[1312]: That is, on what was done in the senate on the 17th of March. The course of events referred to is as follows: (a) March 15th. Caesar is assassinated in the Curia Pompei about noon. The conspirators (joined by some who wished to be thought in the plot) marched through the city protected by Dec. Brutus's gladiators and barricaded themselves on the Capitol. There they were visited by Cicero and others. In the afternoon Brutus and Cassius ventured down into the forum and addressed the people, but then returned to the Capitol. (b) March 16th was spent in various negotiations with the consul Antony and with Lepidus, who had an army in the city. In the evening Antony issued a summons for a meeting of the senate next day in the temple of Tellus (near his own house). (c) March 17th. At the meeting of the senate (to which the assassins were summoned, but did not come) Cicero spoke in favour of an amnesty. Dio (44, 23-33) professes to give his speech. At this meeting decrees or resolutions were passed (1) That there should be a general amnesty, i.e., no prosecution of the assassins. (2) That Caesar's acta should be confirmed. (3) That grants of land made or promised to the veterans should hold good. (4) That Caesar should be allowed a public funeral, and that Piso (his father-in-law) should publish his will. It was the funeral and the recitation of the will to which Atticus (as did Cicero, Phil. 2.89) attributed the revulsion of public feeling and the mischief which followed. The best account of the scene in the senate and of how this last resolution was carried is in Appian, B.C. 2.126-136. The will was read and the fuineral took place apparently on the 18th. The bill declaring it illegal to nominate any man dictator was apparently brought in by Antony a few days later in consequence of a vote in this meeting.
[1313]: Epirus. He seems to mean that it is too easy of access to his enemies. He must go farther.
[1314]: All men enriched in various ways by Caesar's confiscations. For Sextilius see p.11.
[1315]: That is, by taking strong measures. This seems the only meaning possible if the MS. reading, quod nunquam accidisset, is retained, but I doubt whether the meaning is to be got out of the Latin. It would be at any rate much more intelligible if we read with Gronovius, quod utinam accidisset. What Cicero really wrote is of course the question—and of this MSS. are the best though not the certain guides.
[1316]: His stepfather Philippus had advised him not to accept the inheritance and adoption (Nicol. Dam. 18).
[1317]: The saving the Buthrotians from confiscation of land for the colony of Caesar's veterans sent there. See pp.19, 20, etc.
[1318]: a)kolasi/an. Cicero is no doubt quoting the exact word used by Atticus. Fulvia. In Phil. 2.93 Cicero says that Deiotarus repossessed himself of his dominions by force on hearing of Caesar's death, and will therefore demur to paying the sum agreed upon by his agents. Cicero's objection to the citizenship of the Sicilians is the loss of revenue, for they would no longer pay tributum (Phil. 2.92).
[1319]: See p. 15.
[1320]: The stepfather of Octavius. It was the policy of Octavius for the present to feign devotion to the boni as a protection against Antony. He presently made them see what his real feeling to them was, though he sincerely admired and liked Cicero.
[1321]: Deiotarus of Galatia, whom Cicero had defended before Caesar, was restored by Antony to the possession of lesser Armenia—who alleged a minute of Caesar's; but really, Cicero says, because Deiotarus had bribed
[1322]: Cicero means that Caesar had promised to revoke the confiscation of lands in the territory of Buthrotum, and this promise—besides being just—can be testified to by many. If Antony carries out his measures on pretended minutes of Caesar, surely this genuine one ought to hold good.
[1323]: Being adopted in Caesar's will the future Augustus was now properly Gaius Iulius Caesar Octavianus (the adjectival form of his original name, as usual). But this adoption required a formal confirmation by a lex curiata—which Antony managed to postpone till August B.C. 43. Meanwhile his friends gave him by courtesy the name which he was entitled to claim, but to which he had not yet technically a full right. We shall find Cicero calling him Octavianus by-and-by, but not "Caesar" till it became necessary to compliment him.
[1324]: Reading bonum civem esse. By omitting esse Cicero is made to say that no good citizen could call him "Caesar," as it would be acknowledging the adoption. This seems to me much too strong. Cicero had consented to the confirmation of Caesar's public acta, surely it would be unreasonable to reject the disposition of his private property.
[1325]: See vol. iii., p.100.
[1326]: Pansa and Hirtius.
[1327]: Vestorius was a banker of Puteoli, often mentioned in the letters. For writing letters at the dinner table, see p.11 ; vol. iii., p. 102.
[1328]: A scriba and hanger—on of Publius Clodius, called Athenio in vol. i., p.99. He had been acquitted on a charge of vis by a narrow majority in B.C. 56 (vol. i., p.221), but was condemned in B.C. 52 on account of the riots following the death of his patron and the burning of the Curia (pro Mil. § 90; Asconius, § 55).
[1329]: Son of P. Clodius by Fulvia, whom Antony had married.
[1330]: An answer to Antony's veiled threat at the end of his letter as to "a quiet old age" (p.23).
[1331]: Antony quoted this letter in his speech in the Senate in answer to the first Philippic (September 19th). See 2 Phil. §§ 7-10.
[1332]: Homer, Il. 9.228.It is no time-Cicero means—to be thinking about picturesque scenery in tbe midst of these troubles.
[1333]: Decimus Brutus had been named to the government of Gallia Cisalpina by Caesar, and had gone there in spite of Antony's opposition, see p .2. He had three legions there (App. B.C. 3.6).
[1334]: Homer, Il. 5.428.Cicero has substituted lo/goio, "of speech," for ga/moio, "of wedlock," at the end of the second line.
[1335]: The Lucrine lake.
[1336]: Quintus Cicero had recently divorced Pomponia.
[1337]: This quotation, expressing horrified incredulity, is from the Iliona of Pacuvius (Ribbeck, 202). Cicero twice elsewhere employs it, Acad. prior. 2.88;Tusc. 2.44.
[1338]: See DCCXXII. The Parilia were on the 21st of April.
[1339]: Cicero (p. 22) had jocosely referred to the banker Vestorius as "no philosopher but good at accounts," and Atticus seems to have replied by a punning reference to the ai(/resis, "sect," with perhaps an allusion to the meaning "taking," as the characteristic of a banker. We can never explain the joke as to the local habits of the "Pheriones," because we don't know who they were or what Atticus said about them. May it be a similar pun on pherein "to carry off"—"convey the wise it call"? Puteoli was the mart of the corn trade from Egypt, and its merchants and bankers may have had a name for sharp practice.
