1 Plutarch declares that it was no exaggeration, and less than the truth,
when Cicero declared that he was carried back to Rome on the shoulders of
Italy, Cic. c. 33.
202 THE RETURN. CHAP. xm.
From the Capitol he went, as he says, home ; but certainly
not to his former home on the Palatine, which, as we know,
no longer existed, but either to some temporary residence,
provided for him, or perhaps to the house of a friend. Next
day he entered the Senate-house and took his accustomed
seat.
He rose and addressed the Senate in a speech which is
too florid for modern taste, and too full of compliments to
everybody, including himself. 1 But we must remember the
audience around him, and the character of the man. The
intensity of his past sorrow was the measure of his present
joy. His sensitive and impressionable mind, so easily elated
and so soon depressed, bounded at the thought of his glorious
return ; and we must not measure with a cold and carping
criticism the impassioned language in which the orator poured
forth his thanks to the authors of his safety. The limits of
this work will not allow me to do more than quote one or
two short passages.
After lauding the Senate to the skies, and speaking in
complimentary terms of the two consuls, he passed on to the
delicate topic of his own conduct on the occasion of his
flight from Rome. We may pardon him for giving this a
complexion not quite warranted by fact. He had retired
in terror at the violence of Clodius, and because he wanted
nerve to follow the advice of those friends who counselled
him to stay and fight his enemy with his own weapons ;
and also because he had believed that in a few days he
would be called back in triumph. Now, however, he sought
to justify himself by the plea that his only object was to
spare the effusion of blood, and declared that he might have
defended himself by force of arms.
1 Both this, however, and the con- Cassius, was written in this year. Orelli
secutive orations ad Quirites, pro Domo gives no sound reason for this opinion ;
sud, and de Haruspiciim Responsis, are and, judging from internal evidence, I
pronounced by Orelli and others to be see no sufficient ground for discrediting
spurious and made up of tesselated pas- them. There is indeed a suspicious
sages from the speeches in Pisonem and similarity, or rather identity, in many
pro Sextio. Orelli thinks they were passages between them and the Pisonian
composed ab inepto declamatore, in the and Sextian orations, but the same ob-
early part of the reign of Augustus, and jection may be made to the genuineness
that much use was made of Cicero's of those two if they are closely corn-
genuine work de Exposition* suorum pared with each other.
Conciliorum, which, according to Dio
JET. 50. ADDRESS TO THE SENATE. 203
"Nor was I," he says, "wanting in that same courage, which is to you not
unknown ! But I saw that if I had vanquished my present adversaiy, there were
too many others whom I must vanquish also. If I had been vanquished many
good men must have perished, both for me and with me, and even after me. I saw
that the avengers of a tribune's blood were ready on the instant, but that punish-
ment for my death was reserved for the courts of law and for posterity. I was
unwilling when, as consul, I had defended the common safety without having
recourse to the sword, to defend by arms my own safety as a private individual, and
I preferred that good men should mourn over my misfortunes rather than despair
in their own ; and, besides, I thought that if I alone were slain it would be igno-
minious for me, but if I perished with many others it would be calamitous for the
state."
He bitterly attacked Piso and Gabinius, the consuls of
the preceding year.
" I had heard," he said, " from one of the wisest of men and the best of citi-
zens, Quintus Catulus, that not often had there been one wicked consul, but two
never, since the foundation of Rome, except in the time of Cinna. . . . But there
were two consuls whose narrow, low, poor, petty minds, filled with darkness and
meanness, could not bear the light of the splendour of that honour, nor sustain
nor comprehend the magnitude of so great an office ; not consuls, I will not
call them so, but brokers of provinces and men who made merchandise of your
dignity. Of whom one, in the hearing of many, demanded back from me Catiline
his admirer, and the other, Cethegus his cousin two men, the greatest villains
since the memory of man ; not consuls, but robbers, who not only abandoned me,
and in a cause too that was public and consular, but betrayed and opposed me,
and wished me to be bereft of every assistance, not only from them, but from you
and all other classes of whom one, however, deceived and disappointed neither
me nor any one else."
