even a presumption against the accused, should have occu-
pied a criminal tribunal for a considerable time with a
doubtful result, was an outrage against common-sense, and
can only be explained by considering the deplorable condi-
tion of the Republic, when causes were decided, not accord-
ing to their merits, but under the influence of bribery or
fear. Sylla was all-powerful in the state Chrysogonus was
his favourite ; and Cicero knew that these were arguments
against his client which would go far to supply the want of
facts. He made a masterly and conclusive speech ; but
much more elaborate than, according to our notions of
criminal jurisprudence, the case seemed to require, for not a
tittle of evidence was adduced to connect the son with the
murder. He was at Ameria at the time ; he had neither
friends nor influence at Rome ; not a shadow of proof was
given that he had ever seen or communicated with the
assassins ; nay ; it was unknown who the actual assassins
were. All the presumptions of guilt pointed towards the
Roscii, Capito and Magnus, especially the latter, whose
freedman had brought the first intelligence so rapidly to
Ameria, and whose previous character and conduct sub-
sequently to the murder justified the darkest suspicions.
Under these circumstances we should imagine that the duty
of the counsel for the accused would be simply to stand on
the defensive, and challenge the other side to the proof of
the indictment. Unless it could be shown that young
Roscius was present at or privy to the murder, there was
an end of the case, and he might at once demand an ac-
quittal. But Cicero did not venture upon such a course
before the tribunal which he was addressing. He enters
most minutely into the whole case ; examines every pos-
sible view in which it can be presented ; carefully balances
the presumptions of guilt as they apply to the one party or
the other ; deprecates the idea of giving offence to Erucius
30 CICERO AT THE BAR.
CHAP. HI.
or Chrysogonus ; and artfully appeals to the compassion,
and fears, and justice of the court.
Niebuhr says of his conduct on this occasion : " His de-
fence of Roscius of Ameria, whom Chrysoganus wanted to
get rid of, excited the greatest admiration of his talents,
together with the highest esteem for his own personal char-
acter. It was an act of true heroism for a young man like
Cicero, and still more so if we consider his family connec-
tion with Marius." 1 About the same time Cicero seems to
have defended Varenus, who was charged with the crime of
murder, and convicted ; but we possess only a few fragments
of the speech. Although he was now fairly launched in
his profession, and notwithstanding the reputation which he
had gained by his efforts as an advocate, he still did not
consider his education for his profession as complete. And
when his former preceptor Molo came, in the year B.C. 80,
as ambassador from Rhodes to Rome, he placed himself
again under his care, and took lessons from the accomplished
rhetorician. It is an interesting fact, and shows how
familiar had become the knowledge of Greek amongst the
educated classes at Rome, that Molo addressed the Senate
in that language to thank them for the friendship they had
shown to his native state.
The next cause in which Cicero was engaged, at least the
next of which we have any notice, although his speech is
lost, was one in which he was opposed to Cotta, one of the
most celebrated advocates of his day. He appeared against
him on behalf of a lady of Arretium, whose right to main-
tain her suit was contested on the ground that she was not
a Roman citizen. And the trial had something of a poli-
tical character in it, and exposed Cicero to the risk of
offending the all-powerful dictator. For Sylla had deprived
the citizens of Arretium of the Roman franchise, which was
so much coveted by the Italian towns ; and the refusal to
recognise their right to it had led to the deplorable conflict
of the Social War.
1 Cicero says himself, De Off. ii. 14 : potentis alicujus opibus circumveniri ur-
" Maxime autem et gloria paritur et gerique videtur : ut nos et saepe alias et
gratia defensionibus ; eoque major, si adolescente? contra L. Sullae tlominantis
quando accidit ut et subveniatur, qui opes pro Sex. Roscio Amerino fecimus.
JET. 26-30. FAILURE OF HIS HEALTH. 31
But the incessant labours of the young advocate had now
begun to tell seriously upon his health. He had inherited a
feeble constitution, and symptoms of consumption began to
show themselves. We have described his personal appear-
ance, and his thin frame was hardly equal to the wear and
tear of his profession, which demanded much more bodily
exertion than we, with our colder and less impassioned
manners, can easily form an idea of. With us a speaker,
whether in parliament or at the bar, knows little or nothing
of the action and delivery of a Roman orator. The only
motion we make is with the hand, and too often that is con-
fined to a see-saw monotony of perpendicular action which
justifies the satirical comparison by Moore of the speaker to
a pump
" That up and down its awkward arm doth sway,
And coolly spout, and spout, and spout away."
