Part 53

[260] Her name was Publilia. Cicero was now sixty years of age. Various ladies had been recommended to Cicero. He would not marry the daughter of Pompeius Magnus, the widow of Faustus Sulla, perhaps for fear that it might displease Cæsar; another who was recommended to him was too ugly (_Ad Attic._ xiv. 11). Publilia was young and rich: her father had left her a large fortune, but in order to evade the Lex Voconia, which limited the amount that a woman could take by testament, the property was given to Cicero in trust to give it to her. The marriage turned out unhappy. In a letter to Atticus (xiv. 32), written when Cicero was alone in the country, he says that Publilia had written to pray that she might come to him with her mother; but he had told her that he preferred being alone, and he begs Atticus to let him know how long he could safely stay in the country without a visit from his young wife. Tullia died in B.C. 45, and Cicero had now no relief except in his studies; his new wife was a burden to him, and he divorced her. He had the Dos of Publilia now to repay, and Terentia was not settled with; thus, in addition to his other troubles, he was troubled about money (_Ad Attic._, xiv. 34, 47).

Dion Cassius (57. 15) says that Vibius Rufus, who was consul A.D. 22, in the time of Tiberius, married Cicero's widow, and Middleton supposes that Terentia is meant, but this is very unlikely; Dion must mean Publilia.

[261] Tiro was a freedman of Cicero, and had been brought up in his house. He had a good capacity and his master was strongly attached to him. Cicero's letters to him are in the sixteenth book of the Miscellaneous Collection. It is said that Tiro collected the letters of Cicero after Cicero's death, by doing which he has rendered a great service to history, and little to his master.

[262] Tullia's first husband was C. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, who died probably early in B.C. 57. In B.C. 56 Tullia married Furius Crassipes, from whom she was divorced, but the circumstances are not known. Her third husband was P. Cornelius Dolabella, a patrician. It seems that she was separated from Dolabella before she died. Tullia did not die in Rome, but at her father's house at Tusculum, in February, B.C. 45. Tullia left one son by Dolabella, who was named Lentulus. His father, Dolabella, is also named Lentulus, whence it is concluded that he had been adopted by a Lentulus. The Lentuli were Cornelii.

[263] Cæsar was murdered on the Ides of March, B.C. 44. The circumstances of Cæsar's death, and the events which follow, are told in the Lives of Cæsar and Antonius. Cicero saw Cæsar fall (_Ad Attic._ xiv. 14), and he rejoiced.

[264] An "oblivion" or "non-remembrance" is a declaration of those who have the sovereign power in a state, that certain persons shall be excused for their political acts. It implies that those who grant the amnesty have the power, and that those to whom it is granted are in subjection to them, or have not the political power which the authors of the amnesty assume. After Thrasybulus at Athens had overthrown the Thirty Tyrants as they are called, an amnesty was declared, but the Thirty and some few others were excluded from it (Xenophon, _Hellen._ ii. 4, 38).

Cicero in his first Philippic (c. 1) alludes to his attempt to bring about a settlement. The senate met on the eighteenth of March in the temple of Tellus: "In quo templo quantum in me fuit jeci fundamenta pacis, Atheniensiumque renovavi vetus exemplum: Græcum etiam verbum usurpavi quo tum in sedandis discordiis erat usa civitas illa, atque omnem memoriam discordiarum oblivione sempiterna delendam censui."

[265] P. Cornelius Dolabella, once the husband of Tullia, Cicero's daughter. He was consul, after Cæsar's death, with M. Antonius, and in the next year, B.C. 43, he was in Syria as governor. Cassius, who was also in Syria, attacked Dolabella and took Laodicea, where Dolabella was. To avoid falling into the hands of his enemy, Dolabella ordered a soldier to kill him.

