Letters to Atticus

^[1]: B.C. 68. Coss., L. Caecilius Metellus, Q. Marcius Rex.

^[2]: de Fin. 5.1

^[3]: Nep. Att. 4

^[4]: Pomponia, married to Cicero's younger brother Quintus. We shall frequently hear of this unfortunate marriage. Quintus was four years younger than his brother, who had apparently arranged the match, and felt therefore perhaps somewhat responsible for the result (Nep. Att. 5).

^[5]: Atticus had estates and a villa near Buthrotum in Epirus,—Butrinto in Albania, opposite Corfu.

^[6]: This is probably Sext. Peducaeus the younger, an intimate friend of Atticus (Nep. Att. 21); his father had been praetor in Sicily when Cicero was quaestor (B.C. 76-B.C. 75), the son was afterwards a partisan of Caesar in the Civil War, governor of Sardinia, B.C. 48, and propraetor in Spain, B.C. 39.

^[7]: The person alluded to is L. Lucceius, of whom we shall hear again. See Letters V, VII, VIII, CVIII. What his quarrel with Atticus was about, we do not know.

^[8]: Prescriptive right to property was acquired by possession (usus) of two years. But no such right could be acquired to the property of a girl under guardianship (pro Flacco, § 84).

^[9]: C. Rabirius, whom Cicero defended in B.C. 63, when prosecuted by Caesar for his share in the murder of Saturninus (B.C. 100). He lived, we know, in Campania, for his neighbours came to give evidence in his favour at the trial.

^[10]: M. Fonteius made a fortune in the province of Gaul beyond the Alps, of which he was propraetor, B.C. 77-B.C. 74. In B.C. 69 he had been accused of malversation, and defended by Cicero. After his acquittal he seems to be buying a seaside residence in Campania, as so many of the men of fashion did.

^[11]: Cicero's "gymnasium" was some arrangement of buildings and plantations more or less on the model of the Greek gymnasia, at his Tusculan villa.

^[12]: The mother of Atticus lived to be ninety, dying in B.C. 33, not long before Atticus himself, who at her funeral declared that " he had never been reconciled to her, for he had never had a word of dispute with her" (Nep. Att. 17).

^[13]: This sum is for the works of art purchased for the writer by Atticus.

^[14]: B.C. 67. Coss., C. Calpurnius Piso, M. Acilius Glabrio.

^[15]: Thyillus (sometimes Chilius), a Greek poet living at Rome. See Letters XVI and XXI. The Eumolpidae were a family of priests at Athens who had charge of the temple of Demeter at Eleusis. The pa/tria *)eumolpidw=n (the phrase used by Cicero here) maybe either books of ritual or records such as priests usually kept: pa/tria is an appropriate word for such rituals or records handed down by priests of one race or family.

^[16]: Lucceius, as in the first letter and the next.

^[17]: The comitia were twice postponed this year. Apparently the voting for Cicero had in each case been completed, so that he is able to say that he was "thrice returned at the head of the poll by an unanimous vote" (de Imp. Pomp. § 2). The postponement of the elections was probably connected with the struggles of the senate to hinder the legislation (as to bribery) of the Tribune, Gaius Cornelius (Dio, 36.38-39).

^[18]: The first allusion in these letters to the disturbed position of public affairs. See the passage of Dio quoted in the previous note. There were so many riots in the interval between the proclamation and the holding of the elections, not without bloodshed, that the senate voted the consuls a guard.

^[19]: B.C. 66. Coss., M. Aemilius Lepidus, L. Volcacius Tullus.

^[20]: The point of this frigid joke is not clear. Was the grandmother really dead? What was she to do with the Latin feriae? Mr. Strachan Davidson's explanation is perhaps the best, that Cicero means that the old lady was thinking of the Social War in B.C. 89, when the loyalty of the Latin towns must have been a subject of anxiety. She is in her dotage and only remembers old scares. This is understanding civitates with Latinae. Others understand feriae or mulieres. Saufeius, a Roman eques, was an Epicurean, who would hold death to be no evil. He was a close friend of Atticus, who afterwards saved his property from Confiscation by the Triumvirs (Nep. Att. 12).

^[21]: Cneius Sallustius, a learned friend of Cicero's, of whom we shall often hear again.

^[22]: C. Calpurnius Piso, quaestor B.C. 58, died in B.C. 57. The marriage took place in B.C. 63.

^[23]: The annalist C. Licinius Macer was impeached de repetundis (he was praetor about B.C. 70 or 69, and afterwards had a province), and finding that he was going to be condemned, committed suicide. He was never therefore condemned regularly (Val. Max. 9.127; Plut. Cic. 9). Cicero presided at the court as praetor.

^[24]: The books must have been a very valuable collection, or Cicero would hardly have made so much of being able to buy them, considering his lavish orders for statues or antiques.

^[25]: B.C. 65. Coss., L. Aurelius Cotta, L. Manlius Torquatus.

^[26]: One of the judices rejected by Verres on his trial, a pontifex and augur.

^[27]: Agent of Atticus

^[28]: C. Antonius (uncle of M. Antonius) was elected with Cicero. Q. Cornificius had been tr. pl. in B.C. 69. See Letter XVIII.

^[29]: M. Caesonius, Cicero's colleague in the aedileship. He had lost credit as one of the Iunianum concilium in the trial of Oppianicus.

^[30]: Aufidius Lurco, tr. pl. B.C. 61. M. Lollius Palicanus, tr. pl. some years previously.

^[31]: L. Iulius Caesar, actually consul in B.C. 64, brother-in-law of Lentulus the Catilinarian conspirator, was afterwards legatus to his distant kinsman, Iulius Caesar in Gaul. A. Minucius Thermus, defended by Cicero in B.C. 59, but the identification is not certain. D. Iunius Silanus got the consulship in the year after Cicero (B.C. 62), and as consul-designate spoke in favour of executing the Catilinarian conspirators.

^[32]: The text is corrupt in all MSS. I have assumed a reading, something of this sort, quae cum erit absoluta, sane facile ac libenter eum nunc fieri consulem viderim. This at any rate gives nearly the required sense, which is that Cicero regards the influence which Thermus will gain by managing the repair of the Flaminia as likely to make him a formidable Candidate, and therefore he would be glad to see him elected in the present year 65 (nunc) rather than wait for the next, his own year.

^[33]: C. Calpurnius Piso, consul in B.C. 67, then proconsul of Gallia Transalpina (Narbonensis). He was charged with embezzlement in his province and defended by Cicero in B.C. 63. There were no votes in Transalpine Gaul, but Cicero means in going and coining to canvass the Cispadane cities.

^[34]: Pompey was this year on his way to take over the Mithridatic War. But Cicero may have thought it likely that he or some of his staff would pass through Athens and meet Atticus

^[35]: L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, praetor in B.C. 58, and consul B.C. 54, fell at Pharsalia, righting against Caesar.

^[36]: Q Caecilius, a rich uncle of Atticus so cross-grained that no one but Atticus could get on with him, to whom he accordingly left his large fortune (Nep. Att. 5).

^[37]: Hom. 51.22.159, Achilles pursuing Hector: Since not for sacred beast or oxhide shield They strove,—man's guerdon for the fleet of foot : Their stake was Hector's soul, the swift steed's lord.

^[38]: Reading eius a)na/qhma, and taking the latter word in the common sense of "ornament" : the Hermathena is so placed that the whole gymnasium is as it were an ornament to it, designed to set it off, instead of its being a mere ornament to the gymnasium. Professor Tyrrell, however, will not admit that the words can have this or any meaning, and reads, h(li/ou a)/namma, "sun light"—"the whole gymnasium seems as bright as the sun"—a curious effect, after all, for one statue to have.

^[39]: Asconius assigns this to the accusation of embezzlement in Africa. But that seems to have been tried in the previous year, or earlier in his year. The new impeachment threatened seems to have been connected with his crimes in the proscriptions of Sulla (Dio, 37.10). Cicero may have thought of defending him on a charge relating to so distant a period, just as he did Rabirius on the charge of murdering Saturninus (B.C. 100), though he had regarded his guilt in the case of extortion in Africa as glaring.

^[40]: B.C. 61. Coss., M. Papius Piso, M. valerius Messalla.

^[41]: From expressions in the following letters it seems certain that this refers to money expected from Gaius Antonius; but we have no means of deciding whether or no Teucris is a pseudonym for some agent. Cicero had undertaken to be the advocate and supporter of Antonius, and though as an actual patronus in court he could not take money, he may have felt justified in receiving supplies from him. Still, he knew the character of Antonius, and how such wealth was likely to be got, and it is not a pleasant affair.

^[42]: Money-lenders.

^[43]: The rich and cross-grained uncle of Atticus. See Letter X.

^[44]: Cicero quotes half a Greek verse of Menander's, tau)to/maton h(mw=n, leaving Atticus to fill up the other two words, kalli/w bouleu/etai, " Chance designs better than we ourselves."

^[45]: Mucia was suspected of intriguing with Iulius Caesar.

