Cicero belonging to this period or immediately following the death of Caesar are his Tusculan Disputations, Academic Questions, On the Definitions of Good and Evil, On the Nature of the Gods, On Divination, On Old Age, On Friendship, and the Essay on Duty addressed to his son Marcus. These works are valuable both for the great beauty of their language and as a repository of the thoughts of the Greek philosophers.

In the year 46 he divorced his wife Terentia, and married a young woman named Publilia, who had been his ward. Soon after he also divorced Publilia.

Caesar's monarchical rule became galling to the freemen of Rome. He refused concessions to the spirit of republicanism, and paid the penalty with his life. In the year 44 on the Ides of March- the old New Year's Day of Rome he was assassinated. At a meeting of the senate, two days later, Cicero proposed an act of oblivion. Caesar's acts were confirmed, but the murderers were relieved from the penalty of their crime. A public funeral · was granted.

Mark Antony, then consul, Caesar's self-constituted avenger, at first accepted this adjustment of affairs, but Decimus Brutus, one of the "Liberators," as the slayers styled themselves, mistrusted Antony and collected a force of soldiers in the country districts. Cicero, at the risk of becoming a foe of Antony, openly lauded the "Liberators." When Decimus Brutus, soon after, went to Cisalpine Gaul, Cicero's son Marcus hastened to join Marcus Brutus in the East. Cicero himself actually started to join the army of the "Liberators" in Greece, but was recalled by a letter from Atticus. On September 2, 44, Cicero delivered his First Philippic against Antony, so called after the famous denunciation of Philip of Macedon by Demosthenes. In this speech Cicero argued for peace, but the tenor of the argument roused the deadly hatred of Antony, who withdrew from the city and raised an army of Caesar's veterans, with the avowed intention of opposing the "Liberators" with force, and of taking possession of Rome.

At this juncture a new actor appeared on the scene. The

young Octavianus, nephew and heir of Caesar, raised an army and blocked Antony's progress toward Rome. Antony marched against Mutina, held by Decimus Brutus, whereupon Octavianus, acting in concert with Cicero, promised to assist Brutus. Cicero did not wholly trust Octavianus, but was forced to choose between him and Antony. Cicero's Second Philippic, published late in the year 44, accused Antony of having offered the crown to Julius Caesar. On January 1, 43, Cicero proposed that Octavianus be made propraetor, in order that he might legally command an army. He continued his attacks on Antony, and became a sort of executive officer of a new Roman republic. Antony's acts were repealed, and Marcus Brutus, along with Cassius, was given full powers in the East. It seemed that despotism had been overthrown; for Antony, as Cicero jubilantly relates in his Fourteenth Philippic, was defeated at Mutina.

Those who hoped for peace after Antony's defeat forgot the cruel consequences that inevitably follow the formation of a military caste. Caesar's legionary soldiers were simply awaiting an opportunity to avenge his death. They needed but a leader. Antony, defeated though he was, easily gathered a large number of them around him by raising the cry of vengeance. Cicero's only hope now was that Antony and Octavianus might weaken each other. Antony's tactics were admirable, and worthy of a better cause. Leaving Octavianus to march undisturbed to Rome, where he was elected consul, Antony crossed the Alps into Gaul, to join Lepidus. There had been enmity between Antony and Lepidus, but this was now changed to cordial support of the common ideas of vengeance upon Caesar's murderers and power for themselves. Octavianus, learning of this coalition, at once started north. The three chiefs met, toward the end of the year, in conference, upon an island in the river near Bologna. It is indicative of the character of these men that they there made the most infamous bargain recorded in history. Bloody proscription was to begin at once. Cicero was to be a victim.

Utterly at an end of all his hopes Cicero had retired to his villa

at Tusculum. Here he heard the news of the proscription, and attempted to escape by sea. For some reason he changed his mind, and landed at Caieta. Next day, December 7, 43, he ordered his servants to carry him to the shore, but Antony's emissaries overtook them on the way. Resistance was useless. Cicero commanded that his litter be set on the ground and calmly received the fatal stroke. His head and hand were hung on the rostra in the Roman Forum, where he had thundered forth his denunciations of Antony.

It is ac

We have no exact description of the personal appearance of Cicero in any ancient writer, nor can we be sure that any one of the busts now to be seen in different museums of Europe was actually intended to represent him. Among them, perhaps the bust in the Vatican, found at Roma Vecchia on the Via Appia, and thought to have been executed in his time, whomever it may have been meant to represent, corresponds as well as any to the ideal of him which we can form for ourselves from his writings and from what is, said of his character by the ancients. cordingly reproduced as the frontispiece of this book. Cicero was at times vacillating in policy, but he was unswervingly loyal to the republic. We who know the inestimable treasure of a free state must revere his wisdom in opposing despotism, even when the stars in their courses pointed to the inevitable temporary triumph of absolute rule. The personal vanity exhibited in his orations is little more than mannerism. At heart he was sound and true a Roman of the best type.

THE ROMAN BODY POLITIC

ROME's power and grandeur were essentially political — manifested through her wonderful scheme of government. Though the beginnings of most of her institutions are lost in the night of time, yet throughout the period of her known history we can easily trace the development of her distinctive character. As she extended her boundaries from the seven hills first to the confines of Italy, then east, north, south, and west, she carried to each conquered district the elements of her civiliza

tion. As Dr. Morey puts it: Rome first conquered, then organized, and finally civilized. No one has expressed this better, however, than the Roman poet Vergil:

“Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento

(hae tibi erunt artes), pacisque imponere morem,
parcere subiectis et debellare superbos."

By Cicero's time, Rome's political institutions had become very complex. Laws relating to persons and property and to the administration of government had emerged only after the most bitter struggles of opposing elements. Many modern nations, recognizing their intrinsic value, have made these laws the basis of their legal systems. Only the briefest outline of the constituent elements of her populace and the rights which it had acquired in the time of Cicero can be given here.

CITIZENS

Originally all Roman citizens — and all were citizens— had a share in the government. Later, a foreign element was introduced composed of strangers who had come to Rome of their own accord or had been brought there as captives. These were called Plebeians, whereas the original settlers were termed Patricians. A long struggle ensued between them, which resulted in a sort of amalgamation involving political equality. This struggle was ended only to be replaced by another, this time between the senators — the so-called optimates — and the knights, both aristocratic classes, the former based upon family standing and political power; the latter, upon wealth and merit. Besides these there was another element which persistently entered into the struggle, namely, the common people, or populares. These three classes are variously referred to by Roman writers as:

(1) Ordo senatorius, optimates;

(2) Ordo equestris, equites;

(3) Ordo plebeius, populus, populares, plebs.

In addition to these there were also in Rome a large number of libertini, or freedmen, and servi, slaves. Outside of the city were the inhabitants of the allied Italian communities (civitates foederatae: coloniae, municipia, praefecturae), and beyond the borders of Italy - in the Hispaniae, the Galliae, Greece, Asia, Africa, and many of the islands of the Mediterranean — the various types of provincials.