Cibyra, now Burun, a town of Phrygia, of which the inhabitants were dexterous hunters. Horace, bk. 1, ltr. 6, li. 33.—Cicero, Against Verres, bk. 4, ch. 13.—Letters to Atticus, bk. 5, ltr. 2.——Of Caria.
Caius Cicereius, a secretary of Scipio Africanus, who obtained a triumph over the Corsicans. Livy, bks. 41 & 42.
Marcus Tullius Cicero, born at Arpinum, was son of a Roman knight, and lineally descended from the ancient kings of the Sabines. His mother’s name was Helvia. After displaying many promising abilities at school, he was taught philosophy by Philo, and law by Mutius Scævola. He acquired and perfected a taste for military knowledge under Sylla, in the Marsian war, and retired from Rome, which was divided into factions, to indulge his philosophic propensities. He was naturally of a weak and delicate constitution, and he visited Greece on account of his health; though, perhaps, the true cause of his absence from Rome might be attributed to his fear of Sylla. His friends, who were well acquainted with his superior abilities, were anxious for his return; and when at last he obeyed their solicitations, he applied himself with uncommon diligence to oratory, and was soon distinguished above all the speakers of his age in the Roman forum. When he went to Sicily as questor, he behaved with great justice and moderation; and the Sicilians remembered with gratitude the eloquence of Cicero, their common patron, who had delivered them from the tyranny and avarice of Verres. After he had passed through the offices of edile and pretor, he stood a candidate for the consulship, A.U.C. 691; and the patricians and plebeians were equally anxious to raise him to that dignity, against the efforts and bribery of Catiline. His new situation was critical, and required circumspection. Catiline, with many dissolute and desperate Romans, had conspired against their country, and combined to murder Cicero himself. In this dilemma, Cicero, in full senate, accused Catiline of treason against the state; but as his evidence was not clear, his efforts were unavailing. He, however, stood upon his guard, and by the information of his friends and the discovery of Fulvia, his life was saved from the dagger of Marcius and Cethegus, whom Catiline had sent to assassinate him. After this, Cicero commanded Catiline, in the senate, to leave the city; and this desperate conspirator marched out in triumph to meet the 20,000 men who were assembled to support his cause. The lieutenant of Caius Antony, the other consul, defeated them in Gaul; and Cicero, at Rome, punished the rest of the conspirators with death. This capital punishment, though inveighed against by Julius Cæsar as too severe, was supported by the opinion of Lutatius Catulus and Cato, and confirmed by the whole senate. After this memorable deliverance, Cicero received the thanks of all the people, and was styled The father of his country, and a second founder of Rome. The vehemence with which he had attacked Clodius proved injurious to him; and when his enemy was made tribune, Cicero was banished from Rome, though 20,000 young men were supporters of his innocence. He was not, however, deserted in his banishment. Wherever he went, he was received with the highest marks of approbation and reverence; and when the faction had subsided at Rome, the whole senate and people were unanimous for his return. After 16 months’ absence, he entered Rome with universal satisfaction; and when he was sent, with the power of proconsul, to Cilicia, his integrity and prudence made him successful against the enemy, and at his return he was honoured with a triumph which the factious prevented him to enjoy. After much hesitation during the civil commotions between Cæsar and Pompey, he joined himself to the latter, and followed him to Greece. When victory had declared in favour of Cæsar, at the battle of Pharsalia, Cicero went to Brundusium, and was reconciled to the conqueror, who treated him with great humanity. From this time Cicero retired into the country, and seldom visited Rome. When Cæsar had been stabbed in the senate, Cicero recommended a general amnesty, and was the most earnest to decree the provinces to Brutus and Cassius. But when he saw the interest of Cæsar’s murderers decrease, and Antony come into power, he retired to Athens. He soon after returned, but lived in perpetual fear of assassination. Augustus courted the approbation of Cicero, and expressed his wish to be his colleague in the consulship. But his wish was not sincere; he soon forgot his former professions of friendship; and when the two consuls had been killed at Mutina, Augustus joined his interest to that of Antony, and the triumvirate was soon after formed. The great enmity which Cicero bore to Antony was fatal to him; and Augustus, Antony, and Lepidus, the triumvirs, to destroy all cause of quarrel and each to despatch his enemies, produced their lists of proscription. About 200 were doomed to death, and Cicero was among the number upon the list of Antony. Augustus yielded a man to whom he partly owed his greatness, and Cicero was pursued by the emissaries of Antony, among whom was Popilius, whom he had defended upon an accusation of parricide. He had fled in a litter towards the sea of Caieta; and when the assassins came up to him, he