[1340]: Apparently C. Sempronius Rufus, who had a controversy with Vestorius (vol. ii., p. 6).
[1341]: See p. 17
[1342]: The scene at the reading of Caesar's will, the funeral oration of Antony, and the burning of the body in the forum —so faithfully dramatized by Shakespeare—is given most fully by Appian (B.C. 3.143-148). The revulsion of feeling caused by it made Antony all-powerful for some weeks.
[1343]: Cicero elsewhere insinuates that Antony took forcible possession of 700,000 sestertia (about £5,600,000) deposited in Caesar's lifetime in the public treasury at the temple of Ops (Phil. 2.93). See infra, p.41.
[1344]: Of wills, in which legacies were left to Cicero. See p. 8.
[1345]: Massilia (as we have seen, vol. ii., p.394) had held out against Caesar in B.C. 49, and had been obliged to surrender after a long siege, and had given up its arms and ships. But it does not appear to have lost its position as a libera civitas, or if it did, it soon regained it. A figure of Massilia was carried in Caesar's triumph (Off. 2.28: see also Phil. 2.94; Phil. 8.18), and this perhaps implies a loss of libertas for the time. Why Cicero calls the people of Massilia "neighbours" to Atticus is not clear. One suggestion is tbat their ambassadors were living near him at Rome.
[1346]: In the absence of Antony (2 Phil. 107), who had already punished some of the rioters (see p. 9), Dolabella took stringent measures-pulled down the memorial column (Phil. 1.2), crucified those of the rioters who were slaves, and hurled from the Tarpeian rock some who were free. This unconstitutional conduct on the part of both consuls was condoned by the Senate and Optimates because exercised against Caesarian sympathisers. Dolabella, after Caesar's murder, had at first taken the side of the murderers and even pretended to have been privy to the plot, but seems gradually to have betrayed sentiments of the opposite description (App. B.C. 3.122).
[1347]: Those inherited from Cluvius of Puteoli. See p.15.
[1348]: I am going to stay with Paetus at Naples. See vol. iii., p.92.
[1349]: As the best way of keeping him up to the mark. Cp. vol. iii., p.59.
[1350]: The tutor of the young Marcus Cicero.
[1351]: One of young Cicero's teachers at Athens. We have already beard of him as undertaking a history of Cicero's consulship (vol. i., p.67).
[1352]: An Epicurean philosopher at Athens (vol. ii., pp.26, 31). Atticus seems to have employed him to transmit money to young Cicero.
[1353]: C. Flaminius Flamma owed Plancus money and also it seems Cicero. See vol. iii., p.258.
[1354]: That is, below the statutable age for the consulship. Dolabella was only about twenty-five.
[1355]: vol. iii., p.93, for Dolabella's study of rhetoric under Cicero.
[1356]: L. Caesar's sister Iulia married first Antonius Creticus, by whom she was the mother of Marcus Antonius, and secondly Lentulus, the Catilinarian conspirator (Phil. 2.14).
[1357]: See, however, vol. ii., p.137.
[1358]: Surely party spirit never so perverted a great man as when it induced Cicero to write these words to a dissolute young scoundrel like Dolabella; and in praise of an act of wholly unconstitutional cruelty. Even the unhappy boys hanged after the Gordon riots were allowed some form of trial.
[1359]: This is explained by 2 Phil. §§ 101-102. Capua, which since the second Punic war had been deprived of all status, had been raised to the rank of a colonia by Caesar in B.C. 59. Antony wanted to refound it, or at any rate to introduce a supplementum or new body of coloni which was resisted by the existing coloni, who were mostly veteran soldiers. He appears eventually to have made his colony at Casilinum on the other side of the river. This involved more loss of revenue from the ager Campanus.
[1360]: That is, at the meeting of the senate always held on the first day of the month.
[1361]: We cannot be sure what book is meant. It is supposed by some to be the poem de Suis Temporibus, which was not published till after his death.
[1362]: See p.32.
[1363]: No doubt—if the reading is sound—he refers to Dolabella still retaining Tullia's dowry in part.
[1364]: That is, "death" (cp. de Sen. § 91). He had just written the essay on Old Age. There he makes Cato say that at his age death is so pleasant that "as I approach it more, I seem to be catching sight of land and to be at length coming into port after a long voyage." We often find the sentiment occurring in his letters which he was at the time expressing in books.
[1365]: In executing the rioters collecting round the pillar marking the spot in the forum where his body was burnt. See pp.33-35.
[1366]: At the Palilia. See Letter DCCXVI.
[1367]: Re—marriage with the divorced Publilia.
[1368]: The instalment of Tullia's dowry which he had to repay.
[1369]: Faberius was Caesar's secretary. Cicero here accuses Dolabella of sharing in the fraudulent proceedings which he afterwards attributed to Antony (2 Phil. §§ 93, 97)-making money by using pretended minutes of Caesar, and diverting to his private use the five millions sterling left in the public treasury at the temple of Ops by Caesar. In Phil. 2.107, he attributes Dolabella's deterioration to Antony's influence. See Letter DCCXVI.
[1370]: Brother of Marcus Antonius. He was tribune this year, and had been speaking about a distribution of land.
[1371]: Tertia half-sister of Brutus, and wife of Cassius. She was daughter of Servilia by D. Iunius Silanus. Another sister was married to Lepidus.
[1372]: Some report of harm having happened to Cleopatra. The son called Caesarion (Suet. Aug. 17) was believed to be Caesar's, though Caesar himself is said to have denied it, and his friend C. Oppius published a pamphlet to disprove it. Suetonius (Iul.52) says that Caesar granted Cleopatra permission to call the boy after him as a favour. And Plutarch (Caes. 49) attributes the assertion to thecommon talk of Alexandria. Antony always maintained it however, even in his will (Dio 49, 4; 50, 3).
[1373]: Atticus had suggested Cicero sending a draft of a contio for Brutus to deliver Cicero replies that Brutus would prefer to compose his own, as he did in the case of an edict, of which Cicero had supplied a sketch. See Letter DCCXXXVII, p.64.
