had a villa at Formiæ, near Caieta, his Formianum, which he often
mentions and which in his prosperous days was a favourite retreat.
The Appian road passed from Terracina through Fundi (Fondi) and Itri,
whence there is a view of Gaeta. The next place is Formiæ, Mola di
Gaeta, on the beautiful bay of Gaeta. There are numerous remains about
the site of Formiæ, which of course are taken for Cicero's villa. The
site was doubtless near the Mola and the village Castiglione. The
Formian villa was destroyed when Cicero was banished, but he received
some compensation, and he rebuilt it.
[284] This Popilius was C. Popilius Lænas, a military tribune, whom
Cicero at the request of M. Cælius had once defended (Dion Cassius, 47.
c. 11).
[285] Plutarch's narrative leads us to suppose that Cicero saw that his
time was come and offered his neck to the murderers. Appian's narrative
(_Civil Wars_, iv. 20) is that Lænas drew Cicero's head out of the
litter and struck three blows before he severed it. He was so awkward at
the work that the operation was like sawing the neck off.
Cicero was murdered on the 7th of December, B.C. 73, being nearly
sixty-four years of age.
[286] The same story is told by Appian, except that he mentions only the
right hand. The murderer received for his pains a large sum of money,
much more than was promised. It is hardly credible that Antonius placed
the head of Cicero on a tablet at a banquet (Appian, _Civil Wars_, iv.
20). Though he hated Cicero and with good reason, such a brutal act is
not credible of him, nor is it consistent with the story of the head
being fixed on the Rostra; not to mention other reasons against the
story that might be urged. Dion Cassius (47. c. 8) says that Fulvia, the
wife of Antonius, pierced the tongue of Cicero with one of the pins
which women wore in their hair, and added other insults. To make his
story probable, he says that it was done before the head was fixed on
the Rostra.
[287] His name was Philogonus. The story about Philogonus is refuted by
the silence of Tiro.
Pomponia, the wife of Quintus, was the sister of T. Pomponius Atticus,
the friend of Cicero. She and her husband did not live in harmony.
[288] These were Caius and Lucius, the sons of Cæsar's daughter Julia by
M. Vipsanius Agrippa.
[289] Cæsar defeated Antonius at the battle of Actium, B.C. 31. Cicero's
son Marcus was made an augur, and he was consul with Cæsar in B.C. 30.
He was afterwards proconsul of Asia. The time of his death is unknown.
Cicero's son had neither ambition nor ability. All that is certainly
known of him is that he loved eating and drinking, for neither of which
had his father any inclination. There are two letters of the son to Tiro
extant (Cicero, _Ad Diversos_, xvi. 21, 25).
The Life of Cicero is only a sketch of Cicero's character, but a better
sketch than any modern writer has made. It does not affect to be a
history of the times, nor does it affect to estimate with any exactness
his literary merit. But there is not a single great defect in his moral
character that is not touched, nor a virtue that has not been
signalized. Those who would do justice to him and have not time to
examine for themselves, may trust Plutarch at least as safely as any
modern writer.
If in these notes I have occasionally expressed an unfavourable opinion
directly or indirectly, I have expressed none that I do not believe
true, and none for which abundant evidence cannot be produced, even from
Cicero's own writings. It is a feeble and contemptible criticism that
would palliate or excuse that which admits not of excuse. It is a
spurious liberality that would gloss over the vices and faults of men
because they have had great virtues, and would impute to those who tell
the whole truth a malignant pleasure in defaming and vilifying exalted
merit. This assumed fair dealing and magnanimity would deprive us of the
most instructive lessons that human life teaches--that all men have their
weaknesses, their failings and their vices, and that no intellectual
greatness is a security against them. "It is not absolutely railing
against anything to proclaim its defects, because they are in all things
to be found, how beautiful or how much to be coveted soever"
(Montaigne). The failings of a great man are more instructive than those
of an obscure man. They exhibit the weak points at which any man may be
assailed, and in some of which no man is impregnable. Cicero's writings
have made us as familiar with him as with the writers of our own
country, and there is hardly a European author of modern times who is
more universally read than Cicero in some or other of his numerous
compositions. His letters alone, which were never intended for
publication, and were written to a great variety of persons as the
events of the day prompted, furnish a mass of historical evidence,
which, if we consider his position and the times in which he lived, is
not surpassed by any similar collection. He is thus mixed up with the
events of the most stirring and interesting period of his country's
history; and every person who studies that history must endeavour to
form a just estimate of the character of a man who is both a great actor
in public events and an important witness.
