was extended alfo to his flaves, when by
their fidelity and fervices they had recom-
mended themfelves to his favour. We have
feen a remarkable inftance of it in Tyro,
whofe cafe was no otheruife different from
the reft, than as it was diftlnguilhed by the
fuperiority of his merit. In one of his let-
ters to Atticus, '« I have nothing more,"
fays he, " to write ; and my mind indeed
*« is fomewhat ruffled at prefent; for So-
«* citheus, my reader, is dead; a hopeful
«« youth ; which has afflifted me more than
«« one would imagine the death of a flave
♦« ought to do."

He entertained very high notions of
friendlhip, and of its excellent ufe and
benefit to human life ; which he has beau-
tifully illuftrated in his entertaining treatife
on that fubjeft; where he lays down no
other rul^s than what he exemplified by his
praftice. For in all the variety of friend-
Jhips in which his eminent rank engaged
him, he never was charged with deceiving,
deferting, or even flighting any one whom
he had once called his friend, or efteemed
an honeft man. It was his delight to ad-
vance their profperlty, to relieve their ad-
verfity ; the fame friend to both fortunes ;
but more zealous only in the bad, where
fcis help was moft wanted, and his fervices
the moft difinterefted : looking upon it not
as a friendfhip, but a fordid traffic and mer-
ehandi^e of benefits y where good offices are to
bd weighed by a nice eftimate of gain and
lofs. He calls gratitude the mother of 'vir-
tues ; reckons it the moft capital of all du-
ties ; and ufes the words grateful and good as
terms fynonymous, and infeparably united
in the fame charafter. His writings abound
with fentiments of this fort, as his life did
with the examples of them ; fo that one of
his friends, in apologizing for the impor-
tunity of a requeft, obferves to him with
great truth, that the tenor of his life would
be a fufficient excufc for it ; fince he had
cftablilhed fucli a cuftom, of doing every
thing for his friaids, that they m longer
^equejtedi hut claimed a right to command
hi}n.

Yst he was not more generous to his



friends, than placable to his enemies j rea-
dily pardoning the greatefl: injuries, upon
the llighteft fubmiffion ; and though no man
ever had greater abilities or opportunities
of revenging himfelf, yet when it was in
his power to hurt, he fought out reafons to
forgive ; and whenever he was invited to it,
never declined a reconciliation with his moft
inveterate enemies ; of which there are nu-
merous inftances in his hiftory. He de-
clared nothing to be more laudable and nuor-
thy of a great man than placability \ and laid \\
down for a natural duty, to moderate our re -
'uenge, and obfcr-ve a temper in punifhing\ ,
and held repentance to be a fufficient ground for •
remitting it : and it was one of his fayings,
delivered to a public affembly, that his en-
mities 'xvere mortal, hh friendjiips immortal.
His manner of living was agreeable to
the dignity of his character, fplcndid and
noble : his houfe was open to all the learned
ftrangers and philofophers of Greece and
Afia ; feveral of whom were conftantly en-
tertained in it as part of his family, and \
fpent their whole lives with him. His levee ■
w as perpetually crouded with multitudes of
all ranks ; even Pompey himfelf not dif-
daining to frequent it. The greateft part
came not only to pay their compliments,
but to attend him on days of bufmefs to the
f;*nate or the forum ; where, upon any de-
bate or tranfaftion of moment, they con-
ftantly waited to condudl him home again :
but on ordinary days, when thefc m.orning
vifits were over, as they ufually were before
ten, he retired to his books, and (hut him-
felf up in his library, without feeking any
other diverfion, but what his children af-
forded to the ihort intervals of his leifure.
His fupper was the greateft meal ; and the
ufual feafon with all the great of enjoying
their friends at table, which was frequently
prolonged to a late hour of the night : yet
he was out of his bed every morning before
it was light ; and never ufed to jleep again at
7ioon, as all others generally did, and as
it is commonly prattifed in Rome to this
day.

But though he was fo temperate and
ftudious, yet when he was engaged to fup
with others, either at home or abroad, he
laid afide his rules, and forgot the invalid;
and was gay and fprightly, and the very
foul of the company. When friends were
met together, to heighten the comforts of
focial life, he thought it inhofp; table not to'
contribute his fhare to their common mirth,,
or to damp it by a cburlilh refervednefs.
But he wai really a iover of chearful enter-
tainmentSj



Book III. ORATIONS, CHARACTERS, AND LETTERS. 97

tamments, being of a nature remarkably How much more cold then and infipid muft

facetious, and Angularly turned to raillery ; they needs appear to us, who are unac-

a talent which was of great fervice to him at quainted wit'i the particular charafters and

the bar, to correft the petulance of an ad- ftories to which they relate, as well as the

verfary; relie've the fatiety of a tedious cavfe -^ peculiar fafliions, humour, andtafteofwit

'di-vert the muds of the judges ; and mitigate in that age ? Yet even in thefe, as Quinti-

the rigour of a fentence, by making both Han alfo tells us, as well as in his other com-

the bench and audience merry at the ex- pofitions, people would fooner find ^haf
jience of the accufer.