He here alluded to Gabinius, upon whom he next poured
out all the vials of his wrath, describing his character and
morals in language to which a Roman Senate might listen,
but which is hardly fit for Englishmen to read. I can only
glance at some of the charges which the infuriated orator
enforced with all the power of his eloquence.
He accused him of ineffable sensuality, and declared that
he prostituted his person to repair his shattered fortunes :
" Had he not taken refuge at the altar of the tribuneship he must have been
thrown into prison by the number of his creditors, and his property would have
been confiscated. When a countless multitude had gone to him from the Capitol
and implored him as suppliants and mourners, when the noblest of the Roman
youths, and the body of knights, had thrown themselves at the feet of that most
filthy panderer, with what a look did the frizzled debauchee (cincinnatus ganeo)
cast from him not only the tears of the citizens but the prayers of his country !
When the Senate had resolved to change their dress and put on the garb of mourn-
ing, he, smeared with greasy ointments, in his magisterial robe of office, which all
the praetors and aediles had then thrown off, laughed at their misery and mocked
their sorrow. . . . When, however, in the Circus Flaminius, he was introduced
as consul to the meeting to deliver an harangue, not by a tribune of the people,
but by a robber and arch-pirate (of course Clodius was meant), he came forward
and with what a dignified appearance ! full of wine, sleep, and lust, with
moistened curls and dressed hair, heavy eyes, flabby cheeks, a squeaking and
204 THE RETURN. CHAP. xm.
drunken voice, he a grave authority ! declared that he was extremely displeased
that citizens had been punished without a trial. Where has the great authority
so long hidden himself from us ? Why has the distinguished virtue of this dancer
with the curling-tongs so long been absent from his scenes of licentiousness and
riot ?"
He then turned upon Piso, and drew his portrait in colours
quite as black. Piso had, he said, early in life practised as
an advocate in the Forum, although he had nothing to re-
commend him except an affected solemnity of countenance.
He had never studied law; he possessed no gift of oratory-
no acquaintance with military affairs, no knowledge of man-
kind, no generosity of mind. As you passed by him, you
might notice that he was rough, unpolished, and morose ; but
would not suppose that he was a sensualist and a villain.
He was of a dark and swarthy complexion, and Cicero pro-
ceeded
" Between this man and an Ethiopian block, if you had placed it in the Forum,
you would think there was no difference a thing without feeling or taste ; a
tongueless, sluggish, scarcely human piece of matter. You would say that he had
just been carried off from a gang of Cappadocian slaves. At home, too, how licen-
tious ! how impure ! how intemperate ! with his voluptuous pleasures, admitted,
not through the front door, but a secret postern."
He did not forget to thank his faithful friend Plancius, to
whom he owed so much for his hospitable reception at Thes-
salonica, and who now had his reward in listening in the
Senate once more to the voice of Rome's greatest orator.
He spoke of his brother Quintus with the warmest affection
and gratitude, and praised the conduct of his son-in-law Piso
Frugi, but made no allusion to his recent death. He con-
cluded his oration by drawing a contrast between the circum-
stances attending his own return and the return of distin-
guished Romans who had been recalled or who had come
back from banishment, such as Papillius, Metellus, and Marius,
and said :
" In their case there was no unanimous agreement of the magistrates, no sum-
moning of the Roman people to defend the Republic, no movement in Italy
there were no decrees of municipal towns and colonies. Wherefore, since your
authority has invited me back, the Roman people has recalled me, the Republic
has implored me to return, and the whole of Italy has carried me back almost on
its shoulders, I will take care, Conscript Fathers, that as those things have been
restored to me which were not in my power, I shall make good what does lie in
my power to guarantee, especially since I have recovered that which I had lost ;
and I never lost my virtue and fidelity."
Afterwards, on the same day, he addressed the people in
the Forum in an harangue, which is known as the oration ad
B.C. 57- RIOT IN THE STREETS, 205
Quirites. He went over much the same ground as in his
speech to the Senate, praising the people as he had praised
the senators ; and it is curious to observe how he clothed the
same idea in different words. Often, however, the passages
are identical, and prove, if they are genuine, that both the
speeches were carefully prepared aud written beforehand, as
was the case with most of his orations. And, indeed, it may
be remarked in passing, that the Greeks and Romans had no
idea that it detracted in the least from the merit of an orator
that he had composed his speech. The great masters of the
art of eloquence were too conscious of its difficulty, and too
anxious to succeed, to be ashamed to confess that upon this,
as upon all other arts, labour and pains and trouble must be
bestowed.
