the pallium for the toga virilis: he remained faithful to the Muses of rhetoric and philosophy; and thus it happened that, being amply prepared, he entered, in his twenty-sixth year, upon his career as a public orator. He distinguished himself in it, almost without interruption, down to his death, displaying his skill and talent in the most varied circumstances, and standing forth as the greatest orator among his contemporaries. His orations-of which fifty-six have come down to us-are the mirror of his political career, and of the most important events of his life, and are at the same time the most brilliant monuments of Latin prose. The fulness and harmony of his thoughts, the masterly manner and clearness with which he handles his subjects, the transparency and variety of forms, the overflowing and brilliant rhetorical diction, and the simple, unaffected narrative-all these qualities excite our admiration, and are found combined in each of his orations; although, according to the opinions of ancient and modern critics, one or other may not have received his last and finishing hand. The statement of an ancient critic, that it is not the speech for Quinctius (his first), nor that for Archias (of Cicero's best period), but those against Verres, Catiline, and M. Antony (the Philippics), which render Cicero's fame immortal, is only an exalted praise, and a recognition of the unrivalled excellence of the last-mentioned orations; in comparison with which, the other productions, which alone would have sufficed to make others renowned, appear less brilliant. But what are we to admire most in Cicero ?-the classical beauty of his language, or the fertility of his genius? The extant orations form only the smaller part of his literary productions; we have, besides, a number of rhetorical and philosophical writings of which it is unnecessary in this place to mention the titles and an exceedingly rich collection of letters, which to us are the best pragmatical history of his age, and together with the orations, constitute the most authentic commentary on his life. Cicero himself willingly acknowledges that the Greeks-such as Plato, Demosthenes, and their great poets and historians-were his instructors and superiors; and his incessant study of the master-works of the Greeks has unmistakeably stamped upon his own writings the impress of universality and greatness-nay, in his orations he has perhaps even surpassed his models.

The orations contained in the present collection belong, generally speaking, to the most beautiful that Cicero ever delivered. As they comprise the greater part of his political life, we shall take them as the basis of our sketch-not as indicating the different phases of his development as an orator, but as a proof that the author, as a man, is deserving of the highest praise that can be bestowed upon human exertions, and that, amid all the evils

and temptations by which he was surrounded, he maintained his character pure and undefiled.

Soon after his first public appearance as an orator, and after he had already acquired a name and reputation, he left Rome on the advice of his friends; and for the purpose of strengthening his health, travelled through Greece and Asia Minor, where he formed acquaintances and friendships with the most celebrated rhetoricians and philosophers. On his return he offered himself as a candidate for the quaestorship; and at the age of thirty, B. C. 75, went as quaestor to Lilybaeum in Sicily, under the praetor Sex. Peducaeus. In his speeches against Verres, and elsewhere, he speaks with great satisfaction of the conscientious and disinterested manner in which he discharged the duties of his office. A few years later, C. Verres became praetor of Sicily, and the Sicilians chose Cicero, who was then trying to obtain the aedileship, for their legal defender-a fact which is the best testimony for his conduct as quaestor. The manner in which Cicero answered their expectations is explained in the introduction to the oration against Verres, and we shall only add, that in that speech we find a type of both a manly and oratorical indignation, which in subsequent orations on kindred topics reappears in a similar style, and may be regarded as a proof of the consistent and unflinching nature of Cicero's moral character. In the year B. C. 69, Cicero obtained the aedileship; and three years later, B. C. 66, he was praetor urbanus. While invested with this office, he delivered, among other speeches, the splendid oration for the Manilian bill (pro lege Manilia). The veneration for Pompey which he showed on that occasion was entertained by him throughout his life. Having Caesar before his eyes, he could not but look upon Pompey as the pillar of the republic and the old aristocracy; but whether he was right in so doing, is a question which, considering the historical facts of the case, it is difficult to decide. Pompey was no less ambitious and anxious to obtain power than his great opponent, and his defeat could raise him only in the eyes of one who was an enthusiastic admirer of the ancient forms of the republic.

In B. C. 63, when he was forty-three years old, Cicero obtained the consulship; and that year forms the culminating point of his political activity. The discovery and suppression of the Catilinarian conspiracy procured for him the gratitude of all welldisposed Romans, and the love of the people; but at the same time drew upon him the hatred of many of the nobles. In his speeches against Catiline, Cicero often alludes to the secret friends of Catiline, and to the dangers to which he was exposing himself by his resolutely combating the conspirators. His apprehensions became speedily realised; for a few years later, he

was crushed by the intrigues of the tribune P. Clodius, who, favoured even by Caesar, accused him of having, in his consulship, caused Roman citizens (the accomplices of Catiline) to be put to death, contrary to law, and without a trial; and who, in spite of the reluctance of the people, caused-in conjunction with the consuls L. Calpurnius Piso and A. Gabinius-Cicero to be exiled, B. C. 58, having previously carried a law by which these proceedings became legalised. During his exile, Cicero resided at Thessalonica with the quaestor Cn. Plancius; but he returned after an absence of sixteen months; and the hearty welcome which he met with was a compensation and consolation for the wrong he had suffered.

The history of the years which then followed is best illustrated by his letters; they show how he watched the steps of Caesar, and how he judged of the course of events. His attaching himself more and more closely to the party of Pompey was no more than consistent. After the death of M. Crassus, who had fallen in the war against the Parthians, Cicero, by the unanimous desire of the augurs, became a member of their college, a dignity to which only the first and most tried men of the republic were admitted. Two years after this he also displayed his talents as a military commander; for having obtained the proconsular administration of the province of Cilicia, he defended that country so successfully against the attacks of the Parthians, that after he had defeated the enemy in a decisive battle at the foot of Mount Amanus, his soldiers saluted him with the title of imperator. This happened in B. c. 51, and the senate honoured him on his return with a triumph.