The Life of Cicero by Middleton is a partial work: the evidence is
imperfectly examined and the author's prejudices in favour of Cicero
have given a false colouring to many facts. The most laborious life of
Cicero is by Drumann (_Geschichte Roms_, Tullii), in which all the
authorities are collected. In the 'Penny Cyclopædia' (art. 'Cicero')
there is a good sketch of Cicero's political career; and in the
'Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology,' edited by Dr.
W. Smith, a very complete account of Cicero's writings, distributed
under their several heads.
[290] "Cedant arma togæ, concedat laurea linguæ."
[291] "Written," because many of them were never spoken.
[292] Augustus.
[293] For some account of the evil repute of those who dealt in these
insurances, see vol. ii., Life of Cato Major, ch. 21.
[294] Plutarch uses the equivalent Greek word for ædile, but we know
that Cicero went to Sicily as quæstor.
[295] Antigonus, surnamed the one-eyed, King of Asia, was the son of
Philip of Elymiotis. He was one of the generals of Alexander the Great.
[296] Hor. Carm. ii. 19.
[297] This was the holy robe of Athena, carried in procession through
Athens at the Panathenaic festival. See Smith's 'Dict. of Antiq.,' s.v.
[298] A poisonous plant of the convolvulus kind.
[299] An engine described by Amm. Marcell. 23. 4. 10, and also in
Smith's 'Dict. of Antiq.' art. 'Helepolis.' See also Athen. v. p. 206.
d. for a description of these machines.
[300] A mina weighed 100 drachmæ, 15·2 oz.
[301] The Attic talent, which is probably meant, weighed about 57 lbs.
avoird.
[302] This is the famous picture of Ialysus and his dog, spoken of by
Cicero and Pliny, in which the foam on the dog's mouth was made by a
happy throw of the sponge, while the painter in vexation was wiping off
his previous unsuccessful attempts. (Clough.)
[303] A nephew of Demosthenes.
[304] Meaning that Stratokles would be mad not to continue his flattery
of Demetrius, because it was so profitable to himself.
[305] Hereditary chief minister in the mysteries.
[306] The minor rite. See Smith's 'Dict. of Antiq.' s.v. 'Eleusinia.'
[307] Lamia in Greek is the name of a fabulous monster, a bugbear to
children.
[308] A much more decent version of this story will be found in
Rabelais, book iii. ch. 37.
[309] The Thracian Chersonese.
[310] The capital city of Seleukus, now Antioch.
[311] Tyre and Sidon.
[312] The usual Attic corn-measure, containing about 12 gallons.
[313] A dry measure, containing a sixth of a medimnus, or about 2
gallons.
[314] By the entrance commonly assigned to the principal person in a
drama.--Thirlwall.
[315] Alexander, Antipater's younger brother.
[316] Antigonus, surnamed Gonatas, afterwards King of Macedonia.
[317] He laid siege to Thebes, the only important city in Boeotia, which
seems to have quickly recovered itself after its destruction by
Alexander.
[318] O. Kardia.
[319] See vol. ii., Life of Pyrrhus, ch. 7.
[320] See ch. 10.
[321] Wife of Ptolemy, King of Egypt.
[322] B.C. 284.
[323] His death is told in the Life of Marius, c. 44.
