United States or Belarus ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
When Cicero is not resting, but on the move or expecting to be disturbed, he is often to be found at Formiae, as in the critical mid-winter of 50-49 B.C.; and here at the end of March 49 he had his famous interview with Caesar, who urged him in vain to accompany him to Rome. Here he spent the last weary days of his life, and here he was murdered by Antony's ruffians on December 7, 43.
Tiro or M. Tullius Tiro, as he was called after his emancipation was not a young man, and may well have been emancipated even in B.C. 59. According to Hieronymus, he died in B.C. 5 in his hundredth year. He was therefore little more than a year younger than Cicero himself. The illness of Tiro must have been an earlier one than that of which we shall hear much in B.C. 50-49.
Quintus had written, it seems, defiantly about the slanders afloat against him, and had quoted two Greek proverbial sayings. The editors quote Æschylus, Pr. V. 769: κρεῖσσον γὰρ εἰσάπαξ θανεῖν ἢ θὰς ἁπάσας ἡμέρας πάσχειν κακῶς. He was, in 50-49, appointed Cæsar's successor in Gaul, defended Marseilles against him, and eventually fell in the battle of Pharsalia.
To raise the passions of men to the desired heat, a report was spread that he had brought his troops across and was marching on Rome. Curio hastened off to him, to bring back under his own hand a distinct declaration of his views. It was at this crisis, in the middle of the winter 50-49, that Cicero returned to Rome.
Word Of The Day