fell from Cicero on the bench on an occasion that almost
justified an exception to the rule. To understand the point
we must remember that a short thick neck, like that of a
bull, was thought by the Romans the sign of an impudent
unscrupulous character. Vatinius, a rude and insolent man,
whose neck was swollen with tumours, came before him when
sitting as praetor, with some petition or request, which Cicero
said he would take time to consider. Vatinius replied that
if he were praetor he would make no question about it. Upon
which Cicero retorted, " Yes ; but you see I have not got so
much neck," we should say clieck, " as you have."

Although filling the office of a criminal judge, Cicero was
not debarred from the exercise of his profession as an advo-
cate. He defended M. Fundanius in a speech now lost ; and
also Aulus Cluentius Habitus, who was accused of murder,
and tried before O. Naso, Cicero's own colleague in the
praetorship. The indictment seems also to have comprised
the charge of conspiracy to procure the condemnation of a
man named Oppianicus.

The case discloses a melancholy tale of wickedness ; and
Sassia, the mother of Cluentius, might almost contest the
palm of pre-eminence in guilt with Lucrece di Borgia. Not
long after her husband's death her daughter married her first

the presiding judge, take off his robe us of the peine forte et dure, the punish -
[pnstexta), or, as we should say, put ment formerly in this country for stand-
on the black cap, he sent a messenger ing mute, which was sometimes endured
to tell him that he died accused but not by prisoners when they dreaded a con-
condemned, and therefore his property viction to be followed by forfeiture of
would not be confiscated. He then lands and goods, if they pleaded to the
instantly suffocated himself by forcing indictment and were found guilty,
a napkin into his mouth. This reminds



B.C. 67-66. DEFENDS CLUENTIUS. 73

cousin, Aurius Melinus, for whom the mother soon conceived
an adulterous passion. She employed all her arts to alienate
his affections from his wife, and at last succeeded in inducing
him to divorce her. She then flew to the arms of her son-
in-law and openly married him. By and by, however, Melinus,
having incurred the enmity of Oppianicus against whom
there was the strongest suspicion that he had poisoned his
own wife and brother, and procured the murder of a near
relative of Melinus was, through the interest of Oppianicus
with the tyrant Sylla, included in one of his lists of proscrip-
tion, and put to death. This murder of her husband attracted
the love of Sassia ; and Oppianicus, being equally smitten,
paid his addresses to her, and offered her marriage. She at
first refused, on the ground that he had three sons alive, and
she did not wish to be encumbered with such a family.
Oppianicus understood the hint, and in the course of a few
days caused two of them to be murdered. The scruples of
Sassia were now removed, and she married Oppianicus
wooed and won, as Cicero says, not by nuptial presents,
but the deaths of murdered children.

The career of Oppianicus was one of the most abandoned
villany ; and having unsuccessfully attempted to take off
Cluentius by poison, he was put upon his trial for this crime,
and being convicted, was sentenced to banishment. He had
endeavoured to bribe his judges, and for that purpose had
distributed amongst some of them a large sum of money,
which they took, but, notwithstanding, pronounced a verdict
of guilty. For this offence they were afterwards put upon
their trial and convicted. Oppianicus died in exile five
years after his condemnation ; and three years after his
death, Sassia bestowed her daughter in marriage upon his
son by a former wife, and urged him to accuse her own son
Cluentius of having caused her deceased husband, Oppi-
anicus, to 'be poisoned. It was on this occasion that Cicero
defended Cluentius, and delivered one of the longest of all
his speeches, but it is also one which least admits of abridge-
ment. It revealed a shocking history of crime, murder,
incest, and subornation of perjury. But as it consisted
chiefly in an elaborate examination of the facts, it would,
after the narrative already given, be merely repetition to



74 THE PRJETORSHIP. CHAP. vr.

attempt to condense the argument. With respect to part of
the accusation, which charged Cluentius with having entered
into a conspiracy to get Oppianicus convicted, it seems,
strange to say, that the law made this a criminal offence
only in the case of a senator, which Cluentius was not.
When, therefore, he applied to Cicero to defend him, he told
him he was safe, as the law did not touch him, and he would
at once take the objection which would secure his acquittal
on that charge. But Cluentius entreated him, with tears,
not to do so, declaring that he was more anxious about his
character than his safety ; and Cicero says that he complied
with his wishes and abandoned the point of law in his favour,
but for this reason he saw that on the merits the case
admitted of a complete defence.

