JET. 55. CICERO'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF. 271
mysteries, who had respected the sanctity of the Bona Dea as
little as he had respected the honour of his three sisters/' had
been let off with impunity by the Senate, and they allowed his
name still to disgrace the monument which they had themselves
erected as a memorial of the suppression of Catiline's conspiracy.
When Lentulus came back, he would find the sentiments of
men much changed from what he knew them when he left,
and it was the duty, therefore, of wise citizens, such as he
hoped both himself and Lentulus were, to change their views
and opinions also. And for this he had the authority of
Plato, who laid it down that a man ought in politics only to
contend for so much as he can persuade his fellow-citizens
to adopt, and ought to put compulsion upon his country as
little as he ought to put compulsion upon his parents. 1 It
would be a waste of time to confute such reasoning as this.
In the first place, the question was not whether Cicero should
continue to contend for impracticable measures, but whether he
was right in forming an alliance with those whose measures he
ex hypotJiesi disapproved. And in the next, there was no ques-
tion of compulsion, but simply whether he should persevere
in endeavouring to persuade his fellow-citizens to follow his
advice. He gives as a further and final reason, which perhaps
was the most cogent of any, the remarkable, or, as he calls
it, " divine," liberality of Caesar towards his brother and him-
self, which made it a duty to support him, whatever his for-
tunes might have been ; but his glorious career of conquest
now made it a duty to honour him even if he had behaved
differently towards them. And he might have added that
he was afraid to stand alone, and that fear as well as grati-
tude was one of the motives that influenced his conduct.
Appius Claudius, the consul, was also included in his am-
nesty for the past, and he did not think it necessary to vindi-
cate his conduct in being reconciled to the brother of his
bitterest enemy Clodius.
Alluding to his appearing as a witness for Vatinius, he
said that, as some of the most distinguished men at Rome
had chosen to patronise and caress his own enemy if they
1 The passage in Plato to which Cicero refers occurs in his Crito, c. 12 ; and
its meaning is fairly rendered by him, but it has really no application to his own
case of political casuistry.
272 CICERO'S DEFENCE OF HIMSELF. CHAP. xv.
had their Clodius, he had a right to have his Vatinius. And
he quoted some lines from the Eunuch of Terence, where the
Parasite advises the Captain to play off Pamphila against
Phaedria, which may be thus rendered :
' ' If she names Phsedria, do you forthwith
Begin to speak of Pamphila ; and if she says
' Let us invite fair Phsedria to supper,'
Do you rejoin, ' Let us have Pamphila
To sing to us.' If she breaks out
In praise of Phoedria's beauty, you extol
The face of Pamphila. In short, my friend,
Take care to pay her back in her own coin,
And I will warrant that you tease and fret her."
" Aye !" said Cicero, " and gods and men approve my
policy."
As to Crassus, although he had great reason to complain
of his conduct, he was not going to gratify the malignity of
others by continuing his enmity with him, as though they
could never be friends ; and both Pompey and Caesar had
urgently entreated him to make up the quarrel. He sums
up, as it were, the main points of his defence in the follow-
ing words :
" Pray be assured that if I had been at liberty, and things had remained as they
were, I would have pursued the same course. For I should not have thought it
right to contend against such powerful influence, not even if it had been possible
to destroy the supremacy of the most distinguished men in the state. Nor do I
think I ought to adhere obstinately to one opinion when things are altered and the
wishes of good men are changed, but we must go with the times. For an inflex-
ible adherence to one opinion has never been approved of by leading politicians ;
but, as in navigation it is a proof of skill to trim according to the weather, even
if you cannot make the port (although when you can make it by shifting the sails
it is folly to hold on your course with danger rather than by changing it to arrive
at the point you wish), so although all of us who are engaged in the government
of the state ought to aim, as I have often said, at dignified repose we ought
always to aim at the same object, but not always say the same thing. Therefore,
as I have just observed, if I had been as free as air, I would not have acted other-
wise as a politician than I have done. But when to take this course I am both
induced by the kindnesses of some and forced by the injuries of others, I find
no difficulty in both thinking and saying on public questions what I conceive
to be most for my interests as well as the interests of the state."
