Marcus Tullius Cicero: born in 3 January 106 BC in Arpinum, Italy, Roman Republic, died in 7 December 43 BC (aged 63) in Formia, Italy

A Roman orator, statesman, and philosopher, of extraordinary talents; but chiefly remarkable by his success in having exposed and terminated the conspiracy of Catiline against the Roman capital and government.
At the instigation of Antony, he was assasinated, during the second triunwirate in the year 712 of the city, and 42 years before the birth of Christ.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

The accounts which have been given of the family of Cicero, are various. Some writers assert that his father was a fuller, and that himself was brought up to the same trade. Others say that he was descended from an ancient and honourable family, which had been of equestrian rank, since the time of its first admission to the freedom of Rome. He, indeed, styles himself a nevus homo, or new man; not, however, necessarily because his family was new or ignoble; but, probably, because he was the first member of it who had sought and obtained the public offices of the state. His paternal appellation was Tullius, and he was the first of his family who bore the surname of Cicero.

Plutarch says that this name originated in ridicule, and in consequence of his having had, upon his nose, a flattish excrescence, resembling, in shape, a vetch, the latin word for which is Cicer; but others say that the first person who bore it, was remarkable for the cultivation of vetches. He was himself so proud of it, that, on his first application to business, when his friends advised him to lay it aside or change it, he answered, that he would endeavour to render the name of Cicero more glorious than that of the Scauri and Catuli.

When he was quaestor in Sicily, he consecrated, in one of the temples, a vase, or some other offering, in silver, on which he inscribed his first two names, Marcus Tullius; and, punning upon the third, he ordered the sculptor to engrave a vetch. Such are the accounts that have been given of his name.

Cicero was born at Arpinum, a city of the Samnites on the third of January, in the year of the city 647, and 107 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. In whatever rank of life his father may have been, there can be little doubt that he was a wise and a learned man, and that he devoted much of his attention to the education of his sons. Cicero and his brother were brought up by him, with their cousins, the sons of their uncle Aculeo; and, at a very early period, were placed under the tuition of Lucius Crassus, a man of rank, and celebrated both for his learning and eloquence.

As soon as Cicero was capable of a more liberal instruction, his father placed him at a public school in Rome, under an eminent Greek master. Here he exhibited the first indication of those shining abilities which afterwards rendered him the admiration of all his contemporaries. His school-fellows related such stories of his extraordinary talents, that their parents often visited the school, for the purpose of witnessing the literary performances of so surprising a youth.

The taste of Cicero seemed chiefly to lead him to the acquirement of general literature, but he had both capacity and inclination, to attain a knowledge of the arts; and there was scarcely any branch of science of which he was ignorant. He wrote some poetry, but this was less esteemed than any of his writings. His indefatigable attention far surpasses what we generally conceive of study. It is said that the time other young men of his age usually gave up to pleasure, was, by him, regularly added to his hours of intense application; and that he never devoted one leisure hour to absolute idleness. After he had completed those studies which are usually pursued by boys, he attended the lectures of Philo, the academician, a man greatly admired for his eloquence. He, at the same time, acquired a knowledge of the law under Mucius Scasvola, an eminent lawyer, and the president of the senate; and he, subsequently, attained some knowledge of the military art under Sylla, in the Marsian war. But afterwards, finding the commonwealth engaged in civil commotions, which were likely to terminate in an absolute monarchy, he wholly occupied himself in study.

He now attended the pleadings in the courts of justice, and the public speeches of the magistrates; and, before he ventured to plead in public himself, he studied the law in all its branches; so as to be able to sustain a dispute on any question, with even the most distinguished professors of his time. Desirous of attaining eminence as an orator, he studied intensely, every subject which was likely, in future, to occupy his attention, or to promote his views. It was his regular practice to take notes and make comments on what he read; and he long continued a plan, which he had adopted from a very early period of his youth, and which had been recommended to him by several eminent orators, of treasuring, in his memory, the substance of what he read, and then expressing the same in different words, and in the most elegant manner that he was was able. He also translated, into his own lan guage, the finest speeches of the Greek orators. For the sake of practice, he frequently declaimed in Greek; as the superior copiousness of that language, supplied him with a greater variety of elegant expressions, than his own.

