Meet to be sent on errands.”
[277] Now Bologna. They met in a small island of the Rhenus, or Lavinius, as the name is in Appian (Civil Wars, iv. 2). The meeting is also described by Dion Cassius (46. c. 45), and here they formed a triumvirate for five years. The number of the proscribed, according to Appian, was three hundred senators and two thousand equites. The power of the triumvirate was confirmed at Rome in legal form (Appian, Civil Wars, iv. 7).
[278] L. Æmilius Paulus, consul B.C. 50, who is said to have sold himself to the Dictator Cæsar (Life of Cæsar, c. 29). As to his name Paulus, see Drumann (Æmilii). Paulus was allowed to escape to M. Brutus, by the favour of some soldiers. He was as insignificant as his brother the Triumvir. L. Cæsar, consul B.C. 64, was the brother of Julia, the mother of M. Antonius. Julia saved her brother’s life. Lucius was a man of no mark.
[279] The circumstances of Cicero’s death are told more minutely by Plutarch than by any other writer. He left the city before the arrival of the Triumviri in November, and apparently when the bloody work of the proscription had commenced. He had probably heard of his fate before he reached Tusculum.
[280] Astura was a small place on the coast of Latium, a little south of Antium. Near Astura a small stream, Fiume Astura, flows into the sea. Cicero had a villa here. The country at the back was a forest. (Westphal, Die Römische Kampagne, and his maps.)
[281] Appian (Civil Wars, iv. 20) says that the father told his murderers to kill him first, his son did the same, on which they were parted and murdered at the same time. Dion Cassius (47, c. 10) gives a different story. The main fact that they were murdered is not doubtful, but, as is usual, the circumstances are uncertain.
[282] Or Circeii, now Monte Circello, that remarkable mountain promontory which is the only striking feature on the coast of Latium. The agony of Cicero’s mind is powerfully depicted in his irresolution. The times were such as to make even a brave man timid, but a true philosopher would have shown more resolution. His turning his steps towards Rome and his return are not improbable. He had been doing the same kind of thing all his life.
[283] So in the text of Plutarch, but Caieta (Gaeta) is meant. Cicero had a villa at Formiæ, near Caieta, his Formianum, which he often mentions and which in his prosperous days was a favourite retreat.
The Appian road passed from Terracina through Fundi (Fondi) and Itri, whence there is a view of Gaeta. The next place is Formiæ, Mola di Gaeta, on the beautiful bay of Gaeta. There are numerous remains about the site of Formiæ, which of course are taken for Cicero’s villa. The site was doubtless near the Mola and the village Castiglione. The Formian villa was destroyed when Cicero was banished, but he received some compensation, and he rebuilt it.
[284] This Popilius was C. Popilius Lænas, a military tribune, whom Cicero at the request of M. Cælius had once defended (Dion Cassius, 47. c. 11).