[324] The Antonia Gens contained both Patricians and Plebeians. The
cognomen of the Patrician Antonii was Merenda. M. Antonius Creticus, a
son of Antonius the orator, belonged to the Patricians. In B.C. 74 he
commanded a fleet in the Mediterranean against the pirates. He attacked
the Cretans on the ground of their connection with Mithridates; but he
lost a large part of his fleet, and his captured men were hung on the
ropes of their own vessels. He died shortly after of shame and vexation.
The surname Creticus was given him by way of mockery. According to Dion
Cassius (xlv. 47) he died deeply in debt. He left three sons, Marcus,
Caius and Lucius. His eldest son Marcus was probably born in B.C. 83.
[325] See the Life of Cicero, c. 22.
[326] C. Scribonius Curio, the son of a father of the same name. See the
Life of Cæsar, c. 58. The amount of debt is stated by Cicero (Philipp.
ii. 18) at the same sum, "sestertium sexagies."
[327] He joined Aulus Gabinius at the end of B.C. 58. Gabinius and L.
Calpurnius Piso were consuls in that year.
[328] He was king and high priest of the Jews. Pompeius had taken him
prisoner and sent him to Rome, whence he contrived to make his escape,
B.C. 57. Gabinius again sent him prisoner to Rome (Dion Cass. xxxvi. 15;
xxxix. 55).
[329] Ptolemæus Auletes was the father of Cleopatra, and now an exile at
Ephesus. His visit to Rome is mentioned in the Life of the younger Cato,
c. 35, and in the Life of Pompeius, c. 49. During his exile his daughter
Berenice reigned, and she was put to death by her father after his
restoration.
[330] This Greek word literally signifies "outbreak." It was the narrow
passage by which the Serbonian lake was connected with the
Mediterranean. This lake lay on the coast and on the line of march from
Syria to Pelusium, the frontier town of Egypt on the east.
[331] Typhon, a brother of Osiris and Isis, was the evil deity of the
Egyptians, but his influence in the time of Herodotus must have been
small, as he was then buried under the Serbonian lake (Herodotus, iii.
5).
[332] The Greek name is Erythra, which may be translated Red: the Romans
called the same sea Rubrum. In Herodotus the Red Sea is called the
Arabian Gulf; and the Erythræan sea is the Indian Ocean. See the Life of
Pompeius, c. 38.
[333] He was the son of Archelaus, the general of Mithridates. See the
Life of Sulla, c. 23. He had become the husband of Berenice and shared
the regal power with her. Probably Antonius had known Archelaus in his
youth, for Archelaus the father went over from Mithridates to the
Romans. Dion Cassius (xxxiv. 58) says that Gabinius put Archelaus to
death after the capture of Alexandria. This Egyptian campaign belongs to
B.C. 55.
[334] This characteristic appears on the coins of Antonius.
[335] Decies is literally "Ten times." The phrase is "Decies
sestertium," which is a short way of expressing "ten times a hundred
thousand sesterces." When Plutarch says "five-and-twenty thousand," he
means drachmæ, as observed in previous notes, and he considers drachmæ
as equivalent to Roman Denarii. Now a Denarius is four sesterces, and
25,000 Denarii = 1,000,000 sesterces, Kaltwasser suggests that in the
Greek text "sestertium" has been accidentally omitted after "decies;"
but "decies" is the reading of all the MSS., and it is sufficient.
[336] Antonius, after returning from Egypt in B.C. 54, went to Cæsar in
Gaul, who was then in winter-quarters after his return from the second
British expedition. In B.C. 53 Antonius was again at Rome, and in B.C.
52 he was a Quæstor, and returned to Cæsar in Gaul. In B.C. 50 he was
again in Rome, in which year he was made Augur, and was elected Tribunus
Plebis for the following year.
Compare with this chapter the Life of Pompeius, c. 58, and the Life of
Cæsar, c. 31.
[337] Quintus Cassius Longinus is called by Cicero a brother of C.
Cassius; but Drumann conjectures that he may have been a cousin. After
the defeat of Afranius and Petreius by Cæsar B.C. 49, he was made
Proprætor of Spain.
