stances, in the 14th Epistle of this Selection, all Italy poured forth its inhabitants, to hail and congratulate him, on his road to Rome. If we except an appointment by the senate, by which, a few years after, he was made Proconsul of Cilicia, an office which he executed with equal zeal and disinterestedness, Cicero occupied no important post during the remainder of his life, but continued his exertions at the bar and in the Senate. The Roman Republic had long been tottering to its ruin, through the unprincipled conduct and selfish ambition of its leading men; and individuals like Cicero, upright, and attached to freedom, were unable to stem the growing usurpations on the Constitution. Except occasional pleading, he henceforward devoted himself principally to the composition of those treatises which will immortalise his fame as an author. After the death of Cæsar, during whose tyranny he had carefully kept himself aloof from affairs of state, he exerted himself, with all his former zeal, in rousing his countrymen to throw off the yoke of despotism; and it was during this interval that the splendid speeches against Antony were pronounced, called the Philippics. But, owing to the want of zeal and union in many of his military co-adjutors, Rome fell again into slavery, under the triumvirate of Augustus, Antony and Lepidus. In the Proscription, which was one of the plans to cement the union of this trio, Antony, against whom Cicero had directed his utmost exertions of eloquence, marked him out the first for slaughter. He was pursued, while attempting a flight to the Italian coast, by the soldiers of the triumvir; and murdered, at Astura, in the 64th year of his age, and 44 B. C. Of the numerous works which Cicero wrote, several, some even say nine-tenths, have perished. Those which remain, are divided into three classes, Philosophical, Oratorical, and Epistolary. A great part of his Epistles are addressed to Atticus, a Roman Knight, his dearest and most esteemed friend. It is from these letters, principally, that after-ages have drawn a character of their writer; which has been pronounced (bating a certain degree of vanity, seldom found wanting even in men of supereminent talent) to be that of the most upright man, the most patriotic citizen, and the most eloquent writer of ancient Rome. EPISTOLÆ CICERONIS SELECTÆ. I. (ATT. I. 6.) Scr. Roma, A. U. C. 685. Cicero promises and requests greater punctuality in the correspondence between himself and Atticus. Mentions Fonteius's purchase of the house of Rabirius: - his brother Quintus's reconciliation with his wife, (Atticus's sister):—his father's recent death. Requests Atticus to procure ornaments for his Tusculan villa:—and informs him of his occupation and intentions. CICERO ATTICO, S. NON committam posthac, ut me accusare de epistolarum negligentiâ possis. Tu modo videto, in tanto otio ut mihi par sis. Domum Rabirianam' Neapoli, quam tu jam dimensam et exædificatam animo habebas, M. Fonteius emit H. s. cccɔɔɔ xxx2: id te scire volui, si quid forte ea res ad cogitationes tuas pertineret. Q. Frater, ut mihi videtur, quo volumus animo est in Pomponiam3, et cum eâ nunc in Arpinatibus præ 4 N. B. When proper names of persons or places occur unexplained, the pupil must invariably refer for them to his Lempriere. A house which had belonged to Rabirius; a noble man whom Cicero afterwards defended in an action at law. 2 One hundred and thirty thousand sesterces. In the Roman notation of numbers, I, is 1; v, 5; x, 10; L, 50; c, 100; 15, 500; cro, 1000; 155, 5000; ciɔɔ, 10,000. The D for 10 is a contraction, as is the м for ciɔ. The sesterce (the fourth of a denarius, or 7 d.) is 1 penny 3 farthings diis erat, et secum habebat hominem xpnotoμaðñ3, D. Turranium. Pater nobis decessit a. d. VIII. Kal. Decembr." Hæc habebam fere, quæ te scire vellem. Tu, velim, si qua ornamenta yuuvariádn reperire poteris, quæ loci sint ejus, quem tu non ignoras, ne prætermittas. Nos Tusculano ita delectamur, ut nobismetipsis tum denique, quum illò venimus, placeamus. Quid agas omnibus de rebus, et quid acturus sis, fac nos quam diligentissime certiores. The use of imperfects, as here, erat and habebat, where in English the present tenses would be used, must be noticed. • From χρηστὸς and μανθάνω : "excellently learned." 6 Refer to, and learn thoroughly, the account Adams gives of the Roman year. The following couplet should be recollected : Sex, Maius, Nonas, October, Julius, et Quatuor, at, reliqui; dant Idus qui. 7 Ornaments suited to a gymnasium, which here signifies a large saloon or portico in a villa, fitted up with works of art. Atticus was now at Athens, and able to procure for his friend articles of this sort. II. 8 The Tusculan Villa of Cicero, near Tusculum. See Lempriere. (ATT. I. 9.) Scr. Roma, A.U. C. 686. Cicero complains how seldom he hears from his friend :requests him to forward sculptures for his villa :-recommends a request of their common friend, Chilius, who was writing a poem, and wished for an account of the ceremonies of the Eumolpida. CICERO ATTICO, S. NIMIUM raro nobis abs te literæ afferuntur: quum et multo tu facilius reperias, qui Romam proficiscantur, quam ego, qui Athenas; et certius tibi sit, me esse Romæ, quam mihi, te Athenis. Itaque propter hanc dubitationem meam brevior hæc ipsa epistola est; quod, cum incertus essem, ubi esses, nolebam illum nostrum familiarem sermonem in alienas manus devenire. Signa Megarica1, et Hermas2, de quibus ad me scripsisti, vehementer expecto. Quidquid ejusdem generis habebis, dignum Academiâ3 tibi quod videbitur, ne du bitaris mittere, et arcæ nostræ confidito. Genus hoc est voluptatis meæ ; quæ yuuvaoládŋ maxime sunt, ea quæro. Lentulus naves suas pollicetur. Peto abs te ut hæc cures diligenter. Chilius πατρια. 5 te rogat, et ego ejus rogatu, Euμormidov 1 Statues &c. made of marble of Megara, which the Greeks, from the resemblance it bore to shell-work, called λίθος κογχίτης. This Megara was in Attica. 2 Herma were sculptured heads of the god Mercury, on square pedestals of marble or other material, and placed in the fronts of houses, or at the corners of streets and ways. This, in the preceding letter, is called Gymnasium. 4 Money-chest, opposed to the sacculus, of the poor, in Juvenal ii. 26. It also signifies ready-money, and 'solvere III. ex arcá' is opposed to 'solvere ex mensá,' i.e. argentariorum, or bankers. 5 It is not known exactly who this Lentulus was. He was not a senator; for senators, by the Claudian law, could not possess a ship of large size, or engage in mercantile affairs. A poet, then an inmate in Cicero's house; and most likely engaged in writing a work on the Eleusinian mysteries, or on Eumolpus the founder of them-rárga, the ancestral rites and customs. (ATT. I. 4.) Scr. in Tusculano, A.U. C. 687. Cicero reminds Atticus of his promise to come to Rome in July: -mentions the condemnation of his client, C. Mucer:-reminds his friend to take care to secure certain articles of vertù and books. CICERO ATTICO, S. CREBRAS exspectationes nobis tui commoves. Nuper quidem, quum jam te adventare arbitraremur, repente abs te in mensem Quintilem' rejecti sumus. Nunc vero 1 Afterwards called Julius, July, by order of Julius Cæsar. It had been called Quintilis, from its being the fifth month in the calendar of Romulus. See Adams. B 2 |