We have now to regard Cicero in a new character-that of governor of a province-and in this he deserves our almost unqualified praise. It would be little at the present day to say of the governor of an English colony that his hands were clean, his administration was just, and his integrity unimpeached; but at Rome the case was very different. The proconsuls and proprætors set out for their respective provinces like rapacious vultures, swooping down upon their prey. A province was the El Dorado by which ruined fortunes were to be restored, and from which the ex-governor returned to live in luxurious magnificence at home. The case of Verres was only an exaggerated example of what constantly occurred. He sinned in degree, but hardly in kind, more than many others. No impeachment was so frequent at Rome as an impeachment de repetundis, to make the ex-proconsul disgorge the plunder of his province, and punish him for the malversation of the funds entrusted to his care. No doubt the accusation was often used as a mere engine of attack to damage a political opponent; but the numerous convictions show how wide-spread the corruption

was.

De Quincey says: "The prolongation of these lieutenancies beyond the legitimate year was one source of enormous evil; and it was the more rooted an abuse because 1 Collected Works-Cicero.

B.C. 51-50. CICERO's character as GOVERNOR. 309

very often it was undeniable that other evils arose in the opposite scale from a succession of governors, upon which principle no consistency of local improvements could be secured, nor any harmony even in the administration of justice, since each successive governor brought his own system of legal rules. As to the other and more frequent abuses in extortions from the province, in garbling the accounts, and defeating all scrutiny at Rome, in embezzlement of military pay, and in selling every kind of private advantage for bribes, these have been made notorious by the very circumstantial exposure of Verres; but some of the worst evils are still unpublished, and must be looked for in the indirect revelations of Cicero when himself a governor, as well as the incidental relations by special facts and cases." It is no light merit in Cicero to have been in advance of the morality of his age, and amidst the darkness of paganism to have exhibited the equity and self-denial of a Christian statesman. But a government was just the sphere in which he was fitted to shine. His love of justice, his kindness, his humanity, his disinterestedness, were qualities which all there came into play, without the disturbing causes which at Rome misled him more than once"To know the best, and yet the worse pursue."

The exhibition of a little harmless vanity seems really, with two exceptions to be noticed hereafter, the only charge which can fairly be brought against him as a proconsul of Cilicia; and if there is not much to interest us in the period of his government, there is happily hardly anything to condemn.

One advantage that we gain from his absence abroad is the renewal of his correspondence with Atticus, which had been interrupted for upwards of two years and a half while they had both been resident in Rome; but after he had set out on his journey, and until he quitted Italy, he wrote almost daily to his friend.

Quintus had returned from Gaul, and gone to Arcanum, one of his country seats, where, having accepted the office of lieutenant to his brother, he was only waiting to join him on the road. The old bickering between him and his wife Pomponia still continued; and the lady's temper had certainly not improved by age. Cicero mentions an anecdote of her at this time which shows that she could make herself

very unamiable. province, Quintus came to meet him at Arpinum, and they proceeded together to Arcanum, where Pomponia was. Unfortunately Quintus sent one of his servants on before to order dinner, which gave offence to the mistress of the house as interfering with her arrangements. When they arrived, her husband, in the kindest tone (so Cicero thought), said, "Pomponia, do you invite the ladies amongst our neighbours, and I will ask the gentlemen." "Oh!" she replied sharply, and looking as cross as possible, "I am only a stranger here." Poor Quintus turned to his brother and said, "You see what I have to endure daily." The company sat, or, as Cicero expresses it, lay down to dinner, but Pomponia declined to join them; and when her husband sent her something from the table she declared she would not touch it. The sulky fit lasted for some time; and she refused to sleep that night with her husband-the last before his departure for Asia. Cicero mentioned all this in his letter to Atticus, and advised him to give his sister a hint, saying that he might tell her from him that Quintus was certainly this time not to blame.

As he travelled south to embark for his

His son and nephew both accompanied him to his seat of government, and were under the immediate care of the faithful Dionysius, who acted as their preceptor. At his Cuman villa he had a visit from Hortensius, whose country seat was at Bauli, some distance off. He asked if Cicero had any commands, to which the newly-appointed proconsul answered that the only special favour he begged of him was to do his best to prevent the period of his government from being prolonged. He called it a "tremendous bore" (ingens molestia), and told Atticus his only consolation was that it would not last more than a year. He already felt that he could not be happy away from his beloved Rome; but he might have remembered the advice he gave to Trebatius and to Quintus, when they in Gaul pined after the society of the capital. But it is one thing to preach and another to practise. So many persons came to bid him farewell that he called his Cuman villa quite a little Rome; and it is a proof how sensitive he was to a slight, that, notwithstanding this, he noticed the absence of an acquaintance named Rufius, who had a house in the neighbourhood, but who did not come to say good-bye.

