The Good Book (109 page)

36. On this occasion he did not perform well. Quitting his litter, he saw Pompey posted with his troops above, and seeing weapons shining round the forum,

37. He was so confounded that he could hardly begin his speech for trembling;

38. Whereas Milo was intrepid, disdaining either to let his hair grow or to put on mourning.

39. And this, indeed, seems to have been one principal cause of his condemnation, for the trial was lost.

 

Chapter 81

  1. Shortly afterwards Cicero was appointed by lot to the province of Cilicia,

  2. And set sail thither with twelve thousand foot and two thousand six hundred horse.

  3. He had orders to bring back Cappadocia to its allegiance to Ariobarzanes, its king; which he effected very completely without recourse to arms.

  4. And perceiving that the Cilicians were disposed to revolt, as a result of the great loss the Romans suffered in Parthia and the turbulences in Syria,

  5. Cicero soothed them back into fidelity by a gentle course of government.

  6. He would accept none of the presents that were offered him by the kings;

  7. He remitted the charge of public entertainments, but daily at his own house received the cultured persons of the province, not sumptuously, but liberally.

  8. His house had no porter, and from early in the morning he stood or walked before his door, to receive those who came to offer salutations.

  9. He is said never once to have ordered any of those under his command to be beaten with rods, or to have their garments rent.

10. He never used contumelious language in his anger, nor inflicted punishment with reproach.

11. He detected an embezzlement, to a large amount, in the public money,

12. And thus relieved the cities from their burdens, at the same time allowing those who made restitution to retain their rights as citizens without further punishment.

13. He engaged too, in war, so far as to defeat the banditti who infested Mount Amanus, for which the army under his command saluted him as imperator.

14. To Caecilius, the orator, who asked him to send some panthers from Cilicia to be exhibited at the theatre in Rome,

15. He wrote, in commendation of his own actions, that there were no panthers in Cilicia,

16. For they were all fled to Caria, in anger that in so general a peace they had become the sole objects of attack.

17. On leaving his province he touched at Rhodes, and tarried for some time at Athens, longing to renew his old studies.

18. There he visited the eminent scholars, and saw his former friends and companions;

19. And after receiving the honours that were due to him, returned to Rome,

20. Where everything was now just breaking out into a civil war because of the quarrel between Pompey and Caesar.

21. When the senate offered to decree Cicero a Triumph, he told them he had rather, if the then quarrels could be settled, follow the triumphal chariot of Caesar.

22. In private he gave advice to both men, writing many letters to Caesar and personally entreating Pompey, doing his best to soothe and bring to reason both of them.

23. But when matters became incurable, and Caesar was approaching Rome, and Pompey dared not stay, but, with many honest citizens, left the city,

24. Cicero still did not join in the flight, and was reputed to adhere to Caesar.

25. And it is very evident that he was much divided in his thoughts and wavered painfully between both, for he writes in his epistles,

26. ‘To which side should I turn? Pompey has the fair and honourable plea for war;

27. ‘And Caesar, on the other hand, has managed his affairs better, and is more able to secure himself and his friends,

28. ‘So that I know whom I should fly from, not whom I should fly to.'

29. But when Trebatius, one of Caesar's friends, signified to him by letter that Caesar wished him to join his party,

30. But adding that if he felt too old for the conflict, he should retire to Greece, and stay quietly out of the way of either party,

31. Cicero, wondering that Caesar had not written himself, gave an angry reply, that he should not do anything unbecoming his past life.

32. But as soon as Caesar had marched into Spain, Cicero immediately travelled to join Pompey.

33. And he was welcomed by all but Cato; who, taking him aside privately, chid him for coming to Pompey.

34. As for himself, Cato said, it would have been indecent to forsake that part in the commonwealth which he had chosen from the beginning;

35. But Cicero might have been more useful to his country if he had remained neutral, and used his influence to moderate the result,

36. Instead of coming hither to make himself, without reason or necessity, an enemy to Caesar, and a partner in such great dangers.

37. By this language, partly, Cicero's feelings were altered, and partly, also, because Pompey made no great use of him.

38. Although, indeed, he was himself the cause of this, by his not denying that he was sorry he had come,

39. By his depreciating Pompey's resources, finding fault underhand with his counsels,

40. And continually indulging in jests and sarcastic remarks on his fellow-soldiers.

 

Chapter 82

  1. After Pompey's defeat at the battle of Pharsalia, at which he was not present for health reasons,

  2. Cicero was asked by Cato, who had considerable forces and a great fleet at Dyrrachium,

  3. To be commander-in-chief, according to law and the prece­dence of his consular dignity.

  4. Cicero declined, and wished no further part in plans for continuing the war.

  5. He was consequently in great danger of being killed, for young Pompey and his friends called him traitor, and drew their swords upon him;

  6. But Cato interposed, and rescued him from the camp.

  7. Afterwards Cicero waited at Brundusium for Caesar, who was delayed by his affairs in Asia and Egypt.

  8. When it was reported that Caesar had arrived at Tarentum, and was marching by land to Brundusium,

  9. He set off to meet him, in some trepidation about what reception to expect.

10. But there was no necessity for him either to speak or do anything unworthy of himself;

11. For Caesar, as soon as he saw him coming a good way before the rest of the company,

12. Came down to meet him, saluted him, and, leading the way, conversed with him alone for some furlongs.

13. And from that time forward Caesar continued to treat him with honour and respect, so that, when Cicero wrote an oration in praise of Cato,

14. Caesar, in writing an answer to it, took occasion to commend Cicero's own life and eloquence,

15. Comparing him to Pericles and Theramenes. Cicero's oration was called Cato; Caesar's, anti-Cato.

16. And it is also related that when Quintus Ligarius was prosecuted for having been in arms against Caesar,

17. And Cicero had undertaken his defence, Caesar said to his friends,

18. ‘Ligarius, there is no question, is a wicked man and an enemy; but why might we not have once more the pleasure of a speech from Cicero?'

