The Letters of Cicero, Volume 1

480

At the end of b.c. 57, or the beginning of 56, fifteen days of supplicatio were decreed in consequence of Cæsar's success in Gaul (Cæs. B. G. ii. 35).

481

Gaius Cato the tribune, who proposed to recall Lentulus.

482

A scriba or public clerk, and a client of the patrician Clodii.

483

Unknown. Cicero's words seem to imply that he nearly got convicted, but not quite.

484

In b.c. 357 a "college" was established for celebrating the ludi Capitolini, in celebration of the failure of the Gauls to take it. It consisted of men living on the Capitoline (Livy, v. 50). The Mercuriales were a "college" or company of merchants who celebrated the fête of the consecration of the temple of Mercury (b.c., 495) on the Ides of May (Livy, ii. 27; Ov. F. v. 669; C. I. L. i. p. 206).

485

It was on this journey that Pompey visited Luca tomeet Cæsar and Crassus.

486

The name of a property of Quintus at Arpinum.

487

Another property of Quintus near Mintumæ.

488

The recently married wife of Atticus. See p. 216.

489

παλινφδία—something he had apparently written and sent to Pompey or Cæsar, giving in his adhesion to the policy of the triumvirs. It can hardly have been the speech de Provinciis Consularibus or the oratio pro Balbo, which had probably not yet been delivered, for the arrangement recommended in the former speech was not that of the conference of Luca, while in the latter, though he speaks respectfully of Cæsar, there is nothing in the shape of a palinode in general politics.

490

That is, the dowry and expenses of Tullia's betrothal to Crassipes.

491

Tullia de via recta in hortos, for tu, etc., and ad te postridie. This may not be right, but no other suggestions as to the meaning of these abrupt clauses have been made which are in the least convincing. We must suppose that Atticus has asked Tullia to stay with him and his wife Pilia, and Cicero is describing her journey from Antium.

492

L. Lucceius, of whom we have heard before, as having some quarrel with Atticus. His work has not survived. No letter of the correspondence has brought more adimadversion on Cicero, and yet log-rolling and the appealing to friends on the press to review one's book are not wholly unknown even in our time.

493

Cicero appears by a slip to have written Themistocles instead of Aristeides. The dramatic return of the latter just before the battle of Salamis is narrated in Herodotus: whereas the former never returned, though his dead body was said to have been brought to Athens.

494

Reading communi fueris nomine. After all, the meaning is very doubtful.

495

Philoxenus, who, having been sent to the quarries by Dionysius of Syracuse, for criticising the tyrant's poetry, was given another chance. After reading a few lines he turned away silently. "Where are you going?" said Dionysius. "Back to the quarries," said Philoxenus. For Σπαρταν ἔλαχες, ταύτην κοσμεῖ, see p. 59.

496

Ferrei. The true meaning of the word here seems to me to be shewn by de Am. § 87, quis tam esset ferreus, qui eam vitam ferre posset, cuique non auferret fructum voluptatum omnium solitudo? There is an intentional play on the words ferreus and ferre. Others have altered it to servi, and others have explained it as an allusion to the iron age, in both cases spoiling the antithesis—he died, we remain—and in the latter using the word in a sense not elsewhere found. Lentulus is L. Cornelius Lentulus. See Letter L.

497

A money-lender.

498

οὐχ ὁσίη φθιμένοισιν, leaving Atticus, as often, to fill in the words ἐπ' ἀνδράσιν εὐχετάασθαι (Hom. Od. xxii. 412, where the word is κταμένοισιν). Terentius is some eques who has stopped payment.

499

Because Clodius was attempting to pull down Cicero's new-built house on the ground that the site was still consecrated. He was prevented by Milo (Dio, xxxix. 20).

500

Something that Quintus had done, perhaps about water, on his estate which annoyed his fellow townsmen.

501

ὁ δ' οὐκ ἐμπάζετο μύθων (Hom. Od. i. 271).

502

We must suppose Atticus to have mentioned some money loss (see last letter), and to have added that, though a ruinous one, his tastes were simple, and he could live on simple fare. Cicero laughs at the affectation of the rich Atticus. Raudusculum, "a piece of bronze," was the ancient term for the piece of bronze money used in sales, per æs et libram (Varro, L. L. v. 163).

503

μήπω μέγ' εἴπης πρὶν τελευτήσαντ' ἴδῃς, "Do not boast till you see a man dead"—a well-known line from a lost play of Sophocles, containing a sentiment elsewhere often repeated, especially in Herodotus's account of the interview of Solon and Crœsus.

