Cicero

SOURCES

GENERAL

By classical standards the sources for the period of Cicero’s life are voluminous, although many histories written within a generation or so of his time are lost. Much has been translated and, for the reader who would like to know more at firsthand about Cicero and the fall of the Roman Republic, some accessible literature is cited below. Titles of classical works are given in translation; see under Abbreviations for original Latin titles.

The most important documentary sources are Cicero’s own writings (all of which are available in Latin alongside translations in the Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press). Many of his speeches, which he revised and issued himself, survive, as do his books on philosophy and oratory. So do about 900 letters; some were designed for publication or for judicious circulation by the recipient, but others, a large proportion of the correspondence with Atticus, were not. They are organized into a number of different collections: the so-called Letters to His Friends and Letters to Brutus and Letters to Quintus are mainly, but not entirely, communications to politicians and public figures; they include letters from Julius Caesar and Pompey and other politicians of the day. They were probably published before the Letters to Atticus, which appeared some time in the first century AD. The complete correspondence was edited and translated in the 1960s by D. R. Shackleton Bailey; he reordered the letters in one continuous sequence, which is cited first in the references below (followed by the traditional numbering).

Cicero’s speeches need to be treated with caution, for he is always arguing a case. On the one major occasion where an alternative version exists to the story he is telling, his defense of Milo, we find that he is almost certainly promoting a tissue of untruths. The letters are an invaluable resource, a reliable guide to day-to-day events even if we do not always agree with their author’s political analyses.

Contemporary or near-contemporary histories include the following: Sallust’s two surviving monographs, The Conspiracy of Catilina and The Jugurthine War, give useful if highly colored and sometimes chronologically haphazard accounts. Caesar’s lapidary, accurate but not always truthful Conquest of Gaul and The Civil War are essential reading. A short life of Atticus was published by a friend of his, Cornelius Nepos. Two sections from a Life of Augustus by Nicolaus of Damascus about his subject’s youth (edited and translated by Jane Bellemore, Bristol Classical Press, 1984) give interesting details about Caesar’s assassination. An Augustan Senator, Quintus Asconius Pedianus, wrote intelligent and well-informed commentaries on some of Cicero’s speeches, in one of which he gives a detailed account of Clodius’s death (Commentaries on Five Speeches by Cicero, ed. and trans. Simon Squires, Bristol University Press and Bochazy-Carducci Publishers, 1990).

Diodorus Siculus, a Sicilian writing in Greek, was a near-contemporary of Cicero. He wrote a history of the Mediterranean world, Library of History, in forty volumes from mythological times up to his own day. He is useful on his native island of Sicily. Unfortunately most of the book survives only as excerpts or paraphrases from Byzantine and medieval times. He was an uncritical compiler and only as good as his sources.

Plutarch, a Greek biographer and essayist of the second half of the first century AD, is one antiquity’s most charming authors. His Parallel Lives include biographies of Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Cato, Crassus, Brutus, Caesar, Mark Antony and Cicero. They are full of fascinating personal detail, but he was interested in character rather than history and was indiscriminate in the use of his sources.

Suetonius was a slightly later contemporary of Plutarch and, as the Emperor Hadrian’s secretary, had access to the imperial archives; this makes his short biographies of Julius Caesar and Augustus, in The Twelve Caesars, of particular interest, although, like Plutarch, he is no historian and concentrates his attention on his subjects’ private lives. Velleius Paterculus lived during the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius and wrote a patchy History of Rome from earliest times to 30 AD.

Lines from Catullus, whose poetry movingly expresses the way of life of the younger set who simultaneously attracted and repelled Cicero, are quoted in Peter Whigham’s translation (Penguin Classics, 1966). Further verse quotations have been made from John Davie’s translation of Euripides’ Medea (Penguin Classics, 1996) and Robert Fagles’ version of the Iliad (Viking, 1990).

Although the Greek historian Polybius wrote in the second century BC, his history of Rome’s rise to dominance of the Mediterranean world gives a well-grounded account of the workings of the Roman constitution.

General histories of the period date from later in the Empire. The best of them is by Appian, who flourished in Rome in the middle of the second century AD. He wrote a history of Rome from the arrival in Italy of Aeneas to the battle of Actium in 31 BC. Five books on the civil wars survive, of which the first two give a continuous account of events from the Tribuneship of Tiberius Gracchus to the aftermath of Caesar’s assassination. For the first part of this narrative he depended on a very good source and, although his chronology is sometimes confused and his belief in the role of fate in human affairs unhelpful, Appian is invaluable.

Dio Cassius was a Greek historian, born about the middle of the second century AD, who wrote a Roman History from Aeneas to his own second Consulship in 229 AD. The books that survive cover the period between the second war against Mithridates and the reign of Claudius. Although he had no way of evaluating his sources, he offers a useful complement to other earlier texts.

Our knowledge of the late Republic has been enhanced by twentieth-century archaeology, especially through coins and inscriptions.