^[46]: The chief festival of the Bona Dea (Tellus) was in May. The celebration referred to here took place on the night between the 3rd and 4th of December. It was a state function (pro populo), and was celebrated in the presence of the Vestals and the wife of the consul or praetor urbanus, in ea domo quae est in imperio. As Caesar was Pontifex Maximus, as well as praetor urbanus, it took place in the Regia, the Pontiff's official house (Plutarch, Cic. 19; Dio, 37.35).

^[47]: Ora soluta. Or, if ancara sublata be read, "when the anchor was already weighed." In either case it means "just as you were starting." Atticus wrote on board, and gave the letter to a carrier to take on shore,

^[48]: A word lost in the text.

^[49]: See end of Letter XXI. Cicero playfully supposes that Atticus only stayed in his villa in Epirus to offer sacrifices to the nymph in his gymnasium, and then hurried off to Sicyon, where people owed him money which he wanted to get. He goes to Antonius first to get his authority for putting pressure on Sicyon, and perhaps even some military force.

^[50]: C. Calpurnius Piso (consul B.C. 67), brother of the consul of the year, had been governor of Gallia Narbonensis (B.C. 66-65), and had suppressed a rising of the Allobroges, the most troublesome tribe in the province, who were, in fact, again in rebellion.

^[51]: M. Pupius Piso.

^[52]: "By the expression of his face rather than the force of his expressions " (Tyrrell).

^[53]: See p. 27, note 2.

^[54]: Pompey.

^[55]: Or, "enclose with my speech"; in both cases the dative orationi meae is peculiar. No speech exists containing such a description, but we have only two of the previous year extant (pro Flacco and pro Archia Poeta). Cicero was probably sending it, whichever it was, to Atticus to be copied by his librarii, and published. Atticus had apparently some other works of Cicero's in hand, for which he had sent him some "queries."

^[56]: Apparently the speech in the senate referred to in Letter XIV, p. 23, spoken on 1st January, B.C. 62. Metellus had prevented his contio the day before.

^[57]: The letter giving this description is lost. I think frigebat is epistolary imperfect—"he is in the cold shade," not, "it fell flat."

^[58]: panh/guris. Cicero uses the word (an honourable one in Greek) contemptuously of the rabble brought together at a market.

^[59]: Pompey's general commendation of the decrees of the senate would include those regarding the Catiline conspirators, and he therefore claimed to have satisfied Cicero.

^[60]: Meis omnibus litteris, the MS. reading. Prof. Tyrrell's emendation, orationibus meis, omnibus litteris, "in my speeches, every letter of them," seems to me even harsher than the MS., a gross exaggeration, and doubtful Latin. Meis litteris is well supported by literae forenses et senatoriae of de Off. 2.3, and though it is an unusual mode of referring to speeches, we must remember that they were now published and were "literature." The particular reference is to the speech pro Imperio Pompeii, in which, among other things, the whole credit of the reduction of Spartacus's gladiators is given to Pompey, whereas the brunt of the war had been borne by Crassus.

^[61]: Fufius, though Cicero does not say so, must have vetoed the decree, but in the face of such a majority withdrew his veto. The practice seems to have been, in case of tribunician veto, to take the vote, which remained as an auctoritas senatus, but was not a senatus consultum unless the tribune was induced to withdraw.

^[62]: Comperisse. See Letter XVII, note I, p. 28.

^[63]: See Letters XVI and XVIII, pp. 26, 32.

^[64]: pantoi/hs a)re/ths mimnh/skeo (Hom. 51.22.8).

^[65]: The allotment of provinces had been put off (see last letter) till the affair of Clodius's trial was settled: Consequently Quintus would not have much time for preparation, and would soon set out. He would cross to Dyrrachium, and proceed along the via Egnatia to Thessalonica. He might meet Atticus at Dyrrachium, or go out of his way to call on him at Buthrotum.

^[66]: u(/steron pro/teron *(omh/rikw=s.

^[67]: That is, the resolution of the senate, that the consuls should endeavour to get the bill passed.

^[68]: Cicero deposed to having seen Clodius in Rome three hours after he swore that he was at Interamna (ninety miles off), thus spoiling his alibi.

^[69]: The difficulty of this sentence is well known. The juries were now made up of three decuriae—senators, equites, and tribuni aerarii. But the exact meaning of tribuni aerarii is not known, beyond the fact that they formed an ordo, coming immediately below the equites. Possibly they were old tribal officers who had the duty of distributing pay or collecting taxes (to which the translation supposes a punning reference), and as such were required to be of a census immediately below that of the equites. I do not profess to be satisfied, but I Cannot think that Professor Tyrrell's proposal makes matters much easier—tribuni non tam aerarii, ut appellantur, quam aerati; for his translation of aerati as "bribed" is not better supported, and is a less natural deduction than "moneyed."

^[70]: I.e., the Athenians. Xenocrates of Calchedon (B.C. 396-314), residing at Athens, is said to have been so trusted that his word was taken as a witness without an oath (Diog. Laert. 4.2.4).

^[71]: Q Caecilius Numidicus, consul B.C. 109, commanded against Iugurtha. The event referred to in the text is said to have occurred on his trial de repetundis, after his return from a province which he had held as propraetor (Val. Max. II. x. i).

^[72]: Hom. Il. 16.112-113:e(/spete nu=n moi, mou=sai, )olu/mpia dw/mat' e)/xousai o(/ppws dh\ prw=ton pu=r e)/mpese nhusi\n *)axai/wn.

^[73]: The reference is to Crassus. But the rest is very dark. The old commentators say that he is here called lex Nanneianis because he made a large sum of money by the property of one Nanneius, who was among those proscribed by Sulla. His calling Crassus his "panegyrist" is explained by Letter XIX, pp. 33-34.

^[74]: C. Curio, the elder, defended Clodius. He had bought the villa of Marius (a native of Arpinum) at Baiae.

^[75]: Q Marcius Rex married a sister of Clodius, and dying, left him no legacy.

^[76]: L. Afranius.

^[77]: Reading deterioris histrionis similis, "like an inferior actor."

^[78]: Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, married to Cato's sister. Consul B.C. 54. A strong aristocrat and vehement opponent of Caesar.

^[79]: Aufidius Lurco had apparently proposed his law on bribery between the time of the notice of the elections (indictio) and the elections them-selves, which was against a provision of the leges Aelia et Fufia. What his breach of the law was in entering on his office originally we do not know: perhaps some neglect of auspices, or his personal deformity.

^[80]: I.e., to Quintus Cicero, now propraetor in Asia, who apparently wished his brother-in-law to come to Asia in some official capacity.

^[81]: Some epigrams or inscriptions under a portrait bust of Cicero in the gymnasium of Atticus's villa at Buthrotum. Atticus had a taste for such compositions. See Nepos, Att. 18; Pliny, N. H. 35.11.

^[82]: Cicero had defended Archias, and Thyillus seems also to have been intimate with him but he says Archias, after complimenting the Luculli by a poem, is now doing the same to the Caecilii Metelli. The "Caecilian drama" is a reference to the old dramatist, Caecilius Statius (ob. B.C. 168).

^[83]: Of Amaltheia, nurse of Zeus in Crete, there were plenty of legends. Atticus is making in his house something like what Cicero had made in his, and called his academia or gymnasium. That of Atticus was probably also a summer house or study, with garden, fountains, etc., and a shrine or statue of Amaltheia.

^[84]: Cicero is evidently very anxious as to the misunderstanding between Quintus and his brother-in-law Atticus, caused, as he hints, or at any rate not allayed, by Pomponia. The letter is very carefully written, without the familiar tone and mixture of jest and earnest common to most of the letters to Atticus.

^[85]: At the end of the via Egnatia, which started from Dyrrachium.

^[86]: The election in question is that to be held in B.C. 60 for the consulship of B.C. 59. Caesar and Bibulus were elected, and apparently were the only two candidates declared as yet. They were, of course, extremists, and Lucceius seems to reckon on getting in by forming a coalition with either one or the other, and so getting the support of one of the extreme parties, with the moderates, for himself. The bargain eventually made was between Lucceius and Caesar, the former finding the money. But the Optimates found more, and carried Bibulus Arrius is Q. Arrius the orator (see Index). C. Piso is the consul of B.C. 67.

^[87]: B.C. 60. coss., Q. Caecilius Metellus Celer, L. Afranius.

^[88]: Reading (mainly with Schutz) animus praesens et voluntas, tamen etiam atque etiam ipsa medicinam refugit. The verb refugit is very doubtful, but it gives nearly the sense required. Cicero is ready to be as brave and active as before, but the state will not do its part. It has, for instance, blundered in the matter of the law against judicial corruption. The senate offended the equites by proposing it, and yet did not carry the law. I think animus and voluntas must refer to Cicero, not the state, to which in his present humour he would not attribute them.