In the year of the city 673, and when Cicero was only twenty-six years of age, he gave great offence to Sylla, but at the same time, obtained considerable fame, by pleading the cause of a young man, who had unjustly suffered from one of the arbitrary acts of that tyrant. Sylla, who then held the two offices of dictator and consul, had caused the estate of a citizen, who had been proscribed, and executed, to be sold by auction. The purchaser was a favourite of Sylla, and consequently had no opponents, and the sum that he paid for it. Sylla, enraged at this declaration, caused the youth to be accused of the murder of his father, and appointed the very man to whom the estate had been sold, to be the manager of the trial. Fearing, lest he should be overwhelmed by the power of the dictator, Roscius applied to Cicero; and the friends of the young orator entreated him to undertake the cause, as he would, probably, never have a more glorius opportunity to enter the lists of fame. He accordingly undertook the defence of Roscius; and pleaded, in his favour, so powerfully, as not only to acquire great applause, but to convince the judges of the innocence of his client, and to obtain his acquittal.

But, fearing lest he should suffer from the resentment of Sylla, Cicero soon afterwards went into Greece, stating, that it was requisite for him to do so, on account of the bad state of his health. This reason was the more easily admitted, as he was of weak and slender habit of body, and had, by no means, a strong constitution. His voice had, indeed, a great variety of inflexions, but it was harsh and unmanageable; and as, in the vehemence of speaking, he always elevated it to a loud pitch, there was reason to apprehend that if he did not, for a while, refrain from public speaking, his health might be seriously injured.

Greece was, at this time, a country much frequented by Roman tourists; by men who travelled either from motives of curiosity or for improvement. Cicero proceeded to Athens, the chief seat of arts and of science. Here he spent nearly two years, in improving himself under the most celebrated Grecian orators; and, before he left the place, he is said to have outstripped all his masters. His health was re-established, and his voice, at the same time that it was full and sonorous, had become so manageable, that he no longer experienced any inconvenience from declaiming in public.

From Athens he passed into Asia; and, wherever he went, he attracted the attention of all the principal orators. Before his return to Rome, he visited the island of Rhodes. Here, as in Athens, he declaimed in Greek, before many of the most learned men of the island. Apollonius Molo, at this time peculiarly famous as an orator, was astonished at his eloquence; and, one day, whilst the rest of a large company were vying with each other, in their encomiums on the youthful orator, he sate silent, and apparently absorbed in study. Cicero asked him the cause: Alas! (said he) I admire your abilities; but I lament the fate of Greece. The only glory we had left, was that of eloquence; and of that you will, shortly, strip us, and transplant it in Rome.

Whilst Cicero was absent from Rome, he received intelligence of Sylla's death; and his friends became impatient that he should return. He consequently, soon afterwards, terminated his travels, and landed on his native shore. From his travels he had derived the most important benefit. His time, so far from having been occupied in pastime and frivolous amusement, had been wholly passed in establishing his health and improving his mind: and his previous education had qualified him for deriving every possible advantage, from whatever he could either see or hear.

On his return to Rome, Cicero applied himself to public business, and with the most sanguine hopes of success. By his own inclination, as well as by the desire of his father and friends, he adopted the profession of the law, as that by which he was to attain distinction; and he soon became one of the most distinguished of the Roman orators. A peculiar quickness in repartee and sarcasm animated his pleadings, and was of great service to him, in the business of the forum.

Cicero had the fault of excessive vanity. He had imagined that, during his absence, his fame had extended through all parts of Italy; and in one of his orations he relates that, on his return from Sicily to Rome, his vanity received a somewhat severe check. when he passed through Puteoli, a city at that time much frequented by company, who went thither to drink the waters, he was surprised to find that no body knew of him, and that he could mix, undistinguished, among the crowd. He asked a person of some eminence, with whom he was acquainted, what the people of Rome thought of his actions; but he was still more surprised by this gentleman (who was even ignorant of his late public employment in Sicily) asking him, Why, Cicero, where have you been all this time? So dispirited was he with these discoveries of his own apparent unimportance, that his ambition, for a little while, received a severe and useful check. He now saw, in a more correct view than he had ever before done, that the contention for glory had neither measure nor bounds. But his immoderate love of praise, and his ardent passion for glory, soon returned, and, during the remainder of his life, often interrupted even his best and wisest designs.

He now resolved to settle in Rome, to live there constantly in the view of his fellow-citizens, and attentively to pursue his professional avocations at the Roman bar. He is said, however, to have lived upon the profits of a small estate which he possessed, and not to have taken either fees or presents, for his services as an advocate. This was peculiarly remarkable in the case of Verres, who had been praetor in Sicily, and had committed innumerable acts of in justice and oppression in that island. The inhabitants employed Cicero to conduct their prosecution of him; and he even went into Sicily to collect his facts and witnesses. These he brought, like a thun derbolt, against the accused; and, by one speech, in which he produced witnesses of every fact that had lawn alleged, he raised such a storm of indignation against him, that Verres was advised not to wait for judgment, but to escape immediately from the country.