This ufe of it was always thought fair,
find greatly applauded in public trials ; but
in private converfations, he was charged
jfometimes with pulhing his raillery too far ;



thej might reject than luhat they could add
to them.

He had a great number of fine houfes in
different parts of Italy ; fome writers reckon
up eighteen', which, excepting the family



and through a confcioufnefs of his fuperior feat at Arpinum, feem to have been all

wit, exerting it often intemperately, with- purchafed, or built by himfelf. They were

out reflefting what cruel wounds his ladies fituated generally near to the fea, and placed

inflifted. Yet of all his farcaftical jokes, at proper diftances along the lower coaft,

which are tranfmitted to us by antiquity, between Rome and Pompeii, which was

we (hall not obferve any but what were about four leagues beyond Naples ; and for

pointed againft charafters, either ridiculous the elegance of ftrufture, and the delightg

or profligate ; fuch as he defpifed for their of their fituation, are called by him the eyes,

follies, or hated for their vices j and though or the beauties of Italy. Thofe in which he

he might provoke the fpleen, and quicken took the moft pleafure, and ufually fpenC

the malice of his enemies, more than was fome part of every year, were his Tufculum,

confiftent with a regard to his own eafe, Antium, Auftura, Arpinum; his Formian,

yet he never appears to have hurt or loft a Cuman, Puteolan, and Pompeian villas ;

friend, or any one whom he valued, by the all of them large enough for the reception

Jevity of jefting. not* only of his own family, but of his

It is certain, that the fame of his wit was friends and numerous guefts ; many of whom,

as celebrated as that of his eloquence, and of the iirft quality, ufed to pafs feveral days

that feveral fpurious colleftions of his fay- with him in their excutfions from Rome,
iags u'ere handed about in Rome in his
life-time, till his friend Trebonius, after



But befides thefe that may properly be rec-
koned feats, with large plantations and gar-



he had been conful, thought it worth while dens around them, he had feveral little inns
to publifli an authentic edition of them, in ' " '
Id 'Volume 'which he addreffed to Cicero himfelf,
'Csfar likewife, in the height of his power,
having taken a fancy to coiled the Apoph-
thegms, or memorable fayings of eminent
men, gave ftridl orders to all his friends
who ufed to frequent Cicero, to bring him
enjety thing of that fort, n.vhich happened to
drop frork him in their company. But Tiro,
Cicero's freedman, who ferved him chiefly
in his ftudies and literary affairs, publiflied
after his death the moft perfedl coUedion of
his Sayings, in three books; where Quin-
tilian however wiflies, that he had been more
/paring in the number, and judicious in the
choice of them. None of thefe books are now
remaining, nor any other fpecimcn of the
jefts, but what are incidently fcattered in



as ne calls tliem, or baiting -places on the
road, built for his accommodation in paffing
from one houfe to another.

His Tufculan houfe had been Sylla's, the
diclator ; and in one of its apartments had
a painting of his ?nemorable njiiiory near Nola^
in the Marfc nvar, in which Cicero had
ferved under him as a volunteer : it was
about four leagues from Rome, on the top
of a beautiful hill, covered with the villas
of the nobility, and affording an agreeable
profpcft of the city, and the country around
it, with plenty of water flowing through his
grounds in a large ftream or canal, for
which he paid a rent to the corporation of
Tufculum. Its neighbourhood to Rome
gave him the opportunity of a retreat at any
hour from the fatigues of the bar or the



'different parts of his own and other people's fenate, to breathe a little frefti air, and di-

writings; which, as the fame judicious vert himfelf wirh his ^riends or family : fo

critic obferves, through the change of tafte that this was the place in which he took the

in different ages, and the want of that moft delight, and fpent the greateft Ibare

aBion or gejlure , which gave the chief fpirit of his leimr ; and for that reafon im-

to many of them, could 7ie^cr he explained to proved and adorned it beyond ail his othet

fdvaaiage^ though /several had attempted it, Uoufes,

h When



ELEGANT EXTRACTS,



Book IIL



When a greater fatlety of the city, or a
longer vacation in the foram, difpofed him
to ieek a calmer fcene, and more undifturbed
retirement, he ufed to remove to Antium
or Aflura. At Antium he placed his beft
colleclion of books, and as it was not above
thirty miles from Rome, he could have
daily intelligence there of every thing that
paffed in the city. Aftura was a little
ijland, at the mouth of a river of the fame
name, about two leagues farther towards
the fouth, between the promontories of An-
tium and Circaeum, and in the view of them
both; a place peculiarly adapted to the
purpofes of folitude, and a fevere retreat;
covered with a thick wood, cut out into
ihady walks, in which he ufed to fpend the
gloomy and fplenetic moments of his life.

