[Born at Arpinum, B.C. 106. Died at Formiae, B.C. 43. Aged 63.]
The acknowledged greatest name in Roman eloquence. A man diligent in
accomplishing himself by various study, and wonderfully gifted with the
power of clothing thought in copious and musical words. He is less
distinguished as an original thinker. He frequented the schools of the
philosophers, but seemed in heart more dedicated to the worldly ambition
of power and fame than to the studious zeal of truth. He courted
popularity, and lived in anticipated immortality. He was an ambiguous
partisan, waiting to be directed by victory to the side which he should
embrace. He loved to throw an air of philosophical reflexion over
questions of human affairs; and his expression of these reflexions is
felt even to this day as singularly felicitous. We quote his words,
because we can find no apter expression yet for the permanent thoughts.
His writings show him undisguisedly vain. After the assassination of the
great Julius (B.C. 44), he became the leader of the republican party,
and in his celebrated “Philippics” denounced Antony as the foe of his
country. This was his ruin. On the formation of the Triumvirate of
Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, he was included in the proscriptions; his
head was cut off, and fixed upon the Rostra which had so frequently
resounded with his eloquence. His greatest political achievement was the
detection and sudden overthrow of the revolutionary conspiracy headed by
Catiline (B.C. 63), his brilliant denunciations of whom we listen to in
our boyhood. Kind and pure in his life, but without true greatness of
character, and with many moral weaknesses.
[From the marble in the Vatican. Considered to be the most faithful
portrait of this renowned orator. No. 120A is from the Gallery of
Philosophers of the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.]
120A. CICERO--MARCUS TULLIUS. _Roman Orator._