In the ensuing year Cicero was appointed to the office of aedile, and was more economical than most of his predecessors had been in the public shows, which his office obliged him to exhibit. But he acquired great esteem by the liberality with which be relieved the citizens of Rome, who were still afflicted with a scarcity of provisions. The Sicilians, in return for his services to them, sent him a great number of valuable presents. But he was so far from applying these to his private advantage, that he made no other use of them than to lower the price of provisions.

Cicero had, at this time, a country seat at Arpinum, a town of the Volsci; a farm near Naples, and another at Pompeii; but none of them were very valuable. With his wife Terentia he had a fortune and upon this property he lived in a genteel, but frugal manner, associating chiefly with literary men, both Greeks and Romans. It is stated that he seldom took his meal before sun-set; that the general weakness of his constitution required him to be peculiarly attentive to his health; and that, by temperance and management, he gained a sufficient stock of health to enable him to sustain the great labours and fatigue of his profession.

He purchased a house on the Palatine Hill. This he chose, that those who attended or had occasion to consult him, might not have far to go; for he, every day, had a levee as numerous as those of the most powerful men in Rome.

As there was no honour in the state to which he might not pretend, Cicero found it his interest to cultivate the favour of the people; and, though he appears to have had the love of his country at heart, it must be acknowledged that he sought also to acquire the esteem of the great, by accommodations, which cannot wholly be defended. Pompey, for instance, was seeking to establish a power, beyond the limits of the constitution; yet the necessity which Cicero found, for that great man's support, made him subservient to his ambitious views.

When he was in his fortieth year, he was a candidate for the prretorship; and although he had many competitors, who were persons of distinction, he succeeded. As a president in the courts of justice, he acted with great integrity. Although fully employed in the duties of his office, so great was his in dustry, that he still found time to act as an advocate as Well as a judge: not only to hear causes in his own tribunal; but also to plead them before the tribunals of the other praetors. At the expiration of his office he declined to accept any foreign province, the usual reward of that magistracy. But Cicero had no love of money, not any genius for military affairs; so that those governments had no charms for him.

The consulship was the chief object of Cicero's ambition; and, two years after the expiration of his praetorship, he offered himself for it, and was successful. One of his inducements to offer himself, at this time, was the hope of being able to save his country from the effects of an impending conspiracy, which, if successful, he knew would inevitably terminate in general ruin. Lucius Catiline, a bold and enterprising man, had long entertained treacherous designs against the government, and, by various arts, had engaged a great number of persons to concur in his views. He had brought his plot to such a state of maturity, that he even ventured to offer himself, a competitor with Cicero, for the consulship. Cicero had occasioned some laws to be passed which tended to repel the designs of the conspirators; and Catiline laid a scheme to kill him, at the succeeding election of consuls. Information of this was given to Cicero; and, on the day of election, he clad himself with armour under his robes. The principal persons of Rome conducted him, from his house, to the Campus Martins. There he threw back his robe, and displayed the armour, for the purpose of pointing out his danger. The people, enraged by the atrocity of the conspirators, immediately crowded round to protect him. The consequence was that, although Catiline was again a candidate, he was again rejected. Thus rendered desperate, he summoned his party by night; and they agreed upon a plan for setting fire to the city, assassinating the principal senators, and seizing the capitol.

When theadherents of Catiline were preparing to carry this diabolical plan into execution, Crassus, Marcellus, and Metellus Scipio, went to Cicero's house about midnight. They knocked at the door, and, having roused the porter, bade the man awake his master, and tell him who attended. The cause of their visit was this. The porter of Crassus had received from a person unknown, a packet of letters. These were directed to different persons, and there was one for Crassus himself, but they were all with out signature. The letter to Crassus, informed him of the massacre projected by Catiline, and warned him to retire out of the city. It was this letter which induced him to confer with his two friends, and which led them all to Cicero. After a consultation of some time, it was agreed that Cicero should assemble the senate at the break of day. This was done: the letters were delivered according to the directions, and, at the request of Cicero, each was read aloud. They all gave the same account of the conspiracy.