19. But when Cicero began to speak, he wonderfully moved Caesar,

20. And proceeded in his speech with such varied pathos, and such a charm of language, that the colour of Caesar's countenance often changed,

21. And it was evident that all the passions of his heart were in commotion.

22. At length, Cicero touching upon the Pharsalian battle, Caesar was so affected that his body trembled,

23. And some of the papers he held dropped from his hands. And thus he was overpowered, and acquitted Ligarius.

 

Chapter 83

  1. Henceforth, the commonwealth being changed into a monarchy, Cicero withdrew himself from public affairs,

  2. And employed his leisure in instructing young men in philosophy;

  3. And by the near intercourse he thus had with some of the noblest and highest in rank, he again began to possess great influence in the city.

  4. The work he set himself was to compose and translate philosophical dialogues,

  5. And to render Greek philosophical terms into Latin, rendering them intelligible and expressible to the Romans.

  6. He spent the greatest part of his time at his country house near Tusculum, rarely going to the city, unless to visit Caesar.

  7. He was commonly the first amongst those who voted Caesar honours, and sought out new terms of praise for his actions.

  8. As, for example, when he said of the statues of Pompey, which had been thrown down and were afterwards set up again by Caesar's orders,

  9. That Caesar, by this act of humanity, had not only set up Pompey's statues, but he had fixed and established his own.

10. He wished to write a history of his country, combining with it that of Greece,

11. And incorporating in it all the accounts of the past that he had collected.

12. But his purposes were interfered with by various public and various private misfortunes; for most of which he was himself at fault.

13. For first of all, he put away his wife Terentia, by whom he had been neglected in the time of the war, and sent away destitute of necessaries for his journey;

14. Neither did he find her kind when he returned to Italy, for she did not join him at Brundusium, where he stayed a long time,

15. Nor would allow her young daughter proper servants or the requisite expenses when she undertook a long journey to join him.

16. Also she left him a naked and empty house, and yet had involved him in many large debts.

17. These were alleged as the fairest reasons for the divorce.

18. But Terentia, who denied them all, had the most unmistakable defence furnished her by her husband himself,

19. Who not long after married a young maiden for her beauty and for her riches, to discharge his debts.

20. For the young woman was very rich, and Cicero had the custody of her estate, being left guardian in trust;

21. And being much in debt, was persuaded by friends to marry her, notwithstanding the disparity of age.

22. Mark Antony, who mentions this marriage in his answer to Cicero's Philippics, which are his speeches against Antony,

23. Reproaches him for putting away a wife with whom he had lived many years, adding strokes of sarcasm at Cicero's scholarly habits.

24. Not long after his marriage, Cicero's daughter Tullia died in childbed at Lentulus' house,

25. To whom she had been married after the death of Piso, her former husband.

26. The philosophers from all parts came to comfort Cicero,

27. For his grief was so excessive that he put away his new-married wife, because she seemed to be pleased at the death of Tullia.

 

Chapter 84

  1. Cicero had no concern in the design that was now forming against Caesar,

  2. Although, in general, he was Brutus' principal confidant, and one who was as aggrieved at the present, and as desirous for the former state of public affairs, as any other.

  3. When Brutus and Cassius assassinated Caesar, and the friends of Caesar had gathered together, there was fear that the city would again descend into civil war.

  4. Mark Antony, being consul, convened the senate, and made a short address recommending concord.

  5. And Cicero followed him, trying to persuade the senate to imitate the Athenians,

  6. And decree an amnesty for what had been done, and to bestow provinces on Brutus and Cassius.

  7. But neither of these pleas were effective. For as soon as the common people saw Caesar's body carried through the marketplace,

  8. With Antony displaying Caesar's bloodied clothes pierced through in every part with daggers, they were enraged to a frenzy,

  9. And went in search of the murderers, taking firebrands to burn their houses.

10. The assassins, however, being forewarned, avoided this danger, and left the city.

11. Antony was delighted by this, and everyone was alarmed at the prospect that he would make himself sole ruler, Cicero more than anyone.

12. For Antony, seeing Cicero's influence reviving in the commonwealth and knowing how closely he was connected with Brutus, was ill-pleased to have him there.

13. Cicero, fearing Antony's intentions, was inclined to go as lieutenant with Dolabella into Syria.

14. But Hirtius and Pansa, consuls-elect as successors of Antony, good men and lovers of Cicero,

15. Entreated him not to leave, undertaking to put Antony down if Cicero would stay in Rome.