Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/99

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he was "void of noble rage"; he never knew that there are some wrongs which it is degradation to forgive; he could love, but his love was never strong enough to cause him to hate; and a man without the capacity for hatred is but half a man.

Cicero's earliest letter to Atticus records a domestic trouble, the death of his cousin Lucius, to whom he was much attached. Late in the previous year Cicero had lost his father, and his mother had been long dead. His immediate family circle now consisted of his brother and nephew and of his own wife and children.

Shortly after his return from the East in the year 77 B.C., Cicero had married Terentia, a lady of good family but, so far as we can judge, of somewhat harsh and unfeminine temper. Her husband said of her, that she was much more likely to take on herself the management of the affairs of the State, than to allow him to meddle in the affairs of her household. Their eldest child was a daughter, Tullia, on whom her father lavished all his affection. Her betrothal to Piso, while yet a child, is mentioned in a letter of the year 67 B.C. Cicero's only son, named Marcus like his father, was born in the summer of 65 B.C. We find frequent references to the children in these early letters. Now it is Tullia, who "insists, the little pet, on having the present you promised her, and calls on me as the surety; but I am resolved to repudiate rather than pay up."