his house, and built on the ground a temple to Liberty: the rest of
Cicero's property[238] he offered for sale, and announced it daily, but
nobody would buy. In consequence of these measures being formidable to
the aristocratical party, and dragging along with him the people, who
were let loose to great violence and daring, he made an attack on
Pompeius, ripping up some of the things that were settled by him in his
military command. By which Pompeius losing some of his reputation blamed
himself for giving up Cicero; and changing again he used every effort in
conjunction with Cicero's friends to effect his return. As Clodius
resisted this, the Senate resolved to ratify nothing in the mean time
and to do no public business, unless Cicero was restored. When
Lentulus[239] was consul, and the disorder went on increasing so that
tribunes were wounded in the Forum, and Quintus the brother of Cicero
only escaped by lying among the bodies as if he were dead, the people
began to undergo a change of opinion, and one of the tribunes, Annius
Milo, was the first to venture to bring Clodius to trial for violence,
and many sided with Pompeius both from among the people and the
neighbouring cities. Coming forward with them and driving Clodius from
the Forum, he called the citizens to the vote: and it is said that the
people never confirmed any measure with so much unanimity. The Senate
vying with the people passed a decree in honour of those cities which
had served Cicero in his exile, and for the restoration[240] at the
public expense of his house and villas, which Clodius had destroyed.
Cicero was restored in the sixteenth month[241] after his exile, and so
great was the joy of the cities and the zeal of all men to meet him,
that what was afterwards said by Cicero fell short of the truth: for he
said that Italy bore him on her shoulders and carried him into Rome. On
which occasion Crassus also, who was his enemy before his exile, readily
met him, and was reconciled to him, to please his son Publius, as he
said, who was an admirer of Cicero.
XXXIV. After the lapse of no long time, watching the opportunity when
Clodius was away, Cicero went with a number of persons to the Capitol
and pulled down and broke the tribunitian tablets[242] which contained
the records of the administration. When Clodius made this a charge
against him, Cicero said that Clodius had illegally passed from the
patrician body to the tribunate, and that none of his acts were valid,
at which Cato took offence and spoke against him, not indeed in
commendation of Clodius, but expressing his mortification at his
measures; however he showed that it was an unusual and violent measure
for the Senate to vote for the rescinding of so many decrees and acts,
among which was his own administration at Cyprus and Byzantium. This led
to a collision between him and Cicero, which did not proceed to anything
open, but the consequence was that their friendly disposition to one
another was weakened.
XXXV. After this Clodius[243] was killed by Milo, who being prosecuted
for murder got Cicero for his advocate. But the Senate, being afraid
lest there should be some disturbance in the city on the trial of Milo,
who was a man of high repute and bold spirit, intrusted to Pompeius the
superintendence of this and other trials, and commissioned him to
provide for the security of the city and of the courts of justice.
Pompeius in the night surrounded the Forum with soldiers on the heights,
and Milo, fearing that Cicero might be disturbed at the unusual sight
and manage his case worse, persuaded him to be carried in a litter to
the Forum and to rest there till the judices met and the court was
formed. But Cicero, as it appears, was not only without courage in arms,
but was timid even when he commenced speaking, and hardly ceased shaking
and trembling in many trials till his eloquence had reached its height
and attained steadiness. When he was the advocate of Murena, on his
prosecution by Cato, he was ambitious to surpass Hortensius, who spoke
with great applause, and he took no rest the night before, in
consequence of which exceeding anxiety and wakefulness, his powers were
impaired and he was considered to have fallen short of his fame. On this
occasion when he came out of the litter to the trial of Milo and saw
Pompeius seated on an elevated place as in a camp and arms flashing
all around the Forum, he was confounded and scarcely commenced his
speech for trembling and hesitation, though Milo himself bravely and
courageously assisted at the trial and would not deign to let his hair
grow or to change his dress for a dark one, which seems in no small
degree to have contributed to his condemnation. But Cicero in all this
was considered rather to have shown his attachment to his friend than
any cowardice.
