The Life of Cicero, Volume II.

Produced by Turgut Dincer, Ted Garvin and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net






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| Transcriber's Note:                                |
|                                                    |
| Latin word "demuntiat" in Footnote 222 has been    |
| corrected as "denuntiat" and the Latin words "At"  |
| and "audient" in Footnote 253 have been corrected  |
| as "Ut" and "audiunt" respectively after checking  |
| with reliable sources.                             |
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THE

LIFE OF CICERO


BY

ANTHONY TROLLOPE


_IN TWO VOLUMES_

VOL. II.


NEW YORK

HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE

1881




CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.


                                         PAGE
 CHAPTER I.

 HIS RETURN FROM EXILE                      7

 CHAPTER II.

 CICERO, AETAT. 52, 53, 54.                 38

 CHAPTER III.

 MILO                                      59

 CHAPTER IV.

 CILICIA                                   76

 CHAPTER V.

 THE WAR BETWEEN CAESAR AND POMPEY         110

 CHAPTER VI.

 AFTER THE BATTLE                         129

 CHAPTER VII.

 MARCELLUS, LIGARIUS, AND DEIOTARUS       147

 CHAPTER VIII.

 CAESAR'S DEATH                            172

 CHAPTER IX.

 THE PHILIPPICS                           195

 CHAPTER X.

 CICERO'S DEATH                           231

 CHAPTER XI.

 CICERO'S RHETORIC                        249

 CHAPTER XII.

 CICERO'S PHILOSOPHY                      277

 CHAPTER XIII.

 CICERO'S MORAL ESSAYS                    304

 CHAPTER XIV.

 CICERO'S RELIGION                        321


 APPENDIX                                 333

 INDEX                                    337




THE

LIFE OF CICERO.




CHAPTER I.

_HIS RETURN FROM EXILE._


Cicero's life for the next two years was made conspicuous by a series of
speeches which were produced by his exile and his return. These are
remarkable for the praise lavished on himself, and by the violence with
which he attacked his enemies. It must be owned that never was abuse
more abusive, or self-praise uttered in language more laudatory.[1]
Cicero had now done all that was useful in his public life. The great
monuments of his literature are to come. None of these had as yet been
written except a small portion of his letters--about a tenth--and of
these he thought no more in regard to the public than do any ordinary
letter-writers of to-day. Some poems had been produced, and a history of
his own Consulship in Greek; but these are unknown to us. He had already
become the greatest orator, perhaps, of all time--and we have many of
the speeches spoken by him. Some we have--those five, namely, telling
the story of Verres--not intended to be spoken, but written for the
occasion of the day rather than with a view to permanent literature. He
had been Quaestor, AEdile, Praetor, and Consul, with singular and
undeviating success. He had been honest in the exercise of public
functions when to be honest was to be singular. He had bought golden
opinions from all sorts of people. He had been true to his country, and
useful also--a combination which it was given to no other public man of
those days to achieve. Having been Praetor and Consul, he had refused the
accustomed rewards, and had abstained from the provinces. His speeches,
with but few exceptions, had hitherto been made in favor of honesty.
They are declamations against injustice, against bribery, against
cruelty, and all on behalf of decent civilized life. Had he died then,
he would not have become the hero of literature, the marvel among men of
letters whom the reading world admires; but he would have been a great
man, and would have saved himself from the bitterness of Caesarean
tongues.

His public work was in truth done. His further service consisted of the
government of Cilicia for a year--an employment that was odious to him,
though his performance of it was a blessing to the province. After that
there came the vain struggle with Caesar, the attempt to make the best of
Caesar victorious, the last loud shriek on behalf of the Republic, and
then all was over. The fourteen years of life which yet remained to him
sufficed for erecting that literary monument of which I have spoken, but
his public usefulness was done. To the reader of his biography it will
seem that these coming fourteen years will lack much of the grace which
adorned the last twenty. The biographer will be driven to make excuses,
which he will not do without believing in the truth of them, but
doubting much whether he may beget belief in others. He thinks that he
can see the man passing from one form to another--his doubting devotion
to Pompey, his enforced adherence to Caesar, his passionate opposition to
Antony; but he can still see him true to his country, and ever on the
alert against tyranny and on behalf of pure patriotism.

At the present we have to deal with Cicero in no vacillating spirit, but
loudly exultant and loudly censorious.