CICERO.
(1) LIFE.
M. Tullius Cicero, the son of a Roman knight, was born at Arpinum on 3rd January, B.C. 106. Jerome yr. Abr. 1911, ‘M. Tullius Cicero Arpini nascitur matre Helvia, patre equestris ordinis ex regio Volscorum genere.’ Cic. ad Att. xiii. 42, 3, ‘Diem meum scis esse iii. Non. Ian.’
He gives an account of his education in Brut. 306 sqq. In civil law he was a pupil, in B.C. 89, of Q. Scaevola the Augur, and afterwards of the pontifex of the same name (de Am. 1). In B.C. 88 he studied philosophy under Philo the Academic, and rhetoric under Molo of Rhodes. Dialectic he practised with the Stoic Diodotus, who lived and died in Cicero’s house (B.C. 87-5). Other teachers of Cicero were the poet Archias (pro Arch. 1), the orator Antonius (de Or. ii. 3), the actors Roscius and Aesopus (Plut. Cic. 5), the rhetorician M. Antonius Gnipho (Sueton. Gramm. 7), and the philosophers Phaedrus and Zeno.
After establishing a reputation at the bar by his defence of Quinctius and of Roscius of Ameria, he visited Asia to recruit his health and improve his oratorical style. On his way to the East he stayed six months at Athens, where he renewed his philosophical studies under Antiochus the Academic. In Asia he attended the leading rhetoricians, especially his old teacher Molo at Rhodes, who endeavoured to chasten the exuberance of his manner. At Rhodes he also made the acquaintance of the famous Stoic Posidonius (de Fin. i. 6). After an absence of two years he returned to Rome B.C. 77, and shortly afterwards married Terentia.
Cicero, who had served in the Social War, B.C. 89 (Phil. xii. 27), began his official career in 75 as quaestor of the district of Lilybaeum in Sicily, where he won golden opinions from all classes (pro Planc. 64). He headed the poll at the election of aediles for 69, and of praetors for 66 (in Pis. 2); as praetor he presided over the court for the trial of cases of repetundae (pro Clu. 147). His canvass for the consulship of 63 began as early as July 65 (ad Att. i. 1, 1); he was returned with C. Antonius as his colleague (in Pis. 3). His services to the State in 63 in the crushing of the Catilinarian conspiracy need not be dwelt on here: his activity as an orator in that year was great, and he passed a law against undue influence by candidates, ‘Lex Tullia de ambitu’ (in Vat. 37). He waived his right to a province, allowing Metellus Celer to take Gaul.
In 58 the hostility of P. Clodius effected Cicero’s banishment, on the ground that he had put the Catilinarian conspirators to death without trial. Retiring at first to Vibo, in Lucania, he moved successively to Sicily, Thurii, Tarentum, Brundisium, Dyrrhachium, Thessalonica, and Athens. At Dyrrhachium he resided from November 58 to August 57, when, after several unsuccessful efforts by his friends, a law was passed for his recall.
In 53 he was chosen augur in succession to the younger Crassus (Plut. Cic. 36), and two years later was appointed proconsul of Cilicia, under the new arrangement providing for an interval of five years between office in Rome and the government of a province. There he carried on a petty warfare with the mountaineers, and captured the fort of Pindenissus (a success for which the Senate decreed a supplicatio), occupying the winter with judicial business in the towns. His absence from the centre of affairs, though it lasted only a year, was most distasteful to him; cf. ad Att. v. 11, 1, ‘Ne provincia nobis prorogetur, per fortunas! dum ades, quidquid provideri potest, provide: non dici potest quam flagrem desiderio urbis, quam vix harum rerum insulsitatem feram.’ For his just dealing with the provincials, cf. ad Att. v. 21, 5.
