Letters to Atticus

^[418]: M. Aemilius Scaurus was acquitted on the 2nd of September on a charge of extortion in Sardinia. The trial had been hurried on lest he should use the Sardinian money in bribing for the consulship. Hence he could not begin distributing his gifts to the electors till after September 2nd, and his rivals Domitius and Messalla got the start of him. See Asconius, 131 seq.

^[419]: He means that Atticus—as a lender of money—would be glad of anything that kept the rate of interest up (see p. 286). He is, of course, joking.

^[420]: Antius is not known. Favonius was a close imitator of Cato's Stoicism. He was now opposing both Pompey and Caesar strenuously, but on the Civil War breaking out, attached himself strongly to Pompey. He was put to death by Augustus after the battle of Philippi (Suet. Aug. 13). He had a very biting tongue. See Plut. Pomp. 60.

^[421]: Drusus was probably Livius Drusus, the father of Livia, wife of Augustus; he was accused by Lucretius of praevaricatio, "collusion."

^[422]: This time for ambitus.

^[423]: The de Oratore.

^[424]: The beginning of the letter is lost, referring to the acquittal of Gabinius on a charge of majestas.

^[425]: gorgei=a gumna/, "mere bugbears."

^[426]: Antiochus Gabinius was tried, not for treason (maiestas), but under the lex Papia, for having, though a peregrinus, acted as a citizen; but he says "will not acquit me of treason," because he means to infer that his condemnation was really in place of Gabinius, whose acquittal had irritated his jury; therefore he was practically convicted of majestas instead of his patron Gabinius. I have, accordingly, ventured to elicit the end of a hexameter from the Greek letters of the MS., of which no satisfactory account has been given, and to read Itaque dixit statim "respublica lege maiestatis ou) soi/ ken a)/r' i)/sa/ m' a)fei/h (or a)fi/h|)." The quotation is not known. Antiochus Gabinius was doubtless of Greek origin and naturally quoted Greek poetry. Sopolis was a Greek painter living at Rome (Pliny, N. H. 35.40, 43).

^[427]: Pomptinus had been waiting outside Rome for some years to get his triumph (see p.309). The negant latum de imperio must refer to a lex curiata originally conferring his imperium, which his opponents alleged had not been passed. The insulse latum refers to the law now passed granting him the triumph in spite of this. This latter was passed by the old trick of the praetor appearing in the campus before daybreak to prevent obnuntiatio. The result was that the tribunes interrupted the procession, which led to fighting and bloodshed (Dio, 39, 65).

^[428]: Because he wanted to go to his province himself in spite of having failed to get a lex curiata (p.324).

^[429]: I.e., without waiting for the senate to vote the usual outfit (ornare provinciam).

^[430]: There are some words here too corrupt to be translated with any confidence. ,They appear to convey a summary of news already written in several letters as to the bribery at the elections, the acquittal of Gabinius, and the rumour of a dictatorship.

^[431]: A legacy of a twelfth left by a certain Felix to Cicero and Quintus had been rendered null by a mistake as to the will. See the letter to Quintus, p.338.

^[432]: pro Sest. 132

^[433]: Caes. 20

^[434]: B. C. 2. 12

^[435]: Lucull. 42

^[436]: 38-39

^[437]: These brief sentences are in answer to statements in the letter of Atticus which Cicero in answering. In the absence of that letter and of any knowledge of the business referred to, we cannot fully explain them. The satisdatio may refer either to a purchase or a sale on Cicero's part: if the former case, it means a security for payment of the purchase money, either in the shape of a deposit or otherwise; in the latter, a guarantee of title. Annius Saturninus is presumed to be a freedman of Annius Milo's, with whom Cicero may have had dealings for his patron. The "satisdationes of the Memmian or Attilian estates" are quoted as models; they may refer to the sales of the property of C. Memmius, condemned for ambitus in B.C. 54 (Q. Fr. 3.2; 3.8), or of Sex. Attilius Serranus (tr. pl. B.C. 57), of whose sale we know nothing. Oppius is probably C. Oppius, a friend and agent of Caesar, and the debt Cicero is determined to pay is a loan from Caesar. The word aperuisti is peculiar; it is said to mean in regard to money, "to promise to pay" or "to put at a man's order." In Letter CLXXXVI he expresses the same meaning by exposuisti.

^[438]: Pomponia, wife of Quintus Cicero.

^[439]: Cicero had gone round by Arpinum, either to visit his own villa or to pick up Quintus (who was going with him as legatus to Cilicia). They then went on to the via Latina by a cross road. Cicero stayed a night at Aquinum before going by another cross road to Minturnae, on the via Appia. Quintus however, stopped at his own villa of Arcanum, between Arpinum and Minturnae, where they both stopped for the prandium, the midday meal.

^[440]: Reading (with Tyrrell) viros for pueros.

