Chapter II · THE CICERONIAN AGE.

CICERO.

(1) LIFE.

M. Tullius Cicero, the son of a Roman knight, was born at Arpinum on 3rd January, B.C. 106. Jerome yr. Abr. 1911, ‘M. Tullius Cicero Arpini nascitur matre Helvia, patre equestris ordinis ex regio Volscorum genere.’ Cic. ad Att. xiii. 42, 3, ‘Diem meum scis esse iii. Non. Ian.’

He gives an account of his education in Brut. 306 sqq. In civil law he was a pupil, in B.C. 89, of Q. Scaevola the Augur, and afterwards of the pontifex of the same name (de Am. 1). In B.C. 88 he studied philosophy under Philo the Academic, and rhetoric under Molo of Rhodes. Dialectic he practised with the Stoic Diodotus, who lived and died in Cicero’s house (B.C. 87-5). Other teachers of Cicero were the poet Archias (pro Arch. 1), the orator Antonius (de Or. ii. 3), the actors Roscius and Aesopus (Plut. Cic. 5), the rhetorician M. Antonius Gnipho (Sueton. Gramm. 7), and the philosophers Phaedrus and Zeno.

After establishing a reputation at the bar by his defence of Quinctius and of Roscius of Ameria, he visited Asia to recruit his health and improve his oratorical style. On his way to the East he stayed six months at Athens, where he renewed his philosophical studies under Antiochus the Academic. In Asia he attended the leading rhetoricians, especially his old teacher Molo at Rhodes, who endeavoured to chasten the exuberance of his manner. At Rhodes he also made the acquaintance of the famous Stoic Posidonius (de Fin. i. 6). After an absence of two years he returned to Rome B.C. 77, and shortly afterwards married Terentia.

Cicero, who had served in the Social War, B.C. 89 (Phil. xii. 27), began his official career in 75 as quaestor of the district of Lilybaeum in Sicily, where he won golden opinions from all classes (pro Planc. 64). He headed the poll at the election of aediles for 69, and of praetors for 66 (in Pis. 2); as praetor he presided over the court for the trial of cases of repetundae (pro Clu. 147). His canvass for the consulship of 63 began as early as July 65 (ad Att. i. 1, 1); he was returned with C. Antonius as his colleague (in Pis. 3). His services to the State in 63 in the crushing of the Catilinarian conspiracy need not be dwelt on here: his activity as an orator in that year was great, and he passed a law against undue influence by candidates, ‘Lex Tullia de ambitu’ (in Vat. 37). He waived his right to a province, allowing Metellus Celer to take Gaul.

In 58 the hostility of P. Clodius effected Cicero’s banishment, on the ground that he had put the Catilinarian conspirators to death without trial. Retiring at first to Vibo, in Lucania, he moved successively to Sicily, Thurii, Tarentum, Brundisium, Dyrrhachium, Thessalonica, and Athens. At Dyrrhachium he resided from November 58 to August 57, when, after several unsuccessful efforts by his friends, a law was passed for his recall.

In 53 he was chosen augur in succession to the younger Crassus (Plut. Cic. 36), and two years later was appointed proconsul of Cilicia, under the new arrangement providing for an interval of five years between office in Rome and the government of a province. There he carried on a petty warfare with the mountaineers, and captured the fort of Pindenissus (a success for which the Senate decreed a supplicatio), occupying the winter with judicial business in the towns. His absence from the centre of affairs, though it lasted only a year, was most distasteful to him; cf. ad Att. v. 11, 1, ‘Ne provincia nobis prorogetur, per fortunas! dum ades, quidquid provideri potest, provide: non dici potest quam flagrem desiderio urbis, quam vix harum rerum insulsitatem feram.’ For his just dealing with the provincials, cf. ad Att. v. 21, 5.

In November, 50, Cicero returned to Italy, to find a crisis imminent, and finally cast in his lot with the senatorial party. He left Rome with the consuls and the leading optimates, and for some time had charge of the district of Capua (ad Fam. xvi. 11, 3, ‘nos Capuam sumpsimus’). On 7th June, B.C. 49, he embarked to join Pompey in Epirus, though far from enthusiastic for his leadership (ad Fam. vii. 3, 2, ‘mei facti poenituit... Nihil boni praeter causam.’) The chiefs of the party looked upon him with suspicion, and he was not present at the battle of Pharsalus. After Pompey’s overthrow he returned to Brundisium, and in 47 was allowed by Caesar to return to Rome (ad Fam. xiv. 23). His mode of life at this time he thus describes (ad Fam. ix. 20, 3), ‘Ubi salutatio defluxit, litteris me involvo, aut scribo aut lego. Veniunt etiam qui me audiant quasi doctum hominem, quia paullo sum quam ipsi doctior.’

In 46 he divorced his wife Terentia, of whose neglect he complains, ad Fam. iv. 14, 3; and married Publilia, with whom he parted in the following year. In 45 he lost his only daughter Tullia, who had been thrice married; he tried to drown his grief by close application to literary work, moving about from villa to villa, and it is to this period that most of his philosophical works belong. In 44 he appeared once more in Rome, and took a prominent part in the proceedings which followed upon Caesar’s death. April to July he spent at his various villas (ad Att. xiv. passim), and then decided to visit Athens, where his son (born B.C. 65) was studying. On 1st August he reached Syracuse, but hearing at Leucopetra that his presence was required at Rome, he gave up his plan of travel and returned to the city. With the series of Philippics against Antony (44-3) Cicero’s career closes. In the proscription agreed on by the triumvirs he was marked out as one of the chief victims. A fragment of Livy, quoted by Seneca, Suas. 6, 17, states that he fled first to Tusculum, then to Formiae, and took ship from Caieta, but returned to land, exclaiming, ‘Moriar in patria saepe servata.’ On his way from the shore to his villa he was slain by a party of Antony’s soldiers, and his head was carried to Rome and exposed on the Rostra. The date of the assassination was 7th December, B.C. 43 (Tiro quoted by Tac. Dial. 17).

(2) WORKS.

(a) Speeches.

1. The earliest extant speech is that Pro Quinctio, delivered B.C. 81 (Gell. xv. 28, 3) in an action before a iudex for restitution of property. This was not Cicero’s first appearance as an advocate: § 4, ‘quod mihi consuevit in ceteris causis esse adiumento.’

2. Next year (cf. Gell. ibid.) Cicero made his first speech in a criminal case, defending Sex. Roscius of Ameria on a charge of parricide. By so doing he incurred the risk of Sulla’s enmity, but at the same time established his own position. De Off. ii. 51, ‘contra L. Sullae dominantis opes pro S. Roscio Amerino’; Brut. 312, ‘prima causa publica, pro Sex. Roscio dicta, tantum commendationis habuit, ut non ulla esset quae non digna nostro patrocinio videretur.’ In later years he criticized the ‘iuvenilis redundantia’ of this speech (Orat. 108).

3. The speech Pro Roscio Comoedo, usually assigned to B.C. 76, was a defence of the famous actor in a civil case.

4. The year 70 B.C. is memorable for the group of speeches (‘accusationis vii. libri,’ Orat. 103), against Verres, accused of repetundae by the Sicilians, at whose urgent entreaty Cicero undertook the prosecution. The preliminary question, who should conduct the prosecution, is argued in the Divinatio in Caecilium. Q. Caecilius Niger, Verres’ quaestor, claimed the right to prosecute, but this manoeuvre failed. Of the six speeches in Verrem only one, the Actio Prima, was delivered: Cicero, seeing that the other side were anxious to carry the trial over into the next year, confined himself to this short introductory speech (on 5th August, cf. § 31), after which he called his witnesses. Their evidence was so damaging that Hortensius[25] threw up the defence, and Verres was sentenced to banishment and his property confiscated. The five Books of the Actio Secunda were published afterwards in order that the facts might be thoroughly known.

5. Pro M. Fonteio (incomplete), for Fonteius, propraetor of Gallia Narbonensis B.C. 75-3, on a charge of repetundae. This trial perhaps took place B.C. 69, certainly after the equites had been placed on the iudicia by the Lex Aurelia of 70 (cf. § 26).

6. To the same year probably belongs the speech Pro Caecina in a civil case.

7. In B.C. 66 Cicero made his first political speech, Pro Lege Manilia, or De Imperio Cn. Pompei, in support of the bill of the tribune Manilius for conferring on Pompey the command against Mithradates.

8. In the same year he defended Cluentius, charged with murder, in the speech Pro A. Cluentio Habito. The date is fixed as the year of Cicero’s praetorship by § 147, ‘mea quaestio de pecuniis repetundis.’

9. The three speeches De Lege Agraria are concerned with the bill of P. Servilius Rullus for the appointment of decemviri with full power to buy and sell land and to establish colonies. The first speech (incomplete) was made in the Senate on 1st January, the second and third before contiones.

10. The speech Pro C. Rabirio perduellionis reo was delivered on behalf of Rabirius, charged before the comitia with the murder of the tribune Saturninus in B.C. 100. The prosecution had been instituted by the democratic party to vindicate the old right of provocatio ad populum, and to establish the inviolability of the tribunes.

11. Of the four speeches In Catilinam, i. was delivered in the Senate on 8th November, and followed by Catiline’s flight from Rome; ii. to the people on 9th November; iii. to the people on 3rd December, when the Allobroges gave their evidence about the conspiracy; iv. in the Senate, on 5th December, calling for the capital punishment of the conspirators.[26]

12. In this crisis Cicero made one of his most graceful and witty speeches, the Pro Murena. The defendant was charged with bribery in his candidature for the consulship, and among the prosecutors was Cato.

13-14. In B.C. 62 Cicero defended P. Sulla, who was accused of complicity with Catiline (Pro Sulla), and delivered the speech Pro Archia in support of his friend’s title to the Roman citizenship.

15. In B.C. 59 L. Flaccus was accused of repetundae as propraetor of Asia 62-60, and defended by Cicero in the speech Pro Flacco.

16-19. After Cicero’s return from exile he returned thanks to the Senate in the speech Cum Senatui gratias egit, 5th September B.C. 57 (ad Att. iv. 1, 5), delivered from manuscript (‘propter rei magnitudinem dicta de scripto,’ Pro Planc. 74). The genuineness of the corresponding speech to the people, Cum populo gratias egit, is suspected; it is mentioned by Dio. xxxix. 9, 1, but not by Cicero himself. On 30th September (ad Att. iv. 2, 2) the speech De Domo Sua was delivered before the pontifices, who decided that the site of Cicero’s house, which Clodius had consecrated, should be restored to its owner. Connected with this is the speech De Haruspicum Responsis, of the year 56, rebutting the argument of Clodius that the declaration of the haruspices, ‘loca sacra et religiosa profana haberi’ (§ 9) referred to the restitution of Cicero’s house.

20. The speech Pro Sestio is in defence of one of Cicero’s friends who, as tribune, had worked energetically for his recall from exile, and was now accused de vi at the instigation of Clodius. Sestius was acquitted in March, B.C. 56 (ad Q.F. ii. 4, 1).

21. The Interrogatio in P. Vatinium testem was a successful attack on the credibility of Vatinius, who had been one of the chief witnesses against Sestius.

22. Pro M. Caelio.—The prosecution of Caelius on a charge of poisoning was instigated by his former mistress, Clodia; it took place in B.C. 56, for Cn. Domitius, who tried the case (§ 32), was praetor in that year (ad Q.F. ii. 3, 6).

23. The speech De Provinciis Consularibus, B.C. 56, argues that Caesar should be allowed to continue as proconsul of Gaul, and that Syria and Macedonia should be taken away from Gabinius and Piso. Mommsen[27] regards it as the παλινῳδία of ad Att. iv. 5, 1, and contrasts Cicero’s tone to Caesar in this speech with his attitude in the Pro Sestio, In Vatinium, and De Haruspicum Responsis.

24. The speech Pro Balbo deals with a case similar to that of Archias. L. Cornelius Balbus, a native of Gades, and the trusted friend of Caesar, had received the civitas from Pompey, and this speech is in defence of his right thereto (B.C. 56).

25. In Pisonem, an attack on Cicero’s enemy (consul B.C. 58), delivered in the Senate B.C. 55.

26. Pro Plancio, B.C. 54, on behalf of Cn. Plancius, accused of organizing clubs to secure by bribery his election to the aedileship.