^[89]: The temple of Iuventas was vowed by M. Livius after the battle of the Metaurus (B.C. 207), and dedicated in B.C. 191 by C. Licinius Lucullus, games being established on the anniversary of its dedication (Livy, 21.62; 36.36). It is suggested, therefore, that some of the Luculli usually presided at these games, but on this occasion refused, because of the injury done by C. Memmius, who was curule aedile.

^[90]: By Agamemnon and Menelaus Cicero means Lucius and Marcus Lucullus; the former Memmius had, as tribune in B.C. 66-65, opposed in his demand for a triumph, the latter he has now injured in the person of his wife.

^[91]: A man who was sui juris was properly adopted before the comitia curiatia, now represented by thirty lictors. What Herennius proposed was that it should take place by a regular lex, passed by the comitia tributa. The object apparently was to avoid the necessity of the presence of a pontifex and augur, which was required at the comitia curiata. The concurrent law by the consul would come before the comitia centuriata. The adopter was P. Fonteius, a very young man.

^[92]: L. Afranius, the other consul.

^[93]: M. Lollius Palicanus, "a mere mob orator" (Brutus, § 223).

^[94]: The toga picta of a triumphator, which Pompey, by special law, was authorized to wear at the games. Cicero uses the contemptuous diminutive, togula.

^[95]: To be absent from the census without excuse rendered a man liable to penalties. Cicero will therefore put up notices in Atticus's various places of business or residence of his intention to appear in due course. To appear just at the end of the period was, it seems, in the case of a man of business, advisable, that he might be rated at the actual amount of his property, no more or less.

^[96]: A special title given to the Aedui on their application for alliance. Caesar, B.G. 1.33/c>.

^[97]: The migration of the Helvetii did not actually begin till B.C. 58. Caesar tells us in the first book of his Commentaries how he stopped it.

^[98]: Consul B.C. 69, superseded in Crete by Pompey B.C. 65. Triumphed B.C. 62.

^[99]: Praetor B.C. 63, defended by Cicero in an extant oration.

^[100]: Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus, consul in B.C. 72. Cicero puns on the name Lentulus from lens (pulse, fakh/) and quotes a Greek proverb for things incongruous. See Athenaeus 160 (from the Nekuia of Sopater): )/iqakos )odusseu\s, to\ e)ni\ th=| fakh=| mu/ron pa/resti: qa/rsei, qume/.

^[101]: B.C. 133, the year before the agrarian law of Tiberius Gracchus. The law of Gracchus had not touched the public land in Campania (the old territory of Capua). The object of this clause (which appears repeatedly in those of B.C. 120 and 111, see Bruns, Fontes Iuris, p. 72) is to confine the allotment of ager publicus to such land as had become so subsequently, i.e., to land made "public" principally by the confiscations of Sulla.

^[102]: That is, he proposed to hypothecate the vectigalia from the new provinces formed by Pompey in the East for five years.

^[103]: The Consulship. The bribery at Afranius's election is asserted in Letter XXI.

^[104]: The day of the execution of the Catilinarian conspirators.

^[105]: Epicharmus, twice quoted by Polybius, 18.40; 31.21. na=fe kai\ me/mnas' a)/rqra tau=ta tw=n frenw=n.

^[106]: Pedarii were probably those senators who had not held curule office. They were not different from the other senators in point of legal rights, but as the ex-magistrates were asked for their sententia first, they seldom had time to do anything but signify by word their assent to one or other motion, or to cross over to the person whom they intended to support.

^[107]: P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus, son of the Conqueror of the Isaurians. As he had not yet been praetor, he would be called on after the consulares and praetorii. He then moved a new clause to the decree, and carried it.

^[108]: The decree apparently prevented the recovery of debts from a libera civitas in the Roman courts. Atticus would therefore have to trust to the regard of the Sicyonians for their credit.

^[109]: A son must be hard up for something to say for himself if he is always harping on his father's reputation ; and so must I, if I have nothing but my consulship. That seems the only point in the quotation. I do not feel that there is any reference to praise of his father in Cicero's own poem. There are two versions of the proverb: ti/s pate/r' ai)nh/sei ei) mh\ kakodai/mones ui(oi/; and ti/s pate/r' ai)nh/sei ei) mh\ eu)dai/mones ui(oi/;

^[110]: Contained in Letter XXII, pp. 46-47.

^[111]: Reading tibi for mihi, as Prof. Tyrrell suggests.

^[112]: *spa/rthn e)/laxes kei/nhn kosmei=. "Sparta is your lot, do it credit," a line of Euripides which had become proverbial.

^[113]: oi( me\n par' ou)de\n ei)si, toi=s d' ou)de\n me/lei. Rhinton, a dramatist, circa B.C. 320-280 (of Tarentum or Syracuse).

^[114]: See pp. 52, 56, 65.

^[115]: See p. 57.

^[116]: The lex Cincia (B.C. 204) forbade the taking of presents for acting as advocate in law courts.

^[117]: Nep. Att. 18.

^[118]: Atticus seems to have seen a copy belonging to some one else at Corfu. Cicero explains that he had kept back Atticus's copy for revision.

^[119]: Cicero evidently intends Atticus to act as a publisher. His librarii will make copies. See p. 32, note 1.

^[120]: The passage in brackets is believed by some, not on very good grounds, to be spurious. Otho is L. Roscius Otho, the author of the law as to the seats in the theatre for the equites. The "proscribed" are those proscribed by Sulla, their sons being forbidden to hold office, a disability which Cicero maintained for fear of civil disturbances. See in Pis. §§ 4-5.

^[121]: Pulchellus, i.e., P. Clodius Pulcher, the diminutive of contempt.

^[122]: Where he had been as quaestor. Hera is said to be another name for Hybla. Some read heri, "only yesterday."

^[123]: Clodius is showing off his modesty. It was usual for persons returning from a province to send messengers in front, and to travel deliberately, that their friends might pay them the compliment of going out to meet them. Entering the city after nightfall was another method of avoiding a public reception. See Suet. Aug. 53.

^[124]: See p. 37, note 3.

^[125]: Clodia, wife of the consul Metellus. See p. 22, note.

^[126]: We don't know who this is; probably a cavaliere servente of Clodia's.

^[127]: I.e., in the business of her brother Clodius's attempt to get the tribuneship.

^[128]: Though Caesar has been mentioned before in regard to his candidature for the consulship, and in connection with the Clodius Case, this is the first reference to him as a statesman. He is on the eve of his return from Spain, and already is giving indication of his coalition with Pompey. His military success in Spain first clearly demonstrated his importance.

^[129]: During the meeting of the senate at the time of the Catilinarian conspiracy (Phil. 2.16).

^[130]: The consul Caecilius Metellus was imprisoned by the tribune Flavius for resisting his land law (Dio, 37.50).

^[131]: M. Favonius, an extreme Optimate. Ille Catonis Aemulus (Suet. Aug. 13). He had a bitter tongue, but a faithful heart (Plut. Pomp. 60, 73; Vell. 2.73). He did not get the praetorship (which he was now seeking) till B.C. 49. He was executed after Philippi (Dio, 47, 49).

^[132]: P. Scipio Nasica Metellus Pius, the future father-in-law of Pompey, who got the praetorship, was indicted for ambitus by Favonius.

^[133]: )apollo/nios mo/lwn of Alabanda taught rhetoric at Rhodes. Cicero had himself attended his lectures. He puns on the name Molon and molae, "mill at which slaves worked."

^[134]: See pp. 57, 60.

^[135]: Reading discessionibus, "divisions in the senate," with Manutius and Tyrrell, not dissentionibus; and deinde ne, but not st for si.

^[136]: His study, which he playfully calls by this name, in imitation of that of Atticus. See p. 30.

^[137]: See Letter XV, p. 25.

^[138]: His translation of the Prognostics of Aratus.

^[139]: Gaius Octavius, father of Augastus, governor of Macedonia.

^[140]: The roll being unwound as he read and piled on the ground. Dicaearchus of Messene, a contemporary of Aristotle, wrote on "Constitutions" among other things. Procilius seems also to have written on polities.

^[141]: Herodes, a teacher at Athens, afterwards tutor to young Cicero. He seems to have written on Cicero's consulship.

^[142]: These remarks refer to something in Atticus's letter.

^[143]: Gaius Antonius, about to be prosecuted for maiestas on his return from Macedonia.

^[144]: P. Nigidius Figulus, a tribune (which dates the letter after the 10th of December). The tribunes had no right of summons (vocatio), they must personally enforce their commands.

^[145]: "The Conqueror," i.e., Pompey. Aulus's son is L. Afranius.

^[146]: I.e., his military get-up.

^[147]: Cyrus was Cicero's architect ; his argument or theory he calls Cyropaedeia, after Xenophon's book.

^[148]: He supposes himself to be making a mathematical figure in optics:

^[149]: The theory of sight held by Democritus, denounced as unphilosophical by Plutarch (Plut. Timoleon 1).

^[150]: Apparently a villa in the Solonius ager, near Lanuvium.

^[151]: The Cornelius Balbus of Gades, whose citizenship Cicero defended B.C. 56 (consul B.C. 40). He was Caesar's close friend and agent.