504

εἴη μοὶ οὖτος φίλος οἶκος, according to a probable restoration of the Greek words (instead of εἴη μισητὸς φίλος οἶκος, "I might even hate my town house in comparison"); cp. Hor. Od. ii. 6, 7.

505

Fratris. The mother of Clodius, Cæcilia, was a daughter of Q. Cæcilius Metellus Balearicus (consul b.c. 123), father of the writer of this letter.

506

See Letter XCV.

507

See Letter CII.

508

Joined to the province of Cilicia by Cato in b.c. 58-57. What Cicero is recommending is a clear evasion. Lentulus is not to take Ptolemy back, but to go to Egypt and make it ready for him.

509

Cicero says elsewhere that he supported this (pro Balbo, §61; de Prov. Cons. §28; cp. Dio, xxxix. 25).

510

The law of Gaius Gracchus (b.c. 123) enacting that the senate should name before the elections the provinces to be held by the next consuls.

511

Paludatum, lit. dressed in the paludamentum, the military dress in which provincial governors left Rome with imperium.

512

Notam, some cipher, which he had agreed upon with Valerius to indicate that the commendatio was not to be looked upon as a mere matter of course.

513

One of the tribunes. He was convicted of vis in b.c., 54. Gabinius was governor of Syria b.c. 57-54. He had been engaged in some warlike affairs in Iudæa, for which, or for some successes over the Arabs, he claimed the supplicatio.

514

εἰλικρινές, "pure," "clear."

515

Mihi aqua hæret, "there's a stoppage in my water course."

516

The letter appears to be from Tusculum, because Cicero asks for a letter every day, which he could hardly expect if he were farther off. This year Cicero was much away from Rome, and yet his correspondence is meagre compared with other years. So far as this is not due to accident in the preservation of his letters, it may be accounted for by the fact that he was working at his de Oratore—so hard, that even his brother Quintus had scruples in breaking in upon him.

517

This may refer to the laws of Trebonius, giving Pompey and Crassus Spain and Syria respectively, and Cæsar an additional five years in Gaul, or to some of Pompey's own legislation.

518

L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, a candidate for the consulship of b.c. 55, but whose election had never come off. By various contrivances the comitia were prevented, so that the new year opened with an interregnum; and Pompey and Crassus were elected under the presidency of an interrex (Dio, xxxix. 31).

519

Pompey.

520

L. Natta, a brother-in-law of Clodius, a pontifex who had presided at the consecratio of Cicero's house. He seems to have just died.

521

A friend of Pompey's. I think "your guest" must be Pompey himself, whom Atticus is about to entertain at dinner.

522

The extreme Optimates, such as Cato.

523

Against the predatory and piratic inhabitants of Cilicia.

524

His poem "On his own Times."

525

In his poem de Consulatu suo, the second book of which (Urania) ends with a speech of Iupiter, who recommends his leaving politics for literature.

526

A statue in the temple of Tellus.

527

Brogitarus was a Galatian and connexion of Deiotarus. Clodius, as tribune, had done some services to Byzantium, and had also got Brogitarus the office of high priest of Cybele. He wants now to go and get his money for these favours.

528

The prætorian elections, like the consular, had been put off till February. Those elected would therefore enter on their office at once, and so escape prosecution, to which they would have been liable if, as in ordinary years, they had been "prætors-designate" from July to January. Afranius's motion seems to have been for suspending the bribery laws pro hac vice. Cato had been beaten: if there had been an opportunity of impeaching his rivals he might have got in.

529

Son of the dictator Sulla, who is known to have brought back from Athens a famous Aristotelian library.

530

Pompey and Crassus, the consuls.

531

Pompey, as the context shews. In the next clause ambulatio has a double meaning of physical walking and of a political course of conduct.

532

Philotimus, a freedman of Terentia's, seems to have been engaged at Rome in the reconstruction of Cicero's house. The Spartan bath (Laconicum) was a hot-air bath, like a Turkish bath.

533

The tribunes had no veto against the censors, they could only hinder them by the indirect method of obnuntiatio, declaring that the omens were bad, and so preventing business.

534

This also is Phocylides's.

535

In Pompey's new theatre.

536

Some bore, unknown to us.

537

The two boys seem to be receiving their education together at this time in the house of Quintus.

538

It is all but impossible to explain these words. Some editors transfer them to the sentence after de Republica. But they are scarcely more in place there. The Greek quotation is not known.

539

M. Marius, to whom Letter CXXVI is addressed.

540

C. Anicius, a senator, seems to have obtained from Ptolemy Auletes, by gift or purchase, his state sedan and its attendants.

541

The Pompeianum.

