[253] Smart sayings are not generally improved by explanation, and they ought not to require it. Cicero apparently meant to say that it was as absurd to talk of men being dispirited after a victory, as if one were to say that Cæsar’s friends disliked him.
[254] After defeating Pharnaces Cæsar landed in Italy, in September, B.C. 47, of the unreformed calendar. Cicero had received a letter from Cæsar before Cæsar’s arrival in Italy. The letter was written in Egypt (Cicero, Ad Diversos, xiv. 23; Pro Q. Ligario, c. 3). Compare Dion Cassius, 46, c. 12, 22, as to the conduct of Cicero to Cæsar. Before the end of the year Cicero was in Rome.
[255] It is difficult to see what was the resemblance between Perikles and Cicero. Theramenes was somewhat more like him, for he tried to be on more sides than one, and met with the usual fate of such people. He was one of the so-called Thirty Tyrants of Athens, and he was sacrificed by his colleagues.
[256] The speech of Cicero is extant. The allusion of Plutarch is particularly to the third chapter.
[257] Cicero in a letter to L. Papirius Pætus (Ad Diversos, ix. 18) alludes to his occupations at Tusculum. He compares himself to Dionysius, who after being driven from Syracuse is said to have opened a school at Corinth. Cicero’s literary activity after B.C. 47 is the most remarkable passage in his life. He required to be doing something.
[258] The allusion is to the story of Laertes in the Odyssey, i. 190, and xxiv. 226.
[259] She was divorced some time in B.C. 46. The latest extant letter to Terentia is dated on the first of October, B.C. 47, from Venusia. Cicero was then on his road from Brundusium to Tusculanum. He orders his wife to have everything ready for him; some friends would probably be with him, and they might stay some time. The bath was to be got ready, and eatables, and everything else. A gentleman would write a more civil letter to his housekeeper.
In a letter to Cn. Plancius (Ad Diversos, ix. 14), who congratulates Cicero on his new marriage, he says that nothing would have induced him to take such a step at such a time, if he had not found on his return his domestic affairs even worse than public affairs. According to his own account he was hardly safe in his own house, and it was necessary to strengthen himself by new alliances against the perfidy of old ones. Terentia may have been a bad housekeeper, and her temper was not the sweetest. She could not have any feeling for her husband except contempt, and he repaid it by getting rid of her. Cicero had to repay the Dos of Terentia, but she never got it back, so far as we can learn.
It is not known what was the age of Terentia when she was divorced, but she could not be young. Yet there are stories of her marrying Sallustius, the historian, and after him Messala Corvinus, but the authority for these marriages is weak. She is said to have attained the age of one hundred and three. Terentia had a large property of her own. There is no imputation on her character, which, for those times, is much in her favour. She had courage in danger and firmness of purpose, both of which her husband wanted. “Her husband,” says Drumann, “who always looked for and needed some support, must often have acted under her influence: for him it was a fortunate thing to have such a woman by his side, and a scandal that he put her away.”
[260] Her name was Publilia. Cicero was now sixty years of age. Various ladies had been recommended to Cicero. He would not marry the daughter of Pompeius Magnus, the widow of Faustus Sulla, perhaps for fear that it might displease Cæsar; another who was recommended to him was too ugly (Ad Attic. xiv. 11). Publilia was young and rich: her father had left her a large fortune, but in order to evade the Lex Voconia, which limited the amount that a woman could take by testament, the property was given to Cicero in trust to give it to her. The marriage turned out unhappy. In a letter to Atticus (xiv. 32), written when Cicero was alone in the country, he says that Publilia had written to pray that she might come to him with her mother; but he had told her that he preferred being alone, and he begs Atticus to let him know how long he could safely stay in the country without a visit from his young wife. Tullia died in B.C. 45, and Cicero had now no relief except in his studies; his new wife was a burden to him, and he divorced her. He had the Dos of Publilia now to repay, and Terentia was not settled with; thus, in addition to his other troubles, he was troubled about money (Ad Attic., xiv. 34, 47).