18. During his praetorship Cicero appeared for the time upon the Rostra before the Roman people. 1 tribune Gaius Manilius had introduced a bill before tribal assembly, proposing that the supreme comma in the war against Mithridates and Tigranes should intrusted to Pompey, who had just achieved signal succ in the war against the pirates and who was still in A at the head of a large and victorious army. This generally known as the Manilian law, proposed to clo Pompey with almost unlimited power and was accordin vigorously opposed by the senatorial party, especia by Catulus and Hortensius; but Cicero, seeing as thought an opportunity to render a real service to country and at the same time to win the favor of a popu leader, advocated the bill with so much eloquence a skill that it was carried by acclamation. See Introducti

P. 155.

19. Cicero declines a Foreign Province. At the expi tion of his term of office Cicero declined a foreign pr ince, as he thought he could use his time to bet advantage at home, in courting the favor of his fello citizens and in canvassing for the consulship, the high office in their gift.

20. Cicero as Consul. On the first of January, 63 B. began one of the most eventful years of Cicero's life, on that day he entered upon the duties of the consulsh to which he had been elected by an overwhelming major a few months before. He had reached the goal of ambition at the very moment when the life of the repub was in danger. His colleague in the consulship, Ga Antonius, was supposed to be in sympathy with t treasonable movement led by Catiline, the conspirat

He

but Cicero proved himself equal to the emergency. secured the passive coöperation of his colleague by offering at the outset to transfer to him the rich province of Macedonia at the expiration of his term of office.

21. Cicero devoted himself at once to the arduous duties of his high office. He opposed and defeated the agrarian law of Servilius Rullus for dividing the public lands, and defended Rabirius, an aged senator, who was accused of having murdered the tribune Saturninus about forty years before. This accusation was an attack on the prerogative of the senate, as Saturninus was put to death by order of the consul Marius, whom the senate had clothed with dictatorial powers for the defense of the state. But perhaps one of Cicero's happiest efforts as an advocate, during his consular year, was his famous defense of Murena, the consul elect, charged with bribery.

22. But the crowning glory of Cicero's consulship was, of course, the suppression of the great conspiracy. For many months Catiline had been maturing his plans for the ruin of the republic, and on the first of December he thought his preparations complete. He had joined Manlius at Faesulae some weeks before; had assumed the fasces and other insignia of consular power, and was at the head of an army of many thousands. He had assigned to his confederates in the city their several parts in the general work of destruction. Cethegus was to assassinate Cicero; the praetor Lentulus was charged with the conduct of the conspiracy in the capital, and Cassius was to set fire to the city and to open communication with Catiline. But the next five days wrought a wonderful change in the condition of affairs. at Rome. On the night of December the second, Voltur

HARKNESS' CICERO - 2

cius, the bearer of dispatches to Catiline, was arreste This led to the arrest and conviction of two senato Lentulus and Cethegus, with three of their associate Gabinius, Statilius, and Caeparius. The consuls h already been clothed with dictatorial powers for the safe of the state. On the fifth of December the sentence death was decreed by the senate, which had met to deci the fate of the prisoners, and the sentence was execut that very night, under the direction of the consul himse The summary process, thus adopted by the senate a consul in the conviction and execution of the prisoner without due form of law, was a violation of the Roma constitution, and entirely at variance with our mode ideas of justice; but at the time few questioned the pr priety or the justice of the act, and the consul becan the hero of the hour. He had crushed a bloody conspi acy which had threatened the very life of the republi The remaining days of the month, the closing month his consulship, were among the proudest and the happie of his life. All good men called him the Father of h Country; all parties vied with each other in doing hi honor. He was the foremost man in Rome, the very id of his fellow-citizens. His consulship seemed to be clo ing in glory, when a single note of discord disturbed th general rejoicing. When at the close of his term office Cicero, in all the pride of conscious merit, mounte the Rostra to give an account of the manner in whic he had discharged the duties of his consulship, the tribun Metellus Nepos interposed his veto, declaring that no ma should be heard who had put Roman citizens to deat without a trial. The consul, however, in taking the usua formal oath, swore that he had saved his country, and th

people with one accord testified to the justice of the claim. Thus closed the official life of the greatest of Roman

orators.

CICERO AS EX-CONSUL, TO HIS RECALL FROM EXILE,

62 TO 57 B.C.

23. Cicero at Home. Having declined a provincial government, to which he was entitled, Cicero quietly enjoyed his honors for the next three or four years. As the ex-consul who had saved Rome, he was still one of her foremost citizens, and an influential leader in the senate. In private life he had surrounded himself with all the comforts and luxuries which wealth could procure; his city residence was on the Palatine Hill, and he had villas in different parts of Italy, notably at Tusculum, at Antium, at Formiae, at Cumae, and at Pompeii. Moreover, these villas seem to have been richly supplied with literary treasures and with works of art. In them he enjoyed literary leisure, otium cum dignitate, surrounded by books and friends. In some of his happy moments he said that he would rather be mayor of Antium than consul at Rome, and that he would rather sit in his library with Atticus, in their favorite seat under the bust of Aristotle, than in the curule chair. But even during this period of quiet communion with friends and books he had many anxious days; his personal enemies were never idle, and they never lost an opportunity of annoying him.

24. Cicero again at the Bar. - In the year 62 B.C. Cicero appeared in defense of P. Cornelius Sulla, charged with complicity in the conspiracy of Catiline, and in support of the claim of the poet Archias to Roman citizen

ship. Three years later he defended L. Valerius Flacc charged with maladministration in his provincial gove ment in Asia.

25. He goes into Exile. But the great trial of Cicer life was at hand. Early in the year 58 B.C. the profliga Clodius, then tribune, proposed a bill declaring the exec tion of a citizen without due form of trial, punishable wi banishment, and the bill was passed, though against t wishes of the better classes. Every one saw that the e consul was the intended victim, though no one was nam in the bill. Cicero, seeing his peril, and having in va sought aid from Pompey and the consuls, went into volu tary exile, whereupon Clodius carried another bill, decla ing Cicero a public enemy, confiscating his property, ar prohibiting him from fire and water within four hundre miles of the city. He then proceeded to dismant Cicero's favorite villas at Tusculum and Formiae, and pull down his city residence on the Palatine, and to dec cate its site to what he presumptuously called Liberty.

26. Cicero in Exile. - We have now reached one the saddest chapters in the life of Cicero. He who ha borne himself with so much dignity and self-possessio through all the years of his official life, who, amidst a the trials and perils of his consulship, had shown himse a true hero and the fearless champion of the right, wa entirely unmanned by the unexpected reverse of fortun which had befallen him. The extreme weakness whic characterized his conduct during the next few month was truly lamentable. He retired to Macedonia, where h received a cordial welcome from many personal friends but all the kindness and consolation which they coul offer him failed to comfort the disconsolate exile. Fo