It happened that about this time, when Cicero was pane-
gyrising the people, they, or at all events a considerable part
of them, were engaged in a serious riot. A severe scarcity
had occurred at Rome, and the price of provisions rose to an
exorbitant height. There had been a deficiency in the pro-
vinces, chiefly Sicily, that supplied Rome with grain; and the
corn-factors kept the grain in their warehouses to take advan-
tage of famine prices. In fact, a famine had begun, and the
usual consequences followed. The mob rushed first to the
theatre, where the shows and games of the Apollinarian fes-
tival were going on, and by tumult and disturbance drove
the spectators out of the building. They then proceeded to
the Capitol, where the Senate was sitting, and, headed by
Clodius, with an armed band of desperadoes whom he had
taken into his pay, and drilled in companies almost like
regular soldiers, they attacked the senators with stones.
Quintus Metellus, the consul, his own brother-in-law, was
struck, and he afterwards named in the Senate two of the
men who had thrown the stones. These were Lollius and
Sergius, whom Cicero thus describes in his speech pro Domo>
in his fiercest style of virulent invective. Addressing Clodius,
he asked :
" Who is this Lollius ? who not even now is without a sword by your side who
demanded of you when you were a tribune of the people the life, I say nothing of
myself, but the life of Pompey. Who is Sergius ? the squire (armiger) of Catiline
one of his bodyguard the standard-bearer of sedition the getter-up of tavern
brawls convicted of violence a stabber, a stoner the terror of the Forum the
besieger of the senate-house."
206 THE RETURN. CHAP. xm.
The mob was so violent, threatening to burn down the
temple of Jupiter, that many of the senators were afraid to
enter the building, and declared that they did not dare to
deliver their opinions on the subject of the scarcity which
was the question then before the house. Clodius made use
of the famine to calumniate Cicero, and strove to make the
ignorant rabble believe that he was the author of their dis-
tress. In one sense, indeed, he may be said to have been
the innocent cause of it, for there is little doubt that the price
of provisions at Rome was affected by the prodigious number
of persons who had flocked to the city from all parts of Italy,
to evince their interest in his safety and witness his return.
But this was not the sense in which Clodius made the charge,
although in any other there was and could be as little con-
nection between Cicero and the scarcity as between Tenderden
steeple and Goodwin Sands. He says himself: "As if I had
any control over the supply of grain, or kept corn hoarded
up, or had any power or authority in the matter." But it
was believed by the starving populace, and they shouted his
name as they rushed along the streets, demanding bread
from Cicero, as the Parisian mob demanded it from Marie
Antoinette. Both the consuls summoned him to the senate-
house, from which he had kept away while Clodius and his
ruffians occupied the immediate vicinity. Means were taken
to disperse the mob, and Cicero did not shrink from his duty
like many of the senators, but attended at his post, and, see-
ing that the measure would be popular, proposed a resolution
that a law should be submitted to the people, conferring upon
Pompey for five years the absolute power of regulating the
import of grain from all parts of the world. The resolution
was carried ; and when it was communicated to the people
they loudly cheered the mention of Cicero's name a mode
of applause which he says was both foolish and novel. 1 He
then made them a speech out of doors ; and as the price of
provisions had already begun to fall indeed it fell on the
very day when the Senate first passed a resolution for his
recall, but afterwards rose again they were kept in good
humour, and there was no further disturbance. 2
1 More hoc insulso et novo plausum. cheapness and plenty that followed his
Ad. Att. iv. i. return, and interpreted it as a special
2 Cicero frequently alluded to the mark of the favour of Providence.
^T. 50. POWER CONFERRED ON POMPEY. 207
Next day, in a crowded Senate, everything was granted
that Pompey required. He asked for fifteen lieutenants, and
put Cicero's name at the head of the list, declaring that he
looked upon him as a second self. The consuls drew up a
bill in the terms of the former resolution ; but Messius, one
of the senators, proposed another, which gave Pompey extra-
vagant power. It conferred upon him a fleet and an army,
and such command over the provinces as would have super-
seded the authority of their respective governors. One con-
sequence of this move of Messius was, that Cicero's resolution,
which had before been thought by some to go too far, now
appeared moderate enough, and it was ultimately passed into
a law.
