A History of Roman Literature by Charles Thomas Cruttwell
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Charles Thomas Cruttwell >> A History of Roman Literature
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Among grammatical critics, the most important is _P. Nigidius Figulus_
(98-46 B.C.). He was, like Varro, conservative in his views, and is
considered by Gellius to come next to him in erudition. They appear to
have been generally coupled together by later writers, but probably from
the similarity of their studies rather than from any equality of talent.
Nigidius was a mystic, and devoted much of his time to Pythagorean
speculations, and the celebration of various religious mysteries. His
_Commentarii_ treated of grammar, orthography, etymology, &c. In the
latter he appears to have copied Varro in deriving all Latin words from
native roots. Besides grammar, he wrote on sacrificial rites, on theology
(_de dis_), and natural science. One or two references are made to him in
the curious _Apology_ of Apuleius. In the investigation of the
supernatural he was followed by _Caecina_, who wrote on the Etruscan
ceremonial, and drew up a theory of portents and prodigies.
The younger generation produced few grammarians of merit. We hear of
_Ateius Praetextatus_, who was equally well known as a rhetorician. He was
born at Athens, set free for his attainments, and called himself
_Philologus_ (Suet. De Gram. 10). He seems to have had some influence with
the young nobles, with whom a teacher of grammar, who was also a fluent
and persuasive speaker, was always welcome. Another instance is found in
_Valerius Cato_, who lost his patrimony when quite a youth by the rapacity
of Sulla, and was compelled to teach in order to obtain a living. He
speedily became popular, and was considered an excellent trainer of poets.
He is called--
"Cato Grammaticus, Latina Siren,
Qui solus legit et facit poetas."
Having acquired a moderate fortune and bought a villa at Tusculum, he sank
through mismanagement again into poverty, from which he never emerged, but
died in a garret, destitute of the necessaries of life. His fate was the
subject of several epigrams, of which one by Bibaculus is preserved in
Suetonius (De Cr. ii).
The only other name worth notice is that of _Santra_, who is called by
Martial _Salebrosus_. He seems to have written chiefly on the history of
Roman literature, and, in particular, to have commented on the poems of
Naevius. Many obscurer writers are mentioned in Suetonius's treatise, to
which, with that on rhetoric by the same author, the reader is here
referred.
CHAPTER II.
ORATORY AND PHILOSOPHY--CICERO (106-43 B.C.).
Marcus Tullius Cicero, [1] the greatest name in Roman literature, was born
on his father's estate near Arpinum, 3d Jan. 106 B.C. Arpinum had received
the citizenship some time before, but his family though old and of
equestrian position had never held any office in Rome. Cicero was
therefore a _novus homo_, a _parvenu_, as we should say, and this made the
struggle for honours which occupied the greater part of his career, both
unusual and arduous. For this struggle, in which his extraordinary talent
seemed to predict success, his father determined to prepare the boy by an
education under his own eye in Rome. Marcus lived there for some years
with his brother Quintus, studying under the best masters (among whom was
the poet Archias), learning the principles of grammar and rhetoric, and
storing his mind with the great works of Greek literature. He now made the
acquaintance of the three celebrated men to whom he so often refers in his
writings, the Augur Mucius Scaevola, and the orators Crassus and Antonius,
with whom he often conversed, and asked them such questions as his boyish
modesty permitted. At this time too he made his first essays in verse, the
poem called _Pontius Glaucus_, and perhaps the _Phaenomena_ and
_Prognostics_ [2] of Aratus. On assuming the manly gown he at once
attached himself to Scaevola for the purpose of learning law, attending
him not only in his private consultations, but also to the courts when he
pleaded, and to the assembly when he harangued the people. His industry
was untiring. As he tells us himself, he renounced dissipation, pleasure,
exercise, even society; his whole spare time was spent in reading,
writing, and declaiming, besides daily attendance at the forum, where he
drank in with eager zeal the fervid eloquence of the great speakers.
Naturally keen to observe, he quickened his faculties by assiduous
attention; not a tone, not a gesture, not a turn of speech ever escaped
him; all were noted down in his ready memory to be turned to good account
when his own day should come. Meanwhile he prepared himself by deeper
studies for rising to oratorical eminence. He attended the subtle lectures
of Philo the Academic, and practised the minute dialectic of the Stoics
under Diodotus, and tested his command over both philosophy and
disputation by declaiming in Greek before the rhetorician Molo.