In the height of furamer, the manfion-
houfe at Arpinum, and the little ifland ad-
pining, by the advantage of its groves and
cafcades, afforded the beft defence againft
the inconvenience of the heats ; where, in
the greateft that he had ever remembered,
we find him refrefhing himfelf, as he writes
to his brother, with the utmofl pleafure, in
the cool flream of his Fibrenus. His other
Tillas were fituated in the more public parts
of Italy, where all the beft company of
Rome had their houfes of pleafure. He
had two at Formioe, a lower and upper
villa ; the one near to the port of Cajeta,
the other upon the mountains adjoining.
He bad a third on the Ihore of Baice, be-
tween the lake Avernus and Puteoli, which
he calls his Puteolan : a fourth on the hills
of Old Cumce, called his Cuman villa ; and
a fifth at Pompeii, four leagues beyond Na-
ples, in a country famed for the purity of
Its air, fertility of its foil, and delicacy of
its fruits. His Puteolan houfe was built
after the plan of the Academy of Athens,
and called by that name; being adorned
»with a portico and a grove, for the fame
ufe of philofophical conferences. Some
time after his death, it fell into the hands
of Antiftius Vetus, who repaired and im-
proved it ; when a fpring of warm water,
which happened to burft out in one part of
it, gave occafion to the following epigram,
made by Laurea Tullius, one of Cicero's
freedraen.

Quo tua Romana vindex clarlffime linguae
Sylva loco melius, furgere juffa viret,
Atque Academise celebrataiti nomine villam
Kunc reparat culm fub potiore Vetus,
Hie etiam apparent lymphs non ante repertse,
Lflnguidti 9Ui8 Infiifo luniiiia rgre bvant^



Nimirum locus ipfe fui Ciceronis honore
Hoc dedit, hac fontes cum patefecit ope.
Ut quoniam totum legitur fine fine per orbemj
Sint plures, occulis qua mediantur, aquae.

Plin. Hift.Nat. 1, 31.1.

« Where groves, once thine, now with frefll

" verdure bloom,
*< Great Parent of the eloquence of Rome,
« And where thy Academy, favourite feat,
'* Now to Antiftius yields its fweet retreat.
" A gu/hing ftream burfts out, of wond'r:m

" pow'r,
*♦ To heal the eyes, and weaken'd fight reftore.
« The place, which all its pride from Cicer»

" eirew,
** Repays this honour to his memory due,
•' That fince his works throughout the vvorli'

" are fpread,
" And with fuch eagernefs by all are read,
♦' New fprings of healing quality Ihall rife,
*' To cafe the increafc of labour to the eyes."

The furniture of his houfes was fuitable
to the elegance of his tafte, and the magni-
ficence of his buildings ; his galleries were
adorned with ftatues and paintings of the
beft Grecian mafters; and his velTels and
moveables were of the beft work and choiceft
materials. There was a cedar table of his
remaining in Pliny's time, faid to be the
firji which was ever feen in Rome, and to
have coft him eighty pounds. He thought it
the part of an eminent citizen to preftrve an
uniformity of charader in every article of his
conduft, and to illuftrate his dignity by the
fplendor of his life. This was the reafon of
the great variety of his houfes, and of their
fituation in the moft confpicuous parts of
Italy, along the courfe of the Appian road ;
that they might occur at every ftage to the
obfervation of travellers, and lie commo-i
dious for the reception and entertainment of
his friends.

