Cicero's life for the next two years was made conspicuous¹ by a series of speeches which were produced by his exile and his return. These are remarkable³ for the praise lavished⁴ on himself, and by the violence with which he attacked his enemies. It must be owned that never was abuse more abusive, or self-praise uttered in language more laudatory⁵. 1 Cicero had now done all that was useful in his public life. The great monuments of his literature are to come. None of these had as yet been written except a small portion of his letters—about a tenth—and of these he thought no more in regard to the public than do any ordinary letter-writers of to-day. Some poems had been produced, and a history of his own Consulship⁸ in Greek; but these are unknown to us. He had already become the greatest orator⁹, perhaps, of all time—and we have many of the speeches spoken by him. Some we have—those five, namely, telling the story of Verres—not intended to be spoken, but written for the occasion of the day rather than 8with a view to permanent literature. He had been Qu?stor, ?dile, Pr?tor, and Consul⁶, with singular and undeviating success. He had been honest in the exercise of public functions when to be honest was to be singular. He had bought golden opinions from all sorts of people. He had been true to his country, and useful also—a combination which it was given to no other public man of those days to achieve. Having been Pr?tor and Consul, he had refused the accustomed rewards, and had abstained¹² from the provinces. His speeches, with but few exceptions, had hitherto been made in favor of honesty. They are declamations against injustice¹⁴, against

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