The Letters of Cicero, Volume 1

602

For the nature of this compact, see p. 300.

603

That is, as an interlocutor in the dialogue "On the Republic," which Cicero was engaged in writing.

604

A law re-enacting the lex Didia, and enacting under penalties that no law was to be brought forward without due publication beforehand.

605

A law which enabled the magistrates and tribunes to stop legislation by obnuntiatio.

606

Procilius had been condemned de vi (p. 280). The rumours, I suppose, were as to the jury having been corrupted.

607

The consul L. Domitius Ahenobarbus and C. Lucceius Hirrus, the latter a warm partisan of Pompey, who was supposed to be agitating for a dictatorship.

608

L. Æmilius Paullus (consul b.c. 50) restored the basilica built by his ancestor M. Æmilius Lepidus in b.c. 179, and appears to have added largely to it, or even built a new one.

609

These works seem to have been contemplated by the censors and senate, and Cicero speaks of himself and Oppius as doing them because they supported the measure. They were partly carried out by Cæsar but not completed till the time of Augustus.

610

Because the tribunes stopped it—the formal act at the end of the Censor's office—by obnuntiationes.

611

The name of the law mentioned here is uncertain. The lex Cincia de munuibus forbade advocates taking fees for pleading.

612

M. Nonius Sufenas and C. Cato were charged with bribery and other illegal proceedings during their tribuneship: Procilius for riot (de vi) when some citizen was killed.

613

Q. Hortensius, the great orator.

614

This refers to the famous waterfall of Terni. An artificial cutting drained the River Velinus (which otherwise covered the high valley as a lake) into the Nar, which is in the valley below. What was good for the people of Reate was, of course, dangerous for the people of Interamna living below. M. Curius Dentatus was consul b.c. 290.

615

σἠμα δἐ τοι ἐρέω (Hom. Il. xxiii. 326).

616

Because Atticus lent money.

617

For the death (in September) of his daughter Iulia, wife of Pompey.

618

A nickname, it is said, of Vacerra (perhaps because he stuttered), who had been a teacher of Trebatius.

619

To Ptolemy Auletes, who had agreed to pay large sums to certain persons for supporting his interests in the senate.

620

In the "Banqueters" (σύνδειπνοι) of Sophocles, Achilles is excluded from a banquet in Tenedos. Some social mishap seems to have occurred to Quintus in camp.

621

Sending coals to Newcastle.

622

ῥαθυμότερα.

623

That is, to get them seats at the games. See Letter XXVI, p. 63.

624

The porticus is a kind of cloister round the peristylium or atrium.

625

Calventius is said to stand for L. Calpurnius Piso Cæsoninus, the consul of b.c. 58, against whom Cicero's speech was spoken in b.c. 55 in the senate. He calls him Calventius from his maternal grandfather, and Marius because—as he had said, in the speech, § 20—he had himself gone into exile rather than come to open fight with him; just as Q. Metellus had done in b.c. 100, when, declining to take the oath to the agrarian law of Saturninus, rather than fight Marius, who had taken the oath, he went into exile. This seems rather a roundabout explanation; but no better has been proposed, and, of course, Quintus, who had lately read the speech, would be able better to understand the allusion.

626

I.e., with money.

627

This tragedy of Quintus's never reached Cicero. It was lost in transit. Perhaps no great loss.

628

Milo was ædile and had just given some splendid games.

629

Maiestas. He would be liable to this charge, under a law of Sulla's, for having left his province to interfere in Egypt.

630

See p. 300.

631

Apparently referring to the death of his daughter Iulia.

632

δευτέρας φροντίδας from Eurip. Hipp. 436, αἱ δευτέραι πως φροντίδες σοφωτέραι.

633

Or, "as kindly and critical at once as Aristophanes (of Byzantium)," as though Quintus had written a Caxtonian criticism of his son's style.

634

γυῶθι πῶς ἄλλω κέχρηται.

635

Of his poem "On his own Times." Piso in Macedonia, where he had been unsuccessful with border tribes: Gabinius in going to Egypt to support Ptolemy. He left many of his soldiers there.

636

The object of the existing consuls in making such a bargain was to get to their provinces without difficulty, with imperium, which had to be bestowed by a formal meeting of the old comitia curiata. But that formality could be stopped by tribunes or other magistrates "watching the sky," or declaring evil omens: and just as these means were being resorted to to put off the elections, so they were also likely to be used in this matter. If it was thus put off into the next year, Domitius and Appius, not being any longer consuls, would have still greater difficulty. Corrupt as the arrangement was, it seems not to have come under any existing law, and both escaped punishment. Appius went as proconsul to Cilicia, in spite of the lex curiata not being passed, but Domitius Ahenobarbus seems not to have had a province. The object of Domitius Calvinus and Memmius in making the compact was to secure their own election, which the existing consuls had many means of assisting, but it is not clear what Memmius's object in disclosing it was. Perhaps anger on finding his hopes gone, and an idea that anything that humiliated Ahenobarbus would be pleasing to Cæsar. He also seems to have quarrelled with Calvinus. Gaius Memmius Gemellus is not to be confounded with Gaius Memmius the tribune mentioned in the next letter.

