Therefore, true friendships are very hard to find among those whose time is spent in office or in business of a public kind. There are two other sorts of letter which I like very much, one intimate and humorous, the other serious and profound. And the whole of your charge amounts to this, that I do not express a bad opinion of you in those letters; that in them I wrote as to a citizen, and as to a virtuous man, not as to a wicked man and a robber. Cicero explained that you will "hear my views on old age from Cato's lips." "In the interests of government stability, Cicero had supported the election of a not very honest client, and had won." He appeals for unanimity in the fight for freedom. I am disgusted with myself and find writing about it extremely painful. For whoever, who was even but slightly acquainted with the habits of polite men, produced in an assembly and openly read letters which had been sent to him by a friend, just because some quarrel had arisen between them? He argued that if someone as obviously guilty as Verres were let off, the people would judge the exclusively senatorial juries (prescribed by a law of Sulla's) to be unfit to try cases. The head of Pompey was sent to Caesar to prove he was not being protected by the Egyptians. Yes, I did so, but without cancelling another rule which I had also, long ago, laid down for myself: my obligation to protect Roman citizens from danger. But, however, all this has nothing to do with the present occasion." For there is no doubt at all that nature has granted dominion to everything that is best - to the manifest advantage of the weak. This care rouses mens minds and makes them more efficient in action. I long to fight and have a lot of enthusiastic supporters. The trial became sensational when Cicero exposed the unscrupulous profiteering of Chrysogonus, who was behind the prosecution. As a result, Caesar divorced his wife on the grounds that "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion." As a candidate, too, he neither gave way before threats, nor threatened anyone himself." (66)Later Plutarch attempted to explain why some men found her attractive: "Her actual beauty, it is said, was not in itself remarkable but the attraction of her person, joining with the charm of her conversation was something bewitching. He argued that "sexual intercourse has never done a man good and he is lucky if it has not harmed him." According to Cassius Dio Antony's wife Fulvia took Cicero's head, pulled out his tongue, and jabbed it repeatedly with her hairpin in final revenge against Cicero's power of speech. Offences are not all equally serious: they differ in gravity, and deserve different punishments. Moreover, hypocrisy is not only wicked under all circumstances, because it pollutes truth and takes away the power to discern it, but it is also especially inimical to friendship, since it utterly destroys sincerity, without which the word friendship can have no meaning. Such desires as those for wealth and honour are futile, because they make a man restless when he might be contented. He particularly liked Socrates who "was the first to call philosophy down from the heavens and set her in the cities of men. and compel her to ask questions about life and morality and things good and evil." It was a pleasure merely to hear the sound of her voice, with which, like an instrument of many strings, she could pass from one language to another, so that there were few of the nations that she needed an interpreter which was all the more surprising because most of her predecessors, scarcely gave themselves the trouble to acquire the Egyptian tongue." Young men are more liable to illnesses; they are more severely attacked by disease; they are cured with more difficulty. One who is always occupied in these studies and labors is unaware when age creeps upon him. (49), Spurius Mummius, a poet and a conservative, argues: "Personally I prefer even monarchy to unmitigated democracy, which is the worst of all forms of government. For how much more rapidly does old age steal upon youth than youth upon childhood? I know this type of argument very well. Let this be a proof of your utter ignorance of courtesy." (13)In 70 BC Cicero decided to bring a charge of extortion against Gaius Verres, the former governor of Sicily. So did the respectable way in which he had spent his youth, and his eminent service as a military officer. (56)Cicero was reluctant to take sides and favoured a negotiated peace in order to prevent a civil war. However, as he told Atticus: "Our friend Pompey's proceedings have throughout been destitute alike of wisdom and of courage, and I may add, contrary throughout to my advice and influence. (67)Assassination of Julius CaesarWhen Caesar returned to Rome he appointed 300 of his supporters as members of the Senate. Cicero was caught on 7th December 43 BC, on his way to take a ship destined for Macedonia. (53)In Rome there was constant fighting between the optimates (conservatives) and the popularists (reformers). Cicero was therefore known as a novus homo (new man), the first man of a family to reach the senate. (41), In exile, Cicero