Chapter 13

177Catiline, by Mr. Beesly. Fortnightly Review, 1865.

178Pro Murena, xxv.: "Quem omnino vivum illinc exire non oportuerat." I think we must conclude from this that Cicero had almost expected that his attack upon the conspirators, in his first Catiline oration, would have the effect of causing him to be killed.

179Æneid, viii., 668:"Te, Catilina, minaciPendentem scopulo."

179Æneid, viii., 668:

"Te, Catilina, minaciPendentem scopulo."

180Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii., xxxiv.

181Juvenal, Sat. ii., 27: "Catilina Cethegum!" Could such a one as Catiline answer such a one as Cethegus? Sat. viii., 232: "Arma tamen vos Nocturna et flammas domibus templisque parastis." Catiline, in spite of his noble blood, had endeavored to burn the city. Sat. xiv., 41: "Catilinam quocunque in populo videas." It is hard to find a good man, but it is easy enough to put your hand anywhere on a Catiline.

182Val Maximus, lib. v., viii., 5; lib. ix., 1, 9; lib. ix., xi., 3.

183Florus, lib. iv.

184Mommsen's History of Rome, book v., chap v.

185I feel myself constrained here to allude to the treatment given to Catiline by Dean Merivale in his little work on the two Roman Triumvirates. The Dean's sympathies are very near akin to those of Mr. Beesly, but he values too highly his own historical judgment to allow it to run on all fours with Mr. Beesly's sympathies. "The real designs," he says, "of the infamous Catiline and his associates must indeed always remain shrouded in mystery. * * * Nevertheless, it is impossible to deny, and on the whole it would be unreasonable to doubt, that such a conspiracy there really was, and that the very existence of the commonwealth was for a moment seriously imperilled." It would certainly be unreasonable to doubt it. But the Dean, though he calls Catiline infamous, and acknowledges the conspiracy, never- theless give us ample proof of his sympathy with the conspirators, or rather of his strong feeling against Cicero. Speaking of Catiline at a certain moment, he says that he "was not yet hunted down." He speaks of the "upstart Cicero," and plainly shows us that his heart is with the side which had been Cæsar's. Whether conspiracy or no conspiracy, whether with or without wholesale murder and rapine, a single master with a strong hand was the one remedy needed for Rome! The reader must understand that Cicero's one object in public life was to resist that lesson.

186Asconius, "In toga candida," reports that Fenestella, a writer of the time of Augustus, had declared that Cicero had defended Catiline; but Asconius gives his reasons for disbelieving the story.

187Cicero, however, declares that he has made a difference between traitors to their country and other criminals. Pro P. Sulla, ca. iii.: "Verum etiam quædam contagio sceleris, si defendas eum, quem obstrictum esse patriæ parricidio suspicere." Further on in the same oration, ca. vi., he explains that he had refused to defend Autronius because he had known Autronius to be a conspirator against his country. I cannot admit the truth of the argument in which Mr. Forsyth defends the practice of the English bar in this respect, and in doing so presses hard upon Cicero. "At Rome," he says, "it was different. The advocate there was conceived to have a much wider discretion than we allow." Neither in Rome nor in England has the advocate been held to be disgraced by undertaking the defence of bad men who have been notoriously guilty. What an English barrister may do, there was no reason that a Roman advocate should not do, in regard to simple criminality. Cicero himself has explained in the passage I have quoted how the Roman practice did differ from ours in regard to treason. He has stated also that he knew nothing of the first conspiracy when he offered to defend Catiline on the score of provincial peculations. No writer has been heavy on Hortensius for defending Verres, but only because he took bribes from Verres.

188Publius Cornelius Sulla, and Publius Autronius Pœtus.

189Pro P. Sulla, iv. He declares that he had known nothing of the first conspiracy and gives the reason: "Quod nondum penitus in republica versabar, quod nondum ad propositum mihi finem honoris perveneram, quod mea me ambitio et forensis labor ab omni illa cogitatione abstrahebat."

190Sallust, Catilinaria, xviii.

191Livy, Epitome, lib. ci.