[1374]: A translator of tragedies and comedies. See de Fin. 1.2, where Cicero, speaking of his translation of the Electra of Sophocles, calls him a ferreus poeta, "stiff."
[1375]: The banker at Puteoli.
[1376]: The text of this clause is doubtful, arma being a conjecture for utram of the MSS. Mueller reads castra. The duumviri also may mean the two chief magistrates of the colonia. For Antony's tour through the colonies of the veterans, see Phil. 2.100.
[1377]: Cicero often says that Antony ought to have been killed at the same time as Caesar (Phil. 2.34). See pp.48, 69, etc.
[1378]: Servilia, the mother of Brutus, had an estate at Naples given her by Caesar.
[1379]: penteloipon. The reading, however, is not certain. Tyrrell and Purser reckon the set or coterie at Puteoli as including Hirtius, Pansa, Octavius, Lentulus Spinther, and Philippus. But the political views referred to in the next sentence do not apply to Philippus. See p.20.
[1380]: As he did in his tribuneship of B.C. 47 (see vol. iii., pp.27, 33). Tinniat has a double meaning: (i) ringing true, like a vessel when tapped, and so being "honest (cp. Persius, 3.20); (2) "to chink" like money when handled, and so to be ready to pay.
[1381]: Hirtius. See vol. iii., p.93.
[1382]: That is, remain neutral. Cicero has committed himself by approving assassination.
[1383]: a)/llois e)n e)sqloi=s to/nd' a)pwqou=ntai yo/gon, a verse said to be from Sophocles, though from what play is unknown. The mistake at which Cicero hints is, as before (p.46), that Antony was not assassinated with Caesar.
[1384]: See p.70, and vol. i., p.110.
[1385]: For Antony's enrolment and gradual increase of 6,000 bodyguards, see p.90.
[1386]: A physician. See p.53.
[1387]: As to the confiscation of lands at Buthrotum. Hirtius was consul- designate for B.C. 43.
[1388]: See p. 40. It seems to refer to some attempt at effecting a reconciliation between Cicero and Publilia.
[1389]: That is "does it follow that I wish to marry her?" Or if it refers to Publilia's mother, "does it follow that I wish to take her daughter back?"
[1390]: See p. 43.
[1391]: See p. 32.
[1392]: Cicero had lent his villa at Puteoli to Pilia, the wife of Atticus. See p.41.
[1393]: That he has been executed by Trebonius in Asia. The report turned out to be false, or at any rate premature (see p. 57; Phil. 13.33). Menedemus a Greek claiming to have been enfranchised by Caesar.
[1394]: That of Brutus, discussed in the morning's letter.
[1395]: Atticus had mentioned the fact of Antony's summoning the legions from Macedonia, left there by Caesar. If that were true, Antony evidently meant to carry his views by force of arms, and the senate would have little say in this or any other matter.
[1396]: The games which Iulius Caesar had intended to be held on the 21st April (the Palilia) in celebration of his victories in Spain had been postponed, and were now about to be given by Octavius (Augustus). They had been intended to accompany the dedication of the completed temple of Venus Victrix begun after Pharsalia (App. B.C. 2.102; Dio, 43, 2; 45, 6-7). Matius Calvinus and Postumius were two warm friends of the late dictator (see vol. ii., p. 350; vol. iii., p.127; Suet. Aug. 10). At these games the comet was seen which some believed to be the soul of the dictator on its way to heaven (Suet. Iul. 88; Pliny, N. H. ii. §93).
[1397]: We know nothing of Saserna, except that Cicero speaks contemptuously of him as one of Antony's set in Phil. 13.28.
[1398]: The subject of the first book of the Tusculans is "Is death an evil?"
[1399]: A city in Sicily.
[1400]: Hirtius. See p.46.
[1401]: The money in the temple of Ops, which Antony was appropriating, as well as Dolabella. See pp.41, etc.
[1402]: B.C. 49. The senate summoned all good citizens to come to town. Antony wished Cicero and others to come to the senate, and Atticus had quoted the precedent of B.C. 49.
[1403]: Antony had made a colonia at Casilinum (see p.38), which Cicero won't recognize as a colonia, and calls a conventus (Phil. 2.102) Cicero does not wish to recognize them, and yet fears to irritate these veterans.
[1404]: Calva and Demonicus are unknown. For Manlius the MSS. have malo. Some name must be supplied, and I have introduced the nearest. It may possibly refer to Aulus Manlius Torquatus, who, though allowed to return from exile, still had some claims for restitution unsatisfied, for which Cicero looked to Dolabella's aid. See vol. iii., p.280.
[1405]: In his games Octavian wished the gilded chair and jewelled crown which had been voted to Iulius to be brought into the circus or theatre, but was prevented by the tribunes, L. Antonius among others (Dio, 45, 4). We must suppose that the equites applauded the tribunes.
[1406]: That is, at Astura. See p.40.
[1407]: Q. Fufius Calenus, an old opponent (vol. i., p.35).
[1408]: a)/nw potamw=n. Cicero, as usual, only gives a word or two of a well-known passage to indicate it to Atticus. It is from the famous choric song in the Medea of Euripides (409-410) representing the reversal of all moral laws and notions: a)/nw potamw=n i(erw=n xwrou=si pagai/ kai\ di/ka kai\ pa/nta pa/lin stre/fetai. Back to their founts the rivers roll Their sacred streams: and in the soul Confusions worse confounded reign, Nor justice can her laws maintain. Carfulenus, an officer in the Martia, had with it deserted from Antony.
[1409]: That is, Gallia Cisalpina—which Antony was trying to get the senate to transfer to him. He eventually got it by a lex.
[1410]: He suggests ironically that his only motive for wishing active measures to be taken against Antony was to secure the Buthrotians from the threatened colony.
[1411]: The Tusculan Disputations (1st Book) on death, and the reasons for not fearing it.
[1412]: That is, I won't tell Saufeius the Epicurean of your lapse from Epicureanism involved in adopting the doctrines of the Tusculan Disputations.
[1413]: Where Brutus was. See p.45.
[1414]: Heracleides of Pontus, a pupil of Plato, who wrote on constitutions. See vol. i., p.328.