The rest of the letter to Lentulus refers principally to the
more pleasing subject of Cicero's studies. He promised to
send a copy of his speeches, which Lentulus had asked for,
and told him that they were not so numerous that they need
frighten him at the thought of perusing them. He would
send also his Dialogue de Oratore, and his poem in three
books on his Own Times, which would be an eternal memorial
B.C. 52. POSITION AS AN AD VOCATE. 273
of Lentulus's good offices towards him, and his own grateful
acknowledgment. He assured his friend in language which
has proved prophetic although it is not often that a man,
ventures to speak so confidently of his own name and actions
reaching the distant future that not only Lentulus, but the
whole world and posterity, should know that no one was
ever dearer or a greater favourite with him than himself.
The canvass for the consulships of the following year was
still going on, and the competitors trusted as usual to bribery
for success. They were all therefore threatened with pro-
secutions ; and Cicero wrote privately to Quintus, that the
question at issue was, whether they or the laws should perish. 1
Three of them, however Domitius Calvinus, Messala, and
Scaurus, seem to have applied to him to defend them, or, at
all events, he expected to be called upon ; for in a letter to
Atticus on the ist of October he says : "You will ask me,
' What will you be able to say for them ? ' May I die, if I know.
I find nothing to guide me in those three books (de Oratore)
on which you compliment me." The position of Cicero as an
advocate at this time was something like that of Erskine at
the English bar. Every one who was in legal jeopardy was
anxious to be defended by the most eloquent orator of Rome ;
and this was, according to his own account, one of the busiest
periods of his forensic career. Not a day passed in which he
had not to speak for somebody or other in the courts. His
time was so occupied with cases that he had hardly a spare
moment to write a letter, and he composed and dictated
while he walked.
I have mentioned how Gabinius had been recalled from
Syria, and how he crept into the city alone and in the silence
of night As he journeyed towards Rome he pretended that
he was going to demand a triumph, and to keep up the farce
he stayed for a few days outside the walls, as all were obliged
to do who sought the honour until the Senate had decided
1 Aut hominum aut legum inter it-us pressed by Cicero of their guilt, we find
ostendittir. Ad Quint, iii. 2. This him a few months afterwards rejoicing
does not mean that their lives were in that they were, for the present at all
jeopardy. The punishment for the events, out of jeopardy, as the courts
offence of bribery and corruption was could not sit during the days of thanks-
not death, but banishment. Notwith- giving decreed in honour of Cresar's
standing the strong conviction here ex- victories.
f
274 PROSECUTION OF GABINIUS. CHAP. xv.
on their claim. For more than a week he did not venture to
show himself in the senate-house; but by law he was obliged
to give an account of the military state of his province within
ten days after his return; and on the tenth day, therefore, he
appeared, and made the required report. He was then about
to retire, but the consuls stopped him ; and the publicani> or
contractors, who farmed the Syrian revenues, and whose
treatment by Gabinius has been already alluded to, were in-
troduced into the house to state their grievances. This gave
rise to a debate, in which Gabinius was bitterly attacked,
and by none more bitterly than Cicero. Exasperated by his
taunts, he called him, with a voice trembling with passion,
" Exile !" Upon this the Senate rose as one man, and with
indignant shouts gathered round Gabinius, as if about to
inflict summary chastisement upon him ; even the strangers,
the publicani, who were present, joined in the clamour and
the rush.
Gabinius was brought to trial on the charge of abandoning
his province and employing his army to restore Ptolemy
without leave from the Senate. This amounted to the crime
of majestas. Lentulus was the prosecutor, and, according to
Cicero, was utterly unfit for the task. Indeed, he did his
work so badly that he was accused of betraying the cause.
Cicero himself was strongly tempted to undertake the prose-
cution ; but, as he told his brothers, he was deterred because
he did not wish to come into collision with Pompey, who
strained every nerve to procure Gabinius's acquittal and he
had lost all confidence in the tribunals. His own expression
is, "We have no juries now; I dread a failure." 1 Besides,
he was afraid that the ill-will which he was conscious too
many bore towards himself might tell in favour of the ac-
cused if he became the prosecutor. The result was, that
Gabinius was acquitted by thirty-eight votes out of seventy.
Cicero congratulated himself that he had taken no part in the
trial beyond that of appearing as a witness against the accused.
