The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4

VII. However, let us now come to the task which we have undertaken, when we have just explained what the cause is which is before the court.

As there was a law at Athens, that no one should be the cause of carrying a decree of the people that any one should be presented with a crown while invested with office till he had given in an account of the way in which he had discharged its duties; and another law, that those who had crowns given them by the people ought to receive them in the assembly of the people, and that they who had them given to them by the senate should receive them in the senate; Demosthenes was appointed a superintendent of repairs of the walls; and he did it at his own expense. Therefore, with reference to him Ctesiphon proposed a decree, without his having given in any accounts, that he should be presented with a golden crown, and that that presentation should take place in the theatre, the people being summoned for the purpose, (that is not the legitimate place for an assembly of the people;) and that proclamation should be made, "that he received this present on account of his virtue and devotion to the state, and to the Athenian people." Aeschines then prosecuted this man Ctesiphon because he had proposed a decree contrary to the laws, to the effect that a crown should be given when no accounts had been delivered, and that it should be presented in the theatre, and that he had made false statements in the words of his motion concerning Demosthenes's virtue and loyalty; since Demosthenes was not a good man, and was not one who had deserved well of the state.

That kind of cause is indeed inconsistent with the precedents established by our habits; but still it has an imposing look. For it has on each side of the question a sufficiently clever interpretation of the laws, and a very grave contest as to the respective services done by the two rival orators to the republic. Therefore the object of Aeschines was, since he himself had been prosecuted on a capital charge by Demosthenes, for having given a false account of his embassy, that now a trial should take place affecting the conduct and character of Demosthenes, that so, under pretence of prosecuting Ctesiphon, he might avenge himself on his enemy. For he did not say so much about the accounts not having been delivered, as to the point that a very bad citizen had been praised as an excellent.

Aeschines instituted this prosecution against Ctesiphon four years before the death of Philip of Macedon. But the decision took place a few years afterwards; when Alexander had become master of Asia. And it is said that all Greece thronged to hear the issue of the trial. For what was ever better worth going to see, or better worth hearing, than the contest of two consummate orators in a most important cause, inflamed and sharpened by private enmity?

If then, as I trust, I have given such a copy of their speeches, using all their excellencies, that is to say, their sentiments, and their figures, and the order of their facts; adhering to their words only so far as they are not inconsistent with our customs, (and though they may not be all translated from the Greek, still I have taken pains that they should be of the same class,) then there will be a standard to which the orations of those men must be directed who wish to speak Attically. But I have said enough of myself—let us now hear Aeschines speaking in Latin. (These Orations are not extant.)

END OF THE TREATISE

1

Dolabella had been married to Cicero's daughter Tullia, but was divorced from her.

2

The name was given them early. Juvenal, who wrote within a hundred years of Cicero's time, calls them "divina Philippica."

3

This meeting took place on the third day after Caesar's death.

4

[Greek: Mae mnaesikakin].

5

The hook was to drag his carcass along the streets to throw it into the Tiber. So Juvenal says—

    "Sejanus ducitur unco    Spectandus."—x. 66.

6

This refers to a pillar that was raised in the forum in honour of Caesar, with the inscription, "To the Father of his Country."

7

See Philippic 2.

8

This was the name of a legion raised by Caesar in Gaul, and called so, probably, from the ornament worn on their helmet.

9

He meant to insinuate that Antonius had been forging

Caesar's handwriting and signature

10

Fulvia, who had been the wife of Clodius, and afterwards of Curio, was now the wife of Antonius.

11

These were the names of slaves.

12

Ityra was a town at the foot of Mount Taurus.

13

Brutus was the Praetor urbanus this year, and that officer's duty confined him to the city; and he was forbidden by law to be absent more than ten days at a time during his year of office.

14

I have translated jugerum "an acre," because it is usually so translated, but in point of fact it was not quite two-thirds of an English acre. At the same time it was nearly three times as large as the Greek [Greek: plethros] such by the fault of fortune and not by his own. You assumed the manly gown, which you soon made a womanly one: at first a public prostitute, with a regular price for your wickedness, and that not a low one. But very soon Curio stepped in, who carried you off from your public trade, and, as if he had bestowed a matron's robe upon you, settled you in a steady and durable wedlock. No boy bought for the gratification of passion was ever so wholly in the power of his master as you were in Curio's. How often has his father turned you out of his house? How often has he placed guards to prevent you from entering? while you, with night for your accomplice, lust for your encourager, and wages for your compeller, were let down through the roof. That house could no longer endure your wickedness. Do you not know that I am speaking of matters with which I am thoroughly acquainted? Remember that time when Curio, the father, lay weeping in his bed; his son throwing himself at my feet with tears recommended to me you; he entreated me to defend you against his own father, if he demanded six millions of sesterces of you; for that he had been bail for you to that amount. And he himself, burning with love, declared positively that because he was unable to bear the misery of being separated from you, he should go into banishment. And at that time what misery of that most nourishing family did I allay, or rather did I remove! I persuaded the father to pay the son's debts; to release the young man, endowed as he was with great promise of courage and ability, by the sacrifice of part of his family estate; and to use his privileges and authority as a father to prohibit him not only from all intimacy with, but from every opportunity of meeting you. When you recollected that all this was done by me, would you have dared to provoke me by abuse if you had not been trusting to those swords which we behold?