It has been mentioned that Atticus left Rome before the
end of the preceding year. He had not yet returned, and
therefore was not an eye-witness of the triumph of his friend's
recall. One advantage we gain by this is, that a correspond-
ence between them was kept up ; and Cicero's letters are
amongst our best sources of information as to the events of
the period. In his first letter, giving a short account of his
return and the subsequent incidents, he thus describes his
position : " For a state of prosperity, slippery ; for a state of
adversity, good." He admits that he had recovered beyond
his expectation his brilliant reputation in the Forum, his
authority in the Senate, and his popularity with good men ;
but his private affairs were in great disorder, and he adds
that there were, besides, some troubles of a domestic nature
which he did not like to trust to a letter. We have no
means of learning to what he here alludes ; but it is pro-
bable that it is a hint at some disagreement with his wife,
who had behaved so nobly to him in his adversity. He
entreated Atticus to come to him, and assist him with his
advice, saying : " I begin, as it were, a new kind of life.
Already some who defended me when I was absent, begin to
cherish secret anger and open envy towards me now that I
am present. I want you here exceedingly."
His chief anxiety was about the restoration of his pro-
perty. His house on the Palatine had been destroyed, and
on part of its site had been built a temple, dedicated by
Clodius, with bitter irony, to Liberty. Clodius had also
2o8 THE RETURN. CHAP. xm.
levelled the adjoining portico of Catulus 1 a monument of
his victory over the Cimbrians and appropriated the ground,
hoping that by the device of consecrating part he might keep
possession of the whole. The question was, whether the
land could be restored to its former owner ? Having been
consecrated ad pios usus, must it not, according to the same
theory that has been advocated in later times, remain for
ever inalienable ? The matter was referred to the College of
Pontiffs, whose business it was to determine questions affect-
ing religion. On the 3Oth of September Cicero pleaded his
cause before them in a speech known as the oration pro
Domo sud y of which he says himself, that if ever he spoke
with effect it was then, when grief at his own wrongs and
the importance of the object he had in view, gave point and
vigour to his eloquence. 2 It consisted in great part of a nar-
rative of events which have been already narrated, and need
not detain us now.
The pontiffs considered the case, and gave their formal
opinion as follows : " If neither by command of the free
burghers in a lawful assembly (populi jusszi), nor by a ple-
biscite, he who avers that he dedicated the site to religious
uses had specific authority given him to do so, and has done
it without such authority, we are of opinion that that part
of the site which has been so dedicated may, without any
violation of religion, be restored to Cicero/' This, of course,
was thought conclusive in his favour, and he received the
congratulations of his friends. But Clodius still crossed his
path. That indefatigable enemy stopped at nothing to
gratify his hatred. He got his brother Appius, the praetor,
to summon a public meeting, where he harangued the people
and declared that the pontiffs had decided in his favour,
but that Cicero was coming to take possession by force. He
1 The portico stood on the site of a that the existing speech, pro Domo sud,
house which had belonged to M. Ful- is considered by some scholars not to be
vius Flaccus, formerly consul, who was genuine. Wolf is of opinion that it by
put to death as an accomplice of Caius no means comes up to what we might
Gracchus. The house was pulled down, expect from Cicero's praise of it, and
and on its foundations Catulus after- Markland agrees with him. My own
wards erected his portico. It stood next opinion is that si non 2 vero, e ben tro-