637

There is considerable uncertainty as to the exact nature of iudicium tacitum, here rendered "a trial with closed doors," on the analogy of the senatus consultum tacitum described by Capitolinus, in Gordian. ch. xii. It is not, I think, mentioned elsewhere (iudiciis tacitis of 2 Off. § 24, is a general expression for "anonymous expressions of opinion"), and the passage in Plutarch (Cato min. 44) introduces a new difficulty, for it indicates a court in which candidates after election are to purge themselves. Again, quæ erant omnibus sortita is very difficult. Cicero nowhere else, I believe, uses the passive sortitus. But, passing that, what are the consilia meant? The tense and mood shew, I think, that the words are explanatory by the writer, not part of the decree. I venture, contrary to all editors, to take omnibus as dative, and to suppose that the consilia meant are those of the album iudicum who had been selected to try cases of ambitus, of which many were expected. There is no proof that the iudices in a iudicium tacitum had to be senators, and the names in the next sentence point the other way. The senate proposed that the law should allow this selection from the album to form the iudicium tacitum, which would give no public verdict, but on whose report they could afterwards act.

638

M. Æmilius Scaurus was acquitted on the 2nd of September on a charge of extortion in Sardinia. The trial had been hurried on lest he should use the Sardinian money in bribing for the consulship. Hence he could not begin distributing his gifts to the electors till after September 2nd, and his rivals Domitius and Messalla got the start of him. See Asconius, 131 seq.

639

He means that Atticus—as a lender of money—would be glad of anything that kept the rate of interest up (see p. 286). He is, of course, joking.

640

Antius is not known. Favonius was a close imitator of Cato's Stoicism. He was now opposing both Pompey and Cæsar strenuously, but on the Civil War breaking out, attached himself strongly to Pompey. He was put to death by Augustus after the battle of Philippi (Suet. Aug. 13). He had a very biting tongue. See Plut. Pomp. 60.

641

Drusus was probably Livius Drusus, the father of Livia, wife of Augustus; he was accused by Lucretius of prævaricatio, "collusion."

642

This time for ambitus.

643

The de Oratore.

644

C. Memmius, a tribune of this year, not the same as the C. Memmius Gemellus of the last letter.

645

Referring to the fact that Gabinius, on his arrival outside Rome, without the usual procession of friends which met a returning proconsul, skulked about till nightfall, not venturing to enter Rome (the city of his enemies!) in daylight. By entering Rome he gave up his imperium and could no longer ask a triumph.

646

Cæsar was accustomed to come to North Italy (Gallia Cisalpina) for the winter to Ravenna or Luca, and there he could be communicated with and exercise great influence.

647

That is, he would go to his province of Cilicia on the strength of his nomination or allotment by the senate. There was some doubt as to the question whether such allotment did not give imperium even without a lex curiata. Besides, the consul had already imperium, and he might consider it to be uninterrupted if he left Rome immediately. However, as there was always an interval between the end of the consulship and the quitting Rome paludatus, the lex curiata had generally been considered necessary (Cæs. B. C. i. 6). After b.c. 52 the lex Pompeia enacted a five years' interval, when, of course, a law would be necessary.

648

θετικώτερον. From θέσις, a philosophical proposition or thesis. In Paradox. præf. he uses θετικά of subjects suited to such theses.

649

Pompey was outside the pomœrium (ad Romam) as having imperium.

650

Two gladiators, one incomparably superior to the other.

651

A proverbial expression, cp. "snapped my nose off."

652

C. Pomptinus, prætor in b.c. 63 (when he had supported Cicero), was afterwards employed against the Allobroges as proprætor of Narbonensis (b.c. 61). He had been, ever since leaving his province (? b.c. 58), urging his claim to a triumph. He obtained it now by the contrivance of the prætor Serv. Sulpicius Galba, who got a vote passed by the comitia before daybreak, which was unconstitutional (Dio, 39, 65).

653

P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus (consul b.c. 48) was an admirer of Cato. See p. 112.

654

Ἄρη πνέων.

655

Cicero gives him this title, by which he had been greeted by his soldiers after some victory over the predatory tribes in Cilicia. This letter is Cicero's most elaborate apology for his change of policy in favour of the triumvirs.

