July 26, 2025 • 37 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 eleven, Part one 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 eleven, The Triumvirate,
(00:22):
Part one, side note BC sixty it at forty seven.
I know of no great fact in history so impalpable,
so shadowy, so unreal as the First Triumvirate. Every schoolboy,
almost every schoolgirl, knows that there was a First Triumvirate,
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and that it was a political combination made by three
great Romans of the day, Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great,
and Crassus the Rich, for managing Rome among them. Beyond
this they know little, because there is little to know.
That it was a conspiracy against the ordained government of
the day, as much so as that of Catiline or
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Guy Fawkes or Napoleon the Third. They do not know generally,
because Caesar, who though the youngest of the three, was
the mainspring of it, rose by means of it to
such a galaxy of glory, that all the steps by
which he rose to it have been supposed to be
magnificent and heroic. But of the method in which this
triumvirate was constructed? Who has an idea? How was it
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first suggested? Where and by whom? What was it that
the conspirators combined to do? There was no purpose of
wholesale murder, like that of Catiline for destroying the Senate,
and of Guy Fawkes for blowing up the House of Lords.
There was no plot arranged for silencing a body of
legislators like that of Napoleon. In these scrambles that are
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going on every year for place and power, for provinces
and plunder, let us help each other. If we can
manage to stick fast by each other, we can get
all the power and nearly all the plumber. That said
with a wink by one of the Triumvirate, Caesar, let
us say, and assented to with a nod by a
Pompey and Crassus, was sufficient for the construction of such
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a conspiracy as that which I presume to have been
hatched when the first Triumvirate was formed. Momson, who never
speaks of a triumvirate under that name, except in his index,
where he has permitted the word to appear for the
guidance of persons less well instructed than himself. Connects the
transaction which we call the first Triumvirate with a former coalition,
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which he describes as having been made in BC seventy one,
the year before the consulship of Pompey and Crassus. With
that we need not concern ourselves, as we are dealing
with the life of Cicero rather than with Roman history,
except to say that Caesar, who was the motive power
of the second coalition, could have had no personal hand
in that of seventy one. Though he had spent his
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early years in harassing the aristocracy, as Dean Maryvale tells,
he had not been of sufficient standing in men's minds
to be put on a par with Pompey and Crassus.
When this first Triumvirate was formed, as the modern world
generally calls it, or the second coalition between the democracy
and the great military leaders, as Momson, with greater but
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not with perfect accuracy, describes it, Caesar, no doubt had
at his fingers ends the history of past years. The
idea naturally occurred, says Momson, whether an alliance firmly based
on mutual advantage might not be established between the Democrats
with their ally Crassus, on the one side, and Pompeus
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and the great capitalists on the other. For Pompeus, such
a coalition was certainly a political suicide. The democracy here
means Caesar. Caesar, during his whole life, had been learning
that no good could come to any one from an
efeat senate, or from republican forms which had lost all
their salt. Democracy was in vogue with him, not, as
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I think, from any philanthropic desire for equality, not from
any far seeing view of paternal citizenship under one great
paternal lord. The study of politics had never then reached
to that height. But because it was necessary that some one,
or perhaps some two or three should prevail in the
coming struggle, and because he felt himself to be more
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worthy than others. He had no conscience in the matter.
Money was nothing to him. Another man's money was the
same as his own, or better, if he could get
hold of it. That doctrine taught by Cicero that men
are ade eustitiam natus, must have been to him simply absurd.
Blood was to him nothing. A friend was better than
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a foe, and a live man than a dead blood.
Thirstiness was a passion unknown to him, but that tenderness
which with us creates a horror of blood was equally unknown.
Pleasure was sweet to him, but he was man enough
to feel that a life of pleasure was contemptible. To
pillage a city, to pilfer his all from a rich man,
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to debauch a friend's wife, to give over a multitude
of women and children to slaughter, was as easy to
him as to forgive an enemy. But nothing rankled with him,
and he could forgive an enemy of courage. He had
that better sort, which can appreciate and calculate danger, and
then act as though there were none. Nothing was wrong
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to him, but what was injudicious. He could flatter, cajole, lie, deceive,
and rob nay would think it folly not to do so,
if to do so were expedient. In this coalition, he
appears as supporting and supported by the people. Therefore, Momson
speaks of him as the democrat. Crassus is called the
ally of the Democrats. It will be enough for us
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here to know that Crassus had achieved his position in
the Senate by his enormous wealth, and that it was
because of his wealth, which was the Senate to Caesar,
that he was admitted into the League. By means of
his wealth, he had risen to power, and had conquered
and killed Spartacus, of the honor and glory of which
Pompey robbed him. Then he had been made consul. When
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Caesar had gone as proprietor to Spain. Crassus had found
the money. Now Caesar had come back and was hand
in glove with Crassus when the division of spoil came
some years afterward, the spoil won by the Triumvirate. When
Caesar had half perfected his grand achievements in Gaul, and
Crassus had as yet been only a second time consul,
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he got himself to be sent into Syria, that by
conquering the Parthians he might make himself equal to Caesar.
We know how he and his son perished there, each
of them probably avoiding the last extremity of misery to
a Roman, that of falling into the hands of a
barbarian enemy by destroying himself, than the life of Crassus
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Nothing could be more contemptible than the death, nothing more
pitiable for Pompeius, says Momson. Such a coalition was certainly
a political suicide. As events turned out. It became so
because Caesar was the stronger man of the two. But
it is intelligible that at the time Pompey should have
felt that he could not laud it over the Senate
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as he wished to do without aid from the Democratic Party.
He had no well defined views, but he wished to
be the first man in Rome. He regarded himself as
still greatly superior to Caesar, who as yet had been
no more than pritor, and at this time was being
bulked of his triumph because he could not, at one
and the same moment be in the city as candidate
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for the consulship and out of the city waiting for
his triumph. Pompey had triumphed three times, had been consul
at an unnaturally early age with abnormal honors, had been
victorious east and West, and was called Magnus. He did not,
as yet fear to be overshadowed by Caesar. Cicero was
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his bugbear. Momson I believe to be right in eschewing
the word triumvirate. I know no mention of it by
any Roman writers applied to this conspiracy, though Tacitus, Suetonius,
and Florus called by that name the later coalition of Octavius,
Antony and Lepidus. The Langhorns. In translating Plutarch's Life of
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Crassus speak of the triumvirate. But Plutarch himself says that
Caesar combined an impregnable stronghold by joining the three men.
Partculus and Sultonius explained very clearly the nature of the compact,
but did not use the term. There was nothing in
the conspiracy entitling it to any official appellation, though as
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there were three leading conspirators, that which has been used
has been so far appropriate. Side note BC sixty I
had forty seven. Cicero was the bugbear to them all.
That he might have been one of them, if ready
to share the plunder and the power, no reader of
the history of the time can doubt. Had he so chosen,
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he might again have been a real power in the state.