27. Pro Rabirio Postumo, B.C. 54. Rabirius was charged with extortion in Egypt.

28. Pro Milone.—At the trial of Milo de vi in B.C. 52 Cicero was so intimidated by the uproar of the rabble that his speech was a failure, and Milo was condemned. The speech now extant was written by Cicero at his leisure. Both were known to Asconius,[28] who supplies a valuable introduction.

29. For six years we have no speech; but in 46 Cicero broke his rule of silence (‘in perpetuum tacere,’ ad Fam. iv. 4, 4), and in the speech Pro Marcello thanked Caesar for allowing Marcellus, the consul of B.C. 51, to return to Rome.

30. On 26th November B.C. 46 he pleaded before Caesar the cause of Q. Ligarius (Pro Ligario).

31. In the latter part of B.C. 45 he delivered in Caesar’s house the speech Pro Rege Deiotaro on behalf of his ‘hospes vetus et amicus,’ the tetrarch of Galatia, accused of treachery to Caesar.

32. Cicero’s oratorical career closes with the fourteen speeches against Antony, called Philippics, after the speeches of Demosthenes. This title was suggested by the author himself; cf. the letter of Brutus (ad Brut. ii. 5, 4), ‘iam concedo ut vel Philippicae vocentur, quod tu quadam epistula iocans scripsisti.’ It was the usual title in antiquity, though Gellius (xiii. 1, 1) uses the alternative Antonianae. The Philippics cover the period from 2nd September 44 to 22nd April 43. They were all delivered in the Senate, except iv. and vi., which are contiones, and ii., which was never spoken, but published as a political pamphlet after Antony had left Rome: for its fame cf. Juv. 10, 125,

‘Te conspicuae, divina Philippica, famae, volveris a prima quae proxima.’

There are fragments of about twenty speeches, and the titles of thirty others are known. The invective in Sallustium, and the speech Pridie quam in exilium iret, are undoubtedly spurious.

Many of the speeches were to a large extent extempore, the heads only being committed to writing. These notes were afterwards collected by Tiro (Quint. x. 7, 30-1). In publishing, Cicero occasionally omitted some passages of the spoken oration, e.g. in Pro Mur. 57 only the headings appear, ‘De Postumi criminibus.’ ‘De Servi adulescentis’: cf. Plin. Ep. i. 20, 7, ‘ex his apparet illum permulta dixisse, cum ederet omisisse.’ For the practice of reporting his speeches in shorthand cf. Ascon. in Mil. ‘manet illa quoque excepta eius oratio’ (his speech at Milo’s trial). The only case in which Cicero appeared for the prosecution was that of Verres: the part of an accuser was generally distasteful to him; cf. De Off. ii. 50, ‘duri hominis vel potius vix hominis videtur, periculum capitis inferre multis.’

(b) Philosophical Works.

1. De Re Publica, a discussion of the ideal state and the ideal citizen, was published before B.C. 51, for Caelius writes to Cicero in Cilicia, ‘tui politici libri omnibus vigent’ (ad Fam. viii. 1, 4). In this treatise Cicero made use of Plato, and of Aristotle, Theophrastus, and other Peripatetics (de Div. ii. 3). There were six Books; but until 1822 the Somnium Scipionis, extracted by Macrobius from Book vi., was the only portion of the work known to exist, with the exception of a few fragments. In that year Mai published at Rome, from a Vatican palimpsest, remains which make up about one-third of the whole.

2. The De Legibus succeeded the De Re Publica, as Plato’s Laws came after the Republic. The speakers in this dialogue are Atticus, Cicero, and his brother Quintus. Book i. expounds the Stoic position that the laws of the ideal state are made by the wise man in accordance with the mind of God; this position is worked out in Book ii. in the regulations for religion, and in iii. on the duties of magistrates. The treatise was never completed, and was perhaps a posthumous publication: it is not mentioned in the list in De Divinatione ii. 1-3, and there is no preface, though Cicero says (ad Att. iv. 16, 2) ‘in singulis libris utor prooemiis.’ Certainly it had not appeared in B.C. 46, the year of the Brutus (Brut. 19). It was composed after the murder of Clodius in January, B.C. 52 (ii. 42), and in Pompey’s lifetime (iii. 22): probably in 52, as the government of Cilicia and the civil war left Cicero no time for literature during the years 51-48.

3. In the spring of 46 was written the short tract Paradoxa, a discussion of six Stoic paradoxes (e.g. that the wise man alone is free). It was addressed to Brutus, and was later than the dialogue which bears his name; cf. the preface, ‘accipies hoc parvum opusculum, lucubratum his iam contractioribus noctibus, quoniam illud maiorum vigiliarum munus in tuo nomine apparuit.’

4. The death of Tullia in February, 45, led Cicero to write, at Astura, a Consolatio, of which only fragments survive. Plin. N.H. praef. 22, quotes Cicero as saying that he here followed the Greek philosopher, Crantor, περὶ πένθους. It contained notices of the deaths of great men, De Div. ii. 22, ‘clarissimorum hominum nostrae civitatis gravissimos exitus in Consolatione collegimus.’

5. In the Hortensius Cicero appeared as the champion of philosophy: De Fin. i. 2, ‘philosophiae vituperatoribus satis responsum est eo libro, quo a nobis philosophia defensa et collaudata est, cum esset accusata et vituperata ab Hortensio.’ It cannot be traced beyond the seventh century, and is now represented by a few fragments. In the Middle Ages it was confounded with the Prior Academics, the speakers in both dialogues being the same. The Hortensius seems to have been written before Cicero went to Astura in March, B.C. 45: there is no allusion to it in his letters.

6. The treatise De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum discusses various theories of the summum bonum—the Epicurean in Books i.-ii., the Stoic in iii.-iv., the Peripatetic in v. The scene of the dialogue changes from Cumae to Tusculum and then to the Academy at Athens. The work was dedicated to Brutus in June, 45 (ad Att. xiii. 12, 3).

7. The Academics appeared in two editions. Of the original edition Book ii., entitled Lucullus, has survived; the speakers in it are Lucullus, Catulus, Hortensius, and Cicero, and the scene, Hortensius’ villa. Cicero was not satisfied with this arrangement (ad Att. xiii. 12, 3, ‘homines nobiles illi quidem, sed nullo modo philologi, nimis acute locuntur’), and after provisionally transferring the parts of Lucullus, Catulus, and Hortensius, to Cato and Brutus, he finally adopted the suggestion of Atticus to gratify Varro by giving him a share in the dialogue together with Atticus and himself (ad Att. xiii. 13, 1, ‘commotus tuis litteris, quod ad me de Varrone scripseras, totam Academiam ab hominibus nobilissimis abstuli transtulique ad nostrum sodalem et ex duobus libris contuli in quattuor’). Of this second edition in four Books we possess only Book i. (incomplete), and fragments of the others; the scene is at Cumae. The dedicatory epistle to Varro is still preserved (ad Fam. ix. 8).

8. In the five Books of Tusculanae Disputationes, conversations between Cicero and a friend at his Tusculan villa, the subject is the chief essentials for happiness. Book i. inculcates the proper attitude towards death, ii. to grief, iii. to pain, iv. to other trials, v. asserts the sufficiency of virtue for happiness. The treatise is dedicated to Brutus, and was finished by B.C. 44, in which year (ad Att. xv. 2, 4) the first Book is known to Atticus.

9. De Natura Deorum, in three Books, is also addressed to Brutus. The Epicurean, Stoic, and Peripatetic doctrines are represented by C. Velleius, Q. Lucilius Balbus, and C. Aurelius Cotta, respectively. This treatise was written after the Tusculans (de Div. ii. 3): in July 45 (ad Att. xiii. 39, 2) Atticus is asked for the loan of Φαίδρου περὶ θεῶν and περὶ Παλλάδος.

10. The essay De Senectute, called also Cato Maior after the principal speaker in the dialogue, was addressed to Atticus at the end of 45 or early in 44 (de Div. ii. 3; ad Att. xiv. 21, 3).

11. To a later date in the same year belongs the Laelius, or De Amicitia (de Am. 4 mentions the de Sen.), in which Laelius discourses on friendship. In this book, according to Gell. i. 3, 10-11, Cicero was under obligations to Theophrastus περὶ φιλίας.

12. De Divinatione, in two Books, forms a supplement to the De Natura Deorum. Cicero and his brother discuss, at Tusculum, the nature and validity of ‘divinatio,’ which is defined (i. 9) as ‘earum rerum quae fortuitae putantur praedictio atque praesensio.’ The date is 44.

13. The incomplete essay De Fato was written in 44, after Caesar’s death (cf. § 2). The conversation takes place at Puteoli, between Cicero and the consul-designate Hirtius.

14. On 11th July of the same year Cicero sent to Atticus his treatise De Gloria, in two Books, now lost (ad Att. xvi. 2, 6; de Off. ii. 31).

15. The latest of the extant philosophical works is the De Officiis, written for the instruction of the author’s son. Cicero had completed two Books by November, B.C. 44 (xvi. 11, 4), following the treatment of Panaetius, and discussing in Book i. the issue between vice and virtue, in Book ii. the expediency of a given action. In Book iii. he was indebted to Posidonius, for the discussion of apparent conflict between virtue and expediency.

There are traces of two other treatises, De Virtutibus and De Auguriis; and we possess fragments of a translation of Plato’s Protagoras and Timaeus, which cannot be earlier than B.C. 45 (de Fin. i. 7).

Cicero propounds no original scheme of philosophy, claiming only that he renders the conclusions of Greek thinkers accessible to his own countrymen. This sort of work cost him little trouble: ad Att. xii. 52, 3, ‘ἀπόγραφα sunt; minore labore fiunt: verba tantum affero, quibus abundo.’ At the same time he is not a mere translator: de Fin. i. 6, ‘nos non interpretum fungimur munere, sed tuemur ea quae dicta sunt ab eis quos probamus, eisque nostrum iudicium et nostrum scribendi ordinem adiungimus.’ His motives for entering upon this task are explained in De Nat. Deor. i. 7-9: (1) he desired to do a service to his country: ‘ipsius rei publicae causa philosophiam nostris hominibus explicandam putavi’; (2) he sought relief for his own mind: ‘hortata etiam est ut me ad haec conferrem animi aegritudo, fortunae magna et gravi conmota iniuria.’ Cicero is an eclectic, with a leaning to the New Academy: Tusc. iv. 7, ‘nullis unius disciplinae legibus adstricti, quibus in philosophia necessario pareamus.’ Probability is all that he expects to reach: ibid., ‘quid sit in quaque re maxime probabile semper requiremus.’ The philosophy most attractive to him is that which best called forth the oratorical faculty: Tusc. ii. 9, ‘mihi semper Peripateticorum Academiaeque consuetudo de omnibus rebus in contrarias partes differendi ... placuit ... quod esset ea maxima dicendi exercitatio.’[29]

(c) Rhetorical Treatises.

I. The earliest of these is De Inventione, or Rhetorica, in two Books, written probably for the author’s own use during Sulla’s absence in Asia B.C. 87-83. In his mature years Cicero looked back with contempt on this youthful effort: de Or. i. 5, ‘quae pueris aut adulescentulis nobis ex commentariolis nostris incohata ac rudia exciderunt.’ He borrows much from the Rhet. ad Herenn., and frequently mentions and criticises the views of Hermagoras; but all the best writers on rhetoric were laid under contribution: ii. 4, ‘omnibus unum in locum coactis scriptoribus, quod quisque commodissime praecipere videbatur, excerpsimus.’

2. The three Books De Oratore were finished in 55: ad Att. iv. 13, 2, ‘de libris oratoriis factum est a me diligenter: diu multumque in manibus fuerunt: describas licet.’ They were written at a time when Cicero’s voice was seldom heard: ad Fam. i. 9, 23, ‘ab orationibus diiungo me fere referoque ad mansuetiores Musas.’ The dialogue takes place in B.C. 91, at the Tusculan villa of L. Licinius Crassus; he and the rival orator, M. Antonius, are the chief speakers.