The advocate on the other side was Attius, and he had
quoted a passage from one of Cicero's speeches in a case
where he was prosecuting counsel, and in which he had
urged the jury to give an honest verdict, and had cited
instances of perverse acquittals which had brought justice
into contempt. But Cicero refused to be bound by the
opinions which he merely expressed as an advocate. It was,
he said, a great mistake to look for his real sentiments in
his forensic speeches. They were adapted to the exigency
of the occasion ; and he mentioned, apparently with approval
certainly without censure the startling saying of An-
tonius, that he never liked to have any of his speeches
written down in order that he might, when an inconvenient
passage from them was quoted against him, be able to deny
that he had uttered the words. Clearly he would have been
no friend to Hansard. Cicero seems to have been more
struck with the folly than the immorality of the remark, for
he adds, "just as if men did not remember what we have
said or done unless we have committed it to writing."

The language in which the orator described the incestuous
marriage of Sassia with her son-in-law is worth quoting.
" That nuptial couch, which two years before she had spread
for her daughter on her marriage, she bids them adorn and
prepare in the same house for herself, while her daughter
is turned away an outcast. The mother-in-law weds her
son-in-law with no religious ceremonies, with no one to give



JET. 40-41. TRIAL OF CLUENTIUS. 75

the bride away, amidst the dark and gloomy forebodings of
all." l

Cicero this year delivered one of his finest speeches in
support of a bill brought in by the tribune Manilius for
superseding Lucullus in the conduct of the war against
Mithridates and conferring the supreme command upon
Pompey, then in the zenith of his fame. The campaigns of
Lucullus in the East had at first been brilliantly successful,
but of late the tide of fortune had turned, and his soldiers
had mutinied in the field. It appears, at first sight, strange
to find Julius Caesar also giving his support to this measure,
the obvious effect of which would be to increase the power
and exalt the reputation of the only man at Rome who was
likely to stand in the way of his ambition. Various reasons
may be assigned for this. Pompey was a favourite with the
people, and the proposal was so popular that Caesar may not
have liked to oppose it. Some writers think that his object
was to see a precedent set for the grant of such ample
powers as he hoped one day to have conferred upon himself.
But this, perhaps, is too refined a view, and gives Caesar
credit for too long-sighted a policy. A more Macchiavellian
theory, but not the less probable, is, that he may have
wished Pompey to be exposed to the chances of failure, or
the obloquy and envy which follow the possession of power.
The measure was at first strongly opposed by Catulus and
Hortensius. Catulus asked the people, in a speech he
addressed to them from the Rostra, upon whom they could
rest their hopes if they persisted in trusting everything to
Pompey, and he was carried off by a mischance ? The
people, with a loud shout, exclaimed, "Upon you!" and
this so pleased him that he ceased to struggle against the
bill.

The speech is interesting, independently of its merits, as
the first concio, or political harangue, which Cicero delivered
from the Rostra. He says in it that hitherto his modesty
had deterred him, and his incessant occupations as an advo-
cate had prevented him, from addressing the people there,

1 The result seems to have been, that dust" in the eyes of the jury (tenebras
Cluentius was acquitted, as Cicero after- offudisse jndicilnis] at the trial.
wards boasted that he had "thrown Fragmm. See Onom. Tull. ii. 165.



76 THE PR^ETORSHIP. CHAP. vr.

but he was now emboldened by the unmistakeable evidence
of their favour, as shown by their unanimous election of him,
three times repeated, as praetor. He showed how necessary
it was that Rome should put forth all her strength to protect
her possessions in Asia against the attacks of two such
powerful kings as Mithridates and Tigranes ; for not only
did their allies implore their help, but their own revenues
were in the utmost danger. Their arms had suffered a re-
verse, on which, he said, he would not dwell, but rather pass
on to the question, Who was the commander most fit to carry
on the campaign ? There ought to be four qualifications to
make up the character of a distinguished general military
genius, virtue, authority, success. He showed that all these
qualities were united in Pompey. He drew a splendid por-
trait of him as a warrior, and praised to the skies his disin-
terested self-denial :

