Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/1098

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advance of his legions upon the capital was a matter of doubt only to those who knew little of his character and less of his resources. With the consuls and the leading men of the aristocracy, Cicero quitted the neighbourhood of Rome on the 17th January. It was the intention of the fugitives to guard what they could of the southern parts of the peninsula, and each had the defence of a particular district intrusted to his care. Cicero was to provide for the security of Formiæ and the district around Capua, but this task he soon relinquished in disgust. A prey to fears, none of which were for his country, and to distractions which began and ended in schemes of personal aggrandizement, he inclined now to the side of Pompey, and now to that of Cæsar, corresponded alternately with the partisans of each and with the enemies of both, and lost in idle recriminations, now against Cæsar and now against Pompey, the opportunity and the credit of serving either. At an interview which he had with Cæsar after the departure of his rival from Brundisium, Cicero promised to observe a strict neutrality during the progress of the war, but not long after, he determined to follow the fortunes of Pompey, and accordingly passed over to Greece, June 49 b.c. After the battle of Pharsalia, which occurred in August of the following year, Cicero, who was not present at the engagement, refusing to accept the command of a fleet and of a strong body of troops offered him by Cato, determined at once to throw himself upon the mercy of the conqueror. He landed at Brundisium about the end of November, and there he remained ten months, awaiting the return of Cæsar from his campaigns in Egypt and Africa. During this period he was a prey to the most abject terror, except when compunction for his desertion of his friends got the better of his fears. He narrowly escaped being put to death by the soldiers of M. Antonius; and a traitor himself, he experienced the treachery of his nearest and dearest friends, his brother and his nephew having at this calamitous period repaid the favours of their illustrious relative, by combining to cast upon him the foulest calumnies and the most opprobrious aspersions. Cæsar returned to Italy in September. He had previously addressed a friendly letter to the orator, and now gave him his hand not only in token of forgiveness, but of respect and affection. The next four years of Cicero's life constitute that period of it in which he was least conspicuous in the political world, and in which he did most to exalt his reputation as a writer. To this period, indeed, belong almost all his philosophical and rhetorical works. The production of these was his resource against misanthropy and idleness, when all other activity was forbidden him by the stern censor who now ruled the destinies of Rome; and it was the resource against sorrow to which he naturally, although unsuccessfully reverted, when assailed, as he now was, by domestic discord and bereavement. After separating from his wife Terentia, and contracting a marriage with one of his wards, a young and beautiful lady named Publila, whom he divorced in the course of a year, he lost his only daughter Tullia, and in this loss experienced the utmost bitterness of domestic misfortune. As the fatal Ides of March approached, Cicero's intimacy with Cæsar seemed daily on the increase; subserviency on the part of the orator, and kindness approaching affection on the part of the dictator, seemed to unite them in the strongest bonds of friendship. But, as soon as the scene of assassination in the senate-house had transpired, Cicero was among the first to declare his satisfaction at having seen the tyrant perish. This identified him with the conspirators, and united his fate with theirs. Obliged to retreat from the city by the growing indignation of the populace, he went first to Rhegium, then crossing to Sicily, arrived at Syracuse on the 1st of August. Leaving this place on the following day, he was driven by cross winds to Leucopetra, where he was assured by some people lately from Rome that he might with safety return to the capital, as the chances of a popular commotion were now over. At Velia, where he touched on his way home, he had his last interview with Brutus. He arrived in the capital on the 31st of August, 43 b.c. Two days afterwards he delivered in the senate-house the first of his celebrated Philippics—a series of violent and intemperate harangues, in which, as its oracle, he expended all the rage of a doomed, but still proud and powerful oligarchy. The purpose of these harangues was to rouse the senate and the people against Antony and his friends; it failed, and hastened the doom of the orator, who had shown no mercy and could expect none. Proscription of their respective enemies followed the coalition of Octavianus and Lepidus with Antony, and among the most odious of Antony's enemies was Cicero. He was at his Tusculan villa with his brother and nephew when he learned the news of the proscription. A rapid flight to Astura on the coast, an unsuccessful attempt to escape by sea, followed next day by another equally unsuccessful, and Cicero was in the hands of the triumvirs' myrmidons. He had reached his villa at Formiæ; in the middle of the night his slaves informed him of the approach of the soldiers; he made an attempt to escape in a litter, but was overtaken in a wood and instantly dispatched. His head and hands, according to Plutarch, were carried to Rome, and by order of Antony affixed to the rostrum in the forum.

