Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
determine it by the sword with Clodius. He entreated Pompey to
aid him, who was on purpose gone out of the way, and was staying
at his country-house in the Alban hills; and first he sent his
son-in-law Piso to intercede with him, and afterwards set out to
go himself. Of which Pompey being informed, would not stay to
see him, being ashamed at the remembrance of the many conflicts
in the commonwealth which Cicero had undergone in his behalf,
and how much of his policy he had directed for his advantage.
But being now Caesar's son-in-law, at his instance he had set
aside all former kindness, and, slipping out at another door,
avoided the interview. Thus being forsaken by Pompey, and left
alone to himself, he fled to the consuls. Gabinius was rough
with him, as usual, but Piso spoke more courteously, desiring
him to yield and give place for a while to the fury of Clodius,
and to await a change of times, and to be now, as before, his
country's savior from the peril of these troubles and commotions
which Clodius was exciting.
Cicero, receiving this answer, consulted with his friends.
Lucullus advised him to stay, as being sure to prevail at last;
others to fly, because the people would soon desire him again,
when they should have enough of the rage and madness of Clodius.
This last Cicero approved. But first he took a statue of
Minerva, which had been long set up and greatly honored in his
house, and carrying it to the capitol, there dedicated it, with
the inscription, "To Minerva, Patroness of Rome." And receiving
an escort from his friends, about the middle of the night he
left the city, and went by land through Lucania, intending to
reach Sicily.
But as soon as it was publicly known that he was fled, Clodius
proposed to the people a decree of exile, and by his own order
interdicted him fire and water, prohibiting any within five
hundred miles in Italy to receive him into their houses. Most
people, out of respect for Cicero, paid no regard to this edict,
offering him every attention and escorting him on his way. But
at Hipponium, a city of Lucania, now called Vibo, one Vibius, a
Sicilian by birth, who, amongst many other instances of Cicero's
friendship, had been made head of the state engineers when he
was consul, would not receive him into his house, sending him
word he would appoint a place in the country for his reception.
Caius Vergilius, the praetor of Sicily, who had been on the most
intimate terms with him, wrote to him to forbear coming into
Sicily. At these things Cicero being disheartened, went to
Brundusium, whence putting forth with a prosperous wind, a
contrary gale blowing from the sea carried him back to Italy-
the next day. He put again to sea, and having reached
Dyrrachium, on his coming to shore there, it is reported that an
earthquake and a convulsion in the sea happened at the same
time, signs which the diviners said intimated that his exile
would not be long, for these were prognostics of change.
Although many visited him with respect, and the cities of Greece
contended which should honor him most, he yet continued
disheartened and disconsolate, like an unfortunate lover, often
casting his looks back upon Italy; and, indeed, he was become so
poor-spirited, so humiliated and dejected by his misfortunes,
as none could have expected in a man who had devoted so much of
his life to study and learning. And yet he often desired his
friends not to call him orator, but philosopher, because he had
made philosophy his business, and had only used rhetoric as an
instrument for attaining his objects in public life. But the
desire of glory has great power in washing the tinctures of
philosophy out of the souls of men, and in imprinting the
passions of the common people, by custom and conversation, in
the minds of those that take a part in governing them, unless
the politician be very careful so to engage in public affairs as
to interest himself only in the affairs themselves, but not
participate in the passions that are consequent to them.
Clodius, having thus driven away Cicero, fell to burning his
farms and villas, and afterwards his city house, and built on
the site of it a temple to Liberty. The rest of his property he
exposed to sale by daily proclamation, but nobody came to buy.
By these courses he became formidable to the noble citizens,
and, being followed by the commonalty, whom he had filled with
insolence and licentiousness, he began at last to try his
strength against Pompey, some of whose arrangements in the
countries he conquered, he attacked. The disgrace of this made
Pompey begin to reproach himself for his cowardice in deserting
Cicero, and, changing his mind, he now wholly set himself with
his friends to contrive his return. And when Clodius opposed
it, the senate made a vote that no public measure should be
ratified or passed by them till Cicero was recalled. But when
Lentulus was consul, the commotions grew so high upon this
matter, that the tribunes were wounded in the Forum, and
Quintus, Cicero's brother, was left as dead, lying unobserved
amongst the slain. The people began to change in their
feelings; and Annius Milo, one of their tribunes, was the first
who took confidence to summon Clodius to trial for acts of
violence. Many of the common people and out of the neighboring
cities formed a party with Pompey, and he went with them, and
drove Clodius out of the Forum, and summoned the people to pass
their vote. And, it is said, the people never passed any
suffrage more unanimously than this. The senate, also, striving
to outdo the people, sent letters of thanks to those cities
which had received Cicero with respect in his exile, and decreed
that his house and his country-places, which Clodius had
destroyed, should be rebuilt at the public charge.