192Suetonius, J. Cæsar, ix.

193Mommsen, book v., ca. v., says of Cæsar and Crassus as to this period, "that this notorious action corresponds with striking exactness to the secret action which this report ascribes to them." By which he means to imply that they probably were concerned in the plot.

194Sallust tells us, Catilinaria, xlix., that Cicero was instigated by special enemies of Cæsar to include Cæsar in the accusation, but refused to mix himself up in so great a crime. Crassus also was accused, but probably wrongfully. Sallust declares that an attempt was made to murder Cæsar as he left the Senate. There was probably some quarrel and hustling, but no more.

195Sallust, Catilinaria, xxxvii.: "Omnino cuncta plebes, novarum rerum studio, Catilinæ incepta probabat." By the words "novarum rerum studio"—by a love of revolution—we can understand the kind of popularity which Sallust intended to express.

196Pro Murena, xxv.

197"Darent operam consules ne quid detrimenti respublica capiat."

198Catilinaria, xxxi.

199Quintilian, lib. xii., 10: "Quem tamen et suorum homines temporum incessere audebant, ut tumidiorem, et asianum, et redundantem."

200Orator., xxxvii.: "A nobis homo audacissimus Catilina in senatu accusatus obmutuit."

2012 Catilinaria, xxxi.

202In the first of them to the Senate, chap. ix., he declares this to Catiline himself: "Si mea voce perterritus ire in exsilium animum induxeris, quanta tempestas invidiæ nobis, si minus in præsens tempus, recenti memoria scelerum tuorum, at in posteritatem impendeat." He goes on to declare that he will endure all that, if by so doing he can save the Republic. "Sed est mihi tanti; dummodo ista privata sit calamitas, et a reipublicæ periculis sejungatur."

203Sallust, Catilinaria, xli.: "Itaque Q. Fabio Sangæ cujus patrocinio civitas plurimum utebatur rem omnem uti cognoverant aperiunt."

204Horace, Epo. xvi., 6: "Novisque rebus infidelis Allobrox." The unhappy Savoyard has from this line been known through ages as a conspirator, false even to his fellow-conspirators.Juvenal, vii., 214: "Rufum qui toties Ciceronem Allobroga dixit." Some Rufus, acting as advocate, had thought to put down Cicero by calling him an Allobrogian.

204Horace, Epo. xvi., 6: "Novisque rebus infidelis Allobrox." The unhappy Savoyard has from this line been known through ages as a conspirator, false even to his fellow-conspirators.

Juvenal, vii., 214: "Rufum qui toties Ciceronem Allobroga dixit." Some Rufus, acting as advocate, had thought to put down Cicero by calling him an Allobrogian.

205The words in which this honor was conferred he himself repeats: "Quod urbem incendiis, cæde cives, Italiam bello liberassem"—"because I had rescued the city from fire, the citizens from slaughter, and Italy from war."

206It is necessary in all oratory to read something between the lines. It is allowed to the speaker to produce effect by diminishing and exaggerating. I think we should detract something from the praises bestowed on Catiline's military virtues. The bigger Catiline could be made to appear, the greater would be the honor of having driven him out of the city.

207In Catilinam, iii., xi.

208In Catilinam, ibid., xii.: "Ne mihi noceant vestrum est providere."

209"Prince of the Senate" was an honorary title, conferred on some man of mark as a dignity—at this period on some ex-Consul; it conferred no power. Cicero, the Consul who had convened the Senate, called on the speakers as he thought fit.

210Cæsar, according to Sallust, had referred to the Lex Porcia. Cicero alludes, and makes Cæsar allude, to the Lex Sempronia. The Porcian law, as we are told by Livy, was passedb.c.299, and forbade that a Roman should be scourged or put to death. The Lex Sempronia was introduced by C. Gracchus, and enacted that the life of a citizen should not be taken without the voice of the citizens.

211Velleius Paterculus, xxxvi.: "Consulatui Ciceronis non mediocre adjecit decus natus eo anno Divus Augustus."