15

Sisapo was a town in Spain, celebrated for some mines of vermilion, which were farmed by a company.

16

She was a courtesan who had been enfranchised by her master Volumnius. The name of Volumnia was dear to the Romans as that of the wife of Coriolanus, to whose entreaties he had yielded when he drew off his army from the neighbourhood of Rome.

17

This is a play on the name Hippia, as derived from

[Greek: hippos], a horse.

18

The custom of erecting a spear wherever an auction was held is well known, it is said to have arisen from the ancient practice of selling under a spear the booty acquired in war.

19

There seems some corruption here. Orellius apparently thinks the case hopeless.

20

The Latin is, "non solum de die, sed etiam in diem, vivere;" which the commentators explain, "De die is to feast every day and all day. Banquets de die are those which begin before the regular hour." (Like Horace's Partem solido demere de die.) "To live in diem is to live so as to have no thought for the future."—Graevius.

21

This accidental resemblance to the incident in the

"Forty Thieves" in the "Arabian Nights" is curious.

22

The septemviri, at full length septemviri epulones or epulonum, were originally triumviri. They were first created BC. 198, to attend to the epulum Jovis, and the banquets given in honour of the other gods, which duty had originally belonged to the pontifices. Julius Caesar added three more, but that alteration did not last. They formed a collegium, and were one of the four great religious corporations at Rome with the pontifices, the augures, and the quindecemviri. Smith, Diet, Ant. v. Epulones.

23

It had been explained before that Fulvia had been the widow of Clodius and of Curio, before she married Antonius.

24

Riddle (Dict. Lat. in voce) says, that this was the regular punishment for deserters, and was inflicted by their comrades.

25

Cnaeus Octavius, the real father of Octavius Caesar, had been praetor and governor of Macedonia, and was intending to stand for the consulship when he died.

26

Bambalio is derived from the Greek word [Greek: bambala] to lisp.

27

Julia, the mother of Antonius and sister of Lucius

Caesar, was also a native of Aricia.

28

He had intended to propose to the senate to declare

Octavius a public enemy. We must recollect that in these orations

Cicero, even when he speaks of Caius Caesar, means Octavius.

29

It is quite impossible to give a proper idea of Cicero's meaning here. He is arguing on the word dignus, from which dignitas is derived. But we have no means of keeping up the play on the words in English.

30

The general proceeding on such occasions being to ask each senator's opinion separately, which gave those who chose an opportunity for pronouncing some encomium on the person honoured.

31

Spartacus was the general of the gladiators and slaves in the Servile war.

32

Lepidus had not in reality done any particular service to the republic (he was afterwards one of the triumviri), but he was at the head of the best army in the empire, and so was able to be of the most important service to either party, and, therefore, Cicero hoped to attach him to his side by this compliment.

33

It has been already explained that this was the name of one legion.

34

The mirmillo was the gladiator who fought with the retiarius; he wore a Gallic helmet with a fish for a crest.

35

The English reader must recollect that what is called Gaul in these orations, is Cisalpine Gaul containing what we now call the North of Italy, coming down as far south as Modena and Ravenna.

36

After the year B.C. 403 there were two classes of Roman knights, one of which received a horse from the state, and were included in the eighteen centuries of service, the other class, first mentioned by Livy (v. 7) in the account of the siege of Veii, served with their own horses, and instead of having a horse found them, received a certain pay, (three times that of the infantry) and were not included in the eighteen centuries of service. The original knights, to distinguish them from these latter, are often called equites equo publico, sometimes also ficus vanes or trossuli Vide Smith, Dict. Ant. P. 394-396, v. Equites

37

He had been one of the septemvirs appointed to preside over the distribution of the lands.

38

Janus was the name of a street near the temple of Janus, especially frequented by bankers and usurers. It was divided into summus, nedus and imus Horace says—

  Hase Janus summus ab imo  Edocet [lacuna]  Postquam omms res mea Janum  Ad medium fracta cat.