increased his letter writing. Cicero disliked her for moral reasons: "Her (Cleopatra) way of walking her clothes, her free way of talking, her embraces and kisses, her beach-parties and dinner-parties, all show her to be a tart." Having identical interests means that we are all subject to one and the same law of nature: and, that being so, the very least that such a law enjoins is that we must not wrong one another. Am I to send you letters full of jokes? That I have never at any time been wanting to the claims that either the republic or my friends had upon me; but nevertheless that in all the different sorts of composition on which I have employed myself, during my leisure hours, I have always endeavoured to make my labours and my writings such as to be some advantage to our youth, and some credit to the Roman name. (46)Cicero was offered an accepted the post as governor of Cilicia on the south-east coast of Asia Minor (the province also included Cyprus). Our own people have gained dominion over the entire world. Why then should I fear if after death I shall be either not miserable, or even happy?" For that is the same as denying their common interest with their fellow-countrymen, and all the legal or social obligations that follow therefore: a denial which shatters the whole fabric of national life. The two Roman forces met in battle on the plain of Pharsalus in central Greece. How many jests are frequently put in letters, which, if they were produced in public, would appear stupid! For where can you find a man so high-minded as to prefer his friend's advancement to his own? 45 BC. Our imperial authority, the status of our allies, the reputation of the treaties that we made with them - you have demolished them all." Hence such alliances of wicked men not only should not be protected by a plea of friendship, but rather they should be visited with summary punishment of the severest kind, so that no one may think it permissible to follow even a friend when waging war against his country." But if any shall be found who think it base to prefer money to friendship, where shall we find those who do not put office, civil and military rank, high place and power, above friendship, so that when the former advantages are placed before them on one side and the latter on the other they will not much prefer the former? I never heard of an old man's forgetting where he had buried his money. This authority was, at first, entrusted to men who were outstanding for their integrity and wisdom - and that was conspicuously the case of the early monarchy in our own country. (47)Cicero: On the StateIn 54 BC Cicero began work on a detailed study of government, On the State. which manifestly ought to be regarded with indifference if it really puts an end to the soul, or to be even desired if at length it leads the soul where it will be immortal; and certainly there is no third possibility that can be imagined. It must, therefore, be enjoined upon good men that if by any chance they should inadvisedly fall into friendships of this kind, they must not think themselves so bound that they cannot withdraw from friends who are sinning in some important matter of public concern; for wicked men, on the other hand, a penalty must be enacted, and assuredly it will not be lighter for the followers than for the leaders in treason. But it would be impossible to have the benefits which the tribune was designed to provide, without accepting that flaw as well. "Now I will admit, Cato, that I too, when I was young, feeling diffident about my own intellectual resources, sought the assistance of philosophy. With this success his family entered the ranks of the nobility (a noble was a direct descendant of a consul through the male line). On 23 June 47 BC Cleopatra gave birth to a child, Ptolemy Caesar (nicknamed "Caesarion"). (65)Cleopatra, Ptolemy XIV and Caesarion visited Rome in summer 46 BC. Indeed the result was a certain compassion and a kind of feeling that this huge beast has a fellowship with the human race. I never heard of an old man's forgetting where he had buried his money. Life's race-course is fixed; Nature has only a single path and that path is run but once, and to each stage of existence has been allotted its own appropriate quality; so that the weakness of childhood, the impetuosity of youth, the seriousness of middle life, the maturity of old age - each bears some of Nature's fruit, which must be garnered in its own season." And the citizens, too, must be made fully aware of the extent of their obligation to obey the functionaries in question. This may be because the degree of distinction which I feel I have already attained in my career makes me not so much ambitious to add to it as fearful of impairing it. Bibulus vetoed the bill. Cicero is assassinated by his political enemies in (8)In about 80 BC Cicero married Terentia, who was around 18 years old at the time. His ideas on the subject was influenced by the work of the Greek philosopher, Epicurus (341 BC - 270 BC). Caesar also stated in his will that his impressive gardens were to become parks for the people who lived in the city. (4)After his attacks on members of the ruling elite he decided it would be politically expedient to live abroad. (20)Catiline ConspiracyCicero was a candidate for the consulship for the year 63 BC. (44), In 57 BC Cicero began to have talks with Pompey. 