Modern literature on Cicero and the Roman Republic is multitudinous. (See Further Reading for full details of works mentioned in this and the next paragraph.) Information on further reading in English can be found in two excellent surveys, H. H. Scullard’s standard textbook From the Gracchi to Nero, and Michael Crawford’s analytical study The Roman Republic. Matthias Gelzer’s masterpiece Caesar, Politician and Statesman, with full annotations, is perhaps the classic account of Caesar’s life. Christian Meier’s Caesar is authoritative and readable and, as well as giving a lively narrative of the life, offers a profound insight into the nature of Rome’s constitutional crisis. Ronald Syme’s great The Roman Revolution is forthright and challenging about Cicero’s behavior. F. R. Cowell’s Cicero and the Roman Republic is a thorough and readable account of the politics and economic and social development of ancient Rome.

Among previous books on Cicero to which the present work is indebted are the following: Gaston Boissier’s delightful Cicero and His Friends, applying to its subject the perceptions of a nineteenth-century French man of the world, skeptical, witty and without illusions; scholarship has moved on, but this remains a convincing evocation of a vanished society. Elizabeth Rawson’s Cicero is the last full-length biography to have been published in Britain by an English author and is both scholarly and attractively written. T. N. Mitchell’s two-volume Cicero: The Ascending Years and Cicero: The Senior Statesman constitutes an authoritative and monumentally comprehensive study.

FURTHER READING

The major classical authors cited above are available in the original with English translations, in Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Principal classical sources

Appian, The Civil Wars, trans. John Carter, Penguin Classics, 1996.

Caesar, The Civil War, trans. Jane F. Gardner, Penguin Classics, 1967.

———, The Conquest of Gaul, trans. S. A. Handford, Penguin Classics, 1951.

Catullus, Odes, trans. Peter Whigham, Penguin Classics, 1966.

Cicero, Letters to Atticus and to His Friends, ed. and trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, Penguin Classics, 1978.

———, Selected Political Speeches, trans. Michael Grant, Penguin Books, 1969.

———, Works, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Plutarch, The Fall of the Roman Republic, trans. Rex Warner, Penguin Classics, 1958.

———, The Makers of Rome, trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert, Penguin Classics, 1964.

———, Parallel Lives, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire, trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert, Penguin Classics, 1979.

Sallust, The Jugurthine War; Conspiracy of Catiline, trans. S. A. Handford, Penguin Classics, 1963.

Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, trans. Robert Graves, revised Michael Grant, Penguin Classics, 1979.

Principal modern sources

Gaston Boissier, Cicero and His Friends, Ward, Lock, 1897, first published in France, 1865.

F. R. Cowell, Cicero and the Roman Republic, Penguin Books, 1948.

Michael Crawford, The Roman Republic, Fontana Collins, 1978.

Florence Dupont, Daily Life in Ancient Rome, Basil Blackwell, 1992.

Matthias Gelzer, Caesar, Politician and Statesman, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, with corrections 1969; first published in Germany, 1921.

Christian Meier, Caesar, HarperCollins, 1995, first published by Severin & Siedler, Germany, 1982.

T. N. Mitchell, Cicero: The Ascending Years and Cicero: The Senior Statesman, Yale University Press, 1979 and 1991.

Elizabeth Rawson, Cicero, Allen Lane, 1975.

H. H. Scullard, From the Gracchi to Nero, Routledge, 5th ed., 1982.

Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution, Oxford University Press, 1939.

ABBREVIATIONS

ACI—Cicero, Ad Caesarem iuniorem (frag.) [To the younger Caesar]

App—Appian, The Civil Wars

Arch—Cicero, For Archias (Pro Archia)

Asc—Asconius, Commentaries on Five Speeches by Cicero (Bristol University Press)

Att—Cicero, Letters to Atticus (ed. Shackleton Bailey)

Bell civ—Caesar, The Civil War (Commentarii de bello civili)

Bell gall—Caesar, The Conquest of Gaul (Commentarii de bello gallico)

Boiss—Gaston Boissier, Cicero and His Friends

Brut—Cicero, Brutus

Brutus—Cicero, Letters to Brutus (ed. Shackleton Bailey)

Cael—Cicero, In Defense of Caelius (Pro Caelio)

Castle—E. B. Castle, Ancient Education and Today (Pelican, 1961)

Cat I—Cicero, First Speech Against Catilina (In Catilinam I)

Cat II—Cicero, Second Speech Against Catilina

Cat IV—Cicero, Fourth Speech Against Catilina (In Catilinam IV)

Catull—Catullus, Odes (Carmina)

Clu—Cicero, In Defense of Cluentius (Pro Cluentio)

Comm—Quintus Tullius Cicero, A Short Guide to Electioneering (Commentariolum petitionis)

Corn Nep—Cornelius Nepos, Life of Atticus (from De viris illustribus)

De inv—Cicero, On Invention (De inventione)

De or—Cicero, The Ideal Orator (De oratore)

Dio—Dio Cassius, Roman History

Div—Cicero, Foretelling the Future (De divinatione)

Dom—Cicero, About His House (De domo sua)

Fam—Cicero, Letters to His Friends (Ad familiares) (ed. Shackleton Bailey)

Harusp—Cicero, Concerning the Response of the Soothsayers (De haruspicum responsis)

Homer Il—Homer, Iliad (trans. R. Fagles, Viking, 1990)