Thus Cicero returned sixteen months after his exile, and the
cities were so glad, and people so zealous to meet him, that
what he boasted of afterwards, that Italy had brought him on her
shoulders home to Rome, was rather less than the truth. And
Crassus himself, who had been his enemy before his exile, went
then voluntarily to meet him, and was reconciled, to please his
son Publius, as he said, who was Cicero's affectionate admirer.
Cicero had not been long at Rome, when, taking the opportunity
of Clodius's absence, he went, with a great company, to the
capitol, and there tore and defaced the tribunician tables, in
which were recorded the acts done in the time of Clodius. And
on Clodius calling him in question for this, he answered, that
he, being of the patrician order, had obtained the office of
tribune against law, and, therefore, nothing done by him was
valid. Cato was displeased at this, and opposed Cicero, not
that he commended Clodius, but rather disapproved of his whole
administration; yet, he contended, it was an irregular and
violent course for the senate to vote the illegality of so many
decrees and acts, including those of Cato's own government in
Cyprus and at Byzantium. This occasioned a breach between Cato
and Cicero, which, though it came not to open enmity, yet made a
more reserved friendship between them.
After this, Milo killed Clodius, and, being arraigned for the
murder, he procured Cicero as his advocate. The senate, fearing
lest the questioning of so eminent and high-spirited a citizen
as Milo might disturb the peace of the city, committed the
superintendence of this and of the other trials to Pompey, who
should undertake to maintain the security alike of the city and
of the courts of justice. Pompey, therefore, went in the night,
and occupying the high grounds about it, surrounded the Forum
with soldiers. Milo, fearing lest Cicero, being disturbed by
such an unusual sight, should conduct his cause the less
successfully, persuaded him to come in a litter into the Forum,
and there repose himself till the judges were set, and the court
filled. For Cicero, it seems, not only wanted courage in arms,
but, in his speaking also, began with timidity, and in many
cases scarcely left off trembling and shaking when he had got
thoroughly into the current and the substance of his speech.
Being to defend Licinius Murena against the prosecution of Cato,
and being eager to outdo Hortensius, who had made his plea with
great applause, he took so little rest that night, and was so
disordered with thought and over-watching, that he spoke much
worse than usual. And so now, on quitting his litter to
commence the cause of Milo, at the sight of Pompey, posted, as
it were, and encamped with his troops above, and seeing arms
shining round about the Forum, he was so confounded, that he
could hardly begin his speech, for the trembling of his body,
and hesitance of his tongue; whereas Milo, meantime, was bold
and intrepid in his demeanor, disdaining either to let his hair
grow, or to put on the mourning habit. And this, indeed, seems
to have been one principal cause of his condemnation. Cicero,
however, was thought not so much to have shown timidity for
himself, as anxiety about his friend.
He was made one of the priests, whom the Romans call Augurs, in
the room of Crassus the younger, dead in Parthia. Then he was
appointed, by lot, to the province of Cilicia, and set sail
thither with twelve thousand foot and two thousand six hundred
horse. He had orders to bring back Cappadocia to its allegiance
to Ariobarzanes, its king; which settlement he effected very
completely without recourse to arms. And perceiving the
Cilicians, by the great loss the Romans had suffered in Parthia,
and the commotions in Syria, to have become disposed to attempt
a revolt, by a gentle course of government he soothed them back
into fidelity. He would accept none of the presents that were
offered him by the kings; he remitted the charge of public
entertainments, but daily, at his own house, received the
ingenious and accomplished persons of the province, not
sumptuously, but liberally. His house had no porter, nor was he
ever found in bed by any man, but early in the morning, standing
or walking before his door, he received those who came to offer
their salutations. He is said never once to have ordered any of
those under his command to be beaten with rods, or to have their
garments rent. He never gave contumelious language in his
anger, nor inflicted punishment with reproach. He detected an
embezzlement, to a large amount, in the public money, and thus
relieved the cities from their burdens, at the same time that he
allowed those who made restitution, to retain without further
punishment their rights as citizens. He engaged too, in war, so
far as to give a defeat to the banditti who infested Mount
Amanus, for which he was saluted by his army Imperator. To
Caecilius, the orator, who asked him to send him some panthers
from Cilicia, to be exhibited on the theater at Rome, he wrote,
in commendation of his own actions, that there were no panthers
in Cilicia, for they were all fled to Caria, in anger that in so
general a peace they had become the sole objects of attack. On
leaving his province, he touched at Rhodes, and tarried for some
length of time at Athens, longing much to renew his old studies.
He visited the eminent men of learning, and saw his former
friends and companions; and after receiving in Greece the honors
that were due to him, returned to the city, where everything
was now just as it were in a flame, breaking out into a civil
war.
When the senate would have decreed him a triumph, he told them
he had rather, so differences were accommodated, follow the
triumphal chariot of Caesar. In private, he gave advice to
both, writing many letters to Caesar, and personally entreating
Pompey; doing his best to soothe and bring to reason both the