^[441]: Pomponia was not going to Cilicia with Quintus She had come with him as far as Arcanum, and went back to Arpinum.

^[442]: C. Pomptinus, praetor during Cicero's consulship, was now one of his four legati. He had military experience in a campaign against the Allobroges, and Cicero was anxious that he should join him promptly.

^[443]: L. Pontius Aquila, who afterwards lost his life in the campaign at Mutina (B.C. 43). We shall find Cicero staying there again, as well as Terentia.

^[444]: Cicero was going to Brundisium by the Appia, but both his visit to his Pompeian villa and this other to Pontius in the Trebulanus ager were considerable deviations from it, one to the south, the other to the north.

^[445]: The last time Cicero ever saw his great rival in the law courts, with, as well as against, whom he had so often pleaded. Hortensius died just as Cicero was returning from Cilicia

^[446]: That is, he would enter on his office 10th December of the present year, and so would have a voice in the senate as to the arrangements of the provinces.

^[447]: April and May were the fashionable months, the season, for the Campanian coast.

^[448]: Of this sort of episode, or jesting anecdote, it is difficult to see the point without fuller knowledge of the circumstances. We learn from Letter CCXXIII that C. Sempronius Rufus (whose name Cicero jestingly alters to the servile one of Rufio) had some controversy with Vestorius as to money which he owed him, or property which he held, as Vestorius alleged illegally. He therefore avoided any meeting, and Cicero hints laughingly that it was a kindness to him (Cicero), as it saved him from the necessity of hearing the case as arbitrator.

^[449]: If a decree was passed in the senate but vetoed by a tribune, it was called not a senatus consultum, but an auctoritas ; if the senate determined to put their resolution on record, it was written out (perscripta), otherwise it dropped altogether. In Letter CCXXII there is a specimen of such an auctoritas This referred, like those we shall hear of later, to a resolution of the senate that Caesar should resign his province before standing for the consulship, moved by the consul Marcellus.

^[450]: That is, that the towns north of the Padus should become municipia i.e., have the full Roman civitas, whereas they at present had only the ius Latii. This was the first measure carried by Caesar on his election to the consulship at the end of B.C. 49. Quattuorviri were the regular annual magistrates of a municipium, duoviri of a colonia.

^[451]: P. Licinius Crassus Dives, a jurisconsult who had governed Asia, and whose "edict" Cicero perhaps wanted as a model.

^[452]: This paragraph refers to the selection of a husband for Tullia. She had been left a widow in B.C. 57 by the death of C. Calpurnius Piso, and her betrothal to Furius Crassipes (B.C. 56) had either not ended in a marriage, or the marriage had been quickly dissolved. The two suitors now under consideration are P. Cornelius Dolabella and Servius Sulpicius Rufus. I have translated Schuetz's text, nec me absente habebis rei rationem and Servio fieri probable. Professor Tyrrell's emendations seem to me to be very difficult. I take the meaning to be that Cicero thinks that Sulpicius might "do," with Servilia's support ; perhaps because something good might be got for him from Caesar (her reputed lover), though he is himself inclining to Dolabella, and is uneasy at the negotiations going on when neither himself nor Atticus is in Rome. Atticus was a great friend of Servilia.

^[453]: Bibulus, like Cicero, had not taken a province after his consulship, and was now, in consequence of Pompey a law and the decree of the senate, forced to draw lots for one. Syria had fallen to him, where there were rumours of a Parthian invasion. There is no need, I think, to read alteram before conficies (with Tyrrell): the additional troops and the money grant might be included in one decree. The former had been discussed before Cicero left Rome, and practically assented to ; but the consul Sulpicius had made difficulties, and Cicero is afraid that outside influence may have been brought to bear upon senators against it.

^[454]: pro/sneusin, "a nod," to shew your wish. Chaerippus had been with Quintus and was afterwards in Africa with Cornificius. He was probably a Greek secretary.

^[455]: If the magistrate chose he could put a question to the senate to be voted on without debate. Such business would be usually non-contentious or routine. If the senators, however, thought otherwise, they cried Consule, i.e., ask the opinions (sententiae) of the members. If he gave way, speeches might follow, and the matter would be prolonged perhaps beyond several sittings (which always ended at sunset). The cry of "count" was like that in the House of Commons, demanding that those present should be counted, to see whether there was a quorum. We do not know what that quorum was, except in certain special cases, but that a fixed number is mentioned in them e.g., the decree de Bacchanalibus) seems to shew that business was often done with less.

^[456]: Cn. Tremellius Scrofa, who had been a judex in the Verres case, seems to have been with Cicero for a time in Cilicia.

^[457]: Three of Cicero's four legati, the fourth being his brother Quintus

^[458]: Some provision in the edict which Cicero meant to publish in his province.

^[459]: A freedman of Terentia's, who seems to have managed her business affairs for her.