3. The dialogue Brutus, or De Claris Oratoribus, after a brief survey of Greek oratory, criticises the Roman orators from L. Brutus to Cicero’s own time. In spite of his intention to omit living persons (§ 231), he discusses Caesar, M. Marcellus, and himself. The speakers are Brutus, Atticus, and Cicero; and the date is probably 46, for the Brutus is earlier than the Orator, which refers to it (§ 23).

4. The Orator or De Optimo Genere Dicendi is a sequel to the De Oratore and the Brutus, adding practical rules to the exposition of theory (de Div. ii. 4). It was written at the request of Brutus, to whom it is addressed, in the year 46 (ad Fam. xii. 17, 2).

5. Partitiones Oratoriae is a catechism on rhetoric, in which the questions are put to Cicero by his son.

6. The Topica was written in response to repeated requests from Trebatius for explanation of Aristotle’s Topics. It was done by Cicero, without the aid of books, on his voyage from Velia to Rhegium in July, 44 (Top. 5; ad Fam. vii. 19).

7. The short treatise De Optimo Genere Oratorum was introductory to a version of the speeches of Demosthenes and Aeschines ‘on the Crown,’ designed to show the Romans what the best Attic oratory was like.

(d) Letters.

Cicero’s correspondence begins B.C. 68 with ad Att. i. 5, and ends 28th July, B.C. 43. Besides seven hundred and seventy-four letters written by Cicero, we have ninety addressed to him by friends. The collection was made by friends like Tiro and Atticus: cf. ad Att. xvi. 5, 5 (B.C. 44), ‘Mearum epistularum nulla est συναγωγή, sed habet Tiro instar septuaginta, et quidem sunt a te quaedam sumendae: eas ego oportet perspiciam, corrigam; tum denique edentur.’

The letters now extant fall into four groups.

i. Epistulae ad Atticum, in sixteen Books, belonging to the years B.C. 68-43, and valuable for their thorough frankness (ad Att. viii. 14, 2, ‘ego tecum tamquam mecum loquor’). Nepos appreciates their supreme importance for the history of Cicero’s time, although he dates the commencement of the correspondence wrongly: Att. 16, ‘xvi. volumina epistularum ab consulatu eius usque ad extremum tempus ad Atticum missarum; quae qui legat, non multum desideret historiam contextam eorum temporum.’ Atticus’ own letters were not published, though Cicero preserved them: ad Att. ix. 10, 4, ‘Evolvi volumen epistularum, quod ego sub signo habeo servoque diligentissime.’

2. Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem, in three Books, of the years B.C. 60-54.

3. Epistulae ad Brutum, originally in nine Books, of which only two remain. The present Book i. was really Book ix., and Book ii., which contains letters earlier than those in Book i., may have formed part of the original Book viii.

4. Epistulae ad Familiares, in sixteen Books, letters to and from friends, written B.C. 62-43. This title is not found in any MS. Late MSS. and old editions have ‘Epistulae Familiares’: for the title ‘Ad Diversos’ there is no authority. In the best MSS. the Books are titled separately by the name of the person to whom the first letter in each is written, e.g. ‘M. Tulli Ciceronis epistularum ad P. Lentulum liber i.’

For the colloquial style of the letters cf. ad Fam. ix. 21, 1 (to Paetus), ‘Quid tibi ego in epistulis videor? nonne plebeio sermone agere tecum? nec enim semper eodem modo: quid enim simile habet epistula aut iudicio aut contioni? ... epistulas vero cottidianis verbis texere solemus.’

The following works are now lost: (a) Miscellaneous prose writings.—1. Panegyrics on Porcia (ad Att. xiii. 37, 3) and Cato, B.C. 45; and funeral orations written for other people to deliver (ad Q.F. iii. 8, 5, ‘laudavit pater scripto meo’).

2. Memoirs of Cicero’s consulship, written B.C. 60, in both Greek and Latin (ad. Att. i. 19, 10). He took great pains with this book, and was anxious that it should be well circulated (ad Att. ii. 1, 1).

3. A secret history, Anekdota, mentioned in letters of B.C. 59 and 44 (ad Att. ii. 6, 2; xiv. 17, 6).

4. Admiranda, a collection of wonders (Pliny, N.H. xxxi. 51).

5. Chorographia, a book on geography, mentioned by Priscian. The letters to Atticus show that Cicero was studying the subject in B.C. 59.

6. A work on law, De iure civili in artem redigendo (Gell. i. 22, 7).

7. A translation of Xenophon’s Oeconomicus, made when Cicero was about the age of twenty (de Off. ii. 87).

(b) Poems.—1. Cicero’s earliest effort in verse was a poem in tetrameters, entitled Pontius Glaucus: Plut. Cic. 2, καὶ τι ποιημάτιον ἔτι παιδὸς αὐτοῦ διασῴζεται Πόντιος Γλαῦκος ἐν τετραμέτρῳ πεποιημένον.

2. In B.C. 60 he made a verse translation of the astronomical poems of Aratus, ad Att. ii. 1, 2, ‘Prognostica mea ... propediem exspecta.’ Quotations are given in De Nat. Deor. ii. 104 sqq.

3. In the same year he wrote a poem De Suo Consulatu, in three Books: ad Att. i. 19, 10, ‘poema exspectato, ne quod genus a me ipso laudis meae praetermittatur.’ A long passage from Book ii., spoken by the Muse Urania, is recited by Q. Cicero in De Div. i. 17 sqq.

4. Another poem in three Books, De Temporibus Suis, belonged probably to the year 55. Cicero writes to Lentulus in 54 (ad Fam. i. 9, 23), ‘scripsi versibus tres libros de temporibus meis, quos iam pridem ad te misissem, si esse edendos putassem.’

5. In the letters to Quintus from June to December, 54, there is frequent mention of a poem Ad Caesarem. Quintus is consulted for information about Britain: ad Q.F. ii. 15, 2, ‘mihi date Britanniam, quam pingam coloribus tuis, penicillo meo.’

6. A poem on Cicero’s great townsman Marius is quoted, De Div. i. 106.

Among others quoted are Limon, in which Terence was praised (see p. 51), and iocularis libellus (Quint. viii. 6, 73). Translations from Greek poets occur in the philosophical works, e.g. de Fin. v. 49, from Homer, Odys. xii. 184-191; Tusc. ii. 23, from various parts of Aeschylus, Prom. Vinct.

The ancient criticisms on Cicero’s poetry are all unfavourable:

De Off. i. 77, ‘Illud optimum est, in quo invadi solere ab improbis et invidis audio:

“Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea laudi.”’

Juv. 10, 122,

‘“O fortunatam natam me consule Romam!” Antoni gladios potuit contemnere, si sic omnia dixisset.’

Tac. Dial. 21 (quoted p. 111).

Quint. xi. 1, 24, ‘In carminibus utinam pepercisset, quae non desierunt carpere maligni.’

Rhetorica ad Herennium.—This treatise on rhetoric in four Books, addressed to the author’s relative C. Herennius, is usually printed among Cicero’s works, and is attributed to him by the MSS. and by Jerome and Priscian. But it is clearly not by Cicero, for (a) it does not agree with his own description of his early rhetorical writings as ‘incohata ac rudia’; (b) the author’s position, as described by himself, is not Cicero’s. It is generally held that one Cornificius was the author; Quintilian (e.g. v. 10, 2) attributes to a person of that name several expressions found in the ad Herennium. He may have been the Q. Cornificius who opposed Cicero for the consulship in B.C. 64. The date of the treatise is probably B.C. 86-84.

QUINTUS CICERO.

Q. Tullius Cicero, the brother of the orator, was born probably B.C. 102. He was aedile in 65 (ad Att. i. 4, 1); praetor in 62, when he tried the case of Archias; propraetor of Asia 61-58 (ad Q.F. i. 1, 2). He acted as legatus of Pompey in Sardinia B.C. 56 (pro Scauro, 39); of Caesar in Gaul, taking part in the second invasion of Britain (Caes. B.G. v.); and of his brother in Cilicia (ad Fam. xv. 4, 8). At the outbreak of the civil war he was with Marcus at Formiae and Capua; but after the death of Pompey there was a breach between them. Being proscribed by the triumvirs he took flight, but was betrayed by his slaves and put to death, B.C. 43 (Plut. Cic. 47). His wife was Pomponia, the sister of Atticus.

For the benefit of M. Cicero in his candidature for the consulship, B.C. 64, Quintus wrote the Commentariolum Petitionis (the title in § 58) or De Petitione Consulatus. It is in the form of a letter, and is headed in the best MSS. ‘Q. M. Fratri S. D.’ Quintus writes with special reference to his brother’s circumstances, but most of the rules which he lays down are of general application. The authenticity of this treatise has been called in question by Eussner, who ascribes it to a clever imitator, partly on the ground of coincidences of expression with Cicero’s speech in Toga Candida; but his arguments are refuted by Prof. Tyrrell (Cicero’s Correspondence, i. pp. 110-121).

There are also extant three letters to Tiro and one to M. Cicero. Quintus’ poetry is now represented only by twenty hexameters on the signs of the zodiac; but he wrote an epic poem, Annales (ad Att. ii. 16, 4 [Quintus] ‘ita remittit ut me roget ut annales suos emendem et edam’), and composed tragedies with great rapidity (ad Q.F. iii. 6, 7, ‘quattuor tragoedias xvi. diebus absolvisse cum scribas, tu quidquam ab alio mutuaris?’). His admiration for Sophocles and Euripides appears in De Fin. v. 3; ad Fam. xvi. 8, 2.

TIRO.

M. Tullius Tiro, the freedman of Cicero, who had a high opinion of his worth and ability (ad Fam. xvi. 4, 3; ad Att. vii. 5, 2), wrote (1) a biography of his patron: Ascon. p. 49, ‘ut legimus apud Tironem libertum Ciceronis in libro iiii. de vita eius.’

(2) Editions of Cicero’s speeches and letters: Gell. i. 7, 1, ‘in oratione Ciceronis v. in Verrem, libro spectatae fidei, Tironiana cura atque disciplina facto.’ (See also p. 85.)

(3) A collection of Cicero’s witticisms: Quint. vi. 3, 5, ‘utinam libertus eius Tiro aut alius, quisquis fuit, qui iii. hac de re libros edidit, parcius dictorum numero indulsissent.’

(4) Grammatical works, as πανδέκται, mentioned by Gell. xiii. 9, 2.

For his system of shorthand, cf. Sueton. p. 136 R., ‘Romae primus Tullius Tiro, Ciceronis libertus, commentatus est notas, sed tantum praepositionum.’

T. POMPONIUS ATTICUS (B.C. 109-32).

Author of (1) Annalis, a chronological table of the chief events in Roman and foreign history, accompanied by genealogies (Nepos, Att. 18, 1). As it was Cicero’s De Re Publica that suggested its composition (Cic. Brut. 19), its date cannot be earlier than B.C. 54. (2) Family histories, e.g. of the Iunii (Nepos, Att. 18, 3), published separately. (3) De Imaginibus, a collection of inscriptions in verse for the busts of celebrated men (Nepos, Att. 18, 5). (4) De Consulatu Ciceronis, in Greek (Nepos, Att. 18, 6), written B.C. 60 (Cic. ad Att. ii. 1, 1).

Atticus is an interesting figure on account of the large publishing business which he conducted (Nepos, Att. 13, 3); and the great care with which he sought out good MSS. to reproduce in his establishment makes him important in the history of the preservation of ancient literature.

M. TERENTIUS VARRO.

(1) LIFE.

M. Terentius Varro was born B.C. 116 at Reate in the Sabine country.

Jerome yr. Abr. 1901, ‘M. Terentius Varro philosophus et poeta nascitur.’ Symmachus, Ep. i. 2, calls him ‘Terentius Reatinus’; and he owned property in that district: R.R. ii. praef. 6, ‘ipse pecuarias habui grandes, in Apulia oviarias, et in Reatino equarias.’

Of his family nothing is known except that he had an uncle belonging to the equestrian order (Plin. N.H. vii. 176). His philosophical education was received at Athens, where he was a disciple of Antiochus of Ascalon: Cic. Ac. Post. 12, ‘Aristum Athenis [Brutus] audivit aliquamdiu, cuius tu [Varro] fratrem Antiochum.’

