_Ancient Classics for English Readers_ edited by the REV. W. LUCAS COLLINS, M.A. CICERO by the REV. W. LUCAS COLLINS, M.A. AUTHOR OF 'ETONIANA', 'THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS', ETC. I have to acknowledge my obligations to Mr. Forsyth's well-known 'Life of Cicero', especially as a guide to the biographical materials which abound in his Orations and Letters. Mr. Long's scholarly volumes have also been found useful. For the translations, such as they are, I am responsible. If I could have met with any which seemed to me more satisfactory, I would gladly have adopted them. W.L.C. CONTENTS. I. BIOGRAPHICAL--EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION, II. PUBLIC CAREER--IMPEACHMENT OF VERRES, III. THE CONSULSHIP AND CATILINE, IV. EXILE AND RETURN, V. CICERO AND CAESAR, VI. CICERO AND ANTONY, VII. CHARACTER AS POLITICIAN AND ORATOR, VIII. MINOR CHARACTERISTICS, IX. CICERO's CORRESPONDENCE, X. ESSAYS ON 'OLD AGE' AND 'FRIENDSHIP', XI. CICERO'S PHILOSOPHY, XII. CICERO'S RELIGION. CICERO. CHAPTER I. EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. When we speak, in the language of our title-page, of the 'Ancient Classics', we must remember that the word 'ancient' is to be taken with a considerable difference, in one sense. Ancient all the Greek and Roman authors are, as dated comparatively with our modern era. But as to the antique character of their writings, there is often a difference which is not merely one of date. The poetry of Homer and Hesiod is ancient, as having been sung and written when the society in which the authors lived, and to which they addressed themselves, was in its comparative infancy. The chronicles of Herodotus are ancient, partly from their subject-matter and partly from their primitive style. But in this sense there are ancient authors belonging to every nation which has a literature of its own. Viewed in this light, the history of Thucydides, the letters and orations of Cicero, are not ancient at all. Bede, and Chaucer, and Matthew of Paris, and Froissart, are far more redolent of antiquity. The several books which make up what we call the Bible are all ancient, no doubt; but even between the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and the Epistles of St. Paul there is a far wider real interval than the mere lapse of centuries.