212In Pisonem, iii.: "Sine ulla dubitatione juravi rempublicam atque hanc urbem mea unius opera esse salvam."

213Dio Cassius tells the same story, lib. xxxvii., ca. 38, but he adds that Cicero was more hated than ever because of the oath he took: καὶ ὅ μέν καὶ ἐκ τούτου πολὺ μᾶλλον ἐμισήθη.

214It is the only letter given in the collection as having been addressed direct to Pompey. In two letters written some years later to Atticus,b.c.49, lib. viii., 11, and lib. viii., 12, he sends copies of a correspondence between himself and Pompey and two of the Pompeian generals.

215Lib. v., 7. It is hardly necessary to explain that the younger Scipio and Lælius were as famous for their friendship as Pylades and Orestes. The "Virtus Scipiadæ et mitis sapientia Læli" have been made famous to us all by Horace.

216These two brothers, neither of whom was remarkable for great qualities, though they were both to be Consuls, were the last known of the great family of the Metelli, a branch of the "Gens Cæcilia." Among them had been many who had achieved great names for themselves in Roman history, on account of the territories added to the springing Roman Empire by their victories. There had been a Macedonicus, a Numidicus, a Balearicus, and a Creticus. It is of the first that Velleius Paterculus sings the glory—lib. i., ca. xi., and the elder Pliny repeats the story, Hist. Nat., vii., 44—that of his having been carried to the grave by four sons, of whom at the time of his death three had been Consuls, one had been a Prætor, two had enjoyed triumphal honors, and one had been Censor. In looking through the consular list of Cicero's lifetime, I find that there were no less than seven taken from the family of the Metelli. These two brothers, Metellus Nepos and Celer, again became friends to Cicero; Nepos, who had stopped his speech and assisted in forcing him into exile, having assisted as Consul in obtaining his recall from exile. It is very difficult to follow the twistings and turnings of Roman friendships at this period.

217Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii., ca. xiv. Paterculus tells us how, when the architect offered to build the house so as to hide its interior from the gaze of the world, Drusus desired the man so to construct it that all the world might see what he was doing.

218It may be worth while to give a translation of the anecdote as told by Aulus Gellius, and to point out that the authors intention was to show what a clever fellow Cicero was. Cicero did defend P. Sulla this year; but whence came the story of the money borrowed from Sulla we do not know. "It is a trick of rhetoric craftily to confess charges made, so as not to come within the reach of the law. So that, if anything base be alleged which cannot be denied, you may turn it aside with a joke, and make it a matter of laughter rather than of disgrace, as it is written that Cicero did when, with a drolling word, he made little of a charge which he could not deny. For when he was anxious to buy a house on the Palatine Hill, and had not the ready money, he quietly borrowed from P. Sulla—who was then about to stand his trial, 'sestertium viciens'—twenty million sesterces. When that became known, before the purchase was made, and it was objected to him that he had borrowed the money from a client, then Cicero, instigated by the unexpected charge, denied the loan, and denied also that he was going to buy the house. But when he had bought it and the fib was thrown in his teeth, he laughed heartily, and asked whether men had so lost their senses as not to be aware that a prudent father of a family would deny an intended purchase rather than raise the price of the article against himself."—Noctes Atticæ, xii., 12. Aulus Gellius though he tells us that the story was written, does not tell us where he read it.

219I must say this, "pace" Mr. Tyrrell, who, in his note on the letter to Atticus, lib. i., 12, attempts to show that some bargain for such professional fee had been made. Regarding Mr. Tyrrell as a critic always fair, and almost always satisfactory, I am sorry to have to differ from him; but it seems to me that he, too, has been carried away by the feeling that in defending a man's character it is best to give up some point.

220I have been amused at finding a discourse, eloquent and most enthusiastic, in praise of Cicero and especially of this oration, spoken by M. Gueroult at the College of France in June, 1815. The worst literary faults laid to the charge of Cicero, if committed by him—which M. Gueroult thinks to be doubtful—had been committed even by Voltaire and Racine! The learned Frenchman, with whom I altogether sympathize, rises to an ecstasy of violent admiration, and this at the very moment in which Waterloo was being fought. But in truth the great doings of the world do not much affect individual life. We should play our whist at the clubs though the battle of Dorking were being fought.

