First Oration of Cicero Against Catiline with Notices, Notes and Complete Vocabulary

It has been the aim of the Editor to explain what seemed to him difficulties in the text. There are many points which might have been noted, but which a judicious teacher will supply in the ordinary class work.

References are made to the standard grammars of Zumpt, Madvig, Harkness, Allen and Greenough.

LIFE OF CICERO.

I.

[Sidenotes: Birth. --Removes to Rome, 92 B.C. --Early teachers. --Early works. --Assumes the toga virilis 89 B.C. --Serves his first campaign, 88 B.C. --Studies philosophy. --Pleads his first cause pro Quinct. --Goes to Athens, Asia, and Rhodes. --Returns home. --Elected quaestor of Sicily. --Indicts Verres, 70 B.C. --Elected aedile, 69 B.C. --Praetor, 66 B.C. --His first political speech. --Pro lege Manilia, 65 B.C. --Consul, 63 B.C. --Unpopularity of Cicero. --Causes of Exile. --Deserted by the Triumvirs. --Goes into exile, 58 B.C. --Recall, 51 B.C. --Elected Augur, 53 B.C. --Proconsul, 52 B.C. --Sides with Pompey. --Pharsalia, 48 B.C. --Pardoned by Caesar. --Gloom. --His Philippic Orations. --Antony, Octavianus, and Lepidus form the second triumvirate. --Killed at Caieta, 43 B.C.]

=Marcus Tullius Cicero=, the greatest name in Roman literature, was born near Arpinum, a town of Latium, January 3rd, 106 B.C. His father, a man of large views and liberal culture, belonged to the equites, and possessed an hereditary estate in the neighbourhood of the town. To give his sons, Marcus and Quintus, that education which could not be obtained at a provincial school, he removed to Rome, where the young Ciceros were placed under the best teachers of the day. From Aelius they learned philosophy; from Archias, the mechanism of verse, though not the inspiration of poetry. A translation of the Phaenomena and Prognostics of Aratus, and a mythological poem on the fable of Pontius Glaucus were the first fruits of Cicero's genius. On assuming the toga virilis, B.C. 89, Cicero attached himself to the jurist Scaevola, who was then in the zenith of his fame. In the following year he served a brief campaign in the Social War under Cn. Pompeius Strabo, the father of Pompey the Great. Philosophical studies had, however, more attractions for him than arms. Under Philo, the Academic, and Diodotus, the Stoic, he laid the foundation of that Eclecticism which is so observable in his philosophical works. At the age of 25 he pleaded his first cause, and in the following year he defended Sextus Roscius of Ameria, who had been accused of parricide by Chrysogonus, one of Sulla's favourites. In this cause he acquired the acquittal of his client, but incurred the enmity of the dictator. With the ostensible object of regaining his health he went to Athens, where he studied philosophy under Antiochus, the Academic, and under Zeno and Phaedrus, both Epicureans. From Athens he travelled through Asia Minor and finally settled for a short time at Rhodes, attending there the lectures of Molo, the rhetorician. Returning home, he at once entered on that political career to which his commanding ability destined him, and was elected quaestor of Sicily. During his term of office he so endeared himself to the inhabitants of the island by his integrity that they selected him as their patron at Rome. In their behalf he subsequently conducted the prosecution against Verres, who was charged with extortion. His success in this cause, and his consequent popularity, procured him the office of curule aedile. After the usual interval he was chosen praetor, and, while holding this office, delivered the first of his political harangues, in defence of the bill proposed by C. Manilius to invest Pompey with supreme command in the Mithradatic War. Two years afterwards he gained the consulship, the goal of his ambition. His consulate is memorable for the bold attempt of Catiline to subvert the government--an attempt which was frustrated by the patriotic zeal of the consul. Cicero had quickly soared to the pinnacle of fame: as quickly did he fall. In crushing the conspiracy of Catiline questionable means had been employed. Clodius, his implacable enemy, revived a law exiling all who had been guilty of putting to death Roman citizens without a formal trial before the people. The Triumvirs, too, were disgusted with the vanity of the man who was constantly reminding the people that he was the "Saviour of Italy" and the "Father of His Country." Deserted by his friends, and exposed to the hatred of his foes, Cicero went to Thessalonica into voluntary exile. The wanton destruction of his villas and the insults offered to his wife and children soon, however, produced a feeling of sympathy for the exiled orator. His return to Rome was attended with all the pomp and circumstance of a triumphant general. Henceforth his voice was little heard in the Senate. After his return he was appointed to a seat in the College of Augurs. In obtaining this office he had placed himself under obligations to both Pompey and Caesar, and this may account for his neutrality in the civil struggles of the time. He was subsequently appointed, much against his will, proconsul of Cilicia, where his administration was marked by the same integrity as he had displayed in Sicily. Cicero arrived in Italy from Cilicia on the 4th of January, B.C. 49, just after the breaking out of the civil war between Pompey and Caesar. After some hesitation he decided to take the part of Pompey, but his support was never cordial: it was a source of weakness rather than of strength. When the battle of Pharsalia decided the fate of the Roman world, he returned to Brundisium to await the arrival of the victorious Caesar, who generously extended a full and frank pardon to the vacillating orator. Cicero from this time withdrew from active public life and devoted himself to philosophy, except during the period immediately preceding his death. The loss of his daughter Tullia, the divorce of his wife Terentia, and the unhappy marriage with Publilia darkened the gloom which settled on his declining years. His high exultation on the assassination of Caesar was of only momentary duration, and was succeeded by dark forebodings of Marc Antony's designs. As soon as the plans of the scheming triumvir were evident, Cicero attacked Antony's character with all the powers of invective. Again he was the idol of the people and the champion of senatorial rights, but his popularity was only the last gasp of the dying liberties of Rome. The second triumvirate was formed, and each member of it sacrificed his friends to glut the vengeance of his colleagues; and to appease the brutal Antony, Cicero was sacrificed by Octavianus. Refusing to seek refuge in exile, he determined to die in the land he had saved, and was slain at Caieta by the emissaries of the bloodthirsty triumvir.

[Sidenote: Works.]