" No feeling of avarice ever turned him aside from his destined course to think
of booty ; no licentiousness attracted him to pleasure ; no delights to self-
indulgence ; curiosity never tempted him to explore cities, however famous, and
in the midst of toil he shunned repose. The works of Grecian art in the Asiatic
towns, which other generals thought they might carry off, he did not even allow
himself to look at ! "

His nature was gentle ; he was affable and accessible to
all. His exploits in war had been so remarkable that no
one even ventured to ask of Heaven in his prayers such
success as had been bestowed on Pompey. They must not
be misled by the authority of Hortensius, who opposed the
bill, but remember that he had also opposed the bill of
Gabinius for appointing Pompey to the supreme command
in the Mediterranean against the pirates, and what would
have become of the Roman empire if his authority had then
prevailed ? As to the bugbear with which Catulus tried to
frighten them, of the danger of concentrating so much power
in the hands of one man, his answer was, that this had been
often done before in the case of Scipio Africanus, of Marius,
nay, of Pompey with the full approbation of Catulus him-
self. The honour of Rome required that the commander in
Asia should be not merely a good soldier but a good man.
" For," said Cicero, " it is difficult to express the odium in
which we are held by foreign nations on account of the op-
pression and rapacity of the governors who have gone out



n.c. 67 66. CASE OF MANILIUS. 77

from us of late years." He declared that they respected
nothing, either sacred or profane ; not even the sanctity of a
private dwelling. They should choose, therefore, a general
who would not plunder their allies, nor attack the virtue of
wives and daughters, nor pillage the towns of their works of
art and the treasuries of their gold. Such was the picture
which a Roman orator drew of the conduct of those who
were invested with command in the distant provinces of the
empire, and he appealed to the opponents of the present
measure whether he did not speak the truth. He concluded
by calling Heaven to witness that he supported the bill, not
to curry favour with Pompey, or obtain any advantage for
himself on the contrary, he knew well that he exposed
himself to enmity, alike open and concealed but because,
out of gratitude for all the honours the people had conferred
upon him, he was determined to prefer their wishes, the
honour of the commonwealth, and the safety of the provinces
and their allies, to any private interests of his own.

Even now, amidst all the bustle of active life, and dis-
tinguished as the leading orator of Rome, he found time for,
and did not disdain to profit by, if we may believe Suetonius, 1
the lessons of a rhetorician named Gnipho. At the mature
age of forty-one he was still content to be a learner in the
art of which he was considered by all other men to be the
greatest living master.

During this year his brother Quintus became a candidate
for the aedileship of the ensuing year, and was successful.

Two or three days before the expiration of Cicero's office,
Manilius, whose measure in the senate he had so vigorously
supported, was brought before him and charged with pecula-
tion. It was the usual custom to allow ten days at least
before the trial took place, in order to give the accused time
to prepare his defence, but Cicero appointed the following
day. This was considered harsh, and incensed the people,
with whom Manilius was a favourite, and who thought that
he was prosecuted because he was the friend of Pompey.
The tribunes summoned Cicero to give an account of his
conduct before the people, when he explained that he had
always shown humanity towards the accused, so far as the

1 De Illustr. Gramm. 7-



78 THE PRMTORSHIP. CHAP. vi.

law allowed, and as he did not wish to act otherwise towards
Manilius, he had purposely appointed the only day on which
he would sit as praetor to try him ; adding significantly, that
those who wished to help Manilius were not likely to do so
by getting him tried before another judge. The people
loudly applauded him, and called on him to undertake him-
self the defence of Manilius. This he consented to do ; and
accordingly, says Plutarch, " taking his place before the
people again, he delivered a bold invective against the
oligarchical party and those who were jealous of Pompey."

At the close of his praetorship Cicero was entitled to claim
a provincial government, which was looked forward to at
Rome as one of the best prizes in the lottery of ambition. It
afforded the most certain means of rapidly accumulating
wealth ; and even if a man were virtuous or cautious enough
not to go the length of a Verres or an Antonius, and provoke
an impeachment by his avarice, there were numerous modes by
which he might enrich himself in the command of a province
and yet keep himself within the pale of the law.