At the age of twenty-five he thought himself qualified to appear before
the world. The speech for Quintius, [3] delivered 81 B.C. is not his
first, but it is one of his earliest. In it he appears as the opponent of
Hortensius. At this time Sulla was all-powerful at Rome. He had crushed
with pitiless ferocity the remnants of the Marian party; he had reinstated
the senate in its privileges, abased the tribunate, checked the power of
the knights, and still swayed public opinion by a rule of terror. In his
twenty-seventh year, Cicero, by defending S. Roscius Amerinus, [4] exposed
himself to the dictator's wrath. Roscius, whose accuser was Sulla's
powerful freedman Chrysogonus, was, though innocent, in imminent danger of
conviction, but Cicero's staunch courage and irresistible eloquence
procured his acquittal. The effect of this speech was instantaneous; the
young aspirant was at once ranked among the great orators of the day.
In this speech we see Cicero espousing the popular side. The change which
afterwards took place in his political conduct may perhaps be explained by
his strong hatred on the one hand for personal domination, and by his
enthusiasm on the other for the great traditions of the past. Averse by
nature to all extremes, and ever disposed towards the weaker cause, he
became a vacillating statesman, because his genius was literary not
political, and because (being a scrupulously conscientious man, and
without the inheritance of a family political creed to guide him) he found
it hard to judge on which side right lay. The three crises of his life,
his defence of Roscius, his contest with Catiline, and his resistance to
Antony, were precisely the three occasions when no such doubts were
possible, and on all these the conduct of Cicero, as well as his genius,
shines with its brightest lustre. To the speech for Roscius, his first and
therefore his boldest effort, he always looked back with justifiable
pride, and drew from it perhaps in after life a spur to meet greater
dangers, greater because experience enabled him to foresee them. [5]
About this time Cicero's health began to fail from too constant study and
over severe exertions in pleading. The tremendous calls on a Roman
orator's physique must have prevented any but robust men from attaining
eminence. The place where he spoke, girt as it was with the proudest
monuments of imperial dominion, the assembled multitudes, the magnitude of
the political issues on which in reality nearly every criminal trial
turned, all these roused the spirit of the speaker to its utmost tension,
and awoke a corresponding vehemence of action and voice.
Cicero therefore retired to Athens, where he spent six months studying
philosophy with Antiochus the Academic, and with Zeno and Phaedrus who
were both Epicureans. His brother Quintus and his friend Atticus were
fellow-students with him. He next travelled in Asia Minor, seeking the
help and advice of all the celebrated rhetoricians he met, as Menippus of
Stratonice, Dionysius of Magnesia, Aeschylus of Cnidos, Xenocles of
Adramyttium. At Rhodes he again placed himself under Molo, whose wise
counsel checked the Asiatic exuberance which to his latest years Cicero
could never quite discard; and after an absence of over two years he
returned home thoroughly restored in health, and steadily determined to
win his place as the greatest orator of Rome (76 B.C.). Meanwhile Sulla
had died, and Cicero no longer incurred danger by expressing his views. He
soon after defended the great comedian Roscius [6] on a charge of fraud in
a civil speech still extant, and apparently towards the end of the same
year was married to Terentia, a lady of high birth, with whom he lived for
upwards of thirty years.
In 75 B.C. Cicero was elected quaestor, and obtained the province of
Sicily under the Praetor Sextus Peducaeus. While there he conciliated good
will by his integrity and kindness, and on his departure was loaded with
honours by the grateful provincials. But he saw the necessity of remaining
in Rome for the future, if he wished to become known; consequently he took
a house near the forum, and applied himself unremittingly to the calls of
his profession. He was now placed on the list of senators, and in the year
70 appeared as a candidate for the aedileship. The only oration we know of
during the intervening years is that for Tullius [7] (71 B.C.); but many
cases of importance must have been pleaded by him, since in the
preliminary speech by which he secured the conduct of the case against
Verres, [8] he triumphantly brings himself forward as the only man whose
tried capacity and unfailing success makes him a match for Hortensius, who
is retained on the other side. This year is memorable for the impeachment
of Verres, the only instance almost where Cicero acted as public
prosecutor, his kindly nature being apter to defend than to accuse; but on
this occasion he burned with righteous indignation, and spared no labour
or expense to ransack Sicily for evidence of the infamous praetor's guilt.
Cicero was tied to the Sicilians, whom he called his clients, by acts of
mutual kindness, and he now stood forth to avenge them with a good will.