656

Cicero has been variously supposed to refer to C. Cato (who proposed the recall of Lentulus), to Appius the consul, and finally to Pompey. The last seems on the whole most likely, though the explanation is not without difficulties. In that case the "disclosure" will refer to Pompey's intrigues as to the restoration of Ptolemy Auletes, of which he wished to have the management.

657

I.e., to keep in with the Optimates, who were at this time suspicious of, and hostile to Pompey.

658

At the trial of Sestius.

659

b.c. 59, when Vatinius proposed the law for Cæsar's five years' rule in Gaul.

660

b.c. 56.

661

Pompey is only speaking metaphorically. Quintus had guaranteed Cicero's support. Pompey half-jestingly speaks as though he had gone bail for him for a sum of money.

662

Q. Cæcilius Metellus Numidius, expelled from the senate and banished b.c. 100 for refusing the oath to the agrarian law of Saturninus, but recalled in the following year. Cicero is fond of comparing himself with him. See Letter CXLVII.

663

M. Æmilius Scaurus, consul b.c. 115 and 108, censor 109, and long princeps senatus. Cicero comments elsewhere on his severitas (de Off. § 108).

664

Plato, Crit. xii.

665

Like the character in the play (Terence, Eun. 440), if the nobles annoyed Cicero by their attentions to P. Clodius, he would annoy them by his compliments to Publius Vatinius.

666

The beginning of the letter is lost, referring to the acquittal of Gabinius on a charge of maiestas.

667

γοργεῖα γυμνά, "mere bugbears."

668

Antiochus Gabinius was tried, not for treason (maiestas), but under the lex Papia, for having, though a peregrinus, acted as a citizen; but he says "will not acquit me of treason," because he means to infer that his condemnation was really in place of Gabinius, whose acquittal had irritated his jury; therefore he was practically convicted of maiestas instead of his patron Gabinius. I have, accordingly, ventured to elicit the end of a hexameter from the Greek letters of the MS., of which no satisfactory account has been given, and to read Itaque dixit statim "respublica lege maiestatis οὐ σοί κεν ἄρ' ἶσα μ' ἀφείη (or ἀφιῇ)." The quotation is not known. Antiochus Gabinius was doubtless of Greek origin and naturally quoted Greek poetry. Sopolis was a Greek painter living at Rome (Pliny, N. H. xxxv. §§ 40, 43).

669

Pomptinus had been waiting outside Rome for some years to get his triumph (see p. 309). The negant latum de imperio must refer to a lex curiata originally conferring his imperium, which his opponents alleged had not been passed. The insulse latum refers to the law now passed granting him the triumph in spite of this. This latter was passed by the old trick of the prætor appearing in the campus before daybreak to prevent obnuntiatio. The result was that the tribunes interrupted the procession, which led to fighting and bloodshed (Dio, 39, 65).

670

Because he wanted to go to his province himself in spite of having failed to get a lex curiata (p. 324).

671

I.e., without waiting for the senate to vote the usual outfit (ornare provinciam).

672

b.c. 129. The Novendialia was a nine days' festival on the occasion of some special evil omens or prodigies; for an instance (in b.c. 202), see Livy, 30, 38. The book referred to is that "On the Republic."

673

I.e., a mere theorist like Heraclides Ponticus, a pupil of Plato's, whose work "On Constitutions" still exists.

674

Hom. Il. vi. 208.

675

Reading qui omnia adiurat debere tibi et te valere renuntiat. The text, however, is corrupt.

676

Hom. Il. xvi. 385.

677

By Livius Andronicus or Nævius. Tyrrell would write the proverb in extremo sero sapiunt, "'tis too late to be wise at the last." There was a proverb, sero parsimonia in fundo, something like this, Sen. Ep. i. 5, from the Greek (Hes. Op. 369), δειλὴ δ' ἐν πυθμένι φειδώ.

678

In Gallia Belgica, mod. Amiens.

679

There are some words here too corrupt to be translated with any confidence. They appear to convey a summary of news already written in several letters as to the bribery at the elections, the acquittal of Gabinius, and the rumour of a dictatorship.

680

A legacy of a twelfth left by a certain Felix to Cicero and Quintus had been rendered null by a mistake as to the will. See the letter to Quintus, p. 338.

681

Cicero means, "the substantial gain to be got from your serving under Cæsar in Gaul is the securing of his protection in the future: all other gains, such as money etc., are merely to be regarded as securing you from immediate loss in thus going to Gaul: they don't add anything fresh to our position and prospects."

682

Quintus had his winter quarters among the Nervii, in a town near the modern Charleroi. In this winter he was in great danger from a sudden rising of the Nervii and other tribes (Cæs. B. G. v. 24-49).

683

Twenty days of supplicatio had been decreed in honour of Cæsar's campaigns of b.c. 55 (Cæs. B. G. iv. 38).

