g such timidity
and discontent as to draw from Pompey the bitter reproof, "I wish Cicero
would go over to the enemy, that he may learn to fear us."[118]

On his return to Italy, after the battle of Pharsalia, he had the
mortification of learning that his brother and nephew were making their
peace with Caesar, by throwing on himself the blame of their opposition
to the conqueror. And here we see one of those elevated points of
character which redeem the weaknesses of his political conduct; for,
hearing that Caesar had retorted on Quintus Cicero the charge which the
latter had brought against himself, he wrote a pressing letter in his
favour, declaring his brother's safety was not less precious to him than
his own, and representing him not as the leader, but as the companion of
his voyage.[119]

Now too the state of his private affairs reduced him to much perplexity;
a sum he had advanced to Pompey had impoverished him, and he was forced
to stand indebted to Atticus for present assistance.[120] These
difficulties led him to take a step which it has been customary to
regard with great severity; the divorce of his wife Terentia, though he
was then in his sixty-second year, and his marriage with his rich ward
Publilia, who of course was of an age disproportionate to his own.[121]
Yet, in reviewing this proceeding, we must not adopt the modern standard
of propriety, forgetful of a condition of society which reconciled
actions even of moral turpitude with a reputation for honour and virtue.
Terentia was a woman of a most imperious and violent temper, and (what
is more to the purpose) had in no slight degree contributed to his
present embarrassments by her extravagance in the management of his
private affairs.[122] By her he had two children, a son, born a year
before his Consulate, and a daughter whose loss he was now fated to
deplore. To Tullia he was tenderly attached, not only from the
excellence of her disposition, but from her literary tastes; and her
death tore from him, as he so pathetically laments to Sulpicius, the
only comfort which the course of public events had left him.[123] At
first he was inconsolable; and, retiring to a little island near his
estate at Antium, he buried himself in the woods, to avoid the sight of
man.[124] His distress was increased by the conduct of his new wife
Publilia; whom he soon divorced for testifying joy at the death of her
stepdaughter. On this occasion he wrote his Treatise on Cons