But to become so in the way proposed to him,
it was necessary that he should join others in a
conspiracy against the republic. I did not wish it to
be supposed that Cicero received the overtures made to him
with horror. Conspiracies were too common for horror, and these
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conspirators were all our Cicero's friends in one sense, though
in another they might be his opponents. We may imagine
that at first Crassus had nothing to do with the matter,
and that Pompey would fain have stood aloof in his jealousy.
But Caesar knew that it was well to have Cicero.
If Cicero was to be had, it was not only
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his eloquence, which was marvelously powerful, or his energy, which
had been shown to be indomitable. There was his character
surpassed by that of no Roman living. If only in
giving them the use of his character, he could be
got to disregard the honor and the justice and the
patriotism on which his character had been founded. How valuable
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may character be made if it can be employed under
such conditions? But to be believed because of your truth,
and yet to lie, to be trusted for your honesty,
and yet to cheat, to have credit for patriotism, and
yet to sell your country. The temptations to do this
are rarely put before a man, plainly in all their
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naked ugliness. They certainly were not so presented to Cicero
by Caesar and his associates. The bait was held out
to him, as it is daily to others, in a
form not repellent, with words fitted to deceive and powerful
almost to persuade. Give us the advantage of your character,
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and then by your means we shall be able to
save our country. Though are life line of action may
not be strictly constitutional, if you will look into it,
you will see that it is expedient. What other courses there?
How else shall any wreck of the republic be preserved?
Would you be another Cato, useless and impractical? Join us
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and save Rome to some purpose. We can understand that
in such way was the leure held out to Cicero,
as it has been to many a politician since. But
when the politician takes the office offered to him, and
the pay, though it be but that of the Lord
of the treasury, he must vote with his party. That
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Cizra doubted much whether he would or would not at
this time throw in his lot with Caesar and Pompey
is certain to be of real use, not to be impractical,
as was Cato, to save his country and rise honestly
and power and glory, not to be too straight laced,
not over scrupulous, giving and taking a little, so that
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he might work to good purpose with others in harness.
This was his idea of duty as a Roman. To
serve in accord with Pompey was the first dream of
his political life. And now Pompey was in accord with Caesar.
It was natural that he should doubt, natural that he
should express his doubts who should receive them. But Atticus
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that alter ego, Cicero doubted whether he should cling to Pompey,
as he did in every phase of his political life
till Pompey had perished at the mouth of the Nile.
But at last he saw his way clear to honesty,
as I think he always did. He tells his friend
that Caesar had sent his confidential messenger Balbus to sound him.
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The present question is whether he shall resist a certain
agrarian law of which he does not approve, but which
is supported by both Pompey and Caesar, or retire from
the contest and enjoy himself at his country villas, or
boldly stay at Rome and oppose the law. Caesar assures
him that if he will come over to them, Caesar
will be always true to him, add Pompey, and will
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do his best to bring Crassus into the same frame
of mind. Then he reckons up all the good things
which would accrue to him closest friendship with Pompey. But
Caesar also should he wish it the making up of
all quarrels with his enemies, popularity with the people, ease
for his old age which was coming on him. But
that conclusion moves me to which I came in my
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third book. Footnote add Atticum Book two three is a
fermabat ilum omnibus sinre busmeo et Pompeii consilio surum daturum
coeoperam ut compompeo crassum conjungeret hicks sund haik connutio mihi
(13:47):
summa cum pompeo see place etiam cum kaisare read TuS
in gratiam komenimikis paks comultitudine senectutis otium said me gatak
place mayor I la cormowet qui este in libro tertio
interea cursus cosprima parte uentei corsquerdo consul ertutnimocoe pettisti hos
(14:15):
retinat coauga farmame laudesquebonnorum homer Iliad Book twelve two four
threejes eonos aristos a munes tai peri patres end of footnote.
Then he repeats the lines given in the note below,
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which he has written, probably this very year, in a
poem composed in honor of his own consulship. The lines
are not in themselves grand, but the spirit of them
is magnificent. Stick to the good cause which in your
early youth you chose for yourself, and be true to
the party you've made your own. Should I doubt when
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the muse herself has so written, he says, alluding to
the name of Calliope given to this third book of his.
Then he adds a line of Homer, very excellent for
the occasion. No augury for the future can be better
for you than that which bids you serve your country.
But he says, we will talk of all that when
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you come to me for the holidays. Your bath shall
be ready for you, Your sister and mother shall be
of the party, and so the doubts are settled. Now
came on the question of the tribune ship of Clodius,
in reference to which I will quote a passage out
of Middleton, because the phrase which he uses exactly explains
the purposes of Caesar and Pompey side note BC sixty.
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It had forty seven Clodius, who had been contriving all
this while how to revenge himself on Cicero, began now
to give an opening to the scheme which had been
formed for that purpose. His project was to get himself
chosen tribune, and in that office to drive him out
of the city by the publication of a law which,
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by some stratagem or other he hoped to obtrude on
the people. But as all patricians were incapable of the
tribunate by its original institution, so his first step was
to make himself a plebeian by the pretense of an
adoption into a plebeian house, which could not yet be
done without the suffrage of the people. This case was
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wholly new and contrary to all the forms, wanting every
condition and serving none of the ends which were required
in regular adoptions. So that on the first proposal it
seemed too extravagant to be treated seriously, and would soon
have been hissed off with scorn had it not been
concertedly and privately supported by persons of much more weight
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than Clodius. Caesar was at the bottom of it, and
Pompey secretly favored it. Not that they intended to ruin Cicero,
but to keep him only under the lash, and if
they could not draw him into their measures, to make
him at least sit quiet and let Clodius loose upon him. This,
no doubt was the intention of the political leaders in Rome.
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At this conjunction of affairs. It had been found impossible
to draw Cicero gently into the net, so that he
should become one of them. If he would live quietly
at his Anteon or Tusculan villa, amid his books and writings,
he should be treated with all respect. He should be
born with, even though he talked so much of his
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own consulate. But if he would interfere with the politics
of the day and would not come into the net,
then he must be dealt with. Caesar seems to have
respected Cicero always, and even to have liked him, but
he was not minded to put up with a friend
in Rome who, from day to day abused all his projects.
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In defending Antony, the Macedonian proconsul, who was condemned, Cicero
made some unpleasant remarks on the then condition of things. Caesar,
we are told, when he heard of this, on the
very spur of the moment, caused Clodius to be accepted
as a Plebeian. In all this, we are reminded of
the absolute truth of Momsen's verdict on Rome, which I
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have already quoted more than once. On the Roman oligarchy
of this period, no judgment can be passed save one
of inexorable and remorseless condemnation. How had it come to
pass that Caesar had the power of suddenly causing an
edict to become law, whether for good or for evil.
Cicero's description of what took place is as follows. About
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the sixth hour of the day, when I was defending
my colleague Anthony in court, I took occasion to complain
of certain things which were being done in the republic,
and which I thought to be injurious to my poor client.