684

His gladiators, which he kept in training for the games he was going to give in honour of a deceased friend.

685

I.e., rather than defend him. τότε μοι χάνοι (εὐρεῖα χθών), Hom. Il. iv. 182.

686

ὁ δὲ μαίνεται οὐκ ἔτ' ἀνεκτῶς (Hom. Il. viii. 355). The numerals seem doubtful. According to some MSS. the amount would be 10,000,000, i.e., £80,000.

687

The tragedy written by Quintus and lost in transit.

688

He seems to refer to the rising of the Nervii against the Roman winter quarters (Cæs. B. G. v. 39 seq).

689

Andabatam, a gladiator with a closed helmet covering the face, who thus fought without seeing his adversary.

690

A title granted to the Hædui by the senate (Cæs. B. G. i. 33; Tac. Ann. xi. 25).

691

Terence, Heautont. 86.

692

Cicero perhaps means that Valerius's "opinions" are too right to suit such a set as are to be found in the province. Valerius will not mind people there thinking him a bad lawyer. "At Rome you are considered a good lawyer, in Cilicia they don't think so!"

693

Cognosces tuorum neminem.. Others read cognoscere tuorum nemini, "you will not be recognized by any of your friends," which agrees better with Homer's account of the return of Ulysses. But perhaps the exact comparison is not to be pressed.

694

The younger Curio was now quæstor to C. Clodius, brother of Publius and Appius, in Asia. He was tribune in b.c. 50, when he suddenly changed sides and joined Cæsar, who purchased his adhesion by paying his immense debts.

695

Curio had supported Cicero against Clodius, and had worked for his recall. He seems to have attended at Cicero's house for the study of rhetoric or legal practice, as was the fashion for young men to do. He presently married Fulvia, the widow of Clodius, who after his death in Africa (b.c. 48) married Antony.

696

The interregna lasting this year till July. No legal business could be done, as the law courts were closed during an interregnum. But Cicero jestingly says that he advises clients to apply to each interrex (who only held office for five days) for two adjournments, whereby he would get his case postponed indefinitely: for if each adjournment was to the third day, the two would cover each interregnum. Of course he is only jesting, for in any case the cause would not come on.

697

There is a play on the double meaning of signa, "signs" and "statues." Cicero did not like the statues in his Tusculanum. See Letter CXXV.

698

Samobriva (Amiens), where Trebatius was, or had been, in Cæsar's camp. Cæsar spells it Samarobriva.

699

Laberius is a rival jurisconsult, Valerius a writer of mimes. Though Cicero jests at the supposed comic character, "a lawyer in Britain" (as we might say, "a lawyer among the Zulus"), it does not appear that Trebatius went to Britain with Cæsar.

700

A freedman and agent of Curio's. The question is of funeral games and an exhibition of gladiators in honour of Curio's father. Curio gave them, and involved himself in huge debt in consequence.

701

C. Vibius Pansa had been in Gaul, and was now home to stand for the tribuneship, which he obtained for b.c. 52-51.

702

Where he would have been in luxury.

703

A follower of the new academy, with which Cicero was more in sympathy than with the Epicurean ethics, but apparently only partly so. The leading doctrine was the denial of the possibility of knowledge, and, applied to ethics, this might destroy all virtue.

704

All these jesting objections to a lawyer being an Epicurean are founded on the Epicurean doctrine that individual feeling is the standard of morals, and the summum bonum is the good of the individual. The logical deduction that a man should therefore hold aloof from politics and social life, as involving social obligations and standards, was, of course, evaded in practice.

705

For the Epicureans believed the gods to exist, but not to trouble themselves with the affairs of men. In taking an oath by Iupiter lapis the swearer took a stone in his hand and said, "If I abide by this oath may he bless me: but if I do otherwise in thought or deed, may all others be kept safe, each in his own country, under his own laws, in enjoyment of his own goods, household gods, and tombs—may I alone be cast out, even as this stone is now." Then he throws down the stone. This passage from Polybius (iii. 25) refers to treaties, but the same form seems to have been used in suits about land.

706

Ulubræ—like other municipia—had a patronus at Rome to look after its interests. If Trebatius (who was its patronus) would take no part in politics, he would be of no use to the Ulubrani. πολιτεύεσθαι, "to act as a citizen," "to act as a member of a political body."

707

"I will make fast the doors and gild myselfWith some more ducats."—Shakespeare..

708

Ennius, Ann. 275. The phrase manum consertum in legal language meant to make a joint claim by the symbolical act of each claimant laying a hand on the property (or some representation of it) in court. But it also meant "to join hands in war." Hence its equivocal use in this passage. Consertum is a supine, and some such word as eunt must be understood before it.