Chapter 24

THE CICERONIAN AGE.

CICERO.

(1) LIFE.

M. Tullius Cicero, the son of a Roman knight, was born at Arpinum on 3rd January, B.C. 106. Jerome yr. Abr. 1911, 'M. Tullius Cicero Arpini nascitur matre Helvia, patre equestris ordinis ex regio Volscorum genere.' Cic. _ad Att._ xiii. 42, 3, 'Diem meum scis esse iii. Non. Ian.'

He gives an account of his education in _Brut._ 306 _sqq._ In civil law he was a pupil, in B.C. 89, of Q. Scaevola the Augur, and afterwards of the pontifex of the same name (_de Am._ 1). In B.C. 88 he studied philosophy under Philo the Academic, and rhetoric under Molo of Rhodes. Dialectic he practised with the Stoic Diodotus, who lived and died in Cicero's house (B.C. 87-5). Other teachers of Cicero were the poet Archias (_pro Arch._ 1), the orator Antonius (_de Or._ ii. 3), the actors Roscius and Aesopus (Plut. _Cic._ 5), the rhetorician M. Antonius Gnipho (Sueton. _Gramm._ 7), and the philosophers Phaedrus and Zeno.

After establishing a reputation at the bar by his defence of Quinctius and of Roscius of Ameria, he visited Asia to recruit his health and improve his oratorical style. On his way to the East he stayed six months at Athens, where he renewed his philosophical studies under Antiochus the Academic. In Asia he attended the leading rhetoricians, especially his old teacher Molo at Rhodes, who endeavoured to chasten the exuberance of his manner. At Rhodes he also made the acquaintance of the famous Stoic Posidonius (_de Fin._ i. 6). After an absence of two years he returned to Rome B.C. 77, and shortly afterwards married Terentia.

Cicero, who had served in the Social War, B.C. 89 (_Phil._ xii. 27), began his official career in 75 as quaestor of the district of Lilybaeum in Sicily, where he won golden opinions from all classes (_pro Planc._ 64). He headed the poll at the election of aediles for 69, and of praetors for 66 (_in Pis._ 2); as praetor he presided over the court for the trial of cases of _repetundae_ (_pro Clu._ 147). His canvass for the consulship of 63 began as early as July 65 (_ad Att._ i. 1, 1); he was returned with C. Antonius as his colleague (_in Pis._ 3). His services to the State in 63 in the crushing of the Catilinarian conspiracy need not be dwelt on here: his activity as an orator in that year was great, and he passed a law against undue influence by candidates, 'Lex Tullia de ambitu' (_in Vat._ 37). He waived his right to a province, allowing Metellus Celer to take Gaul.

In 58 the hostility of P. Clodius effected Cicero's banishment, on the ground that he had put the Catilinarian conspirators to death without trial. Retiring at first to Vibo, in Lucania, he moved successively to Sicily, Thurii, Tarentum, Brundisium, Dyrrhachium, Thessalonica, and Athens. At Dyrrhachium he resided from November 58 to August 57, when, after several unsuccessful efforts by his friends, a law was passed for his recall.

In 53 he was chosen augur in succession to the younger Crassus (Plut. _Cic._ 36), and two years later was appointed proconsul of Cilicia, under the new arrangement providing for an interval of five years between office in Rome and the government of a province. There he carried on a petty warfare with the mountaineers, and captured the fort of Pindenissus (a success for which the Senate decreed a _supplicatio_), occupying the winter with judicial business in the towns. His absence from the centre of affairs, though it lasted only a year, was most distasteful to him; cf. _ad Att._ v. 11, 1, 'Ne provincia nobis prorogetur, per fortunas! dum ades, quidquid provideri potest, provide: non dici potest quam flagrem desiderio urbis, quam vix harum rerum insulsitatem feram.' For his just dealing with the provincials, cf. _ad Att._ v. 21, 5.

In November, 50, Cicero returned to Italy, to find a crisis imminent, and finally cast in his lot with the senatorial party. He left Rome with the consuls and the leading _optimates_, and for some time had charge of the district of Capua (_ad Fam._ xvi. 11, 3, 'nos Capuam sumpsimus'). On 7th June, B.C. 49, he embarked to join Pompey in Epirus, though far from enthusiastic for his leadership (_ad Fam._ vii. 3, 2, 'mei facti poenituit... Nihil boni praeter causam.') The chiefs of the party looked upon him with suspicion, and he was not present at the battle of Pharsalus. After Pompey's overthrow he returned to Brundisium, and in 47 was allowed by Caesar to return to Rome (_ad Fam._ xiv. 23). His mode of life at this time he thus describes (_ad Fam._ ix. 20, 3), 'Ubi salutatio defluxit, litteris me involvo, aut scribo aut lego. Veniunt etiam qui me audiant quasi doctum hominem, quia paullo sum quam ipsi doctior.'