Cicero, however, at the close of his praetorship, declined
the glittering temptation, and refused to accept a provincial
government. He is entitled to the praise of disinterested-
ness in this so far as the love of money is concerned, for, had
he been an avaricious man, he would have taken care not to
let slip such a golden opportunity of amassing wealth ; but
it would be a mistake to suppose that contempt of riches
was the cause of his refusal. He was covetous indeed, but
covetous of honour, and he might truly say,

" And if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending man alive."

He candidly tells us that, with the consulship in view, he did
not dare to leave Rome. Two years must elapse before he
was qualified by law to attain that supreme dignity, but in
the meantime he must actively prosecute a canvass amongst
the immense body of electors, both at Rome and in the rest
of Italy, and he could not afford to hazard a year's absence
and incur the risk of verifying the proverb, " Out of sight
out of mind." He did not belong to one of the old aristo-
cratic families whose ancestors had been senators, and who



JET. 40-41



ANARCHY OF ROME.



79



seemed to think themselves entitled to a monoply of office
looking upon it as a kind of hereditary right. 1 He had no
statues or pictures in his hall to show that his forefathers
had been seated in the curule chair. He was, in fact, a par-
venu or, to use his own term, a novns homo and he had
all the difficulty to contend against in struggling upwards
which is felt in England by those who have to make a
position for themselves, and run the race of ambition against
competitors who start with the enormous advantage on their
side of an historic name and family influence.

Perhaps, also, there was a nobler feeling than mere am-
bition which influenced his resolution not to leave Rome.
The state of affairs was eminently critical. He saw, and
feelingly deplored, the tremendous evils to which his country
was a prey. Let me quote what Niebuhr says on this sub-
ject : " To comprehend the occurrences of this time it is
essential to form a clear notion of the immensely disordered
condition of Rome. There never was a country in such a
state of complete anarchy : the condition of Athens during
its anarchy bears no comparison with that of Rome. The
anarchy of Athens assumed a definite form ; it occurred in
a small republic, and was quite a different thing altogether.
Rome, on the other hand, or rather some hundreds, say even
a few thousands, of her citizens, who recognised no law and
no order, had the sway over nearly the whole world, and pur-
sued only their personal objects in all directions. The ' Re-
public ' was a mere name, and the laws had lost their power."^



1 Namque antea pleraque nobilitas
invidia sestuabat, et quasi pollui con-
sulatum credebat, si eum, quamvis egre-



gius, novus homo adeptus foret.
Sallust, Bell. Cat. c. 23.
2 Hist, of Rome, v. 15.








TEMPLE OF JUPITER CAPITOLINl'S. RESTORED BY CAV. CANINA.



CHAPTER VII.

CANVASS FOR THE CONSULSHIP AND ELECTION.

.Ml. 42. B.CytfJ.

To obtain the consulship was the next great object of Cicero's
ambition, and although he could not be elected until the
following year, he announced himself as a candidate at the
comitia tribtita, or assembly of the people in their tribes, held
in the Campus Martins for the election of tribunes, on the
i /th of July, B.C. 65.

This was done not in the form of an address to the " free
and independent electors," according to modern usage, but in
an equally plain and intelligible manner. He tells Atticus
that he intends on the day mentioned to begin shaking hands
with the voters (initium PRENSANDI facerc), which was as
well understood at Rome as it is in an English borough or
county on the eve of an impending dissolution of Parliament.

It was during his canvass that his brother Ouintus ad-
dressed to him that interesting letter or essay known as De



B.C. 65. ELECTIONEERING TACTICS. 81

Petitione Consulates* It may be called a Manual of Elec-
tioneering Tactics for Ancient Rome, and proves that he was
a man of much shrewdness and ability. It gives a curious
insight into the state of society and customs of the time ;
and is as if at the present day an account were given of the
best mode by which an aspirant to Parliament could secure
a seat in the House of Commons. It may, therefore, be
worth while to give a short abstract of its contents, to show
the points of resemblance and contrast between ancient and
modern times. And I am much mistaken if it will not
appear that much of the advice is quite as applicable now as
then ; for human nature is the same everywhere, and who-
ever seeks to gain " the most sweet voices " of the people,
must flatter and cajole in England as candidates flattered and
cajoled at Rome nineteen centuries ago.