Some dishonest persons carried my words to men in power,
meaning Caesar and Pompey, not indeed my own words, but
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words very different from mine. At the ninth hour, on
that very same day, you po Clodius were accepted as
a plebeian. Caesar, having been given to understand that Cicero
had been making himself disagreeable, was determined not to put
up with it. Soetonius tells the same story with admirable simplicity.
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Of Sotonius. It must be said that if he had
no sympathy for a patriot such as Cicero, neither had
he any desire to represent in rosy colors the despotism
of a Caesar. He tells his stories simply as he
has heard them. Cicero, says Sirtonius, having at some trial
complained of the state of the times, Caesar, on the
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very same day the ninth hour, passed Clodius over from
the patrician to the plebeian rank, in accordance with his
own desire. How did it come to pass that Caesar,
who though consul at the time, had no recognized power
of that nature, was efficacious for any such work as
this Because the republic had come to the condition which
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the German historian has described the conspiracy between Caesar and
his subordinates had not been made for nothing. The reader
will require to know why Claudius should have desired degradation,
and how it came to pass that this degradation should
have been fatal to Cicero. The story has been partly
told in the passage from Middleton. A patrician, in accordance
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with the Constitution could not be a tribune of the
people from the commencement of the tribunate. That office had
been reserved to the plebeians. But a tribune had a
power of introducing laws which exceeded that of any senator
or any other official. They had acquired the right, we
are told in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,
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of proposing to the committee, a tributor or to the Senate,
measures on nearly all the important affairs of the state.
And as matters stood at this time, no one tribune
could veto or put an arbitrary stop to a proposition
from another. When such proposition was made, it was simply
for the people to decide by their votes whether it
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should or should not be law. The present object was
to have a proposition made and carried suddenly in reference
to Cicero, which should have, at any rate the effect
of stopping his mouth. This could be best done by
a tribune of the people. No other adequate tribune could
be found, no probeian so incensed against Cicero as to
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be willing to do this, possessing at the same time
power enough to be elected. Therefore it was that Clodius
was so anxious to be degraded. No patrician could become
a tribune of the people. But a patrician might be
adopted by a plebeian, and the adopted child to take
the rank of the father would, in fact, for all
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legal purposes, be the same as a son. For doing this,
in any case, a law had to be passed, or,
in other words, the assent of the people must be
obtained and registered. But many conditions were necessary. The father
intending to adopt must have no living son of his own,
and must be past the time of life at which
he might naturally hope to have one. And the adopted
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son must be of a fitting age to personate. A
son at any rate must be younger than the father.
Nothing must be done injurious to either family there must
be no trick in it, no looking after other results
than that plainly intended. All these conditions were broken. The
pretended father, Phantaeus had a family of his own and
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was younger than Clodius. The great Claudian family was desecrated,
and there was no one so ignorant as not to
know that the purpose intended was that of entering the
tribunate by a fraud. It was required by the general
law that the Sacred College should report as to the
proper observances of the prescribed regulations, but no priest was
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ever consulted. Yet Clodius was adopted, made Plebeian, and in
the course of the year elected as tribune. In reading
all this, the reader is mainly struck by the wonderful
admixture of lawlessness and law abiding steadfastness. If Caesar, who
was already becoming a tyrant in his consulship, chose to
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make use of this means of silencing Cicero, why not
force Clodia's into the tribunate without so false and degrading
a ceremony. But if, as was no doubt the case,
he was not yet strong enough to ignore the old
popular feelings on the subject. How was it that he
was able to laugh in his sleeve at the laws,
and to come forth at a moment's notice and cause
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the people to vote legally or illegally, just as he pleased.
It requires no conjurer to tell us the reason the
outside hulls and husks remain when the rich fruit has gone.
It was in seeing this, and yet not quite believing
that it must be so, that the agony of Cicero's
life consisted. There could have been no hope for freedom,
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no hope for the republic, when Rome had been governed
as it was during the consulship of Caesar. But Cicero
could still hope, though faintly, and still buoy himself up
with remembrances of his own year of office, in carrying
on the story of the newly adopted child to his
election as tribune. I have gone beyond the time of
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my narration, so that the reader may understand the cause
and nature and effect of the anger which Clodius entertained
for Cicero. This originated in the bitter words spoken as
to the profanation of the Bonardea, and led to the
means for achieving Cicero's exile and other untoward passages of
his life. In the year sixty b C. When Mittellus,
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Keller and Aphranius were consuls, Clodius was tried for insulting
the Bonadeer, and the since so called triumvirate was instituted.
It has already been shown that Cicero, not without many doubts,
rejected the first offers which were made to him to
join the forces that were so united. He seems to
have passed the greater portion of this year in Rome.
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One letter only was written from the country to Atticus
from his Tusculan villa, and that is of no special moment.
He spent his time in the city, still engaged in
the politics of the day, as to which though he
dreaded the coming together of Caesar and Pompey and Crassus,
those grauais principum amikitias, which were to become so detrimental
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to all who were concerned in them, he foresaw as
yet but little of the evil which was to fall
upon his own head. He was, by no means idole
ast literature. Though we have but little of what he wrote,
and do not regret what we have lost. He composed
a memoir of his consulate in Greek, which he sent
to Atticus with an allusion to his own use of
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the foreign language, intended to show that he has quite
at ease in that matter. Atticus had sent him a memoir,
also written in Greek, on the same subject, and the
two packets had crossed each other on the road. He
candidly tells Atticus that his attempt seems to be hori, dullard, greencompte,
rough and unpolished, whereas Posidonius, the great Greek critic of Rhodes,
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who had been invited by him Cicero to read the
memoir and then himself to treat the same subject, had
replied that he was altogether debarred from such an attempt
by the excellence of his correspondent's performance. He also wrote
three books of a poem on his consulate and sent
them to Attigus, of which we have a fragment of
seventy five lines kojed by himself, and four or five
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other lines, including that unfortunate verse handed down by Quintelium
or fortunatum natam me consule romam, unless indeed it be spurious,
as is suggested by that excellent critic and wholehearted friend
of the orators Monsieur Guero. Previous to these, he had
produced in hexameters, also a translation of the Prognostics of Aratus.
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This is the second part of a poem on the
heavenly bodies, the first part, the Phenomena, having been turned
into Latin verse by him when he was eighteen. Of
the Prognostics we have only a few lines preserved by Priscian,
and a passage repeated by the author also in his
De divinatione. I think that Cicero was capable of producing
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a poem quite worthy of preservation, but in the work
of this year, the subjects chosen were not alluring. Side
note BC sixty ititat forty seven. Among his epistles of
the year, there is one which might of itself have
sufficed to bring down his name to posterity. This is
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a long letter full of advice to his brother Quintus,
who had gone out in the previous year to govern
the province of Asia as proprietor. We may say that
good advice could never have been more wanted, and that
better advice could not have been given. It has been
suggested that it was written as a companion to that
treatise on the Duties of a Candidate, which Quintus composed
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for his brother's service when standing for his consulship. But
I cannot admit the analogy. The composition attributed to Quintus
contained lessons of advice equally suitable to any candidate, sprung
from the people striving to rise to high honors in
the state. This letter is adapted not only to the
special position of Quintus, but to the peculiarities of his character,
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and its strength lies in this that while the one
brother praises the other justly praises him, as I believe,
for many virtues, so as to make the receipt of
it acceptable. It points out faults, faults which will become
fatal if not amended, in language which is not only
strong but unanswerable. The style of this letter is undoubtedly
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very different from that of Cicero's letters, generally so as
to suggest to the reader that it must have been
composed expressly for publication, whereas the daily correspondence is kurente calamore,
with no other than the immediate idea of amusing, instructing,
or perhaps comforting the correspondent. Hence, has come. The comparison
between this and the treaties de pitititione contilatus. I think
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that the gravity of the occasion, rather than any regard
for posterity, produced the change of style. Cicero found it
essential to induce his brother to remain at his post,
not to throw up his government in disgust, and so
to bear himself, that he should not make himself absolutely
odious to his own staff and to other Romans around him.
