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M. TULLIUS CICEKO.
completed his Greek education. Ciccro was deficient in
mathematical knowledge; for he never received any instruction
on that subject, which the Greeks themselves rarely neglected.
Another point in which he was deficient was the history of his
own country, a subject of which he never made a regular
study. It had no attractions for him ; but he had an extra-
ordinary partiality for the historians of Greece, especially
IIerodotus and Thucydides, and he was well read in Timaeus
and Theopompus. He was fond of poetry, though only in a
limited sense. The Attic orators were the objects of his
enthusiastic admiration, for he felt that it was his vocation to
become their rival. He possessed the greatest vivacity, an ex-
cellent memory, a quick perception, and remarkable facility of
expression; all gifts which may make a great orator; but the
predominant and most brilliant faculty of his mind was his wit.
In what the French call esprit, light, unexpected, and inex-
haustible wit, he is not excelled by any among the ancients.
If we look at his personal relations, he seems to have passed
his youth without any intimate friend, and it was only in his
maturer age that a pure and true friendship was formed between
him and Atticus. His brother Quintus, for whom he had a
great brotherly affection, was an unworthy man, and in no
way to be compared with him. In his marriage, Cicero was
not happy; his wife Terentia, whom he had been induced by
his friends to marry, was a domineering and disagreeable
woman ; and as, owing to his great sensibility, he allowed him-
self to be influenced very much by those who surrounded him,
his wife also exercised great power over him, which is the
more remarkable, because he had no real love for her. She
unfortunately led him to do things which drew upon him the
enmity of others; and I believe that the implacable hatred
which Clodius entertained towards Cicero was brought upon
him by Terentia. The men of a more advanced age looked
upon him as a very distinguished person, but none of them
ever felt a true affection for him.
On his return from Asia, the SulIanian oppression had ceased;
Sulla himself was dead, the commotion of Lepidus was over,
and a reaction against the tyranny of the oligarchs was begin-
ning. Such a reaction in its origin is always like something
peculiarly youthful and conciliating, people of the most different
parties joining one another and acting together as friends. I
M. TULLIUS CICERO.
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have seen this state of things in France, where; it lasted from 1795
to 1797 '∙ ^ιe persons by whom it was headed were of the most
different characters and inclinations, but they were united
among themselves, animated by a good spirit, and with good
intentions. During the reaction against the tyranny of the
French in Germany, down to the year 1813, I often felt con-
vinced that many persons, who were then closely united, would
give up all connexion with one another, if the reaction should
cease. The event proved that I was right, for of ten who were
then united, not two have kept together. The same was the
case after the reactions against Kobespierre and Sulla had
ceased. Among all classes at Rome, the general opinion was
against Sulla, although his party still had the power in their
hands. This accounts for the manner in which they lost it;
for they themselves, as they grew tired, gave up their advan-
tages one after another; just as the National Convention did,
after the death of Robespierre ; and the consequence was, that
the people at Rome began to feel more safe and comfortable
than they had any reason for, considering the circumstances
of the time. The danger from without, in consequence of the
efforts of Spartacus, was still so great that they ought to have
kept together.
Although it very rarely happened that a novus homo suc-
ceeded in raising himself to the highest offices of the state,
Cicero, who had not distinguished himself in war, resolved
upon obtaining them. All the offices for which he had offered
himself as a candidate had been given to him with the greatest
willingness on the part of the people, and he discharged his
duties in a manner which distinguished him from all his con-
temporaries. He acted upon the principles of a man of honour
—and such he was in the highest degree—not like others, for
the sake of obtaining fame, or with the intention that it should
become known that he had made sacrifices. His pure mind
was above all baseness, and it was only the consequence of his
noble ambition that he wished to shew himself in the most
brilliant light. The feeling that he must distinguish himself,
and his success, were among the sources of that boasting, with
which he has been reproached so often, and from which he
would assuredly have been quite free if he had lived in other
circumstances. He obtained great reputation by his accusation of
Verres, but still mote by his defences; for while the other
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