The best edition of the complete works of Cicero is that of Orellius. His Life by Conyers Middleton is disfigured by indiscriminate eulogy. Hardly any English translations, except Melmoth's Letters of Cicero, deserve attention. For an admirable account of the works of Cicero, see Smith's Dict. of Greek and Roman Biog.J. S., G.

CICERO, Marcus Tullius, the only son of the great orator and of Terentia, born in 65 b.c. He accompanied his father into Cilicia in 51 b.c.; in the following year passed into Greece, and served with the army of Pompey; after the battle of Pharsalia entered upon a course of study, or rather a career of dissipation, at Athens; was one of the military tribunes under Brutus in his Macedonian campaign; and in the year 30 b.c. was drawn from his retreat in Rome by Octavian, to become consul along with the future emperor. He afterwards held political office in Asia Minor, or, according to some historians, in Syria. So little effect had the De Officiis of the great orator and moralist upon the person for whose use it was written, that, according to Pliny, Cicero the younger was reckoned at Rome a greater drunkard than Antony, who was one of the greatest drunkards of the city.—J. S., G.

CICERO, Quintus Tullius, brother of the orator, born about 102 b.c., was educated along with his brother. He was successively ædile and prætor, and in 61-58 governed Asia as proprætor. On his return to Rome he endeavoured to procure the recall of his brother from banishment; in 55 went as Cæsar's legate into Gaul, and there distinguished himself as an able and gallant soldier; in 49 joined the army of Pompey, and was proscribed by the triumvirs and put to death in 43.—J. S., G.

* CICOGNA, Emmanuele Antonio, an eminent Italian author, was born at Venice in 1789. His Venetian inscriptions "Inscrizioni di Venezia," brought him under the special notice of the Austrian government; under its auspices they are still continued. His treatise on orthography has gone through several editions. Cicogna holds the important office of imperial procurator at the supreme court of Venice.—A. C. M.

CICOGNARA, Leopoldo, Count of, born at Ferrara in 1767; died at Venice in 1834. He first studied law; then for a while gave himself to mathematics and to physical sciences; afterwards became an earnest student of the fine arts. With the object of pursuing these studies, he resided for a considerable time in Rome, and visited Sicily. On his return to Ferrara he was at once occupied in the high duties natural to his rank. We find him member of the legislative council—plenipotentiary of the Cisalpine republic at Turin. He is councillor of state; president of the Academy of fine arts at Venice; and the first Napoleon gives him the order of the iron crown. After the fall of Napoleon the emperor of Austria continued him as president of the Academy of Venice. In his position of president Cicognara was of infinite use to the academy. The creation of new professorships; the real education of pupils by the best instructors; and, what is of less moment, the temptation to students to come to the academy by the offer of pecuniary rewards, are all attributed to him. Of his works, those relating to the antiquities of Venice attracted most attention.—J. A., D.

CID CAMPEADOR, Ruy or Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, the favourite hero of the Spaniards, in whose history and literature he fills much the same place that King Arthur occupies in our own. Of the literature relating to the history of the Cid, it would be out of place to treat in a biographical memoir. So much is the mythical element mixed up with simple history in the accounts which have come down to us, that some critics have altogether denied his existence. There is no reason for carrying scepticism to such a length; but in endeavouring to disentangle the true from the doubtful, we are often driven back on the remark of the canon in Don Quixote, that "there is no reason