and if philosophers, treasured up their dogmas. Before returning to Rome he passed over to Rhodes, 78 b.c., where he became acquainted with Posidonius, and renewed his Intercourse with Molo, whose critical strictures upon the young orator's style were of great advantage to him in overcoming a certain tendency to prolixity and redundance. After an absence of two years Cicero again appeared in the Roman forum; the improvement that travel had wrought upon his person was universally remarked; but, whether he was a more accomplished orator, or indeed an orator at all, after a long residence In the enervating clime of Athens, was for a time a subject of question among those of his fellow-citizens who thought it patriotism to hate Greek, and the votaries of Greek art. If, however, there was any appearance of indolence or effeminacy about the young orator to justify the taunts of Greekling and scholar with which he was assailed, it was no more than an appearance, and before long the ascendency which he obtained by his splendid powers of declamation over the great orators of the law courts and the forum, Hortensius and Cotta, silenced all cavil, and permanently assigned him the first place in the first rank of Roman orators.
On the completion of his thirtieth year, the age at which he could legally become a candidate for political dignity, Cicero lost no time in offering himself for the office of quæstor, and although comparatively a novus homo, was elected by the votes of all the tribes. In the distribution of provinces by lot it was decided that he should serve in Sicily under Sex. Peducæus, prætor of Lilybæum. The duties of his office, although comparatively simple in ordinary times, were during his tenure of it peculiarly difficult; and the credit for tact, energy, and integrity which he obtained among the Sicilians by supplying the granaries of the capital, then almost in a state of famine, with extraordinary contributions of corn, without wantonly harassing the provincials, he hoped, but with more vanity than prescience, to find echoed and exaggerated in the applause of the Roman tribes. The mortification which, on his landing at Puteoli, he experienced on being abruptly accosted by a distinguished citizen of Rome, who inquired where he had been for some time past, he has himself described in one of his speeches; and the humour of the passage strikes us the more forcibly that some other humiliations which befel the orator in the later part of his career, were recorded by him in terms that, for pungent bitterness of complaint, might have become the lips of Timon himself. The lesson he drew from the neglect which he experienced on his return to Rome was, that in order to stand well with the Romans, it was necessary to keep himself constantly before them; for while their eyes were bright and piercing, their ears were dull. The four years following his return from Sicily in 74 b.c., hardly present any trace of him either in a professional or political capacity. During that period we know, on his own authority, that he conducted a multitude of causes, and that his professional reputation was daily on the increase; but, with the exception perhaps of the oration "Pro. M. Tullio," some fragments of which have been recently discovered, none of his speeches have been so much as indicated by name. Although a comparative blank in the life of Cicero, these years were memorable in the history of Rome. Lucullus was in the East victoriously fighting against Mithridates; Crassus in Italy making head against the daring and heroic Spartacus, and Pompey at home manœuvring—now that he was alienated from Crassus—for the suppression of all authority but his own. In the year 70 b.c. Cicero was a successful candidate for the ædileship; he was elected by a majority in each of the Roman tribes, and obtained a greater number of votes than any of his competitors. Shortly before the election one of the few causes in which he was concerned as prosecutor came on for a hearing—the famous impeachment of Verres, who, while prætor of Syracuse, had roused the indignation of the Sicilians by acts of the most flagrant misgovernment and oppression. Cicero, although strongly averse to appearing in the forum in any other character than that of defender, undertook the impeachment, probably out of gratitude to the accusers, who, during his own term of office in Sicily, had, as we have seen, heaped upon him an amount of adulation which satisfied the demands of his egregious vanity. The accused was not easily brought into court; the Metelli and other powerful families interested in his behalf exerted themselves to wrest the cause out of the hands of Cicero; and when, after a two months' visit to Sicily for the purpose of summoning witnesses and collecting evidence, the undaunted orator returned to Rome amply provided with materials for an impeachment, he was met by a variety of legal manœuvres on the part of Verres agent, Hortensius the consul elect, which, if successful, would have delayed the trial till the commencement of the following year, have brought Verres before a jury of friends, and have sent the Sicilians home to await the arrival of a new tyrant and peculator. All this opposition, however, was unavailing against the energy and circumspection of Cicero, who opened the case in a brief address on the 5th August, and proceeded at once to the examination of witnesses, and the production of the necessary papers. This was sufficient to elicit the feeling of the court. Hortensius gave up the contest as hopeless, and Verres forthwith departed into exile. If this extraordinary trial had run the lengthened course it was expected to take, Cicero was prepared to substantiate his charges in a series of pleadings, and these he afterwards published, perhaps to show his contempt of the supporters of Verres, or perhaps merely to give the Roman world some evidence of his talents for the business of impeachment. However this may be, the trial of Verres has furnished the world with such specimens of oratory as for minute and scrupulous treatment of evidence, and for splendour of declamation, are unmatched among the productions of their author.
In 69 b.c. Cicero entered upon the duties of his new office, the most important of which was to superintend the celebration of the public festivals. The ædiles were accustomed to lavish immense sums on these celebrations. In this Cicero, with his scanty fortune, could not imitate his predecessors. His old friends the Sicilians, however, came to his aid with seasonable supplies, and the great shows of the capital, under the management of Cicero, passed off not unsuccessfully. Two years afterwards he was triumphantly elected to the office of prætor, 67 b.c. In the duties of this magistracy the tastes of the orator were better suited, and his peculiar talents better employed, than in those of the ædileship. He presided in the highest civil court, and besides acted as commissioner in trials for extortion. At the same time that he discharged these official obligations, he was energetically prosecuting the ever-increasing business of his profession. To the period of his prætorship belong his celebrated defence of Cluentius, and his still more famous address in favour of the Manilian law. The same period was marked by the conviction of Licinius Macer in opposition to the prodigious influence of his kinsman, Crassus. By the address in favour of the Manilian law, which was spoken from the rostrum, and commanded the more attention that it was his first political address to the people, Cicero doubtless had private as well as patriotic purposes to serve. The tenor of his life up to this point had been smooth enough, and the ascent to power singularly easy; but the great prize of the consulship was yet to be won; and without the hearty support of one or other of the great parties into which the republic was divided, he could not hope to win it. Pompey was at this time the idol of the masses; to conciliate their idol, as was doubtless one chief purpose of the address, was therefore to court the populace. The party of the optimates, from whose courtesy Cicero would gladly have besought the prize he had in view instead of servilely courting it from the people, were the natural enemies of any man not of their own class who ventured to aspire to the consular seat. The favour of Pompey and of the populace was therefore all in all to the ambitious orator, and the Manilian address was not without its effect, nor intended to be without its effect, in gaining him the favour of both. C. Antonius and the profligate Catiline were the competitors whom Cicero most dreaded; backed as they were by a coalition of the partisans of the politic Cæsar and those of the wealthy Crassus, they were really formidable opponents; but the event belied all expectation, Cicero being chosen by all the centuries, while Antonius, his colleague, obtained only a small majority over Catiline. The eventful year of his consulate—with its tumults, administrative reforms, judicial enactments, and state prosecutions—as belonging rather to the province of the historian than to that of the biographer, we pass over with the remark, that while the new consul in his addresses to the people neglected none of the arts of popularity, he showed unmistakably on various important occasions, that his sympathies lay with the corrupt and selfish oligarchy who had frowned on his access to power, and would have frustrated, if they could, all his efforts to maintain order and dispense justice. This truckling conduct of the consul, if it were at all remarked by the democratic faction, however, was speedily forgotten amid the hurry of preparation for civil strife which began with the
