Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
Of his birth it is reported, that his mother was delivered
without pain or labor, on the third of the new Calends, the
same day on which now the magistrates of Rome pray and sacrifice
for the emperor. It is said, also, that a vision appeared to
his nurse, and foretold the child she then suckled should
afterwards become a great benefit to the Roman States. To such
presages, which might in general be thought mere fancies and
idle talk, he himself erelong gave the credit of true
prophecies. For as soon as he was of an age to begin to have
lessons, he became so distinguished for his talent, and got such
a name and reputation amongst the boys, that their fathers would
often visit the school, that they might see young Cicero, and
might be able to say that they themselves had witnessed the
quickness and readiness in learning for which he was renowned.
And the more rude among them used to be angry with their
children, to see them, as they walked together, receiving Cicero
with respect into the middle place. And being, as Plato would
have, the scholar-like and philosophical temper, eager for every
kind of learning, and indisposed to no description of knowledge
or instruction, he showed, however, a more peculiar propensity
to poetry; and there is a poem now extant, made by him when a
boy, in tetrameter verse, called Pontius Glaucus. And
afterwards, when he applied himself more curiously to these
accomplishments, he had the name of being not only the best
orator, but also the best poet of Rome. And the glory of his
rhetoric still remains, notwithstanding the many new modes in
speaking since his time; but his verses are forgotten and out of
all repute, so many ingenious poets having followed him.
Leaving his juvenile studies, he became an auditor of Philo the
Academic, whom the Romans, above all the other scholars of
Clitomachus, admired for his eloquence and loved for his
character. He also sought the company of the Mucii, who were
eminent statesmen and leaders in the senate, and acquired from
them a knowledge of the laws. For some short time he served in
arms under Sylla, in the Marsian war. But perceiving the
commonwealth running into factions, and from faction all things
tending to an absolute monarchy, he betook himself to a retired
and contemplative life, and conversing with the learned Greeks,
devoted himself to study, till Sylla had obtained the
government, and the commonwealth was in some kind of settlement.
At this time, Chrysogonus, Sylla's emancipated slave, having
laid an information about an estate belonging to one who was
said to have been put to death by proscription, had bought it
himself for two thousand drachmas. And when Roscius, the son
and heir of the dead, complained, and demonstrated the estate to
be worth two hundred and fifty talents, Sylla took it angrily to
have his actions questioned, and preferred a process against
Roscius for the murder of his father, Chrysogonus managing the
evidence. None of the advocates durst assist him, but fearing
the cruelty of Sylla, avoided the cause. The young man, being
thus deserted, came for refuge to Cicero. Cicero's friends
encouraged him, saying he was not likely ever to have a fairer
and more honorable introduction to public life; he therefore
undertook the defense, carried the cause, and got much renown
for it.
But fearing Sylla, he traveled into Greece, and gave it out that
he did so for the benefit of his health. And indeed he was lean
and meager, and had such a weakness in his stomach, that he
could take nothing but a spare and thin diet, and that not till
late in the evening. His voice was loud and good, but so harsh
and unmanaged that in vehemence and heat of speaking he always
raised it to so high a tone, that there seemed to be reason to
fear about his health.
When he came to Athens, he was a hearer of Antiochus of Ascalon,
with whose fluency and elegance of diction he was much taken,
although he did not approve of his innovations in doctrine. For
Antiochus had now fallen off from the New Academy, as they call
it, and forsaken the sect of Carneades, whether that he was
moved by the argument of manifestness and the senses, or, as
some say, had been led by feelings of rivalry and opposition to
the followers of Clitomachus and Philo to change his opinions,
and in most things to embrace the doctrine of the Stoics. But
Cicero rather affected and adhered to the doctrines of the New
Academy; and purposed with himself, if he should be disappointed
of any employment in the commonwealth, to retire hither from
pleading and political affairs, and to pass his life with quiet
in the study of philosophy.
But after he had received the news of Sylla's death, and his
body, strengthened again by exercise, was come to a vigorous
habit, his voice managed and rendered sweet and full to the ear
and pretty well brought into keeping with his general
constitution, his friends at Rome earnestly soliciting him by
letters, and Antiochus also urging him to return to public
affairs, he again prepared for use his orator's instrument of
rhetoric, and summoned into action his political faculties,
diligently exercising himself in declamations, and attending the
most celebrated rhetoricians of the time. He sailed from Athens
for Asia and Rhodes. Amongst the Asian masters, he conversed
with Xenocles of Adramyttium, Dionysius of Magnesia, and
Menippus of Caria; at Rhodes, he studied oratory with
Apollonius, the son of Molon, and philosophy with Posidonius.