In consequence of these informations, the senate passed a decree, That the consuls should act in such manner as they should think best for the preservation of the commonwealth. To Catiline no time was to be lost. He, consequently, hastened his infamous purposes; but, by the vigilance of Cicero, they were greatly impeded. He consequently formed a plan for the assassination of Cicero, but this was communicated to him by Fulvia, a woman of quality, who had held a criminal correspondence with one of the conspirators. Two persons, who were not publicly known to be concerned in the conspiracy, were directed by Catiline to go to Cicero's house, early in the morning, and, under a pretence of paying their compliments, were to attack and kill him. As soon as it was light the assassins went, but were denied admission.

Cicero next assembled the senate in the temple of Jupiter, a place in which it seldom met, except during times of public alarm. Catiline came, as if with a design to make his defence; but all the senators shrunk from him, and left him alone, on the bench upon which he sat. The audacious appearance of the traitor, in this place, drew, from Cicero, that memorable burst of eloquence, which is still extant, and which is called the first oration against Catiline. He indignantly detailed, in the presence of that traitor, the discovery of his treasons, and the certainty of the punishment which awaited the proof of them. He detailed to the senate many particulars that had occurred, and many plans that had been arranged at the meetings of the conspirators; but, to prevent any confusion in the state, from the capital punishment of so many persons of rank as appeared to be implicated in the conspiracy, he merely ordered Catiline to quit the city: telling him that the gates were open to him, and that no one would prevent his departure.

In vain did the traitor attempt to reply to the convincing proofs of his guilt that had been adduced; and, finnding it impossible any longer to wear the mask, be rushed from the senate-house, vowing that he would extinguish, under the ruins of his enemies, the fires which they were lighting around him. The event fully justified the political sagacity of Cicero. Catiline hastened from Rome, with about three hundred desperate men, and, proceeding into the country, assembled a considerable body of troops.

Several of his adherents still continued in Rome. These were kept together and encouraged, with hopes of final success, by Cornelius Lentulus, a man of noble birth, but who had been expelled the senate for his debancheries. Catiline resolved, if possible, to destroy the whole senate, and many of the citizens; and to burn the city. The night was fixed, and all the arrangements were made; but this plot was also discovered by the indefatigable exertions of Cicero; for he had emissaries in every part of the city, who held a secret correspondence with many that had pretended to join in the conspiracy.

A messenger, carrying letters to Catiline, was intercepted. The letters were found to be of great importance. Cicero read them to the senate, and took the depositions of witnesses to many facts, which proved the designs of the conspirators. Lentulus now found himself so entirely detected, that he resigned his office, put off his purple robe, and took another, which was more suitable to his situation; and he and his accomplices were delivered into the custody of the praetors.

On the ensuing day the senate met, to deliberate on the punishment which should be inflicted on the conspirators; and, after much debate, they were condemned to die. The sentence had no sooner been passed, than Cicero, at the head of the senate, went to the houses in which the criminals were lodged. He first took Lentulus, and, conducting him through the forum, to the prison, delivered him to the executioner. He afterwards brought out each of the others, and they were successively executed. The principal persons in Rome attended the consul as a guard on this occasion; and the people looked on, in silent horror, at the scene. On his return through the forum, after the death of these men, Cicero saw a great number of others, who had been implicated in the conspiracy, These were anxious to know the fate of their leaders; and Cicero called out to them, They have lived. This was the mode in which the Romans, (to avoid what were considered by them inauspicious words) were accustomed to express death. The consul thus fulfilled a promise which he had made, in his second oration against Catiline, to quash the conspiracy without tumult¹.

So great was the popularity that Cicero acquired, by the suppression of this conspiracy, that, on his return to his house, the people saluted him with loud acclamations of applause. The streets were illuminated with amultitude of lamps and torches; and the women are said to have held out lights from the tops of the houses, that they might behold him whom they called the saviour and second founder of Rome. This was esteemed the most illustrious day in the life of Cicero; but it afterwards proved to him a source of the greatest misfortunes.

The natural vanity of Cicero was so much elated by his success, and by the popularity which he had acquired, that be rendered himself obnoxious to many persons, by incessantly boasting of his late proceedings. Whenever he entered the senate, the assemblies of the people, or the courts of justice, he invariably contrived to allude to them; and all his writings contained the strongest encomiums on his own actions.

The honours which he had acquired, excited considerable jealousy; and many powerful men in the state, of whom Caesar was one, seized every possible opportunity of mortifying him. On the last day of his office, when he was about to make a speech to the public, before he took the usual oath that he had faithfully discharged his duty, the tribune, Metellus, would not suffer him to do so; and directed him merely to take the oath; asserting that, the man who had put citizens to death, ought not to be permitted to speak for himself. On this, Cicero, who was never at a loss for a reply, instead of pronouncing the ordinary form of the oath, swore aloud, that he had saved the republic and the city from ruin. The project of Metellus failed. The population joined in the oath, and conducted Cicero from the place, with every possible demonstration of respect.