[338] This expression of Cicero occurs in his Second Philippic, c. 22:
"ut Helena Trojanis, sic iste huic reipublicæ causa belli, causa pestis
atque exitii fuit." Plutarch's remark on Cicero's extravagant expression
is just.
As to the events mentioned in this chapter, compare the Life of Cæsar,
c. 34, &c.
[339] Cæsar returned from Iberia (Spain) before the end of B.C. 49.
Early in B.C. 48 he crossed over from Brundusium to the Illyrian coast,
where he was joined by Antonius and Fufius Calenus.
[340] Gabinius took his troops by land, and consequently had to march
northwards along the Adriatic and round the northern point of it to
reach Illyricum. From Plutarch's narrative it would appear that he set
out about the same time as Antonius. Drumann (_Cornificii_, 3) states
that the time of his leaving Italy is incorrectly stated by Plutarch,
Appian, and Dion Cassius (xlii. 11), and he places it after the battle
of Pharsalus (B.C. 48). Gabinius, after a hard march, reached Salonæ in
Dalmatia, where he was besieged by M. Octavius and died of disease.
[341] L. Scribonius Libo commanded the ships before Brundusium with the
view of preventing Antonius from crossing over to Macedonia. He was the
father-in-law of Sextus Pompeius, the son of Pompeius Magnus; and Cæsar
Octavianus afterwards married Libo's sister Scribonia, as a matter of
policy.
[342] See the Life of Cæsar, c. 44.
[343] P. Cornelius Dolabella, the son-in-law of Cicero, who complains of
his measures (Ep. _Ad Attic._ xi. 12, 14, 15; xiv. 21). Dolabella was in
debt himself and wished to be relieved. If he had lived in England, he
could easily have got relief. The story is told by Dion Cassius (xlii.
29). The Romans _occasionally_ proposed sweeping measures for the
settlement of accounts between debtor and creditor. A modern nation has
a permanent court for "the _relief_ of insolvent debtors;" and a few
years ago a statute was passed in England (7 & 8 Vict. c. 96), which had
the direct effect of cancelling all debts under 20_l._; the debtors for
whose relief it was passed were well pleased, but the creditors grumbled
loudly, and it was amended. Those who blame the Roman system of an
occasional settlement of debts, should examine the operation of a
permanent law which has the same object; and they will be assisted in
comparing English and Roman morality on this point by J.H. Elliott's
'Credit the Life of Commerce,' London, Madden and Malcolm, 1845.
[344] Fadia was the first wife of Antonius. His cousin Antonia was the
second. Cicero's chief testimony against Antonius is contained in his
Second Philippic, which is full of vulgar abuse, both true and false.
[345] She was sometimes called Volumnia, because she was a favourite of
Volumnius. Cicero (_Ad Div._ ix. 26) speaks of dining in her company at
the house of Volumnius Eutrapolus.
[346] Her first husband was P. Clodius, and she was his second wife. She
had two children by Clodius, a son and a daughter. The daughter married
Cæsar Octavianus B.C. 43 (c. 20). After the death of Clodius she married
C. Scribonius Curio, the friend of Antonius, by whom she had one son,
who was put to death by Cæsar after the battle of Actium. Curio perished
in Africa B.C. 49. In B.C. 46 Antonius married Fulvia, after divorcing
Antonia, and he had two sons by her. Fulvia was very rich.
[347] Cæsar returned from Iberia in the autumn of B.C. 45, after gaining
the battle of Munda. He was consul for the fifth time in B.C. 44 with
Antonius; and also Dictator with M. Æmilius Lepidus for his Magister
Equitum.
[348] See the Life of Cæsar, c. 61.
[349] Compare the Life of Cæsar, c. 67, and of Brutus, c. 16.