" Never forget," says Quintus, " when you descend into the
Forum (it lay, as we all know, on low ground beneath the
Capitol), to say to yourself I am a parvenu (novus homo) ;
I am a candidate for the consulship ; the place is Rome.
Rely upon your powers of eloquence, and improve them to
the utmost of your power. Think of what Demetrius has
told us of the pains Demosthenes took with himself. Take
care to display the number and variety of your friends. You
have on your side all the farmers of the taxes (publicani).
almost the whole equestrian class, many of the municipal
boroughs, many of every order in the state whom you have
defended as an advocate, and some of the colleges and clubs.
Numbers of young men flock around you to get lessons in
oratory when they hear you speak, and you are attended by
troops of admirers. Impress upon them all that this is the
time to show their zeal and gratitude. Show that you have
the goodwill of men of consular rank, and that they wish for
your success. You must canvass them assiduously, and make
them believe that your political opinions agree with those of
the aristocracy, and that you are by no means a radical
(minime popular em fuisse}. Let them know that if you have
ever seemed to be one, it was only with the view of attaching
Pompey to you and gaining his support. Antonius and
Catiline are both cut-throats profligate and needy men."

Quintus draws the portraits of these t\vo in the blackest

G



82 ELECTION TO THE CONSULSHIP. CHAP. vn.

colours. Amongst other enormities of Catiline, he mentions
that he had caused M. Harms, an especial favourite of the
people, to be flogged through the streets of Rome. He
forced him to a spot where dead bodies were burnt, and then
put him to frightful torture. He then seized him by his hair
and struck off his head, which he held up in his hand, with
the blood streaming through his fingers.

Quintus goes on : "The pride of consular families may
perhaps make them oppose your elevation, and envy may
make those of praetorian rank, who have not yet attained
the honour of the consulship, your enemies. You must there-
fore use every exertion to succeed. Success depends on two
things the zeal of your friends and your own popularity.
As to your friends, remember that the word has a wider
meaning with reference to a canvass than to daily life. You
must then consider all who show you goodwill or court
you in the number of your friends. Take care to enlist in
your favour your fellow-wardsmen, your neighbours, your
clients, your freedmen, your slaves, for public report about a
man has generally its origin in domestic gossip. Remember
that gratitude is a lively sense of future favours, and attach
to yourself those who hope to get anything from you. Let
those who are under obligations to you know that by now
serving you they make you their debtor. A contest is not
the occasion to be scrupulous about friendships, however
careful we should be in forming them at other times. You
cannot have too many for your purpose, and it will be good
policy to make men believe that they will be your friends not
merely during the contest but for life. Secure active and
popular agents -to canvass for you. Get off by heart the
names of all the towns and colonies in Italy that possess the
franchise, and induce men to assist you in their different
neighbourhoods with as much zeal as if they were candidates
themselves. Try and make the acquaintance of as many of
the electors as possible. Provincials and rustics will, if you
know them personally, fancy that they have the honour of
your friendship. Young men are also most useful and active
in soliciting votes. The next point is the art of popularity.
This requires flattery, graciousness of manner, assiduity, and
personal application. Take care to make the acquaintance



JET. 42. ELECTIONEERING TACTICS. 83

of the electors, and show that you know them. Force your-
self against your habit while you are assuming an appearance
to make it appear natural. Flattery is essential. It is base
and blameable in daily life/but in an election contest it is
necessary. You must adapt your looks and conversation to
please those you canvass. It is not enough to stay in Rome
and frequent the Forum you must accost the same persons
over and over again. Attend banquets and give them, and
get your friends to do the same everywhere. Be accessible
night and day to all comers, and show that not only your
door is open, but also your heart ; for if the countenance
repels it is of little use to throw your house open.

" Take care to have plenty of people about you some to
attend your levees at home, and others to act as your agents
out of doors canvassing. Show that you are pleased with
the attention of those that visit you. Let them see that you
notice them, and speak of their civilities to others. If you
have reason to believe that any one who makes you a pro-
mise is deceiving you, pretend not to know it. When a