Greece -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
manifest that he was undergoing divers emotions in his mind; but at last
when the orator touched upon the battle at Pharsalus, he was so affected
that his body shook and he dropped some of the writings from his hands.
Accordingly he acquitted the man of the charge perforce.
XL. After this, as the constitution was changed to a monarchy,
Cicero[257] detaching himself from public affairs applied himself to
philosophy with such young men as were disposed; and mainly from his
intimacy with the noblest born and the first in rank, he again got very
great power in the state. His occupation was to compose philosophical
dialogues and to translate and to transfer into the Roman language every
dialectical or physical term; for it is he, as they say, who first or
mainly formed for the Romans the terms Phantasia, Syncatathesis, Epoche,
and Catalepsis, and also Atom, and Indivisible, and Vacuum, and many
other like terms, some of which by metaphor, and others by other modes
of assimilation he contrived to make intelligible and to bring into
common use: and he employed his ready turn for poetry to amuse himself.
For it is said that when he was disposed that way, he would make five
hundred verses in a night. The greatest part of his time he now spent in
his lands at Tusculum, and he used to write to his friends that he was
living the life of Laertes,[258] whether it was that he said this in
jest, as his manner was, or whether from ambition he was bursting with
desire to participate in public affairs and was dissatisfied with
matters as they were. He seldom went down to the city, and when he did,
it was to pay court to Cæsar, and he was foremost among those who spoke
in favour of the honours given to him and were eager always to be saying
something new about the man and his acts. Of this kind is what he said
about the statues of Pompeius, which Cæsar ordered to be set up after
they had been taken away and thrown down, and they were set up again.
For Cicero said that by this mild behaviour Cæsar placed the statues of
Pompeius, but firmly fixed his own.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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