In discussing the character of the men, little is thought of the robberies of Sylla, the borrowings of Caesar, the money-lending of Brutus, or the accumulated wealth of Crassus.

To plunder a province, to drive usury to the verge of personal slavery, to accept bribes for perjured judgment, to take illegal fees for services supposed to be gratuitous, was so much the custom of the noble Romans that we hardly hate his dishonest greed when displayed in its ordinary course.

But because Cicero's honesty was abnormal, we are first surprised, and then, suspecting little deviations, rise up in wrath against him, because in the midst of Roman profligacy he was not altogether a Puritan in his money matters.
Cicero is known to us in three great capacities: as a statesman, an advocate, and a man of letters.

As the combination of such pursuits is common in our own days, so also was it in his.

Caesar added them all to the great work of his life as a soldier.