When Cresar prooeeded to Spain to oppose the Pompeian troops under Afranius, he left Antony in command of Italy, with especial directions to watch the movements of Cicero, who, residing upon the coast, occasionally showed symptoms of a disposition to slip off and join Pompey In Greece. This vacillation was not unobserved by Antony, and drew from him a monitory letter; but in vain. An account of some temporary success obtained by Afranius in Spain, magnified by himself and injudicious friends into a certain prospect of speedily destroying Crow and his army, led many of the wavering to fly from Italy to the camp in Greece. Cicero appears to have been one of these; at any rate he Intel') his escape in the early part of June, and met with a cold welcome from the army of the senate. He was not present at the battle of Pharsalie, having stayed behind at Dyr rachium, where he received the news of that decisive engagement, and, refusing to join those who determined to cross over into Africa with the intention of still maintaining the war, he again committed himself to the mercy of the conqueror, and landed at Brundisium at the end of October p.c. 48. Here ho passed many miserable months, the laurels upon his fasces drawing upon him an attention which he would gladly have avoided, while the news of Caesar's difficulties in Egypt and the successes of the Pompeiens in Africa again inclined the balance of the war. All this time he had received no intimation of par don from Caviar himself, though he was assured of his safety by Ccesar's friends. On the other band, should the Pompeians ultimately succeed (and they were already talking confidently of coming over from Africa into Italy), he was sure to be treated as a deserter, for he well knew that while Caesar pardoned even his enemies when they submitted to his power, it was a declared law on the other side to consider all as enemies who were not actually in their camp. After a long series of mortifications, he was cheered at last by a kind letter from Cmsar him self, and still more when Cmsar landed at Bruodisium after his success ful expeditions in the east, and gave him a reception which at once removed his fears and induced him to follow the conqueror to Rome. About the end of the year Cmsar embarked for Africa, and again the empire was in suspense; for the name of Scipio was thought ominous and invincible on that ground. Cicero, to relieve his mind, now shut himself up with his books, and entered into a close friendship with Varro ; a friendship which was consecrated by the mutual dedication of their learned works to each other—of Cicero'a 'Academic Questions' to Varro, of Varro's Treatise on the Latin Language' to Cicero. One of the fruits of this leisure was his dialogue on famous orators, called Brutus,' in which he gives a short character of the chief orators of Greece and Rome. But though the work was finished at this time, it was not made public till the year following after the death of his daughter Tullis..
He now parted with his wife Terentia, who had lived with him more than thirty years; and whatever may have been the causes or pretexts for this separation, he exposed himself to no little suspicion by marrying, almost immediately after, a young ward named Publilia, possessing much beauty and very considerable property, over which be hal been placed as trustee by her father's will. Terentia subse quently married Sallust, the historian, and even after his death again mitered the marriage state once, if not twice. She is said to have lived to the age of 103. Amid these domestic, troubles, Cicero perhaps found some consolation iu the marked attention paid to him by Creear, who returned victorious from Africa in the summer of KO. 46; but any gratification he may have derived from this source
must have been diminished by his consciousness of the offence he was giving to 10 former friends through his close intimacy with the dic tator. The panegs ric which he composed about this titno in honour of Cato has indeed often been alleged as a proof of his being no temporiser; but if the treatise had come down to us, we should pro bably have found that Cicero had succeeded most happily in blending his eloge upon the conquered with a well-tempered flattery of the conqueror. That he possessed this happy and useful talent is apparent from the speech he delivered at this time in favour of Ligarius, and the defence of Marcellus might be put in evidence to the same effect, if there were not strong grounds for doubting the authenticity of the oration bearing that name. At the end of the year Caesar was called away in great haste into Spain to oppose the sons of Pompey ; and youug Cicero requested his father's permission to go to Spain, that he might serve under Cmear with his cousin Quintus, who was already gone thither. Cicero objected to his serving in arms their former friends, and thought it more desirable that he go to Athens to devote a few years to philosophy and literature. Soon after he had parted from his son, whom he was doomed never again to see, he was oppressed by the severest affliction, the death of his daughter in child-bed. Tullis had been thrice married ; first to Pim, who died about the time of Cicero's return from exile, and then to Crsssipes. For her third marriage with Dolabella both parties qualified them selves by a divorce from their consorts ; and at the time of her death arrangements for another divorce had been carried so far that her father was already applying for payment of an instalment upon her dowry.
In this new grief Cicero drew little comfort from the condolence of his friends. All the relief that he found was in reading and writing, and he composed a treatise Of Consolation' for himself, which was much read by the fathers of the Christian Church, especially Lac tantius, to whom we are indebted for the few fragments that remain. His domestic grief was completed by the misery of his ill-assorted which he was happy to dissolve after a union of less than a year. In this desolate condition he fled as usual to his booka and no period of his life produced a richer literary harvest. He has himself given us a list of the works which he wrote in this and the following year. (' De Div.,' ii., 1.) The ' Orator ' completed his rhetorical works, forming a sort of supplement to his three books entitled 'De Orators,' and the 'Brutus.' His philosophical writings of this period were, the Ilortcnsiusa so called iu honour of his deceased friend, in which he recommends the study of philosophy ; four books in defence of the Academy, dedicated, as has been already mentioned, to Varro • five books entitled 'De Fiaibusa and addressed to Brutus, in which he contrasts tho opinions of the different sects of philosophy on the subject of the summum bonum ; the Tusculan disputations, in the same number of books, on a variety of points which involve the happiness of human life; three books on the Nature of the Gods; one on Divination, or the art of seeing into futurity; another on Fate ; and the Ifeautiful treatise on Old Age. These were followed by an essay on Glory, which has been lost since the invention of printing; the Topim,' addressed to his friend Trebatius ; and the 'Do °Melia,' which was dedicated to his son.