ÆT. 56-57.

VISIT TO POMPEY.

311

Pompey was at his villa near Tarentum, recruiting his health, which had suffered from the fatigues of the consulship; and Cicero spent three days with him on his way to Brundusium, the port at which he was to embark. He gives no particulars of the conversations they had together-indeed he says expressly that they were such as he did not like to trust to a letter but the way in which he speaks of him deserves notice. "I left him," he says, "in an excellent frame of mind, and thoroughly prepared to ward off the danger that is feared." And writing to Cœlius a few weeks later, he used nearly the same language, recommending him to attach himself closely to Pompey, whose estimate of persons was now very much the same as his own.

There can be little doubt that these expressions had reference to Cæsar and his apprehended designs. We must remember that more than two years had elapsed since those letters were written in which Cicero expressed himself in such friendly terms about the absent proconsul of Gaul, and most probably in the interval he had seen reason to change his tone. The approach of the coming storm seems to have been felt both by himself and Pompey, although the exact time and direction of its outburst were still uncertain; but the sky was sufficiently overcast to make the pilots of the commonwealth keep a good look-out ahead. An incident had occurred lately which must have caused an unpleasant impression in Cicero's mind. When Plancus, whom he had prosecuted, was convicted, he took refuge with Cæsar at Ravenna, and was by him received with open arms and loaded with presents. And it is a noticeable fact that Cicero was just now extremely anxious to pay off a debt which he owed to Cæsar. He had some time previously borrowed from him a considerable sum (800,000 sesterces, equal to about £7000), at interest, and he wrote in the most pressing manner to Atticus to pay this for him, out of funds which apparently he had left in the hands of his friend, or on which he had given him a credit. It is very probable that, looking at the signs of the times and the chances that he might have to come into collision with Cæsar, he did not wish to remain under any pecuniary obligation to him. He had found Pompey bent upon going to his Spanish province, of which

he had not yet assumed the government personally, but Cicero strongly dissuaded him, and pressed upon him the expediency of not leaving Italy. He wrote from Brundusium, which he reached on the 22d of May, to Appius Claudius, whom he was about to succeed, and earnestly begged him on no account to disband any of his soldiers, who were already too few, and to make arrangements for leaving the province to him in the best state of equipment and defence possible. The two were now on excellent terms, and as a proof of his friendship, Appius had dedicated to him a work he had written on the College of Augurs, the first volume of which had just appeared.

Cicero stayed at Brundusium for nearly a fortnight waiting for Pomptinus one of his lieutenants. While there he wrote Atticus a letter, which has exposed him to the suspicion of acting with duplicity, if not dishonesty, towards his unfortunate friend Milo, who was then in exile at Marseilles. The material part of the letter is the following:

"I hear from Rome that my friend Milo complains that I have done him an injury in allowing Philotimus (a freedman of Cicero's wife Terentia, and a muchtrusted agent of his own) to be a partner in the purchase of his property. I so acted on the advice of Duronius, whom I know to be an intimate friend of Milo, and the kind of man you take him for. His object, and mine too, was this :— First, that the property might come under my own control, lest an ill-disposed and hostile purchaser might deprive Milo of his slaves, of whom he has a considerable number with him; and next, that his wife Fausta might have her dowry secured, as he wished. Besides, I could thus most easily save something from the wreck, if anything was to be saved at all. But I want you to look carefully into the matter; for I often hear exaggerated reports. If Milo really complains, and writes to his friend about it, and it is also Fausta's wish, do not allow Philotimus to remain in possession of the property against Milo's consent; for so I told him in person, and he engaged to do. It was not an object of any great moment to me. But if the thing is unimportant you will judge what is best to be done."

On the strength of this letter Cicero has been accused of dealing in an underhand manner with Milo's effects, and buying them from some improper motive. But I confess I can see nothing of the kind. His explanation is simple and satisfactory, and I agree with Middleton and Manutius (a much safer authority) that it is rather a proof of his zeal and care for the interests of his friend. But Middleton goes on to say that "Philotimus was suspected of playing the