In November, 50, Cicero returned to Italy, to find a crisis imminent, and finally cast in his lot with the senatorial party. He left Rome with the consuls and the leading optimates, and for some time had charge of the district of Capua (ad Fam. xvi. 11, 3, ‘nos Capuam sumpsimus’). On 7th June, B.C. 49, he embarked to join Pompey in Epirus, though far from enthusiastic for his leadership (ad Fam. vii. 3, 2, ‘mei facti poenituit... Nihil boni praeter causam.’) The chiefs of the party looked upon him with suspicion, and he was not present at the battle of Pharsalus. After Pompey’s overthrow he returned to Brundisium, and in 47 was allowed by Caesar to return to Rome (ad Fam. xiv. 23). His mode of life at this time he thus describes (ad Fam. ix. 20, 3), ‘Ubi salutatio defluxit, litteris me involvo, aut scribo aut lego. Veniunt etiam qui me audiant quasi doctum hominem, quia paullo sum quam ipsi doctior.’
In 46 he divorced his wife Terentia, of whose neglect he complains, ad Fam. iv. 14, 3; and married Publilia, with whom he parted in the following year. In 45 he lost his only daughter Tullia, who had been thrice married; he tried to drown his grief by close application to literary work, moving about from villa to villa, and it is to this period that most of his philosophical works belong. In 44 he appeared once more in Rome, and took a prominent part in the proceedings which followed upon Caesar’s death. April to July he spent at his various villas (ad Att. xiv. passim), and then decided to visit Athens, where his son (born B.C. 65) was studying. On 1st August he reached Syracuse, but hearing at Leucopetra that his presence was required at Rome, he gave up his plan of travel and returned to the city. With the series of Philippics against Antony (44-3) Cicero’s career closes. In the proscription agreed on by the triumvirs he was marked out as one of the chief victims. A fragment of Livy, quoted by Seneca, Suas. 6, 17, states that he fled first to Tusculum, then to Formiae, and took ship from Caieta, but returned to land, exclaiming, ‘Moriar in patria saepe servata.’ On his way from the shore to his villa he was slain by a party of Antony’s soldiers, and his head was carried to Rome and exposed on the Rostra. The date of the assassination was 7th December, B.C. 43 (Tiro quoted by Tac. Dial. 17).
(2) WORKS.
(a) Speeches.
1. The earliest extant speech is that Pro Quinctio, delivered B.C. 81 (Gell. xv. 28, 3) in an action before a iudex for restitution of property. This was not Cicero’s first appearance as an advocate: § 4, ‘quod mihi consuevit in ceteris causis esse adiumento.’
2. Next year (cf. Gell. ibid.) Cicero made his first speech in a criminal case, defending Sex. Roscius of Ameria on a charge of parricide. By so doing he incurred the risk of Sulla’s enmity, but at the same time established his own position. De Off. ii. 51, ‘contra L. Sullae dominantis opes pro S. Roscio Amerino’; Brut. 312, ‘prima causa publica, pro Sex. Roscio dicta, tantum commendationis habuit, ut non ulla esset quae non digna nostro patrocinio videretur.’ In later years he criticized the ‘iuvenilis redundantia’ of this speech (Orat. 108).
3. The speech Pro Roscio Comoedo, usually assigned to B.C. 76, was a defence of the famous actor in a civil case.
4. The year 70 B.C. is memorable for the group of speeches (‘accusationis vii. libri,’ Orat. 103), against Verres, accused of repetundae by the Sicilians, at whose urgent entreaty Cicero undertook the prosecution. The preliminary question, who should conduct the prosecution, is argued in the Divinatio in Caecilium. Q. Caecilius Niger, Verres’ quaestor, claimed the right to prosecute, but this manoeuvre failed. Of the six speeches in Verrem only one, the Actio Prima, was delivered: Cicero, seeing that the other side were anxious to carry the trial over into the next year, confined himself to this short introductory speech (on 5th August, cf. § 31), after which he called his witnesses. Their evidence was so damaging that Hortensius[25] threw up the defence, and Verres was sentenced to banishment and his property confiscated. The five Books of the Actio Secunda were published afterwards in order that the facts might be thoroughly known.
5. Pro M. Fonteio (incomplete), for Fonteius, propraetor of Gallia Narbonensis B.C. 75-3, on a charge of repetundae. This trial perhaps took place B.C. 69, certainly after the equites had been placed on the iudicia by the Lex Aurelia of 70 (cf. § 26).