[266] A. Hirtius, or as Plutarch writes the name Irtius, and C. Vibius Pansa were the consuls of B.C. 53. Cicero set out from Rome soon after Cæsar's death with the intention of going to Greece (_Ad Attic._ xiv.). He went as far as Syracuse, whence he returned to Rome, which he reached on the last day of August (_Ad Diversos_, xii. 25; _Ad Attic._ xvi. 7; _Philipp._ i. 5; v. 7). Cicero in the passage last referred to speaks of the violent measures of Antonius; "huc etiam nisi venirem Kal. Sept. fabros se missurum et domum meam disturbaturum esse dixit." On the second of September he delivered his first Philippic in the Senate. It is an evidence of Cicero's great mental activity that he wrote his Topica, addressed to Trebatius, on shipboard after he had set sail from Velia with the intention of going to Greece. He says that he had no books with him (_Topica_, c. 1, &c.).

[267] C. Octavius, the grandson of Cæsar's younger sister Julia, and the son of C. Octavius, prætor B.C. 61, by Atia, the daughter of M. Atius Balbus and Julia. C. Octavius, the young Cæsar, was born B.C. 63, in the consulship of Cicero. The dictator by his testament left him a large property and his name. Accordingly he is henceforth called C. Julius Cæsar Octavianus, but he is better known as the future Emperor Augustus. At the time of the Dictator's assassination he was at Apollonia, a town on the coast of Illyricum. He came to Rome on the news of Cæsar's death with his friend M. Vipsanius Agrippa. Cicero saw him at his Cuman villa on his way to Rome (_Ad. Attic._ xiv. 11, 12).

[268] Plutarch probably means Greek drachmæ, for he states the sum in his Life of Antonius, c. 15, in round numbers at 4000 talents. The Septies Millies which Cicero speaks of (_Philipp._ ii. 37) is a different sum of money.

[269] Cæsar's mother had taken for her second husband L. Marcius Philippus. She just lived to see her youthful son consul in B.C. 43.

Octavia, the younger sister of Cæsar, was now the wife of C. Marcellus, who had been consul B.C. 50. After the death of Marcellus, she married M. Antonius (B.C. 40), being then with child by her deceased husband. The Roman law did not allow a woman to marry till ten months after her husband's death; the object of the rule was to prevent the paternity of a child from being doubtful. Plutarch correctly states the time at ten months (Life of Antonius, c. 31). If Octavia was then with child, as Dion Cassius says (48. c. 3), the reason for the rule did not exist. In later times, at least, the rule was dispensed with when the reason for it ceased, as when a pregnant widow was delivered of a child before the end of the ten months. Ten months was the assumed time of complete gestation (Savigny, _System_, &c. ii. 181).

[270] Young Cæsar had raised troops in Campania, and chiefly at Capua among the veteran soldiers of the dictator, who had been settled on lands there (Dion Cassius, 45. c. 12; Cicero, _Ad Atticum_, xvi. 8). He gave the men five hundred denarii apiece, about eighteen pounds sterling, by way of bounty, and led them to Rome. These men were old soldiers, well trained to their work. The youth who did this was nineteen years of age, a boy, as Cicero calls him; but a boy who outwitted him and everybody else, and maintained for more than half a century the power which he now seized.

[271] Dreams were viewed in a sort as manifestations of the will of the gods. This dream happened, as Dion Cassius tells (45. c. 2), to Catulus; and he makes Cicero dream another dream. Cicero dreamed that Octavius was let down from heaven by a chain of gold, and was presented with a whip by Jupiter. Suetonius (_Octav. Cæsar_, c. 94) agrees with Dion Cassius. The whip was significant. Jupiter meant that somebody required whipping, and he put the whip in the hands of a youth who knew how to use it.

[272] The young man cajoled the old one and made a tool of him. Like all vain men, Cicero was ready to be used by those who knew how to handle him. There is a letter from Brutus to Cicero (_Ad Brutum_, 16), and one of Brutus to Atticus (_Ad Brutum_, 17), to the purport here stated by Plutarch. But these letters may be spurious.

