Cicero passed from this accusation to fulfil the duties of his office as curile-xdile. The people were passion ately fond of public festivals, and it belonged to that of fice to supply the greater part of those at his own ex pence, the public allowance for them being small, ac cording to the frugality of the old Roman republic. It was dangerous to be frugal on such occasions, as Ma mercus had lost the consulship by declining the xdile ship ; yet Cicero avoided the opposite extreme of prodi gality, by which Cxsar had ruined his fortune. The Sicilians, during his xdileship, gave him effectual proofs of their gratitude, by supplying him largely with all kinds of provisions which their island afforded, for the use of his table and the public feasts ; hut, instead of making any private advantage of their liberality, he ap plied the w hole to the be: etit of the poor, and augmented his popularity by reducing the price of the markets.
IIis private affairs, in the mean time, though not flou rishing, were kept, by good management, in a resp,Tta He condition. Ile had married Terentia, a woman of family, w hose fortune added to his own patrimony. ena bled hint to purchase a house on the Palatine Hill in Rome, and keep up a handsome villa at Arpinum. As there was no honour in the state to which he might not pretend, he was careful to cultivate the favour of the people ; and, at the same time, it must be ow ned, that, amidst a general disposition to patriotism, he kept the favour of the powerful by accommodations, which, in rigid virtue, cannot lie defended. Pompey was aiming at power beyond the limits of the constitution ; yet the necessity which lie found for that great nail's support, made him subservient to his views of ambition. in his fortieth year, Cicero was nominated to the proctorship : be entered his office on the ensuing year, and presided over the courts of justice with great integrity. But the famous oration which he made in favour of the Manilian law, which conferred almost sovereign powers upon Pompey, though one of the noblest monuments of his eloquence, can only be considered as an interested piece of policy, to ingratiate himself at once with Pompey and Caesar ; the former of whom desired the dangerous power which the Manilian law conferred upon him for the sake of its immediate use ; the other wished Pompey to obtain it, most probably that he might establish a prece dent for enormous military commissions, which his con scious genius foretold him that he should one day pos sess.
Cicero had now the consulate in full view. On the expiration of his prxtorship, he therefore refused to ac cept of a province., The consular election took place in his forty-third year. But to pass, for a moment, from the view of his public to his private life, from the states man to the scholar, it is interesting to find hint, at this busiest period of his life, as eager in the pursuit of books and fine specimens of art, as if' his time and fortune had been unoccupied by other objects. In his beautiful re treat at Tuseulum, he had constructed rooms and galle ries in imitation of the schools and porticos of Athens, which he called by thc;r Attic names of the Academy and Gymnasium, and designed for the conferences of his learned friends. , Ile had given Atticus a general com
mission, to purchase for him any piece of Grecian art or sculpture which was elegant and curious : a commission which Atticus executed to his great satisfaction, and sent him, at different times, several cargoes of statues. So intent was Cicero on embellishing his Tusculan Villa, that be sent over to Atticus the plans of his ceilings, which were of stucco-work, in order to bespeak pieces of sculp ture or painting to be inserted in the compartments. Nor was he less intent on forming a Greek library by the same help. Atticus was remarkable, above all men in his rank, for a family of learned slaves, having scarce a footboy in his house who could not both read and write for him. For those copies, however, it appears that Atticus had demanded a sum which the other was yet unable to raise. " Pray, keep your books for me," says Cicero, in one of his letters to Atticus, " and do not despair of my being able to make them mine ; which, if I can compass, I shall think myself richer than Crassus, and despise the fine villas and gardens of them all." In another letter lie continues, "i am setting apart all my little rents to pur chase that relief (a collection of books) for my old age." In a third letter he says," that he placed all his hopes of comfort and pleasure, whenever he should retire from business, on Atticus preserving his libiar) for him." It was greatly to the honour of Ci.nfro, that one of the motives for electing him to the consulship, was the gene ral kat. w inch prevailed of an impending conspiracy. When chosen to that high office, in his forty-fourth year, he found the pubic tranquillity endangered front several cronies. '1' he sons of those who had been proscribed by Si Ili, were brought lOrward by the tribunes as candidates for public offices. An Agrarian law, a measure at all times full of hazard, was proposed by the tribune R till us. The law of Otho, for appropriating separate seats in theatre to the equestrian order, occasioned several popu lar tumults. Above all, the designs of Cataline were aimed at the vital principles of peace and social order. The colleague of Cicero, .4ntoniu.r, was quite ineapabl • of co-operating with him, either by capacity or virtue. therefore. judiciously co.,trived to gut rid of him, by persuading him to accept of the province of Macedon. which he had himself obtained by lot. Ills eloquence and influence were next employed, in opposing the scheme or the demagogue Rullus for an Agrarian law, to be enfoi ced by a decemvirate of commissioners, who were to hat absolute power for five years over all the revenues of the republic ; to require an account from all generals of spoils taken abroad ; to settle colonies; distl•bute, buy, and sell land, and judge of the rights of preptietors at pleasure ; and, in short, to command :di the money and forces of the empire. In this business, Cicero repeated ly challenged the tribunes to come face to face, and dis pute with hint. They were forced at last to submit to him.