6. To the same year probably belongs the speech Pro Caecina in a civil case.
7. In B.C. 66 Cicero made his first political speech, Pro Lege Manilia, or De Imperio Cn. Pompei, in support of the bill of the tribune Manilius for conferring on Pompey the command against Mithradates.
8. In the same year he defended Cluentius, charged with murder, in the speech Pro A. Cluentio Habito. The date is fixed as the year of Cicero’s praetorship by § 147, ‘mea quaestio de pecuniis repetundis.’
9. The three speeches De Lege Agraria are concerned with the bill of P. Servilius Rullus for the appointment of decemviri with full power to buy and sell land and to establish colonies. The first speech (incomplete) was made in the Senate on 1st January, the second and third before contiones.
10. The speech Pro C. Rabirio perduellionis reo was delivered on behalf of Rabirius, charged before the comitia with the murder of the tribune Saturninus in B.C. 100. The prosecution had been instituted by the democratic party to vindicate the old right of provocatio ad populum, and to establish the inviolability of the tribunes.
11. Of the four speeches In Catilinam, i. was delivered in the Senate on 8th November, and followed by Catiline’s flight from Rome; ii. to the people on 9th November; iii. to the people on 3rd December, when the Allobroges gave their evidence about the conspiracy; iv. in the Senate, on 5th December, calling for the capital punishment of the conspirators.[26]
12. In this crisis Cicero made one of his most graceful and witty speeches, the Pro Murena. The defendant was charged with bribery in his candidature for the consulship, and among the prosecutors was Cato.
13-14. In B.C. 62 Cicero defended P. Sulla, who was accused of complicity with Catiline (Pro Sulla), and delivered the speech Pro Archia in support of his friend’s title to the Roman citizenship.
15. In B.C. 59 L. Flaccus was accused of repetundae as propraetor of Asia 62-60, and defended by Cicero in the speech Pro Flacco.
16-19. After Cicero’s return from exile he returned thanks to the Senate in the speech Cum Senatui gratias egit, 5th September B.C. 57 (ad Att. iv. 1, 5), delivered from manuscript (‘propter rei magnitudinem dicta de scripto,’ Pro Planc. 74). The genuineness of the corresponding speech to the people, Cum populo gratias egit, is suspected; it is mentioned by Dio. xxxix. 9, 1, but not by Cicero himself. On 30th September (ad Att. iv. 2, 2) the speech De Domo Sua was delivered before the pontifices, who decided that the site of Cicero’s house, which Clodius had consecrated, should be restored to its owner. Connected with this is the speech De Haruspicum Responsis, of the year 56, rebutting the argument of Clodius that the declaration of the haruspices, ‘loca sacra et religiosa profana haberi’ (§ 9) referred to the restitution of Cicero’s house.
20. The speech Pro Sestio is in defence of one of Cicero’s friends who, as tribune, had worked energetically for his recall from exile, and was now accused de vi at the instigation of Clodius. Sestius was acquitted in March, B.C. 56 (ad Q.F. ii. 4, 1).
21. The Interrogatio in P. Vatinium testem was a successful attack on the credibility of Vatinius, who had been one of the chief witnesses against Sestius.
22. Pro M. Caelio.—The prosecution of Caelius on a charge of poisoning was instigated by his former mistress, Clodia; it took place in B.C. 56, for Cn. Domitius, who tried the case (§ 32), was praetor in that year (ad Q.F. ii. 3, 6).
23. The speech De Provinciis Consularibus, B.C. 56, argues that Caesar should be allowed to continue as proconsul of Gaul, and that Syria and Macedonia should be taken away from Gabinius and Piso. Mommsen[27] regards it as the παλινῳδία of ad Att. iv. 5, 1, and contrasts Cicero’s tone to Caesar in this speech with his attitude in the Pro Sestio, In Vatinium, and De Haruspicum Responsis.
24. The speech Pro Balbo deals with a case similar to that of Archias. L. Cornelius Balbus, a native of Gades, and the trusted friend of Caesar, had received the civitas from Pompey, and this speech is in defence of his right thereto (B.C. 56).