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For Quintus Cicero, though he had been proud and arrogant
and ill tempered, had not made himself notorious by the
ordinary Roman propensity to plunder his province. What is it
that is required of you as a governor? Asked Cicero.
That men should not be frightened by your journeys hither
and thither, That they should not be eaten up by
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your extravagance, That they should not be disturbed by your
coming among them. That there should be joy at your approach,
when each city should think that its guardian angel, not
a cruel master, had come upon it, When each house
should feel that it entertained not a robber but a friend.
Practice has made you perfect in this, But it is
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not enough that you should exercise those good offices yourself,
but that you should take care that every one of
those who come with you should seem to do his
best for the inhabitants of the province, for the citizen
of Rome, and for the Republic. I wish that I
could give the letter entire both in English, that all
readers might know how grand are the precepts taught, and
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in Latin, that they who understand the language might appreciate
the beauty of the words. But I do not dare
to fill my pages at such length. A little farther
on he gives his idea of the duty of all
those who have power over others, even of a dumb animals.
To me, it seems that the duty of those in
authority of others can insists in making those who are
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under them as happy as the nature of things will allow.
Every One knows that you have acted on this principle
since you first went to Asia. This, I fear must
be taken as flattery intended to gild the pill which
comes afterward. This is not only his duty, who has
under him allies and citizens, but is also that of
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the man who has slaves under his control. And even
dumb cattle, that he should study the welfare of all
over whom he stands in the position of master. Let
the reader look into this and ask himself what precepts
of Christianity have ever surpassed it. Then he points out
that which he describes as the one great difficulty in
(31:42):
the career of a Roman provincial governor. The collectors of
taxes or publicani, were of the Equestrian order. This business
of farming the taxes had been their rich privilege for
at any rate more than a century, And as Cicero
says farther on in his letter, it was impossible not
to know with what hardships the Greek allies would be
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treated by them, when so many stories were current of
their cruelty even in Italy. Were Quintus to take a
part against these tax gatherers, he would make them hostile
not only to the republic, but to himself also, and
also to his brother Marcus, for they were of the
Equestrian order, and specially connected with these publicani by family ties.
(32:26):
He implies as he goes on that it will be
easier to teach the Greeks to be submissive than the
tax gatherers to be moderate. After all, where would the
Greeks of Asia be if they had no Roman master
to afford them protection. He leaves the matter in the
hands of his brother, with advice that he should do
the best he can on one side, and on the other,
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if possible, let the greed of the publicani be restrained,
but let the ally be taught to understand that there
may be usage in the world worse even than Roman taxation.
It would be hardly worth oois to allude to this
part of Cicero's advice. Did it not give an insight
into the mode in which Rome taxed her subject people.
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After this he commences that portion of the letter, for
the sake of which we cannot but believe that the
whole was written. There is one thing, he says, which
I shall never cease to din into your ears, because
I could not endure to think that amid the praises
which are lavished on you, there should be any matter
in which you should be found wanting. All who come
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to us here, all who come to Rome from Asia.
That is, when they tell us of your honesty and
goodness of heart, tell us also that you fail in temper.
It is a vice which in the daily affairs of
private life betokens a weak and unmanly spirit. But there
can be nothing so poor as the exhibition of the
littleness of nature in those who have risen to the
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dignity of command. He will not. He goes on to say,
trouble his brother with repeating all that the wise men
have said on the subject of anger. He is sure
that Quintus is well acquainted with all that. But is
it not a pity when all men say that nothing
could be pleasanter than Quinta Cicero, When in a good
humor the same quintess should allow himself to be so
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provoked that his want of kindly manners should be regretted
by all around him, I cannot assert. He goes on
to say that when nature has produced a certain condition
of mind, and that years, as they run on, have
strengthened it, a man can change all that and pluck
out from his very self the habits that have grown
within him. Yet I must tell you that if you
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cannot eschew this evil altogether, if you cannot protect yourself
against the feeling of anger, yet you should prepare yourself
to be ready for it when it comes so that
when your very soul within you is hot with it,
your tongue at any rate may be restrained. Then toward
the end of the letter there is a fraternal exhortation
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which is surely very fine, since chance are thrown into
my way the duties of official life in Rome, and
into yours that of administering provincial government. If I, in
the performance of my work have been second to none,
do you see that you in yours may be equally efficient?
How grand from an elder brother to a younger. And
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remember this that you and I have not to strive
after some excellence still unattained, but have to be on
our watch to guard that which has been already won.
If I should find myself in anything divided from you,
I should desire no further advance in life. Unless your
deeds and your words go on all fours with mine.
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I should feel that I had achieved nothing by all
the work and all the dangers which you and I
have encountered together. The brother at last was found to
be a poor, envious, ill conditioned creature, intellectually gifted and
capable of borrowing something from his brother's nobler nature. But
when struggles came, and political feuds and the need of life,
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looking about to see on which side safety lay, ready
to sacrifice his brother for the sake of safety. But
up to this time Marcus was prepared to believe all
good of Quintus, and, having made for himself and for
the family a great name, was desirous of sharing it
with his brother, And, as we shall afterward see, with
his brother's son and with his own, in this he failed.
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He lived to know that he had failed, as regarded
his brother and his nephew. It was not, however, added
to his misery to live and to learn how little
his son was to do to maintain the honor of
his family. I found a note scribbled by myself some
years ago, in a volume in which I had read
this epistle, probably the most beautiful letter ever written. Reading
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it again subsequently, I added another note. The language altogether
different from that of his ordinary letters. I do not
dissent now from either the enthusiastic praise all the more
careful criticism. The letter was from the man's heart, true,
affectionate and full of anxious brotherly duty, but written in
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studied language, befitting, as Cicero thought, the need and the
dignity of the occasion. End of Chapter eleven, Part one
Chapter eleven, Part one 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 eleven, The Triumvirate,
(00:22):
Part one, side note BC sixty it at forty seven.
I know of no great fact in history so impalpable,
so shadowy, so unreal as the First Triumvirate. Every schoolboy,
almost every schoolgirl, knows that there was a First Triumvirate,
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and that it was a political combination made by three
great Romans of the day, Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great,
and Crassus the Rich, for managing Rome among them. Beyond
this they know little, because there is little to know.