^[460]: The debt to Caesar. See Letter CLXXXIII.

^[461]: Two hundred sestertii. Others read sexcentas, i.e., chartas. I have ventured to read aufers, instead of the common aufer, from which I think no satisfactory sense can be elicited. Cicero, in answer to Atticus's remark that he hadn't a good stock of paper by him, says jestingly that he is sorry he is so hard up, hut he is the same, for his letters to Atticus put him to great expense in paper. He (according to my interpretation) alludes to the jest again at the end of Letter CXCIX, where see note, p. 32. Auferre, "swallow up," "absorb"; cp. 1 Verr. 31, hi ludi dies xvi auferunt'.

^[462]: Therefore, he implies, how much greater must your expenditure on paper be.

^[463]: The Ides of each month were one of the regular meeting days of the senate.

^[464]: I.e., the 1st of June (p. 9).

^[465]: The debt to Caesar, but this is the first time we hear of the smaller sum (20 sestertia). It is suggested that it is the interest due. The three words he uses in connexion with it—aperuisti, exposuisti, explicatum sit—are certainly odd. I do not feel satisfied by the expedient of inserting a de after them. They have the look of technical business expressions. See pp. 3 and 10

^[466]: The government of Cilicia, with which Pompey had much to do during his war with the pirates.

^[467]: See Letter CLXXXVI. The praefecti fabrum, socium, etc., were nominated by the commander-in-chief, i.e., the consul, in the Roman army. Later on it became the practice for a proconsul to a province to nominate a certain number of praefecti with such duties, judicial or other, as he chose to give them. Sometimes, as in this instance perhaps, the office was honorary. Under the empire the name was extended to a large number of officials. Atticus seems to have had somebody whom he wished to recommend to Pompey

^[468]: A friend of Milo, otherwise unknown.

^[469]: After condemnation involving a forfeiture of a man's property, the whole was usually purchased for a fixed sum by one or more persons (sectors), who then disposed of it by auction and made what profit they Could. A man who had rich friends might save a wreck of it, (I) if they chose to purchase, returning him the balance made by the sale; (2) or sold enough of it to pay the price which they had bargained to pay the treasury, not exacting the surrender of personalty, slaves, etc., or at any rate taking only a moderate profit. This is what Cicero seems to mean that Philotimus (a freedman of Terentia's) was, with others, going to do in this case. Again, it was customary for a man receiving a dowry with his wife to give security for its repayment in case of divorce or death; such a security was usually respected in case of confiscation, the property being sold with that burden on it, though this payment was at times evaded., as in the case of the Confiscations of the triumvirs in B.C. 42 (Dio Cass. xlii. See Letter LXI.

^[470]: C. Furius Camillus was a lawyer specially skilled in property law (ad Fam. 5.20); Aelius Lamia is probably a lawyer also, but of him we know nothing.

^[471]: Freedmen of Atticus, who entertained Cicero by his orders. The Salii, like the Pontifices, gave banquets (Lord Mayors' feasts) proverbial for their splendour (Horace, Odes, 1.38, 11).

^[472]: The famous promontory on the south of Leucadia, the scene of Sappho's leap.

^[473]: That is, an intercalary month, after 23rd February, to correct the year. It was put in at the discretion of the Pontifices, whom Cicero thought Atticus could influence.

^[474]: The law passed by Iulius Caesar in his consulship, B.C. 59, limiting (among other things) the amount which provincial governors could demand in passing to and from their provinces. Cicero's boast is that he has not taken even what that law allowed.

^[475]: Cicero, as often, merely gives a word or two of the Greek proverb (e)/rdoi tis), which he knows Atticus can fill up, e)/rdoi tis h(/n e(/kastos ei)dei/h te/xhnhn (Aristoph. Vesp. 1431), "Let each practise the art that he knows."

^[476]: Aristus, an Academician; Xeno, an Epicurean

^[477]: A colony had been established at Comum after the social wars by Pompeius Strabo (Pompey's father), whose law also gave the Latin franchise to all Transpadani. The colonists had suffered from attacks of neighbouring tribes, and Caesar, in virtue of a lex Vatinia (B.C. 59), had determined to settle there five thousand new colonists. This had been done in the course of his proconsulship, and he took great interest in the place. But the Optimates were anxious to shew their disregard of all Caesar's consular acts, as done in spite of the obnuntiatio of Regulus, and without the sanction of the senate. The Transpadani had the Latin franchise only, but in a colony members of the local senate and magistrates had the full civitas. Marcellus. by way of shewing that Comum was not a colonia, ordered one of its magistrates to be flogged on some pretext, which was equivalent to declaring him not to be a civis. Cicero says that even if this were strictly legal, it was outrageous —an abuse of the law. The authorities are Appian, B.C. 2.26; Suet. Caes. 28 ; Plut. Caes. 29.

