n, the
other the spur." (Doubtless the latter is the writer's son.) "I am very
fond of Dionysius their teacher: the lads say that he is apt to get
furiously angry. But a more learned and more blameless man there does
not live." A year or so afterwards he seems to have thought less
favorably of him. "I let him go reluctantly when I thought of him as the
tutor of the two lads, but quite willingly as an ungrateful fellow." In
B.C. 49, when the lad was about half through his sixteenth year, Cicero
"gave him his _toga_." To take the _toga_, that is to exchange the gown
of the boy with its stripe of purple for the plain white gown of the
citizen, marked the beginning of independence (though indeed a Roman's
son was even in mature manhood under his father's control). The ceremony
took place at Arpinum, much to the delight of the inhabitants, who felt
of course the greatest pride and interest in their famous
fellow-townsman. But it was a sad time. "There and every where as I
journeyed I saw sorrow and dismay. The prospect of this vast trouble is
sad indeed." The "vast trouble" was the civil war between Caesar and
Pompey. This indeed had already broken out. While Cicero was
entertaining his kinsfolk and friends at Arpinum, Pompey was preparing
to fly from Italy. The war was probably not an unmixed evil to a lad who
was just beginning to think himself a man. He hastened across the
Adriatic to join his father's friend, and was appointed to the command
of a squadron of auxiliary cavalry. His maneuvers were probably assisted
by some veteran subordinate; but his I seat on horseback, his skill with
the javelin, and his general soldierly qualities were highly praised
both by his chief and by his comrades. After the defeat at Pharsalia he
waited with his father at Brundisium till a kind letter from Caesar
assured him of pardon. In B.C. 46 he was made aedile at Arpinum, his
cousin being appointed at the same time. The next year he would have
gladly resumed his military career. Fighting was going on in Spain,
where the sons of Pompey were holding out against the forces of Caesar;
and the young Cicero, who was probably not very particular on which side
he drew his sword, was ready to take service against the son of his old
general. Neither the cause nor the career pleased the father, and the
son's wish was overruled, just as an English lad has sometimes to give
up the unremunerative profession of arms, when there is a living in the
family,