ave heard of him
certainly from one enemy; but the tidings are of a nature to force upon
us belief in the evil which Cicero spoke of him. Had he been a man of
decent habits of life, and of an honest purpose, would Cicero have dared
to say to the Romans respecting him the words which he produced, not
only in the second Philippic, which was unspoken, but also in the twelve
which followed? The record of him, as far as it goes, is altogether bad.
Plutarch tells us that he was handsome, and a good soldier, but
altogether vicious. Plutarch is not a biographer whose word is to be
taken as to details, but he is generally correct in his estimate of
character. Tacitus tells us but little about him as direct history, but
mentions him ever in the same tone. Tacitus knew the feeling of Rome
regarding him. Paterculus speaks specially of his fraud, and breaks out
into strong repudiation of the murder of Cicero.[203] Valerius Maximus,
in his anecdotes, mentions him slightingly, as an evil man is spoken of
who has forced himself into notice. Virgil has stamped his name with
everlasting ignominy. "Sequiturque nefas Egyptia conjux." I can think of
no Roman writer who has named him with honor. He was a Roman of the
day--what Rome had made him--brave, greedy, treacherous, and
unpatriotic.

Cicero again was absent from the Senate, but was in Rome when Antony
attacked him. We learn from a letter to Cornificius that Antony left the
city shortly afterward, and went down to Brundisium to look after the
legions which had come across from Macedonia, with which Cicero asserts
that he intends to tyrannize over them all in Rome.[204] He then tells
his correspondent that young Octavius has just been discovered in an
attempt to have Antony murdered, but that Antony, having found the
murderer in his house, had not dared to complain. He seems to think that
Octavius had been right! The state of things was such that men were used
to murder; but this story was probably not true. He passes on to declare
in the next sentence that he receives such consolation from philosophy
as to be able to bear all the ills of fortune. He himself goes to
Puteoli, and there he writes the second Philippic. It is supposed to be
the most violent piece of invective ever produced by human ingenuity and
human anger. The readers of it must, however, remember that it was not
made to be spoken--was not even written, as far as we are aware, to be
shown to Antony, or to be published to