Henry the Fourth of England dies, p. 141 1413 Battle of Agincourt pp. 140, 145 1415 Huss p. 140 1415 Henry the Fifth of England dies p. 142 1422 Maid of Orleans p. 141 1428 Battle of Varna p. 147 (_L'Art_) 1442 Constantinople taken by the Ottomans p. 147 1453 John Basilowich rescues Russia from the Moguls p. 47 (_L'Art_) about 1480 Luther p. 140 1517 Soliman the Great pp. 148, 192 1520 St. Pius the Fifth p. 153 1568 Battle of Lepanto pp. 156, 189 1571
PERSONAL AND LITERARY CHARACTER OF CICERO.
(_From the_ ENCYCLOPÆDIA METROPOLITANA _of 1824_.)
If the following sketch of Cicero's life and writings be thought unworthy of so great a subject, the Author must plead the circumstances under which it was made.
In the spring of 1824, when his hands were full of work, Dr. Whately paid him the compliment of asking him to write it for the _Encyclopædia Metropolitana_, to which he was at that time himself contributing. Dr. Whately explained to him that the Editor had suddenly been disappointed in the article on Cicero which was to have appeared in the _Encyclopædia_, and that in consequence he could not allow more than two months for the composition of the paper which was to take its place; also, that it must contain such and such subjects. The Author undertook and finished it under these conditions.
In the present Edition (1872) he has in some places availed himself of the excellent translations of its Greek and Latin passages, made by the Reverend Henry Thompson in the Edition of 1852.
1. CHIEF EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF CICERO, §§ 1-4 245
3. THE NEW ACADEMY AND HIS RELATION TO IT, §§ 6-7 264
4. HIS PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS, §§ 8-10 275
5. HIS LETTERS, HIS HISTORICAL AND POETICAL COMPOSITIONS, § 10 289
Marcus Tullius Cicero was born at Arpinum, the native place of Marius,[93] in the year of Rome 648 (A.C. 106), the same year which gave birth to the Great Pompey. His family was ancient and of Equestrian rank, but had never taken part in the public affairs of Rome,[94] though both his father and grandfather were persons of consideration in the part of Italy to which they belonged.[95] His father, being a man of cultivated mind himself, determined to give his two sons the advantage of a liberal education, and to fit them for the prospect of those public employments which a feeble constitution incapacitated himself from undertaking. Marcus, the elder of the two, soon displayed indications of a superior intellect, and we are told that his schoolfellows carried home such accounts of him, that their parents often visited the school for the sake of seeing a youth who gave such promise of future eminence.[96] One of his earliest masters was the poet Archias, whom he defended afterwards in his Consular year; under his instructions he was able to compose a poem, though yet a boy, on the fable of Glaucus, which had formed the subject of one of the tragedies of Æschylus. Soon after he assumed the manly gown he was placed under the care of Scævola, the celebrated lawyer, whom he introduces so beautifully into several of his philosophical dialogues; and in no long time he gained a thorough knowledge of the laws and political institutions of his country.[97]