Cicero - Anthony Everitt [166]
But the most important factor was the change which seems to have taken place in his personality. He showed a new ruthlessness and clarity, as if iron had entered his soul. Perhaps it was simply that by the standards of the age Cicero was an old man and felt he had little to lose. Perhaps his immersion in philosophy had made him clearer about what was important and what could be jettisoned. In any case, step by step, he let himself be drawn towards the center of events and, to the surprise of those who knew him well, Brutus above all, showed himself willing to use unscrupulous and even unconstitutional methods to achieve his ultimate goal: the full, complete and permanent restoration of the Republic.
The day after Cicero’s return Antony called a Senate meeting at which he would propose a new honor in Julius Caesar’s memory. Cicero was working towards a coalition with moderate Caesarians including Hirtius and Pansa who revered the Dictator’s memory. If he opposed the measure publicly he would unnecessarily offend them. So he pleaded exhaustion and kept to his bed.
Antony was furious. During the debate he launched an outspoken attack on Cicero, threatening to send housebreakers in to demolish his home on the Palatine. On September 2, in the Consul’s absence, the Senate was reconvened and Cicero responded to the onslaught with the first of a series of speeches against Antony. He later nicknamed them his “Philippics” (after the Athenian orator Demosthenes’ speeches against Philip of Macedon) in a letter to Brutus, who for the time being was impressed by Cicero’s new firmness and replied that they deserved the title.
Avoiding personal insults and using studiously moderate terms, he followed up Piso’s criticisms a month earlier of Antony’s unconstitutional activities and fraudulent use of Julius Caesar’s papers. It was a well-judged address, carefully aimed at all who occupied the middle ground. The Consul well understood the threat it posed to his position and spent a couple of weeks in his country villa working up a counterblast. At a Senate meeting on September 19 he delivered a comprehensive onslaught on Cicero, who cautiously stayed away: he dissected his career, blaming him for the “murder” of Catilina’s followers, the death of Clodius and the quarrel between Julius Caesar and Pompey. Antony’s aim was to unite all the factions in Rome against Cicero and, above all, to show the veterans that here was the real contriver of their hero’s downfall. If he failed, little in the way of a power base would be left to him in Rome and the affections of the legions would continue to slide toward Octavian. In a letter to Cassius, alluding to a tendency of Antony’s to vomit in public (presumably when drunk), Cicero commented: “Everyone thought he wasn’t speaking so much as spewing up.”
Cicero settled safely in the countryside, where he spent the next month preparing the second of his Philippics, a lengthy, colorful but in the end unappealing invective against Antony, in which he reviewed the Consul’s life episode by episode. Like the speeches against Verres, it was never delivered. He wanted it published, but Atticus doubtless advised against, and the work did not appear until after its author’s death.
At about this time, Cicero learned that an old friend of his, Caius Matius, whom he nicknamed Baldy, was annoyed by some critical remarks he had reportedly made about him. Matius had been devoted to Julius Caesar and was one of the few who had worked