^[152]: Cicero was apparently not behind the scenes. The coalition with Pompey certainly, and with Crassus probably, had been already made and the terms agreed upon soon after the elections. If Cicero afterwards discovered this it must have shown him how little he could trust Pompey's show of friendship and Caesar's candour. Caesar desired Cicero's private friendship and public acquiescence, but was prepared to do without them.

^[153]: From Cicero's Latin poem on his consulship.

^[154]: ei(=s oi)wno\s a)/ristos a)mu/nesqai peri\ pa/trhs (Hom. II. 12.243).

^[155]: A country festival and general holiday. It was a feriae conceptivae and therefore the exact day varied. But it was about the end of the year or beginning of the new year (in Pis. § 4; Aul. Gell. 10.24; Macrob. Sat. i. 4; ad Att. vii. 5; Att. 7.7.2).

^[156]: B.C. 59. Coss., C. Iulius Caesar, M. Calpurnius Bibulus.

^[157]: That is, if it ends in his death, for Meliodorus of Skepsis was sent by Mithridates to Tigranes to urge him to go to war with Rome, but privately advised him not to do so, and, in Consequence, was put to death by Mithridates (Plut. Luc. 22). The word Scepsii (*skhyi/ou) was introduced by Gronovius for the unintelligible word Syrpie found in the MSS., which so often blunder in Greek names.

^[158]: Clodius, alluding to his intrusion into the mysteries.

^[159]: Atticus has asked Cicero for a Latin treatise on geography—probably as a publisher, Cicero being the prince of book-makers—and to that end has sent him the Greek geography of Serapio.

^[160]: In his Formianum or Pompeianum, his villas at Formiae and Pompeii.

^[161]: An architect, a freedman of Cyrus, of whom we have heard before.

^[162]: The triumvirs. The mission to Egypt was in the affairs of Ptolemy Auletes (father of Cleopatra), who was this year declared a "friend and ally." He soon got expelled by his subjects.

^[163]: Il. 6.442; 22.100. Cicero's frequent expression for popular opinion, or the opinion of those he respects—his Mrs. Grundy.

^[164]: Theophanes, a philosopher of Mitylene, a close friend of Pompey's, in whose house he frequently resided. He took charge of Pompey's wife and children in B.C. 48-47.

^[165]: Q Arrius, an orator and friend of Caesar's, by whose help he had hoped for the Consulship. See p. 49.

^[166]: Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos (consul B.C. 57). His brother, the consul of B.C. 60, had just died and made a vacancy in the college of augurs.

^[167]: A captive brought by Lucullus, who became a friend of Cicero and tutor to his son and nephew.

^[168]: One of the two yearly officers of a colony—they answer to the consuls at Rome. Therefore Cicero means, "I wish I had been a consul in a small colony rather than a consul at Rome."

^[169]: For distribution of land under Caesar's law. P. Vatinius was a tribune this year, and worked in Caesar's interests.

^[170]: Theopompus of Chios, the historian (Att. 6.1.12). Born about B.C. 378. His bitterness censured by Polybius, 8.11-13.

^[171]: The money due from the treasury to Q. Cicero in Asia. He wants it to be paid in Roman currency (denarii), not in Asiatic coins (cistophori), a vast amount of which Pompey had brought home and deposited in the treasury. So an Indian official might like sovereigns instead of rupees if he could get them.

^[172]: As he was a man sui iuris, Clodius's adoption into a new gens (adrogatio) would have to take place before the comitia curiata (now represented by thirty lictors), which still retained this formal business. The ceremony required the presence of an augur and a pontifex to hold it. Cicero supposes Pompey and Caesar as intending to act in that capacity. Pompey, it seems, did eventually attend.

^[173]: One of the twenty commissioners under Caesar's agrarian law. Cicero was offered and declined a place among them. The "only man," of course, refers to the intrusion on the mysteries.

^[174]: To Egypt.

^[175]: This seems also to refer to the twenty agrarian commissioners, who, according to Mommsen, were divided into committees of five, and were, therefore, spoken of indifferently as quinqueviri and vigintiviri. But it is somewhat uncertain.

^[176]: kata\ to\ praktiko/n.

^[177]: Castricius seems to have been a negotiator or banker in Asia. We don't know what mistake is refened to; probably as to some money transmitted to Pomponius.

^[178]: It is suggested that Aristodemus is some teacher of the two young Ciceros, to whom the young Marcus wishes to apologize for his absence or to promise some study.

^[179]: Perhaps some inscription or other ornament for Atticus's gymnasiusn in his villa at Buthrotum.

^[180]: A verse from Lucilius. "Young Curio" is the future tribune of B.C. 50, who was bribed by Caesar, joined him at Ravenna at the end of that year, was sent by him in B.C. 49 to Sicily and Africa, and fell in battle with the Pompeians and King Iuba.

^[181]: L. Saufeius, the Epicurean friend of Atticus (see Letter II). He seems to mean, "as indefatigable as Saufeius." But Prof. Tyrrell points out that it might mean, "at the risk of your thinking me a Epicurean and self-indulgent as Saufeius, I say," etc.

^[182]: The bay of Misenum, near which was Cicero's Pompeianum.

^[183]: Q Caecilius Bassus, probably quaestor at Ostia. Antium would be in his district.

^[184]: *bow=pis, sc. Clodia. She is to talk to her brother about Cicero. She is "Iuno" perhaps as an enemy—as Bacon called the Duchess of Burgundy Henry VII.'s a Iuno—or perhaps for a less decent reason, as coniux sororque of Publius.

^[185]: Pompey, who was proud of having taken Jerusalem. Traductor ad plebem, said of the magistrate presiding at the comitia for adoption.

^[186]: Cicero himself. Clodius may have called him this from his biting repartees. Prof. Tyrrell, "Tear 'em."

^[187]: The nobility, whom Cicero has before attacked as idle and caring for nothing but their fish-ponds (piscinarii, cp. p. 59).

^[188]: The lex Aelia (about B.C. 150) was a law regulating the powers of magistrates to dissolve comitia on religious grounds, such as bad omens, servata de caelo, etc. Cicero (who could have had very little belief in the augural science) regards them as safeguards of the state, because as the Optimates generally secured the places in the augural college, it gave them a hold on elections and legislation. Bibulus tried in vain to use these powers to thwart Caesar this year. The lex Caeclia Didia (B.C. 98) enforced the trinundinatio, or three weeks' notice of elections and laws, and forbade the proposal of a lex sacra, i.e., a law containing a number of miscellaneous enactments. Perhaps its violation refers to the acta of Pompey in the East, which he wanted to have confirmed en bloc. The senate had made difficulties : but one of the fruits of the triumvirate was a measure for doing it. The lex Iunia et Licinia (B.C. 62) confirmed the Caecilia Didia, and secured that the people knew what the proposed laws were.

^[189]: As Pompey did in Asia, e.g., to Deiotarus of Galatia, and about ten others. It is curious that Cicero speaks of the pauci just as his opponent Caesar and Augustus after him. Each side looks on the other as a coterie (Caesar, B.C. 1.22 ; Monum. Ancyr. 1.1).

^[190]: Theophrastus, successor of Aristotle at the Lyceum, Athens (p. 70).

^[191]: The purple-bordered toga of the augur. Vatinius did not get the augurship. Ha had some disfiguring swelling or wen.

^[192]: Himself.

^[193]: a)/ndr' a)pamu/nasqai, o(/te tis pro/teros xaleph/nh|. (Hom. 51.24.369),

^[194]: Written in Greek, perhaps by the boy himself.

^[195]: Where the road from Antium joins the Appia. Cicero seems to be on his way to Formiae, where he had intanded to arrive on the 21st. He must be going very leisurely.

^[196]: *dikai/arxos and a)dikai/arxoi, a pun on a name not reproducible in English : "just-rulers " and "unjust-rulers."

^[197]: On the via Appia. Cicero halts at Appii Forum and at once despatches a short note, probably by some one he finds there going to Rome, to announce a change of plan. He had meant to get back to Antium on 6th May, because Tullia wanted to see the games. See Letter XXXIV, p. 96.

^[198]: Hom. Od. 9.27.

^[199]: thle/pulon *laistrugoni/hn, whose king Lamus (Od. 10.81) was supposed to have founded Formiae (Horace, Od. 3.17).

^[200]: A despatch from senate or consuls. See Letter XXIV, p. 60.

^[201]: At comparem for at quam partem. At has its usual force of introducing a supposed objection. I can't, say you, compare the Aemilian tribe, the Formiani, to a crowd in a court-house! They are not so bad as that, not so wasteful of time ! I take basilica to mean the saunterers in a basilica, as we might say "the park " for the company in it, "the exchange" for the brokers in it. I feel certain that Prof. Tyrrell is wrong in ascribing the words sed ... sunt to a quotation from Atticus's letter. What is wanted is to remove the full stop after sunt. The contrast Cicero is drawing is between the interruption to literary work of a crowd of visitors and of one or two individuals always turning up. The second is the worse—and here I think all workers will agree with him: the crowd of visitors (vulgus) go at the regular hour, but individuals come in at all hours.

