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NEW AND GENERAL

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.

NICERO (MARCUS TULLIUS), was one of the greatest men of

CCF antiquity, whether we confider him as an orator, a

statesman, or a philofopher. He was born Jan. 3, in the 647th year of Rome, about 107 years before Chrift. His mother's name was Helvia, who was rich and well defcended. As to his father's family, nothing was delivered of it but in extremes: which is not to be wondered at in the history of a man, whose life was fo expofed to envy, as Cicero's, and who fell a victim at last to the power of his enemies. Some derive his defcent from kings, others from mechanics: but the truth, as it commonly happens in such cases, lay between both: for his family, though it had never borne any of the great offices of the republic, was yet very ancient and honourable; of principal diftinction and nobility in that part of Italy in which it refided; and of equestrian rank, from its first admiffion to the freedom of Rome. The place of his birth was Arpinum; a city anciently of the Samnites, now part of the kingdom of Naples. It had the honour alfo of producing the great C. Marius; which gave occafion to Pompey to fay in a public fpeech, that Rome was indebted to this corporation for two citizens, who had, each in his turn, preferved it from ruin. The territory of Arpinum was rude and mountainous, to which Cicero applies Homer's defcription of Ithaca:

'Tis rough indeed, yet breeds a generous race.

The family feat was about three miles from the town, in a
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fituation extremely pleasant, and well adapted to the nature of the climate. It was furrounded with groves and fhady walks, leading from the house to a river, called Fibrenus; which was divided into two equal ftreams by a little ifland, covered with trees and a portico, contrived both for ftudy and exercise, whither Cicero ufed to retire, when he had any particular work upon his hands. The clearness and rapidity of the stream, murmuring through a rocky channel; the fhade and verdure of its banks, planted with tall poplars; the remarkable coldness of the water; and, above all, its falling by a cascade into the nobler river Liris, a little below the island, prefents us with the idea of a most beautiful scene. This is the defcription which Cicero himself has, in feveral parts of his works, given of the place. But there cannot be a better proof of its delightfulness, than that it is now poffeffed by a convent of monks, and called the Villa of St. Dominic. Upon which the fine writer of his life could not forbear crying out, "Strange revolution! to fee Cicero's porticos converted to monkish cloisters! the feat of the most refined reafon, wit, and learning, to a nursery of fuperftition, bigotry, and enthusiasm! What a pleasure," fays he "must it give to thefe Dominican inquifitors, to trample on the ruins of a man, whofe writings, by fpreading the light of reafon and liberty through the world, have been one great inftrument of obftructing their wearied pains to enflave it!"

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He was educated at Rome with his coufins, the young Aculeos, in a method approved and directed by L. Craffus, and placed there in a public fchool under an eminent greek mafter; which was thought the beft way of educating one, who was defigned to appear on the public ftage, and who, as Quintilian obferves, ought to be fo bred, as not to fear the fight of men; fince that can never be rightly learned in folitude, which is to be produced before crowds." Cicero's father, encouraged by the promifing genius of his fon, fpared no coft nor pains to improve it by the help of the ableft mafters; and among the other inftructors of his carly youth, put him under the care of the poet Archias, who came to Rome with an high reputation for learning and poetry, when Cicero was about five years old; and who was afterwards defended by Cicero in a moft elegant oration, which is ftill extant.

After finishing the courfe of thefe puerile ftudies, he took the manly gown, or the ordinary robe of the citizens, which in his time it was ufual to do at the age of 16 and being then introduced into the forum, was placed under the care of Q Mucius Scævola the augur, the principal lawyer as well as ftatesman of that age; and after his death applied himself to another of the fame family, Scævola the high priest; a perfon of equal character for probity and skill in the law. Under thefe

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thefe mafters he acquired a complete knowledge of the laws of his country: a foundation useful to all who defign to enter into public affairs; and thought to be of fuch confequence at Rome, that it was the common exercise of boys at school, to learn the laws of the 12 tables by heart, as they did their poets and claffic authors. In the mean time he did not neglect his poetical ftudies, which he had purfued under Archias: for he now tranflated" Aratus on the phenomena of the heavens," into latin verse, of which many fragments are ftill extant; and published also an original poem of the heroic kind, in honour of his countryman C. Marius. This was much admired and often read by Atticus; and old Scævola was so pleased with it, that in the epigram, which he feems to have made upon it, he declares, that it would live as long as the roman name and learn ing fubfifted. Some have been ready to think, that Cicero's poetical genius would not have been inferior to his oratorial, if it had been cultivated with the fame diligence: but this perhaps we shall do well to attribute to that fondness for a favourite character, which will not fuffer us to deny it any pefection or accomplishment. "Non omnes poffumus omnia,” is a truth which may be applied to the greatest genius that ever was born; and which, if it had been confidered a little more than it has been, would have prevented many even of uncommon abilities, from making themselves ridiculous, by pretending to qualities which they have not poffeffed. There feems to have been fomething in Cicero too copious and exuberant, ever to have fubmitted to that difcipline and correctnefs which poetry requires; and though he is faid to have had the honour of correcting Lucretius's poem, yet it is certain, that all his own productions in this way were entirely eclipsed by thofe of the fucceeding generation, and treated even with fome degree of contempt.

