The Life of Cicero Volume I Part 15

[94] Contra Verrem, Act. i., ca. xviii.: "Quadringenties sestertium ex Sicilia contra leges abstulisse." In Smith's Dictionary of Grecian and Roman Antiquities we are told that a thousand sesterces is equal in our money to 8 17_s._ 1_d._ Of the estimated amount of this plunder we shall have to speak again.

[95] Pro Plancio, xxvi.

[96] Pro Plancio, xxvi.

[97] M. du Rozoir was a French critic, and was joined with M. Gueroult and M. de Guerle in translating and annotating the Orations of Cicero for M. Panckoucke's edition of the Latin cla.s.sics.

[98] In Verrem Actio Secunda, lib. i., vii.

[99] Plutarch says that Caecilius was an emanc.i.p.ated slave, and a Jew, which could not have been true, as he was a Roman Senator.

[100] De Oratore, lib. ii., c. xlix. The feeling is beautifully expressed in the words put into the mouth of Antony in the discussion on the charms and attributes of eloquence: "Qui mihi in liberum loco more majorum esse deberet."

[101] In Q. Caec. Divinatio, ca. ii.

[102] Divinatio, ca. iii.

[103] Ibid., ca. vi.

[104] Ibid., ca. viii.

[105] Divinatio, ca. ix.

[106] Ibid., ca. xi.

[107] Ibid.

[108] Ibid., ca. xii.

[109] Actio Secunda, lib. ii., xl. He is speaking of Sthenius, and the illegality of certain proceedings on the part of Verres against him. "If an accused man could be condemned in the absence of the accuser, do you think that I would have gone in a little boat from Vibo to Velia, among all the dangers prepared for me by your fugitive slaves and pirates, when I had to hurry at the peril of my life, knowing that you would escape if I were not present to the day?"

[110] Actio Secunda, l. xxi.

[111] In Verrem, Actio Prima, xvi.

[112] In Verrem, Actio Prima, xvi.

[113] We are to understand that the purchaser at the auction having named the sum for which he would do the work, the estate of the minor, who was responsible for the condition of the temple, was saddled with that amount.

[114] In Verrem, Actio Secunda, lib. ii., vii.

[115] Ibid., ix.

[116] Ibid., lib. ii., xiv.

[117] See Appendix C.

[118] In Verrem, Actio Secunda, lib. ii., ca. x.x.xvi.

[119] Ibid. "Una nox intercesserat, quam iste Dorotheum sic diligebat, ut diceres, omnia inter eos esse communia."--wife and all. "Iste" always means Verres in these narratives.

[120] These were burning political questions of the moment. It was as though an advocate of our days should desire some disgraced member of Parliament to go down to the House and a.s.sist the Government in protecting Turkey in Asia and invading Zululand.

[121] "Sit in ejus exercitu signifer." The "ejus" was Hortensius, the coming Consul, too whom Cicero intended to be considered as pointing. For the pa.s.sage, see In Verrem, Actio Secunda, lib. ii., x.x.xi.

[122] In Verrem, Actio Secunda, lib. iii., 11.

[123] "Exegi monumentum aere perennius," said Horace, gloriously. "Sum pius aeneas" is Virgil's expression, put into the mouth of his hero. "Ipse Menaleas," said Virgil himself. Homer and Sophocles introduce their heroes with self-sounded trumpetings:

[Greek: Eim' Odysseus Daertiades hos pasi doloisi Anthropoisi melo, kai meu kleos ouranon ikei.]

Odyssey, book ix., 19 and 20.

[Greek: Ho pasi kleinos Oidipous kaloumenos.]

[OE]dipus Tyrannus, 8.

[124] Pro Plancio, xxvi.: "Frumenti in summa caritate maximum numerum miseram; negotiatoribus comis, mercatoribus justus, municipibus liberalis, sociis abstinens, omnibus eram visus in omni officio diligentissimus."