Hor Sat—Horace, Satires (Sermones)

Imp Pomp—Cicero, On Pompey’s Commission (De imperio Gn. Pompeii)

Lact—Lactantius, Divine Institutes (Institutiones divinae)

Leg—Cicero, On Law (De legibus)

Leg ag—Cicero, On the Land Act (De lege agraria)

Luc—Lucan, Pharsalia (trans. Robert Graves, Penguin Classics, 1956)

Marc—Cicero, In Defense of Marcellus (Pro Marcello)

Mod Dig—Modestinus, Digest (Digesta)

Mur—Cicero, In Defense of Murena (Pro Murena)

Nic—Nicolaus, Life of Augustus

Odf—Orationum deperditarum fragmenta [Fragments of Lost Speeches] (ed. I. Puccioni, Milan)

Off—Cicero, Duties (De officiis)

Para Stoic—Cicero, Stoic Paradoxes (Paradoxa Stoicorum)

Phil—Cicero, Philippics (Orationes Philippicae)

Planc—Cicero, In Defense of Plancius (Pro Plancio)

Pliny—Pliny the Elder, Natural History (Naturalis historia) (trans. John F. Healy, Penguin Classics)

Plut Brut—Plutarch, Life of Brutus

Plut Caes—Plutarch, Life of Caesar

Plut Cat—Plutarch, Life of Cato

Plut Cic—Plutarch, Life of Cicero

Plut Crass—Plutarch, Life of Crassus

Plut Pomp—Plutarch, Life of Pompey

Plut Sull—Plutarch, Life of Sulla

Post red—Cicero, Speech to the People after His Return (Post reditum ad quirites)

Quint—Cicero, Letters to Quintus

Quintil—Quintilianus, The Education of an Orator (Institutio oratoria)

Rab—Cicero, In Defense of Caius Rabirius on a Charge of Treason (Pro C. Rabirio perduellionis)

Rep—Cicero, On the State (De republica)

Rosc—Cicero, In Defense of S. Roscius Amerinus (Pro S. Roscio Amerinó)

Sall Caes—Letter to Caesar (Epistula ad Caesarem)

Sall Cat—Sallust, The Conspiracy of Catilina (Bellum Catilinae)

Sall Inv—Sallust, Invective Against Cicero (In M. Tullium Ciceronem oratio)

Sen—Seneca the Elder, Suasoriae

Sest—Cicero, In Defence of Sestius (Pro Sestio)

SIG—Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecorum [Collection of Greek Inscriptions] (ed. W. Dittenberger)

Suet—Suetonius, Life of Caesar, in The Twelve Caesars (De vita Caesarum)

Tac—Tacitus, Dialogue on Orators (Dialogus de oratoribus)

Tusc—Cicero, Conversations at Tusculum (Tusculanae disputationes)

Val Max—Valerius Maximus, Memorabilia

Vell—Velleius Paterculus, History of Rome (Historia romana)

Verr—Cicero, First Speech Against Verres (In Verrem I)

CHAPTER BY CHAPTER SOURCES

1 “What a triumph” Hugh Brogan, The Penguin History of the United States (Penguin Books, 1999), p. 191.

The opening account of Caesar’s murder through Cicero’s eyes is based on Appian, Dio Cassius, Plutarch (lives of Caesar and Mark Antony), Suetonius and Nicolaus.

2 “You too, my son?” Dio XLIV 19 and Suet I 82

Chapter 1—Fault Lines: First Century BC

Readers who wish to go beyond this summary account should read Cowell, Scullard and Crawford. Among the sources for the historical narrative from Tiberius Gracchus to Cicero’s youth are Appian and Plutarch.

3 “rank, position, magnificence” Clu LVI 154

4 Tribal or General Assembly. Two other types of assembly existed, the concilium plebis, which had the same membership as the comitia tributa minus the Patricians, and the comitia curiata, which was largely concerned with legal approvals.

5 “This was the first time” Vell II 3 3

Chapter 2—“Always Be the Best, My Boy, the Bravest”: 106–82 BC

The description of Cicero’s childhood is based on Plutarch together with the evocation of Arpinum in On law (De legibus). The section on education is indebted to E. B. Castle. The historical account draws on Appian, Plutarch, Sallust and Diodorus Siculus.

6 “Whenever I can get out” Leg II 1 “We consider” Leg II 5

7 “With your courage” Leg III 16 36

8 “This is what I prayed for!” Hor Sat 6 1ff.

9 “I am going to make my cognomen” Plut Cic II 1

10 “how our mother in the old days” Fam 351 (XVI 26) “We rule the world” Val Max VI 3

11 Twelve Tables Leg I 21 55

12 “Didn’t you learn your unbridled loquacity” Sall Inv I 2

13 “The time which others spend” Arch VI 13

14 “Caesar and Brutus also wrote” Tac 21 “Our people are like Syrian slaves” De or II 265 “For as far as I can cast my mind back” Arch 148

15 “I love Pomponius” Fam 63 (XIII 1)

16 Crassus’s “swan song” De or III 2–5

17 “We are not asking you to pardon” Plut Sull

18 “No, please, I beg you” Corn Nep IV 1 “He always belonged to the best party” Boiss 137f.

