Alliance with the First Triumvirate
At the end of 60, Cicero declined Caesar’s invitation to join the political
alliance of Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey, the so-called First Triumvirate,
which he considered unconstitutional, and also Caesar’s offer in 59 of a place
on his staff in Gaul. When Publius Clodius, whom Cicero had antagonized by
speaking and giving evidence against him when he was tried for profanity
early in 61, became tribune in 58, Cicero was in danger, and in March,
disappointed by Pompey’s refusal to help him, he fled Rome. On the following
day Clodius carried a bill forbidding the execution of a Roman citizen
without trial. Clodius then carried through a second law, of doubtful legality,
declaring Cicero an exile. Cicero went first to Thessalonica, in Macedonia, and
then to Illyricum. In 57, thanks to the activity of Pompey and particularly the
tribune Titus Annius Milo, he was recalled on August 4. Cicero landed at
Brundisium (Brindisi) on that day and was acclaimed all along his route to
Rome, where he arrived a month later.
In winter 57–56 Cicero attempted unsuccessfully to estrange Pompey from
Caesar. Pompey disregarded Cicero’s advice and renewed his compact with
Caesar and Crassus at Luca in April 56. Cicero then agreed, under pressure
from Pompey, to align himself with the three in politics, and he committed
himself in writing to this effect (the “palinode”). The speech De provinciis
consularibus (On the Consular Provinces) marked his new alliance. He was
obliged to accept a number of distasteful defenses, and he abandoned public
life. In the next few years he completed the De oratore (55; On the Orator)
and De republica (52; On the Republic) and began the De legibus (52; On
Laws). In 52 he was delighted when Milo killed Clodius but failed disastrously
in his defense of Milo (later written for publication, the Pro Milone, or For
Milo).
In 51 he was persuaded to leave Rome to govern the province of Cilicia, in
southern Anatolia, for a year. The province had been expecting
a Parthian invasion, but it never materialized, although Cicero did suppress
some brigands on Mt. Amanus. The Senate granted a supplicatio (a period of
public thanksgiving), although Cicero had hoped for a triumph, a processional
return through the city, on his return to Rome. All admitted that he governed
Cilicia with integrity.
By the time Cicero returned to Rome, Pompey and Caesar were struggling
against each other for complete power. He was on the outskirts of Rome when
Caesar crossed the Rubicon and invaded Italy in January 49. Cicero met
Pompey outside Rome on January 17 and accepted a commission to supervise
recruiting in Campania. He did not leave Italy with Pompey on March 17,
however. His indecision was not discreditable, though his criticism of
Pompey’s strategy was inexpert. In an interview with Caesar on March 28,
Cicero showed great courage in stating his own terms—his intention of
proposing in the Senate that Caesar should not pursue the war against
Pompey any further—though they were terms that Caesar could not possibly
accept. Cicero disapproved of Caesar’s dictatorship; yet he realized that in the
succession of battles (which continued until 45) he would have been one of the
first victims of Caesar’s enemies, had they triumphed. This was his second
period of intensive literary production, works of this period including
the Brutus, Paradoxa Stoicorum (Paradoxes of the Stoics), and Orator (The
Orator) in 46; De finibus (On the Supreme Good) in 45; and Tusculanae
disputationes (Tusculan Disputations), De natura deorum (On the Nature of
the Gods), and De officiis (On Duties), finished after Caesar’s murder, in 44.