During the distressing years of the civil war between J. Caesar and Cn. Pompey which now followed, Cicero indeed sometimes appears uncertain what to do; but his conduct is never equivocal. He remained faithful to the cause of Pompey; and at first entertained the hope that the party to which he belonged would come forth victorious from the struggle. Before the commencement of the decisive contest, he endeavoured to reconcile the two great antagonists with each other; but at last, when every hope of preserving peace had disappeared, he followed his friend Pompey to Greece. It was in vain that many of his most distinguished and well-meaning friends cautioned him against an act of open hostility to Caesar; for he remained firm and determined. He did not, however, take any part in the battle of Pharsalus, in B.C. 48; and as soon as he was informed of the unfortunate issue of the contest, and of the flight of Pompey, he returned to Italy, and remained for a time at Brundusium. Caesar himself had requested him, through Dolabella, to return. Subsequently Cicero repented of this step, and endeavoured to excuse himself before

his friends for this separation from Pompey. Meanwhile Caesar continued his victorious career, having sent M. Antony to Italy to watch his interests at Rome. Antony, who met Cicero at Brundusium, spared the partisan of Pompey, though probably not of his own accord. From Brundusium Cicero betook himself to his villa near Tusculum. Soon after he returned to Rome; and although he did not lose sight of the events which took place at the time, he sought comfort and relaxation among his old and faithful friends-his books.

Towards the end of July B.C. 47, the victorious dictator, J. Caesar, returned to Rome from his wars in Egypt and Asia, and showed himself forgiving and kind towards Cicero. Caesar's clemency is praised by Cicero in the two orations for Ligarius and King Deiotarus, both of which belong to this period, B.C. 46 and 45. The glowing admiration-nay, deification of Caesar-in these orations, is not the adulation of a calculating rhetorician ; for Cicero, as well as all his contemporaries, knew Caesar's greatness as a general, his extraordinary acquirements, and intellectual superiority; but he detested his unmeasured love of dominion: he hated the tyrant. He unreservedly expressed his joy at the murder of Caesar; nor did he afterwards conceal it before M. Antony, Caesar's successor; and his Philippics furnish an eloquent testimony of his unalterable aversion against the enemies of the republic. Every enemy of M. Antony was welcome to him, the hatred against whom made him an ardent admirer of Caesar Octavianus, who, from the first, pursued the same course to which Caesar had fallen a victim. But this same young man, whom he had looked upon as the brightest hope, and as the saving anchor of the republic, concluded peace and friendship with Cicero's bitterest enemy; and to the alliance between these two Cicero fell a sacrifice, along with the noblest of the senators. The aged orator happened to be staying at his villa near Tusculum, when he was informed of the proscription, containing the names of seventeen senators, and among them those of himself and his brother Quintus. He determined to take to flight; and from his villa of Astura, on the sea-coast, he embarked on board a ship, but was detained by contrary winds: at length, having proceeded as far as Caieta (Gaeta), he landed in order to take rest in his villa near Formiae. But no sooner had he arrived there than he learned that the place was surrounded by soldiers: he fled towards the coast, but was overtaken by the emissaries. The servants who accompanied him offered to defend him, but Cicero forbade it: he ordered the sedan-chair in which he was carried to be put down, and calmly looked at the murderers who were rushing towards him. They were led on by Popilius Laenas, whose life had been once saved by Cicero in a criminal accusa

tion. Cicero stretched forth his neck as far as he could from the lectica, and bade them accomplish their work, and take what they were seeking. They cut off his head and both hands; and Popilius Laenas hastened to Rome to carry the welcome present to Antony, and received his reward. Antony ordered the head to be nailed to the rostra between the two hands: this was his answer to the Philippics!

Thus died Cicero, on the 7th of December B. C. 43, ten days after the establishment of the triumvirate of Antony, Octavianus, and Lepidus, towards the end of the sixty-fourth year of his life.

His fertility as an author during the later years of his life is truly astonishing; nearly all his philosophical writings were composed in the years B. C. 45 and 44, and the latter of them especially was at once the most fruitful and important. It was this uninterrupted occupation with philosophy, with the loftiest and noblest questions of human life, that gave him the strength and calmness with which he calmly looked death in the face.

Cicero was of a tall and thin figure; his neck was particularly long; his features regular and manly, and the expression of his countenance dignified and winning. His bodily constitution was naturally weak; but by a well-regulated mode of life, he had so strengthened it, that he bore with ease the exertions of a public orator, and of an unwearied student, down to his old age. In his domestic life he was amiable towards everybody, indulgent towards his children, kind to his friends, and generous towards his slaves. His domestic establishment was splendid, and his house was the resort of all the distinguished men of the age. During the morning, until ten o'clock, he received visitors; and during the day he worked in his library; the evening was the time for the principal meal and for company. When in the circle of his friends, he was always cheerful, and particularly witty: his sarcasms were celebrated throughout Rome; and Caesar himself is said to have requested that they should be collected and recorded. After Cicero's death, his freedman, M. Tullius Tiro, made a complete collection of his witty and humorous sayings in three books, which are unfortunately lost.

The splendour and variety of his life was heightened by the number of his magnificent villas, in which, notwithstanding the contempt of works of art which he feigns in the speeches against Verres, he testified in the noblest manner his taste and love of the beauties of nature. Most of them were situated on the most exquisite spots, near the beautiful coasts of Campania and Latium; and they were adorned with the finest sculptures of Greek workmanship, and with the most elegant and tasteful furniture. The large sums which Cicero spent upon the erection and