bout by Caesar that the limits of the world were the
limits of the Roman Empire.[21] The conquest was not yet finished, but
surely it should be left to him who had begun it so well. Even though
Caesar were to demand to return himself, thinking that he had done enough
for his own glory, it would be for the Senators to restrain him--for the
Senate to bid him finish the work that he had in hand.[22] As for
himself, continued Cicero, if Caesar had been his enemy, what of that?
Caesar was not his enemy now. He had told the Senate what offers of
employment Caesar had made him. If he could not forget, yet he would
forgive, former injuries.[23]

It is important for the reading of Cicero's character that we should
trace the meaning of his utterances about Caesar from this time up to the
day on which Caesar was killed--his utterances in public, and those which
are found in his letters to Atticus and his brother. That there was much
of pretence--of falsehood, if a hard word be necessary to suit the
severity of those who judge the man hardly--is admitted. How he praised
Pompey in public, dispraising him in private, at one and the same
moment, has been declared. How he applied for praise, whether deserved
or not, has been shown. In excuse, not in defence, of this I allege that
the Romans of the day were habitually false after this fashion. The
application to Lucceius proves the habitual falseness not of Cicero
only, but of Lucceius also; and the private words written to Atticus, in
opposition to the public words with which Atticus was well acquainted,
prove the falseness also of Atticus. It was Roman; it was Italian; it
was cosmopolitan; it was human. I only wish that it were possible to
declare that it is no longer Italian, no longer cosmopolitan, no longer
human. To this day it is very difficult even for an honorable man to
tell the whole truth in the varying circumstances of public life. The
establishment of even a theory of truth, with all the advantages which
have come to us from Christianity, has been so difficult, hitherto so
imperfect, that we ought, I think, to consider well the circumstances
before we stigmatize Cicero as specially false. To my reading he seems
to have been specially true. When Caesar won his way up to power, Cicero
was courteous to him, flattered him, and, though, never subservient, yet
was anxious to comply when compliance was possible. Nevertheless, we
know well that the whole scheme of Caesar's politica