^[202]: Because he would be inclined to sell it cheap in his disgust.

^[203]: The spectacle Cicero hopes for is Clodius's contests with the triumvirs.

^[204]: To Arpinum (see last letter). The verse is not known, and may be a quotation from his own poem on Marius. He often quotes himself.

^[205]: This is not mentioned elsewhere. The explanation seems to be that for the ager publicus allotted under the Sempronian laws a small rent had been exacted, which was abolished by a law of B.C. 111 (the name of the law being uncertain). But some ager publicus still paid rent, and the publicanus Mulvius seems to have claimed it from some land held by Terentia, perhaps on the ground that it was land (such as the ager Campanus) not affected by the law of Gracchus, and therefore not by the subsequent law abolishing rent.

^[206]: Caesar.

^[207]: The old territory of Capua and the Stellatian Plain had been specially reserved from distribution under the laws of the Gracchi, and this reservation had not been repealed in subsequent laws: ad subsidia reipublicae vectigalem relictum (Suet. Caes. 20; cp. Cic. Phil. 2.101).

^[208]: According to Suetonius 20,000 citizens had allotments on the ager publicus in Campania. But Dio says (38.1) that the Campanian land was exempted by the lex Iulia also. Its settlement was probably later, by colonies of Caesar's veterans. A jugerum is five-eighths of an acre.

^[209]: See Letter XXIX, p. 82. They were abolished B.C. 60.

^[210]: This and the mention of Caesar's "army" (a bodyguard) is explained by Suet. Caes. 20: "Having promulgated his agrarian law, Caesar expelled his colleague, Bibulus, by force of arms from the Forum when trying to stop proceedings by announcing bad omens .. , and finally reduced him to such despair that for the rest of his year of office he confined himself to his house and only announced his bad omens by means of edicts." Bibulus appears to have been hustled by the mob also.

^[211]: pro/sqe le/wn o)/piqen de\ —. Cicero leaves Atticus, as he often does, to fill up the rest of the line, dra/kwn, me/ssh de\ xi/maira (Hom. 51.6.181). He means, of course, that Quintus is inconsistent.

^[212]: The question seems to be as to goods brought to a port and paying duty, and then, not finding a sale, being transferred to another port in the same province. The publicani at the second port demanded the payment of a duty again, which Cicero decides against them.

^[213]: Schutz takes this to mean, "Are the quaestors now doubting as to paying even cistophori?" i.e., are they, so far from paying in Roman denarii, even hesitating to pay in Asiatic? But if so, what is the extremum which Cicero advises Quintus to accept? Prof. Tyrrell, besides, points out that the quaestors could hardly refuse to pay anything for provincial expenses? It is a question between cistophori and denarii. See p. 92.

^[214]: The marriage of Pompey with Caesar's daughter Iulia.

^[215]: a)diafori/a, a word taken from the Stoics, huic [Zenoni] summum bonum est in his rebus neutram in partem moveri, quae a)diafori/a ab ipso dicitur (Acad. 2.130).

^[216]: C. Curius, one of the Catiline set, who had been ignominiously expelled from the senate.

^[217]: Another nickname of Pompey, from the title of the head of the Thebais in Egypt. Like Sampsiceramus and the others, it is meant al a scornful allusion to Pompey's achievements in the East, and perhaps his known wish to have the direction of affairs in Egypt.

^[218]: See Letter XIX, p. 35.

^[219]: I.e., Caesar's agrarian law, by which some of the Campanian ager publicus was to be divided.

^[220]: M. Iuventius Laterensis. See Letter L, p. 123.

^[221]: Pulchellus, i.e., P. Clodius Pulcher. The diminutive is used to express contempt. Cicero, since his return to Rome, is beginning to realize his danger.

^[222]: A libera legatio was really a colourable method of a senator travelling with the right of exacting certain payments for his expenses from the Italian or provincial towns. Sometimes it was simply a libera legatio, a sinecure without any pretence of purpose, sometimes it was voti causa, enabling a man to fullil some vow he was supposed to have made. It was naturally open to much abuse, and Cicero as consul had passed a law for limiting it in time. Clodius would become tribune on 10 December, and this libera legatio would protect Cicero as long as it lasted, but it would not, he thinks, last long enough to outstay the tribuneship: if he went as legatus to Caesar in Gaul, he would be safe, and might choose his own time for resigning and returning to Rome.

^[223]: Statius, a slave of Quintus, was unpopular in the province. See p. 125.

^[224]: Terence, Phorm. 232.

^[225]: a(/lis druo\s, i.e., feeding on acorns is a thing of the past, it is out of date, like the golden age when they fed on wild fruit et quae deciderant patula Iovis arbore glandes (Ovid, Met. 1.106); and so is dignity, it is a question of safety now.

^[226]: Ennius on Q. Fabius Maximus Cunctator.

^[227]: Pompey was in Campania acting as one of the twenty land commissioners.

^[228]: The lex Roscia theatralis (B.C. 67), which gave fourteen rows of seats to the equites.

^[229]: That is, the law for distribution of corn among poorer citizens. There were many such. Perhaps the most recent was the lex Cassia Terentia (B.C. 73). Caesar, who, when in later years he became supreme, restricted this privilege, may have threatened to do so now.

^[230]: I.e., as one of the twenty land commissioners. The next clause seems to refer to some proverbial expression, "to be invited to a place at Pluto's table," or some such sentence. Cicero means that his acceptance would be equivalent to political extinction, either from the obscurity of Cosconius or the inconsistency of the proceeding.

^[231]: The uncle of Atticus. See p. 15.

^[232]: After the scene of violence in which Bibulus, on attempting to prevent the agrarian law being passed, was driven from the rostra, with his lictors' fasces broken, he shut himself up in his house and published edicts declaring Caesar's acts invalid, and denouncing the conduct of Pompey (Suet. Caes. 20; Dio, 38.6).

^[233]: M. Terentius Varro, "the most learned of the Romans," and author of very large numbers of books. He was afterwards one of Pompey's legati in Spain. He survived most of the men of the revolutionary era.

^[234]: See Letter XXIV, p. 56.

^[235]: I.e., in biting language. Archilochum proprio rabies armavit iambo (Hor. A. P. 79).

^[236]: The Cosmographia of Alexander of Ephesus. See Letter XLVIII, p. 120.

^[237]: Appius Claudius Pulcher, elder brother of P. Clodius.

^[238]: The speeches known to us of this year are those for his colleague, C. Antonius, A. Thermus, and L. Flaccus. The two former are lost, but we know from his own account that he had not avoided touching on politics in the speech for Antonius, but had so offended Pompey and Caesar that they at once carried out the adoption of Clodius (de Domo, § 41).

^[239]: *bow=pis, Clodia. See Letters XXXV, XL. Crasso urgente is difficult. Cicero must mean that while Crassus (whom he always regards as hostile to himself) is influencing Pompey, he cannot trust what Pompey says, and must look for real information elsewhere.

^[240]: Alexander of Ephesus. See Letter XLVI, p. 115.

^[241]: I.e., between the time of his election and of his entering on his office. The tribunes entered on their office on the 10th of December the elections usually took place in July, but were postponed till October this year by Bibulus. See Letter XLVI, p. 115.

^[242]: reclamatum est. The MSS. have haud reclamatum est, "it was not refused."

^[243]: Marcus Iunius Brutus, the future assassin of Caesar, adopted by his uncle, Q. Servilius Caepio. The father of Lentulus was flamen Martialis (L. Lentulus), in Vat. § 25. Paullus is L. Aemilius Paullus, consul B.C. 50.

^[244]: Cum gladiatoribus. Others omit cum, in which case the meaning will be "at the gladiatorial shows of Gabinius." As some date is wanted, this is probably right.

^[245]: Under the lex de sicariis of Sulla carrying a weapon with felonious intent was a capital crime, for which a man was tried inter sicarios. See 2 Phil. §§ 8, 74.

^[246]: Q. Lutatius Catulus, who died in the previous year, B.C. 60, had been a keen opponent of Caesar, who tried to deprive him of the honour of dedicating the restored Capitoline temple, and beat him in the election of Pontifex Maximus.

^[247]: Servilia, mother of Brutus, was reported to be Caesar's mistress. As Cicero is insinuating that the whole affair was got up by Caesar to irritate Pompey with the boni, this allusion will be understood.

^[248]: If Vettius did say this, he at any rate successfully imitated Cicero's manner. These names are always in his mouth. See 2 Phil. §§ 26, 87 ; pro Mil. §§ 8, 82, etc. For a farther discussion of Vettius, see Appendix B.

^[249]: Probably a praetor, not the triumvir.

^[250]: Q Considius Gallus, who, according to Plutarch (Plut. Caes. 13), said in the senate that the attendance of senators was small because they feared a massacre. "What made you come, then?" said Caesar. "My age," he replied ; " I have little left to lose."