XXXVI. Cicero became also one of the priests, whom the Romans called
Augurs,[244] in place of the younger Crassus after his death among the
Parthians. The province of Cilicia[245] being allotted to him and an
army of twelve thousand legionary soldiers and two thousand six hundred
horse, he set sail with instructions to keep Cappadocia friendly and
obedient to Ariobarzanes.[246] He accomplished this, and arranged it
without any blame and without war; and as he observed that the
Cilicians were inclined to a rising on occasion of the defeat of the
Romans by the Parthians and the movements in Syria, he pacified them by
a mild administration. Nor would he receive any presents when the kings
offered them, and he relieved the provincials from giving
entertainments: and he himself daily received those who were agreeable
to him at banquets, not in a costly way, but liberally. And there was no
doorkeeper to his house, nor was he ever seen by any one lying down, but
in the morning he would be standing or walking about in front of his
chamber, where he received those who paid their respects[247] to him. It
is said that he neither punished any one with rods nor allowed any man's
garment to be rent, nor vented abuse in passion, nor inflicted any
penalty accompanied with contumelious treatment. By discovering that
much of the public property was embezzled he enriched the cities, and he
maintained in their civil rights those who made restoration, without
letting them suffer anything further. He engaged also in a war in which
he defeated the robbers of Mount Amanus, for which he was saluted by his
soldiers with the title of Imperator.[248] When Cæcilius[249] the orator
requested Cicero to send him panthers from Cilicia to Rome for a certain
spectacle, Cicero, who was proud of his exploits, wrote in reply that
there were no panthers in Cilicia, for they had fled into Caria,
indignant that they were the only things warred upon, while all others
were enjoying peace. On his voyage back from his province he first put
in at Rhodes, and next tarried at Athens with gladness out of the
pleasant recollection of his former residence. After associating with
men the first for wisdom, and visiting his old friends and intimates and
receiving due honours from Greece, he returned to Rome at a time when
affairs, as if from violent inflammation, were bursting out into the
Civil War.
XXXVII. In the Senate, when they were proposing to vote him a triumph,
he said that he would more gladly follow Cæsar in his triumph, if a
settlement could be effected; and he privately gave much advice by
writing to Cæsar, and much by entreating Pompeius, and attempting to
mollify and pacify both of them. But when things were past remedy, and
Cæsar was advancing, and Pompeius did not stay, but quitted the city
with many men of character, Cicero did not join in this flight, and it
was supposed that he was attaching himself to Cæsar. And it is plain
that in his resolves he was much perplexed both ways and suffered much;
for he says in his letters[250] that he did not know which way to turn
himself, and that Pompeius had an honourable and good cause to fight
for, but that Cæsar managed things better and was better able to save
himself and the citizens, so that he knew whom to fly from, but not whom
to fly to. Trebatius, one of Cæsar's friends, wrote to the purport, that
Cæsar thought that before all things Cicero ought to put himself on
Cæsar's side and to share his hopes, but if he declined by reason of
his age, he advised him to go to Greece and there to seat himself
quietly out of the way of both; but Cicero, being surprised that Cæsar
himself did not write, replied in passion that he would do nothing
unworthy of his political life. What appears in his letters is to this
effect.
XXXVIII. When Cæsar had set out to Iberia, Cicero immediately sailed to
Pompeius. The rest were well pleased that he was come, but Cato on
seeing him rated him in private greatly for joining Pompeius: he said it
was not seemly in himself to desert that line of policy which he had
chosen from the first; but that Cicero, though he could do more good to
his country and his friends if he remained at Rome an indifferent
spectator and shaped his conduct by the result, without any reason or
necessity had become an enemy of Cæsar and had come there to share in
great danger. These words disturbed the resolve of Cicero, and also that
Pompeius did not employ him in anything of weight. But he was the cause
of this himself, inasmuch as he made no secret of repenting of what he
had done, and depreciated the resources of Pompeius, and privately
showed his dissatisfaction at his plans, and abstained not from scoffing
and saying any sharp thing of the allies, though he himself always went
about in the camp without a smile and with sorrowful countenance; but he
gave cause of laughter to others who had no occasion for it. It is
better to mention a few of these things. Domitius[251] was placing in a
post of command a man of no warlike turn, and said, How modest he is in
his manner and how prudent; "Why then," said Cicero, "do you not keep
him to take care of your children?" When some were commending
Theophanes[252] the Lesbian, who was a Præfectus of Fabri in the camp,
for his excellent consolation of the Rhodians on the loss of their
fleet, "What a huge blessing it is," he said, "to have a Greek Præfect!"
