that men should
have wept when they saw that ghastly face staring at them from the
rostra, and the protruding tongue and the outstretched hands. The
marvel is that, seeing it, they should still have borne with Antony.

That which Cicero has produced in literature is, as a rule, admitted to
be excellent; but his character as a man has been held to be tarnished
by three faults--dishonesty, cowardice, and insincerity. As to the
first, I have denied it altogether, and my denial is now submitted to
the reader for his judgment. It seems to have been brought against him
not in order to make him appear guilty, but because it has appeared to
be impossible that, when others were so deeply in fault, he should have
been innocent. That he should have asked for nothing, that he should
have taken no illicit rewards, that he should not have submitted to be
feed, but that he should have kept his hands clean while all around him
were grasping at everything--taking money, selling their aid for
stipulated payments, grinding miserable creditors--has been too much for
men to believe. I will not take my readers back over the cases brought
against him, but will ask them to ask themselves whether there is one
supported by evidence fit to go before a jury. The accusations have been
made by men clean-handed themselves; but to them it has appeared
unreasonable to believe that a Roman oligarch of those days should be an
honest gentleman.

As to his cowardice, I feel more doubt as to my power of carrying my
readers with me, though no doubt as to Cicero's courage. Cowardice in a
man is abominable. But what is cowardice? and what courage? It is a
matter in which so many errors are made! Tinsel is so apt to shine like
gold and dazzle the sight! In one of the earlier chapters of this book,
when speaking of Catiline, I have referred to the remarks of a
contemporary writer: "The world has generally a generous word for the
memory of a brave man dying for his cause!" "All wounded in front," is
quoted by this author from Sallust. "Not a man taken alive! Catiline
himself gasping out his life ringed around with corpses of his friends."
That is given as a picture of a brave man dying for his cause, who
should excite our admiration even though his cause were bad. In the
previous lines we have an intended portrait of Cicero, who, "thinking,
no doubt, that he had done a good day's work for his patrons, declined
to run himself into more danger." Here is one story