19 “the proscriptions of the rich” Para Stoic VI 2 46

“Victories in the field” Off I 74

“it appeared that the whole institution of the courts” Brut LXXXIX 306

“Seeing that the whole state” Plut Cic III 2

20 “that we do not recklessly and presumptuously assume” De inv II 10 “Always be the best” Homer Il VI 247

Chapter 3—The Forum and the Fray: 81–77 BC

The description of the Forum, as well as being based on personal visits, draws on The Roman Forum (Electa, 1998); and that of Rome on Florence Dupont. The accounts of the Roscius, Verres and Cluentius trials are largely drawn from the relevant speeches by Cicero. For the characters and early careers of Pompey and Crassus, Plutarch has been used.

21 “planted in mountains” Leg ag II 35 96

“Two of my shops” Att 363 XIV 9

22 “not (as most do) to learn my trade in the Forum” Brut XCI 312

“a disreputable victory” Off II 27

23 “Personally, I am always very nervous” Clu XVIII 51 “Why, you always come” Dio XLVI 7

24 “According to the custom of our ancestors” Mod Dig XLVIII 9 9

“He comes down from his mansion” Rosc XLV 132–35

25 “Terentia was never at any time” Plut Cic XX 2

26 “I was at that time very slender” Brut XCI 313

27 “we have learned from them” Leg II 36 C “planned that, if he were finally deprived” Plut Cic IV 2

28 “not only a pleader” Brut XCI 316

Chapter 4—Politics and Foreign Postings: 77–63 BC

The story of Cicero’s early political career derives from Plutarch, his speeches and the correspondence with Atticus.

29 “Just as in the music of harps” Rep II 42

30 “When I was Quaestor” Tusc V XXIII 64–66

31 The incident at Puteoli Planc XXVI, XXVII

32 “his hair swept back in a kind of wave” Plut Pomp II 1/2

33 “Today the eyes of the world” Verr I 16 46–47

“I am afraid I’m no good at solving riddles” Plut Cic VII 6

34 C’s jokes at the Verres trial Plut Cic VII 4–5

“Gentlemen of the jury” Verr II 8 22

35 “It is the judge’s responsibility” Off II 51 “my brother, Quintus” Att I (I 5)

36 “All the pleasure” Att I (I 5)

“I am delighted with my place at Tusculum” Att 2 (I 6)

C’s citrus table Pliny XIII 91

C’s estimate of his income Phil II 16

37 “You know the game I am playing” Att 10 (I 1)

38 “Such is his unbelievable, superhuman genius” Imp Pomp XIII 37 “My handling of C. Macer’s case” Att 9 (I 4)

39 “both that he did not assault the standing” Asc: Pro Cornelio argumentum

Chapter 5—Against Catilina: 63 BC

The account of the Catilinarian conspiracy is largely based on Sallust, Cicero’s Catilinarian speeches and Asconius, together with Appian and Dio Cassius for the general picture.

40 “People naturally prefer you to lie” Comm 48

41 “No one has ever had such a talent for seducing young men” Cat II 4 5

“debauchees, adulterers and gamblers” Sall Cat XIV 2ff.

“There are shouts and screams” Off 1

42 “Catilina had many excellent qualities” Cael V 12

Catilina’s first “conspiracy” is a mysterious affair; for further discussion see Gelzer, pp. 38ff. and S. A. Handford (Sallust, Jugurthine War and Conspiracy of Catiline), pp. 164ff.

43 “We have the jury we want” Att 11 (I 2)

“Can any man be a friend” Asc: In toga candida

44 “I assert” Asc: In toga candida

45 “What I assert” Rab XII 332–34

“I see two bodies” Plut Cic XIII 4–5

46 Catilina reported to sacrifice a boy, Dio XXXVII 147/149

47 “quite overcome by the news” Plut Cic XV 2

48 “I am able to report” Cat I iv 8

49 “I do not intend” Sall Cat XXXVI 1f.

50 “But I must change my tone” Mur XXXV 74

51 “Imprisonment, [Caesar] says” Cat IV iv 8

“ought to distribute the accused around the towns of Italy” App II 6

52 “sluggish of comprehension” Plut Cat I 3 “If we could afford” Sall Cat LIII 4

Chapter 6—Pretty-Boy’s Revenge: 62–58 BC

The events leading to Cicero’s exile are covered by various lives of Plutarch, Dio and, to a lesser extent, Appian but, increasingly, by Cicero’s letters, which now begin to be available in large numbers. Cicero’s speech In Defense of Caelius throws a brilliant light on the Clodian circle.

