phy of Cicero in English is that by Forsyth. That
by Trollope is able but quite partisan. On the philosophy, consult also
Zeller's 'Eclectics.'

II. THE CATO MAIOR.

(i.) ORIGIN AND SCOPE.

1. _Date and Circumstances of Composition._

The date at which the Cato Maior was written can be determined with almost
perfect exactness. A mention in Cicero's work entitled _De Divinatione_[6]
shows that the Cato Maior preceded that work by a short time. The _De
Divinatione_ was written after the assassination of Caesar, that is, after
the 15th of March in the year 44.[7] Again, the Cato Maior is mentioned as
a recent work in three letters addressed by Cicero to Atticus.[8] The
earliest of these letters was written on or about the 12th of May, 44.[9]
We shall hardly err, therefore, if we assume that Cicero composed the Cato
Maior in April of the year 44.[10] This agrees also with slight indications
in the work itself. In the dedicatory introduction Cicero speaks of
troubles weighing heavily on himself and Atticus.[11] Any one who reads the
letters to Atticus despatched in April, 44, will have little doubt that the
troubles hinted at are the apprehensions as to the course of Antonius, from
whom Cicero had personally something to fear. Atticus was using all the
influence he could bring to bear on Antonius in order to secure Cicero's
safety; hence Cicero's care to avoid in the dedication all but the vaguest
possible allusions to politics. Had that introduction been written before
Caesar's death, we should have had plain allusions (as in the prooemia of
the _Academica_, the _De Finibus_, the _Tusculan Disputations_, and the _De
Natura Deorum_) to Caesar's dictatorship.[12]

The time was one of desperate gloom for Cicero. The downfall of the old
constitution had overwhelmed him with sorrow, and his brief outburst of joy
over Caesar's death had been quickly succeeded by disgust and alarm at the
proceedings of Antonius. The deep wound caused by his daughter's death[13]
was still unhealed. It is easy to catch in the Cato Maior some echoes of
his grief for her. When it is said that of all Cato's titles to admiration
none is higher than the fortitude he showed in bearing the death of his
son,[14] the writer is thinking of the struggle he himself had been waging
against a like sorrow for more than a year past; and when Cato expresses
his firm conviction that he will meet his child beyond the grave,[15] we
can see Cicero's own yearning for