Cicero

The women, too, displayed lights upon the housetops in honour of the man, and that they might see him going up to his home in great state under escort of the noblest citizens. Most of these had brought to an end great wars and entered the city in triumph, and had added to the Roman dominion no small extent of land and sea; but they now walked along confessing to one another that to many of the commanders and generals of the time the Roman people were indebted for wealth and spoils and power, but for preservation and safety to Cicero alone, who had freed them from so peculiar and so great a peril.

For it was not his preventing their schemes and punishing the schemers which seemed so wonderful, but his quenching the greatest of all revolutions with the fewest possible evils, without sedition and commotion. For most of those who had flocked to the standard or Catiline, as soon as they learned the fate of Lentulus and Cethegus, deserted him and went away; and Catiline, after a conflict with his remaining forces against Antonius, perished himself and his army with him.[*](Near the beginning of 62 B.C.)

However, there were those who were ready to abuse Cicero for what he had done, and to work him harm, and they had as leaders, among the magistrates-elect, Caesar as praetor, and Metellus and Bestia[*](Bestia was tribune in 63 B.C., and could not have had any part in dictating the procedure of Cicero.) as tribunes. When these assumed office, Cicero having still a few days of consular authority,[*](Caesar, as praetor, assumed office January 1, 62 B.C., the day after Cicero laid down the consulship; but the new tribunes for the year 62 assumed office early in December of 63.) they would not permit him to harangue the people, but placing their benches so as to command the rostra, would not suffer or allow him to speak; instead, they ordered him, if he wished, merely to pronounce the oath usual on giving up office, and then come down.

Cicero accepted these terms and came forward to pronounce his oath; and when he had obtained silence, he pronounced, not the usual oath, but one of his own and a new one, swearing that in very truth he had saved his country and maintained her supremacy. And all the people confirmed his oath for him. At this Caesar and the tribunes were still more vexed and contrived fresh troubles for Cicero. Among other things, a law was introduced by them for calling Pompey home with his army, in order, forsooth, that he might put down the arbitrary power of Cicero.

But Cato, who was tribune at this time, was a great help to Cicero and to the whole state, and opposed the measures of the other tribunes with an authority equal to theirs and a greater good repute. For he easily put a stop to their other projects, and so highly extolled the arbitrary power of Cicero in a speech to the people, that they voted him the greatest honours ever conferred and called him the father of his country. For he was the first, as it seems, to receive this title,[*](Cicero himself nowhere says this, nor does he mention Cato in connection with the title. In his oration in Pisonem, 3, 6, he says that Quintus Catulus gave him the title in the Senate.) after Cato had given it to him before the people.

So at this time Cicero had the greatest power in the state, but he made himself generally odious, not by any base action, but by continually praising and magnifying himself, which made him hateful to many. For there could be no session either of senate or assembly or court of justice in which one was not obliged to hear Catiline and Lentulus endlessly talked about.

Nay, he even went so far as to fill his books and writings with these praises of himself; and he made his oratory, which was naturally very pleasant and had the greatest charm, irksome and tedious to his hearers, since this unpleasant practice clung to him like a fatality. But nevertheless, although he cherished so strong an ambition, he was free from envying others, since he was most ungrudging in his encomiums upon his predecessors and contemporaries, as may be gathered from his writings.

There are also many sayings of his on record which prove this; for instance, he said of Aristotle that he was a river of liquid gold,[*](Acad. Prior. ii. 38, 119.) and of the dialogues of Plato that Jupiter, were it his nature to use human speech, would thus discourse,[*](Brutus, 31, 121 (si Graece loquatur).) Theophrastus, too, he used to call his own special delight. And when he was asked which of the speeches of Demosthenes he thought the best, he replied, the longest.