The peace of Rome being now disturbed by a domestic war, which writers call the Italic, Social, or Marfic; Cicero took the opportunity of making a campaign, and ferved as a volunteer under Sylla. For though he had not much of the warlike in his make, and therefore, as we may fuppofe, would not be urged very powerfully by his natural inclination into fuch fort of fcenes, yet even thofe, who applied themselves to the peaceful ftudies, and the management of civil affairs at Rome, were obliged to acquire a competent fhare of military skill, for the fake of governing provinces and commanding armies, to which they all fucceeded of courfe from the administration of the great offices of ftate. Cicero's attention and pains however were chiefly employed in improving himself in thofe ftudies, which conduced to perfect him in the arts of peace. He was conftant in his attendance upon orators and philofophers; refumed his oratorial

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- ftudies under Molo the Rhodian, who was one of the princi pal orators of that age; and is fuppofed to have written those rhetorical pieces on the fubject of invention, which he afterwards condemned, and retracted in his advanced age, as unworthy of his maturer judgement. He became the fcholar of Philo the academic; ftudied logic with Diodorus the stoic; and declaimed daily in latin and greek with his fellow ftudents M. Pifo and Q. Pompeius, who were a little older than himfelf, and with whom he had contracted an intimate friendship. And that he might neglect nothing which could any ways contribute to his perfection, he spent the intervals of his leifure in the company of ladies; fuch at leaft, as were remarkable for their politenefs and knowledge of the fine arts in which he fhould be imitated and followed by the learned and philofophers of every age; fuch fort of converfe being indeed the best, I had almost faid, the only means of reforming that pedantry, and brushing off that ruft which men are apt to contract from a life of folitude and study.

Cicero had now run through all that courfe of difcipline, which he lays down as neceflary to form the complete orator; and perfectly accomplished, he offered himself to the bar at the age of 26; he undertakes the caufe of P. Quinctius, and defends S. Rofcius of Ameria, in a manner which gained him the applaufe of the whole city-the fame age, as the learned have obferved, in which Demofthenes firft began to diftinguish himself in Athens; as if, in these geniufes of the first magnitude, that was the proper feafon of blooming towards maturity.

He was 28 years old, when he fet forward upon his travels to Greece and Afia; the fashionable tour of all thofe, who travelled either for curiofity or improvement. His first vifit was to Athens, the capital feat of arts and sciences; where he met with his fchool-fellow T. Pomponius, who, from his love to Athens, and his fpending a great part of his days in it, obtained the furname of Atticus: and here they revived and confirmed that memorable friendship which fubfifted between them through life, with fo celebrated a conftancy and affection. From Athens he paffed into Afia, and after an excurfion of two years, came back again to Italy. This voyage of Cicero feems to be the only fcheme and pattern of travelling, from which any real benefit is to be expected. He did not stir abroad till he had completed his education at home; for nothing can be more pernicious to a nation, than the neceffity of a foreign

He had acquired in his own country whatever was proper to form a worthy citizen and magiftrate; and therefore went, confirmed by a maturity of age and reafon against the impreffions of vice, not so much to learn, as to polish what he had learned, be vifiting thofe places where arts and fciences flourished in their

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greatest perfection; and he ftaid no where any longer than his benefit, not his pleasure, detained him. Hence at length he returned, poffeffed of every accomplishment, which could improve and adorn a man of sense.

In the

Cicero was now arrived at Rome, and after one year more fpent at the bar, obtained in the next place the dignity of quæftor. Among the caufes which he pleaded before his quæftorfhip was that of the famous comedian Rofcius, whom a fingular merit in his art had recommended to the familiarity and friendship of the greatest men in Rome. The quæftors were the general receivers or treasurers of the republic, and were fent annually into the provinces diftributed to them, as they always were, by lot. The island of Sicily happened to fall to Cicero's fhare; and that part of it, for it was thought confiderable enough to be divided into two provinces, which was called Lilybæum. This office he received not as a gift, but a truft; and he acquitted himself fo extremely well in it, that he gained the love and admiration of all the Sicilians. hours of leifure from his provincial affairs he employed himfelf very diligently, as he ufed to do at Rome, in his rhetorical Atudies. Before he left Sicily, he made the tour of the island to fee every thing in it that was curious, and especially the city of Syracufe; where he difcovered the tomb of Archimedes to the magiftrates who were fhewing him the curiofities of the place, but who, to his furprife, knew nothing at all of any fuch tomb. He came away from Sicily, highly pleased with the fuccefs of his adminiftration, and flattering himself that all Rome was celebrating his praises, and that the people would grant him whatever he should defire. In this imagination he landed at Puteoli, a confiderable port adjoining to Baix, where was a perpetual refort of the rich and great, as well for the delights of its fituation, as the use of its baths and hot waters. But here, as he himself pleasantly tells the story, he was not a little mortified by the firft friend he met: who asked him, "how long he had left Rome, and what news there? when he answered, that he came from the provinces: From Afric, I suppose, says another: and upon his replying with fome indignation, No, I come from Sicily; a third, who ftood by, and had a mind to be thought wiser, faid prefently, How! did not you know that Cicero was quæftor of Syracufe? Upon which, perceiving it in vain to be angry, he fell into the humour of the place, and made himself one of the company who came to the waters."

We have no account of the precife time of Cicero's marriage with Terentia, but it is fupposed to have been celebrated immediately after his return from his travels to Italy, when he was about 30 years old. He was now difengaged from his

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