53 “One could not attend the Senate” Plut Cic XXIV 1–2

“This unpleasing habit of his” Plut Cic XXIV 2

“a certain foolish vanity” Att 38 (II 18)

54 “I swear to you” Plut Cic XXIII 2

55 “This district, let me tell you, is charming” Att 392 (XV 16a)

56 “I imagine you have heard” Att 12 (I 12)

57 “passion for fornication” Sall Cat XIII 3–5

58 “at the cross-roads” Catull 58

“You [Mark Antony] assumed a man’s toga” Phil II 18 44–45

59 “Silver-tongued among the sons of Rome” Catull 49

60 “When the day came for the bill to be put” Att 14 (I 14)

“Inside a couple of days” Att 16 (I 16)

61 Cicero’s jokes at Clodius’s expense Att 16 (I 16) and 21 (II 1)

62 “as if he were coming back from a foreign holiday” Plut Pomp XLII 3

63 “He professes the highest regard for me” Att 13 (I 13)

64 “Life out of uniform” Plut Pomp XXIII 4

“I need 25 million sesterces” App II 8

65 “I brought the house down” Att 14 (I 14)

The description of Pompey’s Triumph is based on Plutarch’s life of him but also draws on some material from his life of Aemilius Paulus.

66 “Giving up all attempts to equal Pompey” Plut Crass VII 2

“The demand was disgraceful” Att 17 (I 17)

“the dregs of the urban population” Att 19 (I 19)

67 “AS for our dear friend Cato” Att 21 (XI 1)

68 “those conspirators of the wine table” Att 16 (I 16)

“had used up the entire perfume cabinet of Isocrates” Att 21 (II 1)

“What I most badly need at the present is a confidant” Att 18 (I 18)

69 “I trusted and indeed convinced myself” Att 17 (I 17)

70 “Meantime the paths” Att 23 (II 3)

71 “When I notice how carefully arranged his hair is” Plut Caes IV 4

72 Cato’s arrest Dio XXXVIII 2–3

73 “Let us wait then” Plut Cic XXVI 3

“the Queen of Bithynia” Suet I 49

74 “I have taken so kindly to idleness” Att 26 (II 6)

“When I read a letter of yours” Att 35 (II 15)

75 “I have so lost my manly spirit” Att 34 (II 14)

“Sampsiceramus … is out for trouble” Att 37 (II 17)

76 “Dear Publius is threatening me” Att 39 (II 19)

“For himself he wanted a high command” Sall Cat LIV

77 “all Catilina’s forces” Post red XIII 33

78 “the Senate met to pass a vote” Plut Cic XXXI 1

79 “could not face seeing him” Plut Cic XXXI 2–3

Chapter 7—Exile: 58–52 BC

Appian and Dio Cassius continue to give the general background with Plutarch providing additional color. (Also, with Caesar’s growing prominence, Suetonius’s life of him begins to be useful.) Cicero’s letters and speeches are the crucial resource. For Clodius’s death Asconius is more to be trusted than Cicero’s almost completely unreliable account in his defense of Milo. Quintus’s adventures in Gaul are taken from Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul.

80 “I miss my daughter” Quint 3 (I 3)

“Has any man ever fallen” Att 55 (III 10)

81 “I will only say this” Att 54 (III 9)

82 “The Tiber was full of citizens’ corpses” Sest LVII

83 “From your letter and from the facts themselves” Att 72 (III 27)

“by which I did not simply return home” Dom XVIII 75

84 “It is a sort of second life” Att 73 (IV 1)

“heavy with wine … talking with him” Post red VI 13–14 praise of Pompey Post red II 5

“The decree was read out” Att 73 (IV 1)

85 “Those same gentlemen” Att 74 (IV 2)

“On November 11” Att 75 (IV 3)

“My heart is high” Att 75 (IV 3)

86 “Pale with fury” Quint 7 (II 3)

87 “My refutation” Cael XIII 32

88 “The Germans’ left was routed” Bell gall II 2

89 “Ah, just the man I want” Quint 20 (I 9)

90 “Come on! Do you really think” Att 80 (IV 5)

“These years of my life” Quint 25 (III 5)

“I was weary of it” Fam 24 (VII 1)

91 “After all, what could be more humiliating” Att 83 (IV 6)

“I believe in moving with the times” Fam 20 (I 9)

92 “talked to me at length” Quint 10 (II 6)

“Those shelves of yours” Att 79 (IV 8)

“But seriously, while all other amusements” Att 84 (IV 10)

93 “perfidy, artifice and betrayal.… Waive the laws of history” Fam 22 (V 12)

“What pleasure” Fam 24 (VII 1)

94 “the first gladiatorial show” Val Max II 4 7

95 “What pleasure can a cultivated man” Fam 24 (VII 1) “Caesar’s friends” Att 89 (IV 16)

96 “Pompey is putting a lot of pressure on me” Quint 21 (III 1)

97 “In all the world Caesar is the only man” Fam 25 (III 5)

“Cicero himself, although in very poor health” Bell gall VI 2

98 “Escaped from the great heat wave.… I was very pleased with the house” Quint 21 (III 1)

“Our affairs stand as follows” Quint 23 (III 3)

99 “a friend to us” Fam 44 (XVI 16)

100 “See about the dining room” Fam 185 (XVI 22)

“My (or our) literary brainchildren” Fam 43 (XVI 10)

“Aegypta arrived today” Fam 42 (XVI 15)

Tiro “is extraordinarily useful to me” Att 128 (VII 5)

“Well, you are a man of landed property!” Fam 337 (XVI 21)

