Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/585

 CICERO 573 province he proved his military talents in re- pelling and conquering the enemy, but was displeased on his return to Rome in not ob- taining a triumph. At this time the disputes between Caesar and Pompey were at their height, and Cicero joined the latter ; yet af- ter the defeat of Pompey at Pharsalia (48), he came to Rome at the invitation of Caesar. He then devoted himself to philosophy until the death of Caesar in 44; after this he again mingled in the political strife of the times, and in his 14 philippics attempted the ruin of An- tony. But his enemy was too powerful, and when the new triumvirs, Antony, Lepidus, and Octavius, made out the list for their proscrip- tion, Cicero was upon it, among the most prominent of the intended victims. Octavius permitted him to be slain by Antony to gratify his revenge, though he might have prevented it by his personal authority. He fled from his Tusculan villa, where he was residing, but was overtaken by the hired assassins of the trium- virate near Formiae, and killed in his litter, meeting death with more bravery than he had shown in anticipating it. It happened that the man who severed his head from his body, the leader of the assassins, was one whom Cicero had successfully defended. Cicero was mar- ried for the first time in 77, just before his travels, to Terentia, by whom he had a son, Marcus, and a daughter, Tullia; he was di- vorced from her in 46, and married Publilia, a rich lady, from whom he was divorced on account of her rejoicing at the death of her stepmother. His son Marcus was honored by Augustus, but was according to all accounts a worthless and intemperate man, in every way unworthy of the noble philosophy addressed to him by his father in his De Officiis. Cicero's brother Quintus died about the time of the ora- tor's assassination from the persecution of An- tony. In 1544 a monument was discovered in the island of Zante, supposed to have been the tomb of Cicero, but it is generally believed that he was buried in his academic villa in Italy. In person Cicero was tall and slender, feeble, but strengthened by temperate habits ; in his dis- position he was amiable and cheerful, firmly attached to his family and friends, generous in the extreme, and seldom influenced by malice or envy. He was very rich, but his riches were of his own acquiring; he was neither extravagant nor avaricious. He possessed no fewer than 14 villas in different parts of Italy, whither he retired to devote himself to study and meditation. The most celebrated was the one called Puteolanum, on the site of the modern Pozzuoli, also named after the academy at Athens ; after his death it fell into the hands of strangers, and among others of the emperor Hadrian, who changed it into a palace, in which he died. The virtues of Cicero far outnumbered his vices and foibles ; he was undoubtedly deficient in prudence, de- cision, and fortitude, but the chief charge against him has been vanity. The love of ap- probation was the mainspring of his best as well as some of his least noble deeds ; his courage would have been insufficient, without this aid, to lead him to enter upon his most difficult tasks, especially the suppression of Catiline's conspiracy. This vanity led him into his worst errors. As a statesman he dearly loved his country, and throughout his whole political career he was a true patriot. As a scholar his learning was remarkable not so much for originality as for extent ; his reading embraced every department of knowledge ; he attempted almost every branch of literature, and with success ; but eloquence was the field in which he best displayed his ability. He possessed some poetic talent, but did not, as far as is known, much cultivate it. , Of his merit as a historian no judgment can be form- ed, as none of his works of this class are extant. In philosophy he was a sound thinker, and a well-read and acute reasoner ; one of his great merits in this department is the beautiful ex- tension of the imperfect ideas of others in 'a language peculiarly his own. In law he dis- plays much knowledge, and to the moderns he is a very important authority in regard to Ro- man jurisprudence, many points of which are discussed in his orations. The works of Cice- ro may be divided into four classes : rhetori- cal, oratorical, epistolary, and philosophical; many of the last three classes, and all of his poetical writings, are lost. It may appear strange that few of the writers of the Augus- tan age mention the works of Cicero ; but this is easily accounted for when we consider the peculiar circumstances of their situation in re- gard to Augustus, who was somewhat jealous of his newly acquired power. Livy and Asini- us Pollio give unqualified praise to Cicero ; and in the subsequent periods of Roman literature he was much praised by all; even the Latin fathers extol him, and abound in quotations from his works. His literary merits are of the highest class ; his Latin is of the purest ; his style harmonious and pleasing, neither too or- namental nor too plain. In the middle ages Cicero was absolutely idolized ; there was a class of writers whose aim it was to acquire the language of Cicero, and who would hear or speak of nothing but him ; they carried their whim so far as to style themselves " Ciceroni- ans," among whom were many of the learned men of the times. Erasmus at last opposed this " Ciceromania," not because he did not like Cicero, but in order to keep the admira- tion of him within proper limits. The editio princeps of his works was published at Milan, 1498 ; the best edition is perhaps that of Gro- novius, at Leyden, 1692; others are those of Ernesti, 1777; of Olivet, Paris, 1749; and of Orelli, Zurich, 1826-'46. Cicero's rhetorical works are the result of his Greek instruction, diligent study, and long experience. He defines eloquence as " the art of gaining others to our opinion ;" a definition which, as Quintilian says, is rather too limited. The first work in the