He took part in the war with Sertorius in Spain, B.C. 76 (Sall. Hist. ii. fr. 69). In the war with the pirates, B.C. 67, he was one of Pompeius’ lieutenants, and received a corona navalis for his services. Varro R.R. ii. praef. 7, ‘cum piratico bello inter Delum et Ciliciam Graeciae classibus praeessem.’ Plin. N.H. vii. 115, ‘[Varroni] Magnus Pompeius piratico ex bello navalem [coronam] dedit.’ Probably he was also with Pompeius in the war with Mithradates (Plin. N.H. xxxiii. 136, xxxvii. 11; knowledge of the Caspian, vi. 38). To the coalition of Pompeius, Caesar, and Crassus he was originally hostile, going so far as to write one of his satires, Τρικάρανος, against them (Appian B.C. ii. 9); but in 59 he was a member of the commission appointed to establish Caesar’s veterans in Campania: Plin. N.H. vii. 176, ‘Varro auctor est xx. viro se agros dividente Capuae,’ etc. He also held the office of tribune (Gell. xiii. 12, 6), and was aedile with Murena (Plin. xxxv. 173).

When the civil war broke out he was one of Pompeius’ lieutenants in Farther Spain, and resisted Caesar without success (Caes. B.C. ii. 17-20). From Spain he withdrew to Epirus, where he was coldly received by the Pompeians (Cic. ad Fam. ix. 6, 3, ‘crudeliter otiosis minabantur, eratque eis et tua invisa voluntas et mea oratio’). We hear of him at Corcyra (R.R. i. 4), and at Dyrrhachium a few days before the battle of Pharsalus (Cic. de Div. i. 68). After Caesar’s victory he lived quietly at his Tusculan villa (Cic. ad Fam. ix. 6, 4, ‘his tempestatibus es prope solus in portu ... equidem hos tuos Tusculanenses dies instar esse vitae puto’). He was more easily reconciled than Cicero to the new government, and was made librarian by Caesar: Sueton. Iul. 44, ‘Destinabat bibliothecas Graecas Latinasque quas maximas posset publicare, data M. Varroni cura comparandarum ac digerendarum.’ This, however, did not prevent him writing a funeral oration on Cato’s sister Porcia (Cic. ad Att. xiii. 48, 2).

After Caesar’s death Varro was exposed to the persecution of Antonius, whose raid on his villa at Casinum is vividly described by Cicero (Phil. ii. 103 sqq.). He was proscribed, but the devotion of his friends secured his escape (Appian B.C. iv. 47).

His old age was spent in peace, the literary activity for which his whole life was remarkable being maintained to the end. At the age of eighty-three he was still writing: Plin. N.H. xxix. 65, ‘Cunctarer in proferendo ex his remedio, ni M. Varro lxxxiii vitae anno prodidisset,’ etc.

Varro’s death took place in B.C. 27, in his ninetieth year. Jerome yr. Abr. 1990, ‘M. Terentius Varro philosophus prope nonagenarius moritur.’

(2) WORKS.

Cicero (ad Att. xiii. 18) calls Varro ‘homo πολυγραφώτατος,’ and Varro himself said that he had written four hundred and ninety Books by the end of his seventy-seventh year: Gell. iii. 10, 17, ‘Addit se quoque iam duodecimam annorum hebdomadam ingressum esse et ad eum diem septuaginta hebdomadas librorum conscripsisse.’ A letter of Jerome[30] gives a list of thirty-nine works in four hundred and ninety Books, admitting at the same time that these were only half of the total number (‘vix medium descripsi indicem’). The titles of twenty-one other works are known from various sources.

1. Agriculture.—Of this enormous number only one has survived in a complete form, the treatise De Re Rustica in three Books, in the form of a dialogue. Book i. treats of agriculture; ii. of stock-raising; iii. of poultry, game, and fish. It was written B.C. 37-6: R.R. i. 1, 1, ‘Annus octogesimus admonet me ut sarcinas colligam ante quam proficiscar e vita.’

2. Grammar.—Of the twenty-five books De Lingua Latina, only v.-x. have been preserved, but the scope of the whole is known from Varro’s own words. Book i. was introductory; ii.-vii. dealt with etymology; viii.-xiii. with inflexions; xiv.-xxv. with syntax. Varro’s derivations are ridiculed by Quintilian i. 6, 37, ‘Sed cui non post Varronem sit venia, qui agrum quia in eo agatur aliquid, et graculos quia gregatim volent dictos voluit persuadere Ciceroni?’ From Book v. onwards the work was dedicated to Cicero, in return for his Academics; it is announced in Cic. Ac. i. 2, where Varro says, ‘Habeo opus magnum in manibus, idque iam pridem: ad hunc enim ipsum (me autem dicebat) quaedam institui, quae et sunt magna sane et limantur a me politius.’ The date of publication was probably B.C. 45-3.

Of the minor works on grammar, some at least were prior to the De Lingua Latina: Cic. Ac. i. 9, ‘Plurimum poetis nostris omninoque Latinis et litteris luminis et verbis attulisti.’ The titles known are, De sermone Latino, De origine linguae Latinae, De similitudine verborum, De utilitate sermonis, De antiquitate litterarum, Περὶ χαρακτήρων.

3. Roman History and Antiquities. Varro’s great work in this department was the Antiquitates rerum divinarum humanarumque, in forty-one Books. The arrangement, according to Augustine De Civ. Dei, vi. 3, was as follows: (a) i.-xxv. res humanae; i. introductory, ii.-vii. history of Rome down to its capture by the Gauls, viii.-xiii. geography of Italy, xiv.-xix. Roman Calendar, with dates of the chief historical events, xx.-xxv. Roman institutions, (b) xxvi.-xli. res divinae; the persons who sacrifice, the places, the times, the rites, and the gods were discussed in three Books each, xxvi. being introductory. The second part, at least, was addressed to Caesar as pontifex maximus. As it is mentioned by Cic. Ac. i. 9, it must have been published before B.C. 45.

Minor works under this head were Annales, Res urbanae, De gente populi Romani, De vita populi Romani, De familiis Troianis, Tribuum Liber; Aetia (αἴτια), explaining Roman usages, in the form of a catechism; Εἰσαγωγικός to Pompey on the duties of a consul (B.C. 71), Gell. xiv. 7, 1; De Pompeio, Legationum Libri, De sua vita.

4. Geography.—(a) Ephemeris navalis, addressed to Pompey before his departure for Spain about B.C. 77, a weather almanack for sailors; Ephemeris rustica or agrestis, for farmers. (b) Libri navales, perhaps identical with the above, (c) De ora maritima.

5. Law.—De iure civili in fifteen Books.

6. Rhetoric.—Rhetorica.

7. Philosophy.—De Forma Philosophiae, De Philosophia.

8. Mathematics, etc.—De mensuris, Mensuralia, De principiis numerorum, Libri numerorum, De geometria, De astrologia.

9. Disciplinae in nine Books, forming a complete course of education in the liberal arts.

10. History of Literature and the Drama.—De poetis, De poematis, De lectionibus, De bibliothecis, De proprietate scriptorum, De personis, De descriptionibus, De actis scenicis, De scenicis actionibus, De originibus scenicis, Quaestiones Plautinae. In the Hebdomades or Imaginum Libri xv. Varro gave short accounts in prose and verse of seven hundred famous Greeks and Romans, with their portraits (Plin. N.H. xxxv. 11), the title being derived from the arrangement in groups of seven. Aristotle’s Πέπλος had dealt similarly with the heroes of the Trojan War, and the ‘Πεπλογραφία Varronis’ of Cic. ad Att. xvi. 11, 3 is usually identified with the Hebdomades.

11. Λογιστορικοί, in seventy-six Books, were probably not a mixture of fable and history, but essays enlivened by historical examples. The titles were double, the chief speaker being named as well as the subject of the essay, e.g. Catus de liberis educandis. To this work Cicero probably refers, Ac. i. 9, ‘Philosophiam multis locis incohasti, ad impellendum satis, ad edocendum parum.’

12. Varro’s poetical works are now represented only by fragments of the Saturae Menippeae, a medley of prose and verse in one hundred and fifty books (Cic. Ac. i. 9, ‘Varium et elegans omni fere numero poema fecisti’). They were so called by Varro himself (Gell. ii. 18, 7, ‘In satiris quas alii Cynicas, ipse appellat Menippeas’), being founded on the dialogues of Menippus, the Cynic of Gadara, of the third century B.C. Their object was to present philosophy in a popular dress: Cic. Ac. i. 8, ‘Quae cum facilius minus docti intellegerent, iucunditate quadam ad legendum invitati.’ From the way in which they are spoken of in the same passage (‘in illis veteribus nostris’), most of them must have been among Varro’s earliest writings. The titles are extremely curious, e.g. ‘Δὶς παῖδες οἱ γέροντες,’ ‘Longe fugit qui suos fugit.’ Quintilian considers Varro as the founder of a type of satire distinct from that of Lucilius, Horace, and Persius: x. 1, 95, ‘Alterum illud etiam prius satirae genus sed non sola carminum varietate mixtum condidit Terentius Varro, vir Romanorum eruditissimus.’ His other poetical works were ten books of Poemata, four of Satires, and six of Pseudotragoediae (tragi-comedy).

13. Oratory.—Varro left twenty-two Books of Orationes and three of Suasiones, but he had no fame as an orator: Quint. x. 1, 95, ‘Plus scientiae collaturus quam eloquentiae.’

14. Letters.—Of these there seem to have been two collections: (a) Epistulae Latinae, real letters to acquaintances; (b) Epistolicae Quaestiones, discussing in epistolary form points of history, grammar, etc.

The collection of maxims which passes under the name Sententiae Varronis is of uncertain authenticity.

LABERIUS.

The date of D. Laberius’ birth is got from Sueton. Iul. 39, ‘Ludis D. Laberius eques Romanus mimum suum egit.’ This event took place in B.C. 45, and in the prologue to the piece (quoted below), l. 109, Laberius says he is sixty years old; hence he was born about B.C. 105. He died in January, B.C. 43.

Jerome yr. Abr. 1974 = B.C. 43, ‘Laberius mimorum scriptor decimo mense post C. Caesaris interitum Puteolis moritur.’

In B.C. 45 Laberius, although an eques, was, as a punishment for his political opinions, compelled by Caesar to perform in one of his own mimes, and was beaten by Publilius Syrus.

Macrob. Saturn. ii. 7, 2 sqq., ‘Laberium asperae libertatis equitem Romanum Caesar quingentis milibus invitavit, ut prodiret in scaenam et ipse ageret mimos, quos scriptitabat. Sed potestas non solum si invitet sed etiam si supplicet cogit, unde se et Laberius a Caesare coactum in prologo testatur his versibus:

“Necessitas, cuius cursus transversi impetum voluerunt multi effugere, pauci potuerunt, quo me detrusit paene extremis sensibus! Quem nulla ambitio, nulla umquam largitio, nullus timor, vis nulla, nulla auctoritas movere potuit in iuventa de statu: ecce in senecta ut facile labefecit loco viri excellentis mente clemente edita summissa placide blandiloquens oratio! Etenim ipsi di negare cui nil potuerunt, hominem me denegare quis posset pati? Ego bis tricenis annis actis sine nota eques Romanus e Lare egressus meo domum revertar mimus,” etc.

In ipsa quoque actione subinde se, qua poterat, ulciscebatur inducto habitu Syri, qui velut flagris caesus praeripientique similis exclamabat

“Porro Quirites libertatem perdimus”

et paulo post adiecit

“Necesse est multos timeat quem multi timent.”

Quo dicto universitas populi ad solum Caesarem oculos et ora convertit, notantes inpotentiam eius hac dicacitate lapidatam. Ob haec in Publilium vertit favorem ... [Publilius Syrus] cum mimos componeret ingentique adsensu in Italiae oppidis agere coepisset, productus Romae per Caesaris ludos, omnes qui tunc scripta et operas suas in scaenam locaverant provocavit ut singuli secum posita in vicem materia pro tempore contenderent. Nec ullo recusante superavit omnes, in quis et Laberium. Unde Caesar adridens hoc modo pronuntiavit

“Favente tibi me victus es, Laberi, a Syro”

statimque Publilio palmam et Laberio anulum aureum cum quingentis sestertiis dedit.’

We have forty-three titles of mimes by Laberius, and about one hundred and fifty lines of fragments. From the above we see that Laberius criticized contemporary society with great vigour. Other features are

(a) His invention of words.

