The Letters of Cicero Part 29

I am very well aware that you long to know what is going on here, and also to know it from me, not because things done before the eyes of the whole world are better realized when narrated by my hand than when reported to you by the pens or lips of others, but because it is from my letters that you get what you want--a knowledge of _my_ feelings in regard to the occurrences, and what at such a juncture is the state of my mind, or, in a word, the conditions in which I am living. On the 3rd of November the workmen were driven from the site of my house by armed ruffians: the _porticus Catuli_,[400] which was being rebuilt on a contract given out by the consuls, in accordance with a decree of the senate, and had nearly reached the roof, was battered down: the house of my brother Quintus[401] was first smashed with volleys of stones thrown from my site, and then set on fire by order of Clodius, firebrands having been thrown into it in the sight of the whole town, amidst loud exclamations of indignation and sorrow, I will not say of the loyalists--for I rather think there _are_ none--but of simply every human being. That madman runs riot: thinks after this mad prank of nothing short of murdering his opponents: canva.s.ses the city street by street: makes open offers of freedom to slaves. For the fact is that up to this time, while trying to avoid prosecution,[402] he had a case, difficult indeed to support, and obviously bad, but still a case: he might have denied the facts, he might have s.h.i.+fted the blame on others, he might even have pleaded that some part of his proceedings had been legal. But after such wrecking of buildings, incendiaries, and wholesale robberies as these, being abandoned by his supporters, he hardly retains on his side Decimus the marshal,[403] or Gellius; takes slaves into his confidence; sees that, even if he openly a.s.sa.s.sinates everyone he wishes to, he will not have a worse case before a court of law than he has at present. Accordingly, on the 11th of November, as I was going down the Sacred Way, he followed me with his gang. There were shouts, stone-throwing, brandis.h.i.+ng of clubs and swords, and all this without a moment's warning. I and my party stepped aside into Tettius Damio's vestibule: those accompanying me easily prevented his roughs from getting in. He might have been killed himself.[404] But I am now on a system of cure by regimen: I am tired of surgery. The fellow, seeing that what everybody called for was not his prosecution but his instant execution, has since made all your Catilines seem models of respectability.[405] For on the 12th of November he tried to storm and set fire to Milo's house, I mean the one on Germalus:[406] and so openly was this done, that at eleven o'clock in the morning he brought men there armed with s.h.i.+elds and with their swords drawn, and others with lighted torches. He had himself occupied the house of P. Sulla[407] as his headquarters from which to conduct the a.s.sault upon Milo's.

Thereupon Q. Flaccus led out some gallant fellows from Milo's other house (the _Anniana_): killed the most notorious bravoes of all Clodius's gang: wanted to kill Clodius himself; but my gentleman took refuge in the inner part of Sulla's house. The next thing was a meeting of the senate on the 14th. Clodius stayed at home: Marcellinus[408] was splendid: all were keen. Metellus[409] talked the business out by an obstructive speech, aided by Appius, and also, by Hercules! by your friend on whose firmness you wrote me such a wonderfully true letter!

Sestius[410] was fuming. Afterwards the fellow vows vengeance on the city if his election is stopped. Marcellinus's resolution having been exposed for public perusal (he had read it from a written copy, and it embraced our entire case--the prosecution was to include his violent proceedings on the site of my house, his arson, his a.s.sault on me personally, and was to take place before the elections), he put up a notice that he intended to watch the sky during all comitial days.[411]

Public speeches of Metellus disorderly, of Appius hot-headed, of Publius stark mad. The upshot, however, was that, had not Milo served his notice of bad omens in the _campus_, the elections would have been held. On the 19th of November Milo arrived on the _campus_ before midnight with a large company. Clodius, though he had picked gangs of runaway slaves, did not venture into the _campus_. Milo stopped there till midday,[412] to everybody's great delight and his own infinite credit: the movement of the three brethren[413] ended in their own disgrace; their violence was crushed, their madness made ridiculous.