When Cæsar was successful in most things and in a manner was blockading
them, he replied to the remark of Lentulus that he heard that Cæsar's
friends were dispirited, "You mean to say that they are
ill-disposed[253] to Cæsar?" One Marcius, who had just arrived from
Rome, said that a report prevailed in Rome that Pompeius was blockaded.
"I suppose you sailed hither then," said Cicero, "that you might see it
with your own eyes and believe." After the defeat Nonnius observed that
they ought to have good hopes, for that seven eagles were left in the
camp of Pompeius, "Your advice would be good," said Cicero, "if we were
fighting with jack-daws." When Labienus was relying on certain oracular
answers, and saying that Pompeius must get the victory, "Yes," said
Cicero, "it is by availing ourselves of such generalship as this that we
have lost the camp."
XXXIX. After the battle at Pharsalus, in which he was not present by
reason of illness, and when Pompeius had fled, Cato, who had a large
army at Dyrrachium and a great fleet, asked Cicero to take the command
according to custom, and as he had the superior dignity of the
consulship. But as Cicero rejected the command and altogether was averse
to joining the armament, he narrowly escaped being killed, for the young
Pompeius and his friends called him a traitor and drew their swords, but
Cato stood in the gap and with difficulty rescued Cicero and let him go
from the army. Having put in at Brundusium he stayed there waiting for
Cæsar, who was delayed by affairs in Asia and in Egypt. But when news
came that Cæsar was landed at Tarentum[254]; and was coming round by
land to Brundusium, Cicero went to him, not being altogether without
hope, but feeling shame in the presence of many persons to make trial of
a man who was his enemy and victorious. However there was no need for
him to do or say anything unworthy of himself; for when Cæsar saw Cicero
coming to meet him at a great distance before all the rest, he got
down, and embraced him and talking with him alone walked several stadia.
From this time he continued to show respect to Cicero and friendly
behaviour, so that even in his reply to Cicero, who had written a
panegyric on Cato, he commended his eloquence and his life, as most
resembling those of Perikles and Theramenes.[255] Cicero's discourse was
called Cato, and Cæsar's was entitled Anticato. It is said also that
when Quintus Ligarius[256] was under prosecution, because he had been
one of Cæsar's enemies and Cicero was his advocate, Cæsar said to his
friends, "What hinders us listening after so long an interval to
Cicero's speech, since the man has long been adjudged a villain and an
enemy?" But when Cicero had begun to speak and was making a wonderful
sensation, and his speech as he proceeded was in feeling varied and in
grace admirable, the colour often changed in Cæsar's face, and it was
manifest that he was undergoing divers emotions in his mind; but at last
when the orator touched upon the battle at Pharsalus, he was so affected
that his body shook and he dropped some of the writings from his hands.
Accordingly he acquitted the man of the charge perforce.
XL. After this, as the constitution was changed to a monarchy,
Cicero[257] detaching himself from public affairs applied himself to
philosophy with such young men as were disposed; and mainly from his
intimacy with the noblest born and the first in rank, he again got very
great power in the state. His occupation was to compose philosophical
dialogues and to translate and to transfer into the Roman language every
dialectical or physical term; for it is he, as they say, who first or
mainly formed for the Romans the terms Phantasia, Syncatathesis, Epoche,
and Catalepsis, and also Atom, and Indivisible, and Vacuum, and many
other like terms, some of which by metaphor, and others by other modes
of assimilation he contrived to make intelligible and to bring into
common use: and he employed his ready turn for poetry to amuse himself.
For it is said that when he was disposed that way, he would make five
hundred verses in a night. The greatest part of his time he now spent in
his lands at Tusculum, and he used to write to his friends that he was
living the life of Laertes,[258] whether it was that he said this in
jest, as his manner was, or whether from ambition he was bursting with
desire to participate in public affairs and was dissatisfied with
matters as they were. He seldom went down to the city, and when he did,
it was to pay court to Cæsar, and he was foremost among those who spoke
in favour of the honours given to him and were eager always to be saying
something new about the man and his acts. Of this kind is what he said
about the statues of Pompeius, which Cæsar ordered to be set up after
they had been taken away and thrown down, and they were set up again.