39

I.e. tumultus, as if it were tumor multus

40

These were the names of officers devoted to Antonius.

41

The province between the Alps and the Rubicon was called Gallia Citerior, or Oisalpina, from its situation, also Togata, from the inhabitants wearing the Roman toga. The other was called Ulterior, and by Cicero often Ultima, or Transalpina, and also Comata, from the fashion of the inhabitants wearing long hair

42

Sulpicius was of about the same age as Cicero, and an early friend of his, and he enjoyed the reputation of being the first lawyer of his time, or of all who ever had studied law as a profession in Rome.

43

There is some corruption of the text here.

44

Brutus had been adopted by his maternal uncle Quintus Servilius Caepio, so that his legal designation was what is given in the text now, as Cicero is proposing a formal vote—though at all other times we see that he calls him Marcus Brutus

45

The Latin is Samiarius, or as some read it Samarius. Orellius says, "perhaps it means some sort of trade, for I doubt its having been a Roman proper name." Nizollius says, "Samarius exul—proverbium." Facciolatti calls him a man whose business it was to clean the arms of the guards, &c. with Samian chalk.

46

Vopiscus is another name of Bestia.

47

It is impossible to give the force of the original here, which plays on the word tabula. The Latin is, "vindicem enim novarum tabularum novam tabulam vidimus," novae tabulae meaning as is well known a law for the abolition of debts, nova tabula in the singular an advertisement of (Trebellius's) property being to be sold.

48

Here too is a succession of puns. Lysidicus is derived from the Greek [Greek: lyo] to loosen and [Greek: dikae], justice. Cimber is a proper name, and also means one of the nation of the Cimbri, Germanus is a German, and germanus a brother, and he means here to impute to Caius Cimber that he had murdered his brother.

49

Compare St Paul,—"For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" 1 Cor. xiv 8.

50

That is, without being crucified like a slave.

51

The Latin here is "Itaque Caesaris munera rosit,"—playing on the name mus, mouse; but Orellius thinks the whole passage corrupt, and indeed there is evident corruption in the text here in many places.

52

He means Lucius Aemilius Paullus, and Caius Claudius

Marcellus, who were consuls the year after Servius Sulpicius and

Marcus Claudius Marcellus, A.U.C. 704.

53

These two were tribunes of the people, who had been dispossessed of their offices by Julius Caesar.

54

There is some difficulty here. Many editors propose to read "offen lerint" which Orellius thinks would hardly be Latin. He says, "Antonius is here speaking of those veterans who had deserted him indeed but who, at the time of his writing this letter, had not acted against him". Therefore, he says it is open to them to become reconciled to him again (wishing to conciliate them, and to alarm his enemies). On the other hand, Cicero replies, Nothing is so open to them now as to do what their duty to the republic requires. That is to say, openly to attack you, whose party they have already abandoned.

55

There were two wine feasts, Vinalia, at Rome: the vinalia urbano, celebrated on the twenty-third of April; and the vinalia rustica, on the nineteenth of October. This was the urbana vinalia; on which occasion the wine casks which had been filled in the autumn were tasted for the first time.

56

There is much dispute as to who is meant here. Some say

Cicero refers to Amphion, some to Orpheus, and some to Mercury; the

Romans certainly did attribute the civilization of men to Mercury, as

Horace says—

    Qui feros cultus hominum recenti    Voce formâsti catus I. 9, 2.

57

This is very frequently quoted by Cicero; the Latin lines being the opening of the Medea of Ennius, translated from the first lines of the Medea of Euripides.

58

The Talysus was a hunter at Rhodes, of whom Protogenes had made an admirable picture, which was afterwards brought to Rome, and placed in the temple of Peace.

59

Brutus was at present propraetor in Gaul.

60

Theophrastus's real name was Tyrtamus, but Aristotle, whose pupil he was, surnamed him Theophrastus, from the Greek words [Greek: Theos], God and [Greek: phrazo], to speak.

61

He refers to the Menexenus.

62

Cape si vis.

63

"Assiduus. Prop, sitting down, seated, and so, well to do in the world, rich. The derivation ab assis duendis is therefore to be rejected. Servius Tullius divided the Roman people into two classes, assidui, i. e. the rich, who could sit down and take their ease, and proletarii, or capite censi, the poor."—Riddle, in voc. Assiduus, quoting this passage. One does not see, however, why aelius and Cicero should not understand the meaning and derivation of a Latin word. Smith's Dict. Ant. takes no notice of the word at all.

64

See chap. x.