"Quæ in tempestate sæva quieta est, et lucet in tenebris, et pulsa loco manet tamen, atque hæret in patria, splendetque per se semper, neque alienis unquam sordibus obsolescit." I regard this as a perfect allocution of words in regard to the arrangement both for the ear and for the intellect.
18
Ca. xliv.: "There have always been two kinds of men who have busied themselves in the State, and have struggled to be each the most prominent. Of these, one set have endeavored to be regarded as 'populares,' friends of the people; the other to be and to be considered as 'optimates,' the most trustworthy. They who did and said what could please the people were 'populares,' but they who so carried themselves as to satisfy every best citizen, they were 'optimates.'" Cicero, in his definition, no doubt begs the question; but to do so was his object.
19
Mommsen, lib. v., chap. viii., in one of his notes, says that this oration as to the provinces was the very "palinodia" respecting which Cicero wrote to Atticus. The subject discussed was no doubt the same. What authority the historian has found for his statement I do not know; but no writer is generally more correct.
20
De Prov. Cons., ca. viii.
21
Ca. xiii.
22
Ca. xiv.
23
Ca. xviii.
24
Pro C. Balbo, ca. vii.
25
Ibid., ca. xiii.
26
Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ca. vii.
27
There was no covenant, no bond of service, no master's authority, probably no discipline; but the eager pupil was taught to look upon the anxious tutor with love, respect, and faith.
28
In Pisonem, xxvii. Even in Cicero's words as used here there is a touch of irony, though we cannot but imagine that at this time he was anxious to stand well with Pompey. "There are coming on the games, the most costly and the most magnificent ever known in the memory of man; such as there never were before, and, as far as I can see, never will be again." "Show yourself there if you dare!" – he goes on to say, addressing the wretched Piso.
29
Plutarch's Life of Pompey: "Crassus upon the expiration of his Consulship repaired to his province. Pompey, remaining in Rome, opened his theatre." But Plutarch, no doubt, was wrong.
30
We may imagine what was the standing of the family from the address which Horace made to certain members of it in the time of Augustus. "Credite Pisones," De Arte Poetica. The Pisones so addressed were the grandsons of Cicero's victim.
31
Quin., ix., 4: "Pro dii immortales, quis hic illuxit dies!" The critic quotes it as being vicious in sound, and running into metre, which was considered a great fault in Roman prose, as it is also in English. Our ears, however, are hardly fine enough to catch the iambic twang of which Quintilian complains.
32
Ca. xviii., xx., xxii.
33
"Quæ potest homini esse polito delectatio," Ad Div., vii., 1. These words have in subsequent years been employed as an argument against all out-of-door sports, with disregard of the fact that they were used by Cicero as to an amusement in which the spectators were merely looking on, taking no active part in deeds either of danger or of skill. —
34
Ad Att., lib. iv., 16.
35
Ad Div., ii., 8.
36
See the letter, Ad Quin. Frat., lib. iii., 2: "Homo undique actus, et quam a me maxime vulneraretur, non tulit, et me trementi voce exulem appellavit." The whole scene is described.
37
Ad Fam., v., 8.
38
Ad Quin. Frat., ii., 12.
39
Ad Att., iv., 15.
40
Val. Max., lib. iv., ca. ii., 4.
41
Horace, Sat., lib. ii., 1:
Hor. "Trebati,
Quid faciam præscribe." – Treb. "Quiescas." – Hor. "Ne faciam, inquis, Omnino versus?" – Treb. "Aio." – Hor. "Peream male si non Optimum erat."
Trebatius became a noted jurisconsult in the time of Augustus, and wrote treatises.
42
Ca. iv.: "Male judicavit populus. At judicavit. Non debuit, at potuit."
43
Ca. vi.: "Servare necesse est gradus. Cedat consulari generi praetorium, nec contendat cum praetorio equester locus."
44
Ca. xix.
45
Ad Fam., i., 9.
46
Ca. xi.
47
Ad Fam., lib. ii., 6: "Dux nobis 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 Crassi 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 ære 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. xxxvii.: "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 exstitisse contra incredibilem contentionem clarissimi et potentissimi viri."
64
Cæsar, 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 Cæsar 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 Cæsar the privilege. Pompey pleaded forgetfulness, but the change was probably forced upon him by Cæsar's influence. – Suetonius, J. Cæsar, 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