^[478]: Pompey, when proconsul of Spain. It was quite an unprecedented thing for a proconsul to stay at Rome and govern by legati, as he was doing. Varro was one of these legati, and Theophanes was a Greek of Mitylene who was Pompey's close friend and secretary.

^[479]: That is, without counting the days of his arrival and departure. He arrived June 24th.

^[480]: Aliquid e)pikw/pwn, sc. new=n. This word does not occur elsewhere as a substantive. Aulus Gell. (10.25, 5) says that the Greek name for "despatch boats" (actuari) was i(stio/kwpoi, boats with sails and oars.

^[481]: oi(/aper h(\ de/spoina toi/a xh) ku/wn, "as is the mistress, so is her dog."

^[482]: a)neci/an, which is not a classical word, but I suppose was used in Sicily, where the Greek was not Attic.

^[483]: mete/wros "uplifted."

^[484]: See p. 29.

^[485]: Eponymus archon of B.C. 54-53.

^[486]: See Letter CXCII.

^[487]: I venture to propose to read nummariam (or nummariae rei) excusationem, explaining it by Cicero's jocose reference to his economy in paper, in Letter CLXXXVI (p. 10). The MSS. have some Greek letters, nomana/ria me. Cicero says, "My real excuse for not writing was illness; for don't suppose I was really stingy about buying paper and its cost I" Both the excuse and its withdrawal are, of course, jests (and not very good ones). The mistake may possibly have arisen from Cicero writing the Latin word in Greek letters.

^[488]: Reading a)/kra *gure/wn, which I think Tyrrell and Purser have established. Gyrae, the southern promontory of Tenos, due north of Delos, would he a weather guide. If clear, fair weather might he expected ; if cloudy, had.

^[489]: For the acquittal of Messalla and the hissing that his uncle and advocate got for it, see Letter CXCV. I have translated Madvig's reading, ad Messallam, omitting a te (which by Cicero's usage should be de te). The point is rather that Cicero had written before he heard from Atticus, on getting the news from Caelius.

^[490]: His treatise de Republica. Thallumetus is Atticus's slave, or perhaps freedman, and reader.

^[491]: See next letter. Philippus seems to he the contractor for the work.

^[492]: The murder of Clodius, 18 January, B.C. 52.

^[493]: These words Boot and others suppose to be put into Atticus's mouth: "Or I suppose you will say, 'What have I to do with that?"' It is unlike Cicero to suppose Atticus to he indifferent to anything that affects himself. It would he easier with Schutz to alter me to te. After the aut he was going to put another infinitive clause, but breaks off and dismisses the subject, only referring afterwards to one class of people who came to him, i.e., the publicani.

^[494]: I.e., propraetor of Asia, of which Ephesus was the chief town.

^[495]: The contracts for collecting the decumae B.C. 51. Those for the next year he had to superintend.

^[496]: Q. Minucius Thermus, propraetor of Asia. He was an Optimate and took the side of Pompey in the civil war of B.C. 49.48, which he survived.

^[497]: The marriage of his daughter, and perhaps his growing dissatisfaction with Terentia.

^[498]: About forty miles south-east of Ephesus, in Caria, on the road which follows the general direction of the Maeander.

^[499]: The province of Cilicia at this time comprised, besides Cilicia itself (with Tarsus as capital), Iconium, part of Isauricum, Pamphylia, Cibyra, Apamea, Synnada, Cyprus.

^[500]: Move that my year's government is to count from that day. The Greek words, e)niau/sion para/phgma, refer to the custom of driving in a nail as a means of counting the years. Cicero did, as a matter of fact, leave his province at the end of the following July.

^[501]: e)ndo/muxon. See p. 36.

^[502]: A robber chief, with whom a runaway slave of Atticus had taken refuge.

^[503]: Sciptura is the money paid for the pasturing of cattle on the public lands in a province. magistri are the magistri societatum, the managers of the companies of publicani. Diaecesis (which Cicero sometimes writes in Greek letters, dioi/khsis) is a "jurisdiction" or conventus, a district of a province. Thus in Fam. 13.67, Cicero says that the province of Cilicia had three Asiatic "dioceses," viz., Laodicea, Synnada, Apamea. The districts here must include those south of the Taurus and bordering on the sea.

^[504]: The three Asiatic diaceses, joined to the province of Cilicia.

^[505]: In this brief summing—up of the state of things following the ad. ministration of Appius, Cicero perhaps may plead that he is only retailing what he has heard in an ex parte statement, but he seems to confirm it in subsequent letters, and it makes one sorry for the fulsome tone of his letters to Appius himself.

^[506]: Bibulus did not return till B.C. 49., some months after Cicero. See Letter CCXCIII.

^[507]: Son and successor of the Deiotarus, tetrarch of Galatia, whom Cicero defended. The younger man's title was probably granted him for money, through one of the proconsuls of Cilicia or Asia ; some territory was attached to it, as he had a military force, with which he helped Cassius against the Parthians (11 Phil. 31).