Although Cicero was excessively vain of his own talents and actions, he was not so narrow-minded as to deny to others a due share of credit. There was not one of his contemporaries, celebrated either for his eloquence or philosophy, whose fame he did not seek to promote, either by speaking, or by writing, in his commendation. He, however, made many enemies by the keen sarcasms, in which be occasion ally indulged. Plutarch has recited several instances of these. On one occasion, he pleaded for Munatius; and, by his masterly defence, obtained the acquittal of his client. Afterwards, this Munatius prosecuted one of Cicero's friends, which so much enraged him, that Cicero exclaimed: Think you it was the merit of your cause that saved you: it was the cloud which I threw over your crimes, that concealed them from the sight of the court. On another occasion, he had succeeded in an encomium on Marcus Crassus; and, a few days afterwards, he as publicly reproached him. How can this be? (said Crassus,) did you not lately praise me, and in the very place where you now stand? True, (answered Cicero,) but I did it only by way of experiment, to see what I could make of a bad subject. Crassus once affirmed that none of his family had lived beyond theage of threescore years : but, afterwards, desirous of contradicting the assertion, he said: What could I be thinking of, when I said so? You wish now to deny it, (observed Cicero,) because you know that the truth of such an assertion would be very agreeable to the people of Rome.

From the time of his consulate, the influence of Cicero began to decline. The rising popularity of Caesar, the triumphal return of Pompey from Asia, and his reconciliation with Crassus, which laid the foundation of the first triumvirate, occupied the minds of men, and confined the stream of power to that particular channel. Cicero, sensible that a storm was gathering around him, employed himself chiefly in literary pursuits, and in his professional avocations.

Shortly after this, he incurred the hatred of Publius Clodius, a noble Roman, but a young man of violent and abandoned character. Clodius was prosecuted for the violation of certain mysteries, in an attempt to obtain access to Pompeia, the wife of Caesar; and Cicero appeared as an evidence against him. By corrupting the judges, Clodius, however, contrived to obtain an acquittal; and, afterwards, being created a tribune, he had influence sufficient to obtain a law, that any person who had caused a Roman citizen to be put to death, without a judicial sentence, should be sent into banishment. Cicero, though not named in this law, well knew that it was aimed at him. He, therefore, changed his usual dress, and assumed the habit of a criminal. This, he soon found to have been a very imprudent act; for Clodius and his adherents publicly insulted him, wherever he appeared. Many members of the senate, and nearly the whole equestrian order, changed their habits, and clad themselves in deep mourning; but the consuls, by; their edict, commanded them to resume their usual attire.

The power of Clodius now became so great, that it was requisite for Cicero either to remain in Rome, and openly to defend himself; or, to retire from the the city, until the fury of the storm which had been raised against him, should he spent. Cato advised him to adopt the latter plan. Consequently, about midnight, he privately quitted Rome; and, attended. by a few friends, he proceeded, on foot, through Lucania, intending thence to pass into Sicily.

After his departure, Clodius occasioned a decree to be issued, prohibiting him, under pain of death, from approaching within five hundred miles of Rome. He also caused the houses of Cicero, both in Rome, and in the country, to be burnt; and that the loss of the former might be irretrievable, he consecrated the site on which it had stood, and built, upon it, a temple to the goddess Liberty. The furniture, and other effects of Cicero, were put up to public auction, for several successive days; but it is stated that no one could be induced to purchase them.

In his progress through the country, this eminent Roman was every where received with demonstrations of respect. But his intention of residing in Sicily, was frustrated, by the praetor forbidding his entrance into that island. Cicero, consequently, directed his course, through Greece, to Thessalonica, in Macedonia. Here great numbers of people came to pay their respects to him; and the cities of Greece strove with each other, which should show him the most distinguished attention. He was now in his forty-ninth year.

Cicero did not conduct himself, during his banishment, with that fortitude which might have been expected from a man of his powerful mind. He was dejected and disconsolate; and exhibited indications of weakness, and uttered expressions of grief, that were wholly unworthy of his character. The melancholy tone in which his letters were written, during this sad period of his existence, have drawn upon him the censure of weakness. But allowance must be made for a mind exquisite in its texture, though great in its compass; for sensibility flushed and warm with recent glory; and for splendid genius torn from the community which it had saved and adorned.

