The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [305]
24. So that he thought it the wisest course to have all outward dangers removed, when Rome had so many inward ones to contend with.
25. Thus Cato, they say, stirred up the third and last war against the Carthaginians; but no sooner was the war begun, than he died.
26. He had lived to a great age, over ninety; and left a reputation which invites a mixed approbation: severe, upright, rigorous, of stern principle,
27. But mean and avaricious, in some ways cold and harsh,
28. Opposed to most of the graces of civilisation, and yet a lover of his country and tireless in its service.
29. There were men of great probity in the republican days of Rome’s early glory,
30. But few as uncompromising and severe as he.
Chapter 67: Cicero
1. Cicero was a lawyer, orator, philosopher, judge, statesman, defender of the Roman Republic,
2. And what is not less than any of these, he was a master of an exquisite Latin prose style that made him a model for writers many centuries after his own lifetime.
3. He lived at the time when the Roman Republic collapsed and became a monarchy,
4. To his great regret and despite his best efforts. He was a flawed man, but a great Roman.
5. When he was young Cicero was eager for every kind of learning,
6. And so distinguished for his talents that the fathers of other boys would often visit his school to witness the quickness in learning for which he was renowned.
7. After school Cicero studied with Philo the Academic, whose eloquence the Romans admired above all the other scholars of Clitomachus; and they loved him too for his character.
8. Cicero also sought the company of the Mucii, who were eminent statesmen and leaders in the senate, and acquired from them a knowledge of the laws.
9. For some short time he served in the army under Sylla, in the Marsian war.
10. But seeing Rome beset by factions, and knowing that the tendency of faction is to produce absolute monarchy,
11. He chose a retired life, conversing with learned Greeks and devoting himself to study;
12. Until Sylla took power in Rome, and by his dictatorship quelled the troubled city for a period.
13. At this time one Chrysogonus, who was Sylla’s emancipated slave, made a fraudulent purchase of an estate for a mere two thousand drachmas.
14. This estate had belonged to a man put to death by proscription, and Chrysogonus had laid an information about it.
15. When Roscius, the heir of the executed man, complained that the estate was worth greatly more than had been paid,
16. Sylla started a prosecution to silence him, Chrysogonus himself managing the evidence.
17. None of the advocates, fearing Sylla, dared to assist Roscius.
18. The young man turned to Cicero for help. Cicero’s friends encouraged him, saying he was never likely to have a more honourable introduction to public life.
19. So he undertook the defence, won, and thus made his first step to fame.
20. But fearing Sylla, he travelled to Greece, saying it was for his health.
21. And indeed he was lean and meagre, with such a weak stomach that he could take only a spare diet, eating once a day after sunset.
22. In Athens he attended lectures by Antiochus of Ascalon, whose fluency and elegance impressed him, although he did not agree with his doctrines.
23. For Antiochus inclined to the Stoics, while Cicero adhered to the New Academy.
24. He planned to pass his life quietly in the study of philosophy if he did not succeed in public life.
25. On receiving news of Sylla’s death, together with letters from his friends at Rome earnestly soliciting him to return to public affairs,
26. Cicero set himself to practise rhetoric, diligently attending the most celebrated rhetoricians of the time, to prepare himself for returning to Rome.
27. He sailed from Athens for Asia and Rhodes. Amongst the Asian masters he conversed with Xenocles of Adramyttium, Dionysius of Magnesia and Menippus of Caria;
28. At Rhodes, he studied oratory with Apollonius, son of Molon, and philosophy with Posidonius.
29. Apollonius, we are told, not understanding Latin, requested Cicero to declaim