If he had been the prosecutor, Pompey would have made it,
he said, a personal matter, and it would have led to a quarrel
1 Judices nullos habemus diro- language of an English Attorney -
rev^naformido. Ad Quint, ii. 2. We General advising against a state pro-
might almost fancy that this was the sedition.
/ET. 55. HIS ACQUITTAL. 275
between them. Besides, he added, considering Pompey's
influence and zeal, he himself would have been likely to come
off second-best, and he would have been like the gladiator
Pacidianus when matched with Aserninus, and might (like
him) have had the tip of his ear bitten off. The interest
which Pompey took in the issue of the trial was notorious to
all, and he spared no solicitation nor entreaty to procure an
acquittal. When the ballot-box, into which the votes of the
jurymen were thrown, was opened, and the result was known,
one of them rushed away from the court to carry the news
to him. Cicero mourned over the verdict. Writing to Atticus,
he declared that the constitution was utterly ruined, and he
could take no pleasure in public affairs. The Senate was a
nullity, and so were the courts of law. But as regarded him-
self, he affected a philosophic indifference which he by no
means felt. He told Atticus that he had grown too callous
to be angry, and sought refuge in his villas, his studies, and
his books, the kind of life most congenial to him. If he had
only his friend and his brother with him, politics might go
to the dogs. 1 He could take pleasure only in private and
domestic affairs. As to the impending trials of the consular
candidates, he said they would all be acquitted, and added
bitterly, that no one in future would be found guilty for a less
crime than murder. But this was punished with severity,
and there was no lack of cases. Some persons, amongst
whom were Pompey and Vibius Pansa, afterwards consul with
Hirtius in the year after Caesar's assassination, had tried to
induce Cicero to undertake the defence of Gabinius ; but he
says that, if he had consented, he would have been undone,
and have brought upon himself the general odium felt towards
the accused. Sallust told him that he ought either to have
prosecuted or defended, on which he remarks, " A pretty
friend is Sallust, who thinks I ought to incur dangerous
enmities or everlasting infamy." Besides, all his wishes now
tended to quiet and repose. He was heartily sick of the
state of things at Rome, and not without reason. The
Senate was fast falling into contempt : the legal tribunals
were infamously corrupt ; and the venal populace sold their
votes to the highest bidder. At the time of Gabinius's
1 Per me ista pedibus trahantnr. -. I,/ . lit. \\. 16.
276 DEFENCE OF.GABINIUS. CHAP. xv.
acquittal there was a terrible inundation of the Tiber. The
Appian Way was flooded as far as the temple of Mars,
which stood by the side of the road ; the gardens of Crasippes,
which lay along the banks of the river, were swept away, and
the streets were laid under water. Men thought it was a
judgment of Providence on account of the wicked verdict.
It is painful to see how Cicero's want of resolution made
him do things which he knew to be wrong. Gabinius, though
acquitted on the grave charge of treason, had another prose-
cution hanging over his head, and his advocate was Cicero.
The accusation now was that of improperly receiving money
from Ptolemy to restore him to his kingdom, and a criminal
proceeding was instituted against him to recover back the
amount. There was a struggle who should be the prosecutor,
before Porcius Cato, who, as praetor, had cognisance of the
case, and was not likely to show him any mercy. Memmius,
Nero, and two brothers of Mark Antony (nephews of the
celebrated orator), all put themselves forward, and, according
to the usual custom, the point was settled by a divinatio.
It was decided in favour of Memmius. In mentioning this
to his brother, Cicero adds, that Gabinius was hard pressed,
and intimates that he would be convicted, unless " our friend
Pompey, against the will of gods and men, upsets the whole
affair." And yet, notwithstanding this, he defended him.
He could not resist the urgent solicitation of Pompey ; but
his efforts were unsuccessful, and Gabinius was convicted and
sentenced to banishment. 1 If we possessed Cicero's speech,
we should no doubt find him complimenting the man whom
he had so often fiercely assailed, and we can well believe that
praise from his lips must have had little effect with the jury,
who could not have forgotten his former bitter denunciation
of the accused.
I have already pointed out the capital distinction between
his position at Rome, and the position of an advocate in
modern times. He was at perfect liberty to decline any
cause of which he did not approve, and he did not undertake
the defence of Gabinius as an advocate, but as a friend.