In 46 he divorced his wife Terentia, of whose neglect he complains, _ad Fam._ iv. 14, 3; and married Publilia, with whom he parted in the following year. In 45 he lost his only daughter Tullia, who had been thrice married; he tried to drown his grief by close application to literary work, moving about from villa to villa, and it is to this period that most of his philosophical works belong. In 44 he appeared once more in Rome, and took a prominent part in the proceedings which followed upon Caesar's death. April to July he spent at his various villas (_ad Att._ xiv. _passim_), and then decided to visit Athens, where his son (born B.C. 65) was studying. On 1st August he reached Syracuse, but hearing at Leucopetra that his presence was required at Rome, he gave up his plan of travel and returned to the city. With the series of _Philippics_ against Antony (44-3) Cicero's career closes. In the proscription agreed on by the triumvirs he was marked out as one of the chief victims. A fragment of Livy, quoted by Seneca, _Suas._ 6, 17, states that he fled first to Tusculum, then to Formiae, and took ship from Caieta, but returned to land, exclaiming, 'Moriar in patria saepe servata.' On his way from the shore to his villa he was slain by a party of Antony's soldiers, and his head was carried to Rome and exposed on the Rostra. The date of the assassination was 7th December, B.C. 43 (Tiro quoted by Tac. _Dial._ 17).

(2) WORKS.

(a) Speeches.

1. The earliest extant speech is that _Pro Quinctio_, delivered B.C. 81 (Gell. xv. 28, 3) in an action before a iudex for restitution of property. This was not Cicero's first appearance as an advocate: § 4, 'quod mihi consuevit in ceteris causis esse adiumento.'

2. Next year (cf. Gell. _ibid._) Cicero made his first speech in a criminal case, defending Sex. Roscius of Ameria on a charge of parricide. By so doing he incurred the risk of Sulla's enmity, but at the same time established his own position. _De Off._ ii. 51, 'contra L. Sullae dominantis opes pro S. Roscio Amerino'; _Brut._ 312, 'prima causa publica, pro Sex. Roscio dicta, tantum commendationis habuit, ut non ulla esset quae non digna nostro patrocinio videretur.' In later years he criticized the 'iuvenilis redundantia' of this speech (_Orat._ 108).

3. The speech _Pro Roscio Comoedo_, usually assigned to B.C. 76, was a defence of the famous actor in a civil case.

4. The year 70 B.C. is memorable for the group of speeches ('accusationis vii. libri,' _Orat._ 103), against Verres, accused of _repetundae_ by the Sicilians, at whose urgent entreaty Cicero undertook the prosecution. The preliminary question, who should conduct the prosecution, is argued in the _Divinatio in Caecilium_. Q. Caecilius Niger, Verres' quaestor, claimed the right to prosecute, but this manoeuvre failed. Of the six speeches _in Verrem_ only one, the _Actio Prima_, was delivered: Cicero, seeing that the other side were anxious to carry the trial over into the next year, confined himself to this short introductory speech (on 5th August, cf. § 31), after which he called his witnesses. Their evidence was so damaging that Hortensius[25] threw up the defence, and Verres was sentenced to banishment and his property confiscated. The five Books of the _Actio Secunda_ were published afterwards in order that the facts might be thoroughly known.

5. _Pro M. Fonteio_ (incomplete), for Fonteius, propraetor of Gallia Narbonensis B.C. 75-3, on a charge of _repetundae_. This trial perhaps took place B.C. 69, certainly after the equites had been placed on the _iudicia_ by the Lex Aurelia of 70 (cf. § 26).

6. To the same year probably belongs the speech _Pro Caecina_ in a civil case.

7. In B.C. 66 Cicero made his first political speech, _Pro Lege Manilia_, or _De Imperio Cn. Pompei_, in support of the bill of the tribune Manilius for conferring on Pompey the command against Mithradates.

8. In the same year he defended Cluentius, charged with murder, in the speech _Pro A. Cluentio Habito_. The date is fixed as the year of Cicero's praetorship by § 147, 'mea quaestio de pecuniis repetundis.'

9. The three speeches _De Lege Agraria_ are concerned with the bill of P. Servilius Rullus for the appointment of _decemviri_ with full power to buy and sell land and to establish colonies. The first speech (incomplete) was made in the Senate on 1st January, the second and third before _contiones_.

10. The speech _Pro C. Rabirio perduellionis reo_ was delivered on behalf of Rabirius, charged before the _comitia_ with the murder of the tribune Saturninus in B.C. 100. The prosecution had been instituted by the democratic party to vindicate the old right of _provocatio ad populum_, and to establish the inviolability of the tribunes.

