4 in Tusculanum, i.e. to his villa at Tusculum, richly adorned with pictures and statues.
5 in Formianum, i.e. to his villa at Formiae, on the Appian Way, in the innermost corner of the beautiful Gulf of Caieta (Gaëta). Near this villa Cicero was murdered.
The Death of Cicero. Cicero’s work was over, and the tragedy of his death was the natural outcome of his splendid failure. The restoration of the Commonwealth of the Scipios was but a dream; still it was a beautiful dream, and Cicero gave his life for it.—Tyrrell.
In Praise of Cicero.
[A.] Nihil tamen egisti, M. Antoni, nihil, inquam, egisti mercedem caelestissimi oris et clarissimi capitis abscisi numerando, auctoramentoque funebri ad conservatoris quondam rei publicae tantique consulis irritando necem. Rapuisti tum Ciceroni lucem 5 sollicitam et aetatem 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 omnem saeculorum memoriam, dumque hoc vel forte vel 10 providentia vel utcumque constitutum rerum naturae corpus, quod ille paene solus Romanorum animo vidit, ingenio complexus est, eloquentia illuminavit, manebit incolume, comitem aevi sui laudem Ciceronis trahet omnisque posteritas illius in te scripta mirabitur, 15 tuum in eum factum exsecrabitur citiusque e mundo genus hominum quam Ciceronis memoria cedet.
Velleius Paterculus, ii. 66.
3-4 auctoramentoque funebri irritando = lit. and by stimulating (provoking) by a fatal reward (auctoramento) the death. . . .
10-15 dumque . . . trahet, in reference to Cicero’s philosophical works, in which Cicero propounds no original scheme of philosophy, claiming only that he renders the conclusions of Greek thinkers accessible to his own countrymen.
[B.] Ingenium et operibus et praemiis operum felix; ipse fortunae diu prosperae et in longo tenore felicitatis 20 magnis interim ictus vulneribus, exilio, ruina partium pro quibus steterat, filiae exitu tam tristi tamque acerbo, omnium adversorum nihil ut viro dignum erat tulit praeter mortem, quae vere aestimanti minus indigna videri potuit, quod a victore 25 inimico nil crudelius passurus erat quam quod eiusdem fortunae compos victo fecisset. Si quis tamen virtutibus vitia pensaret, vir magnus ac memorabilis fuit, et in cuius laudes exsequendas Cicerone laudatore opus fuerit. 30