His fame was not to be crushed: the
glory of his actions and his eloquence still remains, and you have
raised it higher than ever.
glory of his actions and his eloquence still remains, and you have
raised it higher than ever.
Tacitus
He commanded his servants to set him down, and make no
resistance; then looking upon his executioners with a presence and
firmness which almost daunted them, and thrusting his neck as forward
as he could out of the litter, he bade them _do their work, and take
what they wanted_. The murderers cut off his head, and both his hands.
Popilius undertook to convey them to Rome, as the most agreeable
present to Antony; without reflecting on the _infamy of carrying that
head, which had saved his own_. He found Antony in the forum, and upon
shewing the spoils which he brought, was rewarded on the spot with the
_honour of a crown, and about eight thousand pounds sterling_. Antony
ordered the head to be _fixed upon the rostra, between the two
hands_; a sad spectacle to the people, who beheld those mangled
members, which used to exert themselves, from that place, in defence
of the lives, the fortunes, and the liberties of Rome. Cicero was
killed on the seventh of December, about ten days from the settlement
of the triumvirate, after he had lived _sixty-three years, eleven
months, and five days_. See Middleton's _Life of Cicero_, 4to edit.
vol. ii. p. 495 to 498. Velleius Paterculus, after mentioning Cicero's
death, breaks out in a strain of indignation, that almost redeems the
character of that time-serving writer. He says to Antony, in a
spirited apostrophe, you have no reason to exult: you have gained no
point by paying the assassin, who stopped that eloquent mouth, and cut
off that illustrious head. You have paid the wages of murder, and you
have destroyed a consul who was the conservator of the commonwealth.
By that act you delivered Cicero from a distracted world, from the
infirmities of old age, and from a life which, under your usurpation,
would have been worse than death.
His fame was not to be crushed: the
glory of his actions and his eloquence still remains, and you have
raised it higher than ever. He lives, and will continue to live in
every age and nation. Posterity will admire and venerate the torrent
of eloquence, which he poured out against yourself, and will for ever
execrate the horrible murder which you committed. _Nihil tamen egisti,
Marce Antoni (cogit enim excedere propositi formam operis erumpens
animo ac pectore indignatio): nihil, inquam, egisti; mercedem
cælestissimi oris, et clarissimi capitis abscissi numerando;
auctoramentoque funebri ad conservatoris quondam reipublicæ tantique
consulis irritando necem. Rapuisti tu Marco Ciceroni lucem sollicitam
et ætatem senilem, et vitam miseriorem te principe, quam sub te
triumviro mortem. Famam vero, gloriamque factorum atque dictorum adeo
non abstulisti, ut auxeris. Vivit, vivetque per omnium sæculorum
memoriam; omnisque posteritas illius in te scripta mirabitur, tuum in
eum factum execrabitur. _ Vell. Paterc. lib. ii. s. 66.
[f] Between the consulship of Augustus, which began immediately after
the destruction of Hirtius and Pansa, A. U. C.
resistance; then looking upon his executioners with a presence and
firmness which almost daunted them, and thrusting his neck as forward
as he could out of the litter, he bade them _do their work, and take
what they wanted_. The murderers cut off his head, and both his hands.
Popilius undertook to convey them to Rome, as the most agreeable
present to Antony; without reflecting on the _infamy of carrying that
head, which had saved his own_. He found Antony in the forum, and upon
shewing the spoils which he brought, was rewarded on the spot with the
_honour of a crown, and about eight thousand pounds sterling_. Antony
ordered the head to be _fixed upon the rostra, between the two
hands_; a sad spectacle to the people, who beheld those mangled
members, which used to exert themselves, from that place, in defence
of the lives, the fortunes, and the liberties of Rome. Cicero was
killed on the seventh of December, about ten days from the settlement
of the triumvirate, after he had lived _sixty-three years, eleven
months, and five days_. See Middleton's _Life of Cicero_, 4to edit.
vol. ii. p. 495 to 498. Velleius Paterculus, after mentioning Cicero's
death, breaks out in a strain of indignation, that almost redeems the
character of that time-serving writer. He says to Antony, in a
spirited apostrophe, you have no reason to exult: you have gained no
point by paying the assassin, who stopped that eloquent mouth, and cut
off that illustrious head. You have paid the wages of murder, and you
have destroyed a consul who was the conservator of the commonwealth.
By that act you delivered Cicero from a distracted world, from the
infirmities of old age, and from a life which, under your usurpation,
would have been worse than death.
His fame was not to be crushed: the
glory of his actions and his eloquence still remains, and you have
raised it higher than ever. He lives, and will continue to live in
every age and nation. Posterity will admire and venerate the torrent
of eloquence, which he poured out against yourself, and will for ever
execrate the horrible murder which you committed. _Nihil tamen egisti,
Marce Antoni (cogit enim excedere propositi formam operis erumpens
animo ac pectore indignatio): nihil, inquam, egisti; mercedem
cælestissimi oris, et clarissimi capitis abscissi numerando;
auctoramentoque funebri ad conservatoris quondam reipublicæ tantique
consulis irritando necem. Rapuisti tu Marco Ciceroni lucem sollicitam
et ætatem senilem, et vitam miseriorem te principe, quam sub te
triumviro mortem. Famam vero, gloriamque factorum atque dictorum adeo
non abstulisti, ut auxeris. Vivit, vivetque per omnium sæculorum
memoriam; omnisque posteritas illius in te scripta mirabitur, tuum in
eum factum execrabitur. _ Vell. Paterc. lib. ii. s. 66.
[f] Between the consulship of Augustus, which began immediately after
the destruction of Hirtius and Pansa, A. U. C.
