The sueeeas of Cicero, in crushing the Catilinarian conspiracy, would probably have earned for him the unmixed good-will of the arinto ratio party, had be not offended them by the vanity and presumption which that snceseas engendered, and which were the more offensive to them in ono whose origin they despised. So completely was he carried away by his sense of his services to his country that he wrote a history of his consulship in Creek, and even sung his own glories iu verse; but the moat decisive evidence of his unbounded vanity is the extraordinary letter which he addressed to his friend Lucceius. (' Ad Yam,' v. 13.) On the other side he had damaged his reputation with the people by his evident change of principles ; and the precipitate execution of the conspirators, without the form of atrial, was an offence against the laws of the country which the sanction of the senate could not justify. Already on his laying down his office there were symptoms of that hostility which gradually increased, and in a few years drove him in disgrace from the city which he had lately saved.
But we must return for awhile to his forensic exertions. While the associate. in the crimes of Catiline were, for the most part, prosecuted and driven into banishment, it pleased the party of the senate to screen P. Sulla, whose guilt is generally asserted by the historians of the liorteusius and Cicero were his advocates, and the support of the latter is reported to have been bought by a loan of money, which Cicero required for a purchase be was then making of a hones on the Palatine Hill. To see this in its true light, it shonht be recollected that the receipt of a fee was at variance with the avowed principles of the Roman her. The anecdote stands upon the authority of A. Oellius, which might have been insufficient, were it not indirectly yet decisively confirmed by more than one passage in Cicero's letters. In the following year Quintus Cicero, the brother of the orator, was appointed to the government of the rich province of Asia, as successor to L. Flamm!, who mime hnnie with the usual reputation for extortion, for which be was called to account two years after. This I.. blaocus had been the chief prtetor in the consulship of Cicero, and in that capacity bad been of great service in the detection of the conspiracy, so that he had a certain claim upon Cicero, which was not neglected. But this trial was preceded by one of the same nature which more nearly concerned the orator.• C. Antonius, who had been his colleague in the consulship, was recalled from the provinceof Macedonia, where he had presided for two years, and had to defend himself against an impeachment for the gross rapacity of which he had been guilty. This province had originally fallen to the lot of Cicero, who took credit on many occasions for his disinterestedness in transferring the lucrative appointment to his colleague. lie omitted to state that there was a secret agreement between them, by which Antonin. bound himself to make a pecuniary return to Cicero ; and the extortion of which the proconsul had 1?een guilty was in part owing to this obli gation. The very day on which Antonius was condemned was marked by an event still more fatal to the peace of Cicero—the adoption of Clodius, his enemy, into a plebeian family. The object of this cere mony was to render Clodins eligible to the tribunate, from which, as a patrician, he was excluded ; and no sooner was the obstacle removed than he offered himself as • candidate, and was elected without oppo sition. After some little manoeuvring, the cause and object of which ars not very intelligible, he made public advertisement of several now laws, which were all alined at the authority of the senate; and among thous was one to the effect that whoever took the life of a citizen un condemned and without a trial should be interdicted from fire and water. Although Cicero was not named in this law, it was so evidently aimed at him, that it was necessary for him at once to decide upon the course he would purses. Some recommended him to resist the law by force, but when he found that Pompey was unwilling to support him, be took the advice of his friends Cato and llortensius, which coincided with the views of Atticus, and leaving the field to his adversaries, went Into voluntary exile. Leaving Rome towards the
end of March (he. 53), he proceeded to Vibes with the intention of crocking over into Sicily, bnt from this he was prohibited by the governor, Virgilits, although he was of the same political party, and was under obligation. to Cicero. He received about the same time information from Rome that a special law had been passed. which forbade bids to appear within a distance of four hundred miles. Under these circumstances be changed his route, and proceeded first to Brundisium, where ho was hospitably entertained for some weeks, in defiance of the law. Ile then crossed over to Dyrrachium, where ho was received by Plancius, the qtester of the province, and conducted by him to Thessalonice. The conduct of Cicero in his exile was such as might have been expected from one whose mind bad been so extravagantly elated in prosperity. He gave himself up entirely to despondency; spoke of his best friends as enemies in disguise, not even sparing Atticus and Cato; and so completely lost the control of his feelings and his conduct, that his mind was supposed to be deranged. In the meantime, his friends at Rome, whore fidelity ho doubted, were actively engaged in taking measures for his recall. Already on tho Bit of June an unsuccessful motion was made in the senate to that effect. The election, too, of his friend Lentulus Spinther to the consulate, offered a brighter prospect for the ensuing year, but in the interval there occurred a little incident which pre him fresh uueasiness. Some of his enemies had published an oration, which he had composed some years before in an angry moment, against an emiuent senator, and had shown privately to his intimate frieuda. Its appearance at so untoward a momeut alarmed Cicero, who imagined that it had been destroyed, and ho wrote to Atticus requesting him to disavow it. "Fortunately," says he, "I never had any public dispute with him, and as the speech is not written with my usual care, I think you may convince the world that it is a forgery." Towards the end of the year his residence at Thesaalonica became disagreeable to him, and indeed he thought dangerous. Ills enemy I'ise had been appointed governor of Macedonia, and the troops who were to serve under him were already expected. Even before this, 1 some of the accomplices of Catiline, who were living in Macedonia as exiles, had been plotting, it. was said, against the life of Cicero. He therefore found it safer to remove to Dyrrachium, where ho had friends, although it fell within the distance prohibited by the law. His residence upon this coast afforded an opportunity likewise for an interview with Ilia friend Atticus, who was in the habit of visiting a favourite estate near Buthrotum. While Cicero was harassing him self with perpetual fears and suspicions, his cause was proceediug prosperously at Rome. The tribuuate of Clodius terminated in December; the new tribunes were, almost without exception, friendly to his recall ; and on the first day of the new year the new consul Leutulus moved the senate for his restoration. /lie opponents however were not yet driven from the field. The tribunitial veto was employed more than once to check the proceedings. Scenes of riot and bloodshed disgraced the streets of Rome. Yet at last, ou the 25th of May, a decree in his favour passed the senate ; and on the 4th of August a law, in confirmation of the decree, was carried by the people in the great meeting of the Centuries. Cicero, in anticipa tion of these measures, had embarked for Italy on the very day the decree of the senate was paeeed, and landed tho next day at Brundiaium, where he was received by his daughter Tullia. The inhabitauts of tho city were profuse in the honours they paid him, and when the news, that the law had passed the Centuries, summoned him to Rome, the inhabitants of the cities through which ho passed flocked in crowds to congratulate him.