Very different, however, was it with the orator of Rome^v
His whole body was instinct with the fire that burned upon /
his lips, and the accents that trembled upon his tongue )
found a corresponding expression in the movement of his /
limbs. Cicero's gestures partook of the excitement of his/
mind, and the meaning of his words was enforced by the\
sympathetic action of his frame. He tells us that he threw \
himself, heart and soul, into action when he spoke, and 1
spared no exertion of his limbs, while he strained his voice J
to the utmost of its pitch in the open air.
Can we then wonder at the consequences which followed ?
and that, as Dryden says of Shaftesbury,
" A fiery soul, which worketh out its way,
Fretted the pigmy body to decay,
And o'er-informed the tenement of clay." 1
He was obliged for a time to retire from the Forum and the
Courts, and quitted Rome for Athens, not, as Plutarch says,
through fear of Sylla whose displeasure he had, as we have
seen, not shrunk from braving in the discharge of his duty
but to seek, by change of air and scene, and cessation
from work, the restoration of his health. A visit to Athens
1 Old Fuller had anticipated Dryden if his eager soul, biting for anger at the
in these lines ; for in his Profane State clog of his body, desired to fret a pas-
he thus describes the Duke of Alva : sage through it."
' ' He was of a lean body and visage, as
32 CICERO AT THE BAR. CHAP. in.
" mother of arts and eloquence" must have had peculiar
charms for Cicero. He was quite at home in the language,
and passionately fond of philosophy, which still lingered in
the groves of Academus, although oratory had for ever fled
from a city which was now nothing more than the chief
town of a Roman province, and filled with busy idlers, as
was the case a century later, when, as they are described by
St. Paul, " all the Athenians and strangers which were there
spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear
some new thing."
The pleasure of Cicero's residence at Athens was enhanced
by the society of relatives and friends. His brother Quintus,
his cousin Lucius, and his dear friend and life-long corre-
spondent, Titus Pomponius Atticus, were with him there ;
and for six months they studied together and enjoyed the
recreations of the place. 1 Antiochus of Ascalon instructed
them in the philosophy of the Academy, while from Zeno
and Phaedrus they learnt the tenets of the school of Epicurus,
to which Atticus, whose habits were those of a refined and
self-indulgent man, especially attached himself. Nor did
Cicero, even at Athens, neglect his darling pursuit the art
of oratory which, like every other acquisition and accom-
plishment, he knew could only be obtained by pains and
labour, although in his case it was the labour of love, and
eloquence seemed to have settled on his lips in the cradle,
as the bees were said to have swarmed on the lips of the
infant Pericles. As formerly he had studied under Molo, so
now he took lessons in rhetoric and elocution from Demetrius,
a native of Syria.
Leaving Athens, Cicero travelled in Asia Minor, and
sought every opportunity of improving himself as a speaker
by soliciting instruction from the most celebrated masters of
rhetoric whom he met with on his journey. ' He mentions the
names of Menippus of Stratonice, Dionysius of Magnesia,
^Eschylus of Cnidus, and Xenocles of Adramyttium, who
contributed to the formation of his style. And as he passed
through Rhodes, on his return to Rome, M6lo had the plea-
sure of welcoming his old pupil, who did not disdain for the
1 Drumann thinks it is probable that into the Eleusinian mysteries. See the
Cicero while at Athens was initiated subject alluded to dc Legg. ii. 14.
B.C. 8i-77- RESIDENCE AT ATHENS. 33
third time to place himself under his tuition, and receive
from him some kindly corrections of what he himself de-
scribed as the too redundant and florid oratory of his youthful
years. The metaphor by which he characterised it was that
of a river that overflowed its banks ; and to this his elo-
quence may be compared to the latest period of his life.
It arose, no doubt, from his astonishing command of lan-
guage, which came pouring forth from his lips in a full and
inexhaustible torrent, and spread over his subject like an
inundation of the Nile.
