The Life of Cicero, vol 1 | Page 5

of ethics, and of physical science.[16] Everybody remembers the
passage in Juvenal,
"Sed Roma parentem Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit."
"Rome, even when she was free, declared him to be the father of his
country."[17] Even Plutarch, who generally seems to have a touch of
jealousy when speaking of Cicero, declares that he verified the
prediction of Plato, "That every State would be delivered from its
calamities whenever power should fortunately unite with wisdom and
justice in one person."[18] The praises of Quintilian as to the man are
so mixed with the admiration of the critic for the hero of letters, that I
would have omitted to mention them here were it not that they will help
to declare what was the general opinion as to Cicero at the time in
which it was written. He has been speaking of Demosthenes,[19] and
then goes on: "Nor in regard to Cicero do I see that he ever failed in the
duty of a good citizen. There is in evidence of this the splendor of his
consulship, the rare integrity of his provincial administration, his
refusal of office under Caesar,[20] the firmness of his mind on the civil
wars, giving way neither to hope nor fear, though these sorrows came
heavily on him in his old age. On all these occasions he did the best he
could for the Republic." Florus, who wrote after the twelve Caesars, in
the time of Trajan and of Adrian, whose rapid summary of Roman
events can hardly be called a history, tells us, in a few words, how
Catiline's conspiracy was crushed by the authority of Cicero and Cato

in opposition to that of Caesar.[21] Then, when he has passed in a few
short chapters over all the intervening history of the Roman Empire, he
relates, in pathetic words, the death of Cicero. "It was the custom in
Rome to put up on the rostra the heads of those who had been slain; but
now the city was not able to restrain its tears when the head of Cicero
was seen there, upon the spot from which the citizens had so often
listened to his words."[22] Such is the testimony given to this man by
the writers who may be supposed to have known most of him as having
been nearest to his time. They all wrote after him. Sallust, who was
certainly his enemy, wrote of him in his lifetime, but never wrote in his
dispraise. It is evident that public opinion forbade him to do so. Sallust
is never warm in Cicero's praise, as were those subsequent authors
whose words I have quoted, and has been made subject to reproach for
envy, for having passed too lightly over Cicero's doings and words in
his account of Catiline's conspiracy; but what he did say was to
Cicero's credit. Men had heard of the danger, and therefore, says
Sallust,[23] "They conceived the idea of intrusting the consulship to
Cicero. For before that the nobles were envious, and thought that the
consulship would be polluted if it were conferred on a _novus homo_,
however distinguished. But when danger came, envy and pride had to
give way." He afterward declares that Cicero made a speech against
Catiline most brilliant, and at the same time useful to the Republic.
This was lukewarm praise, but coming from Sallust, who would have
censured if he could, it is as eloquent as any eulogy. There is extant a
passage attributed to Sallust full of virulent abuse of Cicero, but no one
now imagines that Sallust wrote it. It is called the Declamation of
Sallust against Cicero, and bears intrinsic evidence that it was written
in after years. It suited some one to forge pretended invectives between
Sallust and Cicero, and is chiefly noteworthy here because it gives to
Dio Cassius a foundation for the hardest of hard words he said against
the orator.[24]
Dio Cassius was a Greek who wrote in the reign of Alexander Severus,
more than two centuries and a half after the death of Cicero, and he no
doubt speaks evil enough of our hero. What was the special cause of
jealousy on his part cannot probably be now known, but the nature of
his hatred may be gathered from the passage in the note, which is so
foul-mouthed that it can be only inserted under the veil of his own

language.[25] Among other absurdities Dio Cassius says of Cicero that
in his latter days he put away a gay young wife, forty years younger
than himself, in order that he might enjoy without disturbance the
company of another lady who was nearly as much older than himself as
his wife was younger.
Now I ask, having brought forward so strong a testimony, not, I will
say, as to the