The friends of Verres tried to procure a _Praevaricatio_, or sham
accusation, conducted by a friend of the defendant, but Cicero stopped
this by his brilliant and withering invective on Caecilius, the unlucky
candidate for this dishonourable office. The judges, who were all
senators, could not but award the prosecution to Cicero, who, determined
to obtain a conviction, conducted it with the utmost despatch. Waiving his
right to speak, and bringing on the witnesses contrary to custom at the
outset of the trial, he produced evidence so crushing that Verres
absconded, and the splendid orations which remain [9] had no occasion to
be, and never were, delivered. It was Cicero's justifiable boast that he
obtained all the offices of state in the first year in which he could by
law hold them. In 69 B.C. he was elected at the head of the poll as Curule
Aedile, a post of no special dignity, something between that of a mayor
and a commissioner of works, but admitting a liberal expenditure on the
public shows, and so useful towards acquiring the popularity necessary for
one who aspired to the consulship. To this year are to be referred the
extant speeches for Fonteius [10] and Caecina, [11] and perhaps the lost
ones for Matridius [12] and Oppius. [13] Cicero contrived without any
great expenditure to make his aedileship a success. The people were well
disposed to him, and regarded him as their most brilliant representative.
The next year (68 B.C.) is important for the historian as that in which
begins Cicero's Correspondence--a mine of information more trustworthy
than anything else in the whole range of antiquity, and of exquisite
Latinity, and in style unsurpassed and unsurpassable. The wealth that had
flowed in from various sources, such as bequests, presents from foreign
potentates or grateful clients at home, loans probably from the same
source, to which we must add his wife's considerable dowry, he proceeded
to expend in erecting a _villa_ at Tusculum. Such villas were the fairest
ornaments of Italy, "_ocelli Italiae_," as Cicero calls them, and their
splendour may be inferred from the descriptions of Varro and Pliny.
Cicero's, however, though it contained choice works of art and many rare
books, could not challenge comparison with those of great nobles such as
Catulus, Lucullus, or Crassus, but it was tastefully laid out so as to
resemble in miniature the Academy of Athens, where several of his happiest
hours had been spent, and to which in thought he often returned. Later in
life he purchased other country-seats at Antium, Asturia, Sinuessa,
Arpinum, Formiae, Cumae, Puteoli, and Pompeii; but the Tusculan was always
his favourite.
In the year 67 Cicero stood for the praetorship, the election to which was
twice put off, owing to the disturbances connected with Gabinius' motion
for giving the command of the Mediterranean to Pompey, and that of Otho
for assigning separate seats in the theatre to the knights. But the third
election ratified the results of the two previous ones, and brought in
Cicero with a large majority as _Praetor Urbanus_ over the heads of seven,
some of them very distinguished, competitors. He entered on his office 66
B.C. and signalised himself by his high conduct as a judge; but this did
not, however, prevent him from exercising his profession as an advocate,
for in this year he defended Fundanius [14] in a speech now lost, and
Cluentius [15] (who was accused of poisoning) in an extremely long and
complicated argument, one of the most difficult, but from the light it
throws on the depraved morals of the time one of the most important of all
his speeches. Another oration belonging to this year, and the first
political harangue which Cicero delivered, was that in favour of the
Manilian law, [16] which conferred on Pompey the conduct of the war
against Mithridates. The bill was highly popular; Caesar openly favoured
it, and Cicero had no difficulty in carrying the entire assembly with him.
It is a singularly happy effort of his eloquence, and contains a noble
panegyric on Pompey, the more admirable because there was no personal
motive behind it. At the expiration of his praetorian year he had the
option of a province, which was a means of acquiring wealth eagerly
coveted by the ambitious; but Cicero felt the necessity of remaining at
Rome too strongly to be tempted by such a bribe. "Out of sight, out of
mind," was nowhere so true as at Rome. If he remained away a year, who
could tell whether his chance for the Consulship might not be
irretrievably compromised?
In the following year (65 B.C.) he announced himself as a candidate for
this, the great object of his ambition, and received from his brother some
most valuable suggestions in the essay or letter known as _De Petitione
Consulatus_. This _manual_ (for so it might be called) of _electioneering
tactics_, gives a curious insight into the customs of the time, and in
union with many shrewd and pertinent remarks, contains independent
testimony to the evil characters of Antony and Catiline. But Cicero relied
more on his eloquence than on the arts of canvassing. It was at this
juncture that he defended the ex-tribune Cornelius, [17] who had been
accused of _maiestas_, with such surpassing skill as to draw forth from
Quintilian a special tribute of praise. This speech is unfortunately lost.
