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A. Urb. 696. Cic. 50. Coss.---P. Corn. Lent. Spinther. Q. Cæc. Metel. Nepos.

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"could not get the better of his fears: for what pirate, though ever so barbarous, after he had been "plundering temples, when pricked by a dream or scruple of religion, he came to consecrate some altar on a desert shore, was not terrified in his mind, on being forced to appease that deity by his prayers,

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whom he had provoked by his sacrilege? In what "horrors, then, think you, must this man needs be, "the plunderer of all temples, houses, and the whole "city, when, for the expiation of so many impieties, "he was wickedly consecrating one single altar *? Then, after a solemn invocation and appeal to all "the gods who peculiarly favoured and protected that city, to bear witness to the integrity of his zeal and "love to the republic, and that in all his labours and struggles, he had constantly preferred the public "benefit to his own, he commits the justice of his cause to the judgment of the venerable bench."

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He was particularly pleased with the composition of this speech, which he published immediately; and says upon it, that if ever he made any figure in speaking, his indignation, and the sense of his injuries, had inspired him with new force and spirit in this cause †. The sentence of the priests turned wholly on what

*Pro dom. 54, 55.

+Acta res est accurate a nobis: et si unquam in dicendo fuimus aliquid, aut etiam si unquam alias fuimus, tum profectu dolor et magnitudo vim quandam nobis dicendi dedit. Itaque oratio juventuti nostræ deberi non potest. Ad Att. 4. 2.

B 2

A. Urb. 696. Cic. 50. Coss.---P. Corn. Lentul. Spinther. Q. Cæc. Metel. Nepos.

Cicero had alleged about the force of the Papirian law; viz. that if he, who performed the office of consecration, had not been specially authorised and personally appointed to it by the people, then the area in question might, without any scruple of religion, be restored to Cicero. This, though it seemed somewhat evasive, was sufficient for Cicero's purpose; and his friends congratulated him upon it, as upon a clear victory; while Clodius interpreted it still in favour of himself, and being produced into the rostra by his brother Appius, acquainted the people, "that the priests "had given judgment for him, but that Cicero was "preparing to recover possession by force, and exhort"ed them, therefore, to follow him and Appius in the "defence of their liberties." But his speech made no impression on the audience; "some wondered at his "impudence, others laughed at his folly, and Cicero "resolved not to trouble himself, or the people, about "it, till the consuls, by a decree of the senate, had " contracted for rebuilding the portico of Catulus *.

The senate met the next day, in a full house, to put an end to this affair; when Marcellinus, one of the

*Cum pontifices decressent, ita; "Si neque populi jussu, neque plebisscitu, is qui se dedicasse diceret, nominatim ei rei præfectus esset; neque populi jussu, neque plebisscitu id facere jussus esset, videri posse sine religione eam partem areæ mihi restitui." Mihi facta statim est gratulatio; nemo enim dubitat, quin domus nobis esset adjudicata. Tum subito ille in concionem ascendit, quam Appius ei dedit: nunciat jam populo, pontifices secundum se decrevisse; me autem vi conari in possessionem venire: hortatur, ut se et Appium sequantur, et suam libertatem ut defendant. Hic cum etiam illi infimi partim admirarentur, partim irriderent hominis amentiam. Ad Att. 4.2.

A. Urb. 696. Cic. 50. Coss.---P. Corn. Lent. Spinther. Q.Cæc. Metel. Nepos.

consuls-elect, being called upon to speak first, addressed himself to the priests, and desired them to give an account of the grounds and meaning of their sentence; upon which Lucullus, in the name of the rest, declared, "that the priests were indeed the judges. "of religion, but the senate of the law; that they "therefore had determined only what related to the

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point of religion, and left it to the senate to deter"mine whether any obstacle remained in point of "law" all the other priests spoke largely after him in favour of Cicero's cause: when Clodius rose afterwards to speak, he endeavoured to waste the time. so, as to hinder their coming to any resolution that day; but after he had been speaking for three hours successively, the assembly grew so impatient, and made such a noise and hissing, that he was forced to give over yet, when they were going to pass a decree, in the words of Marcellinus, Serranus put his negative upon it: this raised an universal indignation; and a fresh debate began, at the motion of the two. consuls, on the merit of the tribune's intercession; when, after many warm speeches, they came to the following vote: "That it was the resolution of the senate, that Cicero's house should be restored to him, "and Catulus's portico rebuilt, as it had been before; "and that this vote should be defended by all the "magistrates; and if any violence or obstruction was "offered to it, that the senate would look upon it,

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as offered by him, who had interposed his negative." This staggered Serranus, and the late farce was played over again; his father threw himself at his feet, to beg

A. Urb. 696. Cic. 50. Coss.---P. Corn. Lentul. Spinther. Q. Cæc. Metel. Nepos.

him to desist; he desired a night's time, which at first was refused, but, on Cicero's request, granted; and the next day he revoked his negative, and, without farther opposition, suffered the senate to pass a decrec, that Cicero's damage should be made good to him, and his houses re-built at the public charge *.

The consuls began presently to put the decree in execution; and, having contracted for the re-building Catulus's portico, set men to work, upon clearing the ground, and demolishing what had been built by Clodius but as to Cicero's buildings, it was agreed to take an estimate of his damage, and pay the amount of it to himself, to be laid out according to his own fancy in which his Palatine house was valued at sixteen thousand pounds: his Tusculan at four thousand; his Formian only at two thousand. This was a very deficient and shameful valuation, which all the world cried out upon; for the Palatine house had cost him, not long before, near twice that sum but Cicero would not give himself any trouble about it, or make any exceptions, which gave the consuls a handle to throw the blame upon his own modesty, for not remonstrating against it, and seeming to be satisfied with what was awarded: but the true reason was, as he himself declares, that those who had clipt his wings had no mind to let them grow again; and though they had been his advocates when absent, began now to be

Ad Att. 4. 2.

A. Urb. 696. Cic. 50. Coss.---P. Corn. Lent. Spinther. Q. Cæc. Metel. Nepos.

secretly angry, and openly envious of him when present *.

But as he was never covetous, this affair gave him no great uneasiness; though, through the late ruin of his fortunes, he was now in such want of money, that he resolved to expose his Tusculan villa to sale; but soon changed his mind and built it up again with much more magnificence than before; and for the beauty of its situation and neighbourhood to the city, took more pleasure in it ever after, than in any other of his country seats. But he had some domestic grievances about this time, which touched him more nearly; and which, as he signifies obscurely to Atticus, were of too delicate a nature to be explained by a letter they arose chiefly from the petulant humour of his wife, which began to give him frequent occasions of chagrin; and, by a series of repeated provocations, confirmed in him that settled disgust, which ended at last in a divorce.

As he was now restored to the possession both of his dignity and fortunes, so he was desirous to destroy all the public monuments of his late disgrace; nor to

* Nobis superficiem ædium consules de consilii sententia æstimarunt HS. vicies; cætera valde illiberaliter; Tusculanam villam quingentis millibus; Formianum H.S.ducentis quinquaginta millibus; quæ æstimatio non modo ab optimo quoque sed etiam a plebe reprehenditur. Dices, quid igitur causae fuit? Dicunt illi quidem pudorem meum, quod neque negarim, neque vehementius postularim. Sed non est id; nam hoc quidem etiam profuisset. Verum fidem, mi Pomponi, iidem inquam illi, qui mihi pennas inciderunt, nolunt easdem renasci. Ibid.

Tusculanum proscripsi: suburbano non facile careo.-Cætera, quæ me solicitant, vsárga sunt. Amamur a fratre et filia. Ib.

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