tonius Hybrida as colleague, B. C. 63. Thus, although a novus homo, he had made his way to the highest dignity of the state. At this time occurred the infamous conspiracy of Catiline, in the discovery and suppression of which Cicero gained the gratitude of all well-disposed citizens, while at the same time he incurred the most bitter hatred of the friends of Catiline, among whom were many of noble rank, who, on every available occasion, assailed him with the charge that he had caused Roman citizens to be put to death without granting them the privilege of a hearing in their defence. Among the latter was P. Clodius Pulcher, one of the most profligate citizens of Rome, notorious for his corrupt life generally, but especially for his scandalous profanation of the mysteries of the Bona Dea. While the wife of Caesar was celebrating in her house the rites of this goddess, from which all males were with scrupulous superstition excluded, Clodius attempted to make his way into the apartment, disguised in the garb of a woman, and having been detected, escaped through the aid of a female slave. Caesar at once divorced his wife. All Rome was immediately in an uproar of consternation. The matter was laid before the senate, and Clodius was brought to trial, but escaped a merited punishment through the corruption of the judges. But Cicero, who had been brought forward as a witness against him, now became the object of his deadly vengeance, and Cicero's destruction formed the chief aim of his life. In consequence of his intrigues, and the bitter calumny of the political parties which were then disturbing the state, Cicero was compelled to decide between civil war and exile. He chose the latter, and, having placed in the Temple of

Jupiter a small statue of Minerva, with the inscription, MINERVAE CUSTODI URBIS, he left Rome about the 20th of March, B. C. 58, and on the same day Clodius brought before the people a bill "interdicting Cicero from fire and water,” and enacting that "no one should receive him in his house within five hundred miles of Italy." During his exile he took up his abode at Thessalonīca, with his old friend Gnaeus Plancius, the quaestor. Recalled the following year by the solicitations of Pompey, to whose party he was attached, he was appointed proconsul in Cilicia, in which office he conducted with success the war against the Parthians.

On his return to Rome from this mission, the civil war between Caesar and Pompey broke out, B. C. 49. At first he flattered himself with the hope of being a mediator between the rival chiefs, but was soon obliged to renounce this honorable illusion; and after having had an interview at Formiae with Caesar, who tried in vain to win him over to his party, he hesitated no longer to join himself to the fortunes of Pompey. After the battle of Pharsālus, B. C. 48, Cicero abandoned Pompey's desperate cause and returned to Brundisium, where he received a letter from Caesar, August 12, B. C. 47, in which he promised to forget the past and receive him again into his favor a promise which was faithfully kept upon Caesar's part, for he treated him ever after with the highest respect and kindness.

Cicero now withdrew from all public business, and gave himself up entirely to literary pursuits. In the year B. C. 46, in consequence of some disputes connected with pecuniary transactions, he divorced his wife, Terentia, with whom he had lived for more than thirty years, and married a young and wealthy lady,

Publia by name a union which resulted unhappily. The death of his much-loved daughter, Tullia, B. C. 45, led him to seek consolation in his favorite study of philosophy. On the death of Caesar, B. C. 44, Cicero again mingled in the political strife of the times, and, attaching himself to Octavius, attempted to thwart the success of Antony by his powerful Philippics. Cicero was included — probably at the instigation of Antony in the list of the proscribed, which was made out in the second triumvirate. He was at Tusculum when he heard of this proscription, and instantly made preparations for flight. His intention was to go to Astŭra, a town on the coast of Latium, with the design of embarking at that place for Macedonia. From this port he set sail; but the winds were contrary and the sea rough, and he was compelled to put into the harbor of Caïēta, near his Formian villa. He reached his villa December 7, B. C. 43, but there learned that the pursuers sent by Antony were already in the vicinity. He was forced into his litter, and on his way through a thick wood to the sea-shore, was overtaken by the assassins. Seeing clearly that his last hour had come, he ordered his attendants to set down the litter, and, thrusting out his head, called upon his murderers to strike. Herennius, one of the leaders, stepped forward and severed his head from his body, which, with the orator's hands, was carried to Rome and delivered to Antony, as he was seated in the Forum. It is related that Antony presented the head to his wife, Fulvia, who took it, and, placing it on her lap, addressed it as though it were yet alive, and, drawing out the tongue, pierced it with her bodkin, thus evincing the rage which she had so often felt at its sarcasms.

The head and hands were afterwards taken to the Forum and nailed to the Rostra, there to decay in the very place which he had rendered renowned by his eloquence.

Among his philosophical works, nearly all of which were composed between 46-44 B. C., the two dialogues De Senectute and De Amicitia occupy a prominent place. The agreeable and genial style in which they, are written, their pure classic taste, and their high and ennobling sentiments, have always made them favorite treatises. In order to present the theme in its most practical bearings, and free it from merely abstract theory, he has given them to us in a conversational form, and by numerous citations of historical facts, and apt illustrations from well-known poets, has brought the subject nearer to the popular heart than he could have done by works founded merely on pure reasoning.

CATO MAIOR.

THE treatise De Senectute, or, "On Old Age," was written, probably, B. C. 44, when Cicero was sixtythree years old. It is entitled CATO MAIOR, from the principal character introduced into the dialogue, who is represented as discoursing on old age with P. Scipio Africanus the Younger and C. Laelius, one of Scipio's friends. The work is dedicated to Titus Pomponius Atticus.

MARCUS PORCIUS CATO CENSORIUS, called also SAPIENS, and later (in order to distinguish him from Cato of Utica) PRISCUS and MAIOR, was born at Tusculum, B. C. 234. Upon the death of his father he inherited a small estate in the Sabine territory, where he spent a great part of his boyhood in the rough but healthful exercises of a farmer's life. In his seventeenth year, B. C. 217, he served his first campaign at Capua, under Fabius Maximus, at that time the leading military man in the war against Hannibal. With this general he also served again as a soldier at the siege of Tarentum, B. C. 209. Two years later, B. C. 207, he accompanied (probably in the capacity of tribunus militum) the consul, Claudius Nero, on his march from Lucania to check the progress of Hasdrubal, who was defeated and slain at Sena, on the Metaurus, in which battle the services of Cato contributed not a little to the victory over the Carthaginians. When re