Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician

by Anthony Everitt

(Octa...

Pra...

Calpurnius Piso 61–5...

First Triumvirate

Second Consulship

Death of Crassus

Murder of Publius Clodius Pulcher.

Marcus Porcius

Terentia.

Pub...

Assassination of Julius Caesar.

Foretelling the Future

Dolabella

Mark Antony,

Octavian

Quintus and his son put to death. Cicer...

Caius Cassius ...

Marcus Junius...

At...

Octav...

A...

Augustus

Octavian

This time arrival in Brundisium was a melancholy affair. There was no Terentia or Tullia waiting when he sailed into port in mid-October 48.

Cicero’s lictors were still with him, an expensive and embarrassing nuisance. He was nervous about his reception as he walked into the town and made them mingle discreetly with the crowd so that he would not be noticed.

Cicero was not sure what to do next. Atticus advised him to go nearer to Rome, traveling by night, but he did not relish the thought.

Balbus and Oppius, busy managing Caesar’s affairs behind the scenes, wrote to Cicero telling him not to worry.

At the end of November he learned of Pompey’s fate. After Pharsalus, the general had made his way eastwards, with Caesar in hot pursuit. His destination had been Egypt; he thought he could make a stand there and raise another army by recruiting in Asia Minor.

But the royal advisers to the Pharaoh had no intention of welcoming a loser. Imagining that they would ingratiate themselves with Caesar, they lured Pompey from his ship and had him killed before he had even reached land.

Success came early to Pompey and gave him a reputation he had to work to deserve. His portraits show a puzzled, worried expression and suggest a man not entirely at ease with himself. His contemporaries overrated his military abilities, and as a politician he was hesitant, devious and clumsy.

Cicero was saddened by Pompey’s death but not surprised. The two men had been on good terms, but Pompey had kept his feelings to himself and, despite their surface affection, had been happy to manipulate and on occasion deceive his sometimes gullible friend.

There was further news from the east, which Cicero took much more deeply to heart. Following the quarrel at Patrae, Quintus had sent his son ahead of him to find Caesar and make his excuses, hoping to be taken back into favor.

In early January 47 a package of letters arrived from the elder Quintus for various addressees, including Vatinius and another person in Brundisium.

Perhaps Cicero felt guilty for having taken his brother too much for granted; in any case, he wrote to Caesar accepting all responsibility for the decision to go to Greece and join Pompey:

Meanwhile Dolabella, who was Tribune that year, was stirring up trouble in Rome. He picked up the baton Caelius had let fall and, in opposition to government policy, was campaigning for a cancellation of debts.

All in all, the behavior of his relatives added private misery to Cicero’s public misfortune.

Caesar now unexpectedly disappeared from view and nothing was heard from him for months. Between December 23, 48, and June of the following year he sent no dispatches to Rome.

He had become embroiled, with too few troops at his back, in a bitter little war with the Egyptian court and at one stage was blockaded inside the royal palace in Alexandria.

Cleopatra was unable to offer her own version of the momentous events of her time; sex and politics are interwoven so closely in her career that her motives are hard to disentangle.

Cleopatra was not, it seems, particularly good-looking, but she had a bewitching personality. “Her own beauty, so we are told, was not of that incomparable kind which instantly captivates the beholder,” Plutarch avers. “But the charm of her presence was irresistible: and there was an attractiveness in her person and talk, together with a peculiar force of character which pervaded her every word and action, and laid all who associated with her under its spell.

At the time of her first meeting with Caesar, Cleopatra and a younger half-brother were joint Pharaohs (and, according to Egyptian custom for royal families, were probably married). She had no intention of sharing her authority with her brother for a minute longer than was necessary.

The Queen had herself smuggled into Caesar’s presence wrapped in a carpet or bedroll and they soon began an affair. She quickly persuaded him to take her side in the struggle for power with her brother. Caesar defeated the Egyptian army at the end of March 47 and Cleopatra’s annoying little brother was drowned while trying to escape by boat from the battlefield.

This was risky, if not irresponsible behavior, for it undermined the apparently decisive result of Pharsalus.

While Rome was distracted with its internal quarrels and Caesar was indulging in his Egyptian interlude, Mithridates’ son Pharnaces seized his chance, recovering his kingdom of Pontus and defeating a Roman army.

It is hard to find a convincing political explanation for Caesar’s behavior. He may have thought that securing Egypt, with the kingdom’s vast wealth and inexhaustible corn supplies, was of high importance.

Ensuring that the young and inexperienced queen was firmly established on the throne took time. In addition, he could have simply felt he needed a holiday in the company of his charming new mistress. This is posterity’s favorite explanation, and there may be truth in it.

In any event, he finally left Egypt a few weeks before the birth of Cleopatra’s son, named Caesarion and almost certa...

Meanwhile Cicero remained isolated in Brundisium, unable to move until Caesar reappeared and ruled on his case.

Quintus, badgered by Atticus, sent his brother a grudging letter of apology, which as far as Cicero was concerned only made matters worse.

Then, as if he didn’t have enough domestic problems, relations with Terentia came under increasing strain.