221Pro P. Sulla, iv.: "Scis me * * * illorum expertem temporum et sermonum fuisse; credo, quod nondum penitus in republica versabar, quod nondum ad propositum mihi finem honoris perveneram. * * * Quis ergo intererat vestris consiliis? Omnes hi, quos vides huic adesse et in primis Q. Hortensius."

222Ad Att., lib. i., 12.

223Ad Att., lib. i., 13.

224Ibid., i., 14.

225Ibid., i., 16: "Vis scire quomodo minus quam soleam præliatus sum."

226"You have bought a fine house," said Clodius. "There would be more in what you say if you could accuse me of buying judges," replied Cicero. "The judges would not trust you on your oath," said Clodius, referring to the alibi by which he had escaped in opposition to Cicero's oath. "Yes," replied Cicero, "twenty-five trusted me; but not one of the thirty-one would trust you without having his bribe paid beforehand."

227Ad Att., i., 14: "Proxime Pompeium sedebam. Intellexi hominem moveri."

228Ibid.: "Quo modo ἐνεπερπερευσάμην, novo auditori Pompeio."

229Mommsen, book v., chap. vi. This probably has been taken from the statement of Paterculus, lib. ii., 40: "Quippe plerique non sine exercitu venturum in urbem adfirmabant, et libertati publicæ statuturum arbitrio suo modum. Quo magis hoc homines timuerant, eo gratior civilis tanti imperatoris reditus fuit." No doubt there was a dread among many of Pompey coming back as Sulla had come: not from indications to be found in the character of Pompey, but because Sulla had done so.

230Florus, lib.ii., xix. Having described to us the siege of Numantia, he goes on "Hactenus populus Romanus pulcher, egregius, pius, sanctus atque magnificus. Reliqua seculi, ut grandia æque, ita vel magis turbida et fœda".

231We have not Pollio's poem on the conspiracy, but we have Horace's record of Pollio's poem:Motum ex Metello consule civicum,Bellique causas et vitia, et modos,Ludumque Fortunæ, gravesquePrincipum amicitias, et armaNondum expiatis uncta cruoribus,Periculosæ plenum opus aleæ,Tractas, et incedis per ignesSuppositos cineri doloso.—Odes, lib. ii., 1.

231We have not Pollio's poem on the conspiracy, but we have Horace's record of Pollio's poem:

Motum ex Metello consule civicum,Bellique causas et vitia, et modos,Ludumque Fortunæ, gravesquePrincipum amicitias, et armaNondum expiatis uncta cruoribus,Periculosæ plenum opus aleæ,Tractas, et incedis per ignesSuppositos cineri doloso.—Odes, lib. ii., 1.

232The German index appeared—very much after the original work—as late as 1875.

233Mommsen, lib. v., chap. vi. I cannot admit that Mommsen is strictly accurate, as Cæsar had no real idea of democracy. He desired to be the Head of the Oligarchs, and, as such, to ingratiate himself with the people.

234For the character of Cæsar generally I would refer readers to Suetonius, whose life of the great man is, to my thinking, more graphic than any that has been written since. For his anecdotes there is little or no evidence. His facts are not all historical. His knowledge was very much less accurate than that of modern writers who have had the benefit of research and comparison. But there was enough of history, of biography, and of tradition to enable him to form a true idea of the man. He himself as a narrator was neither specially friendly nor specially hostile. He has told what was believed at the time, and he has drawn a character that agrees perfectly with all that we have learned since.

235By no one has the character and object of the Triumvirate been so well described as by Lucan, who, bombastic as he is, still manages to bring home to the reader the ideas as to persons and events which he wishes to convey. I have ventured to give in an Appendix, E, the passages referred to, with such a translation in prose as I have been able to produce. It will be found at the end of this volume.

236Plutarch—Crassus: καὶ συνέστησεν ἐκ τῶν τριῶν ἰσχὺν ἄμαχον.

237Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii., 44: "Hoc igitur consule, inter eum et Cn. Pompeium et M. Crassum inita potentiæ societas, quæ urbi orbique terrarum, nec minus diverso quoque tempore ipsis exitiabilis fuit." Suetonius, Julius Cæsar, xix., "Societatem cum utroque iniit." Officers called Triumviri were quite common, as were Quinqueviri and Decemviri. Livy speaks of a "Triumviratus"—or rather two such offices exercised by one man—ix., 46. We remember, too, that wretch whom Horace gibbeted, Epod. iv.: "Sectus flagellis hic triumviralibus." But the word, though in common use, was not applied to this conspiracy.

238Ad Att., lib.ii., 3: "Is affirmabat, illum omnibus in rebus meo et Pompeii consilio usurum, daturumque operam, ut cum Pompeio Crassum conjungeret. Hic sunt hæc. Conjunctio mihi summa cum Pompeio; si placet etiam cum Cæsare; reditus in gratiam cum inimicis, pax cum multitudine; senectulis otium. Sed me κατακλείς mea illa commovet, quæ est in libro iii."Interea cursus, quos prima a parte juventæQuosque adeo consul virtute, animoque petisti,Hos retine, atque, auge famam laudesque bonorum."

"Interea cursus, quos prima a parte juventæQuosque adeo consul virtute, animoque petisti,Hos retine, atque, auge famam laudesque bonorum."

239Homer, Iliad, lib. xii., 243: Εἶς οἰωνὸς ἄριστος ἀμύνεσθαι περὶ πάτραες.

240Middleton's Life of Cicero, vol. i., p. 291.

241Pro Domo Sua, xvi. This was an oration, as the reader will soon learn more at length, in which the orator pleaded for the restoration of his town mansion after his return from exile. It has, however, been doubted whether the speech as we have it was ever made by Cicero.

242Suetonius, Julius Cæsar, xx.

243Ad Att., lib.ii., 1: "Quid quæris?" says Cicero. "Conturbavi Græcam nationem"—"I have put all Greece into a flutter."

244De Divinatione, lib. i.

245Ad Quin. Fratrem, lib.i., 1: "Non itineribus tuis perterreri homines? non sumptu exhauriri? non adventu commoveri? Esse, quocumque veneris, et publice et privatim maximam lætitiam; quum urbs custodem non tyrannum; domus hospitem non expilatorem, recipisse videatur? His autem in rebus jam te usus ipse profecto erudivit nequaquam satis esse, ipsum hasce habere virtutis, sed esse circumspiciendum diligentur, ut in hac custodia provinciæ non te unum, sed omnes ministros imperii tui, sociis, et civibus, et reipublicæ præstare videare."

246Ad Quin. Fratrem, lib. i., 1: "Ac mihi quidem videntur huc omnia esse referenda iis qui præsunt aliis; ut ii, qui erunt eorum in imperio sint quam beatissimi, quod tibi et esse antiquissimum et ab initio fuisse, ut primum Asiam attigisti, constante fama atque omnium sermone celebratum est. Est autem non modo ejus, qui sociis et civibus, sed etiam ejus qui servis, qui mutis pecudibus præsit, eorum quibus præsit commodis utilitatique servire."

247"Hæc est una in toto imperio tuo difficultas."

248Mommsen, book v., ca. 6.

249Mommsen, vol. v., ca. vi.

250Ad Att., lib.ii., 7: "Atque hæc, sin velim existimes, non me abs te κατὰ τὸ πρακτικὸν quærere, quod gestiat animus aliquid agere in republica. Jam pridem gubernare me tædebat, etiam quum licebat."

251Ad Att., lib.ii., 8: "Scito Curionem adolescentem venisse ad me salutatum. Valde ejus sermo de Publio cum tuis litteris congruebat, ipse vero mirandum in modum Reges odisse superbos. Peræque narrabat incensam esse juventutem, neque ferre hæc posse." The "reges superbos" were Cæsar and Pompey.

