Cicero | Page 5

almost girl, with whom he did
not live a year before a second divorce released him. Terentia is said
also to have had an imperious temper; but the only ground for this
assertion seems to have been that she quarrelled occasionally with her
sister-in-law Pomponia, sister of Atticus and wife of Quintus Cicero;
and since Pomponia, by her own brother's account, showed her temper
very disagreeably to her husband, the feud between the ladies was more
likely to have been her fault than Terentia's. But the very low notion of

the marriage relations entertained by both the later Greeks and Romans
helps to throw some light upon a proceeding which would otherwise
seem very mysterious. Terentia, as is pretty plain from the hints in her
husband's letters, was not a good manager in money matters; there is
room for suspicion that she was not even an honest one in his absence,
and was "making a purse" for herself; she had thus failed in one of the
only two qualifications which, according to Demosthenes--an authority
who ranked very high in Cicero's eyes--were essential in a wife, to be
"a faithful house-guardian" and "a fruitful mother". She did not die of a
broken heart; she lived to be 104, and, according to Dio Cassius, to
have three more husbands. Divorces were easy enough at Rome, and
had the lady been a rich widow, there might be nothing so improbable
in this latter part of the story, though she was fifty years old at the date
of this first divorce.[1]
[Footnote 1: Cato, who is the favourite impersonation of all the moral
virtues of his age, divorced his wife--to oblige a friend!]

CHAPTER II.
PUBLIC CAREER.--IMPEACHMENT OF VERRES.
Increasing reputation as a brilliant and successful pleader, and the
social influence which this brought with it, secured the rapid succession
of Cicero to the highest public offices. Soon after his marriage he was
elected Quaestor--the first step on the official ladder--which, as he
already possessed the necessary property qualification, gave him a seat
in the Senate for life. The Aedileship and Praetorship followed
subsequently, each as early, in point of age, as it could legally be
held.[1] His practice as an advocate suffered no interruption, except
that his Quaestorship involved his spending a year in Sicily. The
Praetor who was appointed to the government of that province[2] had
under him two quaestors, who were a kind of comptrollers of the
exchequer; and Cicero was appointed to the western district, having his
headquarters at Lilybaeum. In the administration of his office there he
showed himself a thorough man of business. There was a dearth of corn

at Rome that year, and Sicily was the great granary of the empire. The
energetic measures which the new Quaestor took fully met the
emergency. He was liberal to the tenants of the State, courteous and
accessible to all, upright in his administration, and, above all, he kept
his hands clean from bribes and peculation. The provincials were as
much astonished as delighted: for Rome was not in the habit of sending
them such officers. They invented honours for him such as had never
been bestowed on any minister before.
[Footnote 1: The Quaestors (of whom there were at this time twenty)
acted under the Senate as State treasurers. The Consul or other officer
who commanded in chief during a campaign would be accompanied by
one of them as paymaster-general.
The Aediles, who were four in number, had the care of all public
buildings, markets, roads, and the State property generally. They had
also the superintendence of the national festivals and public games.
The duties of the Praetors, of whom there were eight, were principally
judicial. The two seniors, called the 'City' and 'Foreign' respectively,
corresponded roughly to our Home and Foreign Secretaries. These
were all gradual steps to the office of Consul.]
[Footnote 2: The provinces of Rome, in their relation to the
mother-state of Italy, may be best compared with our own government
of India, or such of our crown colonies as have no representative
assembly. They had each their governor or lieutenant-governor, who
must have been an ex-minister of Rome: a man who had been Consul
went out with the rank of "pro-consul",--one who had been Praetor with
the rank of "pro-praetor". These held office for one or two years, and
had the power of life and death within their respective jurisdictions.
They had under them one or more officers who bore the title of
Quaestor, who collected the taxes and had the general management of
the revenues of the province. The provinces at this time were Sicily,
Sardinia with Corsica, Spain and Gaul (each in two divisions); Greece,
divided into Macedonia and Achaia (the Morea); Asia, Syria, Cilicia,
Bithynia, Cyprus, and Africa in four divisions. Others