At the end of two years Cicero returned to Rome. He
was now thirty years old. His health was completely re-
established, and, as he himself expresses it, he came back
almost a changed man. Sylla had died the year before,
and the leading advocates at this time in Rome were
Cotta and Hortensius, the latter of whom was eight years
Cicero's senior. He was par excellence an advocate ; confining
himself chiefly to the courts of law and public trials, and
taking little part in the politics of the day. But he rose
through the usual gradation of offices to the consulship, to
obtain which it was almost essential to be a popular orator,
and to address the multitude from the Rostra ; unless, indeed,
the candidate were wealthy enough to bribe the suffrages of
the people on an enormous scale, and trust to the influence
of gold rather than the influence of eloquence. Corruption
was now fast eating its way into the heart of Roman institu-
tions. . Bribery was shamelessly resorted to, not only for
political objects, but to secure verdicts in the courts, where
the judiccs, or, as we may almost without inaccuracy call
them, jurymen, prostituted their consciences and sold them-
selves to the highest bidder. I am not now speaking of the
praetorian or centumviral courts, where civil causes were tried,
but the public or state trials before judices, who at this time
were taken exclusively from the class of senators. It was a
long struggle between them and the knights as to which body
should have this important jurisdiction. Each accused the
other of corruption, and of selling verdicts for a bribe, and
each was, beyond all doubt, right in the charge it made.
It was probably about this time that Cicero appeared as
the advocate of Roscius, the comic actor, in a civil suit, and
T)
34 CICERO AT THE BAR. CHAP. in.
delivered a speech which, although it has come down to us
in an imperfect state, enables us to understand the subject-
matter of the action and the argument.
Fannius Chserea had given up one of his slaves, named
Panurgus, to Roscius, on the terms that the latter was to
instruct him in acting, and they were afterwards to share
between them whatever he gained by his art. Panurgus
received the requisite instruction and went upon the stage,
but was not long afterwards killed how, does not appear
by a man named O. Flavius. Roscius brought an action
for this against the latter, and the management of the case
was committed to Fannius. Before, however, it was tried,
Roscius compromised the matter, but only so far as regarded
his own moiety, as he alleged, and Flavius gave up a farm
to him in satisfaction of damages. Several years had elapsed,
when Fannius applied to the Praetor for an order that the
accounts between him and Roscius might be settled by arbi-
tration. Calpurnius Piso was appointed arbitrator. He did
not make a formal award, but recommended that Roscius
should pay to Fannius 10,000 sesterces (about 90) for the
trouble and expense which the latter had incurred in
conducting the action against Flavius, and that Fannius
should enter into an engagement to pay over to Roscius the
half of whatever he recovered from Flavius. Fannius agreed
to this, and then brought an action on his own account
against Flavius for the loss he had sustained by the death of
Panurgus, and got a verdict for 100,000 sesterces ^(about
900). Half of this, according to agreement, ought to have
been paid over to Roscius, but Fannius not only retained it,
but commenced an action against Roscius for a moiety of
the value of the farm which the latter had obtained from
Flavius, on the pretext that Roscius had settled the former
action and obtained the farm on the partnership account.
Cicero maintained that his client owed Fannius nothing.
So confident was he of the strength of his case that he
offered to consent to a verdict against him, provided the
plaintiff could show that the debt now claimed was entered
in his ledger. He was willing to allow the entries of the
plaintiff to be evidence in his own favour ; and in tendering
such an issue we may be very sure that he had good infor-
JET. 26-30. ADVOCATE FOR ROSCIUS, COMEDIAN. 35
mation that he might do so with safety. But he made a
distinction between the ledger (tabula or codex) and the day-
book, or mere memorandum of account (adversaria). Fan-
nius wished to put the latter in evidence, but Cicero objected,
and said that he could not admit loose papers, full of erasures
and interlineations, in which, no doubt, Fannius had inserted
the debt when he determined to make his unjust claim. He
seized the opportunity of praising the skill and virtue of his
client, whose name as an actor has become so famous.
" Has Roscius defrauded his partner? Can such an imputation rest upon one
who has in him I say it boldly more honesty than he has art ; more truth than
accomplishments ; whom the Roman people consider to be a better man than he
is an actor ; who, though admirably fitted for the stage on account of his skill in
his profession, yet is most worthy of being a senator on account of his modesty
and decorum ?"
The exact date of Cicero's marriage is not known, but it
is generally supposed to have taken place when he was in
his thirty-first year. 1 His wife was Terentia, a lady of re-
spectable family, whose sister Fabia was a Vestal virgin.