However, Metellus demands that the obstructive notice should be served on him next day in the forum: "there was no need to come to the _campus_ before daybreak: he would be in the _comitium_ at the first hour of the day."[414] Accordingly, on the 20th Milo came to the forum before sunrise. Metellus at the first sign of dawn was stealthily hurrying to the _campus_, I had almost said by by-lanes: Milo catches our friend up "between the groves"[415] and serves his notice. The latter returned greeted with loud and insulting remarks by Q. Flaccus. The 21st was a market day.[416] For two days no public meeting. I am writing this letter on the 23rd at three o'clock in the morning. Milo is already in possession of the _campus_. The candidate Marcellus[417] is snoring so loud that I can hear him next door. I am told that Clodius's vestibule is completely deserted: there are a few ragged fellows there and a canvas lantern.[418] His party complains that I am the adviser of the whole business: they little know the courage and wisdom of that hero!

His gallantry is astonis.h.i.+ng. Some recent instances of his superhuman excellence I pa.s.s over; but the upshot is this: I don't think the election will take place. I think Publius will be brought to trial by Milo--unless he is killed first. If he once puts himself in his way in a riot, I can see that he will be killed by Milo himself. The latter has no scruple about doing it; he avows his intention; he isn't at all afraid of what happened to me, for _he_ will never listen to the advice of a jealous and faithless friend, nor trust a feeble aristocrat. In spirit, at any rate, I am as vigorous as in my zenith, or even more so; in regard to money I am crippled. However, the liberality of my brother I have, in spite of his protests, repaid (as the state of my finances compelled) by the aid of my friends, that I might not be drained quite dry myself. What line of policy to adopt in regard to my position as a whole, I cannot decide in your absence: wherefore make haste to town.

[Footnote 400: See last letter. The _porticus Catuli_ had been, at any rate, partly demolished by Clodius to make way for his larger scheme of building, which was to take in part of Cicero's "site." See _pro Cael._ --79.]

[Footnote 401: Next door to Cicero's own house.]

[Footnote 402: He would avoid prosecution _de vi_ by getting elected to the aediles.h.i.+p for B.C. 56, for actual magistrates were rarely prosecuted; but he, in this case, actually avoided it by getting a consul and tribune to forbid it by edict (_pro Sest._ -- 89).]

[Footnote 403: _Designatorem._ This may mean (1) an official who shewed people to their places in the theatre; (2) an undertaker's man, who marshalled funerals. To the latter office a certain _infamia_ was attached. We know nothing more of Decimus (see _pro Domo_, -- 50).

Gellius was an eques and a stepson of L. Marcius Philippus. He afterwards gave evidence against Sestius for _vis_ (see _pro Sest._ -- 110). Cicero calls him the mover of all seditions (_in Vatin._ -- 4), and one of Clodius's gang (_de Har. Resp._ -- 59). See next letter.]

[Footnote 404: Perhaps by M. Antonius. See 2 _Phil._ -- 21; _pro Mil._ -- 40.]

[Footnote 405: Lit. "made all Catilines _Acidini_." Acidinus was the cognomen of several distinguished men. In _Leg. Agr._ ii. -- 64, Cicero cla.s.ses the _Acidini_ among men "respectable not only for the public offices they had held, and for their services to the state, but also for the n.o.ble way in which they had endured poverty." There does not, however, seem any very good reason known for their becoming proverbial as the ant.i.thesis to revolutionaries.]

[Footnote 406: A slope of the Palatine. Milo's other house (p. 196).]

[Footnote 407: P. Cornelius Sulla, nephew of the dictator. Cicero defended him in B.C. 62, but he had taken the part of Clodius in the time of Cicero's exile.]

[Footnote 408: Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, the consul-designate for the next year. In that capacity he would be called on for his _sententia_ first.]

[Footnote 409: Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos, the consul. Though he had not opposed Cicero's recall, he stood by his cousin, P. Clodius, in regard to the threatened prosecution. Appius is Appius Claudius, brother of P.