[1415]: Boot thinks that this means, "Caesar would not have come to life again in the person of Antony." But I agree with Tyrrell and Purser in understanding it to mean, "would never have come back from the Parthian war." Caesar's health and spirits were perhaps failing. See pro Marc. §§ 25, 32.
[1416]: See p.51.
[1417]: Some rumour to the disadvantage of Cleopatra. See p.43.
[1418]: The Nemus Dianae, mod. Aricia, near the lago de Nemi (see vol. ii., p. 245). L. Caesar was Antony's uncle (Phil. 2.14). He was consul B.C. 64.
[1419]: The MSS. have the apparently unmeaning words o(/te nau=s a)/nqrakes. I venture to propose a proverb which makes sense, and which is no violent change in the MSS., considering the hopeless confusion with which they generally present Greek words. It is o( qhsauro/s, "the treasure turns out to be dust and ashes," a proverb for disappointed hopes (see Lucian, Zeuxis, § 2; Timon, § 41). Cicero says in the next letter that Hirtius, though annoyed with Antony, is devoted to the Caesarian party (as also to the memory of Caesar, see pp.44, 47, 49). If, therefore, they trust in his support, they will find themselves deceived—they will be reckoning without their host, and will find only disappointment.
[1420]: That is, from the meeting of the senate on the 1st of June. At this meeting Antony was to report on the acta of Caesar, which he in conjunction with a small committee had been directed to investigate. Cicero, however, declares that the committee never met, that Antony decided as to Caesar's memoranda and acta as he chose, and when the senate met surrounded it with armed guards (2 Phil. §§ 100, 108).
[1421]: The text is corrupt, and the rendering conjectural.
[1422]: Sextus Peducaeus.
[1423]: That is, sed magis ferro rem repetunt, "but rather enforce their claim by the sword" (see vol. i., p.350). What Servius Sulpicius was doing we don't know, perhaps trying to negotiate terms between Antony and the assassins.
[1424]: The other consul Antony.
[1425]: Antony's praeftetus fabrum. See vol. iii., pp.96, 102.
[1426]: That is, either an ordinary or a votive legatio. See p.70.
[1427]: The text of this sentence is very uncertain. I have translated that of Tyrrell and Purser, as at any rate making a kind of sense. If it stands Cicero may mean by "having sundry other villas" ready, not that he will obtain more, but that he may be able to elude attack by going from one to the other of those which he already possessed.
[1428]: A stream in the property of Brutus at Lanuvium, to which he had given the name of the river of Sparta.
[1429]: Reading nolo enim Lacedaemonem longinquiorem Lanuvio existimaris. But both text and meaning are very uncertain. The persikh\ porticus seems to refer to some covered walk in Brutus's property at Lanuvium, also named from the stoa\ perskih\ at Sparta, for which see Pausanias, 2.11, 3. The latter was so named from being adorned by spoils taken at Plataea. The Roman Stoics affected an admiration of Sparta and Spartan ways.
[1430]: Apparently Atticus was contemplating a visit to Brutus at Lanuvium with some proposals from Antony's party (see p. 56). The visit, however, did not come off, and Brutus and Cassius presently removed to Antium. What the casus armorum refers to we cannot tell. Some of Antony's ever-increasing bodyguards may have had some fracas at his house.
[1431]: As praetor urbanus Brutus ought to have presided at the ludi Apollinares (about 12th July). As he did not venture to Rome, they were presided over by another praetor, Gaius Antonius. Cicero declares that the name of Brutus was loudly cheered (Phil. 2.31), but according to Appian (B.C. 3.24), this was not so, and indeed we shall fin in another letter that it was very questionable (Att. 16.4and 5).
[1432]: This cura annonae was given them during their praetorship to enable them to absent themselves from Italy with a decent excuse; it did not affect the question of their provinces for the next year. It was not a dignified office like that of Pompey, who had authority all over the Empire, while they had it only in a narrow district. Cicero calls it a case of " Dion's legation," referring to the removal of Dion from Syracuse by the younger Dionysius under the pretence of sending him on an embassy to Peloponnesus.
[1433]: Servilia.
[1434]: Where Brutus and Cassius now were.
[1435]: Servilia, mother of Brutus; Tertia, his half-sister and wife of Cassius; Porcia, his second wife, recently married.
[1436]: For this imitator of Cato, see vol. ii., p.31 ; cp. vol. i., pp.35, 188.
[1437]: Because he had used his forces in Gallia Cisalpina in wars with the natives instead of attacking Antony.
[1438]: That is, Antony. See pp. 41, 48.
[1439]: To Achaia, on his way to take possession of his province of Syria.
[1440]: See vol. iii., p.100, etc.
[1441]: Cicero was named an ordinary legatus to Dolabella as governor of Syria, though of course it was understood that he was to do no duties. A libera legatio did not attach a man to any particular governor, but on the other hand was limited in point of time. Cicero himself had carried a law in his consulship in regard to them.
[1442]: The period for which Dolabella had the governorship apparently, for he was to carry on the Parthian war (Appian, B.C. 3.7, 8).
[1443]: The favourable decision of the consuls. See pp.94-95.
[1444]: The decree promoted by Antony seems to have had two provisions: (a) an indemnity to Brutus and Cassius for being absent from Rome during their praetorship; (b) an appointment to a curatio annonae in Sicily and Asia. The compromise suggested by Servilia seems to have been that the first should be passed, but not the second, or if it named Sicily and Asia as the places to which they were authorized to go, that the purpose (the curatio annonae) should not be mentioned.
[1445]: Lucius Antonius was a tribune. He seems to have written to Cicero telling him that he need have no anxiety as to the rumoured intention of attacking his house at Tusculum. See p. 65.
[1446]: Cicero seems to be punning on the word brutus, "stupid," and to hesitate as to which of the two Bruti was most to blame for the present
[1447]: This is the first time that Cicero gives the young Augustus the name which acknowledges his adoption by Caesar's will. Though the full formalities were not carried out for another year, he was by that adoption Gajus Julius Caesar Octavianus (instead of Octavius).
[1448]: Husband of Octavia, Octavian's sister. Consul B.C. 49.
[1449]: The text is corrupt.
[1450]: See p.32.
[1451]: Chief magistrate of Arpinum. See vol. iii., p.63 (Fam. 13.11)
[1452]: Probably books. Cicero once before jestingly said that he could take a present of books without breaking the law. See vol. i., p.60.