With her he lived many years happily, and, apparently, with
warm affection on both sides, until he quarrelled with her for
some mysterious reason, and the marriage was terminated
by a divorce.
Plutarch asserts that Terentia was a woman of violent
temper ; and Niebuhr goes so far as to say that, " in his
marriage Cicero was not happy. His wife was a domineer-
ing and disagreeable woman ; and as, owing to his great sen-
sibility, he allowed himself to be very much influenced by
those who surrounded him, his wife also exercised great
power over him, which is the more remarkable because he
had no real love for her. It was she who, unfortunately for
him, led him to do things which drew upon him the enmity
of others." 2 I believe the description here given of Terentia
to be most unjust, and, unless I deceive myself, the sequel of
the biography will show that she was an amiable woman and
a most loving devoted wife,
1 Drumann places the marriage ear- text, it would follow that Cicero's
lier, and thinks it took place before daughter was betrothed at the age of
Cicero went to Greece. He is in- nine and married at the age of thirteen,
fluenced chiefly by the consideration
that if it was the year assumed in the 2 Hist, oj Rome, \. 20.
SITE OF LILYB^iUM, NOW MARSALA.
CHAPTER IV.
QU/ESTOR AND CURULE
JEi. 31-38. B.C. 76-69.
ClCERO had now attained the age of thirty-one years ; when,
according to the Roman law, he was eligible for the first and
lowest of the public employments of the state the office of
Quaestor. The ascending steps in the ladder of advancement
were those of Quaestor, ^Edile, Praetor until they culminated
in the Consulship, the highest object of ambition to a Roman
citizen. Cicero was elected one of the quaestors, and Horten-
sius one of the aediles, for the following year; and the province
of Sicily was allotted to him, his immediate superior in the
government of it being the praetor, Sextus Peducseus. He
left Rome at the age of thirty-two, and spent a year in Sicily.
That island was then, and continued for many years to
be, one of the most fertile of the dominions subject to the
Republic. It was, in fact, called the granary of Rome, and
B.C. 76-69. OFFICIAL RESIDENCE IN SICILY. 37
the greatest part of the corn consumed in the metropolis was
imported from Sicily and Egypt. It was divided into two
provincial governments ; one called Lilybaeum, from the chief
town in the district of that name the modern Marsala and
the other Syracuse. The Romans were accustomed to de-
termine the choice of almost all public employments by lot,
and the chance of fortune gave Cicero Lilybaeum as his
province.
We possess few details of his quaestorship, but we know
that he discharged the duties of his office with scrupulous
honesty and disinterestedness, and conciliated in a remarkable
degree the good-will and attachment of the Sicilians. During
his year of office there was a severe scarcity at Rome, but
Cicero, whose especial duty it was to attend to the exporta-
tion of grain from the island, was able, by the measures he
took, to alleviate the distress in the capital without inflicting
any serious burden on the inhabitants. And he had an op-
portunity of exercising his profession as an advocate, for he
successfully defended before his praetor some young Romans
of good family who were accused of breach of military dis-
cipline, if not desertion from the service. During a visit to
Syracuse he had the good fortune, while exploring the anti-
quities, to discover, near the gate that led to Agrigentum, the
tomb of Archimedes. It had been half-buried amidst rubbish,
and overgrown with brambles, so that the fellow-citizens of
the great mathematician had forgotten its existence -
" When Tully paused amidst the wreck of time
On the rude stone to trace the truth sublime ;
Where at his feet, in honoured dust disclosed,
The immortal sage of Syracuse reposed."
He knew that on the stone which marked the grave were
sculptured the figures of a sphere and a cylinder, and ob-
serving these on a small pillar, the top of which peered out
amongst the bushes with which the spot was overgrown, he
at once discovered the tomb of which he was in search.