Clodius.]

[Footnote 410: P. Sestius, the tribune favourable to Cicero, afterwards defended by him.]

[Footnote 411: Mr. Purser's reading of _nisi anteferret_ before _proscripsit_ seems to me to darken the pa.s.sage. What happened was this.

Marcellinus's _sententia_ was never put to the vote, because Metellus, Appius, and Hortensius (Cicero seems to mean him) talked out the sitting. Accordingly, Marcellinus published it, _i.e._, put it up outside the Curia to be read: and under it he (or some other magistrate whose name has dropped out of the text) put a notice that he was going to "watch the sky" all the _dies comitiales_, so as to prevent the election being held. But this had been rendered inoperative by Clodius's amendment of the _lex aelia Fufia_ (see 2 _Phil._ -- 81)--or at any rate of doubtful validity--and, accordingly, the only thing left was the _obnuntiatio_ by a magistrate, which Milo proceeded to make. The rule, however was that such _obnuntiatio_ must be made before the _comitia_ were begun (2 _Phil. ib._), which again could not begin till sunrise.

Hence Milo's early visit to the _campus_. For the meaning of _proposita_ see Letter XLVII.]

[Footnote 412: After which the _comitia_ could not be begun.]

[Footnote 413: P. Clodius, his brother Appius, and his _cousin_ Metellus Nepos.]

[Footnote 414: Metellus means that he shall take the necessary auspices for the _comitia_ in the _comitium_, before going to the _campus_ to take the votes.]

[Footnote 415: Generally called _inter duos lucos_, the road down the Capitolium towards the Campus Martius, originally so called as being between the two heads of the mountain. It was the spot traditionally a.s.signed to the "asylum" of Romulus.]

[Footnote 416: On the _nundinae_ and the next day no _comitia_ and no meeting of the senate could be held.]

[Footnote 417: Candidate for the aediles.h.i.+p, of whom we know nothing.]

[Footnote 418: Apparently a poor lantern, whose sides were made of canvas instead of horn.]

XCII (Q FR II, 1)

TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN SARDINIA[419])

ROME (10 DECEMBER)

[Sidenote: B.C. 57, aeT. 49]

The letter which you have already read I had sent off in the morning.

But Licinius was polite enough to call on me in the evening after the senate had risen, that, in case of any business having been done there, I might, if I thought good, write an account of it to you. The senate was fuller than I had thought possible in the month of December just before the holidays. Of us consulars there were P. Servilius, M.

Lucullus, Lepidus, Volcatius, Glabrio: the two consuls-designate; the praetors. We were a really full house: two hundred in all.[420] Lupus had excited some interest.[421] He raised the question of the Campanian land in considerable detail. He was listened to in profound silence. You are not unaware what material that subject affords. He omitted none of the points which I had made in this business.[422] There were some sharp thrusts at Caesar, some denunciations of Gellius, some appeals to the absent Pompey. After concluding his speech at a late hour, he said that he would not ask for our votes lest he might burden us with a personal controversy; he quite understood the sentiments of the senate from the denunciations of past times and the silence on the present occasion.

Milo spoke. Lupus begins the formula of dismissal,[423] when Marcellinus says: "Don't infer from our silence, Lupus, what we approve or disapprove of at this particular time. As far as I am concerned, and I think it is the same with the rest, I am only silent because I do not think it suitable that the case of the Campanian land should be debated in Pompey's absence." Then Lupus said that he would not detain the senate.[423] Racilius rose and began bringing before the house the case of the proposed prosecutions. He calls upon Marcellinus, of course, first;[424] who, after complaining in serious tones of the Clodian incendiaries, ma.s.sacres, and stonings, proposed a resolution that "Clodius himself should, under the superintendence of the praetor urba.n.u.s, have his jury allotted to him; that the elections should be held only when the allotment of jurors[425] had been completed; that whoever stopped the trials would be acting against the interests of the state."[426] The proposal having been received with warm approval, Gaius Cato[427]--as did also Ca.s.sius--spoke against it, with very emphatic murmurs of disapprobation on the part of the senate, when he proposed to hold the elections before the trials. Philippus supported Lentulus.[428]