25. In Pisonem, an attack on Cicero’s enemy (consul B.C. 58), delivered in the Senate B.C. 55.
26. Pro Plancio, B.C. 54, on behalf of Cn. Plancius, accused of organizing clubs to secure by bribery his election to the aedileship.
27. Pro Rabirio Postumo, B.C. 54. Rabirius was charged with extortion in Egypt.
28. Pro Milone.—At the trial of Milo de vi in B.C. 52 Cicero was so intimidated by the uproar of the rabble that his speech was a failure, and Milo was condemned. The speech now extant was written by Cicero at his leisure. Both were known to Asconius,[28] who supplies a valuable introduction.
29. For six years we have no speech; but in 46 Cicero broke his rule of silence (‘in perpetuum tacere,’ ad Fam. iv. 4, 4), and in the speech Pro Marcello thanked Caesar for allowing Marcellus, the consul of B.C. 51, to return to Rome.
30. On 26th November B.C. 46 he pleaded before Caesar the cause of Q. Ligarius (Pro Ligario).
31. In the latter part of B.C. 45 he delivered in Caesar’s house the speech Pro Rege Deiotaro on behalf of his ‘hospes vetus et amicus,’ the tetrarch of Galatia, accused of treachery to Caesar.
32. Cicero’s oratorical career closes with the fourteen speeches against Antony, called Philippics, after the speeches of Demosthenes. This title was suggested by the author himself; cf. the letter of Brutus (ad Brut. ii. 5, 4), ‘iam concedo ut vel Philippicae vocentur, quod tu quadam epistula iocans scripsisti.’ It was the usual title in antiquity, though Gellius (xiii. 1, 1) uses the alternative Antonianae. The Philippics cover the period from 2nd September 44 to 22nd April 43. They were all delivered in the Senate, except iv. and vi., which are contiones, and ii., which was never spoken, but published as a political pamphlet after Antony had left Rome: for its fame cf. Juv. 10, 125,
‘Te conspicuae, divina Philippica, famae,
volveris a prima quae proxima.’
There are fragments of about twenty speeches, and the titles of thirty others are known. The invective in Sallustium, and the speech Pridie quam in exilium iret, are undoubtedly spurious.
Many of the speeches were to a large extent extempore, the heads only being committed to writing. These notes were afterwards collected by Tiro (Quint. x. 7, 30-1). In publishing, Cicero occasionally omitted some passages of the spoken oration, e.g. in Pro Mur. 57 only the headings appear, ‘De Postumi criminibus.’ ‘De Servi adulescentis’: cf. Plin. Ep. i. 20, 7, ‘ex his apparet illum permulta dixisse, cum ederet omisisse.’ For the practice of reporting his speeches in shorthand cf. Ascon. in Mil. ‘manet illa quoque excepta eius oratio’ (his speech at Milo’s trial). The only case in which Cicero appeared for the prosecution was that of Verres: the part of an accuser was generally distasteful to him; cf. De Off. ii. 50, ‘duri hominis vel potius vix hominis videtur, periculum capitis inferre multis.’
(b) Philosophical Works.
1. De Re Publica, a discussion of the ideal state and the ideal citizen, was published before B.C. 51, for Caelius writes to Cicero in Cilicia, ‘tui politici libri omnibus vigent’ (ad Fam. viii. 1, 4). In this treatise Cicero made use of Plato, and of Aristotle, Theophrastus, and other Peripatetics (de Div. ii. 3). There were six Books; but until 1822 the Somnium Scipionis, extracted by Macrobius from Book vi., was the only portion of the work known to exist, with the exception of a few fragments. In that year Mai published at Rome, from a Vatican palimpsest, remains which make up about one-third of the whole.