Chapter 8—The Ideal Constitution: 55–43 BC

101 “When we inherited the Republic” Rep V I 2

102 “The government was so administered” Rep II 32 56

103 “ ‘is the highway to heaven’ ” Rep VI 16

“Law is the highest reason” Leg I 6 18–19

104 “Virtue is reason completely developed” Leg I 16 45

“science of distinguishing.” … The mind “must employ” Leg I 24 62

“The most foolish notion of all” Leg I 15 1

“two officeholders” Leg III 3 8

votes cast should be scrutinized by the “traditional leaders of the state” Leg III 15 33

“everyone knows that laws” Leg III 15 34

Chapter 9—The Drift to Civil War: 52–50 BC

This chapter relies on Cicero’s correspondence with Caelius and Plutarch. Appian, Dio and the others set the larger scene. The opening discussion on the date that Caesar’s Gallic governorship came to an end and his legal predicament is tracked in Matthias Gelzer and examined by John Carter in Appian, 409–10.

105 “Caesar had long ago decided” Plut Caes XXVIII 1–2

106 “My one consolation” Att 95 (V 2)

107 “When we arrived” Att 94 (V 1)

108 “I leave him in the most patriotic frame of mind” Att 100 (V 7)

109 Pompey “is apt to say one thing, and think another” Fam 77 (VIII 1)

“The creatures are in remarkably short supply” Fam 2 (II 11)

“When all’s said, … this isn’t the kind of thing” Att 108 (V 15)

110 “forlorn and, without exaggeration.… In a phrase” Att 109 (V 16)

111 “Malicious persons” Fam 69 (III 6)

“Your army is hardly capable” Fam 83 (VIII 5)

112 “My best resource is winter” Att III (V 18)

113 “On October 13 we made a great slaughter” Att 113 (V 20)

“A merry Saturnalia was had by all” Att 113 (V 20)

114 “Our Consuls are paragons” Fam 88 (VIII 6)

“What he wants” Att 355 (XIV 1)

115 “I shall be sorry to have incurred his displeasure” Att 115 (VI 1)

“He is apt in his letters to me” Att 115 (VI 1)

“My dear Atticus” Att 116 (VI 2)

“I shall keep him on a tighter rein” Att 113 (V 20)

116 “Let me say only one thing” Att 116 (VI 2)

“He does seem very fond of his mother” Att 116 (VI 2)

“There’s something” Att 118 (VI 4)

117 “Here I am in my province” Att 121 (VI 6)

“We all find him charming” Att 126 (VII 3)

Chapter 10—“A Strange Madness”: 50–48 BC

The main sources for these years are Appian, Dio Cassius and Cicero’s correspondence, together with Caesar, Plutarch and Suetonius.

118 “From the day I arrived in Rome” Fam 146 (XVI 12)

“Pompey the Great’s digestion” Fam 94 (VIII 13)

“great quarrels ahead” Fam 97 (VIII 14)

119 “There looms ahead a tremendous contest” Att 124 (VII 1)

“While I am not cowardly” Quintil XII I 17

120 Caesar’s “army is incomparably superior” Fam 97 (VIII 14)

121 “He at once sent a few troops” Suet I 31

122 “Since nearly all Italy” Plut Pomp LXI 1–3

“thoroughly cowed” Att 177 (IX 10)

123 “I have decided on the spur of the moment” Att 133 (VII 10)

“He scorns me” Att 179 (IX 12)

“It looks to me” Att 141 (VII 17)

124 “I am sure you find” Att 164 (VIII 14)

“How utterly down he is” Att 145 (VII 21)

125 “Our Cnaeus is marvelously covetous of despotism” Att 174 (IX 7)

126 “I was made anxious before” Att 172 (IX 6)

“Nothing in [Pompey’s] conduct” Att 177 (IX 10)

Cicero’s meeting with Caesar Att 187 (IX 18)

127 “you have disapproved” Att 199B (X 83)

128 “I cannot believe that you mean to go abroad” Att 199a (X 8a)

“Do you think that if Spain is lost” Att 199 (X 8)

129 “I hope my plan won’t involve any risk” Att 208 (X 16)

“You ask me about the war news” Att 214 (XI 4a)

130 “I’ll make you win” Fam 156 (VIII 17)

131 “To go against him now” Fam 153 (VIII 16)

“He has no idea how to win a war” Suet I 36

“Consult your own best interests” Fam 157 (IX 9)

132 “I came to regret my action” Fam 183 (VII 3)

133 “[There] could be seen artificial arbors” Bell civ III 96

“They insisted on it” Suet I 30

“Excellent, if we were fighting jackdaws” Plut Cic XXXVIII 5

Chapter 11—Pacifying Caesar: 48–45 BC

The same sources as for the preceding chapter, with the addition of speeches by Cicero.

134 “He expressed himself pretty strongly on these points” Att 218 (XI 7)

135 “As to Pompey’s end” Att 217 (XI 6)

“It is the most unbelievable thing” Att 219 (XI 8)

136 “Her own beauty” Plut Ant XXVII 2ff.