11. Of the four speeches _In Catilinam_, i. was delivered in the Senate on 8th November, and followed by Catiline's flight from Rome; ii. to the people on 9th November; iii. to the people on 3rd December, when the Allobroges gave their evidence about the conspiracy; iv. in the Senate, on 5th December, calling for the capital punishment of the conspirators.[26]

12. In this crisis Cicero made one of his most graceful and witty speeches, the _Pro Murena_. The defendant was charged with bribery in his candidature for the consulship, and among the prosecutors was Cato.

13-14. In B.C. 62 Cicero defended P. Sulla, who was accused of complicity with Catiline (_Pro Sulla_), and delivered the speech _Pro Archia_ in support of his friend's title to the Roman citizenship.

15. In B.C. 59 L. Flaccus was accused of _repetundae_ as propraetor of Asia 62-60, and defended by Cicero in the speech _Pro Flacco_.

16-19. After Cicero's return from exile he returned thanks to the Senate in the speech _Cum Senatui gratias egit_, 5th September B.C. 57 (_ad Att._ iv. 1, 5), delivered from manuscript ('propter rei magnitudinem dicta de scripto,' _Pro Planc._ 74). The genuineness of the corresponding speech to the people, _Cum populo gratias egit_, is suspected; it is mentioned by Dio. xxxix. 9, 1, but not by Cicero himself. On 30th September (_ad Att._ iv. 2, 2) the speech _De Domo Sua_ was delivered before the _pontifices_, who decided that the site of Cicero's house, which Clodius had consecrated, should be restored to its owner. Connected with this is the speech _De Haruspicum Responsis_, of the year 56, rebutting the argument of Clodius that the declaration of the _haruspices_, 'loca sacra et religiosa profana haberi' (§ 9) referred to the restitution of Cicero's house.

20. The speech _Pro Sestio_ is in defence of one of Cicero's friends who, as tribune, had worked energetically for his recall from exile, and was now accused _de vi_ at the instigation of Clodius. Sestius was acquitted in March, B.C. 56 (_ad Q.F._ ii. 4, 1).

21. The _Interrogatio in P. Vatinium testem_ was a successful attack on the credibility of Vatinius, who had been one of the chief witnesses against Sestius.

22. _Pro M. Caelio_.--The prosecution of Caelius on a charge of poisoning was instigated by his former mistress, Clodia; it took place in B.C. 56, for Cn. Domitius, who tried the case (§ 32), was praetor in that year (_ad Q.F._ ii. 3, 6).

23. The speech _De Provinciis Consularibus_, B.C. 56, argues that Caesar should be allowed to continue as proconsul of Gaul, and that Syria and Macedonia should be taken away from Gabinius and Piso. Mommsen[27] regards it as the +palinôdia+ of _ad Att._ iv. 5, 1, and contrasts Cicero's tone to Caesar in this speech with his attitude in the _Pro Sestio_, _In Vatinium_, and _De Haruspicum Responsis_.

24. The speech _Pro Balbo_ deals with a case similar to that of Archias. L. Cornelius Balbus, a native of Gades, and the trusted friend of Caesar, had received the _civitas_ from Pompey, and this speech is in defence of his right thereto (B.C. 56).

25. _In Pisonem_, an attack on Cicero's enemy (consul B.C. 58), delivered in the Senate B.C. 55.

26. _Pro Plancio_, B.C. 54, on behalf of Cn. Plancius, accused of organizing clubs to secure by bribery his election to the aedileship.

27. _Pro Rabirio Postumo_, B.C. 54. Rabirius was charged with extortion in Egypt.

28. _Pro Milone_.--At the trial of Milo _de vi_ in B.C. 52 Cicero was so intimidated by the uproar of the rabble that his speech was a failure, and Milo was condemned. The speech now extant was written by Cicero at his leisure. Both were known to Asconius,[28] who supplies a valuable introduction.

29. For six years we have no speech; but in 46 Cicero broke his rule of silence ('in perpetuum tacere,' _ad Fam._ iv. 4, 4), and in the speech _Pro Marcello_ thanked Caesar for allowing Marcellus, the consul of B.C. 51, to return to Rome.

30. On 26th November B.C. 46 he pleaded before Caesar the cause of Q. Ligarius (_Pro Ligario_).

31. In the latter part of B.C. 45 he delivered in Caesar's house the speech _Pro Rege Deiotaro_ on behalf of his 'hospes vetus et amicus,' the tetrarch of Galatia, accused of treachery to Caesar.

32. Cicero's oratorical career closes with the fourteen speeches against Antony, called _Philippics_, after the speeches of Demosthenes. This title was suggested by the author himself; cf. the letter of Brutus (_ad Brut._ ii. 5, 4), 'iam concedo ut vel Philippicae vocentur, quod tu quadam epistula iocans scripsisti.' It was the usual title in antiquity, though Gellius (xiii. 1, 1) uses the alternative _Antonianae_. The _Philippics_ cover the period from 2nd September 44 to 22nd April 43. They were all delivered in the Senate, except iv. and vi., which are _contiones_, and ii., which was never spoken, but published as a political pamphlet after Antony had left Rome: for its fame cf. Juv. 10, 125,

'Te conspicuae, divina Philippica, famae, volveris a prima quae proxima.'