^[508]: Quintus Mucius Scaevola, "the most eloquent of lawyers and the best lawyer of orators," was consul B.C. 95, and afterwards proconsul in Asia, and Pontifex Maximus a few years afterwards. He fell in the Marian massacre of B.C. 82.

^[509]: M. Brutus, who had married a daughter of Appius,

^[510]: C. Cassius Longinus (the future assassin of Caesar) had been quaestor under Crassus, and since his death in B.C. 53 had been holding the province of Syria as proquaestor. He decisively defeated the Parthians before Bibulus arrived. He was born in B.C. 85, and was married to a half-sister of Brutus.

^[511]: The Latin proverb is inter caesa et porrecta, between the killing of the victim and the examining of its entrails and placing them on the altar, thus completing the sacrifice. Something ill-omened might happen in the interval preventing the completion ; so Cicero fears something may crop up to prevent the naming of his successor.

^[512]: Cicero appears to think the Parthian danger so grave, that the idea might be entertained of sending Pompey in command of an army. This would supersede himself in his military capacity, but he is prepared to welcome him, though no one else, till the following spring, when he shall have ceased to care for anything but the certainty of an early departure from his province. As a matter of fact, the sending of Pompey or Caesar was talked of at Rome, but it does not seem to have been seriously contemplated.

^[513]: His son and nephew, the young Marcus and Quintus. See Letter CCVIII.

^[514]: This refers to money owed to Brutus by Ariobarzanes, king of Cappadocia. Cicero calls him "my ward" because, as shown in the next letter, he had been specially charged to protect him. Exhibeo is a legal term for "producing in court," "handing over to justice."

^[515]: See Letter CCV.

^[516]: Owing to Messalla's recent condemnation de sodalitiis(Letter CCV), Cicero desired that he should not be troubled for some money for which he had been security to Attilius. Philotimus is Terentia's steward.

^[517]: Omitting, with Schütz, the words iam Roma,which seem unintelligible. Many suggestions have been made, the best of which seems to be quadrimam, "four years old," but none are certain.

^[518]: The ruins of the house of Epicurus in Melita, an Attic deme (see Letters CXCVIII, CXCIX). The reading Melita for militia is due to Gassendi. For the house of Epicurus, e)n *meli/th|, see Diog. Laert. 10.10.

^[519]: Himself, who had been opposed by Hirrus in standing for the augurship. See Letter CCX.

^[520]: to\ nemesa=n, "righteous wrath"; to\ fqonei=n, "envy," "malice."

^[521]: ta panika/, ta\ kena\ tou= pole/mou. See Polyb. xxix. 6, polla\ kena\ tou= pole/mou.

^[522]: An easy feat. Wedding cakes were baked on bay-leaves.

^[523]: The Eleutherocilices were the mountain tribes that had not been completely subjected to the Roman province.

^[524]: Supposed to refer to P. Aelius Ligur, tribune in B.C. 57, and a bitter opponent.

^[525]: M. Plaetorius Cestianus, condemned for extortion; M. Seius (aedile B.C. 75) had in some way been involved.

^[526]: His son Marcus and nephew Quintus, who had been on a visit to the younger Deiotarus See Letters CCVIII, CCXVII.

^[527]: "My Alexis" means Cicero's secretary Tiro. Tiro writes letters to Atticus: Alexis only adds a complimentary postscript in those of Atticus to Cicero.

^[528]: Pammenes, an Athenian rhetorician, of about the same age as Cicero, mentioned in Orator105, as a great admirer of Demosthenes. It does not seem certain that this is the same man. At any rate, whoever he was, he seems to have died, and his son to have had some difficulty in maintaining his right to his house, in which Cicero and Atticus had helped him.

^[529]: Reading hoc me tamen consolor uno: spero, etc., for non spero. If the latter is retained, it would mean, "I don't expect you are having a pleasant winter," i.e., and so will come back to Rome, where I want you. Uno is Madvig's emendation, which deserves to be right, if it is not.

^[530]: That is, within the province of Syria, immediately north of Antioch.

^[531]: The lex Julia, while limiting the rapacity of governors, did allow certain supplies, such as hay, etc. (see p. 25), to be demanded from towns in the provinces.

^[532]: Apparently for recommending Tullius.

^[533]: See vol. i., p. 57

^[534]: Wife of Ser. Sulpicius. We have no knowledge as to why Postumius (see Letter CCCX) was able to hurry the return of Pomptiuus. Cicero seems to hint that Postumia was his mistress, yet we hear of her afterwards as living with her husband and son. She is, however, credited by Suetonius with having intrigued with Caesar (Suet. Caes. 50).

