Prepared by David Reed haradda@aol.com or davidr@inconnect.com
Letters of Cicero
by Marcus Tullius Cicero
Translated by E. S. Shuckburgh
THE letters of Cicero are of a very varied character. They rangefrom the most informal communications with members of hisfamily to serious and elaborate compositions which are practicallytreatises in epistolary form. A very large proportion of them wereobviously written out of the mood of the moment, with no thoughtof the possibility of publication; and in these the style iscomparatively relaxed and colloquial. Others, addressed to publiccharacters, are practically of the same nature as his speeches,discussions of political questions intended to influence publicopinion, and performing a function in the Roman life of the timeclosely analogous to that fulfilled at the present day by articles isthe great reviews, or editorials in prominent journals.
In the case of both of these two main groups the interest istwofold: personal and historical, though it is naturally in theprivate letters that we find most light thrown on the character ofthe writer. In spite of the spontaneity of these epistles there exists agreat difference of opinion among scholars as to the personalityrevealed by them, and both in the extent of the divergence of viewand in the heat of the controversy we are reminded of moderndiscussions of the characters of men such as Gladstone orRoosevelt. It has been fairly said that there is on the whole morechance of justice to Cicero from the man of the world whounderstands how the stress and change of politics lead a statesmaninto apparently inconsistent utterances than from the professionalscholar who subjects these utterances to the severest logica1scrutiny, without the illumination of practical experience.
Many sides of Cicero's life other than the political are reflected inthe letters. From them we can gather a picture of how an ambitiousRoman gentleman of some inherited wealth took to the legalprofession as the regular means of becoming a public figure; ofhow his fortune might be increased by fees, by legacies fromfriends, clients, and even complete strangers who thus sought toconfer distinction on themselves; of how the governor of oprovince could become rich in. a year; of how the sons of Romanmen of wealth gave trouble to their tutors, were sent to Athens, asto a university in our day, and found an allowance of over $4,000 ayear insufficient for their extravagances. Again, we see the greatestorator of Rome divorce his wife after thirty years, apparentlybecause she had been indiscreet or unscrupulous in money matters,and marry at the age of sixty-three his own ward, a young girlwhose fortune he admitted was the main attraction. The coldnessof temper suggested by these transactions is contradicted in turn byCicero's romantic affection for his daughter Tullia, whom he isnever tired of praising for her cleverness and charm, and whosedeath almost broke his heart.
Most of Cicero's letters were written in ink on paper or parchmentwith a reed pen; a few on tablets of wood or ivory covered withwax, the marks being cut with a stylus. The earlier letters he wrotewith his own hand, the later were, except in rare cases, dictated toa secretary. There was, of course, no postal service, so the epistleswere carried by private messengers or by the couriers who wereconstantly traveling between the provincial officials and thecapital.
Apart from the letters to Atticus, the collection, arrangement, andpublication of Cicero's correspondence seems to have been due toTiro, the learned freedman who served him as secretary, and towhom s