The reader, perhaps, when he refledls on 1
what the old writers have faid on the medio- '
crity of his paternal eftate, will be at a loft |
to conceive whence all his revenues flowed^
that enabled him to fuftain the vaft expence
of building and maintaining fuch anumber-
of noble houfes; but the folution will be,
eafy, when we recoUedl the great opportu*
nities that he had of improving his original;!
fortunes. The two principal funds of wealth
to the leading men of Rome, were firft, thci
public magiftracies, and provincial con»»,(
mands; fecondly, the prefents of kings^J
princes, and foreign ftates, whom they hs '
obliged by their fervices and proteftionj
and though no man was more moderate i^
the uf« of thefe advantages than Cicero, y<



Book III. ORATIONS, CHARACTERS, AND LETTERS. 99'



evident indeed from his works ; where we
find him perpetually praifmg and recom-
mending whatever was laudable, even in a
rival or an adverfary ; celebratino- '"f.,-;*.



to one of his prudence, oeconomy, and con-
tempt of vicious pleafures, thefe were abun-
dantly fufficient to anfwer all his expences :
for in his province of Cilicia, after all the

memorable inftances ~of his generofity, by wherever it was found,' whether in the an-
I which he faved to the public a full million cients or his contemporaries ; whether ia
i fterling, which all other governors had ap- Greeks or Romans ; and verifying a maxim,
plied to their private ufe, yet at the expi- which he had declared in a' fpeech to the
ration of his year, he left in the hands of fenate, that no man could be enuions of another s
the publicans in Ajta near tixienty thoufand 'virtue, <who nvas confcious of his o^vn,

■ po:mds, referved from the ftrift dues of his His fprightly wit would naturally have
.government, and remitted to him after- recommended him to the favour of the la-
I wards at Rome. But there was another dies, whofe company he ufed to frequent

way of acquiring money, efteemed the moft when young, and with many of whom of
reputable of any, which brought large and the firll quality, he was oft engao-ed in his
'frequent fupplies to him, the legacies of de- riper years to confer about the interefts of
\ceafed friends. It was the peculiar cuftom of their hufbands, brothers, or relations, who
jRome, for the clients and dependants of were abfent from Rome ; yet we meet with
'families, to bequeath at their death to their no trace of any criminal gallantry or in-
i patrons, fome confiderable part of their trigue with any of them. In a letter to
'eitatcs, as the moft efFeftual teftimony of Pxtus, tov/ards the end of his life, he wives
their refpeft and gratitude j and the more a ajocofe account of his fupping with their
jman received in this way, the more it re- friend Volumnius, an epicurean wit of the
. idounded to his credit. Thus Cicero men- firft clafs, when the famed courtefan, Cy-
jtions it to the honour of Lucullus, that theris, who had been Volumnius's Have,
: while he governed Afia as proconful, ma?iy and was then his miftrefs, made one of the
great ejlates nuere' left to him by ixiill : and company at table : where, aftor feveral jokes
i Nepos tell us in praife of Atticus, that he on that incident, he fays, that he 7ie^erfuf-

■ \fnccfeded to many inheritances of the fame pededjhe nuonld have been of the party ; anii

kind, bequeathed to him on no other ac- though he <was alxvays a lo'ver of chearfd fa-
count than on his friendly and amiable tem- tertainments , yet ?iothing of that fort had e'ver
per. Cicero had his full fhare of thefe pleafed him nxihen young, much lefs nomj^nvhen

I jteftamentary donations ; as we fee from the he <was old. There was one lady, how-

I I many inftances of them mentioned in his ever, called Csfellia, with whom he kept
! letters; and when he was falfely reproached up a particular familiarity and correfpon-

by Antony, with being neglecied on thefe dence of letters; on which Dio abfurdly
occafions, he declared in his reply, that he grounds fome little fcandal, though he owns
had gained from this fingle article about her to have been feaienty years old. She is
t^vo hundred thoufand pounds, by the free and frequently mentioned in Cicero's letters as a
■ ^voluntary gifts of dying friends ; nut the forged lover of books and philofophy, and on that
\'wills of perfons zmkno'vju to him, njuith n,vhich account as fond of his company and wri-
.\ be charged Antony. tings: but while out of complaifance to

I! His moral character was never blemifhed her fex, and a regard to her uncommon ta-
|by theftain of any habitual vice ; but was lents, he treated her always with refpeft;
la fliining pattern of virtue to an age, of all yet by the hints which he drops of her to
I others the moft licentious and profiigate. Atticus, it appears that fhe had no Ihare



i His mind was fuperior to ?11 the fordid paf-
I iions which engrofs little fouls ; avarice,
I envy, malice, luft. If we fift his familiar
letters, we cannot difcover in them the leaft
I hint of any thing bafe, immodeft, fpiteful



of his affedions, or any real authority with
him.

