man are so mixed with the admiration of the critic for the hero of
letters, that I would have omitted to mention them here were it not
that they will help to declare what was the general opinion as to
Cicero at the time in which it was written. He has been speaking of
Demosthenes,[19] and then goes on: "Nor in regard to Cicero do I
see that he ever failed in the duty of a good citizen. There is in
evidence of this the splendor of his consulship, the rare integrity of
his provincial administration, his refusal of office under Caesar,[20]
the firmness of his mind on the civil wars, giving way neither to hope
nor fear, though these sorrows came heavily on him in his old age.
On all these occasions he did the best he could for the Republic."
Florus, who wrote after the twelve Caesars, in the time of Trajan and
of Adrian, whose rapid summary of Roman events can hardly be called
a history, tells us, in a few words, how Catiline's conspiracy was
crushed by the authority of Cicero and Cato in opposition to that of
Caesar.[21] Then, when he has passed in a few short chapters over all
the intervening history of the Roman Empire, he relates, in pathetic
words, the death of Cicero. "It was the custom in Rome to put up on
the rostra the heads of those who had been slain; but now the city was
not able to restrain its tears when the head of Cicero was seen there,
upon the spot from which the citizens had so often listened to his
words."[22] Such is the testimony given to this man by the writers who
may be supposed to have known most of him as having been nearest to
his time. They all wrote after him. Sallust, who was certainly his
enemy, wrote of him in his lifetime, but never wrote in his dispraise.
It is evident that public opinion forbade him to do so. Sallust is
never warm in Cicero's praise, as were those subsequent authors whose
words I have quoted, and has been made subject to reproach for envy,
for having passed too lightly over Cicero's doings and words in his
account of Catiline's conspiracy; but what he did say was to Cicero's