1 I do not understand how this hap- ment of exile on a conviction de pecuniis
pened, for the Lex Julia^ which was repetundis. Gabinius was afterwards
then in force, had repealed the punish- recalled from banishment by Caesar.
:
B.C. 52. REASON FOR DEFENDING GAB INI US. 277
And he was under no obligation to come forward as a witness
to the character of a man like Vatinius, whom he had branded
with every term of opprobrium and contempt. Even Middle-
ton admits that his conduct in these two instances is inde-
fensible ; and where Middleton gives him up, we may feel
tolerably sure that there is little or nothing to be urged on
his behalf. He says : " Whatever Cicero himself might say
in the flourishing style of an oration, it is certain that he
knew and felt it to be an indignity and dishonour to him,
which he was forced to submit to by the iniquity of the
times and his engagements to Pompey and Caesar, as he
often laments to his friends in a very passionate strain."
The " flourishing style of an oration" to which Middleton
here alludes, refers to what Cicero said in his speech for
Rabirius Postumus, when Memmius the prosecutor had
asserted that the Alexandrian deputies had as good a right
to give testimony in favour of Gabinius as Cicero had to de-
fend him.
" No, Memmius !" he replied, " the reason of my defending Gabinius was my
reconciliation with him. Nor am I ashamed to own that my quarrels are mortal,
my friendships eternal. For if you imagine that I undertook that defence against
my own will from fear of offending Pompey, you are greatly mistaken both in him
and me. For neither would Pompey have wished me to do anything for his sake
against my own will, nor would I, who have always held most dear the liberty of
my fellow- citizens, have surrendered my own."
These are brave words ; but after all we know of the cir-
cumstances they cannot be accepted as true.
The next cause in which Cicero was engaged arose out of
the case of Gabinius. His client, having been convicted, had
restore the money which he was accused of improperly
receiving from Ptolemy. This amounted to ten thousand
talents (about two millions and a half sterling), and as
Gabinius could not pay the sum, his property was sold.
But this was insufficient to realise the fine, and Rabirius
Postumus, a Roman knight, was accused of having re-
ceived a portion of the money that had been paid to Gabi-
nius. He was put upon his trial, and defended by Cicero.
He insisted that the law against pecuniary extortion (de
repetundis) did not apply to the knights, being intended only
to check the rapacity of provincial governors ; and, more-
over, asserted that not a farthing of the spoil had come into
278 CESAR'S ARCHITECTURAL WORKS. CHAP. xv.
the hands of Rabirius, who, on the contrary, had lent money
to Ptolemy, which had not been repaid to him, and he would
have become bankrupt in consequence if he had not been
assisted by the generosity of Caesar. The result of the trial
is not known ; but Drumann thinks it probable that Rabirius
was convicted and sentenced to banishment, from which he
was afterwards recalled by Caesar when he was dictator.
It is refreshing to turn from the distracted politics of Rome
to matters of more pleasing interest. Caesar, always grand and
magnificent in his views, had undertaken two great works
the enlargement of the Forum, and the erection of a splendid
hall in the Campus Martius for public meetings. He seems
to have commissioned Cicero to assist Oppius, his agent at
Rome, in the superintendence of the plans. In mentioning
this to Atticus, Cicero speaks of the expense in a tone which
it is easy to see is ironical. He says, " On the enlargement
of the Forum as far as the Hall of Liberty, an idea which
used to have your warm approval, Caesar's friends (I mean
myself and Oppius you may burst if you like at my calling
myself so) have thought the outlay of sixty millions of ses-
terces a mere bagatelle." It was necessary to pull down a
great many private houses, and of course the owners received
compensation. The building in the Campus Martius was to
be substituted for the old Septa or Barriers, a wooden en-
closure open to the sky, in which the people used to meet to
give their votes. Caesar was now erecting an edifice of
marble covered with a roof and surrounded by a portico a
thousand paces long. To this was to be added a sort of
town-hall (villa public a). The general object of these under-
takings was no doubt to ingratiate himself with the populace ;
but a special motive was his desire to eclipse ^Emilius Paul-
lus, who had just restored an ancient basilica in the centre
of the Forum, and was then engaged in building a new one,
which Cicero calls a most glorious, and at the same time
most popular work. The one or other of these is most
probably that of which the foundations have within the last
few years been laid bare by the excavation of the Forum.