Gell. xvi. 7, 1, ‘Laberius in mimis, quos scriptitavit, oppido quam verba finxit praelicenter.’ Examples are manuatus est for furatus est; abluvium for diluvium.

(b) His use of plebeian expressions.

Gell. xix. 13, 3, ‘quae a Laberio ignobilia nimis et sordentia in usum linguae Latinae intromissa sunt.’

(c) His references to philosophy.

Cf. l. 17,

‘nec Pythagoream dogmam doctus’;

l. 72,

‘Democritus Abderites physicus philosophus,’ etc.

For views on Laberius cf. Hor. Sat. i, 10, 5,

‘Nam sic et Laberi mimos ut pulchra poemata mirer.’

Cic. ad Fam. xii. 18, 2 (written B.C. 46), ‘Equidem sic iam obdurui ut ludis Caesaris nostri animo aequissimo viderem T. Plancum, audirem Laberi et Publili poemata.’

Contemporaries of Laberius were the satirist Abuccius, and Egnatius, who wrote a didactic poem de rerum natura.

M. FURIUS BIBACULUS.

According to Jerome, Bibaculus was born B.C. 103, but, as he laughs at the old age of the grammarian Orbilius (114-c. 17 B.C.), authorities put the date twenty years later.

Jerome yr. Abr. 1914, ‘M. Furius poeta cognomento Bibaculus Cremonae nascitur.’

Sueton. Gramm. 9, ‘[Orbilius] vixit prope ad centesimum aetatis annum, amissa iam pridem memoria, ut versus Bibaculi docet,

“Orbilius ubinam est, litterarum oblivio?”’

Bibaculus wrote poems against the monarchical party; these are referred to as iambi by Quintilian, x. 1, 96.

Tac. Ann. iv. 34, ‘Carmina Bibaculi et Catulli referta contumeliis Caesarum leguntur: sed ipse divus Iulius, ipse divus Augustus et tulere ista et reliquere.’

Two epics, Aethiopis and Bellum Gallicum (on Iulius Caesar’s exploits), are probably referred to by Hor. Sat. i. 10, 36,

‘Turgidus Alpinus iugulat dum Memnona, dumque diffingit Rheni luteum caput.’

Acron ad loc., ‘Bibaculum quemdam poetam Gallum tangit.’

Cf. Hor. Sat. ii. 5, 40,

‘Seu pingui tentus omaso Furius hibernas cana nive conspuet Alpes.’

Acron ad loc., ‘Furius Bibaculus in pragmatia belli Gallici: Iuppiter hibernas,’ etc.

It is probably from this epic that Macrob. Saturn. vi. 1, 31-4, quotes passages imitated by Virgil. So, ‘Furius in primo annali “Interea Oceani linquens Aurora cubile.”’ (Cf. Virg. Aen. iv. 585.)

Bibaculus also wrote a prose work Lucubrationes. (Pliny N.H. xxiv. praef.)

CAESAR.

(1) LIFE.

The main facts of C. Iulius Caesar’s life are found in a compendious form in the Life by Suetonius. The ancient authorities, who are unanimous in stating that at the time of his death (15th March, B.C. 44) Caesar was in his fifty-sixth year (Sueton. Iul. 88, Appian B.C. ii. 149, Plut. Caes. 69), must have placed his birth in B.C. 100. But if this date were correct Caesar must have held the various magistracies two years before the legal time—a fact nowhere mentioned, and in itself improbable; it is therefore natural to hold that he was born in B.C. 102 (Mommsen, R.H. iv., p. 15, note). His birthday was 12th July (Macrob. Saturn. i, 12, 34).

His father, C. Iulius Caesar, was praetor in B.C. 84, and died in the same year; Aurelia, his mother, took great interest in his education (Tac. Dial. 28). From the first Caesar was connected with the leaders of the democratic party in the State. Marius, who had married his father’s sister Julia, conferred on him the office of flamen Dialis before he was sixteen years of age; and his first wife was Cornelia, daughter of Cinna. His refusal to divorce her at the bidding of Sulla drew down upon him the enmity of the dictator; and he fled in disguise to the Sabine mountains, where he remained until Sulla reluctantly consented to spare his life.

Caesar obtained his first experience of military service as a member of the staff of M. Thermus, propraetor of Asia, who conferred on him the civica corona for saving the life of a fellow-soldier at the siege of Mytilene. After serving for a short time under Servilius Isauricus against the pirates in Cilicia, he returned to Rome on the news of Sulla’s death in 78, and in the following year commenced his career as an orator with the prosecution of Cn. Cornelius Dolabella, proconsul of Macedonia, for extortion.

Towards the end of that year Caesar left Rome for Rhodes—on his way thither being captured by pirates near Miletus—and studied for a year under the famous rhetorician Molo, taking part also in some operations on the mainland against one of the officials of Mithradates. Having been elected one of the pontifices in the room of his uncle, C. Aurelius Cotta, he returned to Rome in 74, and soon became a tribunus militum. In the agitation for the restoration of the powers of the tribunes of the plebs, Caesar took a prominent part; he also supported the Lex Aurelia of 70, which gave the equites a share in the iudicia, and the Lex Plautia, granting an amnesty to the adherents of Lepidus and Sertorius.

The year 68 he spent as quaestor in Farther Spain, and on his return to Rome strenuously advocated the claims of the Transpadane Gauls to the Roman franchise. His first wife having died, he married Pompeia, daughter of Q. Pompeius Rufus, and granddaughter of Sulla, whom he divorced five years later on account of her alleged adultery with P. Clodius. In 67 and 66 the bills of Gabinius and Manilius, conferring extensive military powers upon Pompey, were supported by Caesar and the other leading democrats.

Whether Caesar was concerned in the abortive attempt of Catiline at revolution in 65, is a moot point. He was now aedile, and acquired great popularity by the splendid shows which he gave to the people, and by his restoration of the statue and trophies of Marius. In 64, as president of the quaestio de sicariis, he condemned some of the most active agents in Sulla’s proscriptions. In 63 he supported the lex agraria of P. Servilius Rullus, and brought about the prosecution of C. Rabirius for the murder of the tribune Saturninus. On the re-enactment of the Lex Domitia de sacerdotiis, Caesar was elected pontifex maximus. He was again suspected, probably with good ground, of complicity with Catiline’s designs; he certainly proposed in the Senate that the conspirators should be punished with imprisonment instead of death. Praetor in 62, he worked in Pompey’s cause by proposing that the charge of rebuilding the Capitoline temple should be transferred to him from the aristocratic champion Catulus, and by supporting the bill of the tribune Metellus Nepos for electing Pompey consul in absence. Next year Caesar was propraetor of Farther Spain, where he conquered the Lusitanians and Gallaecians, and amassed considerable wealth. His coalition with Pompey and Crassus procured for him the consulship of 59, rendered notable by the Leges Iuliae; and before he went out of office his position was secured by the Lex Vatinia, conferring on him the government of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum for five years, with the command of three legions; Transalpine Gaul and another legion were added by the Senate. The following nine years (58-50) were occupied with the subjugation of Gaul and the two invasions of Britain (55 and 54). At the conference at Luca, in the winter of 57-56, it was agreed that Caesar should be continued in office for a second period of five years, and be allowed to increase the number of his legions to ten. In 50, realizing the danger of his position if he returned to Rome as a private person, he was anxious to be a candidate for the consulship in absentia; but Pompey thwarted his plan. Caesar refused to disband his army at the bidding of the Senate, and crossed the Rubicon early in 49. Italy soon submitted; he defeated the Pompeians in Spain, captured Massilia, and secured Sicily and Sardinia. Landing in Epirus in 48, he was defeated at Dyrrhachium, and retreated to Thessaly, where he overthrew Pompey at Pharsalus. Then followed his victories over the king of Egypt in the Alexandrian war (48), Pharnaces in Asia Minor (47), the Pompeians and Juba at Thapsus (46), and C. and Sex. Pompeius at Munda (45).

He had been created dictator in 49 and 48, with the tribunician power in perpetuity; and on his return to Rome in 45 he was made consul for ten years, dictator, and praefectus morum, with the title of imperator for life. In the intervals between his campaigns he carried out numerous reforms, including the rectification of the calendar, B.C. 46 (see p. 110). His assassination by Brutus and Cassius and the other conspirators took place on 15th March, B.C. 44.

(2) WORKS.

1. De Bello Gallico, in seven Books. The title used by Caesar himself was probably Commentarii rerum suarum (as in Cic. Brut. 262, and Sueton. Iul. 56; cf. Strabo, iv. 1, 1 ὑπομνήματα), although this does not appear in the best MSS., which give variously libri, historiae, or ephemeris rerum gestarum belli Gallici.

The work describes Caesar’s operations in Gaul, Germany, and Britain during the years B.C. 58-52, the events of each year occupying a separate Book. It was written and published as a whole, not in parts at the end of each year’s campaign. Otherwise it is difficult to see why Cicero should not have heard of it from his brother Quintus or his friend Trebatius, both of whom were with Caesar; or why Hirtius should have spoken of the rapidity with which the work was composed (B.G. viii. praef. 6, ‘Ceteri quam bene atque emendate, nos etiam quam facile atque celeriter eos perfecerit, scimus’). This view is corroborated by the statement of Asinius Pollio, that there were mistakes in the work due to defective memory (Sueton. Iul. 56, ‘quae ... memoria lapsus perperam ediderit’); and by some expressions in the earlier Books pointing forward to events mentioned later (i. 28 compared with vii. 9, and iv. 21 with vii. 76).

The time of composition was probably the winter after the last campaign narrated in the Book (B.C. 52-51). It was certainly published before B.C. 46, the date of Cicero’s Brutus, and probably before the rupture with Pompey, of whom Caesar speaks with approbation (vii. 6, ‘Cum iam ille urbanas res virtute Cn. Pompei commodiorem in statum pervenisse intellegeret’).

The aim of the book was twofold: (1) to provide material for professed historians: Hirt. B.G. viii. praef. 5, ‘qui sunt editi, ne scientia tantarum rerum scriptoribus deesset’; (2) to furnish a defence of the author’s own conduct—an object carefully kept in the background. It has been proved that Caesar suppressed facts which would have told against him at Rome (e.g. his rapacity, Sueton. Iul. 54), and the plausible motives which he assigns for some of his actions cannot be accepted as genuine. Cf. the criticism of Asinius Pollio, Sueton. Iul. 56, ‘Pollio Asinius parum diligenter parumque integra veritate compositos putat, cum Caesar pleraque et quae per alios erant gesta temere crediderit, et quae per se vel consulto vel etiam memoria lapsus perperam ediderit, existimatque rescripturum et correcturum fuisse.’ The style is remarkable for its brevity, directness, and the absence of ornament and emotion (Cic. Brut. 262, ‘Nudi sunt, recti et venusti, omni ornatu orationis, tamquam veste, detracto’).

Among the materials used by Caesar in writing the Commentarii were his own despatches to the Senate (ii. 35, iv. 38, vii. 90) and the reports of his legati. Late writers speak of his ἐφημερίδες (e.g. Plut. Caes. 22), but there is no ground for supposing that he kept a regular diary. He depended to a great extent on his own memory (cf. Pollio’s criticism, above).

2. De Bello Civili, in three Books, similar in plan to the Bell. Gall. Book iii. ends abruptly with an event of no great importance, and, as the death of Pompey would have formed a natural ending, we must suppose that Caesar had intended to continue the narrative with the Alexandrian, Spanish, and African wars, but was prevented from carrying out his plan. The work was published after his death, without undergoing revision (Sueton. Iul. 56, ‘Pollio existimat rescripturum et correcturum fuisse’).

Other works in the Corpus Caesarianum.—Sueton. Iul. 56 says, ‘Alexandrini Africique et Hispaniensis [belli] incertus auctor est. Alii Oppium putant, alii Hirtium, qui etiam Gallici belli novissimum imperfectumque librum suppleverit.’