Apollonius, we are told, not understanding Latin, requested
Cicero to declaim in Greek. He complied willingly, thinking
that his faults would thus be better pointed out to him. And
after he finished, all his other hearers were astonished, and
contended who should praise him most, but Apollonius, who had
shown no signs of excitement whilst he was hearing him, so also
now, when it was over, sat musing for some considerable time,
without any remark. And when Cicero was discomposed at this, he
said, "You have my praise and admiration, Cicero, and Greece my
pity and commiseration, since those arts and that eloquence
which are the only glories that remain to her, will now be
transferred by you to Rome."
And now when Cicero, full of expectation, was again bent upon
political affairs, a certain oracle blunted the edge of his
inclination; for consulting the god of Delphi how he should
attain most glory, the Pythoness answered, by making his own
genius and not the opinion of the people the guide of his life;
and therefore at first he passed his time in Rome cautiously,
and was very backward in pretending to public offices, so that
he was at that time in little esteem, and had got the names, so
readily given by low and ignorant people in Rome, of Greek and
Scholar. But when his own desire of fame and the eagerness of
his father and relations had made him take in earnest to
pleading, he made no slow or gentle advance to the first place,
but shone out in full luster at once, and far surpassed all the
advocates of the bar. At first, it is said, he, as well as
Demosthenes, was defective in his delivery, and on that account
paid much attention to the instructions, sometimes of Roscius
the comedian, and sometimes of Aesop the tragedian. They tell
of this Aesop, that whilst he was representing on the theater
Atreus deliberating the revenge of Thyestes, he was so
transported beyond himself in the heat of action, that he struck
with his scepter one of the servants, who was running across the
stage, so violently, that he laid him dead upon the place. And
such afterwards was Cicero's delivery, that it did not a little
contribute to render his eloquence persuasive. He used to
ridicule loud speakers, saying that they shouted because they
could not speak, like lame men who get on horseback because they
cannot walk. And his readiness and address in sarcasm, and
generally in witty sayings, was thought to suit a pleader very
well, and to be highly attractive, but his using it to excess
offended many, and gave him the repute of ill nature.
He was appointed quaestor in a great scarcity of corn, and had
Sicily for his province, where, though at first he displeased
many, by compelling them to send in their provisions to Rome,
yet after they had had experience of his care, justice, and
clemency, they honored him more than ever they did any of their
governors before. It happened, also, that some young Romans of
good and noble families, charged with neglect of discipline and
misconduct in military service, were brought before the praetor
in Sicily. Cicero undertook their defense, which he conducted
admirably, and got them acquitted. So returning to Rome with a
great opinion of himself for these things, a ludicrous incident
befell him, as he tells us himself. Meeting an eminent citizen
in Campania, whom he accounted his friend, he asked him what the
Romans said and thought of his actions, as if the whole city had
been filled with the glory of what he had done. His friend
asked him in reply, "Where is it you have been, Cicero?" This
for the time utterly mortified and cast him down, to perceive
that the report of his actions had sunk into the city of Rome as
into an immense ocean, without any visible effect or result in
reputation. And afterwards considering with himself that the
glory he contended for was an infinite thing, and that there was
no fixed end nor measure in its pursuit, he abated much of his
ambitious thoughts. Nevertheless, he was always excessively
pleased with his own praise, and continued to the very last to
be passionately fond of glory; which often interfered with the
prosecution of his wisest resolutions.
On beginning to apply himself more resolutely to public
business, he remarked it as an unreasonable and absurd thing
that artificers, using vessels and instruments inanimate, should
know the name, place, and use of every one of them, and yet the
statesman, whose instruments for carrying out public measures
are men, should be negligent and careless in the knowledge of
persons. And so he not only acquainted himself with the names,
but also knew the particular place where every one of the more
eminent citizens dwelt, what lands he possessed, the friends he
made use of, and those that were of his neighborhood, and when
he traveled on any road in Italy, he could readily name and show
the estates and seats of his friends and acquaintance. Having
so small an estate, though a sufficient competency for his own
expenses, it was much wondered at that he took neither fees nor
gifts from his clients, and more especially, that he did not do
so when he undertook the prosecution of Verres. This Verres,
who had been praetor of Sicily, and stood charged by the
Sicilians of many evil practices during his government there,
Cicero succeeded in getting condemned, not by speaking, but in a
manner by holding his tongue. For the praetors, favoring
Verres, had deferred the trial by several adjournments to the
last day, in which it was evident there could not be sufficient
time for the advocates to be heard, and the cause brought to an
issue. Cicero, therefore, came forward, and said there was no
need of speeches; and after producing and examining witnesses,
he required the judges to proceed to sentence. However, many
witty sayings are on record, as having been used by Cicero on
the occasion. When a man named Caecilius, one of the freed
slaves, who was said to be given to Jewish practices, would have
put by the Sicilians, and undertaken the prosecution of Verres
himself, Cicero asked, "What has a Jew to do with swine?"
verres being the Roman word for a boar. And when Verres began
to reproach Cicero with effeminate living, "You ought," replied