to Cicero's house. vato. At all events, we need not doubt
that it is in many passages a close copy
2 I have in a former note mentioned of the original.
B.C. 57. THE TRIBUNE'S VETO. 209
therefore called upon them to follow him and Appius to
defend their own temple of Liberty. 1 In the meantime
the Senate, having received the opinion of the pontiffs, many
of whom were present, proceeded to discuss it, and were
quite ready to pass a resolution in accordance with it. This
was proposed by Marcellinus, the consul-elect for the follow-
ing year ; and Lucullus, on behalf of the College of Pontiffs,
of which he was a member, spoke in favour of it. He said
that the pontiffs w r ere the judges on the question of religion,
but the Senate on the question of law, and that both his col-
leagues had decided the religious question, and the Senate
would now determine whether a law should be passed to
give effect to their decision. Each of the other pontiffs who
were senators was then asked his opinion, and each spoke in
favour of restoring the ground to Cicero. Clodius, however,
as might be expected, opposed the motion. He got up, and
made a speech three hours long, evidently determined to
speak against time, and consume the rest of the day, to pre-
vent any resolution being passed. But the Senate would
not stand this. They at last clamoured him down, and he
was compelled to stop. The resolution of Marcellinus was
on the point of being carried, when Serranus the tribune inter-
posed his veto. What was now to be done ? Here, as in so
many instances, legislation was brought to a standstill by
the action of the tribunician power. Serranus had the un-
doubted right to exercise his veto, and, if exercised, it was
fatal to the measure. The Senate, therefore, resorted to the
expedient they had adopted to overcome the same resistance
in the case of the bill for Cicero's recall. They could not
prevent the veto, but they could give it the go-by, and make
the tribune responsible for the consequences. They there-
fore resolved that it was the opinion of the Senate that
Cicero's house should be restored ; the portico of Catulus let
out to contractors to rebuild ; and the authority of their
order defended by all the magistrates. If any violence oc-
curred, the Senate would consider that person the author of
1 In relating this to Atticus, Cicero Clodius called on the crowd to follow him
puts into Clodius's mouth a pun which is and "defend their Liberty" ut suam
most probably his own. He says that Libertatem defendant. Ad. Att. iv.
210 THE RETURN. CHAP. xm.
it who had interposed his veto. This had the desired effect,
for Serranus was frightened. His father-in-law flung off his
robe, and, throwing himself at his feet, as he had before done
on the occasion of the bill for Cicero's recall, entreated him
to give way. He asked for an adjournment to the following
day, and talked of the necessity of a night for reflection.
But the Senate remembered that this trick had been played
before, on the 1st of January, and refused to grant it. At
last, however, at Cicero's own suggestion, they agreed to the
adjournment.
During the night Serranus thought better of the danger
to which he subjected himself if he persisted in his veto ;
and next day, when the Senate assembled, he withdrew his
opposition, and the resolution was passed, The consuls im-
mediately employed contractors to rebuild the portico of
Catulus, and, with the assistance of assessors, they put a
value upon the property of Cicero which had been de-
stroyed, including Jiis house on the Palatine and his villas
at Tusculum and Formise, and for which he was to receive
compensation.
He was not at all satisfied with the sums that were
awarded for his houses, and declared that even the populace
thought them too low. Some, he said, attributed the small-
ness of the compensation to his own modesty in not making
a pressing demand for more ; but he wrote to Atticus that
the real reason was, that those persons he knew of (he does
not mention their names) who had clipped his wings, did not
wish them to grow again. " But," he adds, " they are grow-
ing again, as I hope."
He complained grievously in his letter of the state of his
private affairs, and of the cost and trouble of refurnishing his
Formian villa, which he could not bring himself to part with
nor bear to see. He had already advertised his villa at
Tusculum for sale, although he says he could not well do
without a suburban residence. He admitted that he had
exhausted the liberality of his friends, who had generously
assisted him with money during his banishment, and that he
was now in difficulties, He added that he had other anxie-
ties of a more secret, or, to use his own word, mysterious
^T. so. VIOLENCE OF CLOD I US. .211
kind, evidently alluding to the same cause of trouble to which
he alluded in his previous letter. 1
On the 3d of November Clodius went with a band of his
creatures to the Palatine, and drove off the workmen who
were rebuilding Cicero's house. They also pulled down the
portico of Catulus, which had been already raised as far as
the roof, and after doing as much damage as they could to
Ouintus's adjoining house, by throwing volleys of stones at
it, they, by "command of Clodius, set it on fire. He had now
become utterly desperate ; and knowing that if he was to be
tried for his crimes he could hardly make his case worse by
further violence, he attempted to murder Cicero in open day.
On the 1 1 th of November, as he was going down from the
Capitol along the Via Sacra, which ran through the Forum