There are fragments of about twenty speeches, and the titles of thirty others are known. The invective _in Sallustium_, and the speech _Pridie quam in exilium iret_, are undoubtedly spurious.

Many of the speeches were to a large extent extempore, the heads only being committed to writing. These notes were afterwards collected by Tiro (Quint. x. 7, 30-1). In publishing, Cicero occasionally omitted some passages of the spoken oration, _e.g._ in _Pro Mur._ 57 only the headings appear, 'De Postumi criminibus.' 'De Servi adulescentis': cf. Plin. _Ep._ i. 20, 7, 'ex his apparet illum permulta dixisse, cum ederet omisisse.' For the practice of reporting his speeches in shorthand cf. Ascon. _in Mil._ 'manet illa quoque excepta eius oratio' (his speech at Milo's trial). The only case in which Cicero appeared for the prosecution was that of Verres: the part of an accuser was generally distasteful to him; cf. _De Off._ ii. 50, 'duri hominis vel potius vix hominis videtur, periculum capitis inferre multis.'

(b) Philosophical Works.

1. _De Re Publica_, a discussion of the ideal state and the ideal citizen, was published before B.C. 51, for Caelius writes to Cicero in Cilicia, 'tui politici libri omnibus vigent' (_ad Fam._ viii. 1, 4). In this treatise Cicero made use of Plato, and of Aristotle, Theophrastus, and other Peripatetics (_de Div._ ii. 3). There were six Books; but until 1822 the _Somnium Scipionis_, extracted by Macrobius from Book vi., was the only portion of the work known to exist, with the exception of a few fragments. In that year Mai published at Rome, from a Vatican palimpsest, remains which make up about one-third of the whole.

2. The _De Legibus_ succeeded the _De Re Publica_, as Plato's _Laws_ came after the _Republic_. The speakers in this dialogue are Atticus, Cicero, and his brother Quintus. Book i. expounds the Stoic position that the laws of the ideal state are made by the wise man in accordance with the mind of God; this position is worked out in Book ii. in the regulations for religion, and in iii. on the duties of magistrates. The treatise was never completed, and was perhaps a posthumous publication: it is not mentioned in the list in _De Divinatione_ ii. 1-3, and there is no preface, though Cicero says (_ad Att._ iv. 16, 2) 'in singulis libris utor prooemiis.' Certainly it had not appeared in B.C. 46, the year of the _Brutus_ (_Brut._ 19). It was composed after the murder of Clodius in January, B.C. 52 (ii. 42), and in Pompey's lifetime (iii. 22): probably in 52, as the government of Cilicia and the civil war left Cicero no time for literature during the years 51-48.

3. In the spring of 46 was written the short tract _Paradoxa_, a discussion of six Stoic paradoxes (_e.g._ that the wise man alone is free). It was addressed to Brutus, and was later than the dialogue which bears his name; cf. the preface, 'accipies hoc parvum opusculum, lucubratum his iam contractioribus noctibus, quoniam illud maiorum vigiliarum munus in tuo nomine apparuit.'

4. The death of Tullia in February, 45, led Cicero to write, at Astura, a _Consolatio_, of which only fragments survive. Plin. _N.H._ praef. 22, quotes Cicero as saying that he here followed the Greek philosopher, Crantor, +peri penthous+. It contained notices of the deaths of great men, _De Div._ ii. 22, 'clarissimorum hominum nostrae civitatis gravissimos exitus in Consolatione collegimus.'

5. In the _Hortensius_ Cicero appeared as the champion of philosophy: _De Fin._ i. 2, 'philosophiae vituperatoribus satis responsum est eo libro, quo a nobis philosophia defensa et collaudata est, cum esset accusata et vituperata ab Hortensio.' It cannot be traced beyond the seventh century, and is now represented by a few fragments. In the Middle Ages it was confounded with the _Prior Academics_, the speakers in both dialogues being the same. The _Hortensius_ seems to have been written before Cicero went to Astura in March, B.C. 45: there is no allusion to it in his letters.

6. The treatise _De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_ discusses various theories of the _summum bonum_--the Epicurean in Books i.-ii., the Stoic in iii.-iv., the Peripatetic in v. The scene of the dialogue changes from Cumae to Tusculum and then to the Academy at Athens. The work was dedicated to Brutus in June, 45 (_ad Att._ xiii. 12, 3).

7. The _Academics_ appeared in two editions. Of the original edition