[1453]: The implied discourtesy seems to consist in Sara's professing to be at Cicero's levée for the sake of seeing some one else, not Cicero himself.
[1454]: In memory of Tullia (see vol. iii., p.206, sq.). The design has not been mentioned for a long time now, but apparently had not yet definitely been abandoned.
[1455]: Their pretence of being afraid of some violence on the part of Brutus and Cassius.
[1456]: Unless this refers to the previous clause we have no means of knowing what suspicion he means. For Sicca, see vol. i., p.142; vol. ii., p.275.
[1457]: See vol. ii., p.180: ta\ me\n dido/mena, sc. de/xou.
[1458]: Unknown. Some suggest Sara regio (see last letter).
[1459]: This may refer to the recall of M. Plaetorius Cestianus. He had been condemned in B.C. 51 (vol. ii., p. 89).
[1460]: L. Antonius, as tribune, seems to have threatened to stop the measure of relief for the Buthrotians. See p.73.
[1461]: See last letter. Antro was a freedman.
[1462]: P. Sittius of Nuceria was an old friend of Cicero's but we don't know what is referred to here.
[1463]: It is uncertain what L means (perhaps loi/pw|, "balance"). See p.74.
[1464]: M. Valerius Messalla, who had been with young Cicero at Athens. See vol. iii., p.225.
[1465]: Bucilianus and his brother Caecilius were induced by Brutus to join the assassins (App. B.C. 2.113, 117). He accompanied Brutus to Macedonia (see p.104). What had occurred about him now we cannot tell.
[1466]: As legatus of a proconsul Cicero would have the right to the services of some public mules or horses.
[1467]: Referring again to the increasing bodyguard enlisted by Antony from the flower of the veterani. See p. 8, etc.
[1468]: The decemviri or land-commissioners for distributing extra-Italian land.
[1469]: Theophanes of Mitylene, who had been Pompey's secretary and friend (vol. i., p.90).
[1470]: The younger Quintus, Cicero's nephew.
[1471]: The seven land-commissioners (for distributing land in Italy among the veterans) were Marcus and Gaius Antonius, Dolabella, Domitius of Apulia, P. Decius, Nucula, and Lento. Nucula was a mime-writer, Lento an actor (Phil. 6.14; 8, § 26; 11, § 13). What Cicero thought of these land-commissions (septemviri for Italy, decemviri for extra-Italian land) may be seen in Phil. 2.101.
[1472]: Nicias of Cos was a grammarian (vol. ii., p.221). Cicero means that as his legateship to Dolabella was a colourable one, Dolabella may as well give him some trifling commissions to keep up appearances.
[1473]: The text is corrupt.
[1474]: See p.19 (Att. xiv. ii), from whence it appears that Cicero did not hear the speech, but read it.
[1475]: Taking Madvig's quo Catulus usus est. C. Lutatius Catulus was put to death by Marius or forced to kill himself in B.C. 87.
[1476]: Sextus Pompeius. Carteia is the modern St. Roch, near Gibraltar.
[1477]: He saw him again in July at Antium and at Velia in August, but never after Brutus left Italy.
[1478]: About £1,600.
[1479]: Certain houses at Rome which had belonged to Terentia and were retained to furnish her son's allowance. See p.90.
[1480]: Antony, who—as Cicero said before (p. 95)-was pretending to be afraid of Brutus and Cassius.
[1481]: See p.73.
[1482]: The younger Quintus was, it seems, much given to romancing. See Letter DCVII (Att. 13.30); cp. pp.78, 97. His present object seems to have been to get over his father, probably in view of money help. Antony revenged himself on him for his change of allegiance by putting him on the proscription list in B.C. 43.
[1483]: Apparently as to young Quintus marrying Cana, daughter of Q. Gellius Canus. See Letter DCLVIII.
[1484]: Cana had divorced her previous husband.
[1485]: Perhaps the de Amicitia.
[1486]: Modern Otranto.
[1487]: Sext. Pompeius was in command of a great fleet, and was dominating Southern Spain and Sicily. The senate was later on glad to acknowledge him as commander of the Roman fleet against Antony. Antony had proposed to restore him to his civil rights, and get about 5,000,000 sterling voted him as compensation for his father's property, but the negotiations had broken down, owing to his demands of a more complete restoration of property (see Letter DCCLXVIII; Appian, B.C. 3.4). At present, therefore, his coming would be the beginning of a civil war which Cicero was dreading and hoped to get out of Italy in time to avoid it.
[1488]: That is, when will he take any practical steps to shew his friendship? Cp. p.78.
[1489]: Antony. See vol. ii., p.389; vol. iii., p.502.
[1490]: P. Silius Nerva, who had been propraetor of Bithynia, when Cicero was in Cilicia (see vol. ii., pp.95, 97). He was a great friend of Atticus, and was at present engaged in a lawsuit as to the succession of some property under the will of a certain Turpilia. See p.87.
[1491]: The de Officiis, which he was composing for the benefit of his son.
[1492]: Wax wafers stuck on to mark places for alteration
[1493]: The text of these two sentences is so corrupt that it is necessary to state distinctly what reading I have adopted. Velim etiam scire quo die Olympia (sint). Ut tu scribis, casus consilium nostri itineris iudicabit. I altogether disbelieve the idea that olim piaculum (for Olympia sint) can be explained by a reference to Clodius's violation of the mysteries of the Bona Dea. That was now nearly eighteen years ago. Its importance is generally exaggerated owing to its immediate effects on Cicero, and it was well forgotten by this time after so many more startling events, and we cannot conceive its influencing the date of Cicero's return. I think the mysteria scilicet grew out of a mistaken explanation of a mistaken reading and should be left out. The second reference to mysteria I think refers to the Eleusinian mysteries. Cicero was going to Athens and wished to stay till after their annual celebration (September), but did not wish to stay so late as to have to sail home in the winter if he could help it. The reason he asks about the Olympia is shewn by Att.
[1494]: The younger Quintus seems to have raised money from Lepta, referring him to his father for payment, and the elder Quintus is deliberating whether to honour the draft.
[1495]: Cicero charges Antony with various forgeries of decrees and other documents (Phil. 2.97, sq.). Cicero has before this period complained of such bogus senatus consulta. See vol. iii., p.107.