[350] Compare the Life of Cæsar, c. 68, and of Brutus, c. 20. Dion
Cassius (xliv. 36-49) has given a long oration which Antonius made on
the occasion. It is not improbable that Dion may have had before him an
oration attributed to Antonius; nor is it at all improbable that the
speech of Antonius was published (Cic. _Ad Attic._ xiv. 11). Meyer
(_Oratorum Romanorum Frag._ p. 455) considers this speech a fiction of
Dion and to be pure declamation. He thinks that which Appian has made
(_Civil Wars_, ii. 144, &c.) tolerably well adapted to the character of
Antonius. Appian, we know, often followed very closely genuine
documents. Shakespere has made a speech for Antonius (_Julius Cæsar_)
which would have suited the occasion well.
[351] Charon was the ferryman over the river in the world below, which
the dead had to pass; hence the application of the term is intelligible.
The Romans' expression was Orcini, from Orcus (Sueton. _August._ c. 35).
[352] See the Life of Cicero, c. 43, and Dion Cassius (xlv. 5) as to the
matter of the inheritance. A person who accepted a Roman inheritance
(hereditas) took it with all the debts: the heir (heres), so far as
concerned the deceased's property, credits and debts, was the same
person as himself. There was no risk in taking the inheritance on
account of debts, for Cæsar left enormous sums of money: the risk was in
taking the name and with it the wealth and odium of the deceased. Cæsar
might have declined the inheritance, for he was not bound by law to take
it. Cæsar had three-fourths of the Dictator's property, and Q. Pedius,
also a great-nephew of the Dictator, had the remainder.
[353] See the Life of Cicero, c. 44.
[354] Consuls in B.C. 43. See the Life of Cicero, c. 45. As to the
speech of Cicero, see Dion Cassius, xlv. 18, &c.
[355] Lepidus was in Gallia Narbonensis. He advanced towards Antonius as
far as Forum Vocontiorum, and posted himself on the Argenteus, now the
Argens. (Appian, _Civil Wars_, iii. 83; Dion. Cass. xlvi. 51, &c.;
Letter of Munatius Plancus to Cicero, _Ad Div._ x. 17; Letter of Lepidus
to Cicero, _Ad Div._ x. 34.) Lepidus and Antonius joined their forces on
the 29th of May, and Lepidus informed the Senate of the event in a
letter, which is extant (Cic. _Ad Div._ x. 35).
[356] Cotylon is "cupman," or any equivalent term that will express a
drinker.
[357] See the Life of Cicero, c. 46.
[358] Appian (_Civil Wars_, iv. 2) states how they divided the empire
among them; and Dion Cassius, xlvi. 55.
[359] Cæsar was already betrothed to Servilia, the daughter of P.
Servilius Isauricus. When he quarrelled with Fulvia, he sent her back to
her mother, still a maid. (Dion Cass. xlvi. 56.)
[360] The number that was put to death was much larger than three
hundred. Appian (_Civil Wars_, iv. 5) states the number of those who
were proscribed and whose property was confiscated at about 300 senators
and 2000 equites. The object of the proscription was to get rid of
troublesome enemies and to raise money. The picture which Appian gives
of the massacre is as horrible as the worst events of the French
Revolution. He has drawn a striking picture by giving many individual
instances. Dion Cassius (xlvii. 3-8) has also described the events of
the proscription.
[361] This was a crime which would shock the Romans, for the Three not
only seized deposits, which the depositary was legally bound to give to
the owner, but they seized them in the hands of the Vestals, where they
were protected by the sanctity of religion.
[362] Compare the Life of Brutus, c. 41, &c., as to the events in this
chapter.
[363] See the Life of Brutus, c. 26, &c.
[364] Antonius crossed over to Asia in B.C. 41. In the latter part of
B.C. 42, Cæsar was ill at Brundusium, and in B.C. 41 he was engaged in a
civil war with L. Antonius, the brother of Marcus, and Fulvia the wife
of Antonius. These are the civil commotions to which Plutarch alludes.
Cæsar besieged L. Antonius in Perusia in B.C. 41, and took him prisoner.
[365] He was a prætor in B.C. 43, and consul in B.C. 39.
[366] The great distinctions that he received are recorded by Strabo
(xiv. p. 648, ed. Casaub.). It is not in modern times only that dancers
and fiddlers have received wealth and honours.