That it was a conspiracy against the ordained government of
the day, as much so as that of Catiline or
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Guy Fawkes or Napoleon the Third. They do not know generally,
because Caesar, who though the youngest of the three, was
the mainspring of it, rose by means of it to
such a galaxy of glory, that all the steps by
which he rose to it have been supposed to be
magnificent and heroic. But of the method in which this
triumvirate was constructed? Who has an idea? How was it
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first suggested? Where and by whom? What was it that
the conspirators combined to do? There was no purpose of
wholesale murder, like that of Catiline for destroying the Senate,
and of Guy Fawkes for blowing up the House of Lords.
There was no plot arranged for silencing a body of
legislators like that of Napoleon. In these scrambles that are
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going on every year for place and power, for provinces
and plunder, let us help each other. If we can
manage to stick fast by each other, we can get
all the power and nearly all the plumber. That said
with a wink by one of the Triumvirate, Caesar, let
us say, and assented to with a nod by a
Pompey and Crassus, was sufficient for the construction of such
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a conspiracy as that which I presume to have been
hatched when the first Triumvirate was formed. Momson, who never
speaks of a triumvirate under that name, except in his index,
where he has permitted the word to appear for the
guidance of persons less well instructed than himself. Connects the
transaction which we call the first Triumvirate with a former coalition,
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which he describes as having been made in BC seventy one,
the year before the consulship of Pompey and Crassus. With
that we need not concern ourselves, as we are dealing
with the life of Cicero rather than with Roman history,
except to say that Caesar, who was the motive power
of the second coalition, could have had no personal hand
in that of seventy one. Though he had spent his
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early years in harassing the aristocracy, as Dean Maryvale tells,
he had not been of sufficient standing in men's minds
to be put on a par with Pompey and Crassus.
When this first Triumvirate was formed, as the modern world
generally calls it, or the second coalition between the democracy
and the great military leaders, as Momson, with greater but
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not with perfect accuracy, describes it, Caesar, no doubt had
at his fingers ends the history of past years. The
idea naturally occurred, says Momson, whether an alliance firmly based
on mutual advantage might not be established between the Democrats
with their ally Crassus, on the one side, and Pompeus
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and the great capitalists on the other. For Pompeus, such
a coalition was certainly a political suicide. The democracy here
means Caesar. Caesar, during his whole life, had been learning
that no good could come to any one from an
efeat senate, or from republican forms which had lost all
their salt. Democracy was in vogue with him, not, as
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I think, from any philanthropic desire for equality, not from
any far seeing view of paternal citizenship under one great
paternal lord. The study of politics had never then reached
to that height. But because it was necessary that some one,
or perhaps some two or three should prevail in the
coming struggle, and because he felt himself to be more
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worthy than others. He had no conscience in the matter.
Money was nothing to him. Another man's money was the
same as his own, or better, if he could get
hold of it. That doctrine taught by Cicero that men
are ade eustitiam natus, must have been to him simply absurd.
Blood was to him nothing. A friend was better than
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a foe, and a live man than a dead blood.
Thirstiness was a passion unknown to him, but that tenderness
which with us creates a horror of blood was equally unknown.
Pleasure was sweet to him, but he was man enough
to feel that a life of pleasure was contemptible. To
pillage a city, to pilfer his all from a rich man,
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to debauch a friend's wife, to give over a multitude
of women and children to slaughter, was as easy to
him as to forgive an enemy. But nothing rankled with him,
and he could forgive an enemy of courage. He had
that better sort, which can appreciate and calculate danger, and
then act as though there were none. Nothing was wrong
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to him, but what was injudicious. He could flatter, cajole, lie, deceive,
and rob nay would think it folly not to do so,
if to do so were expedient. In this coalition, he
appears as supporting and supported by the people. Therefore, Momson
speaks of him as the democrat. Crassus is called the
ally of the Democrats. It will be enough for us
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here to know that Crassus had achieved his position in
the Senate by his enormous wealth, and that it was
because of his wealth, which was the Senate to Caesar,
that he was admitted into the League. By means of
his wealth, he had risen to power, and had conquered
and killed Spartacus, of the honor and glory of which
Pompey robbed him. Then he had been made consul. When
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Caesar had gone as proprietor to Spain. Crassus had found
the money. Now Caesar had come back and was hand
in glove with Crassus when the division of spoil came
some years afterward, the spoil won by the Triumvirate. When
Caesar had half perfected his grand achievements in Gaul, and
Crassus had as yet been only a second time consul,
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he got himself to be sent into Syria, that by
conquering the Parthians he might make himself equal to Caesar.
We know how he and his son perished there, each
of them probably avoiding the last extremity of misery to
a Roman, that of falling into the hands of a
barbarian enemy by destroying himself, than the life of Crassus
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Nothing could be more contemptible than the death, nothing more
pitiable for Pompeius, says Momson. Such a coalition was certainly
a political suicide. As events turned out. It became so
because Caesar was the stronger man of the two. But
it is intelligible that at the time Pompey should have
felt that he could not laud it over the Senate
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as he wished to do without aid from the Democratic Party.
He had no well defined views, but he wished to
be the first man in Rome. He regarded himself as
still greatly superior to Caesar, who as yet had been
no more than pritor, and at this time was being
bulked of his triumph because he could not, at one
and the same moment be in the city as candidate
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for the consulship and out of the city waiting for
his triumph. Pompey had triumphed three times, had been consul
at an unnaturally early age with abnormal honors, had been
victorious east and West, and was called Magnus. He did not,
as yet fear to be overshadowed by Caesar. Cicero was
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his bugbear. Momson I believe to be right in eschewing
the word triumvirate. I know no mention of it by
any Roman writers applied to this conspiracy, though Tacitus, Suetonius,
and Florus called by that name the later coalition of Octavius,
Antony and Lepidus. The Langhorns. In translating Plutarch's Life of
(08:27):
Crassus speak of the triumvirate. But Plutarch himself says that
Caesar combined an impregnable stronghold by joining the three men.
Partculus and Sultonius explained very clearly the nature of the compact,
but did not use the term. There was nothing in
the conspiracy entitling it to any official appellation, though as
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there were three leading conspirators, that which has been used
has been so far appropriate. Side note BC sixty I
had forty seven. Cicero was the bugbear to them all.
That he might have been one of them, if ready
to share the plunder and the power, no reader of
the history of the time can doubt. Had he so chosen,
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he might again have been a real power in the state.
But to become so in the way proposed to him,
it was necessary that he should join others in a
conspiracy against the republic. I did not wish it to
be supposed that Cicero received the overtures made to him
with horror. Conspiracies were too common for horror, and these
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conspirators were all our Cicero's friends in one sense, though
in another they might be his opponents. We may imagine
that at first Crassus had nothing to do with the matter,
and that Pompey would fain have stood aloof in his jealousy.
But Caesar knew that it was well to have Cicero.