^[251]: e(likta\ kou)de\n u(gie\s a)lla\ pa=n pe/ric fronou=ntes. Eur. Androm. 448: With tortuous thoughts, naught honest, winding all.

^[252]: ta\w tw=n kratou/ntwn a)maqi/as fe/rein xrew/n. Eur. Phoen. 393. "Follies of those in power we needs must bear."

^[253]: L. Valerius Flaccus, as praetor in B.C. 63, had assisted Cicero in the Catiline conspiracy. He was now being tried for embezzlement in Asia, and was defended by the famous Q. Hortensius (Hortalus) and Cicero—the only extant speech of this year.

^[254]: B.C. 58. Coss., L. Piso, A. Gabinius: LETTERS IN EXILE

^[255]: Mod. Monte Leone, on the road to Rhegium, from which at this time Cicero meant to cross to Sicily, and thence to Malta.

^[256]: Nares Lucanae (Monte Nero), near the River Silarus, and on the via Popilia (south-western branch of the Appia). Cicero has therefore come north again from Vibo, having given up the idea of Rhegium and Sicily, and making for Beneventum, and so by the via Appia for Brundisium.

^[257]: A friend of Cicero's, of whose death at Brundisium we afterwards hear (Fam. 14.4.6).

^[258]: The bill originally named 500 miles as the distance from Italy Before passing it had to be put up in public three weeks (trinundinae), and meanwhile might be amended, and was amended to 400.

^[259]: P. Autronius Paetus, one of Catiline's confederates, who would injure Cicero if he could. Cicero would not be able to reach Epirus without coming within his reach ; for he had been condemned for ambitus, and was in exile there or in Achaia. Illas partes=Epirus.

^[260]: To Malta. The propraetor of Sicily, C. Vergilius, opposed his going to Malta, which was in the province of Sicily, though it had a primus of its own (Planc. 40; Plut. Cic. 32).

^[261]: Because of entertaining the condemned man, a special proviso in this law (Dio, 38.17).

^[262]: In Epirus, believing that Atticus will understand that his going to Brundisium means that he will go to Epirus and as Atticus lives there, he naturally asks him to come to meet him. Epirus was, for certain purposes at least, in the province of Macedonia, and it depended on the governor, L. Appuleius Saturninus, what reception be would meet. His friend Plancius was quaestor.

^[263]: One of Clodius's concessions to the consuls, to keep them quiet, was to get Macedonia assigned by a lex to L. Calpurnius Piso. As Atticus lived in what was practically part of the province, and had much business there, it was important to him to be on the spot, and try to influence the choice of a governor. That being over, he would not have so much to detain him in Rome.

^[264]: We suppose that Cicero has heard from Atticus that he is not going to be at Tarentum or Brundisium, for he writes before arriving at either.

^[265]: He means that had it not been for enemies in Greece and Epirus, he should not only have gone as far south as Epirus, but farther—to Athens. There is a good deal to be said for Schutz's reading, Achaiam for Athenas, but as the MS. reading can be explained, it is safer to keep it.

^[266]: The Clodian party at Rome. "That town" is Athens.

^[267]: "I have lost my chance of dying with honour ; henceforth death may end my grief, but cannot heal my damaged reputation." Reliqua tempora, i.e., other opportunities of suicide.

^[268]: A mountain range in Illyria, over which the via Egnatia passes (mod. Elbassán).

^[269]: Reading ab Ilio with Madvig for ab illo.

^[270]: Tigranes, a son of the king of Armenia, was brought to Rome by Pompey to adorn his triumph, and put under the care of Lucius Flavius. This prince was, for a bribe, released by Clodius by a trick, and the attempt to get him away led to a scuffle in which lives were lost. Pompey regarded this as a slight upon himself, and his partisan, the consul Gabinius, attempted to prevent it. But both were hustled in the forum and treated with insults. The hope of a breach in the triumvirate arose from the supposition that Clodius had the support of Caesar in his high-handed proceeding (Dio, 38.30; Plut. Pomp. 48; Ascon. 47).

^[271]: P. Plautius Hypsaeus, who had been Pompey's quaestor and on intimate terms with him. He had been, it seems, interesting himself on Cicero's behalf.

^[272]: The gazette of public transactions and measures passed in the senate, which was sent round to the provinces. We shall hear of it again.

^[273]: The next letter shows that he means Hortensius. The blunder which he Complains of having committed, by the advice of Hortensius, is that of having left Rome, rather than stay and brave the impeachment.

^[274]: I.e., suicide.

^[275]: I.e., to the house of Atticus at Buthrotum.

^[276]: Clodius was not re-elected, and Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos, who had as tribune (B.C. 63-62) been hostile to Cicero, now as consul supported Pompey in befriending Cicero.

^[277]: The speech in the senate in Curionem et Clodium, i.e.., against the elder C. Curio, who had been Clodius's advocate in B.C. 61 on the charge de incesto. Fragments only of it are preserved. They are sufficiently violent. Cicero suggests repudiating the authorship, because the speech had never been delivered, and therefore was not necessarily intended for publication. There is no special reason for abusing Cicero's character on this account. If some enemy had got hold of the MS. and published it without his consent, it was not really the expression of his deliberate sentiments.

^[278]: Reading nunc tamen intellego for si donataur ut intellego, which is meaningless. There may be latent in si donatam some proper name, as Dodonam or Macedoniam, but it is not possible to extract it now. Istic, as usual, means "where you are," i.e., at Rome.

^[279]: The via Egnatia, the road across Macedonia, which was one of the great channels of communication between Rome and the East, and which terminated at Thessalonica.

^[280]: The probable split among the triumvirs, alluded to in Letter LXIII.

^[281]: Or, as Prof. Tyrrell suggests, "does not quote Curio to that effect , I think, however, that Cicero does not use laudo in this sense except in connexion with auctorem, auctores, and even then generally with a sub-sense, at least, of commendation The speech was composed to be delivered against the elder Curio and Clodius (see p 155) but was never delivered. Its personal tone made it dangerous now.

^[282]: Cicero means that Atticus acted with the emotion spontaneously arising from his affection, but not with the caution which he would have shown in doing a thing which he was under some obligation to do.

^[283]: The ancient "colleges" or "clubs" had been gradually increasing and a decree of the senate in B C 64 bad declared certain of them unlawful. But Clodius had overridden this decree by a lex early in B.C. 58, and many new ones were formed, which he used for his political purposes (pro Sest. § 55; Dio, 38.13).

^[284]: That he could do nothing against the wishes of Caesar (Att. 10.4.3; cp. in Pis. § 77). According to Plutarch, Pompey avoided a personal interview (Cic. 31).

^[285]: The kindness has been all on the side of Atticus, who will therefore be attached to the object of it—for the benefactor loves more than the benefited.

^[286]: A privilegium was a law referring to a particular person, which was forbidden by the twelve tables, and if it was shown to be unconstitutional a decree of the senate could declare it void. But Cicero seems to think that such a proceeding of the senate would give a possibility of raising the question afresh.

^[287]: The first bill named no one, but enacted that "anyone who had put a citizen to death uncondemned should be forbidden fire and water." The second, "that M. Tullius be forbidden fire and water." Cicero says that the former did not touch him, I suppose, because it could not be retrospective. This is in accordance with the view of Caesar, who approved of the law, but said that old sores ought not to be ripped up—ou) mh\n kai\ prosh/kein e)pi\ parelhluqo/si toiou=to/n tina no/mon suggra/fesqai (Dio, 38.17).

^[288]: Because it shewed that he considered himself as coming under the new law.

^[289]: Letter LXVIII, p. '54.

^[290]: L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who was a praetor this year.

^[291]: Though Cicero uses tantum ... quantum here, he does not mean that Atticus failed to love him enough—that would have been too unreasonable. in a certain way he means that he loved him too much. He allowed his spontaneous feelings full vent, without acting with the cool wisdom which he would have shewn in fulfilling a duty or moral obligation. It is more fully expressed above. Still, it was a difficult thing to say, and he doesn't succeed in making it verv clear.

^[292]: Reading laetae for lectae.

^[293]: L. Livineius Regulus, whom Cicero (F. 13.60) calls a very intimate friend, and says that his freedman Trypho stood his friend in the hour of need. He seems to have been Condemned (in B.C. 56?) for something, but he afterwards served under lulius Caesar (B. Afr. 9). The freedman's full name was L. Livineius Trypho.

^[294]: About Appius acting as prosecutor of Quintus. He was a nephew of P. Clodius. See Letter CCXXII.

^[295]: Appius Claudius Pulcher, brother of P. Clodius, was praetor-designate for B.C. 57, and had allotted to him the quaestio de rebus repetundis (pro Sest. § 78). He was consul B.C. 54.