[273] He was at Athens in B.C. 44, when Cicero addressed to him his Officia. He had been a year there (_De Offic._ i. 1) at the time when the first chapter was written. The poet Horatius was there at the same time. When M. Brutus came to Athens in the autumn of B.C. 44, Cicero joined Brutus, who gave him a command in his cavalry (Plutarch, _Brutus_, c. 24, 26).

[274] The consuls were sent to relieve Mutina (Modena), in which Decimus Brutus, the governor of Cisalpine Gaul, was besieged by Antonius. Cicero had recommended the Senate to give Cæsar the authority of a commander. Cæsar received a command with the insignia of a prætor. There were two battles at Mutina, in April, B.C. 43, in which the two consuls fell.

[275] It is stated by various authorities that Cicero was cajoled with the hopes of the consulship (Dion Cassius, 46. c. 42; Appian, _Civil Wars_, iii. 82). The testimony of the tenth letter to Brutus (Cicero _Ad Brutum_, 10) is not decisive against other evidence. Cæsar came to Rome in August, B.C. 43, with his army, and through the alarm which he created, was elected consul with Q. Pedius (Dion Cassius, 16. c. 43, &c.; Appian, _Civil Wars_, iii. 94).

[276] After he was elected consul, Cæsar left the city for North Italy, and was joined by Antonius and Lepidus (Appian, _Civil War_, iii. 96, &c.). M. Æmilius Lepidus, son of M. Lepidus, consul B.C. 78, was consul in B.C. 46, with C. Julius Cæsar. He was elected Pontifex Maximus after Cæsar's death: he had been declared an enemy of the State by the Senate, but Cæsar had compelled the Senate to annul their declaration against Antonius and Lepidus, as a preparatory step to the union with them which he meditated. Lepidus is painted to the life by Shakespeare (_Julius Cæsar_, iv. 2):

"_Ant._ This is a slight unmeritable man, Meet to be sent on errands."

[277] Now Bologna. They met in a small island of the Rhenus, or Lavinius, as the name is in Appian (_Civil Wars_, iv. 2). The meeting is also described by Dion Cassius (46. c. 45), and here they formed a triumvirate for five years. The number of the proscribed, according to Appian, was three hundred senators and two thousand equites. The power of the triumvirate was confirmed at Rome in legal form (Appian, _Civil Wars_, iv. 7).

[278] L. Æmilius Paulus, consul B.C. 50, who is said to have sold himself to the Dictator Cæsar (_Life of Cæsar_, c. 29). As to his name Paulus, see Drumann (_Æmilii_). Paulus was allowed to escape to M. Brutus, by the favour of some soldiers. He was as insignificant as his brother the Triumvir. L. Cæsar, consul B.C. 64, was the brother of Julia, the mother of M. Antonius. Julia saved her brother's life. Lucius was a man of no mark.

[279] The circumstances of Cicero's death are told more minutely by Plutarch than by any other writer. He left the city before the arrival of the Triumviri in November, and apparently when the bloody work of the proscription had commenced. He had probably heard of his fate before he reached Tusculum.

[280] Astura was a small place on the coast of Latium, a little south of Antium. Near Astura a small stream, Fiume Astura, flows into the sea. Cicero had a villa here. The country at the back was a forest. (Westphal, _Die Römische Kampagne_, and his maps.)

[281] Appian (_Civil Wars_, iv. 20) says that the father told his murderers to kill him first, his son did the same, on which they were parted and murdered at the same time. Dion Cassius (47, c. 10) gives a different story. The main fact that they were murdered is not doubtful, but, as is usual, the circumstances are uncertain.

[282] Or Circeii, now Monte Circello, that remarkable mountain promontory which is the only striking feature on the coast of Latium. The agony of Cicero's mind is powerfully depicted in his irresolution. The times were such as to make even a brave man timid, but a true philosopher would have shown more resolution. His turning his steps towards Rome and his return are not improbable. He had been doing the same kind of thing all his life.

[283] So in the text of Plutarch, but Caieta (Gaeta) is meant. Cicero 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.