542

An unintellible word, meant apparently for Greek (perhaps arce Ψυρίᾳ, see Att. xvi. 13), is in the text. The most probable conjecture refers it in some way to Arpinum, Cicero's hardy mountain birthplace.

543

The de Oratore.

544

The ruin of his country.

545

For us to walk and converse in. It hardly refers to a supply of vegetables, as some suggest.

546

A learned freedman of Atticus's.

547

See p. 250. Censors were elected this year, but the powers of the censorship had been much curtailed by a law of Clodius in b.c. 58.

548

Apius Claudius (brother of Clodius) was a candidate for the consulship of b.c. 54.

549

Clodius, a revolutionary, like Appuleius Saturninus. The feminine gender is an insult.

550

Either his poem "On his own Times," or the notes of events which he had promised in Letter CVIII, p. 231.

551

A treatise on union (περὶ ὁμονοίας). The rhetorician Dionysius of Magnesia had been with Cicero during his tour in Asia.

552

L. Egnatius, who owed Q. Cicero money.

553

C. Aquilius Gallus, Cicero's colleague in the prætorship, and a busy advocate. See p. 13.

554

Apparently a money-lender.

555

Perhaps at his sponsalia, as he was married towards the end of the year.

556

C. Arrianus Evander, a dealer in statues, it seems, from whom Fadius had bought some for Cicero. He offers to let the debt for them (and so the interest) run from any day Cicero pleases.

557

A well-known connoisseur, mentioned by Horace, Sat. ii. 3, 64, seq.. He seems to have offered to take the bargain off Cicero's hands.

558

That is, for his palæstra or gymnasium, as he calls it, in his Tusculanum. See Letters I, II, VII.

559

An ornamental leg or stand for table or sideboard (abacus). See picture in Rich's Dictionary of Antiquities.

560

On the via Appia, where the canal across the marshes began. Cicero stops there a night between Formiæ and Pomptina Summa (Att. vii. 5).

561

One who professes to be an amateur of art like Damasippus.

562

As in Letter CVI, Tullia, not Terentia, seems to be in Cicero's confidence and presiding in his house. Terentia must already have been on bad terms with him, and perhaps was residing on her own property.

563

Half-sister of Gaius Cassius.

564

Communis, which is not satisfactory. But neither is the emendation proposed, cominus. For communis, "common," "vulgar," see de Off. ii. § 45.

565

Whom Pompey employed to select the plays to be exhibited in his new theatre.

566

Pliny (N. H. viii. § 21) says that the people were so moved that they loudly cursed Pompey.

567

L. Caninius Gallus (see p. 210). What he was accused of does not appear.

568

I do not like to think this letter a mere rhetorical exercise, as has been suggested, rather than a true account of Cicero's feelings as to the theatre and amphitheatre. He often expresses his want of interest in the latter. The vulgar display in the theatre, unlike the severe simplicity of Greek art, was an old evil (see Polyb. xxx. 14).

569

Ego, ut sit rata, Schutz's reading, which seems the best for the unintelligible ergo et si irata of the MSS. It would mean, "though I regret not having been back for Domitius's election (if it has taken place), I am glad to have been away from the previous wrangling in the senate."

570

Crassus starts for Syria; he compares him to L. Æmilius Paullus starting for the war with Perses (b.c. 168). Paullus was, like Crassus, sixty years old, and in his second consulship. Paullus set out with good omens, Crassus with a curse, denounced by the tribune C. Ateius Capito (de Div. i. § 29; Plutarch, Crass. 16).

571

By his librarii. Atticus was again acting as his publisher.

572

The date has been lost.

573

Lit. "has been beheaded with the axe of Tenes," mythical founder and legislator of Tenedos, whose laws were of Draconian severity. A legatio from Tenedos, heard as usual in February, had asked that Tenedos might be made a libera civitas.

574

Some publicanus who had made a charge on the Magnesians which they considered excessive.

575

Lucretius seems to have been now dead, according to Donatus 15 October (b.c. 55), though the date is uncertain. I have translated the reading multæ tamen artis, which has been changed by some to multæ etiam artis. But the contrast in the criticism seems to be between the fine poetical passages in the de Rerum Natura and the mass of technical exposition of philosophy which must have repelled the "general reader" at all times. It suggests at once to Cicero to mention another poem on a similar subject, the Empedoclea of Sallustius, of which and its writer we know nothing. It was not the historian.

576

Retaining populi convicio, and explaining populus to have the general meaning of the crowd, including senators and spectators. Cicero uses populus in this vague way elsewhere.

