[Footnote 1:  Cato, who is the favourite impersonation of all the moral virtues of his age, divorced his wife—­to oblige a friend!]

CHAPTER II.

PUBLIC CAREER.—­IMPEACHMENT OF VERRES.

Increasing reputation as a brilliant and successful pleader, and the social influence which this brought with it, secured the rapid succession of Cicero to the highest public offices.  Soon after his marriage he was elected Quaestor—­the first step on the official ladder—­which, as he already possessed the necessary property qualification, gave him a seat in the Senate for life.  The Aedileship and Praetorship followed subsequently, each as early, in point of age, as it could legally be held.[1] His practice as an advocate suffered no interruption, except that his Quaestorship involved his spending a year in Sicily.  The Praetor who was appointed to the government of that province[2] had under him two quaestors, who were a kind of comptrollers of the exchequer; and Cicero was appointed to the western district, having his headquarters at Lilybaeum.  In the administration of his office there he showed himself a thorough man of business.  There was a dearth of corn at Rome that year, and Sicily was the great granary of the empire.  The energetic measures which the new Quaestor took fully met the emergency.  He was liberal to the tenants of the State, courteous and accessible to all, upright in his administration, and, above all, he kept his hands clean from bribes and peculation.  The provincials were as much astonished as delighted:  for Rome was not in the habit of sending them such officers.  They invented honours for him such as had never been bestowed on any minister before.

[Footnote 1:  The Quaestors (of whom there were at this time twenty) acted under the Senate as State treasurers.  The Consul or other officer who commanded in chief during a campaign would be accompanied by one of them as paymaster-general.

The Aediles, who were four in number, had the care of all public buildings, markets, roads, and the State property generally.  They had also the superintendence of the national festivals and public games.

The duties of the Praetors, of whom there were eight, were principally judicial.  The two seniors, called the ‘City’ and ‘Foreign’ respectively, corresponded roughly to our Home and Foreign Secretaries.  These were all gradual steps to the office of Consul.]

[Footnote 2:  The provinces of Rome, in their relation to the mother-state of Italy, may be best compared with our own government of India, or such of our crown colonies as have no representative assembly.  They had each their governor or lieutenant-governor, who must have been an ex-minister of Rome:  a man who had been Consul went out with the rank of “pro-consul",—­one who had been Praetor with the rank of “pro-praetor”.  These held office for one or two years, and had the power