2. The De Legibus succeeded the De Re Publica, as Plato’s Laws came after the Republic. The speakers in this dialogue are Atticus, Cicero, and his brother Quintus. Book i. expounds the Stoic position that the laws of the ideal state are made by the wise man in accordance with the mind of God; this position is worked out in Book ii. in the regulations for religion, and in iii. on the duties of magistrates. The treatise was never completed, and was perhaps a posthumous publication: it is not mentioned in the list in De Divinatione ii. 1-3, and there is no preface, though Cicero says (ad Att. iv. 16, 2) ‘in singulis libris utor prooemiis.’ Certainly it had not appeared in B.C. 46, the year of the Brutus (Brut. 19). It was composed after the murder of Clodius in January, B.C. 52 (ii. 42), and in Pompey’s lifetime (iii. 22): probably in 52, as the government of Cilicia and the civil war left Cicero no time for literature during the years 51-48.
3. In the spring of 46 was written the short tract Paradoxa, a discussion of six Stoic paradoxes (e.g. that the wise man alone is free). It was addressed to Brutus, and was later than the dialogue which bears his name; cf. the preface, ‘accipies hoc parvum opusculum, lucubratum his iam contractioribus noctibus, quoniam illud maiorum vigiliarum munus in tuo nomine apparuit.’
4. The death of Tullia in February, 45, led Cicero to write, at Astura, a Consolatio, of which only fragments survive. Plin. N.H. praef. 22, quotes Cicero as saying that he here followed the Greek philosopher, Crantor, περὶ πένθους. It contained notices of the deaths of great men, De Div. ii. 22, ‘clarissimorum hominum nostrae civitatis gravissimos exitus in Consolatione collegimus.’
5. In the Hortensius Cicero appeared as the champion of philosophy: De Fin. i. 2, ‘philosophiae vituperatoribus satis responsum est eo libro, quo a nobis philosophia defensa et collaudata est, cum esset accusata et vituperata ab Hortensio.’ It cannot be traced beyond the seventh century, and is now represented by a few fragments. In the Middle Ages it was confounded with the Prior Academics, the speakers in both dialogues being the same. The Hortensius seems to have been written before Cicero went to Astura in March, B.C. 45: there is no allusion to it in his letters.
6. The treatise De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum discusses various theories of the summum bonum—the Epicurean in Books i.-ii., the Stoic in iii.-iv., the Peripatetic in v. The scene of the dialogue changes from Cumae to Tusculum and then to the Academy at Athens. The work was dedicated to Brutus in June, 45 (ad Att. xiii. 12, 3).
7. The Academics appeared in two editions. Of the original edition Book ii., entitled Lucullus, has survived; the speakers in it are Lucullus, Catulus, Hortensius, and Cicero, and the scene, Hortensius’ villa. Cicero was not satisfied with this arrangement (ad Att. xiii. 12, 3, ‘homines nobiles illi quidem, sed nullo modo philologi, nimis acute locuntur’), and after provisionally transferring the parts of Lucullus, Catulus, and Hortensius, to Cato and Brutus, he finally adopted the suggestion of Atticus to gratify Varro by giving him a share in the dialogue together with Atticus and himself (ad Att. xiii. 13, 1, ‘commotus tuis litteris, quod ad me de Varrone scripseras, totam Academiam ab hominibus nobilissimis abstuli transtulique ad nostrum sodalem et ex duobus libris contuli in quattuor’). Of this second edition in four Books we possess only Book i. (incomplete), and fragments of the others; the scene is at Cumae. The dedicatory epistle to Varro is still preserved (ad Fam. ix. 8).
8. In the five Books of Tusculanae Disputationes, conversations between Cicero and a friend at his Tusculan villa, the subject is the chief essentials for happiness. Book i. inculcates the proper attitude towards death, ii. to grief, iii. to pain, iv. to other trials, v. asserts the sufficiency of virtue for happiness. The treatise is dedicated to Brutus, and was finished by B.C. 44, in which year (ad Att. xv. 2, 4) the first Book is known to Atticus.
9. De Natura Deorum, in three Books, is also addressed to Brutus. The Epicurean, Stoic, and Peripatetic doctrines are represented by C. Velleius, Q. Lucilius Balbus, and C. Aurelius Cotta, respectively. This treatise was written after the Tusculans (de Div. ii. 3): in July 45 (ad Att. xiii. 39, 2) Atticus is asked for the loan of Φαίδρου περὶ θεῶν and περὶ Παλλάδος.