^[535]: Cum anatocismo anniversario. The interest being due at the end of each month, if it was not paid, the creditor might at the end of the year add it to the capital, and thenceforth charge interest on the increased capital. It was compound interest, but reckoned, not every month, but every year.

^[536]: B.C. 56. This was probably when the senate was confirming the acta of Cato, who had been sent out in 58 B.C. to take over and organize Cyprus. The real creditor—at any rate in part-was doubtless Brutus, who had been left in charge of Cyprus for some time by his uncle Cato (Plut. Cat. min. 36).

^[537]: The lex Gabinia, B.C. 68, forbade loans to provincial towns.

^[538]: The first decree merely relieved borrowers and lenders from penalties of the law, the second allowed a debt to be recoverable under the bond, i.e., it placed the bond in the same position as other bonds; but, says Cicero, by my edict (taken from my predecessors) only twelve per cent. can be recovered on a bond: and nothing the senate has done gives any special force to this particular bond.

^[539]: For money so deposited, pending a legal decision, interest was not payable. See p. 94

^[540]: In the one case he was impudens for refusing the proper sum of money offered in payment, in the other he was impudens for embarking in such a usurious transaction.

^[541]: There is no record of Caesar having done this, either as praetor or in his first consulship, and Boot is probably right in referring it to a C. Iulius who was killed in the time of Marius.

^[542]: Servius Sulpicius as husband for Tullia. We don't know who Pontidia was, or whom she recommended: perhaps Dolabella.

^[543]: The mysteries of the Bona Dea were held on the 1st of May (Ovid, F. 5.147); if there was an intercalary month, the 1st of May would be twenty-three days later. Why did Cicero care to know this? Perhaps that he might not risk doing anything important-especially of a military nature—on a day that was nefastus. Thus Scipio delayed crossing the Hellespont for many days in the war with Antiochus, because it was the time of the festival of Mars, when the sacred shields were carried in procession (Polyb. 21.13; Livy, 37.33). Now that Cicero was an augur, he might feel douNy bound to respect such scruples.

^[544]: Some words are missing in the text. Boot fills up the gap by kata\ mi/ton. It gives the sense required, and is perhaps better than the words introduced by Wesenberg from the latter part of the letter (non xru/sia xalkei/wn), which come in rather awkwardly here.

^[545]: That is, compound interest for six years at twelve per cent. See p. 129.

^[546]: The interest would cease to run if the money were deposited in a temple. See p. 94.

^[547]: L. Aemilius Paullus, consul this year. His brother M. Aemilius Lepidus (the future triumvir) was married to Iunia, half-sister of Brutus. Cicero assumes that family interest will influence his decision on the debt to Brutus.

^[548]: to\ ga\r eu)= met' e)mou= (Arist. Acharn. 659). The "six books" are those on the Republic.

^[549]: As though a hit at the mannerism of Hortensius.

^[550]: Cicero did not like Servilia (mother of Brutus), who apparently wished Ser. Sulpicius Rufus to marry Tullia. See p. 8.

^[551]: Furnius, a tribune, seems to have proposed in the senate or in the comitia that the governors of Syria and Cilicia might quit their provinces at the end of their year, provided that the Parthians were not making any movement.

^[552]: The festival of Liber (Bacchus), 17 March. It was generally selected for the bestowal of the liberior toga, from the good omen conveyed by its name.

^[553]: Thermus was governing Asia, Silius Bithynia and Pontus. Cn. Tremellius Scrofa, a friend of Cicero and Atticus (Verr. 1.30), had apparently failed to obtain office and consequently a province.

^[554]: He seems to refer to various debtors of Atticus. Moeragenes was a robber chief in the district of the Taurus. See Letter CCVII.

^[555]: Porcelain from Rhosus on the gulf of Issus.

^[556]: Atticus was economical, and Cicero laughs at him for his "simple dinner" and affectation of poverty before. See vol. i., p. 234.

^[557]: Q Mucius Scaevola, consul B.C. 86, proconsul of Asia.

^[558]: Some clause in Bibulus's customary provincial edict which excepted from debts recoverable in the propraetorial court those that were usurious or inequitable. The publicani and negotiatores being equites, Atticus thinks it a reflexion on that order.

^[559]: Magistri, "sale-masters," who presided over sales of the property of insolvents. See vol. i., p. 15.

^[560]: P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus, who conquered and organized Cilicia B.C. 78-74.

^[561]: Unfortunately we do not know the rest. Some word or words are to be supplied that convey the idea of not yielding anything material in spite of politeness.

^[562]: The great-grandfather of Metellus Scipio (father-in-law of Pompey and his colleague in B.C. 52) was P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio, who killed Tiberius Gracchus, and was descended from Gnaeus Scipio (uncle of Africanus), who fell with his brother in Spain B.C. 212.

