The Life of Cicero Volume II Part 15

[45] Ad Fam., i., 9.

[46] Ca. xi.

[47] Ad Fam., lib. ii., 6: "Dux n.o.bis et auctor opus est et eorum ventorum quos proposui moderator quidem et quasi gubernator."

[48] Mommsen, book v., chap. viii. According to the historian, Clodius was the Achilles, and Milo the Hector. In this quarrel Hector killed Achilles.

[49] Ad Att., lib. iv., 16.

[50] Ad Fam., lib. vii., 7.

[51] Vell. Pat., ii., 47.

[52] We remember the scorn with which Horace has treated the Roman soldier whom he supposes to have consented to accept both his life and a spouse from the Parthian conqueror:

Milesne Cra.s.si conjuge barbara Turpis maritus vixit?--Ode iii., 5.

It has been calculated that of 40,000 legionaries half were killed, 10,000 returned to Syria, and that 10,000 settled themselves in the country we now know as Merv.

[53] Ad Quin. Frat., lib. ii., 4, and Ad Att., lib. iv., 5.

[54] "Interrogatio de aere alieno Milonis."

[55] Livy, Epitome, 107: "Absens et solus quod nulli alii umquam contigit."

[56] The Curia Hostilia, in which the Senate sat frequently, though by no means always.

[57] Ca. ii.

[58] Ca. v.

[59] Ca. xx., xxi.

[60] Ca. xxix.

[61] Ca. x.x.xvii.: "O me miserum! O me infelicem! revocare tu me in patriam, Milo, potuisti per hos. Ego te in patria per eosdem retinere non potero!" "By the aid of such citizens as these," he says, pointing to the judges' bench, "you were able to restore me to my country. Shall I not by the same aid restore you to yours?"

[62] Ad Fam., lib. xiii., 75.

[63] Ad Fam., lib. vii., 2: "In primisque me delectavit tantum studium bonorum in me exst.i.tisse contra incredibilem contentionem clarissimi et potentissimi viri."

[64] Caesar, a Sketch, p. 336.

[65] Ibid., p. 341.

[66] He reached Laodicea, an inland town, on July 31st, B.C.

51, and embarked, as far as we can tell, at Sida on August 3d, B.C. 50. It may be doubted whether any Roman governor got to the end of his year's government with greater despatch.

[67] No exemption was made for Caesar in Pompey's law as it originally stood; and after the law had been inscribed as usual on a bronze tablet it was altered at Pompey's order, so as to give Caesar the privilege. Pompey pleaded forgetfulness, but the change was probably forced upon him by Caesar's influence.--Suetonius, J. Caesar, xxviii.

[68] Ad Div., lib. iii., 2.

[69] Ad Att., lib. v., 1.

[70] Abeken points out to us, in dealing with the year in which Cicero's government came to an end, B.C. 50, that Cato's letters to Cicero (Ad Fam., lib. xv., 5) bear irrefutable testimony as to the real greatness of Cicero.

See the translation edited by Merivale, p. 235. This applies to his conduct in Cilicia, and may thus be taken as evidence outside his own, though addressed to himself.

[71] The Roman Triumvirate, p. 107.

[72] Caesar, a Sketch, pp. 170, 341.

[73] Professor Mommsen says no word of Cicero's government in Cilicia.

[74] I cannot but refer to Mommsen's account of this transaction, book v., chap. viii.: "Golden fetters were also laid upon him," Cicero. "Amid the serious embarra.s.sments of his finances the loans of Caesar free of interest * * * were in a high degree welcome to him; and many an immortal oration for the Senate was nipped in the bud by the thought that the agent of Caesar might present a bill to him after the close of the sitting." There are many a.s.sertions here for which I have looked in vain for the authority. I do not know that Cicero's finances were seriously embarra.s.sed at the time.

The evidence goes rather to show that they were not so. Had he ever taken more than one loan from Caesar? I find nothing as to any question of interest; but I imagine that Caesar treated Cicero as Cicero afterward treated Pompey when he lent him money. We do not know whether even Cra.s.sus charged Caesar interest. We may presume that a loan is always made welcome, or the money would not be borrowed, but the "high degree of welcome," as applied to this especial loan, ought to have some special justification. As to Cicero's anxiety in borrowing the money I know nothing, but he was very anxious to pay it. The borrowing and the lending of money between Roman n.o.blemen was very common. No one had ever borrowed so freely as Caesar had done. Cicero was a lender and a borrower, but I think that he was never seriously embarra.s.sed. What oration was nipped in the bud by fear of his creditor? He had lately spoken twice for Saufeius, once against S. Clodius, and against Plancus--in each case opposing the view of Caesar, as far as Caesar had views on the matter. The sum borrowed on this occasion was 800,000 sesterces--between 6000 and 7000. A small additional sum of 100 is mentioned in one of the letters to Atticus, lib.

v., 5., which is, however, spoken of by Cicero as forming one whole with the other. I can hardly think that Mommsen had this in view when he spoke of loans in the plural number.

[75] M. C. Marcellus was Consul B.C. 51; his brother, C.

Claudius Marcellus, was Consul B.C. 50, another C. Claudius Marcellus, a cousin, in B.C. 49.

[76] Mommsen calls him a "respected Senator." M. De Guerle, in his preface to the oration Pro Marcello, claims for him the position of a delegate. He was probably both--though we may doubt whether he was "respected" after his flogging.

[77] Ad Att., lib. v., 11: "Marcellus foede in Comensi;" and he goes on to say that even if the man had been no magistrate, and therefore not ent.i.tled to full Roman treatment, yet he was a Transalpine, and therefore not subject to the scourge. See Mr. Watson's note in his Select Letters.

[78] Ad Div., lib. ii., 8.

[79] Ad Att., lib. v., 13.

[80] Ibid.: "Quaeso ut simus annui; ne intercaletur quidem."

It might be that an intercalary month should be added, and cause delay.

[81] Ad Div., lib. viii., 2: "Ut tibi curae sit quod ad pantheras attinet."

[82] Ad Att., lib. v., 14.

[83] Ad Div., lib. iii., 5.

[84] Ad Att., lib. v., 15.

[85] Ibid., 16.

[86] Ad Att., lib. v., 17.

[87] Ad Div., lib. iii., 6.

[88] Ad Div., lib. xv., 1.

[89] Ibid., iii., 8.