If Cicero was to be had, it was not only
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his eloquence, which was marvelously powerful, or his energy, which
had been shown to be indomitable. There was his character
surpassed by that of no Roman living. If only in
giving them the use of his character, he could be
got to disregard the honor and the justice and the
patriotism on which his character had been founded. How valuable
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may character be made if it can be employed under
such conditions? But to be believed because of your truth,
and yet to lie, to be trusted for your honesty,
and yet to cheat, to have credit for patriotism, and
yet to sell your country. The temptations to do this
are rarely put before a man, plainly in all their
(10:35):
naked ugliness. They certainly were not so presented to Cicero
by Caesar and his associates. The bait was held out
to him, as it is daily to others, in a
form not repellent, with words fitted to deceive and powerful
almost to persuade. Give us the advantage of your character,
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and then by your means we shall be able to
save our country. Though are life line of action may
not be strictly constitutional, if you will look into it,
you will see that it is expedient. What other courses there?
How else shall any wreck of the republic be preserved?
Would you be another Cato, useless and impractical? Join us
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and save Rome to some purpose. We can understand that
in such way was the leure held out to Cicero,
as it has been to many a politician since. But
when the politician takes the office offered to him, and
the pay, though it be but that of the Lord
of the treasury, he must vote with his party. That
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Cizra doubted much whether he would or would not at
this time throw in his lot with Caesar and Pompey
is certain to be of real use, not to be impractical,
as was Cato, to save his country and rise honestly
and power and glory, not to be too straight laced,
not over scrupulous, giving and taking a little, so that
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he might work to good purpose with others in harness.
This was his idea of duty as a Roman. To
serve in accord with Pompey was the first dream of
his political life. And now Pompey was in accord with Caesar.
It was natural that he should doubt, natural that he
should express his doubts who should receive them. But Atticus
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that alter ego, Cicero doubted whether he should cling to Pompey,
as he did in every phase of his political life
till Pompey had perished at the mouth of the Nile.
But at last he saw his way clear to honesty,
as I think he always did. He tells his friend
that Caesar had sent his confidential messenger Balbus to sound him.
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The present question is whether he shall resist a certain
agrarian law of which he does not approve, but which
is supported by both Pompey and Caesar, or retire from
the contest and enjoy himself at his country villas, or
boldly stay at Rome and oppose the law. Caesar assures
him that if he will come over to them, Caesar
will be always true to him, add Pompey, and will
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do his best to bring Crassus into the same frame
of mind. Then he reckons up all the good things
which would accrue to him closest friendship with Pompey. But
Caesar also should he wish it the making up of
all quarrels with his enemies, popularity with the people, ease
for his old age which was coming on him. But
that conclusion moves me to which I came in my
(13:27):
third book. Footnote add Atticum Book two three is a
fermabat ilum omnibus sinre busmeo et Pompeii consilio surum daturum
coeoperam ut compompeo crassum conjungeret hicks sund haik connutio mihi
(13:47):
summa cum pompeo see place etiam cum kaisare read TuS
in gratiam komenimikis paks comultitudine senectutis otium said me gatak
place mayor I la cormowet qui este in libro tertio
interea cursus cosprima parte uentei corsquerdo consul ertutnimocoe pettisti hos
(14:15):
retinat coauga farmame laudesquebonnorum homer Iliad Book twelve two four
threejes eonos aristos a munes tai peri patres end of footnote.
Then he repeats the lines given in the note below,
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which he has written, probably this very year, in a
poem composed in honor of his own consulship. The lines
are not in themselves grand, but the spirit of them
is magnificent. Stick to the good cause which in your
early youth you chose for yourself, and be true to
the party you've made your own. Should I doubt when
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the muse herself has so written, he says, alluding to
the name of Calliope given to this third book of his.
Then he adds a line of Homer, very excellent for
the occasion. No augury for the future can be better
for you than that which bids you serve your country.
But he says, we will talk of all that when
(15:17):
you come to me for the holidays. Your bath shall
be ready for you, Your sister and mother shall be
of the party, and so the doubts are settled. Now
came on the question of the tribune ship of Clodius,
in reference to which I will quote a passage out
of Middleton, because the phrase which he uses exactly explains
the purposes of Caesar and Pompey side note BC sixty.
(15:41):
It had forty seven Clodius, who had been contriving all
this while how to revenge himself on Cicero, began now
to give an opening to the scheme which had been
formed for that purpose. His project was to get himself
chosen tribune, and in that office to drive him out
of the city by the publication of a law which,
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by some stratagem or other he hoped to obtrude on
the people. But as all patricians were incapable of the
tribunate by its original institution, so his first step was
to make himself a plebeian by the pretense of an
adoption into a plebeian house, which could not yet be
done without the suffrage of the people. This case was
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wholly new and contrary to all the forms, wanting every
condition and serving none of the ends which were required
in regular adoptions. So that on the first proposal it
seemed too extravagant to be treated seriously, and would soon
have been hissed off with scorn had it not been
concertedly and privately supported by persons of much more weight
(16:44):
than Clodius. Caesar was at the bottom of it, and
Pompey secretly favored it. Not that they intended to ruin Cicero,
but to keep him only under the lash, and if
they could not draw him into their measures, to make
him at least sit quiet and let Clodius loose upon him. This,
no doubt was the intention of the political leaders in Rome.
(17:07):
At this conjunction of affairs. It had been found impossible
to draw Cicero gently into the net, so that he
should become one of them. If he would live quietly
at his Anteon or Tusculan villa, amid his books and writings,
he should be treated with all respect. He should be
born with, even though he talked so much of his
(17:27):
own consulate. But if he would interfere with the politics
of the day and would not come into the net,
then he must be dealt with. Caesar seems to have
respected Cicero always, and even to have liked him, but
he was not minded to put up with a friend
in Rome who, from day to day abused all his projects.
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In defending Antony, the Macedonian proconsul, who was condemned, Cicero
made some unpleasant remarks on the then condition of things. Caesar,
we are told, when he heard of this, on the
very spur of the moment, caused Clodius to be accepted
as a Plebeian. In all this, we are reminded of
the absolute truth of Momsen's verdict on Rome, which I
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have already quoted more than once. On the Roman oligarchy
of this period, no judgment can be passed save one
of inexorable and remorseless condemnation. How had it come to
pass that Caesar had the power of suddenly causing an
edict to become law, whether for good or for evil.
Cicero's description of what took place is as follows. About
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the sixth hour of the day, when I was defending
my colleague Anthony in court, I took occasion to complain
of certain things which were being done in the republic,
and which I thought to be injurious to my poor client.
Some dishonest persons carried my words to men in power,
meaning Caesar and Pompey, not indeed my own words, but
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words very different from mine. At the ninth hour, on
that very same day, you po Clodius were accepted as
a plebeian. Caesar, having been given to understand that Cicero
had been making himself disagreeable, was determined not to put
up with it. Soetonius tells the same story with admirable simplicity.