[1496]: The games of Apollo (11th-12th July) which Brutus as praetor urbanus was going to give, though Gaius Antonius as praetor was to preside at them in his absence.
[1497]: The enrolling of the six thousand veterans as a guard, and Antony's summons to the legions in Macedonia. See p. 48.
[1498]: The reading is uncertain. I have translated Mueller's text, from which a fair sense can be extracted: M. Aelium cura liberabis; me paucos pedes in extremo fundo et eos quidem subterraneos servitutis putasse aliquid habituros. Apparently Aelius has acted as Cicero's agent in the purchase of some property, but had not observed that there would be an easement (servitus) upon it, probably the right of making some underground drain or watercourse.
[1499]: The text in MSS. and editions is hopeless. Emendations of all sorts have been attempted. I think the first thing is to get rid of luminarum, "windows," of which it is impossible to make any probable sense. I have therefore conjectured for tuli luminarum aedium, TULLIANARUM AEDIUM, and suppose it to refer to some block of houses so called, and for cui Caerellia, DEBERI CAERELLIAE. Of Cicero's debt to the learned Caerellia we have heard before (see ad Att. 12.51vol. iii., p.257). We know that a certain Tullius Montanus owed Cicero money (see pp.32, 96). This arrangement of the text is very uncertain, but it is necessary to risk something. The temple or chapel of Strenia was at one end of the via sacra, near the site of what was afterwards the Colosseum.
[1500]: Prosequitur, the MS. reading. It is the usual word in this connection. Editors change it to persequitur because Sestius didn't accompany Cicero: wrongly, as I think. Cicero uses the word as expressing his intention, as though he had really done it—"he is by way of escorting me."
[1501]: For Heracleides of Pontus, see p.56.
[1502]: At the games of Brutus. Bacchis is an actress.
[1503]: Herodes was a tutor of young Cicero at Athens. We know nothing of Mettius, but he doubtless was at Athens also, and Atticus had sent some message to them both.
[1504]: The younger Quintus.
[1505]: We don't know how Cicero had offended Attica, unless she had seen the strange letter about her written to her father in the previous year. See vol. iii., p.223.
[1506]: Probably as to her divorce from Quintus.
[1507]: The case of the Buthrotians.
[1508]: Referring probably to a promise of Atticus to meet Cicero in Greece if Attica's health permits.
[1509]: L. Munatius Plancus had troops in Transalpine Gaul, Decimus Brutus in Cisalpine—Atticus I supoose had said that they would join in resisting Antony
[1510]: Sextus Pompeius perhaps was said to be wavering.
[1511]: Favonius was the well-known imitator of Cato. Asinius Pollio, besides having been a Caesarian, was now posing as more or less of a republican, though he afterwards joined Antony. He was already known as an orator and man of letters, and perhaps took "high ground" in politics. Perhaps Cicero means, "you would suppose young Quintus to take the strictly republican views of Favonius (see p.68), with the culture of a Pollio, as he professes to value my society." But it is rather recondite.
[1512]: ou) para\ tou=ton, "not along of him," but Cicero's meaning is not at all clear. We don't know whose daughter Tutia was, or to which of the Othones she was married. For Quintus's character for romancing, see p. 8.
[1513]: Titus Munatius Plancus (brother of Lucius), who was at the head of the land-commissioners in Epirus. See p.98.
[1514]: Nesis (mod. Nisidia) is a small island between Puteoli and Naples, on which Brutus or perhaps his mother (see ad Att. 14.21, p.46) had a villa.
[1515]: The change of name of the month Quintilis to Iulius, as being the month of Caesar's birth, was voted by the senate early in this year, Dio, 44, 5; but it does not seem to have quickly come into public use, for it was re-enacted in his honour after his death, Dio, 45, 8. It probably had not been used in formal documents, and Cicero thinks it particularly bad taste to have used the word in regard to the games, for which Brutus was paying.
[1516]: New coloni often found themselves roughly treated by the men dispossessed in their favour. See last letter, p.104, and Phil. 2.300.
[1517]: Some of the pirates whom Pompey had settled on lands at Dyme in Achaia, after the Piratic war of B.C. 57-56, Plut. Pomp. 28.
[1518]: P. Ventidius Bassus, a devoted adherent of Antony, was now praetor-designate. Probably the rumour was as to his raising troops, as he did later on.
[1519]: Lepidus was negotiating with Sextus Pompeius, offering him the restitution of his father's wealth (Dio, 45, 10). It is rumoured that be is accepting. Cicero thinks that that will make Antony all-powerful. Ad arma in the text is wrong. Mr. Tyrrell suggests ad Larem (cp. p.103). I suggest dare manus. If abbreviated dar ma, it might be easily turned into ad arma.
[1520]: From Athens.
[1521]: About £640, accruing from the rents of the blocks of houses (insulae) which apparently formed part of Terentia's property secured to her son. His first year's expenditure had exceeded, his second year had fallen below it, and Cicero says the two are to be lumped together. Cp. p. 8o.
[1522]: Some exhibition of popular feeling at the acting of Accius's tragedy of Tereus (see p. 105). Cicero afterwards (Phil. 2.31) asserted that the populace had shewn extraordinary enthusiasm for Brutus at these games. But this was evidently not the case; and on the contrary the outbursts against the assassins seem finally to have decided them to leave Italy. See App. B.C. 3.24.
[1523]: See vol. i., p. 259 (Fam. 7.1).
[1524]: This favourable report is conveyed by Quintus himself. Cicero had already warned Atticus not to believe it. See last letter, and infra, p. 108.
[1525]: Which Antony was brining over from Macedonia and Epirus, where they had been stationed by Caesar. Venusia is on the Appian road to Brundisium.
[1526]: The nearest harbour in Calabria for Greece. Cicero had before (p. 8) said that he was going to embark there in preference to
[1527]: M. Aemilius Lepidus (the future triumvir) had taken advantage of the confusion following the murder of Caesar to get himself elected Pontifex Maximus in his place. He had fixed his inauguration festival for the 29th of November (see p. 151), by which time Cicero meant to be back in Rome.