577

Zeugma I take to mean the "territory of Zeugma," a town on the Euphrates, part of the Roman province of Syria, and close to the frontier of Commagene. Antiochus had asked that some stronghold should be reckoned as his rather than as belonging to the province.

578

Appius, he insinuates, hoped to make money by granting the request of Antiochus, left king of Commagene by Pompey, for some special privileges, among which was the right of wearing the toga prætexta, which symbolized some position with a shadow of Roman imperium, while at the same time conveying a compliment to the Roman suzernainty. See Polyb. lib. xxvi.; xxx. 26; Suet. Aug. 60.

579

Some petty prince of Bostra (Bozra), in Arabia, of whom we know nothing.

580

Quintus was expecting, what he got, the offer of serving under Cæsar as legatus. Cæsar was preparing for his second invasion of Britain.

581

Which will prevent meetings of the senate, and so give me no news to send you.

582

There is a double entendre. Cold weather will prevent the meetings of the senate actually, but metaphorically politics will be also cold and dull, and that dullness will probably be nowhere so evident as in the deserted state of the consul Appius's house, which in all probability will miss its usual bevy of callers. This explanation—put forward by Prof. Tyrrell—is not wholly satisfactory, yet it is the best that has been given.

583

Pompey had two functions at this time: he was governor of Spain and præfectus annonæ. The latter office, as being extraordinary, might be, perhaps, held with the other without an actual breach of law, but it was certainly against the spirit of the constitution. Cicero knows that Pompey's staying in Italy and governing his province by legati will not be acceptable to Cæsar, and he alludes to it in carefully guarded terms. He had been named his legatus when Pompey first undertook the care of the corn-supply, but it does not seem as if he ever seriously contemplated going on actual service.

584

L. Cornelius Balbus, whom Cicero defended, and who acted as Cæsar's agent.

585

The name of the person jocosely referred to by Cæsar is uncertain, from corruption of the text. Q. Lepta is Cæsar's præfectus fabrum.

586

We cannot tell the allusion, not having the letter of Quintus. But he seems to have used the expression for something incongruous either in politics, or in regard to his contemplated services with Cæsar.

587

I.e., the day he had to appear for trial, usually fixed by the prætor on the tenth day from the notice of prosecution. Cælius had been acqiuitted in b.c. 56, when Cicero defended him; this second trial appears to have in some way fallen through. The prætor Domitius is said to be Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, son of Lucius, but he was much too young to have been prætor this year. The former trial of Cælius (b.c. 56) had been before Cn. Comitius Calvinus, hence a difficulty about this passage. For the prætor Domitius of this year is not known. Domitius Calvinus was prætor b.c. 56.

588

The publicani of Syria were enraged with Gabinius for neglecting his province while going to Egypt, thus allowing the pirates so to plunder that they could not collect enough dues to recoup them for their bargain to the state (Dio, xxxix. 59).

589

L. Ælius Lamia, an eques, appears to have been one of the deputation of publicani who attended the senate to accuse Gabinius.

590

The prætorian elections were again postponed from the previous year to the early months of b.c. 54. Appius Claudius found means to put them off till March by holding meetings of the senate each day—the electoral comita not being able to meet on the same day as the senate.

591

The tribune C. Memmius was prosecuting Gabinius (Letter CXLVII). The judicial comita could meet, though not the electoral.

592

Callisthenes of Olynthus wrote (1) a history of the Trojan war; (2) an account of Alexander the Great. Philistus of Syracuse (1) a history of Sicily; (2) a life of Dionysius the elder; (3) a life of Dionysius the younger. He imitated Thucydides (de Orat. § 17).

593

Trebatius is going to join Cæsar, who is about to sail to Britain; hence the jest about the essedarii, drivers of Gallic and British war-chariots. Letter CXXXIII recommended him to Cæsar. The lines quoted are from the Medea of Ennius, adapted or translated from Euripides. I date these two letters from Cumæ, because he speaks of writing to Balbus, who was at Rome (p. 267).

594

A banker at Puteoli.

595

The six books on the Republic.

596

A municipium of Campania nine miles from Naples.

597

Vacerra, Manilius, Cornelius, well-known lawyers or jurists of the day.

598

We shall afterwards see that Trebatius did not go to Britain.

599

At Luca in the year b.c. 56.

600

Comitia habendi causa. No such had been appointed since b.c. 202, and the irregular dictatorship of Sulla in b.c. 82 made the idea distasteful. Pompey was understood to wish for the appointment, now and later on. See pp. 326, 335.

601

τοιαῦθ' ὁ τλήμων πόλεμος ἐξεργάζεται (Eur. Supp. 119).