His failings were as few as were ever
found in any eminent genius ; fuch as flowed
from his conftitution, not his will; and



or perfidious, but an uniform principle of were chargeable rather to the condition of

benevolence, juftice, love of his friends and his humanity, than to the fault of the man,

country, flowing through the whole, and He was thought to he too f anguine in prof pe^

infpiring all his thoughts and adions. rity, too def ponding in ad'verfity : and apt to

Though no man ever felt the efiefts of other perfuade himfelf in each fortune, that it

\ people's envy more feverely than he, yet no <vjould ne'ver have an end. This is Pollio's

' man was ever more free from it : this is al- account of him, which feems in general to

j lowed to him by all the old writers, and is be true: Brutus touches the firft part of it

hi in



leo



ELEGANT EXTRACT S»



Book lIT.



in one of his letters to him; and when had ever been horn. This Is the notion that
things were going profperou fly againft An- he inculcates every where of true glory %^
tony, puts him gently in mind, that he which is furely one of the nobleft principleB
Jeemed to triift too much to his hopes: and he that can infpire a human breail ; implanted|
himfelf allows the fecond, and fays, that if by God in our nature, to dignify and exalt 1
tiriy one n»as timorous in great and dangerous it; and always found the ftrongeft in th«'
e-uents, apprehending alnuajs the nuorjiy rather beft and moft elevated minds ; and to which
than hoping the beji, he nvas the man ; and if we owe every thing great and laudable,!
that ivas a fault, confeffes himfelf 7iot to he that hiftory has to oiFer us through all th«|
free from it : yet in explaining afterwards ages of the heathen world. There is not]
the nature of this timidity, it wasfuch, he an Inftance, fays Cicero, of a man's exert-j
tells us, as (hewed itfelf rather in forefeing ing himfelf ever nvith praife atid 'virtue in thA
dafigers, than in encoiinterijig them : an ex- dangers of his cotmtry, nuho luas not dratcn t»
plication which the latter part of his life it by the hopes of glory, a7td a regard to pofierity,
fully confirmed, and above all his death, Giue me a hoy, fays Quintilian, nvhom praife
which no man could fuftain with greater excites, mohom glory ivarms : for fuch a
.courage and refolution. _ _ fcholar was fure to anfwer all his hopes, and

But the moft confpicuous and glaring do credit to his difcipline. " Whether
paffion of his foul was, the love of glory and " pollerity will have any refpeft for me,"
thirji of praije:^ a paffion that he.not^only fays Pliny, " I know not, but I am fure

" that I have deferred fome from it: I
*« will not fay by my wit, for that would
" be_ arrogant ; but by the zeal, by the
" pains, by the reverence which I hav»
*' always paid to it."

It will not feem ftrange, to obferve th«
wifeft of the ancients pulhing this principle,
to fo great a length, and confidering glory
as the ampleft reward of a well-fpent life.



and



fome-
gree



avowed, but freely indulged
times, as he himfelf confeffes
€ - ven of •vanity. This often gave his ene-
mies a plaufible handle of ridiculing his
pride and arrogance ; while the forwardnefs
that he (hewed. to celebrate his own merits
in all his public fpeeches, feemed to juftify
their cenfures ; and fince this is generally
confidered as the grand foible of his life,

and has been handed down implicitly from when we refleft, that the greatefl part of

age to age, without e^er being fairly exa- them had no notion of any other reward or

mined, or rightly underftood, it will be futurity; and even thofe who believed a

proper to lay open the fource from which ftate of happineVs to the good, yet enter-

the palTion itfelf flov.ed, and explain the tained it with fo much diffidence, that ther

nature of that glory, of which he profelTes indulged it rather as a wifh, than a well

himfelf fo fond. grounded hope, and were glad therefore to

True glory then, according to his own lay hold on that which feemed to be within

definition of it, is a <wide and illujirious fame their reach ; a futurity of their own creating j

tfmany ajid great benefits conferred upon our an immortality of fame and glory from the

friends, our country, or the nuhole race of man- applaufe of poderlty. This, by a pleafino-

kind', it is not, he fays, the empty blnft of fiftion, they looked upon as' a propagation

popular fai'our, or the applaufe of a giddy mul- of life, and an eternity of exiftence ; and

titude, which all wife men had ever defpifed, had no fmall conjfort in imaainino-, that

and none more than himfelf; but the con- though the fenfe of it fhould not reach to

fefiting praije of all honefi men, and the in- themfelves, it would extend at leaft to

corrupt teftimony of thofe n.vho can judge of ex- others ; and that they fhould be doing good

eellent merit, ^vhich refunds always to 'virtue^ ftill when dead, by leaving the example of

m the echo to the 'voice; and fince it is the their virtues to the imitation of mankind,

general companion of good actions, ought Thus Cicero, as he often declares, never

not to be rejected by good men. That looked upon that to be his life, which was

thole who afpired to this glory were not to confined to this narrow circle on earth, but

cxpea eafe or pleajure, or tranquillity of life confidered his afts as feeds fown in the im-

for their pains ; hut 7nufi gi've np their o^vjn menfe univerfe, to raife up the fruit of