Suetonius evidently believed that Hirtius was the author of B.G. viii., for he introduces a quotation from the preface to that Book with the words, ‘Hirtius ita praedicat’ (ibid.). Hirtius is also mentioned in the MSS. as the author of B.G. viii., and there is no reason to doubt that this is the case. That he is the author of any of the others is rendered doubtful by the fact that his bad health (which lasted to November, B.C. 44) and his position as consul would leave him little time for literature between the death of Caesar (15th March, B.C. 44) and his own death at Mutina (27th April, B.C. 43). Hirtius was thus able to carry out only the first part of the plan sketched in B.G. viii. praef. 2, ‘Caesaris nostri commentarios rerum gestarum, non cohaerentibus superioribus atque insequentibus eius scriptis, contexui, novissimumque imperfectum ab rebus gestis Alexandriae confeci usque ad exitum non quidem civilis dissensionis, cuius finem nullum videmus, sed vitae Caesaris.’

G. Landgraf, Untersuchungen zu Caesar und seinen Fortsetzern (Erlangen, 1888), arrives at the following conclusions:

1. In the Bellum Africum we possess the notes of Asinius Pollio, who took part in the war. That the work partook of the nature of a journal is shown by the style; e.g. interim is used about eighty times as a connecting link, and dates and hours of the day are given carefully. Landgraf supports his position by instancing similarities of expression in the Bell. Afr. and in three letters from Pollio to Cicero (ad Fam. x. 31; 32; 33).

2. Ch. 48-64 of the Bell. Alex. on events in Spain in B.C. 48-7 were sent to Hirtius by Pollio, who was governor of Hispania Ulterior in B.C. 45, and as such was best acquainted with these incidents.

3. On the death of Hirtius, Pollio, on searching for his own papers (which he had lent Hirtius to help him in his work), found Hirtius’ Bell. Gall. viii., and made some additions.

4. The Bell. Civ. was in Hirtius’ possession unedited at his death. Hirtius evidently intended to publish it along with B.G. viii. The third Book had been left unfinished by Caesar, whose notes, some of which were very brief, Hirtius had extended, and filled up the gaps in the narrative. There were also some notes on the Bell. Alex. The Bell. Alex. in the narrower sense (cc. 1-33) Hirtius began with, and in the early chapters contented himself with making small additions. In the later parts are found considerable additions both by Hirtius and by Pollio. Landgraf attempts to distinguish the work of the two: cc. 34-41, on the Bellum Ponticum, being mostly by Pollio, and cc. 65-76, on the wars in Illyria and against Pharnaces, mostly by Hirtius.

5. The authorship of the Bellum Hispaniense, which in style is far below the Bellum Africum, Landgraf leaves an open question.

E. Wölfflin (Sitzungsberichte der k. b. Akad. der Wissenschaften zu München, 1889, pp. 323 sqq., and ed. of the Bell. Afr., 1889) holds the same views as Landgraf, and gives many instances of difference in diction between Bell. Afr. on the one hand, and Gall. viii. and Alex. on the other; e.g.

On the other hand, Widmann, Philologus, L. (1891), p. 565, proves that the author of the note-book worked up in the Bell. Afr. was an officer of the 5th legion, that Pollio was not connected with the 5th legion, and probably did not go through the whole African war, as the author clearly must have done. This, of course, also proves that Hirtius cannot have been the author.

On the whole, we think it proved that the Bell. Afr. was not written by the author of B. Gall. viii. and B. Alex., and that the author was not in any case Pollio. The B. Alex. is probably worked up from note-books written by several hands. The attempt to distinguish the work of Hirtius and another hand in B. Gall. viii. is against the evidence of Suetonius; and though several hands have co-operated in B. Alex., it is hardly possible to distinguish them precisely.

The Bell. Hisp. is evidently the work of an eye-witness, cf. c. 29, ‘nostri ad dimicandum procedunt, id quod adversarios existimabamus esse facturos.’ He is apt to be bombastic (c. 5, ‘hic alternis non solum morti mortem exaggerabant, sed tumulos tumulis exaequabant’), and makes a ridiculous show of learning (quoting the combat of Achilles and Memnon, c. 25, and Ennius, c. 23, ‘nostri cessere parumper’; c. 31, ‘pes pede premitur, armis teruntur arma.’)

(3) CAESAR’S LOST WORKS.

1. De Analogia, a treatise on grammar in two Books, dedicated to Cicero (Cic. Brut. 253) and composed in the interval between two of the campaigns in Gaul. Sueton. Iul. 56, ‘Reliquit et de Analogia duos libros ... In transitu Alpium, cum ex citeriore Gallia conventibus peractis ad exercitum rediret ... fecit.’ It supported the view that analogia, not anomalia, should be the governing principle in grammar, i.e. that order should be introduced into the chaos of varying usages. Gellius i. 10, 4 has a notable quotation from the first Book, ‘Habe semper in memoria atque in pectore, ut tamquam scopulum sic fugias inauditum atque insolens verbum.’

2. De Astris, a book on astronomy, written apparently in connexion with the rectification of the calendar, B.C. 46, perhaps in Greek. Suetonius says nothing about it, but it was known to Macrobius, Saturn., i. 16, 39, ‘Iulius Caesar ... siderum motus, de quibus non indoctos libros reliquit, ab Aegyptiis disciplinis hausit.’ The liber de computatione and liber fastorum, attributed to Caesar by the Scholiast on Lucan, x. 185, 187, may have formed part of the De Astris.

3. Anticatones, written B.C. 45, in reply to Cicero’s panegyric on Cato, with flattering references to Cicero himself. Sueton. Iul. 56, ‘Reliquit et de Analogia duos libros et Anticatones totidem. ... Sub tempus Mundensis proelii fecit.’ Cicero expresses himself as highly pleased with the book, ad Att. xiii. 51, ‘bene existimo de illis libris, ut tibi coram’; but his tone is different in Topica, 94, ‘quibus omnibus generibus usus est nimis impudenter Caesar contra Catonem meum.’

4. Apophthegmata, a collection of notable sayings, probably growing out of the Dicta Collectanea of Sueton. Iul. 56, and completed B.C. 46-5. Cic. ad Fam. ix. 16, 4, ‘audio Caesarem, cum volumina iam confecerit ἀποφθεγμάτων, si quod afferatur ad eum pro meo, quod meum non sit, reicere solere.’

5. Letters.—In the time of Suetonius, Caesar’s official despatches to the Senate were extant, and also private letters to Cicero and other friends, e.g. his confidants Balbus and Oppius. In these a cypher was, where necessary, employed. Cf. Sueton. Iul. 56, and Gell. xvii. 9, 1.

6. Speeches.—About a dozen titles of speeches are known, but only a few detached words and phrases survive. As an orator, Caesar stood in the front rank (Sueton. Iul. 55). For encomiums on his style see Cic. Brut. 252, and Quintilian, x. 1, 114, who considered him second only to Cicero, and remarkable for vis, acumen, concitatio, and elegantia. The language of Tac. Dial. 21 is less complimentary, ‘Nisi forte quisquam aut Caesaris pro Decio Samnite aut Bruti pro Deiotaro rege ceterosque eiusdem lentitudinis ac teporis libros legit, nisi qui et carmina eorumdem miratur.’

7. Poems.—Caesar in his youth composed a poem in praise of Hercules, and a tragedy, Oedipus. Plutarch (Caes. 2) speaks of him as reciting poems of his own composition to the pirates who took him prisoner. On his journey from Rome to Spain, B.C. 46, he wrote a descriptive poem with the title of Iter.

Sueton. Iul. 56, ‘Reliquit ... poema quod inscribitur Iter ... [fecit] dum ab urbe in Hispaniam ulteriorem quarto et vicensimo die pervenit ... Feruntur et a puero et ab adulescentulo quaedam scripta, ut Laudes Herculis, tragoedia Oedipus, item Dicta Collectanea: quos omnes libellos vetuit Augustus publicari, in epistula quam brevem admodum ac simplicem ad Pompeium Macrum, cui ordinandas bibliothecas delegaverat, misit.’

Pliny the younger mentions Caesar as a love poet (Ep. v. 3, 5). His poetry is spoken of by Tacitus in no flattering terms, Dial. 21, ‘fecerunt enim [Caesar et Brutus] et carmina et in bibliothecas rettulerunt, non melius quam Cicero, sed felicius, quia illos fecisse pauciores sciunt.’

The only extant lines are those on Terence (q.v.).

C. ASINIUS POLLIO.

C. Asinius Pollio (B.C. 76-A.D. 5), governor of Farther Spain B.C. 44, consul B.C. 40, retired from public life after his Dalmatian triumph, B.C. 39. He was famous as an orator, and was the author of (1) A history of the civil wars from B.C. 60 (Hor. Od. ii. 1, 1 sqq.). (2) Tragedies (Verg. Ecl. 8, 10; Hor. Sat. i. 10, 42; Od. ii. 1, 9 sqq.) and love poems (Plin. Ep. v. 3, 5). (3) A work in which the style of Sallust was criticized (Sueton. Gramm. 10). His remarks on Caesar, Cicero, and Livy may be from the same book (Sueton. Iul. 56; Quint. xii. 1, 22; i. 5, 56).

For Pollio’s style, cf. Quint. x. 1, 113, ‘A nitore et iucunditate Ciceronis ita longe abest ut videri possit saeculo prior.’ Pollio founded the first public library at Rome, in the Atrium Libertatis, B.C. 38 (Plin. N.H. xxxv. 10), For his intimacy with the poet Cinna, who wrote the Propempticon Pollionis in his honour, see p. 142; and for his patronage of Virgil and Horace, see Verg. Ecl. 3, 84; 8, 6-13; Hor. Sat. i. 10, 42. Pollio, of course, belongs to the Augustan Age, but is mentioned here because of his connexion with the Corpus Caesarianum.

CORNELIUS NEPOS.

(1) LIFE.

The praenomen of Cornelius Nepos is unknown. In Pliny, N.H. iii. 127, he is called ‘Padi adcola,’ and in Pliny, Ep. iv. 28, 1 (to Vibius Severus), he is mentioned as a townsman of T. Catius, ‘Imagines municipum tuorum, Cornelii Nepotis et T. Cati.’ Now T. Catius was an Insubrian (Cic. ad Fam. xv. 16, 1), and as the only Insubrian town on the Padus was Ticinum, Nepos was probably born there.

There is no direct evidence as to the date of his birth but we may infer from the following facts that he was born not long before B.C. 100.

1. Jerome puts his literary activity under B.C. 40 = yr. Abr. 1977, ‘Cornelius Nepos scriptor historicus clarus habetur.’

2. A son of his died B.C. 44 while a boy, and unknown to Cicero.

Cic. ad Att. xvi. 14, 4, ‘Male narras de Nepotis filio: valde mehercule moveor et moleste fero; nescieram omnino esse istum puerum.’

3. The respect with which he looks up to Atticus, who was born B.C. 109.

4. A fragment of his Exempla quoted by Pliny, N.H. ix. 136, regarding the changes of fashion in purple robes: ‘Nepos Cornelius, qui divi Augusti principatu obiit, “Me,” inquit, “iuvene violacea purpura vigebat, ... nec multo post rubra Tarentina. Huic successit dibapha Tyria... Hac P. Lentulus Spinther aedilis curulis (B.C. 63) primus in praetexta usus improbabatur. Qua purpura quis non iam,” inquit, “triclinaria facit?”’

Nepos held no public office, but confined himself to literature, in which he was associated with Atticus. Their intimacy must have begun after B.C. 65, when Atticus returned to Rome from Athens, where he had lived more than twenty years.

Pliny, Ep. v. 3, 6, ‘P. Vergilius, Cornelius Nepos ... Non quidem hi senatores.’

Nep. Att. 13, 7, ‘Atque hoc non auditum, sed cognitum praedicamus: saepe enim propter familiaritatem domesticis rebus interfuimus.’

Nepos knew Cicero, doubtless, through Atticus, but there is no evidence that they were intimate, except Gell. xv. 28, 1, who is probably mistaken, ‘Cornelius Nepos ... M. Ciceronis ut qui maxime amicus familiaris fuit.’ A fragment of a letter from Cicero to Nepos is quoted by Sueton. Iul. 55; from Nepos to Cicero by Lactant. inst. div. iii. 15, 10; and Fronto (p. 20, ed. Naber) speaks of a collection of Cicero’s works revised by Nepos and Atticus.

Nepos was on intimate terms with Catullus, whom, as coming from Verona, he may have known in early life. Catullus, who is mentioned by Nepos (Att. 12, 4), dedicated a collection of poems to him (Catull. 1). Nepos was alive in B.C. 29, in which, or the following year, he completed the life of Atticus.