[367] The quotation is from the King OEdipus, v. 4.
[368] Bacchus had many names, as he had various qualities. As Omestes he
was the "cruel;" and as Agrionius the "wild and savage." One of his
festivals was called Agrionia.
[369] He was an orator, and also something of a soldier, for he
successfully opposed Labienus, B.C. 40, when he invaded Asia (c. 28).
[370] There are many ways of flattery, as there are many ways of doing
various things. Plutarch here gives a hint, which persons in high places
might find useful. Open flattery can only deceive a fool, and it is
seldom addressed to any but a fool, unless the flatterer himself be so
great a fool as not to know a wise man from a foolish: which is
sometimes the case. But there is flattery, as Plutarch intimates, which
addresses itself, not in the guise of flattery, but in the guise of
truth, one of the characters of which is plain speaking. It is hard for
a man in an exalted station to be always proof against flattery, for it
is often not easy to detect it. Nor in the intercourse of daily life is
it always easy to distinguish between him who gives you his honest
advice and opinion, and him who gives it merely to please you, or, what
is often worse, merely to please himself.
[371] Nothing is known of him, unless he be the person mentioned in c.
59. Kaltwasser conjectures that he may be the Dellius or Delius to whom
Horace has addressed an ode. (_Carm._ iii. 2). _See_ c. 1, note.
[372] Plutarch alludes to the passage in Homer (_Iliad_, xiv. 162) where
Juno bedecks herself to captivate Jupiter.
[373] She was now about twenty-eight years of age. Kaltwasser suggests
that the words "and Cnæus the son of Pompeius" must be an interpolation,
because nothing is known of his amours with Cleopatra. But if this be
so, other words which follow in the next sentence must have been altered
when the interpolation was made.
[374] Antonius was at Tarsus on the river Cydnus when Cleopatra paid him
this visit, B.C. 41. Shakespere has used this passage of Plutarch in his
"Antony and Cleopatra," act ii. sc. 2--
"The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burnt on the water," &c.
[375] Plutarch has given a long list of languages which this learned
queen spoke. With Arabic and all the cognate dialects, it is probable
enough that she was familiar, but we can hardly believe that she took
pains to learn the barbarous language of the wretched Troglodytes, who
lived in holes on the west coast of the Red Sea. Diodorus (iii. 32)
describes their habits after the authority of Agatharchides.
Cleopatra's face on the coins is not handsome. On some of them she is
represented on the same coin with Antonius.
[376] He was a son of T. Labienus, who served under Cæsar in Gaul and
afterwards went over to Pompeius (Life of Cæsar, c. 34). The father fell
in the battle of Munda, B.C. 45.
Labienus, the son, was sent by the party of Brutus and Cassius to
Parthia to get assistance from king Orodes. He heard of the battle of
Philippi while he was in Parthia and before he had accomplished his
mission; and he stayed with the Parthians. In the campaign here alluded
to Labienus and the Parthians took Apameia and Antiocheia in Syria.
Labienus, after invading the south-western part of Asia Minor (B.C. 40),
was forced to fly before Ventidius; and he was seized in Cilicia by a
freedman of Julius Cæsar. (Dion Cass. xlviii. 40.)
[377] Amphissa was a town of the Locri Ozolæ.
Philotas studied at Alexandria, which was then a great school of
medicine. We have here an anecdote about Antonius which rests on more
direct testimony than many well-received stories of modern days.
The bragging physician must have been a stupid fellow to be silenced by
such a syllogism. I have translated [Greek: pôs pyrettôn], like
Kaltwasser, "Wer _einigermassen_ das Fieber hat," &c., which is the
correct translation.
The text probably means that Philotas was appointed physician to
Antyllus.
[378] The passage to which Plutarch alludes is in the Gorgias, p. 464.
[379] A great trade was carried on in those times in dried fish from the
Pontic or Black Sea. See Strabo, p. 320, ed. Casaub.