Publilia

the second wife of M. Tullius Cicero, whom he married in B. C. 46. As Cicero was then sixty years of age, and Publilia quite young, the marriage occasioned great scandal. It appears that Cicero was at the time in great pecuniary embarrassments; and after the divorce of Terentia, he was anxious to contract a new marriage for the purpose of obtaining money to pay his debts. Publilia had a large fortune, which had been left her by her father, but, in order to evade the Voconia lex, which limited the amount that a woman could receive by will, the property had been left to Cicero in trust for her. The marriage proved an unhappy one, as might have been expected; and after the death of his daughter Tullia in B. C. 45, Cicero was able to plead his sorrow as an excuse for going into the country alone. While there he writes to Atticus that Publilia had sent him a letter, requesting to be allowed to visit him, and that he had written back to her that he wished to remain alone; but he begged Atticus to let him know how long he might remain without being surprised by a visit from her. At length Cicero became so tired of his young wife, and so annoyed by her mother and brother, that he was glad to divorce her in the course of the year 45. It was said by some that she had expressed joy at the death of Tullia; this may have served Cicero as an excuse for his conduct. Cicero had now to repay the dowry, and consequently had incurred all the reproach and inconvenience of such a marriage without reaping from it any advantage. He found no small difficulty in raising the money to pay this dowry; and his letters to Atticus frequently allude to his negotiations on this subject with Publilius, the brother of his late wife. (Cic. ad Fam. 4.14, ad Att. 12.32, 13.34, 47, 14.19, 16.2, 6; D. C. 46.18; Plut. Cic. 41; Quint. Inst. 6.3.75.) Dio Cassius states (57.15) that Vibius Rufus, in the reign of Tiberius, married Cicero's widow, by whom we are probably to understand Publilia, and not Terentia, as many have done. (Drumann, Geschichte Roms, vol. vi. pp. 694-696.)

plebeian. The ancient form of the name was Poblilius, which we find in the Capitoline Fasti. In many manuscripts and editions of the ancient writers we find the name of Publilius corrupted into Publius; and Glandorp, in his Onomasticon, has fallen into the mistake of giving most of the Publilii under the head of Publii (pp. 727, 728). The Publilii were first brought into notice as early as B. C. 472, by the celebrated tribune Volero Publilius, and they subsequently obtained the highest dignities of the state. The only family of this gens that bore a separate cognomen was that of PHILO; and it was one of this family, Q. Publilius Philo, who obtained the consulship in B. C. 339. The greatness of the gens became extinct with this Philo; and after his death we do not read of any persons of the name who attained to importance in the state. Volscus was an agnomen of the Philones. [Philo, No. 1.]

The second wife of Cicero the orator, whom he married in B.C. 46, when he was sixty years of age and she quite young. The marriage caused great scandal, as it was generally believed that Cicero was simply in love with her fortune. The marriage proved unhappy, and Publilia was divorced by her husband in B.C. 45 (Cic. Ad Att. xii. 32; Dio Cass. xlvi. 18). See Cicero; Tullia.