^[296]: Cicero gives Atticus his full name. rather playfully, as it was a new acquisition. His uncle, Q. Caecilius, dying this year, lelt him heir to a large fortune, and adopted him in his will (Nep. Att. 5). He therefore, according to Custom, took his uncle's praenomen and nomen, Q. Caecilius, retaining his own nomen in an adjectival form (Pomponianus) as a cognomen, just as C. Octavius became, by his uncle's will, C. IuIius Casar Octavianus. His additional name of Atticus remained as before, and in ordinary life was his usual designation. See p. 15.

^[297]: Sestius, tribune-elect for B.C. 57, would come into office 10th December, B.C. 58. He means to bring a bill before the people for Cicero's recall, and a draft of it has been sent to Cicero, who criticises it as not entering sufficiently into details, though he had before said that a general restitutio in integrum covered everything ; but perhaps this bill only repealed the Clodian law as a privilegium, without mentioning anything else.

^[298]: Cn. Plancius, quaestor in Macedonia, whose kindness Cicero lauds highly when defending him in B.C. 54.

^[299]: The forces of the new governor, L. Calpurnius Piso, who was to have Macedonia after his consulship, and would be sending his troops on before him.

^[300]: P. Cornelius Lentulus, consul-designate for B.C. 57.

^[301]: Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos, consul.designate for B.C. 57. See pp. 22-23.

^[302]: This bill for Cicero's recall would, of course, be vetoed by Clodius, and could not therefore be passed, but it would probably influence the action of the new tribunes for B.C. 57.

^[303]: I.e., the tribunes of B.C. 58.

^[304]: I.e., securing indemnity to the proposers if there is a technical breach of existing laws, something like the common clause- "all statutes to the contrary notwithstanding."

^[305]: The Clodian law.

^[306]: Because they would not be protected as the previous tribunes were by the fact of the Clodian law (which alone was contravened) having emanated from their own collegium.

^[307]: L. Quadratus Ninnius, tribune-elect. On the 1st of June next he brought forward the question of Cicero's restoration in the senate.

^[308]: Cicero's Cousin, C. Visellius Varro, a learned jurisconsult (Brut. § 264; Verr. 1.71).

^[309]: The tribunes came into office on the 10th of December, nearly three weeks before the consuls, praetors, etc., who entered office on the 1st of January.

^[310]: The phrase ornare provincias, ornare consules, etc., means the vote in the senate deciding the number of troops, amount of money, and other outfit that the magistrates going to their provinces were to have. The provinces to be taken by outgoing consuls were decided before the elections—in this case they were Cilicia and Spain. But the ornatio usually took place after the consuls had entered on their office, i.e., after the 1st of January. For this year, however—we don't know why—it had taken place before the 1st of December, B.C. 58. The result of this would be that the new tribunes for B.C. 57—entering on their office 10th December, B.C. 58—would have no voice in the matter, and would thus lose a great hold on the consuls. Most of these tribunes were supporters of Cicero, while he was doubtful as to one of the consuls—Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos. He thinks, therefore, that his cause has lost by this measure, for the tribunes will have less power of putting force on the consuls to do anything for him, and yet the same power of stopping them should they wish to do anything of their own accord. Besides, the new tribunes may be alienated by what they may think a measure derogatory to their position. These fears came to nothing; the tribunes were loyal to Cicero, and the consul Piso forwarded his recall.

^[311]: Because the tribunes could have vetoed any measure brought before the people, and so could have forced the consuls to come to terms.

^[312]: I.e., that the senate would pass no decree prior to one recalling Cicero.

^[313]: There is no indication in the letter as to where Atticus is. He left Rome late in B.C. 58, and apparently did not return till after Cicero's recall. The most natural explanation is that he was in Epirus, or somewhere in Greece, and that he had visited Cicero at Dyrrachium on his way. I do not quite see how this should be thought impossible in view of the last sentence of LXXXV or the next letter. Cicero asks Atticus to join him, but he might do so whether Atticus were at Buthrotum, or Rome, or anywhere else.

^[314]: B.C. 57 coss., P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos.

^[315]: On 1st January, B.C. 57, P. Lentulus brought the case of Cicero before the senate. The prevailing opinion was that his interdictio having been illegal, the senate could quash it. But Pompey, for the sake of security, recommended a lex. One of the tribunes, without actually vetoing the senatus consultum, demanded a night for consideration. The question was again debated in succeeding meetings of the senate, but on the 25th was not decided. Technically an auctoritas was a decree that bad been vetoed by a tribune, and Cicero (pro Sest. § 74) implies that such a veto had been put in, and at any rate the noctispostulatio was equivalent to a veto.

^[316]: Perhaps he has just heard that the sitting of the senate on the 25th of January had been interrupted by Clodius's roughs. But other similar events happened, and there is no certain means of dating this note. The difficulty, as it stands, is that it implies Atticus's temporary return to Rome.

^[317]: Reading ab infimo.

^[318]: As backing the decree. The phrase was aderat scribendi M. Tuilius Cicero, etc.

^[319]: Dederunt, i.e., contionem; lit. gave me a meeting, i.e., the right of addressing the meeting, which only magistrates or those introduced by magistrates could do.

^[320]: C. Messius, a tribune of the year.

^[321]: Clodius had consecrated the site of Cicero's house for a temple of Liberty. The pontifices had to decide whether that consecration held good, or whether the site might be restored to Cicero. Hence his speech de Domo sua ad Pontifices.

^[322]: The origin of the Latin line is not known. The English is Milton's, P. L. 2.224.

^[323]: The speech de Domo sua ad Pontifices. The genuineness of the existing speech has been doubted. But it may very well be said that no one but Cicero could have written it. It is not certainly one of his happiest efforts, in spite of what he says here; but he is not unaccustomed to estimate his speeches somewhat highly, and to mistake violence for vigour.

^[324]: He will send it to Atticos to get copied by his librarii, and published.

^[325]: Appius Claudius Pulcher, brother of P. Clodius, was a praetor this year.

^[326]: It is not clear that Clodius was wrong; the pontifices decided that for a valid consecration an order of the people was requisite, and, of course, Clodius could allege such an order. Cicero devoted the greater part of his speech, therefore, to shewing (1) that Clodius's adoption was invalid, and that he was therefore no tribune, and incapable of taking an order of the people; (2) that the law was a privilegium, and therefore invalid. The pontifices did not Consider either of these points, which were not properly before them, or within their competence; they merely decided the religious question—that unless there had been a jussus populi or plebis scitus there was no valid consecration.

^[327]: Or perhaps only "statue of Liberty," as the temple was not yet completed.

^[328]: A portico or colonnade, built by Q. Catulus, the conqueror of the Cimbri, on the site of the house of M. Flaccus, who was killed with Saturninus in B.C. 100. It was close to Cicero's house, and what Clodius appears to have done was to pull down the portico, and build another, extending over part of Cicero's site, on which was to be a temple for his statue of Liberty.

^[329]: Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus was called on first as consul-designate for B.C. 56.

^[330]: Sext. Attilius Serranus, a tribune. He had been a quaestor in Cicero's consulship, but had opposed his recall.

^[331]: Cn. Oppius Cornicinlis, the father-in-law of Serranus, is said in p. red. at Quir. § 13 to have done the same in the senate on the 1st of January, when Serranus also went through the same form of "demanding a night" for consideration.

^[332]: Prof. Tyrrell brackets porticum. But I do not understand his difficulty, especially as he saw none in the last letter. Cicero (de Domo, § 102) certainly implies that Clodius had, at any rate, partly pulled down the porticus Catuli, in order to build something on a larger scale, which was to take in some of Cicero's site. This was now to come down, and so leave Cicero his area, and, I presume, the old porticus Catuli was to be restored.

^[333]: Cicero had given Crassus 3,500,000 for it. See Letter XVI.

^[334]: I.e., my modest reserve. There does not seem any reason for Tyrrell's emendation of num for nam.

^[335]: I have translated Klotz's text. That given by Prof. Tyrrell is, to me at any rate, quite unintelligible. Cicero's legatio under Pompey appears to have been, in fact, honorary, or libera, for he doesn't seem to have done anything. He wishes to reserve the right of resigning it to stand for the censorship (censors were elected in the following year), or of turning it into a votiva legatio, to visit certain sacred places on the plea of performing a vow, thus getting the opportunity, if he desired it, of retiring temporarily from Rome in a dignified manner. The force of prope seems to be "almost any, I Care not what." It was not likely that a man with his stormy past would do for the delicate duties of the censorship, and he would save appearances by going on a votiva legatio. See Letter XLIV.

^[336]: Facile careo, others read non facile, " I don't like being without a suburban residence."

^[337]: The thing which brought him "nothing but dishonour" was his quitting Rome, and the consequent expenses connected with winning over friends, or paying for Milo's bravoes to face those of Clodius. In the last part of the sentence he seems to mean that, had his supporters backed him properly, he would have got everything necessary to make good his losses from the liberality of the senate. Others explain that defensores really means Pompey only.

^[338]: This and the omission of his wife in the next clause, as the similar hint at the end of the last letter seem to point to some misunderstanding with Terentia, with whom, however, a final rupture was postponed for nearly twelve years (B.C. 45).