'Yes,' you object, 'but the tribunes sometimes stir up excitement among the people.' On 21st February, 49 BC, he forced the surrender of a senatorial army in Corfinium. Thus few reach old age. He had solved nothing; his measures were no more than a palliative. I say nothing of ancient history - his building up and aggrandising and arming against the state, his backing the violent and unconstitutional passage of laws." In 59 BC, Caesar sanctioned Clodius's adoption into a plebeian family (he was of patrician birth), therefore "enabling him to stand for election to the tribunate of the plebs, the office traditionally sought by popular politicians who wished to propose radical legislation or, in conservative eyes, to stir up trouble". Certainly, if I admitted that bribery had taken place, and argued that this could be justified, I should be acting disreputably, even if it had not been I myself who proposed the bribery law. He had several reasons for accepting this difficult case. And again, how much less burdensome would old age be to them if they were in their eight hundredth rather than in their eightieth year? On Antony's instructions his hands, which had penned the articles he had written against him, were cut off as well; these were nailed along with his head on the Rostra in the Forum Romanum. (103), Cicero has pointed out that Mark Antony's speech in the Senate was full of contradictions: "But you are so senseless that throughout the whole of your speech you were at variance with yourself; so that you said things which had not only no coherence with each other, but which were most inconsistent with and contradictory to one another; so that there was not so much opposition between you and me as there was between you and yourself. Man, on the other hand - because he is possessed of reason, by which he discerns consequences, sees the causes of things, understands the rise and progress of events, compares similar objects, and connects and associates the future with the present - easily takes into view the whole course of life, and provides things necessary for it. He went into temporary retirement and when he did return it was as Cicero's partner, not his opponent." Pompey retreated to his camp, leaving the rest of his troops to their own devices. "Now I will admit, Cato, that I too, when I was young, feeling diffident about my own intellectual resources, sought the assistance of philosophy. And the citizens, too, must be made fully aware of the extent of their obligation to obey the functionaries in question. Epicurus lived on bread and cheese. (34), Caesar, a very successful general, was a growing political force in Ancient Rome. And the whole of your charge amounts to this, that I do not express a bad opinion of you in those letters; that in them I wrote as to a citizen, and as to a virtuous man, not as to a wicked man and a robber. The third class of cases is when what appears to be expedient seems repugnant to the right. (66), Later Plutarch attempted to explain why some men found her attractive: "Her actual beauty, it is said, was not in itself remarkable but the attraction of her person, joining with the charm of her conversation was something bewitching. But an aristocratic, oligarchic government is better than monarchy, because a king is a single individual, where a state will derive the most benefit if it comes under the rule of a number of good men, and not just one." And what my teachers told us - Plato's and Aristotle's followers, moderate and reasonable men - is that it is sometimes possible to make philosophers change their minds. Since the powerless do not want to be my friends, I must make sure that the powerful are! When Caesar arrived in Alexandria two days later, Ptolemy presented him with Pompey's severed head. (15), However, he feared that the jury would judge him not on his corruption but on his fine military record: "The argument I shall have to resist is this. For if wisdom is the dominant quality of the government, whether that wisdom is the possession of one man only, or of more than one, seems to me to make no difference one way or the other." He adds that "death is to be despised! Created by. Yet amid all this oppression there is more free speech than ever, at any rate at social gatherings and parties. As Michael Grant has pointed out: "Since nine-tenths of these letters were not intended for publication, they give an astonishingly frank and authentic picture of their writer's character: he was not only an indefatigable correspondent, but uniquely articulate about himself His talent for self-revelation means that we know more about him than about any other ancient personage, and almost more than about any other historical or literary figure of any date whatsoever. Men are more severely attacked by disease ; they are more liable to illnesses ; they are more severely by! 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