As regards Nepos’ character and views, Pliny, Ep. v. 3, 6, attributes to him sanctitas morum. The words of Cicero, ad Att. xvi. 5, 5, imply only a playful compliment, ‘Et ais, “μετ’ ἀμύμονα.” Tu vero ἀμύμων, ille [Nepos] quidem ἄμβροτος.’

Nepos’ slight regard for philosophy is shown by a letter to Cicero quoted by Lactant. inst. div. iii. 15, 10, ‘Tantum abest, ut ego magistram esse putem vitae philosophiam beataeque vitae perfectricem, ut nullis magis existimem opus esse magistris vivendi quam plerisque, qui in ea disputanda versantur.’

Cf. also Cic. ad Att. xvi. 5, 5, ‘Nepotis epistulam exspecto. Cupidus ille meorum? qui ea, quibus maxime γαυριῶ, legenda non putet.’

Philosophy, according to Nepos, ought to be practical.

Nep. Att. 17, 3, ‘Nam principum philosophorum ita percepta habuit praecepta, ut his ad vitam agendam, non ad ostentationem uteretur.’

Nepos, as is shown by his works, supported government by the Senate.

(2) WORKS.

1. Erotic poems; mentioned by Pliny, Ep. v. 3, 6.

2. Chronica, in three books, embracing universal history. Catull. 1,

‘Quoi dono lepidum novom libellum arida modo pumice expolitum? Corneli, tibi; namque tu solebas meas esse aliquid putare nugas iam tum, cum ausus es unus Italorum omne aevom tribus explicare chartis, doctis, Iuppiter, et laboriosis.’

It is clear, from the above, that Nepos had mentioned Catullus in the work. That the mythical period was treated of is shown by Ausonius, Ep. 16, ‘Apologos Titiani et Nepotis chronica quasi alios apologos (nam et ipsa instar sunt fabularum) ... misi ... ad institutionem tuorum.’

From Catullus we may possibly infer that the Chronica were written before B.C. 63[31]; unus Italorum would imply that they were written before the similar works of Varro and Atticus.

3. Exempla, in at least five Books, treating of the history of Roman manners.

Gell. vi. 18, 11, ‘Cornelius Nepos in libro exemplorum quinto.’

4. Life of the elder Cato.

Nep. Cat. 3, 5, ‘Huius de vita et moribus plura in eo libro persecuti sumus, quem separatim de eo fecimus rogatu T. Pomponii Attici. Quare studiosos Catonis ad illud volumen delegamus.’

5. Life of Cicero, written after his death (B.C. 43). Gell. xv. 28, 2, ‘in primo librorum, quos de vita illius composuit.’

6. A geographical work, referred to by Pliny, N.H. v. 4, etc. All the above works are lost.

7. De Viris Illustribus, his last work, was dedicated to Atticus (praef. i); an addition to the life of Atticus was made after his death.

Att. 19, 1, ‘Hactenus Attico vivo edita a nobis sunt. Nunc, quoniam fortuna nos superstites ei esse voluit, reliqua persequemur.’

From Att. 12, 1-2, we may conclude that the publication took place between B.C. 35 and 33. The addition to the life of Atticus was written at some time between B.C. 31 and 27, as in Att. 19, 2, Octavian is called imperator, but not Augustus, a title which he received in the last-mentioned year.

The work contained at least sixteen Books: cf. Charis. G.L. i. 141 (ed. Keil), ‘Cornelius Nepos illustrium virorum libro xvi.’; and was divided into sections of two Books each, the first on distinguished foreigners, the second on distinguished Romans of the same class. We possess the book de excellentibus ducibus exterarum gentium; from de historicis Latinis the lives of Cato the Censor and Atticus, and fragments of the letters of Cornelia, mother of the Gracci. There are also mentioned the books de regibus (Nep. de reg. 1, 1; 3, 5); de excellentibus ducibus Romanorum (Nep. Hann. 13, 4); de historicis Graecis (Nep. Dion, 3, 2); de poetis (Sueton. p. 31 R.); de grammaticis (Sueton. p. 103 R.). The work probably dealt also with iurisconsulti, oratores, and philosophi. The book is biographical rather than historical, and is designed to compare foreigners with Romans, and to please, as well as instruct, those ignorant of Greek culture.

Pel. 1, 1, ‘Vereor ... ne non vitam eius enarrare, sed historiam videar scribere.’

Hann. 13, 4, ‘Tempus est ... Romanorum explicare imperatores, quo facilius collatis utrorumque factis, qui viri praeferendi sint, possit iudicari.’

Pel. 1, 1, ‘Medebor cum satietati tum ignorantiae lectorum.’

Praef. 2, ‘Hi erunt fere, qui expertes litterarum Graecarum,’ etc.

Besides tradition and his own recollection, Nepos mentions the following sources: Thucydides (Them. 1, 4, etc.); Xenophon (Ag. 1, 1); Plato’s Symposium (Alc. 2, 2); Theopompus (Alc. 11, 1); Dinon (Con. 5, 4); Timaeus (Alc. 11, 1); Silenus, Sosilus, Polybius, Sulpicius Blitho, Atticus (Hann. 13, 1 and 3); the writings of Hannibal (Hann. 13, 2); Speeches and Origines of Cato (Cat. 3, 2); Cicero’s works, especially Epp. ad Att. (Att. 16, 3). The book contains lives of twenty Greek generals from the Persian wars to the time of Alexander’s successors; a short article on Persian and Macedonian kings who were also generals; and the lives of Hamilcar and Hannibal, Cato and Atticus. The work possesses little independent value, and the following are the chief faults:

1. There are many mistakes in history and geography.

2. The biographies, and the events recorded in them, are badly arranged; eulogy is employed indiscriminately, and petty anecdotes are too frequent.

3. Important names, as Cimon and Lysander, are dismissed too briefly; others, as Atticus and Datames, are treated too fully. Many are left out altogether, as some of the leaders in the Peloponnesian war.

4. Important authorities are not used: so Herodotus, for Miltiades, Themistocles, and Pausanias. No use is made of the Hellenica of Xenophon.

For views on Nepos, cf. Gell. xv. 28, 1, ‘Cornelius Nepos rerum memoriae non indiligens.’

Pliny, N.H. v. 4, ‘Portentosa Graeciae mendacia ... quaeque alia Cornelius Nepos avidissime credidit.’

Nepos is not mentioned by Quintilian in his list of Roman historians.

In the MSS. only the Atticus and the Cato are ascribed to Nepos, the rest being entitled Liber Aemilii Probi de excellentibus ducibus exterarum gentium. It has been suggested that this arose from a misapprehension of em(endavi) Probus. There is an epigram by this Probus in the MSS., referring to poems of his and standing after the Life of Hannibal, which informs us that he was a contemporary of Theodosius (probably Theodosius I., A.D. 379-395). That the work cannot be by him is shown by the political references, which suit only the beginning of the empire, by the mention of Atticus in the preface, and by the correspondence in style between the book and the lives of Atticus and Cato, admittedly the work of Nepos; also by the fact that L. Ampelius, who probably wrote before the time of Diocletian, used the work in his Liber Memorialis.

LUCRETIUS.

Our information about Lucretius’ life is very scanty. Jerome yr. Abr. 1922 = B.C. 95, ‘T. Lucretius poeta nascitur, qui postea amatorio poculo in furorem versus, cum aliquot libros per intervalla insaniae conscripsisset, quos postea Cicero emendavit, propria se manu interfecit anno aetatis xliiii.’ (B.C. 52 or 51).

Donatus, vit. Verg. 2, ‘Initia aetatis Cremonae egit [Vergilius] usque ad virilem togam, quam xv. anno natali suo accepit isdem illis consulibus iterum duobus quibus erat natus, evenitque ut eo ipso die Lucretius poeta decederet’ (October 15).

Teuffel thinks xliiii. is wrong, and would read xlii., thus giving the dates as B.C. 96-55, as he thinks that Jerome has fixed the date of birth one year too late. Munro (vol. ii. p. 1) accepts xliiii., but thinks that Jerome (as elsewhere) is a few years wrong in the date of Lucretius’ birth, and gives the dates as B.C. 99-55. It is impossible to decide as to the date of birth, but most authorities agree on B.C. 55 as the date of death, a view which is supported by the only contemporary reference to the poet: Cic. ad Q.F. ii. 11, 4 (written in February, B.C. 54), ‘Lucreti poemata, ut scribis, ita sunt: multis luminibus ingeni, multae tamen artis; sed cum veneris. Virum te putabo, si Sallusti Empedoclea legeris, hominem non putabo.’

The above extract is given in the reading of the MSS. Some editors read non before multis, others non before multae, but it is best to follow the MSS. (with Tyrrell), translating “But when you come (we shall talk about it). I shall consider you a hero, if you read Sallust’s Empedoclea; I shall not consider you a human being.”

As regards Lucretius’ madness, there is no absolute impossibility in the story. Munro (vol. ii. pp. 2, 3) accepts Jerome’s account of Cicero’s editorship; others, less probably, believe that Q. Cicero was editor. The first view is rendered probable by the high opinion Lucretius had of Cicero, as seen from the frequency with which he imitates his Aratea (Munro on Lucr. v. 619), and from the knowledge Cicero shows of Lucretius’ work, as in Tusc. i. 48.

The poet’s full name is given in the MSS. as T. Lucretius Carus.

This is all the direct evidence regarding Lucretius’ life.[32] The de rerum natura is addressed to C. Memmius.[33] From Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 1 (where Cicero tells us he employed his good offices with Memmius on behalf of Patro for the preservation of the gardens of Epicurus), it appears that he was not an Epicurean. Memmius is the only contemporary mentioned by Lucretius; i. 24,

‘Te sociam studeo scribendis versibus esse quos ego de rerum natura pangere conor Memmiadae nostro, quem tu, dea, tempore in omni omnibus ornatum voluisti excellere rebus.’

Many, arguing from the fact that Carus is not known elsewhere as a cognomen of the gens Lucretia, think that the poet was a freedman or a freedman’s son, but from the tone of equality in which he addresses Memmius, it is more probable that he was a patrician; cf. i. 140,

‘Sed tua me virtus tamen et sperata voluptas suavis amicitiae quemvis sufferre laborem suadet.’

Several personal characteristics may be inferred from the poem:

1. His earnestness and sincerity; iii. 28,

‘His ibi me rebus quaedam divina voluptas percipit atque horror,’ etc.

Cf. the importance he attaches to his subject, i. 926,

‘Avia Pieridum peragro loca nullius ante trita solo.’

2. His admiration for the great men of the past. Cf. iii. 1024-52, where Ancus, the Scipios, Homer, Democritus, and Epicurus are praised; the introductions to Books i., iii., v., vi., on Epicurus; i. 716-33 on Empedocles; i. 117-9 on Ennius.

3. His powers of observation and love of nature. Cf. i. 716-25; ii. 29 sqq., 40 sqq.; 323-32; iv. 572 sqq.

4. His experience of women. Book iv. 1037-the end.

5. His wide reading. The poem shows knowledge of Epicurus, Empedocles, Democritus, Anaxagoras, Heraclitus, Plato, the Stoic writers, Thucydides, Hippocrates, Homer, Euripides. Among Latin writers Ennius, Naevius, Pacuvius, Lucilius, and Accius are all imitated.

There is a reference to contemporary history in i. 41-3,

‘Nam neque nos agere hoc patriai tempore iniquo possumus aequo animo nec Memmi clara propago talibus in rebus communi desse saluti.’

Munro thinks that these lines were written B.C. 59, when Memmius was praetor designatus, in fierce opposition to Caesar, and on the side of the Senate. If this is so, the poem was probably written between B.C. 60 and 55. The lines on ambition and its attendant evils (as iii. 931 sqq., v. 1117-35, etc.) may have been written with a special view to the facts of Memmius’ life. Lucretius may refer to his recollection of the civil wars in v. 999,

‘At non multa virum sub signis milia ducta una dies dabat exitio.’

In ii. 40 sqq. there is perhaps a reference to Caesar’s army in the Campus Martius at the beginning of B.C. 58.