On leaving the island every mark of respect which it was
in the power of the inhabitants to bestow was shown him by
the grateful Sicilians. He tells us that extraordinary and
unheard-of honours were invented for him, but he does not
specify their nature. He quitted the shores of Sicily, leaving
behind him the reputation of a disinterested and upright
38 QUAESTOR AND CURULE ^EDILE. CHAP, iv
public servant, and carrying with him the good-will and con-
fidence of the inhabitants, of which a striking proof was soon
to be afforded. l
It was characteristic of Cicero's mind to dwell with self-
complacency on his own merits. His foible was vanity, and
he seldom lost an opportunity of praising himself where he
thought that praise had been deserved. He' was pleased with
his own conduct as quaestor, and was in hopes that the fame
of his administration had extended to Italy, and even gained
him a reputation at Rome. But he good-humouredly tells
us an anecdote to show how fallacious his expectations were,
and how, like many others since his time, he mistook the
small pipe of praise in a limited sphere for the trumpet of
fame in the great world. In order to understand the point
of the story we must bear in mind that there were two pro-
vinces in Sicily, the province of Lilybseum and the province
of Syracuse, and the quaestor of the one was a distinct person
from the quaestor of the other.
On landing at Puteoli, near Baiae, which was then a fashion-
able watering-place, and crowded with visitors, he met a person,
apparently an acquaintance, who asked him on what day he
had left Rome, and what the news there was. " I have just
come from my province," replied Cicero. " Oh ! to be sure,"
said the other, " from Africa, I believe?" This was too much,
and Cicero answered angrily, " No ; from Sicily." Upon
which a bystander interposed, and turning to the questioner,
said, " What ! don't you know that this gentleman has been
quaestor in Syracuse ?"
This little incident opened Cicero's eyes to the true state
of the case. It was no use to be angry ; and so, putting
his dignity in his pocket not that the Romans really wore
pockets, which is an invention of modern civilisation he
mingled quietly with the crowd. But he also derived a
1 In his Last Two Pleadings of Cicero " Questi, signor" said the honest Sici-
against Verres (London 1812), Kelsall lian, ll fu lacasadove dimoravail Signor
mentions that when he visited Marsala Cicerone quand il fu in Marsala" It
(the ancient Lilybaeum) he was told by turned out that this was the house where
his guide that he could show him the the guide's father had lived, who, like
house in which Cicero lived when he his son, was cicerone of Marsala. It is
was at Lilybseum. On arriving there curious that Cicero's name should have
he found it a white-washed house of a come to signify "lioniser."
date not earlier than the sixteenth century.
*r. 31-38. HIS VANITY MORTIFIED. 39
useful lesson from the affront to his vanity. He saw the
danger of absence if he wished for popularity, and deter-
mined from henceforth to keep himself before the people by
actual presence amongst them ; and from that time, to use
his own words, he stuck close to the Forum never allow-
ing his hall-porter {janitor} to deny him to a visitor, even
when he had retired to rest.
On his return to Rome he betook himself afresh to the
duties of an advocate, and was busily engaged in the Forum
while the Servile War raged in Italy the insurrection being
headed by the bold and desperate leader Spartacus. He
\vas killed in battle B.C. 71, and the revolt was finally ex-
tinguished by Pompey when he came back from Spain.
Five years must now elapse before Cicero would be of
the requisite age thirty-eight to hold the office of sedile,
the next public dignity open to his ambition. But having
been quaestor, and possessing a sufficient qualification in
point of fortune, he was eligible for admission into the
Senate, and was accordingly placed by the censors on the
list or roll of senators.
That during the next three or four years he was busily
engaged in forensic labours we know from his own account
of himself, but we do not possess a single speech, or even
fragment of a speech, until B.C.- 70, when, at the age of
thirty-seven, he became a candidate for the aedileship.
I know not to what cause to attribute this blank in the
records of his life. The very names of nearly all the
speeches he delivered during this period have perished ; but
one of them, Pro M. Ttillio, is mentioned by Quintilian as
extant in his time. Drumann thinks it belongs to the year
B.C. 71. It seems that there was a quarrel between Tullius
and Fabius as to the right to a certain house in Lucania ;
and the slaves of Fabius had attacked the slaves of Tullius,
killed some of them, and pulled down the house.
It was Cicero's proud boast in after years that he had
filled every public office at the earliest age at which it could
legally be held (anno sud). His splendid reputation as an
advocate made him at this time one of the most popular
men at Rome, and he was unanimously elected Curule ^Edile
for the following year, coming in first of all the competitors,
40 QU^STOR AND CURULE ,DILE. CHAP. iv.
or, as we should say, at the head of the poll. But he did
not rely merely upon reputation. He took care not to
neglect any of the means whereby the favour of his fellow-
citizens might be conciliated and their votes secured at
future elections. At no time, and in no part of the world,