For Cicero said that by this mild behaviour Cæsar placed the statues of
Pompeius, but firmly fixed his own.
XLI. His intention being, as it is said, to comprehend in one work the
history of his country and to combine with it much of Greek affairs and
in fine to place there the stories and myths which he had collected, he
was prevented by public and many private affairs contrary to his wish,
and by troubles, most of which seem to have been of his own causing. For
first of all, he divorced his wife Terentia,[259] because he had been
neglected by her during the war, so that he set out in want even of
necessaries for his journey, and did not even on his return to Italy
find her well-disposed to him. For she did not go to him, though he was
staying some time in Brundusium, and when her daughter, who was a young
woman, was going so long a journey, she did not supply her with suitable
attendance, nor any means, but she even made Cicero's house void of
everything and empty, besides incurring many great debts. These are the
most decent reasons for the separation which are mentioned. But Terentia
denied that these were the reasons, and Cicero made her defence a
complete one by marrying no long time after a maid;[260] as Terentia
charged it, through passion for her beauty, but as Tiro[261] the
freedman of Cicero has recorded it, to get means for paying his debts.
For the young woman was very rich and Cicero had the care of her
property, being left fiduciary heir. Being in debt to the amount of many
ten thousands he was persuaded by his friends and relatives to marry the
girl, notwithstanding the disparity of age, and to get rid of his
creditors by making use of her property. But Antonius, who made mention
of the marriage in reply to the Philippics, says that he put out of
doors his wife with whom he had grown old, and at the same time he made
some cutting jibes on the housekeeping habits of Cicero as a man unfit
for action and for arms. No long time after his marriage Cicero's
daughter died in child-birth, for she had married Lentulus after the
death of her former husband Piso. The philosophers from all quarters
came together to console Cicero, but he bore his misfortune very ill,
and even divorced his wife because he thought that she was pleased at
the death of Tullia.[262]
XLII.[263] Such were Cicero's domestic affairs. He had no share in the
design that was forming against Cæsar, though he was one of the most
intimate friends of Brutus and was supposed to be annoyed at the present
state of affairs and so long for the old state more than anybody else.
But the men feared his temper as being deficient in daring, and the
occasion was one in which courage fails even the strongest natures. When
the deed was accomplished by the partisans of Brutus and Cassius, and
Cæsar's friends were combining against the conspirators, and there was
fear of the city again being involved in civil wars, Antonius, who was
consul, brought the Senate together and said a few words about concord;
and Cicero, after speaking at length and suitably to the occasion,
persuaded the Senate to imitate the Athenians and decree an amnesty[264]
for what had been done to Cæsar, and to give provinces to Brutus and
Cassius. But none of these things came to a conclusion. For the people
of themselves being transported to pity, when they saw the corpse
carried through the Forum, and Antonius showed them the garments filled
with blood and slashed in every part by the swords, maddened by passion
sought for the men in the Forum and ran with fire in their hands to
their houses to burn them. The conspirators escaped the danger by being
prepared for it, but as they expected other great dangers, they quitted
the city.
XLIII. Antonius was forthwith elated, and was formidable to all, as
about to become sole ruler; but to Cicero most formidable. For Antonius
seeing that Cicero's power was recovering strength in the State, and
knowing that he was closely allied with Brutus, was annoyed at his
presence. And there existed even before this some ill-will between them
on account of the unlikeness and difference in their lives. Cicero
fearing these things, first made an attempt to go with Dolabella[265] to
Syria as legatus: but the consuls for the next year, Irtius and
Pansa,[266] who were good men and admirers of Cicero, prayed him not to
desert them, and they undertook if he were present to put down Antonius.