His speech _in the white gown_, [18] of which a few fragments are
preserved by Asconius, was delivered the following year, only a few days
before the election, to support the senatorial measure for checking
corrupt canvassing. When the _comitia_ were held, Cicero was elected by a
unanimous vote, a fact which reflects credit upon those who gave it. For
the candidate to whom they did honour had no claims of birth, or wealth,
or military glory; he had never flattered them, never bribed them; his
sole title to their favour was his splendid genius, his unsullied
character, and his defence of their rights whenever right was on their
side. The only trial at which Cicero pleaded during this year was that of
Q. Gellius, [19] in which he was successful.
The beginning of his consulship (63 B.C.) was signalised by three great
oratorical displays, viz. the speeches against the agrarian law of Rullus
[20] and the extempore speech delivered on behalf of Roscius Otho. The
populace on seeing Otho enter the theatre, rose in a body and greeted him
with hisses: a tumult ensued; Cicero was sent for; he summoned the people
into an adjoining temple, and rebuked them with such sparkling wit as to
restore completely their good humour. It is to this triumph of eloquence
that Virgil is thought to refer in the magnificent simile (_Aen._ i. 148):
"Ac veluti magno in populo cum saepe coorta est
Seditio, saevitque animis ignobile volgus;
Iamque faces et saxa volant, furor arma ministrat;
Tum pietate gravem ac meritis si forte virum quem
Aspexere silent arrectisque auribus adstant;
Ille regit dictis animos et pectora mulcet."
The next speech, which still remains to us, is a defence of the senator
Rabirius; [21] that on behalf of Calpurnius Piso is lost. [22] But the
efforts which make this year forever memorable are the four orations
against Catiline. [23] These were almost extemporaneous, and in their
trenchant vigour and terrible mastery of invective are unsurpassed except
by the second Philippic. In the very heat of the crisis, however, Cicero
found time to defend his friend Muraena [2] in a brilliant and jocose
speech, which shows the marvellous versatility of the man. That warm
Italian nature, open to every gust of feeling, over which impressions came
and went like summer clouds, could turn at a moment's notice from the
hand-to-hand grapple of a deadly duel to the lightest and most delicate
rapier practice of the fencing school.
As soon as Cicero retired from office (62 B.C.) he found enemies ready to
accuse him. Metellus the Tribune declared that he had violated the
Constitution. Cicero replied to him in a spirited speech, which he alludes
to under the name _Oratio Metellina_, but he felt himself on insecure
ground. Catiline was indeed crushed, but the ramifications of the
conspiracy extended far and wide. Autronius and Sulla were implicated in
it; the former Cicero refused to aid, the latter he defended in a speech
which is lost to us. [25] The only other speech of this year is that on
behalf of the poet Archias, [26] who had been accused of usurping the
rights of a Roman citizen. In the following year (61 B.C.) occurred the
scandal about Clodius. This profligate demagogue would have been acquitted
on an _alibi_, had it not been for Cicero's damaging evidence; he
nevertheless contrived to procure a final acquittal by the most abominable
means, but determined to wreak his vengeance by working Cicero's ruin. To
this resolution the personal taunts of the great orator no doubt
contributed. We have an account from Cicero's pen of the scenes that took
place in the senate during the trial--the invectives poured forth by
Clodius and the no less fiery retorts of his opponent. We must not imagine
our orator's talent as always finding vent in the lofty strain which we
are accustomed to associate with him. On the contrary, his attacks at
times were pitched in another key, and he would frequently exchange
sarcastic jests in a way that we should regard as incompatible with
decency, and almost with self-respect. On one occasion, for instance, he
had a skirmish of wit, which was vociferously applauded by an admiring
senate: "You have bought a house," says Clodius. (We quote from Forsyth.)
"One would think," rejoins Cicero, "that you said I had bought a jury."
"They did not believe you on your oath!" exclaims Clodius. "Yes," retorted
Cicero, "twenty-five of the jury did believe _me_, but thirty-one did not
believe _you_, for they took care to get their money beforehand!" These
and similar pleasantries, however they may have tickled the ears of the
senate, awoke in Clodius an implacable hatred, which could only be
satisfied with Cicero's fall; and the better to strike at him he made an
attempt (unsuccessful at first, but carried out somewhat later) to be made
a plebeian and elected tribune of the people (60 B.C.).