The de rerum natura is an exposition of Epicureanism, especially on its physical side; i. 54,

‘Nam tibi de summa caeli ratione deumque disserere incipiam et rerum primordia pandam,’ etc.

The title is taken from Epicurus’ περὶ φύσεως, which Lucretius followed closely, as is evident from the account of the Epicurean philosophy in Diogenes Laertius, x., and from the fragments of Epicurean writers discovered at Herculaneum in 1752. He probably used as his model Empedocles’ poem περὶ φύσεως.

The object of the poem is to deliver men from the fear of death and of the gods; iii. 37,

‘Et metus ille foras praeceps Acheruntis agendus’;

i. 62-101; cf. l. 101,

‘Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum.’

Note that the invocation to Venus at the beginning of the poem is not inconsistent, but is an address to the universal principle of generation; cf. i. 21,

‘Quae quoniam rerum naturam sola gubernas.’

The scope of the Books is as follows: Books i. and ii. state the physical theories of Democritus and Epicurus. Book i. states the Atomic Theory of Democritus, held by Epicurus, that the world consists of atoms and void. The theories of Heraclitus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, etc. are refuted; i. 740,

‘Principiis tamen in rerum fecere ruinas et graviter magni magno cecidere ibi casu.’

Book ii. treats of the combinations of atoms, and the principle of the swerve introduced to explain free-will. The varieties of atoms are shown to be limited. In Book iii. the nature of the mind and life is shown to be material. Religio and the fear of death (cf. ll. 978 sqq.) are attacked principally in this Book; iii. 830,

‘Nil igitur mors est ad nos neque pertinet hilum, quandoquidem natura animi mortalis habetur.’

Book iv. treats of the theory of simulacra or images, of the senses, and particularly of love. Book v. treats of the formation of the earth and the heavenly bodies, the origin of life, and the progress of civilization. It is shown that nothing has been created, and that everything must perish. Book vi. treats of abnormal phenomena, such as thunder and lightning, tempests, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc. The plague at Athens is described (from Thucydides). Books v. and vi. are unfinished.

Ethical views are given only by the way, the poem being primarily on physics. Pleasure is the end of action: ii. 172, ‘dux vitae dia voluptas.’ This pleasure is the absence of disturbance (ἀταραξία), hence all passion (as of love, iv. 1121-40) is deprecated; ii. 14,

‘O miseras hominum mentes, o pectora caeca! qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque periclis degitur hoc aevi quodcumque est! nonne videre nil aliud sibi naturam latrare, nisi utqui corpore seiunctus dolor absit, mente fruatur iucundo sensu cura semota metuque?’

Lucretius, as Epicurus, is often weak in physics. Cf. v. 564 sqq., of the sun’s size,

‘Nec nimio solis maior rota nec minor ardor esse potest, nostris quam sensibus esse videtur.’

In i. 1052 sqq. he states well the theory of the antipodes but his dependence on Epicurus will not allow him to accept it. Reasons are sometimes given for a thing that never existed, as in iv. 710-21 for the fear that a lion has for a cock. Some passages come near the results of modern science, cf. v. 837 sqq. on extinct species; v. 855 sqq. on the struggle for existence; v. 610-3, on the invisible rays of the sun.

The references to Lucretius by name are few.

Nep. Att. 12, 4, ‘L. Iulium Calidum, quem post Lucreti Catullique mortem multo elegantissimum poetam nostram tulisse aetatem vere videor posse contendere.’

Ovid, Am. i. 15, 23,

‘Carmina sublimis tunc sunt peritura Lucreti, exitio terras cum dabit una dies.’

Trist. ii. 425,

‘Explicat ut causas rapidi Lucretius ignis.’

Stat. Silv. ii. 7, 76,

‘docti furor arduus Lucreti.’

Quint. x. 1, 87, ‘Macer et Lucretius legendi quidem, sed non ut phrasin, id est, corpus eloquentiae faciant; elegantes in sua quisque materia, sed alter humilis alter difficilis.’

Cf. Tac. Dial. 23.

His influence on Virgil is seen passim. Cf. Gell. i. 21, 7, ‘Non verba sola sed versus prope totos et locos quoque Lucreti plurimos sectatum esse Vergilium videmus.’

Verg. Georg. ii. 490 sqq. and Ecl. 6, 31 sqq. refer to Lucretius. Georg. ii. 490,

‘Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum subiecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari.’

Horace has also imitated him in several places: so Sat. i. 3, 99-110 (on primitive man) = Lucr. v. 1028 sqq.; Sat. i. 5, 101 sqq. = Lucr. v. 82 sqq. Most of the poets after him, particularly Manilius, came under his influence.

SALLUST.

(1) LIFE.

C. Sallustius Crispus was born B.C. 86 at Amiternum, in the country of the Sabines, and died B.C. 35.

Jerome yr. Abr. 1931 = B.C. 86, ‘Sallustius Crispus, scriptor historicus, in Sabinis Amiterni nascitur.’ Ibid. 1982 = B.C. 35, ‘Sallustius diem obiit, quadriennio ante Actiacum bellum.’

Sallust was of plebeian family, as is seen from the fact that he was afterwards tribunus plebis. According to the Pseud.-Cic. in Sallustium declamatio, 13-14, he led an evil life in youth, and brought his father with sorrow to the grave.

Cf. § 14, ‘Cuiquam dubium potest esse, quin mori coegerit eum [patrem]?’

There is a story that Milo punished him for an amour with his wife.

Gell. xvii. 18, ‘M. Varro ... in libro quem scripsit “Pius aut de pace,” C. Sallustium scriptorem seriae illius et severae orationis, in cuius historia notiones censorias fieri atque exerceri videmus, in adulterio deprehensum ab Annio Milone loris bene caesum dicit et, cum dedisset pecuniam, dimissum.’

The story is corroborated by Pseud.-Cic. in Sall. 15; by Macrob. iii. 13, 9, ‘alienae luxuriae obiurgator et censor,’ and others; and Sallust himself appears to admit that there was something wrong; Cat. 4, ‘a quo incepto studioque me ambitio mala detinuerat.’[34]

Sallust speaks of the political offices he filled, and of the class of men who were unsuccessful candidates about the same time—a supposed reference to M. Cato’s candidature for the praetorship, B.C. 55.

Iug. 4, ‘Qui si reputaverint, et quibus ego temporibus magistratus adeptus sim et quales viri idem adsequi nequiverint,’ etc.

After being quaestor (Pseud.-Cic. in Sall. 15), he was, in B.C. 52, tribunus plebis, when he and other two tribunes opposed Cicero in his defence of Milo.

Ascon. in Cic. pro Mil. p. 33 (Kiessl. and Schöll), ‘C. Sallustius et T. Munatius Plancus tr. pleb. inimicissimas contiones de Milone habebant.’

In B.C. 50, Sallust was legatus pro quaestore to Bibulus in Syria, according to Mommsen (Hermes, i. 171), who thinks that the Sallust to whom Cicero writes ad Fam. ii. 17 is the historian. In the same year he was expelled from the Senate by the censors, Appius Claudius and L. Piso.

Pseud.-Cic. in Sall. 16, ‘neque post illum delectum senatus vidimus te.’

In B.C. 49, Caesar reappointed him quaestor, and he resumed his place in the Senate.

Pseud.-Cic. in Sall. 17, ‘in senatum post quaesturam est reductus.’

In B.C. 48, he commanded a legion in Illyria without distinction (Orosius vi, 15, 8), and next year he was Caesar’s agent with the insurgent legions in Campania (Appian, B.C. ii. 92). In B.C. 46 he was praetor, and as such commanded successfully an expedition to seize the enemy’s stores in Cercina.

Bell. Afr. 8, ‘Item C. Sallustium Crispum praetorem ad Cercinam insulam versus, quam adversarii tenebant, cum parte navium ire iubet.’ (See also c. 34.)

At the end of the year he was appointed proconsul of Numidia.

Ibid. 97, ‘Ibi Sallustio pro consule cum imperio relicto ipse Zama egressus Uticam se recepit.’

As proconsul, he plundered the province, and bought, probably with the spoils, the horti Sallustiani, which afterwards belonged to the Roman emperors (see Tac. Ann. xiii. 47; Hist. iii. 82).

Pseud.-Cic. in Sall. 19, ‘Nonne ita provinciam vastavit, ut nihil neque passi sint neque exspectaverint gravius in bello socii nostri, quam experti sint in pace hoc Africam interiorem obtinente?’

Sallust is said to have married Terentia, whom Cicero had divorced (Jerome adv. Iov. 1). Probably he had no son, as he adopted a grandson of his sister.

Tac. Ann. iii. 30, ‘Crispum equestri ortum loco C. Sallustius, rerum Romanarum florentissimus auctor, sororis nepotem in nomen adscivit.’

After Caesar’s death, Sallust retired from public life, and, having no taste for sport or agriculture, spent his leisure in writing history.

Cat. 4, ‘Ubi ... mihi reliquam aetatem a re publica procul habendam decrevi, non fuit consilium socordia atque desidia bonum otium conterere, neque vero agrum colundo aut venando servilibus officiis intentum aetatem agere; sed ... statui res gestas populi Romani carptim, ut quaeque memoria digna videbantur, perscribere.’

Sallust, as above stated, died B.C. 35.

(2) WORKS.

1. De Catilinae Coniuratione (so Cat. 4). The book is called bellum Catilinae by Quint. iii. 8, 9, and in some MSS.; in MSS. also bellum Catilinarium. The work was written after Caesar’s death (Cat. 53-4). It is, as Mommsen (R.H. iv. 184, note) states, a political pamphlet in the interests of the democratic party (on which the monarchy was based), and tries to clear Caesar from the charge of being implicated in the Catilinarian conspiracy, and collaterally performing the same service for C. Antonius, the uncle of the triumvir.

Cf. Cat. 49, ‘Sed isdem temporibus Q. Catulus et C. Piso neque pretio neque gratia Ciceronem inpellere potuere, uti per Allobroges aut alium indicem C. Caesar falso nominaretur. Nam uterque cum illo gravis inimicitias exercebant ... Sed ubi consulem ad tantum facinus inpellere nequeunt,’ etc. (Cf. also Caesar’s speech in Cat. 51.)

Cat. 59, ‘At ex altera parte C. Antonius pedibus aeger, quod proelio adesse nequibat, M. Petreio legato exercitum permittit.’ Dion Cassius, xxxvii. 39, on the other hand, says that this was a pretence, Antonius being unwilling to fight against his old confederate.

2. Bellum Iugurthinum. (So in MSS. and Quint. iii. 8, 9.)

Iug. 5, ‘Bellum scripturus sum, quod populus Romanus cum Iugurtha rege Numidarum gessit, primum quia magnum et atrox variaque victoria fuit, dehinc quia tunc primum superbiae nobilitatis obviam itum est.’

The object of the book is to give a picture of the low state of the oligarchical government (cf. Iug. 8, ‘Romae omnia venalia esse’), and to glorify Marius, the chief of the democratic party.

Of his sources, Sallust mentions Sisenna (Iug. 95) for information about Sulla, and native authorities for African ethnography.

Iug. 17, ‘Sed qui mortales initio Africam habuerint, quique postea adcesserint, aut quo modo inter se permixti sint ... uti ex libris Punicis, qui regis Hiempsalis dicebantur, interpretatum nobis est ... dicam.’

Sallust probably also used the memoirs of Scaurus, Sulla, and Catulus.

3. Historiae.—This work dealt with the events from B.C. 78 to 67. Cf. Ausonius, p. 264 (ed. Peiper),

‘Ab Lepido et Catulo iam res et tempora Romae orsus his senos seriem conecto per annos.’

There is no reference in the fragments to any event after B.C. 67. The book took up the history where Sisenna had left off, B.C. 78. Cf. i. frag. 1 (ed. Maurenbrecher), ‘Res populi Romani M. Lepido Q. Catulo coss. ac deinde militiae et domi gestas composui.’

Four speeches and two letters from the Histories have been preserved in a collection of Sallustian speeches and letters made for rhetorical purposes, probably in the second century A.D. Besides these there are considerable fragments, chiefly from Books ii. and iii. We may conclude from Iug. 95, ‘neque enim alio loco de Sullae rebus dicturi sumus,’ that the career of Sulla was not treated of in the Histories. He is, however, repeatedly mentioned.