137 “Came, saw, conquered” Plut Caes L 2

“Her own courage, thoughtfulness” Att 228 (XI 17)

138 “I must ask you to get me out of here” Att 230 (XI 18)

“quite a handsome one” Fam 171 (XIV 23)

“Kindly see that everything is ready” Fam 173 (XIV 20)

139 “I think the victory of either” Fam 182 (V 21)

140 “I decline to be under an obligation” Plut Cat LXVI 2

“The gods favored the winning side” Luc I 128

141 “It’s a problem for Archimedes” Att 240 (XII 4)

142 “As for our present times” Fam 177 (IX 2)

“Like the learned men of old” Fam 177 (IX 2)

“I have set up as schoolmaster” Fam 191 (IX 18)

143 “Hirtius … and Dolabella are my pupils” Fam 190 (IX 16)

“I assure you I had no idea she would be there” Fam 197 (IX 26)

“I even had the audacity” Fam 193 (IXD 20)

“Our bons vivants” Fam 210 (VII 26)

144 “Of course. It will be following orders” Plut Caes LIX 3

“I used to sit in the poop” Fam 196 (IX 15)

“Don’t think I am joking” Fam 196 (IX 15)

145 “for some reason he was extraordinarily patient” Att 371 (XIV 17)

Cicero’s jokes Plut Cic XXVI

“I hear that, having in his day compiled volumes of bons mots, Caesar” Fam 190 (IX 16)

146 “On November 26 …, at your brothers’ request” Fam 228 (VI 4)

147 “some semblance of reviving constitutional freedom” Fam 203 (IV 4)

“Whether for nature or for glory” Marc VII 8 21–25

The need for a Dictator Rep VI 12

Caesar comments on reading Cicero’s Cato Att 338 (XIII 46)

148 “I waste a lot of time” Fam 337 (XVI 21)

“She’ll be a woman tomorrow” Quintil VI 3 75

149 “As for your congratulations” Fam 240 (IV 14)

150 “threw them all into one attempt” Tusc III 76

“The things you like in me are gone for good” Att 251 (XII 14)

“In this lonely place” Att 252 (XII 15)

“I want you to find out” Att 270 (XII 30)

151 “I want to tell you of something” Fam 248 (IV 5)

“surely she too deserves” Lact I 15 18

152 “Today, for the first time” Plut Caes LVI 3

153 “Brutus reports that Caesar” Att 343 (XIII 40)

“Dolabella came this morning” Att 317 (XIII 9)

154 Young Quintus “is at it constantly” Att 346 (XIII 37)

Balbus and Oppius had “never read anything better” Att 348 (XIII 50)

155 Caesar dines with Cicero Att 353 (XIII 52)

156 Young Quintus’s conversation with Cicero Att 354 (XIII 42)

Chapter 12—Philosophical Investigations: 46–44 BC

157 “I have written more in this short time.… I cannot easily say” Off III i 4

158 “to nude figures” Brut LXXV 262

“they are deserted” Brut LXXXIV 289

“In the book called Hortensius” Div II 1ff.

159 “it was through my books” Div II 7

160 “the matter did not fit the persons” Att 326 (XIII 19)

161 “The whole life of the philosopher” Tusc I XXX 74–31 75

162 Caesar’s praise of Cicero Pliny VII 117

Chapter 13—“Why, This Is Violence!”: January–March 44 BC

The main sources for Caesar’s assassination are various lives by Plutarch, Nicolaus and Suetonius together with Appian and the other general historians.

163 “I should be an idiot” Att 356 (XIV 2)

164 “Come on, Faustus” Plut Brut IX 1–4

165 “By his generous action” Plut Cic XL 5

“We’d better get a move on” Plut Caes LVIII 1

166 “My name is Caesar” Dio XLIV 10 1

167 “The people offer this” Dio XLIV 11 3

“To Caius Caesar” Phil II 34

“Where did the diadem come from?” Phil II 85

168 “You, you, assassinated him” Phil XIII 41

Caesar’s diarrhea Dio XLIV 8

“I would prefer to hold the Consulship legally” Nic XX 70

169 “Brutus will wait for this piece of skin” Plut Brut VIII 3

“It’s not fat, longhaired fellows” Plut Brut VIII 2

“There is no fate worse” App II 109

“It is more important for Rome” Suet I 86

170 “I join you in praying” Plut Brut XV 4

“There has been enough kowtowing” Nic XXVI 96–97

171 “The city looked as if it had been captured by an enemy”

Nic XXIV 91

Chapter 14—The Heir: March–December 44 BC

In addition to the general historians Appian and Dio together with Plutarch, Cicero’s Philippics are an essential source together with his correspondence. Suetonius’s life of Augustus is also used.

172 “the Ides of March was a fine deed, but half done” Att 366

(XIV 12)

“A pity you didn’t invite me to dinner” Fam 363 (XII 14)

“If a man of Caesar’s genius” Att 355 (XIV 1)

173 “Congratulations” Fam 322 (VI 15)

174 Cicero criticizes Brutus’s speech Att 378 (XV 1a)

“What else could we have done?” Att 364 (XIV 10) Brutus’s and Cassius’s provinces. There were so many changes in the provincial allocations in 44 that it has proved hard to disentangle who received which province at what stage. The view is followed here that Julius Caesar designated Macedonia and Asia for Brutus and Cassius. A discussion of the subject can be found in Syme, 102ff.