252Ad Att., lib.ii., 5: Αἰδέομαι Τρῶας καὶ Τρωάδας ἑλκεσιπέπλους.—Il., vi., 442. "I fear what Mrs. Grundy would say of me," is Mr. Tyrrell's homely version. Cicero's mind soared, I think, higher when he brought the words of Hector to his service than does the ordinary reference to our old familiar critic.

253Quint., xii., 1.

254Enc. Britannica on Cicero.

255Ad Att., lib. ii., 9.

256Ibid.: "Festive, mihi crede, et minore sonitu, quam putaram, orbis hic in republica est conversus." "Orbis hic," this round body of three is the Triumvirate.

257We cannot but think of the threat Horace made, Sat., lib. ii., 1:"At illeQui me commorit, melius non tangere! clamo,Flebit, et insignis tota cantabitur urbe."

257We cannot but think of the threat Horace made, Sat., lib. ii., 1:

"At illeQui me commorit, melius non tangere! clamo,Flebit, et insignis tota cantabitur urbe."

258Ad Att., lib.ii., 11: "Da ponderosam aliquam epistolam."

259Josephus, lib. xviii., ca. 5.

260Ad Att., lib. ii., 16.

261Ad Att., lib. ii., 18: "A Cæsare valde liberaliter invitor in legationem illam, sibi ut sim legatus; atque etiam libera legatio voti causa datur."

262De Legibus, lib.iii., ca.viii.: "Jam illud apertum prefecto est nihil esse turpius, quam quenquam legari nisi republica causa."

263It may be seen from this how anxious Cæsar was to secure his silence, and yet how determined not to screen him unless he could secure his silence.

264Ad Quintum, lib. i., 2.

265Of this last sentence I have taken a translation given by Mr. Tyrrell, who has introduced a special reading of the original which the sense seems to justify.

266Macrobius, Saturnalia, lib.ii., ca.i.: We are told that Cicero had been called the consular buffoon. "And I," says Macrobius, "if it would not be too long, could relate how by his jokes he has brought off the most guilty criminals." Then he tells the story of Lucius Flaccus.

267See the evidence of Asconius on this point, as to which Cicero's conduct has been much mistaken. We shall come to Milo's trial before long.

268The statement is made by Mr. Tyrrell in his biographical introduction to the Epistles.

269The 600 years, or anni DC., is used to signify unlimited futurity.

270Mommsen's History, book v., ca. v.

271Αὐτόμαλος ὠνομάζετο is the phrase of Dio Cassius. "Levissume transfuga" is the translation made by the author of the "Declamatio in Ciceronem." If I might venture on a slang phrase, I should say that αὐτόμαλος was a man who "went off on his own hook." But no man was ever more loyal as a political adherent than Cicero.

272Ad Att., ii., 25.

273We do not know when the marriage took place, or any of the circumstances; but we are aware that when Tullia came, in the following year,b.c.57, to meet her father at Brundisium, she was a widow.

274Suetonius, Julius Cæsar, xii.: "Subornavit etiam qui C. Rabirio perduellionis diem diceret."

275"Qui civem Romanum indemnatum perimisset, ei aqua at igni interdiceretur."

276Plutarch tells us of this sobriquet, but gives another reason for it, equally injurious to the lady's reputation.

277Ad Att., lib. iii., 15.

278In Pisonem, vi.

279Ad Att., lib. x., 4.

280We are told by Cornelius Nepos, in his life of Atticus, that when Cicero fled from his country Atticus advanced to him two hundred and fifty sesterces, or about £2000. I doubt, however, whether the flight here referred to was not that early visit to Athens which Cicero was supposed to have made in his fear of Sulla.

281Ad Fam., lib. xiv., iv.: "Tullius to his Terentia, and to his young Tullia, and to his Cicero," meaning his boy.

282Pro Domo Sua, xxiv.

283Ad Quin. Fra., 1, 3.

284The reader who wishes to understand with what anarchy the largest city in the world might still exist, should turn to chapter viii. of book v. of Mommsen's History.

285Ad Att., lib. iii., 12.

286Horace, Epis., lib. ii., 1.

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