[199] Ibid., i., ca. viii.
[200] Ibid., i., ca. x.
[201] The year of his birth is uncertain. He had been Consul three years back, and must have spoken often.
[202] Ad Div., lib. xii., 2.
[203] It may here be worth our while to quote the impassioned language which Velleius Paterculus uses when he chronicles the death of Cicero, lib. ii., 66: "Nihil tamen egisti, M. Antoni (cogit enim excedere propositi formam operis, erumpens animo ac pectore indignatio), nihil, inquam, egisti, mercedem cælestissimi oris et clarissimi capitis abscissi numerando, auctoramentoque funebri ad conservatoris quondam reipublicæ tantique consulis irritando necem. Rapuisti tu M. Ciceroni lucem solicitam, et ætatem senilem, et vitam miseriorem, te principe, quam sub te triumviro mortem. Famam vero gloriamque factorum atque dictorum adeo non abstulisti, ut auxeris. Vivit, vivetque per omnium sæculorum memoriam; dumque hoc vel forte, vel providentia, vel utcumque constitutum, rerum naturæ corpus, quod ille pæne solus Romanorum animo vidit, ingenio complexus est, eloquentia illuminavit, manebit incolume, comitem ævi sui laudem Ciceronis trahet, omnisque posteritas illius in te scripta mirabitur, tuum in eum factum execrabitur; citiusque in mundo genus hominum, quam ea, cadet." This was the popular idea of Cicero in the time of Tiberius.
[204] Ad Div., lib. xii., 23.
[205] Ad Att., lib. xvi., 11.
[206] On referring to the Milo, ca. xv., the reader will see the very different tone in which Cicero spoke of this incident when Antony was in favor with him.
[207] It was a sign of an excellent character in Rome to have been chosen often as heir in part to a man's property.
[208] Horace, Odes, lib. iii., 30.