Clodius, who was now the pest of the Roman republic, had but a temporary triumph. He had become formidable to the patricians; and, having drawn the population into the most audacious insolence and effrontery, he ventured to attack Pompey. The latter severely blamed himself, for having abandoned Cicero; and took every possible means for effecting his return; and, as Clodius constantly opposed the proceedings of the senate, that body, at length, decreed that no public business whatever, should be dispatched by them, till Cicero was recalled. The sedition increased: some of the tribunes were wounded in the forum: and Quintus, the brother of Cicero, was left for dead among the slain.

The people, ever changeable, after awhile, began to unite against Clodius. He was expelled, with disgrace, from the forum, and the recall of Cicero was proposed. No measure had ever been carried with greater unanimity than this. The citizens, from various distant parts of Italy, flocked to Rome, and gave it their support; and, after a decree to that purpose had been passed, the news of it was received at the theatres with the loudest acclamations of applause. One of the actors, in invoking the name of Brutus, substituted that of Cicero; and the audience were so much delighted with the alteration, that they called for the speech over and over again.

After an absence of sixteen months, Cicero was restored to his country. It was decreed that all his houses, both in the town and county, which had been demolished by Clodius, should be rebuilt at the public expence. And, on his return to Rome, so much joy was expressed by the cities, and so much eagerness by all ranks of people, to meet him on the road, that his own account was said to fall short of the truth, though he remarked that Italy had brought him on her shoulders to Rome.

This was a proud day for the Roman orator; but it afforded one more test of the inconstancy of the population, and of the little esteem in which popular favour ought to be held. Many of the men who were now foremost in expressing their applause, had been the most active in promoting his banishment.

Cicero was restored to his former dignity; and, loon afterwards, during the absence of Clodius from Rome, he went up, with a great company, to the capitol, and there destroyed the tribunitial tables, in which were recorded all the acts that had been passed, in Clodius's time. The persecutions he had undergone, rendered Cicero more cautious in his political conduct than he had hitherto been. He studied to keep on good terms with Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus; and be exercised his eloquence chiefly as defendant, for the purpose of securing to him personal friendship.

Clodius was killed in an affray with Milo, a friend of Cicero; and Milo, being accused of this murder, engaged Cicero in his defence. The senate, to prevent the possibility of tumult, appointed Pompey to preside at the trial; and he, to secure the peace of the city, surrounded the forum with soldiers. Apprehensive lest Cicero might be disconcerted at so unusual a sight, and thereby be rendered unable to glead, Milo prevailed with him to go in a litter, to the forum; and to repose himself there until the judges and court were assembled. It is well known that this great orator was often extremely nervous when he spoke in public; and, in many of the causes that he pleaded, he scarcely ceased from trembling, even in the height and vehemence of his address. On the present occasion, when he left the litter, and saw Pompey seated on high, and beheld the weapons glistening around the forum, he was so confused, that he could scarcely begin his oration. His whole frame shook, and his tongue faultered. After a little while, he recovered, and his speech, which still exists, is one of the most splendid examples of eloquence that has been recorded. But, notwithstanding all his exertions, Milo was convicted, and sentenced to banishment.

In his fifty-sixth year, he was appointed pro consul into Cilicia; and, though much against his inclination, was obliged to accept the government of that province. He consequently sailed thither, with an army of twelve thousand foot, and one thousand six hundred horse; and, during his term of service, he executed the commissions with which he was en trusted, in every respect, to the satisfaction of the Roman government. Impatient, however, to return to Rome, he left the province, at the expiration of a year, to the care of his quaestor, and set out for Italy. In his passage home he stopped at Rhodes, and he afterwards resided for a little while at Athens.

On his arrival in Rome, he found the flame of dissension kindled, and everything tending to a civil war, in consequence of the ambitious projects of Caesar and Pompey, and the unhappy quarrel which had taken place between these two eminent men. The senate decreed to Cicero the honour of a triumph, in reward for his services; but he replied, that he would rather follow the chariot wheels of Caesar in his triumph, than have any triumph of his own, if a reconciliation could be effected betwixt him and Pompey. And, in private, he tried every mode that he could devise, for bringing about a reconciliation, but to no purpose. After an open rupture had taken place, and Caesar was on his march towards Rome, and Pompey had retired from the city with many of the principal inhabitants in his train, it was generally imagined that Cicero would join the former. But, after much apparent perplexity, as to the line of conduct which he should adopt, he, at last, went over to Pompey. Cato was of opinion that, in so doing, he had acted with great impolicy, and thus wrote to him: I should have been wrong to have left that party whose cause I had espoused from the beginning; but you might have been much more serviceable both to your country and to your friends, if you had continued in Rome, and had acted as the circumstances of the times might require. Whereas you have unnecessarily declared yourself an enemy to Caesar, and will share in dangers with which, hitherto, you have had nothing to do.

