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Pamphylia (for there, I understand, more are taken than elsewhere), you will succeed. I do beseech you look
after this matter. You have only to give the orders. I have provided people to keep and transport the animals
when once taken." The governor would not hear of imposing the charge of capturing the panthers on the
hunters of the province. Still he would do his best to oblige his friend. "The matter of the panthers is being
diligently attended to by the persons who are accustomed to hunt them; but there is a strange scarcity of them,
and the few that there are complain grievously, saying that they are the only creatures in my province that are
persecuted."
From Laodicea Cicero returned to Tarsus, the capital of his province, wound up the affairs of his government,
appointed an acting governor, and started homewards early in August. On his way he paid a visit to Rhodes,
wishing to show to his son and nephew (they had accompanied him to his government) the famous school of
eloquence in which he had himself studied. Here he heard with much regret of the death of Hortensius. He had
seen the great orator's son at Laodicea, where he was amusing himself in the disreputable company of some
gladiators, and had asked him to dinner for his father's sake, he says. His stay at Rhodes was probably of some
duration, for he did not reach Ephesus till the first of October. A tedious passage of fourteen days brought him
to Athens. On his journey westwards Tiro, his confidential servant, was seized with illness, and had to be left
behind at Patrae. Tiro was a slave, though afterwards set free by his master; but he was a man of great and
varied accomplishments, and Cicero writes to him as he might to the very dearest of his friends. There is
nothing stranger in all that we know of "Roman Life" than the presence in it of such men as Tiro. Nor is there
any thing, we might even venture to say, quite like it elsewhere in the whole history of the world. Now and
then, in the days when slavery still existed in the Southern States of America, mulatto and quadroon slaves
might have been found who in point of appearance and accomplishments were scarcely different from their
owners. But there was always a taint, or what was reckoned as a taint, of negro blood in the men and women
so situated. In Rome it must have been common to see men, possibly better born (for Greek might even be
counted better than Roman descent), and probably better educated than their masters, who had absolutely no
rights as human beings, and could be tortured or killed just as cruelty or caprice might suggest. To Tiro, man
of culture and acute intellect as he was, there must have been an unspeakable bitterness in the thought of
servitude, even under a master so kindly and affectionate as Cicero. One shudders to think what the feelings of
such a man must have been when he was the chattel of a Verres, a Clodius, or a Catiline. It is pleasant to turn
away from the thought, which is the very darkest perhaps in the repulsive subject of Roman slavery, to
observe the sympathy and tenderness which Cicero shows to the sick man from whom he has been reluctantly
compelled to part. The letters to Tiro fill one of the sixteen books of "Letters to Friends." They are
twenty-seven in number, or rather twenty-six, as the sixteenth of the series contains the congratulations and
thanks which Quintus Cicero addresses to his brother on receiving the news that Tiro has received his
freedom. "As to Tiro," he writes, "I protest, as I wish to see you, my dear Marcus, and my own son, and yours,
and my dear Tullia, that you have done a thing that pleased me exceedingly in making a man who certainly
CHAPTER XIII. A GOVERNOR IN HIS PROVINCE. 59
Roman life in the days of Cicero
was far above his mean condition a friend rather than a servant. Believe me, when I read your letters and his, I
fairly leaped for joy; I both thank and congratulate you. If the fidelity of my Statius gives me so much
pleasure[9], how valuable in Tiro must be this same good quality with the additional and even superior
advantages of culture, wit, and politeness? I have many very good reasons for loving you; and now there is
this that you have told me, as indeed you were bound to tell me, this excellent piece of news. I saw all your
heart in your letter."
[Footnote 9: See page 277.]
Cicero's letters to the invalid are at first very frequent. One is dated on the third, another on the fifth, and a
third on the seventh of November; and on the eighth of the month there are no fewer than three, the first of
them apparently in answer to a letter from Tiro. "I am variously affected by your letter--much troubled by the
first page, a little comforted by the second. The result is that I now say, without hesitation, till you are quite
strong, do not trust yourself to travel either by land of sea. I shall see you as soon as I wish if I see you quite
restored." He goes on to criticise the doctor's prescriptions. Soup was not the right thing to give to a dyspeptic
patient. Tiro is not to spare any expense. Another fee to the doctor might make him more attentive. In another
letter he regrets that the invalid had felt himself compelled to accept an invitation to a concert, and tells him
that he had left a horse and mule for him at Brundisium. Then, after a brief notice of public affairs, he returns
to the question of the voyage. "I must again ask you not to be rash in your traveling. Sailors, I observe, make
too much haste to increase their profits. Be cautious, my dear Tiro. You have a wide and dangerous sea to
traverse. If you can, come with Mescinius. He is wont to be careful in his voyages. If not with him, come with
a person of distinction, who will have influence with the captain." In another letter he tells Tiro that he must
revive his love of letters and learning. The physician thought that his mind was ill at ease; for this the best
remedy was occupation. In another he writes: "I have received your letter with its shaky handwriting; no
wonder, indeed, seeing how serious has been your illness. I send you Aegypta (probably a superior slave) to
wait upon you, and a cook with him." Cicero could not have shown more affectionate care of a sick son.
Tiro is said to have written a life of his master. And we certainly owe to his care the preservation of his
correspondence. His weak health did not prevent him from living to the age of a hundred and three.
Cicero pursued his homeward journey by slow stages, and it was not till November 25th that he reached Italy.
His mind was distracted between two anxieties--the danger of civil war, which he perceived to be daily
growing more imminent, and an anxious desire to have his military successes over the Cilician mountaineers
rewarded by the distinction of a triumph. The honor of a public thanksgiving had already been voted to him;
Cato, who opposed it on principle, having given him offense by so doing. A triumph was less easy to obtain,
and indeed it seems to show a certain weakness in Cicero that he should have sought to obtain it for exploits
of so very moderate a kind. However, he landed at Brundisium as a formal claimant for the honor. His lictors
had their fasces (bundles of rods inclosing an ax) wreathed with bay leaves, as was the custom with the
victorious general who hoped to obtain this distinction. Pompey, with whom he had a long interview,
encouraged him to hope for it, and promised his support. It was not till January 4th that he reached the capital.
The look of affairs was growing darker and darker, but he still clung to the hopes of a triumph, and would not
dismiss his lictors with their ornaments, though he was heartily wearied of their company. Things went so far
that a proposition was actually made in the Senate that the triumph should be granted; but the matter was
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