[125] In Verrem, Actio Secunda, lib. iii., ix.: "Is erit Ap.r.o.nius ille; qui, ut ipse non solum vita, sed etiam corpore atque ore significat, immensa aliqua vorago est ac gurges vitiorum turpitudinumque omnium. Hunc in omnibus stupris, hunc in fanorum expilationibus, hunc in impuris conviviis principem adhibebat; tantamque habebat morum similitudo conjunctionem atque concordiam, ut Ap.r.o.nius, qui aliis inhuma.n.u.s ac barbarus, isti uni commodus ac disertus videretur; ut quem omnes odissent neque videre vellent sine eo iste esse non posset; ut quum alii ne conviviis quidem iisdem quibus Ap.r.o.nius, hic iisdem etiam poculis uteretur, postremo, ut, odor Ap.r.o.nii teterrimus oris et corporis, quem, ut aiunt, ne bestiae quidem ferre possent, uni isti suavis et jucundus videretur. Ille erat in tribunali proximus; in cubiculo socius; in convivio dominus, ac tum maxime, quum, accubante praetextato praetoris filio, in convivio saltare nudus c[oe]perat."

[126] A great deal is said of the _Cybea_ in this and the last speech. The money expended on it was pa.s.sed through the accounts as though the ship had been built for the defence of the island from pirates, but it was intended solely for the depository of the governor's plunder.

[127] In Verrem, Actio Secunda, lib. iv., vii.

[128] In Verrem, Actio Secunda, lib. iv., lvii.

[129] In Verrem, Actio Secunda, lib. v., lxvi.: "Facinus est vinciri civem Romanum; scelus verberari; prope parricidium necari; quid dicam in crucem tollere!"

[130] In Verrem, Actio Secunda, lib. v., lxv.

[131] In Verrem, Actio Secunda, lib. v., xx.: "Onere suo plane captam atque depressam."

[132] In Verrem, Actio Secunda, lib. v., xxvi.

[133] Ibid., xxviii.

[134] Pro Fonteio, xiii.

[135] De Oratore, lib. ii., lix.: "Perspicitis, hoc genus quam sit facetum, quam elegans, quam oratorium, sive habeas vere, quod narrare possis, quod tamen, est mendaciunculis aspergendum, sive fingas." Either invent a story, or if you have an old one, add on something so as to make it really funny. Is there a parson, a bishop, an archbishop, who, if he have any sense of humor about him, does not do the same?

[136] Cicero, Pro Cluentio, l., explains very clearly his own idea as to his own speeches as an advocate, and may be accepted, perhaps, as explaining the ideas of barristers of to-day. "He errs," he says, "who thinks that he gets my own opinions in speeches made in law courts; such speeches are what the special cases require, and are not to be taken as coming from the advocate as his own."

[137] When the question is discussed, we are forced rather to wonder how many of the great historical doings of the time are not mentioned, or are mentioned very slightly, in Cicero's letters. Of Pompey's treatment of the pirates, and of his battling in the East, little or nothing is said, nothing of Caesar's doings in Spain.

Mention is made of Caesar's great operations in Gaul only in reference to the lieutenancy of Cicero's brother Quintus, and to the employment of his young friend Trebatius. Nothing is said of the manner of Caesar's coming into Rome after pa.s.sing the Rubicon; nothing of the manner of fighting at Dyrrachium and Pharsalia; very little of the death of Pompey; nothing of Caesar's delay in Egypt. The letters deal with Cicero's personal doings and thoughts, and with the politics of Rome as a city.

The pa.s.sage to which allusion is made occurs in the life of Atticus, ca. xvi: "Quae qui legat non multum desideret historiam contextam illorum temporum."

[138] Jean George Greefe was a German, who spent his life as a professor at Leyden, and, among other cla.s.sical labors, arranged and edited the letters of Cicero. He died in 1703.

[139] It must be explained, however, that continued research and increased knowledge have caused the order of the letters, and the dates a.s.signed to them, to be altered from time to time; and, though much has been done to achieve accuracy, more remains to be done. In my references to the letters I at first gave them, both to the arrangement made by Graevius and to the numbers a.s.signed in the edition I am using; but I have found that the numbers would only mislead, as no numbering has been yet adopted as fixed. Arbitrary and even fantastic as is the arrangement of Graevius, it is better to confine myself to that because it has been acknowledged, and will enable my readers to find the letters if they wish to do so. Should Mr. Tyrrell continue and complete his edition of the correspondence, he will go far to achieve the desired accuracy. A second volume has appeared since this work of mine has been in the press.