^[339]: See last letter. The porticus Catuli had been, at any rate, partly demolished by Clodius to make way for his larger scheme of building, which was to take in part of Cicero's "site." See pro Cael. § 79.

^[340]: Next door to Cicero's own house.

^[341]: He would avoid prosecution de vi by getting elected to the aedileship for B.C. 56, for actual magistrates were rarely prosecuted; but he, in this case, actually avoided it by getting a consul and tribune to forbid it by edict (pro Sest. § 89).

^[342]: Designatorem. This may mean (1) an official who shewed people to their places in the theatre (2) an undertaker a man who marshalled funerals. To the latter office a certain infamia was attached We know nothing more of Decimus (see pro Domo § 50) Gellius was an eques and a stepson of L. Marcius Philippus He afterwards gave evidence against Sestius for vis (see pro Sest. § 110) Cicero calls him the mover of all seditions (in Vatin. § 4) and one of Clodius's gang (de Har. Rep. § 59). See next letter.

^[343]: Perhaps by M. Antonius See 2 Phil § 21, pro Mil § 40.

^[344]: Lit. "made all Catilines Acidini." Acidinus was the cognomen of several distinguished men. In Leg. Agr. 2.64, Cicero classes the Acidini among men "respectable not only for the public offices they had held, and for their services to the state, but also for the noble way in which they had endured poverty." There does not, however, seem any very good reason known for their becoming proverbial as the antithesis to revolutionaries.

^[345]: A slope of the Palatine. Milo's other house (p. 196).

^[346]: P. Cornelius Sulla, nephew of the dictator. Cicero defended him in B.C. 62, but he had taken the part of Clodius in the time of Cicero's exile.

^[347]: Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, the consul-designate for the next year. In that capacity he would be called on for his sententia first.

^[348]: Q Caecilius Metellus Nepos, the consul. Though he had not opposed Cicero's recall, he stood by his cousin, P. Clodius, in regard to the threatened prosecution. Appius is Appius Claudius, brother of P. Clodius.

^[349]: P. Sestius, the tribune favourable to Cicero, afterwards defended by him.

^[350]: Mr. Purser's reading of nisi anteferret before proscripsit seems to me to darken the passage. What happened was this. Marcellinus's sententia was never put to the vote, because Metellus, Appius, and Hortensius (Cicero seems to mean him) talked out the sitting. Accordingly, Marcellinus published it, i.e., put it up outside the Curia to be read: and under it he (or some other magistrate whose name has dropped out of the text) put a notice that he was going to "watch the sky" all the dies comitiales, so as to prevent the election being held. But this had been rendered inoperative by Clodius's amendment of the lex Aelia Fufia (see Phil. 2.81)—or at any rate of doubtful validity—and, accordingly, the only thing left was the obnuntiatio by a magistrate, which Milo proceeded to make. The rule, however was that such obnuntiatio must be made before the comitia were begun (2 Phil. 81), which again could not begin till sunrise. Hence Milo's early visit to the campus. For the meaning of proposita see Letter XLVII.

^[351]: After which the comitia could not be begun.

^[352]: P. Clodius, his brother Appius, and his cousin Metellus Nepos.

^[353]: Metellus means that he shall take the necessary auspices for the comitia in the comitium, before going to the campus to take the votes.

^[354]: Generally called inter duos lucos, the road down the Capitolium towards the Campus Martius, originally so called as being between the two heads of the mountain. It was the spot traditionally assigned to the "asylum" of Romulus.

^[355]: On the nundinae and the next day no comitia and no meeting of the senate could be held.

^[356]: Candidate for the aedileship, of whom we know nothing.

^[357]: Apparently a poor lantern, whose sides were made of canvas instead of horn.

^[358]: The recently married wife of Atticus. See p. 216.

^[359]: palinw|di/a—something he had apparently written and sent to Pompey or Caesar, 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 Caesar, there is nothing in the shape of a palinode in general politics.

^[360]: That is, the dowry and expenses of Tullia's betrothal to Crassipes.

^[361]: 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.

^[362]: Reading communi fueris nomine. After all, the meaning is very doubtful.

^[363]: 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," snid Philoxenus. For *spa/rtan e)/laxes, tau/thn ko/smei, see p. 59.

^[364]: 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.

^[365]: A money-lender.

^[366]: ou)x o(si/h fqime/noisin, leaving Atticus, as often, to fill in the words e)p' a)ndra/sin eu)xeta/asqai (Hom. Od. 22.412, where the word is ktame/noisin. Terentius is some eques who has stopped payment.

^[367]: 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, 39.20).

^[368]: Something that Quintus had done, perhaps about water, on his estate which annoyed his fellow townsmen.

^[369]: o( d' ou)k e)mpa/zeto mu/qwn (Hom. Od. 1.271).

^[370]: 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 as et libram (Varro, L. 50.5.163).

^[371]: mh/pw me/g' ei)/ph|s pri\n teleuth/sant' i)/dh|s, "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 Croesus.

^[372]: ei)/h moi\ ou(=tos fi/los oi)=kos, according to a probable restoration of the Greek words (instead ofei)/h mishto\s fi/los oi)=kos, "I might even hate my town house in comparison"); cp. Hor. Od. 2.6, 7.

^[373]: B.C. 55. Coss., Cn. Pompeius Magus, M. Licinius Crassus

^[374]: 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.

^[375]: This may refer to the laws of Trebonius, giving Pompey and Crassus Spain and Syria respectively, and Caesar an additional five years in Gaul, or to some of Pompey's own legislation.

^[376]: 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, 39.31).

^[377]: Pompey.

^[378]: 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.

^[379]: A friend of Pompey's. I think "your guest" must be Pompey himself, whom Atticus is about to entertain at dinner.

^[380]: Son of the dictator Sulla, who is known to have brought back from Athens a famous Aristotelian library.

^[381]: Pompey and Crassus, the consuls.

^[382]: Pompey, as the context shews. In the next clause ambulatio has a double meaning of physical walking and of a political course of conduct.

^[383]: 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.

^[384]: The tribunes bad 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.

^[385]: This also is Phocylides's.

^[386]: In Pompey's new theatre.

^[387]: A learned freedman of Atticus's.

^[388]: 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.

^[389]: Appius Claudius (brother of Clodius) was a candidate for the consulship of B.C. 54.

^[390]: Clodius, a revolutionary, like Appuleius Saturninus. The feminine gender is an insult.

^[391]: Either his poem "On his own Times," or the notes of events which he had promised in Letter CVIII, p. 231.

^[392]: A treatise on union (peri\ o(monoi/as). The rhetorician Dionysius of Magnesia had been with Cicero during his tour in Asia.

^[393]: L. Egnatius, who owed Q. Cicero money.

^[394]: C. Aquilius Gallus, Cicero's colleague in the praetorship, and a busy advocate. See p. 13.

^[395]: Apparently a money-lender.

^[396]: Perhaps at his sponsalia, as be was married towards the end of the year.

^[397]: 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."

^[398]: Crassus starts for Syria; he compares him to L. Aemilius 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. 1.29; Plutarch, Crass. 16).

^[399]: By his librarii. Atticus was again acting as his publisher.

^[400]: A banker at Puteoli.

^[401]: The six books on the Republic.

^[402]: That is, as an interlocutor in the dialogue "On the Republic," which Cicero was engaged in writing.

^[403]: A law re-enacting the lex Didia, and enacting under penalties that no law was to be brought forward without due publication beforehand.

^[404]: A law which enabled the magistrates and tribunes to stop legislation by obnuntiatio.

^[405]: Procilius had been condemned de vi (p. 280). The rumours, I suppose, were as to the jury having been corrupted.

^[406]: The consul consul L. Domitius Ahenobarbus and C. Lucceius Hirrus, the latter a warm partisan of Pompey, who was supposed to be agitating for a dictatorship.

^[407]: L. Aemilius Paullus (consul B.C. 50) restored the basilica built by his ancestor M. Aemilius Lepidus in B.C. 179, and appears to have added largely to it, or even built a new one.

^[408]: 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 Caesar, but not completed till the time of Augustus.

^[409]: Because the tribunes stopped it—the formal act at the end of the censor's office—by obnuntiationes.

^[410]: The name of the law mentioned here is uncertain. The lex Cincia de mmuneribus forbade advocates taking fees for pleading.

^[411]: 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.

^[412]: Q Hortensius, the great orator.

^[413]: 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.

^[414]: sh=ma de/ toi e)re/w (Hom. 51.23.326).

^[415]: Because Atticus lent money.

^[416]: 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 Caesar. 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.

^[417]: There is considerable uncertainty as to the exact nature of judicium tacitum, here rendered "a trial with closed doors," on the analogy of the senatus consultum tacitum described by Capitolinus, in Gordian. ch. xli. It is not, I think, mentioned elsewhere (judiciis tacitis of Off. 2.24, 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, quae 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 judicum who had been selected to try cases of ambitus, of which many were expected. There is no proof that the judices in a judicium 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 judicium tacitum, which would give no public verdict, but on whose report they could afterwards act.