
his power felt, but he thought of no diadem. Caesar
saw it all and he thought of that conspiracy which
we have since called the first Triumvirate side note BC
(42:50):
sixty two sixty one at forty five forty six. The
two years to which this chapter has been given were
uneventful in sists life, and produced but little of that
stock of literature by which he has been made one
of mankind's prime favorites. Two discourses were written and published
and probably spoken, which are now lost, that namely to
(43:13):
the people against Metellus, in which no doubt he put
forth all that he had intended to say when Metellus
stopped him from speaking at the expiration of his consulship.
The second against Clodius and Curio in the Senate in
reference to the discreditable Clodian affair. The fragments which we
have of this contain those asperities which he retailed afterwards
(43:36):
in his letter to Atticus, and are not either instructive
or amusing. But we learn from these fragments that Clodius
was already preparing that scheme for entering the tribunate by
an illegal repudiation of his own family rank, which he
afterward carried out to the great detriment of Cicero's happiness.
Of the speeches extant on behalf of Archaias and p
(43:59):
Suller spoken already. We know of no others made during
this period. We have one letter besides those Atticus addressed
to Antony, his former colleague, which like many of his letters,
was written solely for the sake of popularity. During these
years he lived, no doubt splendidly as one of the
great men of the greatest city in the world. He
(44:21):
had his magnificent new mansion in Rome, and his various villas,
which were already becoming noted for their elegance and charms
of upholstery and scenic beauty. Not only had he climbed
to the top of official life himself, but had succeeded
in taking his brother Quintus up with him. In the
second of the two years BC. Sixty one, Quintus had
(44:42):
been sent out as governor or proprietor to Asia, having
then nothing higher to reach than the consulship, which, however,
he never attained. This step in the life of Quintus
has become famous by a letter which the elder brother
wrote to him in the second year of his office,
to which reference will be mad in the next chapter.
(45:02):
So far all things seemed to have gone well with Cicero.
He was high in esteem and authority, powerful, rich, and
with many people popular. But the student of his life
now begins to see that troubles are enveloping him. He
had risen too high not to encounter envy, and had
been too loud in his own praise not to make
(45:24):
those who envied him very bitter in their malice. End
of Chapter ten
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