10. The essay De Senectute, called also Cato Maior after the principal speaker in the dialogue, was addressed to Atticus at the end of 45 or early in 44 (de Div. ii. 3; ad Att. xiv. 21, 3).
11. To a later date in the same year belongs the Laelius, or De Amicitia (de Am. 4 mentions the de Sen.), in which Laelius discourses on friendship. In this book, according to Gell. i. 3, 10-11, Cicero was under obligations to Theophrastus περὶ φιλίας.
12. De Divinatione, in two Books, forms a supplement to the De Natura Deorum. Cicero and his brother discuss, at Tusculum, the nature and validity of ‘divinatio,’ which is defined (i. 9) as ‘earum rerum quae fortuitae putantur praedictio atque praesensio.’ The date is 44.
13. The incomplete essay De Fato was written in 44, after Caesar’s death (cf. § 2). The conversation takes place at Puteoli, between Cicero and the consul-designate Hirtius.
14. On 11th July of the same year Cicero sent to Atticus his treatise De Gloria, in two Books, now lost (ad Att. xvi. 2, 6; de Off. ii. 31).
15. The latest of the extant philosophical works is the De Officiis, written for the instruction of the author’s son. Cicero had completed two Books by November, B.C. 44 (xvi. 11, 4), following the treatment of Panaetius, and discussing in Book i. the issue between vice and virtue, in Book ii. the expediency of a given action. In Book iii. he was indebted to Posidonius, for the discussion of apparent conflict between virtue and expediency.
There are traces of two other treatises, De Virtutibus and De Auguriis; and we possess fragments of a translation of Plato’s Protagoras and Timaeus, which cannot be earlier than B.C. 45 (de Fin. i. 7).
Cicero propounds no original scheme of philosophy, claiming only that he renders the conclusions of Greek thinkers accessible to his own countrymen. This sort of work cost him little trouble: ad Att. xii. 52, 3, ‘ἀπόγραφα sunt; minore labore fiunt: verba tantum affero, quibus abundo.’ At the same time he is not a mere translator: de Fin. i. 6, ‘nos non interpretum fungimur munere, sed tuemur ea quae dicta sunt ab eis quos probamus, eisque nostrum iudicium et nostrum scribendi ordinem adiungimus.’ His motives for entering upon this task are explained in De Nat. Deor. i. 7-9: (1) he desired to do a service to his country: ‘ipsius rei publicae causa philosophiam nostris hominibus explicandam putavi’; (2) he sought relief for his own mind: ‘hortata etiam est ut me ad haec conferrem animi aegritudo, fortunae magna et gravi conmota iniuria.’ Cicero is an eclectic, with a leaning to the New Academy: Tusc. iv. 7, ‘nullis unius disciplinae legibus adstricti, quibus in philosophia necessario pareamus.’ Probability is all that he expects to reach: ibid., ‘quid sit in quaque re maxime probabile semper requiremus.’ The philosophy most attractive to him is that which best called forth the oratorical faculty: Tusc. ii. 9, ‘mihi semper Peripateticorum Academiaeque consuetudo de omnibus rebus in contrarias partes differendi ... placuit ... quod esset ea maxima dicendi exercitatio.’[29]
(c) Rhetorical Treatises.
I. The earliest of these is De Inventione, or Rhetorica, in two Books, written probably for the author’s own use during Sulla’s absence in Asia B.C. 87-83. In his mature years Cicero looked back with contempt on this youthful effort: de Or. i. 5, ‘quae pueris aut adulescentulis nobis ex commentariolis nostris incohata ac rudia exciderunt.’ He borrows much from the Rhet. ad Herenn., and frequently mentions and criticises the views of Hermagoras; but all the best writers on rhetoric were laid under contribution: ii. 4, ‘omnibus unum in locum coactis scriptoribus, quod quisque commodissime praecipere videbatur, excerpsimus.’
