, at
any rate, did he turn upon his chosen friend and scold him, as though
that friend had not done enough for friendship? Why did he talk of
suicide as though by that he might find the easiest way of escape?

I hold it to be natural that a man should wail to himself under a sense,
not simply of misfortune, but of misfortune coming to him from the
injustice of others, and specially from the ingratitude of friends.
Afflictions which come to us from natural causes, such as sickness and
physical pain, or from some chance such as the loss of our money by the
breaking of a bank, an heroic man will bear without even inward
complainings. But a sense of wrong done to him by friends will stir him,
not by the misery inflicted, but because of the injustice; and that
which he says to himself he will say to his wife, if his wife be to him
a second self, or to his friend, if he have one so dear to him. The
testimony by which the writers I have named have been led to treat
Cicero so severely has been found in the letters which he wrote during
his exile; and of these letters all but one were addressed either to
Atticus or to his wife or to his brother.[268] Twenty-seven of them were
to Atticus. Before he accepted a voluntary exile, as the best solution
of the difficulty in which he was placed--for it was voluntary at first,
as will be seen--he applied to the Consul Piso for aid, and for the same
purpose visited Pompey. So far he was a suppliant, but this he did in
conformity with Roman usage. In asking favor of a man in power there was
held to be no disgrace, even though the favor asked were one improper to
be granted, which was not the case with Cicero. And he went about the
Forum in mourning--"sordidatus"--as was the custom with men on their
trial. We cannot doubt that in each of these cases he acted with the
advice of his friends. His conduct and his words after his return from
exile betray exultation rather than despondency.

It is from the letters which he wrote to Atticus that he has been
judged--from words boiling with indignation that such a one as he should
have been surrendered by the Rome that he had saved, by those friends to
whom he had been so true to be trampled on by such a one as Clodius!
When a man has written words intended for the public ear, it is fair
that he should bear the brunt of them, be it what it may. He has
intended them for public effect, and if they are used against him he
should not complain. But here