As the spectator stands on the top of the Senator's palace
on the Capitol, he looks down upon it on the right of the
Via Sacra, and sees the paved area with portions of columns,
JET. 55- TREBATIUS THE SOLDIER-LAWYER. 279
and broken fragments of masonry lying on the surface. The
best example of an ancient basilica is at Treves. It is now
converted into an Evangelische Kirche. But it wants the
rows of columns which were usually found in these buildings,
and which became the side aisles when they were converted
into Christian churches.
Trebatius, to whom we have already more than once
alluded, was a good lawyer, but a bad soldier. He was
clearly out of his element in Caesar's camp, and was always
hankering after the polished society of Rome, which he had
left, as was usual with civilians at that time, to serve for a
short period in the army. He was also impatient at not
making so much money as he had expected in that fruitful
field for rapacity, a Roman province. Cicero took him to
task for this, and told him that he seemed to think he had
carried to the proconsul a bond for the payment of a debt,
instead of a mere letter of introduction from himself. He
frankly let him know that he thought him too indolent, and
too disposed to shirk his military duties ; nay, went so far
as to say, that in his expectations from Caesar he often
seemed to be rather impudent. He strongly urged him to
stay where he was, and make the most of his opportunities,
serving as he did under an illustrious and liberal commander,
and in a wealthy province. He warned him also not to take
offence if Caesar did not pay him all the attention he desired,
or seemed slow in satisfying his wishes ; for he must remem-
ber how much occupied the proconsul was, and the difficul-
ties he had to contend against. And this advice he said he
could, in lawyer-like fashion, fortify by quoting the authority
of Cornelius Maximus (whose pupil in civil law Trebatius
had been), for he was of the same opinion. He ends with
rather a stinging joke. " I am glad," he says, " that you
did not cross over into Britain, because you thus escaped
hardships, and I shall be spared a narrative of your exploits
there!"
Cicero paid great attention to the education of his son
and his nephew, who in Quintus's absence was entrusted to
his care. He spoke in a cheerful tone of the progress they
were making, and rejoiced in the affection the two cousins
felt towards each other. They were studying rhetoric under
2 So DEJECTION. CHAP. xv.
Paeonius, whom he describes as a good and experienced
teacher ; but he reminds his brother that his own method of
instruction was more searching and scientific, and he pro-
mised that if he took his young nephew with him into the
country he would teach him according to his own plan. In
the meantime, however, the boy, as was natural, liked better
the declamatory style of Paeonius; and his uncle said that
that was his own early practice, and he had good hopes that
young Cicero would be as successful as himself.
Quintus had been urging his brother to write poetry
probably that he might use the verses in his own projected
poem on Britain, but Cicero said that he had neither leisure
nor a mind sufficiently free from anxiety. Besides, he wanted
inspiration j 1 and in all sincerity he declared that Quintus
was a better poet than himself. His brother's library wanted
a supply of books, and Cicero was doing his best to get
them ; but those that were suitable were not for sale, and
to make copies a dexterous and careful hand was required,
which just then he did not possess amongst his slaves. He
promised, however, to speak to Tyrannic, his son's tutor, and
give his freedman Chrysippus instructions about it. The
letter in which he mentions this was written in October, just
as he was leaving Rome for his Tusculan villa, where he was
taking his son with him to go on. with his lessons. 2 In his
next letter to his brother, at the end of November, he spoke
in a tone of deep dejection. He repeated that he had
neither time nor spirits for poetry, being far too much dis-
tressed at the state of public affairs.
" I withdraw myself," he said, " altogether from politics, and devote myself to
literature ; but I will confess to you what I had especially wished to conceal from
you. I am distracted, my dearest brother, I am distracted, to think that we have
no longer a republic or courts of justice ; and that this period of my life, when I
ought to have been in a flourishing position, and in the full enjoyment of a sena-
tor's authority, is either tormented by the labours of the Forum, or soothed only
by literature at home to think that all in vain have I followed the advice in my
favourite line of Homer
' Strive always to excel ; be ever foremost in the race ' 3
1 Abest etiam ivdovaiavfJibs. Ad lusionis. The Latins used the same