^[563]: Apparently Metellus had mistaken one of the two statues for that of his great-grandfather Nasica, and had had a replica made of it; whereas Cicero says that they are evidently both of the same man, and that man Africanus, not Nasica: so that Metellus has had a statue of Africanus reproduced as that of Nasica; yet he might have known from the word Cens that it could not be Nasica. Africanus (the younger) was censor B.C. 142.

^[564]: According to the account of Suidas, Eupolis perished at Cynossema (B.C. 411) or Aegospotami (B.C. 405), and it is just possible that in the former case Alcibiades may have had something to do with it. But there is no proof. The voyage of Alcibiades to Sicily was in B.C. 415.

^[565]: For Zaleucus at Locri, see Cic. de Leg. ii. 6; Aristotle, Politics, 2.12 Polybius, 12.16; and for a discussion as to whether there ever was such a person, see Bentley's Phalaris (ed. 1770), pp. 241 ff. The common account of him is derived from a quotation of Aristotle in the Scholiast to Pindar, Olymp. 10.10, where he is said to have been originally a shepherd or slave.

^[566]: There is nothing to shew to what money this refers, but Philotimus, a freedman of Terentia's, had had something to do with the sale of Milo's property, and therefore it is supposed that the allusion is to that (Letters CLXXXVII, CXCIII).

^[567]: We have often heard of the panthers before, but no extant letter of Caelius mentions his wish for a grant from the provinces for his games as aedile, for which custom see vol. i., p. 8o.

^[568]: Cicero's prafectus fabrum. See Letter CCIX.

^[569]: The oath taken on his laying down his consulship. See vol. i., p. 22.

^[570]: Hom. 51.6.235.

^[571]: It is perhaps hopeless to explain this passage. But, understanding vendere after potuit, we may perhaps say that Cicero, thinking that he would like to buy property in Tusculum, remarks that it will probably go at a good price unless Lucceius in some way makes it unattractive. Whether the tibicen was some musical slave with whom Lucceius bored his friends, and Cicero jestingly fears may go with the house (thus lowering its value, as the presence of bores, he says, would that of his own at Formiae, vol i., p. 103), or whether tibicen is to have the sense of a "prop" (as it has in Horace and Juvenal), indicating that the house is in bad repair, I must leave to my readers to determine. Lucceius seems to have sold; for in B.C. 55 Cicero refers to their being neighbours at Tusculum as a thing of the past (Fam. 5.15).

^[572]: Hom. Il. 7.93, describing the feelings of the Greeks in answer to Hector's challenge. But the exact application cannot be pressed. It merely describes irresolution. These bankrupt nobles cannot make up their minds either to retrench their expenses or to part with their property. Their pride won't let them do the one, or their inclination the other.

^[573]: Atticus had no doubt lent Caesar large sums of money, and with his usual good luck got paid. Pompey, we may suppose, had also lent Caesar money, which he did not see a good chance of getting back, if Caesar squandered his money on paying his debts to Atticus, and also on his new palace at Aricia, near the lago de Nemi. Whether this debt to Pompey had anything to do with the marriage to Iulia we don't know. I think we must read nec Caesarem, etc. Herodes is a freedman of Atticus.

^[574]: We have heard of Curio's laws—a lex viaria and a lex alimentaria (Letter CCXLII), but neither of these would refer to a tax on slaves. Some have supposed that the reference is to the lex viaria, and that in virtue of it a heavy toll would be payable for the carriages, etc. But the singular pro qua can only refer to the familia. We must suppose, therefore, that some other law is referred to taxing domestic servants.

^[575]: As his patronus, who succeeded in case of a failure of heirs. Vennonius comes to his house to make an inventory in Pompey's interest.

^[576]: The killing of Clodius, which he had before called the "battle of Bovillae" (Letter CCII). It took place 18 January, B.C. 52. Allowing for an intercalated month of twenty-three days in one of these years, this dates the letter 22 February.

^[577]: Philogenes is a freedman or agent of Atticus; Statius is the freedman of Quintus, of whose manumission we have heard already.

^[578]: Quintus. The reference is to a divorce from Pomponia.

^[579]: See vol. i., p. 67. The reference here is to criticisms on Cicero's books de Republica.

^[580]: i(storikw/tatos.

^[581]: A learned freedman and tutor of young Cicero. See vol. i., p. 282.

^[582]: A friend of Cicero's from Puteoli. Vestorius was also a banker of Puteoli. it is pointed out that the name of Dicsearchus suggests these two men of business of Puteoli, the ancient name of which was Dicaearchia.

^[583]: Curio resisted any measures as to assigning the provinces, in Caesar's interests, because it was proposed to nominate a successor to him among the rest, and not to Pompey.

^[584]: And therefore only twelve per cent. can be recovered under it. See Letter CCXLIX

^[585]: Spartacus, the leader of the revolted gladiators, B.C. 73-71.

^[586]: His own treatise de Republica.

^[587]: See Letter CCXXVII, end.

