Roman life in the days of Cicero

Roman life in the days of Cicero

Project Gutenberg's Roman life in the days of Cicero, by Alfred J[ohn]
Church This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Roman life in the days of Cicero
Author: Alfred J[ohn] Church
Release Date: September 16, 2004 [EBook #13481]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMAN
LIFE IN THE DAYS OF CICERO ***

Produced by Ted Garvin, Graeme Mackreth and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.

Roman Life in the Days of Cicero By the REV. ALFRED J. CHURCH,
M.A.
Author of "Stories from Homer"
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
New York

TO OCTAVIUS OGLE, IN REMEMBRANCE OF A LONG
FRIENDSHIP THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED.
CONTENTS.
CHAP.

I. A ROMAN BOY
II. A ROMAN UNDERGRADUATE
III. IN THE DAYS OF THE DICTATOR
IV. A ROMAN MAGISTRATE
V. A GREAT ROMAN CAUSE
VI. COUNTRY LIFE
VII. A GREAT CONSPIRACY
VIII. CAESAR
IX. POMPEY
X. EXILE
XI. A BRAWL AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
XII. CATO, BRUTUS, AND PORCIA
XIII. A GOVERNOR IN HIS PROVINCE
XIV. ATTICUS
XV. ANTONY AND AUGUSTUS

PREFACE.
This book does not claim to be a life of Cicero or a history of the last
days of the Roman Republic. Still less does it pretend to come into
comparison with such a work as Bekker's Gallus, in which on a slender
thread of narrative is hung a vast amount of facts relating to the social
life of the Romans. I have tried to group round the central figure of
Cicero various sketches of men and manners, and so to give my readers
some idea of what life actually was in Rome, and the provinces of
Rome, during the first six decades--to speak roughly--of the first
century B.C. I speak of Cicero as the "central figure," not as judging
him to be the most important man of the time, but because it is from
him, from his speeches and letters, that we chiefly derive the
information of which I have here made use. Hence it follows that I give,
not indeed a life of the great orator, but a sketch of his personality and
career. I have been obliged also to trespass on the domain of history:
speaking of Cicero, I was obliged to speak also of Caesar and of
Pompey, of Cato and of Antony, and to give a narrative, which I have
striven to make as brief as possible, of their military achievements and
political action. I must apologize for seeming to speak dogmatically on
some questions which have been much disputed. It would have been
obviously inconsistent with the character of the book to give the

opposing arguments; and my only course was to state simply
conclusions which I had done my best to make correct.
I have to acknowledge my obligations to Marquardt's _Privat-Leben
der Romer_, Mr. Capes' University Life in Ancient Athens, and Mr.
Watson's Select Letters of Cicero, I have also made frequent use of Mr.
Anthony Trollope's Life of Cicero, a work full of sound sense, though
curiously deficient in scholarship.
The publishers and myself hope that the illustrations, giving as there is
good reason to believe they do the veritable likenesses of some of the
chief actors in the scenes described, will have a special interest. It is not
till we come down to comparatively recent times that we find art again
lending the same aid to the understanding of history.
Some apology should perhaps be made for retaining the popular title of
one of the illustrations. The learned are, we believe, agreed that the
statue known as the "Dying Gladiator" does not represent a gladiator at
all. Yet it seemed pedantic, in view of Byron's famous description, to
let it appear under any other name.
ALFRED CHURCH.
HADLEY GREEN October 8, 1883.

ROMAN LIFE IN THE DAYS OF CICERO.

CHAPTER I.
A ROMAN BOY.
A Roman father's first duty to his boy, after lifting him up in his arms
in token that he was a true son of the house, was to furnish him with a
first name out of the scanty list (just seventeen) to which his choice was
limited. This naming was done on the eighth day after birth, and was
accompanied with some religious ceremonies, and with a feast to which
kinsfolk were invited. Thus named he was enrolled in some family or
state register. The next care was to protect him from the malignant
influence of the evil eye by hanging round his neck a gilded bulla, a
round plate of metal. (The bulla was of