Meanwhile Cicero had returned to his profession, and defended Scipio
Nasica; [27] he had also composed a history of his consulship in Greek, on
which (to use his own expression) he had emptied all the scent-boxes of
Isocrates, and touched it lightly with the brush of Aristotle; moreover,
he collected into one volume the speeches he had delivered as consul under
the title of _Consular Orations_. [28] At this time the coalition known as
the First Triumvirate was formed, and Cicero, disgusted at its
unscrupulous conduct, left Rome for his Tusculan villa, where he meditated
writing a work on universal geography. Soon, however, impatient of
retirement, he returned to Rome, defended A. Themius [29] twice, and both
times successfully, and afterwards, aided by Hortensius (with whose party
he had now allied himself), L. Valerius Flaccus (59 B.C.). [30]
But Clodius's vengeance was by this time imminent, and Pompey's assurances
did not quiet Cicero's mind. He retired for some months to his Antian
villa, and announced his intention of publishing a collection of anecdotes
of contemporary statesmen, in the style of Theopompus, which would be, if
we possessed it, an extremely valuable work. On his return to Rome (58
B.C.) he found the feeling strongly against him, and a bill of Clodius's
was passed, interdicting him from fire and water, confiscating his
property, and outlawing his person. The pusillanimity he shows in his
exile exceeds even the measure of what we could have believed. It must be
remembered that the love of country was a passion with the ancients, to a
degree now difficult to realise; and exile from it, even for a time, was
felt to be an intolerable evil. But Cicero's exile did not last long; in
August of the following year (57 B.C.) he was recalled with no dissentient
voice but that of Clodius, and at once hastened to Rome, where he
addressed the senate and people in terms of extravagant compliment. These
are the line speeches "on his return," [31] in the first of which he
thanks the senate, and in the second the people; in the third he addresses
the pontiffs, trying to persuade them that he has a right to reclaim the
site of his house, [32] in the fourth [33] which was delivered early the
next year, he rings the changes on the same subject.
The next year (56 B.C.) is signalised by several important speeches.
Whatever we may think of his political conduct during this trying period,
his professional activity was most remarkable. He defended L. Bestia [34]
(who was accused of electoral corruption when candidate for the
praetorship) but unsuccessfully; and also P. Sextius, [35] on a charge of
bribery and illegal violence, in which he was supported by Hortensius.
Soon after we find him in the country in correspondence with Lucceius, on
the subject of the history of his consulship; but he soon returned to Rome
and before the year ended delivered his fine speech on the consular
provinces, [36] in which he opposed the curtailment of Caesar's command in
Gaul; and also that on behalf of Coelius, [37] a lively and elegant
oration which has been quoted to prove that Cicero was indifferent to
purity of morals, because he palliates as an advocate and a friend the
youthful indiscretions of his client.
In 55 B.C. he pleaded the cause of Caninius Gallus, [38] in a successful
speech now lost, and attacked the ex-consul Piso [39] (who had long roused
his resentment) in terms of the most unmeasured and unworthy invective.
Towards the close of the year he completed his great treatise, _De
Oratore_, the most finished and faultless of all his compositions; and so
active was his mind at this epoch, that he offered to write a treatise on
Britain, if Quintus, who had been there with Caesar, would furnish him
with the materials. His own poems, _de Consulatu_ and _de Temporibus suis_
had been completed before this, and, as we learn from the letters, were
highly approved by Caesar. Next year (54 B.C.) he defended Plancius [40]
and Scaurus, [41] the former of which orations is still extant; and later
on, Rabirius Postumus, [42] who was accused, probably with justice, of
extortion. This year had witnessed another change in Cicero's policy; he
had transferred his allegiance from Pompey to Caesar. In 52 B.C. occurred
the celebrated trial of Milo for the murder of Clodius, in which Cicero,
who appeared for the defendant, was hampered by the presence of Pompey's
armed retainers, and made but a poor speech; the magnificent and
exhaustive oratorical display that we possess [43] having been written
after Milo's condemnation and sent to him in his exile at Marseilles,
where he received it with sarcastic praise. At the close of this year
Cicero was appointed to the government of the province of Cilicia, where
he conducted himself with an integrity and moderation little known to
Roman pro-consuls, and returned in 50 B.C. scarcely richer than he had set
out.
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