(b) CICERO

The race of man shall perish from the earth before the glory of Cicero shall perish from their memories. VELLEIUS PATERCULUS

Cicero stands near the end of the age of conflict and disruption. From his pages we can reconmstruct much of the story of his time, as seen from the viewpoint of a member of the aristocracy. He was born in 106 BC and was put to death by Antony a year after the murder of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. His extant works take up eighteen volumes in a small pocker edition published in 1823; three volumes of ‘rhetorical’ treatises (or literary criticism and ‘education’), six volumes of speeches written to be delivered in Senate or law-court, four of philosophical works and one of fragments. In all these pages there is little that tells us of the manner of life led by the majority; in Latin literature, as in Greek, the outlook is that of the few. In Rome the government was in the hands of an oligarchy drawn from families ennobled by service to the state and counting among its numbers the most highly cultivated men of the day, In the writings of Cicero, the strength and the weaknesses, the blind prejudices, the massive culture, and the corruption of private and pulic integrity stand out clearly. He was a ‘new man,’ that is, he did not belong to one of the old families; he came from Arpinum, and like many before him he had migrated to Rome to stand for office as the preliminary to a public career. He was eminently successful, and after his famous consulship in 63 BC had held a short and inconspicuous term of office as proconsul in Cilicia. In senatorial circles – for, of course, he was a senator – he moved freely, for he was a leading advocate, politician and man of letters. Occasionally a slight trace of social uneasiness can be detected. He loved Rome and was miserable when away from it. To him and to his circle the only work that counted as work was in the service of the state (negotium); all else, no matter how urgent or exacting, was ‘time off,’ even though it might include a man’s main livelihood. For this class, land was the only worthy occupation; trade and industry were not acceptable pursuits. It was not that these men were above money; money was their curse, and some of the largest fortunes of history were gathered into the hands of men like Lucullus and Crassus, and were often expended on luxuries wicked and futile; moreover, towards the end of the Republic, senators evaded the rules forbidding them to have interests in trade and industry and transacted business of all kinds through intermediaries. What they disliked was retail trade and the routine of manufacture. But they were on close terms with contractors and producers ‘in a big way’ and with financiers and bankers; and they readily sold their estates and country houses and bought others, and speculated in the land and ‘house-property’ markets.

These men of senatorial rank moved about Rome and Italy and the provinces as though they were a race apart.. [Section report //]

NOW LADIES i WANT YOU’ALL TO BE ON your BEST BEHAVIOUR ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT AS WE ‘GO’ TO ( b ) THE FIRST AND SECOND CENTURIES A. D.

O Jupiter of the Capital, O Mars Gradivus, author and stablisher of the Roman name, O Vesta, guardian of the sacred flame that burns forever, and all the gods who have lifted this massive Roman Empire to the grandest pinnacle of the whole world – upon you in the name of the people I call in supplication : guard, preserve, protect this order, this power, this Emporer : [and when he has discharged his spell of duty upon earth, as prolonged as it can be, then raise up at the last hour men to succeed him, men whose shoulders shall be no less broad to bear the burden of world empire than we have seen this Emporer’s to be : and of the counsels of all citizens prosper what is pleasing to you, [and bring to nought what is unpleasing.] VELLEIUS PATERCULTUS

… the unmeasured majesty of the Roman [peace]. PLINY THE ELDER

[Rome is our common fatherland.] MODESTINUS (Digest)

To be continued