Note 266 — LIFE OF CICERO.

A. Hirtius, or as Plutarch writes the name Irtius, and C. Vibius Pansa were the consuls of B.C. 53. Cicero set out from Rome soon after Cæsar’s death with the intention of going to Greece (Ad Attic. xiv.). He went as far as Syracuse, whence he returned to Rome, which he reached on the last day of August (Ad Diversos, xii. 25; Ad Attic. xvi. 7; Philipp. i. 5; v. 7). Cicero in the passage last referred to speaks of the violent measures of Antonius; “huc etiam nisi venirem Kal. Sept. fabros se missurum et domum meam disturbaturum esse dixit.” On the second of September he delivered his first Philippic in the Senate. It is an evidence of Cicero’s great mental activity that he wrote his Topica, addressed to Trebatius, on shipboard after he had set sail from Velia with the intention of going to Greece. He says that he had no books with him (Topica, c. 1, &c.).