Cicero soon discovered that he had acted wrong; and it appears that he acted still more so, in making no secret that he repented of his conduct. He disparaged the whole of Pompey's proceedings, insinuated a dislike of his counsels, and was not sparing in jests and sarcasms against his allies; and, after all, was excessively mortified because Pompey would not employ him on any important service.

After the baltle of Pharsalia, in which, on account of his ill health, he had not been present, he was desired, by Cato, to take a command in the army; but he refused to have any further concern in the war; and, retiring from the army, he proceeded to Brundusium, a town on the western coast of Calabria. Here he experienced many severe mortifications; for he was entirely in the power of Antony, who now governed Italy with uncontrolable sway. He had also to endure many domestic grievances, particularly respecting his daughter Tullia, whom her husband soon afterwards divorced; and be experienced some distress from want of money, in consequence of his having lent, to Pompey, the greatest part of what he had possessed. His health, likewise, began to be injured by the unwholesome atmosphere of the place. In the midst of all this distress, he was informed that Caesar had arrived at Tarentum, and designed to proceed thence to Brundusium. He, therefore, conceived that his only hope of safety lay in setting out to meet him; and this he did, but not without some degree of shame, and for the sake only of his own personal security.

Caesar had been desirous of effecting a reconciliation with Cicero; and, on the present occasion, he no sooner beheld him approach, than he dismounted, and received him in the most friendly manner. They walked together, in conversation, for some furlongs; and, from this time, Caesar continued to treat him with the utmost kindness and respect. He also confirmed to him the full enjoyment of his former state and dignity.

That Caesar entertained a very high regard for the talents of Cicero, may be imagined from the anxiety with which he sought this reconciliation. But it was particularly shown in the prosecution of Quinlus Ligarius. Cicero had undertaken to plead the cause of this man, who was charged with the crime of having borne arms against Caesar; and the latter is reported to have said: Why may we not give ourselves a pleasure, which we have not enjoyed so long, that of hearing Cicero speak; since I have already taken my resolution with regard to Ligarius, whom I know to be a bad man, as well as "my enemy? He was extremely affected when Cicero began; and the speech of the great Roman orator, as it proceeded, deeply excited both his attention and his feelings. When the orator touched on the battle of Pharsalia, the mind of Caesar was wrought to so high a pitch, that his whole frame trembled, and he let drop his papers out of his hand. He was finally so overcome by the force of eloquence, that, notwithstanding all his former prejudices against Ligarius, he was obliged to pronounce his acquittal.

As the commonwealth was now, in fact, changed into a monarchy, Cicero withdrew from public business, and employed much of his leisure time in philosophical studies, and in instructing young men in philosophy. It was, at this period, that he wrote many of those admirable works which are still extant, and which show both the solidity of his judgment, and the integrity of his heart. He chiefly resided at his Tusculan villa; seldom visiting Rome, except for the purpose of paying his court to Caesar. He also employed himself on a history of his own times; or, rather, of his own conduct; but he was prevented from completing it, by many occurrences, both public and private, which were to him a source of anxiety and distress. He divorced his wife Tarentia, in consequence of her alleged neglect of him; and, not long afterwards, he married a young woman who was possessed of considerable property, but from whom he was soon separated. But his chief distress was occasioned by the death of his daughter. He was, at this time, somewhat more than sixty years of age.

Cicero does not appear to have had any concern whatever in the conspiracy against Caesar: although he was one of the particular friends of Brutus; and, although, after Caesar was killed, Brutus called on him, by name, to congratulate his country on the recovery of its liberty. No sooner was the deed accomplished, than the friends of Caesar assembled to revenge his death; and it was apprehended that Rome would again be plunged into all the misery of civil war. Antony assembled the senate, and Cicero proposed that a pardon should be granted to all the conspirators, and that provinces should be decreed to Brutus and Cassius. The assent of the senate was obtained; but, afterwards, when the dead body of Caesar was exhibited by Antony to the people, they became so much enraged, that the conspirators, if they had not escaped from the city, would all have been put to death.

From this time, Cicero and Antony lived in mutual distrust. Octavius, the nephew of Caesar, then in his nineteenth year, hastened from Apollonia to Rome, claimed the property of his uncle, and sued Antony for a large sum of money which he had detained. Cicero was induced to assist the claimant both with his eloquence and interest, on consideration that Octavius should afford him all the protection in his power. By taking the part of this young man, Cicero had vainly hoped that he might be the means of terminating the despotism, and restoring the ancient form of government.