175 “To think I saved the lives” App II 143–47

176 “more concerned about the composition of his menus” Att 357

(XIV 3)

“Advancing years are making me cantankerous” Att 375 (XIV 21)

177 “The Queen’s flight” Att 362 (XIV 8)

“I hope it’s true” Att 374 (XIV 20)

178 “Octavian is with me here” Att 366 (XIV 12)

179 “boy who owes everything to his name” Phil XIII 11 25

180 “Hold them back, Cicero” Att 386 (XV 6)

Conference with Brutus and Cassius Att 389 (XV 11)

181 “armor-proofing” of philosophy Fam 330 (XVI 23)

“Octavian, as I perceived” Att 390 (XV 12)

“How much longer are we going to be fooled?” Att 399 (XV 22)

“I suspect he’s romancing as usual” Att 408 (XV 29)

182 “You wouldn’t believe how delighted he was” Att 415 (XVI 7)

183 “Everyone thought he wasn’t speaking so much as spewing up” Fam 344 (XII 2)

184 “I am well aware of the criticisms” Fam 349 (XI 28)

“unscrupulous behavior of Caius Caesar” Off I 26 and 64

185 “You will learn to obey orders” App III 43

186 “He has great schemes afoot” Att 418 (XVI 8)

187 “I imagine he will have the city rabble behind him” Att 418 (XVI 8)

“Two letters for me from Octavian in one day” Att 419 (XVI 9)

188 “He was detained by a drinking bout” Phil III 8 20

189 “The boy is taking the steam out of Antony” Att 426 (XVI 15)

190 “Caesar on his own initiative” Phil III 2 5

191 “We have for the first time” Phil IV 6 16

“I did not mince my words” Fam 364 (X 28)

Chapter 15—Cicero’s Civil War: January–April 43 BC

The sources are the same as for the preceding chapter.

192 “this heaven-sent boy” Phil V 16 43

“I happen to know all the young man’s feelings” Phil V 18 51

193 “I give you notice” Phil VI 3 5

“I know them through and through” Fam 352 (XVI 27)

194 “My days and nights are passed in one sole care” Fam 362 (IX 24)

“I am sorry to hear you’ve given up dining out” Fam 362 (IX 24)

Cicero as popular leader App III 66

195 “I do not reject peace” Phil VII 6 199

196 “If I am not in error” Fam 365 (XII 5)

197 “I want you to know” Fam 366 (XII 11)

198 “If I may, I will remain in the city” Phil XII 10 24

“In my opinion, you will be wiser not to meddle” Fam 369 (X 27)

199 “the partner of my counsels” Phil XIII 19 44 and 19 40

“locked together with their swords” App III 68

200 “I reaped the richest of rewards” Brut 7 (IX or I.3)

“not a spark of this abominable war is left alive” Fam 384 (X 14)

“AS for the boy Caesar” Brut 7 (IX or I.3)

Chapter 16—Death at the Seaside: April–November 43 BC

The sources are the same as for the preceding chapter. The account of Cicero’s death is based on Plutarch, Livy (quoted by Seneca the Elder) and Appian.

201 those who were rejoicing at the moment “will soon be sorry” Fam 409 (X 33)

202 “I am alarmed” Brut 11 (XII or I.4a)

“We’re not bragging every hour of the day.… You may say” Brut 17 (XXV or I.17)

“susceptible to scares” Fam 330 (XVI 23)

203 “the young man must get praises, honors—and the push” Fam 401 (XI 20)

“What is the use?” Fam 413 (XI 14)

204 “Our only protection was this lad” Fam (XXIII or I.15)

“Caesar’s army, which used to be excellent” Brut 23 (XXII or I.14)

“You thank him on public grounds in such a fashion” Brut 25 (XXIV or I.16)

Brutus should “lend support” Brut 26 (XXVI or I.18)

205 “As I write I am in great distress” Brut 26 (XXVI or I.18)

“as soon as I had an inkling” Brut 18 (XVIII or I.10)

“If you don’t give Caesar the Consulship” Dio XLVI 43

206 “I am doubly delighted” ACI 23B Watt

207 “The point was reached where a person was proscribed” App IV 5

The fate of Verres Pliny XXXIV 6

“they were quite overwhelmed” Plut Cic XLVII 1

208 “I will die in the country I have so often saved” Sen VI 17

“Then most of the crows” Plut Cic XLVII 6

209 “I am stopping here.… What if you’d come to me first?” Sen VI 19

“Has even a mediocre fighter ever let out a groan” Tusc II 17 41

“Now we can end the proscription” Plut Cic XLIX 1

210 Fulvia and Cicero’s head Dio XLVII 8 4

Chapter 17—Postmortems

211 “During the long flow of success” Sen VI 22

“This man’s works” Sen VI 24

“So died Cicero” Sen VI 23

212 Marcus throws a goblet at Agrippa Pliny XIV 147

Marcus appointed Augur “by way of apology” App IV 51

“In this way Heaven entrusted to the family of Cicero” Plut Cic XLIX 4

“Nature had stolen away Marcus’s memory” Sen VII 14

213 Augustus and his grandson Plut Cic XLIX 4