After that Racilius called on me first of the unofficial senators for my opinion.[429] I made a long speech upon the whole story of P. Clodius's mad proceedings and murderous violence: I impeached him as though he were on his trial, amidst frequent murmurs of approbation from the whole senate. My speech was praised at considerable length, and, by Hercules!

with no little oratorical skill by Antistius Vetus, who also supported the priority of the legal proceedings, and declared that he should consider it of the first importance. The senators were crossing the floor in support of this view,[430] when Clodius, being called on, began trying to talk out the sitting. He spoke in furious terms of having been attacked by Racilius in an unreasonable and discourteous manner. Then his roughs on the Graecostasis[431] and the steps of the house suddenly raised a pretty loud shout, in wrath, I suppose, against Q. s.e.xtilius and the other friends of Milo. At this sudden alarm we broke up with loud expressions of indignation on all sides. Here are the transactions of one day for you: the rest, I think, will be put off to January. Of all the tribunes I think Racilius is by far the best: Antistius also seems likely to be friendly to me: Plancius, of course, is wholly ours.

Pray, if you love me, be careful and cautious about sailing in December.

[Footnote 419: Quintus Cicero was in Sardinia as Pompey's _legatus_ as superintendent of the corn-supply, to which office he had been appointed in August. The letter is written not earlier than the 10th of December, for the new tribunes for B.C. 56 have come into office, and not later than the 16th, because on the 17th the Saturnalia began. Perhaps as the senate is summoned and presided over by Lupus, it is on the 10th, the day of his entrance upon office.]

[Footnote 420: "Full," that is, for the time of year. A "full house" is elsewhere mentioned as between three and four hundred.]

[Footnote 421: P. Rutilius Lupus, one of the new tribunes.]

[Footnote 422: This refers to Cicero's attempts to exempt the _ager publicus_ in Campania from being divided (see Letter XXIV, p. 55); and not only to his speeches against Rullus. It was because Caesar disregarded the ancient exception of this land from such distribution that Cicero opposed his bill, and refused to serve on the commission.]

[Footnote 423: _Nihil vos moramur_ were the words used by the presiding magistrate, indicating that he had no more business to bring before the senate. If no one said anything, the senate was dismissed; but any magistrate, or magistrate-designate, could speak, and so continue the sitting up to nightfall, when the house stood adjourned.]

[Footnote 424: Because consul-designate. L. Racilius, one of the new tribunes.]

[Footnote 425: The _sort.i.tio iudic.u.m_ was performed by the praetor drawing out the required number of names from the urn, which contained the names of all liable to serve. The accused could, however, challenge a certain number, and the praetor had then to draw others.]

[Footnote 426: The formula whereby the senate declared its opinion that so and so was guilty of treason. It had no legal force, but the magistrates might, and sometimes did, act on it.]

[Footnote 427: C. Porcius Cato, distant relation of Cato Uticensis, one of the new tribunes.]

[Footnote 428: _I.e._, Marcellinus (Cn. Cornelius Lentulus).]

[Footnote 429: The senators not in office only spoke when called on (_rogati_). The consuls-designate (if there were any) were always called first, and then the consulars in order. To be called _first_ was a subject of ambition, and an opportunity for the presiding magistrate to pay a compliment or the reverse.]

[Footnote 430: They went and sat or stood near the speaker they wished to support. It was not, however, a formal division till the speeches ended, and the presiding magistrate counted. Still, it made the division easier.]

[Footnote 431: A platform outside the senate-house, where representatives originally of Greek and then of other states were placed. It was apparently possible to hear, or partly hear, the debates from it. It was a _locus substructus_ (Varro, _L. L._ v. 155). There is no evidence that it was a building to lodge amba.s.sadors in, as Prof.

Tyrrell says.]

XCIII (F VII, 26)