Both in the senate, and with the people, Cicero now carried every measure that he desired; and it was on various public occasions, (consequent upon the return of Octavius,) that he uttered those well known Philippics² against Antony, which, whilst they exhibited his own extraordinary talent for eloquence, procured him an implacable and deadly foe. Antony was expelled from Rome, and the senate were prevailed with to grant Octavius the dignity of praetor. This youth afterwards persuaded Cicero to aid him in procuring the consulship; promising that he would, in every respect, submit his judgment to that of a man whose talents and experience were so much greater than his own; and that Cicero should direct all the affairs of the state. The power of Octavius was established, and Cicero soon became sensible that he had not only ruined himself, but had aided in destroying the liberty of his country. Octavius, now finding that he had no further use for Cicero, spurned both his services and his advice. He, Antony, and Lepidus, formed what was called the second iriumvirate. They divided the Roman empire among them, says Plutarch, as if it had been a private estate; and their triumph compelled Cicero once more to seek for safety in retirement.

They proscribed more than two hundred persons, who had been inimical to their proceedings. Antony and Lepidus insisted that the name of Cicero should be amongst the number; but Octavius had the honesty, in this particular, to oppose them. After a contest of three days, however, he yielded to the determination of his associates. Intelligence of what had taken place, was privately conveyed to Cicero, while he was with his brother and nephew, at his Tusculan villa. No sooner was it communicated to him, than they all fled, first towards Astum, where Cicero had a country house, near the sea; and whence they intended to embark for Macedonia, in a hope of being able to join Brutus there. They were carried in separate litters, oppressed with sorrow and despair. Quintus, the brother of Cicero, was the more dejected, because he had not been able to make any provision whatever for his journey; and, after they had proceeded, to some distance, it became necessary that he and his son should return. They did so: and, a few days afterwards, were betrayed to the emissaries of the triumvirate, and assassinated.

Cicero embarked on board a vessel at Astura, and sailed along the coast to Circteum, where, at his own request, be was landed. He resolved to throw himself upon the clemency of Octavius; and even travelled on foot some furlongs towards Rome; but he repented and returned. He passed the night in a dreadful state of agitation; and, in the morning, was conveyed, by sea, to Cajeta, where he had a villa. Here, weary of life, he declared he would die in that country which he so often had saved. His servants, however, anxious for his preservation, entreated, that they might convey him away, in his litter, and, if possible, place him on board of some ship bound to a foreign country. He assented, and they had not long left the house, when a party of soldiers, commanded by a centurion and a tribune, arrived at it. As the doors were fastened, they broke them open, and demanded of the servants, who had been left, where their master was; but they denied having any knowledge of him. A freed man, who had belonged to his brother Quintus, and whom Cicero had instructed in the liberal arts, informed the tribune, that he was retreating, through the forests, towards the sea coast. The soldiers immediately proceeded in that direction, and overtook him in the midst of the woods. Cicero, when he saw them, directed his servants to let the litter down; and, putting his left hand to his chin, an attitude which he was accustomed to adopt, he looked steadfastly on his murderers. His haggard countenance, his face overgrown with hair and wasted with anxiety, so much affected the attendants of the centurion, that they could not look upon the melancholy scene that followed. Cicero stretched his neck out of the litter, and the centurion severed his head from his body.

Thus fell this eminent Roman, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. His head and hands were sent to Antony, who ordered them to be fixed on the rostra; and afterward rewarded the officer with a civic crown and a large sum of money.

The whole city lamented his cruel fate; and multitudes wept at the sight of those members, once gloriously exerted in defence of the laws, the liberties, and the fortunes of the Roman people, but now ignotniniously exposed, in that very place, to the scorn of sycophants and traitors. His death occasioned universal sorrow, and it was considered as the final triumph of despotism, and his blood as cementing the perpetual slavery of Rome.

1. Caius Antonius, the colleague of Cicero in the consulship, now marched into Etruria, and there destroyed the ill-disciplined troops of Catiline; and Catiline himself, resolving not to outlive the ruin of his party, rushed into the ranks of his enemy. and was killed.

2. This was a name originally given to the orationspf Demosthenes, against Philip, king of Macedon, and which was applied, by Cicero, to his own oration against Antony.

Authorities-Sallust, Paterculus, Aulus Gellius, Caesar's: Commentaris, Middleton and Plutarch.