The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0095/00952.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 33KB | 498 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00952}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Plutarch's Lives
Part III}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Plutarch}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{cicero
caesar
antony
himself
cicero's
pompey
young
time
city
friends
see
pictures
see
figures
}
$Date{c75}
$Log{See Antony In The Desert*0095201.scf
}
Title:       Plutarch's Lives
Book:        Cicero
Author:      Plutarch
Date:        c75
Translation: Dryden, Arthur Hugh Clough

Part III

     After this, Milo killed Clodius, and, being arraigned for the murder, he
procured Cicero as his advocate. The senate, fearing lest the questioning of
so eminent and high-spirited a citizen as Milo might disturb the peace of the
city, committed the superintendence of this and of the other trials to Pompey,
who should undertake to maintain the security alike of the city and of the
courts of justice. Pompey, therefore, went in the night, and occupying the
high grounds about it, surrounded the Forum with soldiers. Milo, fearing lest
Cicero, being disturbed by such an unusual sight, should conduct his cause the
less successfully, persuaded him to come in a litter into the Forum, and there
repose himself till the judges were set, and the court filled. For Cicero, it
seems, not only wanted courage in arms, but, in his speaking also, began with
timidity, and in many cases scarcely left off trembling and shaking when he
had got thoroughly into the current and substance of his speech. Being to
defend Licinius Murena against the prosecution of Cato, and being eager to
outdo Hortensius, who had made his plea with great applause, he took so little
rest that night, and was so disordered with thought and over-watching, that he
spoke much worse than usual. And so now, on quitting his litter to commence
the cause of Milo, at the sight of Pompey, posted, as it were, and encamped
with his troops above, and seeing arms shining round about the Forum, he was
so confounded, that he could hardly begin his speech, for the trembling of his
body, and hesitance of his tongue; whereas Milo meantime, was bold and
intrepid in his demeanor, disdaining either to let his hair grow, or to put on
the mourning habit. And this, indeed, seems to have been one principal cause
of his condemnation. Cicero, however, was thought not so much to have shown
timidity for himself, as anxiety about his friend.

     He was made one of the priests, whom the Romans call Augurs, in the room
of Crassus the younger, dead in Parthia. Then he was appointed by lot, to the
province of Cilicia, and set sail thither with twelve thousand foot and two
thousand six hundred horse. He had orders to bring back Cappadocia to its
allegiance to Ariobarzanes, its king; which settlement he effected very
completely without recourse to arms. And perceiving the Cilicians, by the
great loss the Romans had suffered in Parthia, and the commotions in Syria, to
have become disposed to attempt a revolt, by a gentle course of government he
soothed them back into fidelity. He would accept none of the presents that
were offered him by the kings; he remitted the charge of public
entertainments, but daily, at his own house, received the ingenious and
accomplished persons of the province, not sumptuously, but liberally. His
house had no porter, nor was he ever found in bed by any man, but early in the
morning, standing or walking before his door, he received those who came to
offer their salutations. He is said never once to have ordered any of those
under his command to be beaten with rods, or to have their garments rent. He
never gave contumelious language in his anger, nor inflicted punishment with
reproach. He detected an embezzlement, to a large amount, in the public money,
and thus relieved the cities from their burdens, and at the same time that he
allowed those who made restitution, to retain without further punishment their
rights as citizens. He engaged too, in war, so far as to give a defeat to the
banditti who infested Mount Amanus, for which he was saluted by his army
Imperator. To Caecilius ^12 the orator, who asked him to send him some
panthers from Cilicia, to be exhibited on the theatre at Rome, he wrote, in
commendation of his own actions, that there were no panthers in Cilicia, for
they were all fled to Caria, in anger that in so general a peace they had
become the sole objects of attack. On leaving his province, he touched at
Rhodes, and tarried for some length at Athens, longing much to renew his old
studies. He visited the eminent men of learning, and saw his former friends
and companions; and after receiving in Greece the honors that were due to him,
returned to the city, where every thing was now just as it were in a flame,
breaking out into a civil war.

[Footnote 12: Probably Caelius.]

     When the senate would have decreed him a triumph, he told them he had
rather, so differences were accommodated, follow the triumphal chariot of
Caesar. In private, he gave advice to both, writing many letters to Caesar,
and personally entreating Pompey; doing his best to soothe and bring to reason
both the one and the other. But when matters became incurable, and Caesar was
approaching Rome, and Pompey durst not abide it, but, with many honest
citizens, left the city, Cicero, as yet, did not join in the flight, and was
reputed to adhere to Caesar. And it is very evident he was in his thoughts
much divided, and wavered painfully between both, for he writes in his
epistles, "To which side should I turn? Pompey has the fair and honorable plea
for war; and Caesar, on the other hand, has managed his affairs better, and is
more able to secure himself and his friends. So that I know whom I should fly,
not whom I should fly to." But when Trebatius, one of Caesar's friends, by
letter signified to him that Caesar thought it was his most desirable course
to join his party, and partake his hopes, but if he considered himself too old
a man for this, then he should retire into Greece, and stay quietly there, out
of the way of either party, Cicero, wondering that Caesar had not written
himself, gave an angry reply that he should not do any thing unbecoming his
past life. Such is the account to be collected from his letters.

     But as soon as Caesar was marched into Spain, he immediately sailed away
to join Pompey. And he was welcomed by all but Cato; who, taking him
privately, chid him for coming to Pompey. As for himself, he said, it had been
indecent to forsake that part in the commonwealth which he had chosen from the
beginning; but Cicero might have been more useful to his country and friends,
if, remaining neuter, he had attended and used his influence to moderate the
result, instead of coming hither to make himself, without reason or necessity,
an enemy to Caesar, and a partner in such great dangers. By this language,
partly, Cicero's feelings were altered, and partly, also, because Pompey made
no great use of him. Although, indeed, he was himself the cause of it by his
not denying that he was sorry he had come, by his depreciating Pompey's
resources, finding fault underhand with his counsels, and continually
indulging in jests and sarcastic remarks on his fellow-soldiers. Though he
went about in the camp with a gloomy and melancholy face himself, he was
always trying to raise a laugh in others, whether they wished it or not. It
may not be amiss to mention a few instances. To Domitius, on his preferring to
a command one who was no soldier, and saying, in his defence, that he was a
modest and prudent person, he replied, "Why did not you keep him for a tutor
for your children?" On hearing Theophanes, the Lesbian, who was master of the
engineers in the army, praised for the admirable way in which he had consoled
the Rhodians for the loss of their fleet, "What a thing it is," he said, "to
have a Greek in command!" When Caesar had been acting successfully, and in a
manner blockading Pompey, Lentulus was saying it was reported that Caesar's
friends were out of heart; "Because," said Cicero, "they do not wish Caesar
well." To one Marcius, who had just come from Italy, and told