2. Quintus Tullius Cicero, brother of the orator and brother-in-law of T. Pomponius Atticus, was born about 102 B.C. He was aedile in 67, praetor in 62, and for the three following years propraetor in Asia, where, though he seems to have abstained from personal aggrandizement, his profligacy and ill-temper gained him an evil notoriety. After his return to Rome, he heartily supported the attempt to secure his brother’s recall from exile, and was nearly murdered by gladiators in the pay of P. Clodius Pulcher. He distinguished himself as one of Julius Caesar’s legates in the Gallic campaigns, served in Britain, and afterwards under his brother in Cilicia. On the outbreak of the civil war between Pompey and Caesar, Quintus, like Marcus, supported Pompey, but after Pharsalus he deserted and made peace with Caesar, largely owing to the intercession of Marcus. Both the brothers fell victims to the proscription which followed Caesar’s death, Quintus being put to death in 43, some time before Marcus. His marriage with Pomponia was very unhappy, and he was much under the influence of his slave Statius. Though trained on the same lines as Marcus he never spoke in public, and even said, “One orator in a family is enough, nay even in a city.” Though essentially a soldier, he took considerable interest in literature, wrote epic poems, tragedies and annals, and translated plays of Sophocles. There are extant four letters written by him (one to his brother Marcus, and three to his freedman Tiro) and a short paper, De Petitione Consulatus (on canvassing for the consulship), addressed to his brother in 64. Some consider this the work of a rhetorician of later date. A few hexameters by him on the twelve signs of the Zodiac are quoted by Ausonius.
Cicero in several of his Letters (ed. Tyrrell and Purser); pro Sestio, 31; Caesar, Bell. Gal.; Appian, Bell. Civ. iv. 20; Dio Cassius, xl. 7, xlvii. 10; text of the De Petit, Cons. in A. Eussner, Commentariolum Petitionis (1872), see also R.Y. Tyrrell in Hermathena, v. (1877), and A. Beltrami, De Commentariolo Petitionis Q. Ciceroni vindicando (1892); G. Boissier, Cicero and His Friends (Eng. trans., 1897), especially pp. 235-241.
3. Marcus Tullius Cicero, only son of the orator and his wife Terentia, was born in 65 B.C. At the age of seventeen he served with Pompey in Greece, and commanded a squadron of cavalry at the battle of Pharsalus. In 45 he was sent to Athens to study rhetoric and philosophy, but abandoned himself to a life of dissipation. It was during his stay at Athens that his father dedicated the de Officiis to him. After the murder of Caesar (44) he attracted the notice of Brutus, by whom he was offered the post of military tribune, in which capacity he rendered good service to the republican cause. After the battle of Philippi (42), he took refuge with Sextus Pompeius in Sicily, where the remnants of the republican forces were collected. He took advantage of the amnesty granted by the treaty of Misenum (39) to return to Rome, where he took no part in public affairs, but resumed his former dissipated habits. In spite of this, he received signal marks of distinction from Octavian, who not only nominated him augur, but accepted him as his colleague in the consulship (30). He had the satisfaction of carrying out the decree which ordered that all the statues of Antony should be demolished, and thus “the divine justice reserved the completion of Antony’s punishment for the house of Cicero” (Plutarch). He was subsequently appointed proconsul of Asia or Syria, but nothing further is known of his life. In spite of his debauchery, there is no doubt that he was a man of considerable education and no mean soldier, while Brutus, in a letter to his father (Epp. ad Brutum, ii. 3), even goes so far as to say that the son would be capable of attaining the highest honours without borrowing from the father’s reputation.
See Plutarch, Cicero, Brutus; Appian, Bell. Civ. ii. 20. 51, iv. 20; Dio Cassius xlv. 15, xlvi. 18, li. 19; Cicero’s Letters (ed. Tyrrell and Purser); G. Boissier, Cicero and His Friends (Eng. trans., 1897), pp. 104-107.
4. Quintus Tullius Cicero (c. 67-43 B.C.), son of Quintus Tullius Cicero (brother of the orator). He accompanied his uncle Marcus to Cilicia, and, in the hope of obtaining a reward, repaid his kindness by informing Caesar of his intention of leaving Italy. After the battle of Pharsalus he joined his father in abusing his uncle as responsible for the condition of affairs, hoping thereby to obtain pardon from Caesar. After the death of Caesar he attached himself to Mark Antony, but, owing to some fancied slight, he deserted to Brutus and Cassius. He was included in the proscription lists, and was put to death with his father in 43. In his last moments he refused under torture to disclose his father’s hiding-place. His father, who in his concealment was a witness of what was taking place, thereupon gave himself up, stipulating that he and his son should be executed at the same time.
See Cicero, ad Att. x. 4. 6, 7. 3; xiv. 20. 5; Dio Cassius xlvii. 10.
[1] Brutus, § 316 “(Molon) dedit operam ... ut nimis redundantis nos et supra fluentis iuvenili quadam dicendi impunitate et licentia reprimeret et quasi extra ripas diffluentis coërceret.”
[2] According to Plutarch she urged her husband to take vigorous action against Catiline, who had compromised her half-sister Fabia, a vestal virgin; also to give evidence against Clodius, being jealous of his sister Clodia.
[3] Caesar, at one time, offered him a place on the coalition, which on his refusal became a triumvirate (Att. ii. 3. 3; Prov. Cons. 41), and afterwards a post on his commission for the division of the Campanian land, or a legatio libera.