(19:15):
Of Sotonius. It must be said that if he had
no sympathy for a patriot such as Cicero, neither had
he any desire to represent in rosy colors the despotism
of a Caesar. He tells his stories simply as he
has heard them. Cicero, says Sirtonius, having at some trial
complained of the state of the times, Caesar, on the
(19:37):
very same day the ninth hour, passed Clodius over from
the patrician to the plebeian rank, in accordance with his
own desire. How did it come to pass that Caesar,
who though consul at the time, had no recognized power
of that nature, was efficacious for any such work as
this Because the republic had come to the condition which
(19:58):
the German historian has described the conspiracy between Caesar and
his subordinates had not been made for nothing. The reader
will require to know why Claudius should have desired degradation,
and how it came to pass that this degradation should
have been fatal to Cicero. The story has been partly
told in the passage from Middleton. A patrician, in accordance
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with the Constitution could not be a tribune of the
people from the commencement of the tribunate. That office had
been reserved to the plebeians. But a tribune had a
power of introducing laws which exceeded that of any senator
or any other official. They had acquired the right, we
are told in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,
(20:44):
of proposing to the committee, a tributor or to the Senate,
measures on nearly all the important affairs of the state.
And as matters stood at this time, no one tribune
could veto or put an arbitrary stop to a proposition
from another. When such proposition was made, it was simply
for the people to decide by their votes whether it
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should or should not be law. The present object was
to have a proposition made and carried suddenly in reference
to Cicero, which should have, at any rate the effect
of stopping his mouth. This could be best done by
a tribune of the people. No other adequate tribune could
be found, no probeian so incensed against Cicero as to
(21:26):
be willing to do this, possessing at the same time
power enough to be elected. Therefore it was that Clodius
was so anxious to be degraded. No patrician could become
a tribune of the people. But a patrician might be
adopted by a plebeian, and the adopted child to take
the rank of the father would, in fact, for all
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legal purposes, be the same as a son. For doing this,
in any case, a law had to be passed, or,
in other words, the assent of the people must be
obtained and registered. But many conditions were necessary. The father
intending to adopt must have no living son of his own,
and must be past the time of life at which
he might naturally hope to have one. And the adopted
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son must be of a fitting age to personate. A
son at any rate must be younger than the father.
Nothing must be done injurious to either family there must
be no trick in it, no looking after other results
than that plainly intended. All these conditions were broken. The
pretended father, Phantaeus had a family of his own and
(22:34):
was younger than Clodius. The great Claudian family was desecrated,
and there was no one so ignorant as not to
know that the purpose intended was that of entering the
tribunate by a fraud. It was required by the general
law that the Sacred College should report as to the
proper observances of the prescribed regulations, but no priest was
(22:55):
ever consulted. Yet Clodius was adopted, made Plebeian, and in
the course of the year elected as tribune. In reading
all this, the reader is mainly struck by the wonderful
admixture of lawlessness and law abiding steadfastness. If Caesar, who
was already becoming a tyrant in his consulship, chose to
(23:17):
make use of this means of silencing Cicero, why not
force Clodia's into the tribunate without so false and degrading
a ceremony. But if, as was no doubt the case,
he was not yet strong enough to ignore the old
popular feelings on the subject. How was it that he
was able to laugh in his sleeve at the laws,
and to come forth at a moment's notice and cause
(23:39):
the people to vote legally or illegally, just as he pleased.
It requires no conjurer to tell us the reason the
outside hulls and husks remain when the rich fruit has gone.
It was in seeing this, and yet not quite believing
that it must be so, that the agony of Cicero's
life consisted. There could have been no hope for freedom,
(24:03):
no hope for the republic, when Rome had been governed
as it was during the consulship of Caesar. But Cicero
could still hope, though faintly, and still buoy himself up
with remembrances of his own year of office, in carrying
on the story of the newly adopted child to his
election as tribune. I have gone beyond the time of
(24:25):
my narration, so that the reader may understand the cause
and nature and effect of the anger which Clodius entertained
for Cicero. This originated in the bitter words spoken as
to the profanation of the Bonardea, and led to the
means for achieving Cicero's exile and other untoward passages of
his life. In the year sixty b C. When Mittellus,
(24:47):
Keller and Aphranius were consuls, Clodius was tried for insulting
the Bonadeer, and the since so called triumvirate was instituted.
It has already been shown that Cicero, not without many doubts,
rejected the first offers which were made to him to
join the forces that were so united. He seems to
have passed the greater portion of this year in Rome.
(25:09):
One letter only was written from the country to Atticus
from his Tusculan villa, and that is of no special moment.
He spent his time in the city, still engaged in
the politics of the day, as to which though he
dreaded the coming together of Caesar and Pompey and Crassus,
those grauais principum amikitias, which were to become so detrimental
(25:30):
to all who were concerned in them, he foresaw as
yet but little of the evil which was to fall
upon his own head. He was, by no means idole
ast literature. Though we have but little of what he wrote,
and do not regret what we have lost. He composed
a memoir of his consulate in Greek, which he sent
to Atticus with an allusion to his own use of
(25:51):
the foreign language, intended to show that he has quite
at ease in that matter. Atticus had sent him a memoir,
also written in Greek, on the same subject, and the
two packets had crossed each other on the road. He
candidly tells Atticus that his attempt seems to be hori, dullard, greencompte,
rough and unpolished, whereas Posidonius, the great Greek critic of Rhodes,
(26:13):
who had been invited by him Cicero to read the
memoir and then himself to treat the same subject, had
replied that he was altogether debarred from such an attempt
by the excellence of his correspondent's performance. He also wrote
three books of a poem on his consulate and sent
them to Attigus, of which we have a fragment of
seventy five lines kojed by himself, and four or five
(26:37):
other lines, including that unfortunate verse handed down by Quintelium
or fortunatum natam me consule romam, unless indeed it be spurious,
as is suggested by that excellent critic and wholehearted friend
of the orators Monsieur Guero. Previous to these, he had
produced in hexameters, also a translation of the Prognostics of Aratus.
(27:02):
This is the second part of a poem on the
heavenly bodies, the first part, the Phenomena, having been turned
into Latin verse by him when he was eighteen. Of
the Prognostics we have only a few lines preserved by Priscian,
and a passage repeated by the author also in his
De divinatione. I think that Cicero was capable of producing
(27:22):
a poem quite worthy of preservation, but in the work
of this year, the subjects chosen were not alluring. Side
note BC sixty ititat forty seven. Among his epistles of
the year, there is one which might of itself have
sufficed to bring down his name to posterity. This is
(27:43):
a long letter full of advice to his brother Quintus,
who had gone out in the previous year to govern
the province of Asia as proprietor. We may say that
good advice could never have been more wanted, and that
better advice could not have been given. It has been
suggested that it was written as a companion to that
treatise on the Duties of a Candidate, which Quintus composed
(28:04):
for his brother's service when standing for his consulship. But
I cannot admit the analogy. The composition attributed to Quintus
contained lessons of advice equally suitable to any candidate, sprung
from the people striving to rise to high honors in
the state. This letter is adapted not only to the
special position of Quintus, but to the peculiarities of his character,
(28:28):
and its strength lies in this that while the one
brother praises the other justly praises him, as I believe,
for many virtues, so as to make the receipt of
it acceptable. It points out faults, faults which will become
fatal if not amended, in language which is not only
strong but unanswerable. The style of this letter is undoubtedly
(28:50):
very different from that of Cicero's letters, generally so as
to suggest to the reader that it must have been
composed expressly for publication, whereas the daily correspondence is kurente calamore,
with no other than the immediate idea of amusing, instructing,
or perhaps comforting the correspondent. Hence, has come. The comparison
between this and the treaties de pitititione contilatus. I think
(29:15):
that the gravity of the occasion, rather than any regard
for posterity, produced the change of style. Cicero found it
essential to induce his brother to remain at his post,
not to throw up his government in disgust, and so
to bear himself, that he should not make himself absolutely
odious to his own staff and to other Romans around him.
