Letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero | Page 3

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Prepared by David Reed [email protected] or [email protected]

Letters of Cicero
by Marcus Tullius Cicero

Translated by E. S. Shuckburgh

THE letters of Cicero are of a very varied character. They range from
the most informal communications with members of his family to
serious and elaborate compositions which are practically treatises in
epistolary form. A very large proportion of them were obviously
written out of the mood of the moment, with no thought of the
possibility of publication; and in these the style is comparatively
relaxed and colloquial. Others, addressed to public characters, are
practically of the same nature as his speeches, discussions of political
questions intended to influence public opinion, and performing a
function in the Roman life of the time closely analogous to that fulfilled
at the present day by articles is the great reviews, or editorials in

prominent journals.
In the case of both of these two main groups the interest is twofold:
personal and historical, though it is naturally in the private letters that
we find most light thrown on the character of the writer. In spite of the
spontaneity of these epistles there exists a great difference of opinion
among scholars as to the personality revealed by them, and both in the
extent of the divergence of view and in the heat of the controversy we
are reminded of modern discussions of the characters of men such as
Gladstone or Roosevelt. It has been fairly said that there is on the
whole more chance of justice to Cicero from the man of the world who
understands how the stress and change of politics lead a statesman into
apparently inconsistent utterances than from the professional scholar
who subjects these utterances to the severest logica1 scrutiny, without
the illumination of practical experience.
Many sides of Cicero's life other than the political are reflected in the
letters. From them we can gather a picture of how an ambitious Roman
gentleman of some inherited wealth took to the legal profession as the
regular means of becoming a public figure; of how his fortune might be
increased by fees, by legacies from friends, clients, and even complete
strangers who thus sought to confer distinction on themselves; of how
the governor of o province could become rich in. a year; of how the
sons of Roman men of wealth gave trouble to their tutors, were sent to
Athens, as to a university in our day, and found an allowance of over
$4,000 a year insufficient for their extravagances. Again, we see the
greatest orator of Rome divorce his wife after thirty years, apparently