[1528]: Odyssey, 11.469.The aptness of the quotation, of which he only gives two words (met' a)mu/mona), is not very evident. He appears to mean, "Cornelius Nepos is a very eminent and even immortal writer-next of course to you in my eyes." Nepos devoted himself to history, like Atticus, and didn't care for speculative philosophy.
[1529]: This does not militate against the fact of the greater part of Cicero's letters being spontaneous and written with no eye to publication. A certain number of them are careful compositions, and it is a collection of such that he probably contemplated being published. He draws the distinction himself elsewhere (vol. iii., pp.58-59).
[1530]: See p.98.
[1531]: Cicero regarded the election of Antony, and of course therefore of Dolabella, as irregular, and that accordingly they were not properly to be called consuls. See Phil. 2.10.
[1532]: For ad Larem see p.99. Antony was in possession of Pompey's town house (2 Phil. §§ 67, 76).
[1533]: See p. 98.
[1534]: This seems to refer to the inheritance of Cluvius (see vol. iii., p.328). Cicero purchased the horti from his co-heirs, and the money was to be paid in three instalments, the last on 1st August (see p. iii). In the former of these passages Hordeonius is mentioned as one of the co-heirs, but there is no reason as far as we know against Hortensius being another. Of him we know nothing. He may be the Hortensius with whom Cicero has had many transactions before (see ad Att. xii. 5: vol. iii., p. 271).
[1535]: Brother of Cicero's second divorced wife, who was to receive back her dowry.
[1536]: See ante, p.100.
[1537]: The legions being brought from Macedonia by Antony. See ante, p.104.
[1538]: On the road to Brundisium. See vol. ii., p.217.
[1539]: Whom young Quintus declared ready to marry him. See p.97.
[1540]: That is, some political treatise like that of Heracleides Ponticus "On Constitutions." See ante, pp.56, 93.
[1541]: For Cicero's habit of writing in corrections and additions in his MSS. see vol. iii., p.314. He is referring to the de Gloria. See p. 106.
[1542]: See ad Att. 13.25: vol. iii., p.207.
[1543]: There is a touch of malice in Cicero's jest, for Atticus was not famous for good dinners. See vol. ii., p.139.
[1544]: About his stinginess to young Cicero. See p.99.
[1545]: Atticus's characteristic was silence (see vol. iii., p.348: ad Att. 13.42). Quintus, as we see, was voluble and given to romancing. See pp. 81, 97. For the letters referred to see pp.98-101.
[1546]: This refers to a transaction of Deiotarus, tetrarch of Galatia, whom Cicero in B.C. 45 had defended before Caesar on a charge of having tried to murder the latter in B.C. 47. He had been deprived of the greater part of his dominions in Armenia, but by promising an enormous bribe to Fulvia, or to Antony himself, his agents had induced Antony to assert that among the minutes left by Caesar was one granting him restoration. He appears, however, on learning of Caesar's death, to have taken the law into his own hands and seized the territories. Hieras and Blesamius are his agents in Rome, who had managed the transaction. And Deiotarus, having got what he wanted, would probably disavow them. See ante, p.20; and 2 Phil. §§ 95, 96.
[1547]: dolixo\n plo/on o(rmai/nontes (Hom. Odyss. 3.169).
[1548]: He apparently went to Syracuse, but returned to Rhegium (Phil. 1.7). Tarentine Leucopetra seems to be a different place from the Leucopetra near Rhegium, but it is not known.
[1549]: See p.70.
[1550]: See p. 105.
[1551]: Praetor—designate, brother of Lucius and Titus Munatius Plancus. [Neither the exact date nor the place of writing of these letters on the tiresome Buthrotian business can be fixed.]
[1552]: Because he had paid their arrears to the treasury (see p.95), which he would not be able to recover if they were dispossessed.
[1553]: In Phil. 1.7 he says that he got as far as Syracuse, and then returned to Leucopetra as the winds were not favourable, preferring to wait at the latter place, and then was driven back on a second attempt to start.
[1554]: An Epicurean of Athens, of whom we have heard before (vol. ii., p. 28). The Epicureans advised abstention from politics, but the Stoics did not. See p.44 (ad Att. 14.20).
[1555]: See p.122
[1556]: The speech of Piso delivered on the 1st of August was not supported by any member of the senate (see Phil. 1.10). He was Caesar's father-in-law, and though on this occasion he seems to have pleased the opponents of Antony, he afterwards opposed his being declared a hostis (App. B.C. 3.54).
[1557]: The venomous second Philippic—perhaps the most terrible invective ever composed—was never delivered. It is a pamphlet in the form of a speech supposed to be delivered in the senate on the 19th of September in answer to Antony's.
[1558]: Varro had promised a Dialogue either dedicated to Cicero, or in which Cicero was to be one of the speakers. See vol. iii., p.304.
[1559]: That is, on constitutional theories, like the work of Heracleides of Pontus. See pp.56, 93.
[1560]: Most editions now read C. Annio, and refer it to C. Annius Cimber (Phil. 11.34), a follower of Antony's. In this case, Oh hominem nequam must be referred to Annius. The MS. reading is Gallo Caninio. For L. Caninius Gallus, see infra, p. 156. He seems to have just died, and if the name is retained here, we must refer Oh hominem nequam to Antony, and suppose Atticus to have told Cicero of some sharp practice of Antony's in regard to his will and property.
[1561]: For this agent of Brutus, see vol. ii., p.329.
[1562]: For Caecilius Bassus, the Pompeian who had nearly succeeded in occupying the province of Syria, see vol. iii., p.335.
[1563]: Cassius was on his way to Syria—in spite of the senate having been forced by Antony to deprive him of that province and give him Cyrene.
[1564]: The partisans of Antony.
[1565]: See infra, p. 150. He appears to have been a slave, accused of having attempted Antony's life at the instigation of Decimus Brutus.
[1566]: The second Philippic.
[1567]: Augustus was born in September, B.C. 63, and was therefore now nineteen. In the Monumentum Ancyranum, § I, he begins the record of his achievements thus: "When nineteen years old I collected an army on my own account and at my own expense, by means of which I restored to liberty the Republic, which had been enslaved by the tyranny of a faction." By a "faction" Augustus here means, however, the anti-Caesarian aristocrats. At this time Cicero hoped that this army was to be used in their interests as against Antony's, though, as we see, he had uneasy doubts about it.