Cicero, neither distrusting altogether nor trusting gave up his design
as to Dolabella, and agreed with Irtius to spend the summer in Athens,
and when they had entered on their office, to come back, and he sailed
off by himself. But as there was some delay about the voyage, and new
reports, as the wont is, reached him from Rome that Antonius had
undergone a wonderful change, and was doing and administering everything
conformably to the pleasure of the Senate, and that matters only
required his presence to be brought to the best arrangement, himself
blaming his excessive caution turned back to Rome. And he was not
deceived in his first expectations, so great a crowd of people through
joy and longing for him poured forth to meet him, and near a whole day
was taken up at the gates and upon his entrance with greetings and
friendly reception. On the following day Antonius summoned a Senate and
invited Cicero, who did not come, but was lying down pretending to be
indisposed from fatigue. But the truth appeared to be that he was afraid
of some design against him, in consequence of certain suspicions and of
information which reached him on the road. Antonius was irritated at the
calumny and sent soldiers with orders to bring Cicero or burn his house,
but as many persons opposed Antonius and urged him by entreaties he took
securities only and desisted. And henceforward they continued to pass by
without noticing one another and to be mutually on their guard, till the
young Cæsar[267] having arrived from Apollonia took possession of the
inheritance of the elder Cæsar, and came to a quarrel with Antonius
about the two thousand five hundred ten thousands[268] which Antonius
detained of his substance.
XLIV. Upon this, Philippus[269] who was married to young Cæsar's
mother, and Marcellus, who was married to his sister, came with the
young man to Cicero, and made a compact that Cicero should lend to Cæsar
both in the Senate and before the people the power that he derived from
his eloquence and his political position, and that Cæsar should give to
Cicero the security that could be derived from money and from arms. For
the young man had about him many of those who had served under
Cæsar.[270] There appeared also to have been some stronger reason for
Cicero readily accepting the friendship of Cæsar. For, as the story
goes, while Pompeius and Cæsar were living, Cicero dreamed[271] that
some one summoned the sons of the senators to the Capitol, as Jupiter
was going to appoint one of them chief of Rome, and that the citizens
ran eagerly and placed themselves around the temple and the youths
seated themselves in their prætextæ in silence. The doors opened
suddenly and one by one the youths rising walked round before the god,
who looked at them all and dismissed them sorrowing. But when young
Cæsar was advancing towards him, the god stretched out his hand and
said, "Romans, there is an end to civil wars when this youth becomes
your leader." They say that Cicero having had such a dream as this had
imprinted on his memory the appearance of the youth and retained it
distinctly, but he did not know him. The following day as he was going
down to the Campus Martius, the boys who had taken their exercise were
returning, and the youth was then seen by Cicero for the first time just
as he appeared to him in his dream, and being struck with surprise
Cicero asked who were his parents. Now his father was Octavius, not a
man of very illustrious station, but his mother was Attia, a niece of
Cæsar. Accordingly Cæsar, who had no children of his own, gave the youth
his property and family name by his will. After this they say that
Cicero took pains to notice the youth when he met him, and the youth
received well his friendly attentions; for it had also happened that he
was born in Cicero's consulship.
XLV. These were the reasons which were mentioned; but his hatred of
Antonius in the chief place, and then his disposition, which was
governed by ambition, attached him to Cæsar in the expectation of adding
to his own political influence Cæsar's power. For the young man went so
far in paying his court to Cicero as to call him father.[272] At which
Brutus being much annoyed blamed Cicero in his letters to Atticus, that
through fear of Antonius he was courting Cæsar and was thus manifestly
not procuring liberty for his country, but wooing for himself a kind
master. However Cicero's son,[273] who was studying philosophy at
Athens, was engaged by Brutus and employed in command in many things
which he did successfully. Cicero's power in the city was then at its
height, and as he could do what he liked, he drove Antonius out and
raised a faction against him and sent out the two consuls Irtius and
Pansa[274] to fight against him, and he persuaded the Senate by a vote
to give Cæsar lictors and the insignia of a prætor, as if he were
fighting in defence of their country. But when Antonius had been
defeated and on the death of the two consuls after the battle the forces
joined Cæsar, and the Senate through fear of a youth who had enjoyed
splendid success was attempting by honours and gifts to call away from
him the armies, and to divide his power, on the ground that there was no
need of troops to defend the state now that Antonius was fled, under
these circumstances Cæsar being alarmed secretly sent messengers to
Cicero, to entreat and urge Cicero to get the consulship for the two,
but to manage matters as he thought best, and to have the power, and to
direct the young man who was only desirous of a name and reputation. And
Cæsar himself admitted that it was through fear of his troops being
disbanded and the danger of being left alone, that he had availed
himself in a time of need of Cicero's love of power by urging him to
take the consulship, and promising that he would act with him and assist
in the canvass at the same time.