put his head out of the litter, and it was severed from the body by Herennius. This memorable event happened in December, 43 B.C., after the enjoyment of life for 63 years, 11 months, and five days. The head and right hand of the orator were carried to Rome, and hung up in the Roman forum; and so inveterate was Antony’s hatred against the unfortunate man, that even Fulvia, the triumvir’s wife, wreaked her vengeance upon his head, and drew the tongue out of the mouth, and bored it through repeatedly with a gold bodkin, verifying in this act of inhumanity what Cicero had once observed, that no animal is more revengeful than a woman. Cicero has acquired more real fame by his literary compositions than by his spirited exertions as a Roman senator. The learning and the abilities which he possessed have been the admiration of every age and country, and his style has always been accounted as the true standard of pure latinity. The words nascitur poeta have been verified in his attempts to write poetry; and the satire of Martial, Carmina quod scribit musis et Apolline nullo, though severe, is true. He once formed a design to write the history of his country, but he was disappointed. He translated many of the Greek writers, poets as well as historians, for his own improvement. When he travelled into Asia, he was attended by most of the learned men of his age; and his stay at Rhodes, in the school of the famous Molo, conduced not a little to perfect his judgment. Like his countrymen he was not destitute of ambition, and the arrogant expectations with which he returned from his questorship in Sicily are well known. He was of a timid disposition; and he who shone as the father of Roman eloquence, never ascended the pulpit to harangue without feeling a secret emotion of dread. His conduct during the civil wars is far from that of a patriot; and when we view him, dubious and irresolute, sorry not to follow Pompey and yet afraid to oppose Cæsar, the judgment would almost brand him with the name of coward. In his private character, however, Cicero was of an amiable disposition; and though he was too elated with prosperity, and debased by adversity, the affability of the friend conciliated the good graces of all. He married Terentia, whom he afterwards divorced, and by whom he had a son and a daughter. He afterwards married a young woman to whom he was guardian; and because she seemed elated at the death of his daughter Tullia, he repudiated her. The works of this celebrated man, of which, according to some, the tenth part is scarce extant, have been edited by the best scholars in every country. The most valuable editions of the works complete, are that of Verburgius, 2 vols., folio, Amsterdam, 1724; that of Olivet, 9 vols., 4to, Geneva, 1758; the Oxford edition, in 10 vols., 4to, 1782; and that of Lallemand, 12mo, 14 vols., Paris apud Barbou, 1768. Plutarch, Parallel Lives.—Quintilian.—Dio Cassius.—Appian.—Florus.—Cornelius Nepo, Atticus.—Eutropius.—Cicero, &c.——Marcus, the son of Cicero, was taken by Augustus as his colleague in the consulship. He revenged his father’s death, by throwing public dishonour upon the memory of Antony. He disgraced his father’s virtues, and was so fond of drinking, that Pliny observes, he wished to deprive Antony of the honour of being the greatest drunkard in the Roman empire. Plutarch, Cicero.——Quintus, the brother of the orator, was Cæsar’s lieutenant in Gaul, and proconsul of Asia for three years. He was proscribed with his son at the same time as his brother Tully.—Plutarch, Cicero.—Appian.
Cicerōnis villa, a place near Puteoli in Campania. Pliny, bk. 31, ch. 2.
Cichyris, a town of Epirus.
Cicŏnes, a people of Thrace near the Hebrus. Ulysses, at his return from Troy, conquered them, and plundered their chief city Ismarus because they had assisted Priam against the Greeks. They tore to pieces Orpheus for his obscene indulgencies. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 10, li. 83; bk. 15, li. 313.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 4, li. 520, &c.—Mela, bk. 2, ch. 2.
Cilūta, an old avaricious usurer. Horace, bk. 2, satire 3, li. 69.
Cĭlĭcia, a country of Asia Minor, on the sea coast, at the north of Cyprus, the south of mount Taurus, and the west of the Euphrates. The inhabitants enriched themselves by piratical excursions, till they were conquered by Pompey. The country was opulent, and was governed by kings, under some of the Roman emperors; but reduced into a province by Vespasian. Cicero presided over it as proconsul. It receives its name from Cilix the son of Agenor. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 1.—Varro, Re Rustica, bk. 2, ch. 11.—Suetonius, Vespasian, ch. 8.—Herodotus, bk. 2, chs. 17, 34.—Justin, bk. 11, ch. 11.—Curtius, bk. 3, ch. 4.—Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 27.——Part of the country between Æolia and Troas is also called Cilicia. Strabo, bk. 13, calls it Trojan, to distinguish it from the other Cilicia. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 27.
Cilissa, a town of Phrygia.
Cilix, a son of Phœnix, or, according to Herodotus, of Agenor, who, after seeking in vain his sister Europa, settled in a country to which he gave the name of Cilicia. Apollodorus, bk. 3, ch. 1.—Herodotus, bk. 7, ch. 91.