(29:35):
For Quintus Cicero, though he had been proud and arrogant
and ill tempered, had not made himself notorious by the
ordinary Roman propensity to plunder his province. What is it
that is required of you as a governor? Asked Cicero.
That men should not be frightened by your journeys hither
and thither, That they should not be eaten up by
(29:56):
your extravagance, That they should not be disturbed by your
coming among them. That there should be joy at your approach,
when each city should think that its guardian angel, not
a cruel master, had come upon it, When each house
should feel that it entertained not a robber but a friend.
Practice has made you perfect in this, But it is
(30:18):
not enough that you should exercise those good offices yourself,
but that you should take care that every one of
those who come with you should seem to do his
best for the inhabitants of the province, for the citizen
of Rome, and for the Republic. I wish that I
could give the letter entire both in English, that all
readers might know how grand are the precepts taught, and
(30:39):
in Latin, that they who understand the language might appreciate
the beauty of the words. But I do not dare
to fill my pages at such length. A little farther
on he gives his idea of the duty of all
those who have power over others, even of a dumb animals.
To me, it seems that the duty of those in
authority of others can insists in making those who are
(31:01):
under them as happy as the nature of things will allow.
Every One knows that you have acted on this principle
since you first went to Asia. This, I fear must
be taken as flattery intended to gild the pill which
comes afterward. This is not only his duty, who has
under him allies and citizens, but is also that of
(31:21):
the man who has slaves under his control. And even
dumb cattle, that he should study the welfare of all
over whom he stands in the position of master. Let
the reader look into this and ask himself what precepts
of Christianity have ever surpassed it. Then he points out
that which he describes as the one great difficulty in
(31:42):
the career of a Roman provincial governor. The collectors of
taxes or publicani, were of the Equestrian order. This business
of farming the taxes had been their rich privilege for
at any rate more than a century, And as Cicero
says farther on in his letter, it was impossible not
to know with what hardships the Greek allies would be
(32:03):
treated by them, when so many stories were current of
their cruelty even in Italy. Were Quintus to take a
part against these tax gatherers, he would make them hostile
not only to the republic, but to himself also, and
also to his brother Marcus, for they were of the
Equestrian order, and specially connected with these publicani by family ties.
(32:26):
He implies as he goes on that it will be
easier to teach the Greeks to be submissive than the
tax gatherers to be moderate. After all, where would the
Greeks of Asia be if they had no Roman master
to afford them protection. He leaves the matter in the
hands of his brother, with advice that he should do
the best he can on one side, and on the other,
(32:48):
if possible, let the greed of the publicani be restrained,
but let the ally be taught to understand that there
may be usage in the world worse even than Roman taxation.
It would be hardly worth oois to allude to this
part of Cicero's advice. Did it not give an insight
into the mode in which Rome taxed her subject people.
(33:09):
After this he commences that portion of the letter, for
the sake of which we cannot but believe that the
whole was written. There is one thing, he says, which
I shall never cease to din into your ears, because
I could not endure to think that amid the praises
which are lavished on you, there should be any matter
in which you should be found wanting. All who come
(33:30):
to us here, all who come to Rome from Asia.
That is, when they tell us of your honesty and
goodness of heart, tell us also that you fail in temper.
It is a vice which in the daily affairs of
private life betokens a weak and unmanly spirit. But there
can be nothing so poor as the exhibition of the
littleness of nature in those who have risen to the
(33:52):
dignity of command. He will not. He goes on to say,
trouble his brother with repeating all that the wise men
have said on the subject of anger. He is sure
that Quintus is well acquainted with all that. But is
it not a pity when all men say that nothing
could be pleasanter than Quinta Cicero, When in a good
humor the same quintess should allow himself to be so
(34:14):
provoked that his want of kindly manners should be regretted
by all around him, I cannot assert. He goes on
to say that when nature has produced a certain condition
of mind, and that years, as they run on, have
strengthened it, a man can change all that and pluck
out from his very self the habits that have grown
within him. Yet I must tell you that if you
(34:36):
cannot eschew this evil altogether, if you cannot protect yourself
against the feeling of anger, yet you should prepare yourself
to be ready for it when it comes so that
when your very soul within you is hot with it,
your tongue at any rate may be restrained. Then toward
the end of the letter there is a fraternal exhortation
(34:56):
which is surely very fine, since chance are thrown into
my way the duties of official life in Rome, and
into yours that of administering provincial government. If I, in
the performance of my work have been second to none,
do you see that you in yours may be equally efficient?
How grand from an elder brother to a younger. And
(35:19):
remember this that you and I have not to strive
after some excellence still unattained, but have to be on
our watch to guard that which has been already won.
If I should find myself in anything divided from you,
I should desire no further advance in life. Unless your
deeds and your words go on all fours with mine.
(35:39):
I should feel that I had achieved nothing by all
the work and all the dangers which you and I
have encountered together. The brother at last was found to
be a poor, envious, ill conditioned creature, intellectually gifted and
capable of borrowing something from his brother's nobler nature. But
when struggles came, and political feuds and the need of life,
(36:00):
looking about to see on which side safety lay, ready
to sacrifice his brother for the sake of safety. But
up to this time Marcus was prepared to believe all
good of Quintus, and, having made for himself and for
the family a great name, was desirous of sharing it
with his brother, And, as we shall afterward see, with
his brother's son and with his own, in this he failed.
(36:24):
He lived to know that he had failed, as regarded
his brother and his nephew. It was not, however, added
to his misery to live and to learn how little
his son was to do to maintain the honor of
his family. I found a note scribbled by myself some
years ago, in a volume in which I had read
this epistle, probably the most beautiful letter ever written. Reading
(36:48):
it again subsequently, I added another note. The language altogether
different from that of his ordinary letters. I do not
dissent now from either the enthusiastic praise all the more
careful criticism. The letter was from the man's heart, true,
affectionate and full of anxious brotherly duty, but written in
(37:09):
studied language, befitting, as Cicero thought, the need and the
dignity of the occasion. End of Chapter eleven, Part one
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