2. The three Books De Oratore were finished in 55: ad Att. iv. 13, 2, ‘de libris oratoriis factum est a me diligenter: diu multumque in manibus fuerunt: describas licet.’ They were written at a time when Cicero’s voice was seldom heard: ad Fam. i. 9, 23, ‘ab orationibus diiungo me fere referoque ad mansuetiores Musas.’ The dialogue takes place in B.C. 91, at the Tusculan villa of L. Licinius Crassus; he and the rival orator, M. Antonius, are the chief speakers.
3. The dialogue Brutus, or De Claris Oratoribus, after a brief survey of Greek oratory, criticises the Roman orators from L. Brutus to Cicero’s own time. In spite of his intention to omit living persons (§ 231), he discusses Caesar, M. Marcellus, and himself. The speakers are Brutus, Atticus, and Cicero; and the date is probably 46, for the Brutus is earlier than the Orator, which refers to it (§ 23).
4. The Orator or De Optimo Genere Dicendi is a sequel to the De Oratore and the Brutus, adding practical rules to the exposition of theory (de Div. ii. 4). It was written at the request of Brutus, to whom it is addressed, in the year 46 (ad Fam. xii. 17, 2).
5. Partitiones Oratoriae is a catechism on rhetoric, in which the questions are put to Cicero by his son.
6. The Topica was written in response to repeated requests from Trebatius for explanation of Aristotle’s Topics. It was done by Cicero, without the aid of books, on his voyage from Velia to Rhegium in July, 44 (Top. 5; ad Fam. vii. 19).
7. The short treatise De Optimo Genere Oratorum was introductory to a version of the speeches of Demosthenes and Aeschines ‘on the Crown,’ designed to show the Romans what the best Attic oratory was like.
(d) Letters.
Cicero’s correspondence begins B.C. 68 with ad Att. i. 5, and ends 28th July, B.C. 43. Besides seven hundred and seventy-four letters written by Cicero, we have ninety addressed to him by friends. The collection was made by friends like Tiro and Atticus: cf. ad Att. xvi. 5, 5 (B.C. 44), ‘Mearum epistularum nulla est συναγωγή, sed habet Tiro instar septuaginta, et quidem sunt a te quaedam sumendae: eas ego oportet perspiciam, corrigam; tum denique edentur.’
The letters now extant fall into four groups.
i. Epistulae ad Atticum, in sixteen Books, belonging to the years B.C. 68-43, and valuable for their thorough frankness (ad Att. viii. 14, 2, ‘ego tecum tamquam mecum loquor’). Nepos appreciates their supreme importance for the history of Cicero’s time, although he dates the commencement of the correspondence wrongly: Att. 16, ‘xvi. volumina epistularum ab consulatu eius usque ad extremum tempus ad Atticum missarum; quae qui legat, non multum desideret historiam contextam eorum temporum.’ Atticus’ own letters were not published, though Cicero preserved them: ad Att. ix. 10, 4, ‘Evolvi volumen epistularum, quod ego sub signo habeo servoque diligentissime.’
2. Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem, in three Books, of the years B.C. 60-54.
3. Epistulae ad Brutum, originally in nine Books, of which only two remain. The present Book i. was really Book ix., and Book ii., which contains letters earlier than those in Book i., may have formed part of the original Book viii.
4. Epistulae ad Familiares, in sixteen Books, letters to and from friends, written B.C. 62-43. This title is not found in any MS. Late MSS. and old editions have ‘Epistulae Familiares’: for the title ‘Ad Diversos’ there is no authority. In the best MSS. the Books are titled separately by the name of the person to whom the first letter in each is written, e.g. ‘M. Tulli Ciceronis epistularum ad P. Lentulum liber i.’
For the colloquial style of the letters cf. ad Fam. ix. 21, 1 (to Paetus), ‘Quid tibi ego in epistulis videor? nonne plebeio sermone agere tecum? nec enim semper eodem modo: quid enim simile habet epistula aut iudicio aut contioni? ... epistulas vero cottidianis verbis texere solemus.’