[1568]: Of the Caecinae of Volaterrae. See vol. iii., p.123.
[1569]: Impossible, that is, with safety to the opponents of Antony, the boni. For Antony as consul would preside, and it would be surrounded by his guards. Several meetings of the senate were, as a matter of fact, held before Antony's term of office was over. On the 1st of January the new consuls, Pansa and Hirtius, would preside.
[1570]: Now governor of Gallia Cisalpina, who would be sure to take Octavian's side, because Antony claimed to have been nominated to his province.
[1571]: See p. 86.
[1572]: Reading ab ista re. But the text is very uncertain. Apparently what Cicero refrained from mentioning was an intrigue of Antony's with Septimia, the wife of Sicca. The latter was a great friend of his, and therefore Atticus had suggested that the topic should be avoided. Cicero seems to have alluded—though obscurely—to it (Phil. 2.3), speaking of having espoused the cause of a familiaris against Antony. Perhaps in the original draft the allusion was more patent, and names were mentioned.
[1573]: Q. Fadius Gallus, a freedman. Cicero harps on this mésalliance more than once (see Phil. 2.3; Phil. 13.23). It was probably Antony's first marriage, and the motive was apparently money. He afterwards married his cousin Antonia, whom he divorced in B.C. 47, and in B.C. 46 or 45 married Fulvia, widow first of Clodius and then of Curio. The expression sine vallo luciliano is very doubtful. Tyrrell and Purser propose fragmw=| or fra/gmati. It in some way seems to mean that Lucilius in his personal attacks guarded himself from danger of retaliation.
[1574]: This is the literal translation, but it seems a poor jest for Atticus to have made. Perhaps he did not mean to jest, but said in all seriousness that the present times were so bad that they made them look back. to the period when Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus were supreme (B.C. 59-53) as a golden age of liberty in comparison.
[1575]: Friends of Antony and warm Caesarians. For Q. Fufius Calenus see vol. iii., p.35; for C. Matius Calvena see pp. 5, 9, 16.
[1576]: The grammarian and critic of Alexandria.
[1577]: The reference is to Phil. 2.103. Cicero more than once refers in this Philippic to the case of Lucius Rubrius, whom he alleges that Antony forced to make a will in his favour. L. Rubrius was one of the officers captured and released by Caesar with Domitius at Corfinium (Caes. B.C. 1.23), and Antony may have found means to put pressure on him. Scipio perhaps refers to Pompey's father-in-law, and Atticus seems to have objected to accusing Antony of invading his property.
[1578]: Phil. 2.75. The point of the passage is to contrast Dolabella's energy even in a bad cause—in having been present at all three battles-with Antony's want of spirit.
[1579]: The latter, however, still stands in the text of Phil. 2.86.
[1580]: A title of a book of Varro's on famous men, taken from the sacred Peplus or robe offered once a year at Athens to Athenè, which was embroidered with figures from legends and history.
[1581]: A political treatise (see p.59) which Varro had promised to dedicate to Cicero (vol. iii., p.305).
[1582]: The first words of the de Senectute.
[1583]: See Phil. 2.106. The two names are now given in the text.
[1584]: See p.144.
[1585]: Homer, Il. 7.93.See vol. ii., p.144.
[1586]: As Pontifex Maximus.
[1587]: The younger Quintus, of whose alienation from his uncle Atticus we have heard before. See vol. iii., p.348.
[1588]: See p.142. Varro had apparently once more disappointed Cicero of the promised dedication, and perhaps made some lame excuse, which Cicero regarded as ridiculous.
[1589]: A villa of Quintus Cicero, near Minturnae (vol. i., p.291).
[1590]: Though the civil day ended as ours does at midnight, in ordinary usage it was counted from sunrise to sunset. Therefore what Cicero calls the 8th before daybreak we should call the 9th.
[1591]: Homer, Odyss. 3.171.He means, "skirt the Apennines, and go towards Arpinum." We have heard of insula Arpinas already, vol. iii., p.212. For psuria, see vol. i., p.252.
[1592]: Probably there is some proper name as well as other words missing in the text.
[1593]: Antony and Octavian.
[1594]: B.C. 142. Coss., L. Caecilius Metellus, Q. Fabius Maximus Servilianus. Cicero seems to be now engaged on the de Amicitia, in which C. Fannius is a speaker.
[1595]: At the meeting of the senate on the Liberalia. See p.17.
[1596]: C. Claudius Marcellus (consul B.C. 50), married to Octavia, the sister of Octavian. L. Marcius Philippus, stepfather of Octavian.
[1597]: Cornelius Nepos, who it seems has just lost a son.
[1598]: L. Caninius Gallus, tribune in B.C. 56. He was impeached in. B.C. 55, and defended by Cicero (vol. i., p.259; vol. ii., p.33).
[1599]: Of the views of Posidonius, which Cicero wanted for the third book of the de Officiis. See p. 150.
[1600]: His nephew Quintus Cicero.
[1601]: Cicero's son Marcus.
[1602]: The arrest of the Catilinarian conspirators on the 5th of December, B.C. 63. The 5th of December is held by some to be the day on which the new quaestors entered office (1 Verres § 30). But this fact is not certain, nor does it appear what Quintus Cicero could do if it were so. He had no office, and therefore could not address a meeting unless introduced by a magistrate. The "temple of Ops" refers to the seizure by Antony of the public money there. See p. 29;Phil. 2.93.
[1603]: What Sextus Peducaeus thinks of the second Philippic. See p. 149.
[1604]: The contio delivered by Octavian on his first visit to Rome.
[1605]: One of the assassins. He was tribune-elect, and would come into office 10th December.
[1606]: Antony, some of whose men had been deserting to Octavian.
[1607]: Sextus Peducaeus.
[1608]: The agent of Montanus.
[1609]: Cicero reached Rome on the 9th of December (p.162). Therefore the correspondence with Atticus was interrupted, as he was with him in person. It was either never renewed, or subsequent letters have been all lost. These are the last words that have come to us of a correspondence between two men among the most remarkable existing for its continuity, as well as for its candour and complete unreserve. The remainder of the correspondence, though it carries us through almost the most momentous and exciting months ever experienced in Rome, has indeed all the agitation and stir of life, but lacks the note of complete confidence and self-revelation of the letters to Atticus.