The following works are now lost: (a) Miscellaneous prose writings.—1. Panegyrics on Porcia (ad Att. xiii. 37, 3) and Cato, B.C. 45; and funeral orations written for other people to deliver (ad Q.F. iii. 8, 5, ‘laudavit pater scripto meo’).
2. Memoirs of Cicero’s consulship, written B.C. 60, in both Greek and Latin (ad. Att. i. 19, 10). He took great pains with this book, and was anxious that it should be well circulated (ad Att. ii. 1, 1).
3. A secret history, Anekdota, mentioned in letters of B.C. 59 and 44 (ad Att. ii. 6, 2; xiv. 17, 6).
4. Admiranda, a collection of wonders (Pliny, N.H. xxxi. 51).
5. Chorographia, a book on geography, mentioned by Priscian. The letters to Atticus show that Cicero was studying the subject in B.C. 59.
6. A work on law, De iure civili in artem redigendo (Gell. i. 22, 7).
7. A translation of Xenophon’s Oeconomicus, made when Cicero was about the age of twenty (de Off. ii. 87).
(b) Poems.—1. Cicero’s earliest effort in verse was a poem in tetrameters, entitled Pontius Glaucus: Plut. Cic. 2, καὶ τι ποιημάτιον ἔτι παιδὸς αὐτοῦ διασῴζεται Πόντιος Γλαῦκος ἐν τετραμέτρῳ πεποιημένον.
2. In B.C. 60 he made a verse translation of the astronomical poems of Aratus, ad Att. ii. 1, 2, ‘Prognostica mea ... propediem exspecta.’ Quotations are given in De Nat. Deor. ii. 104 sqq.
3. In the same year he wrote a poem De Suo Consulatu, in three Books: ad Att. i. 19, 10, ‘poema exspectato, ne quod genus a me ipso laudis meae praetermittatur.’ A long passage from Book ii., spoken by the Muse Urania, is recited by Q. Cicero in De Div. i. 17 sqq.
4. Another poem in three Books, De Temporibus Suis, belonged probably to the year 55. Cicero writes to Lentulus in 54 (ad Fam. i. 9, 23), ‘scripsi versibus tres libros de temporibus meis, quos iam pridem ad te misissem, si esse edendos putassem.’
5. In the letters to Quintus from June to December, 54, there is frequent mention of a poem Ad Caesarem. Quintus is consulted for information about Britain: ad Q.F. ii. 15, 2, ‘mihi date Britanniam, quam pingam coloribus tuis, penicillo meo.’
6. A poem on Cicero’s great townsman Marius is quoted, De Div. i. 106.
Among others quoted are Limon, in which Terence was praised (see [p. 51]), and iocularis libellus (Quint. viii. 6, 73). Translations from Greek poets occur in the philosophical works, e.g. de Fin. v. 49, from Homer, Odys. xii. 184-191; Tusc. ii. 23, from various parts of Aeschylus, Prom. Vinct.
The ancient criticisms on Cicero’s poetry are all unfavourable:
De Off. i. 77, ‘Illud optimum est, in quo invadi solere ab improbis et invidis audio:
“Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea laudi.”’
Juv. 10, 122,
‘“O fortunatam natam me consule Romam!”
Antoni gladios potuit contemnere, si sic
omnia dixisset.’
Tac. Dial. 21 (quoted [p. 111]).
Quint. xi. 1, 24, ‘In carminibus utinam pepercisset, quae non desierunt carpere maligni.’
Rhetorica ad Herennium.—This treatise on rhetoric in four Books, addressed to the author’s relative C. Herennius, is usually printed among Cicero’s works, and is attributed to him by the MSS. and by Jerome and Priscian. But it is clearly not by Cicero, for (a) it does not agree with his own description of his early rhetorical writings as ‘incohata ac rudia’; (b) the author’s position, as described by himself, is not Cicero’s. It is generally held that one Cornificius was the author; Quintilian (e.g. v. 10, 2) attributes to a person of that name several expressions found in the ad Herennium. He may have been the Q. Cornificius who opposed Cicero for the consulship in B.C. 64. The date of the treatise is probably B.C. 86-84.