^[588]: Letter CCXXII.

^[589]: The author is unknown.

^[590]: Mescinius Rufus. See p. 178.

^[591]: The country round Atticus's house in Epirus.

^[592]: As to Curio, see p. 155. Paullus is L. Aemilius Paullus, the Consul who had been also bribed by Caesar.

^[593]: Pompey's serious illness at Naples this year caused great excitement (see p. 182; Appian, B.C. 2.28; Plut. Pomp. 57).

^[594]: See Letter CCLV, p. 153.

^[595]: A praeco, or marshal, who gave himself airs.

^[596]: See p. 167.

^[597]: He has lately heard of the murder of two of the sons of Bibulus in a mutiny of Gabinius's soldiers in Egypt. See next letter.

^[598]: Written in Greek. The phrase de/doika dh\ mh/ ti noh/sh|s can only mean as above, "I fear you have noticed something," not as Tyrrell and others translate, "I fear there is something you have not noticed." Cicero has apparently been alarmed by some sentence in a letter of Atticus. We don't know what had happened, but in some way Philotimus, Terentia's freedman, had dealt with Milo's (the "Crotonian tyrannicide," in allusion to Milo, the runner of Croton) confiscated property. Now we are told by Asconius (§ 159) that, owing to his immense debts, Milo's property was transferred to the sector for a nominal sum (bona eius propter aeris alieni magnitudinem semuncia venierunt). When there is no balance, the agent will generally be suspected. Philotimus's connexion with the affair we have already heard of. See p. 142.

^[599]: In Greek. The quotation is from Hom. Il. 2.298.

^[600]: ta\ me\n dido/mena, sc. de/xou or some such word.

^[601]: The murder of his sons in Egypt.

^[602]: See p. 164.

^[603]: Philotimus. See the two previous 1etters.

^[604]: De Republica. Atticus's present of corn to Athens did not stand on the same ground as the regular distribution of cheap corn at Rome, which Cicero had denounced in his book.

^[605]: See p. 146. Cicero never carried out his idea of erecting a propylon for the Academy, and indeed he never had money to spare for such things, being one of those men who handle large sums and yet are perpetually in difficulties. Appius appears to have built his.

^[606]: See Letter CLXXI. Hortensius died in June.

^[607]: e)pe/xein, e)poxh/, "suspense of judgment," technical terms of the academic Agnostics.

^[608]: The sharp temper of Quintus is often referred to. See vol. i, pp. 183-185.

^[609]: Probably M. Calidius, who had failed in the consular elections. He seems to have criticised Cicero as an orator.

^[610]: The successful candidates, C. Claudius Marcellus and L. Cornelius Lentulus Crus, consuls for B.C. 49.

^[611]: I.e., during his consulship, B.C. 59, when Caesar ignored his obnuntiatio.

^[612]: Eurip. Fr.

^[613]: Philotimus, a freedman of Terentia's, whom Cicero suspected of dishonesty. We shall hear more of him. The sentence, like those in previous letters referring to him, is in Greek, with a pun on the name of Philotim4s.

^[614]: a)qe/thsis, For e)poxh/. See p. 191.

^[615]: tou)mo\n o)/neiron e)moi/, "you but repeat my own thoughts."

^[616]: This rumour, referred to again, caused great alarm at Rome, but was false (Appian, B.C. 2.31). It was in consequence of it, however, that the consul Marcellus deputed Pompey to raise troops in Italy.

^[617]: A pun again on the name of the officious or self-seeking Philotimus, as in Letter CCLXXXI, p. 200.

^[618]: Hom. Od. 9.33.

^[619]: The formula in the senate used by the presiding magistrate in calling on a senator for his vote.

^[620]: This is the onlyindication I know of that Cicero had an interview with Caesar in B.C. 52. Caelius is M. Caelius Rufus, Cicero's correspondent, tribune in B.C. 52.

^[621]: Hom. Il. 22.100; see vol. i., p. 90.

^[622]: B.C. 51-50, M. Claudius Marcellus and C. Claudius Marcellus. A cousin of the latter, of the same name, was consul-designate for B.C. 49.

^[623]: o(dou= p/rergon.

^[624]: e)pi/thkta.

^[625]: e)kbolh/ lo/gou (Thuc. 1.97).

^[626]: Cato. See pp. 174, 193.

^[627]: Cn. Tremellius Scrofa, P. Silius Nerva, C. Lucceius Hirrus, all friends of Atticus and men of position. See the index for references and letters to them.

^[628]: Philotimus.

^[629]: Hom. Il. 18.112.

^[630]: From Onchesmus in Epirus, and south-east as regards Brundisium. It is therefore, it seems, a local name used by sailors between the two coasts, of which there are many other instances, both ancient and modern.

^[631]: The villa near Trebula in the Sabine district. See p. 5.

^[632]: Letter CCXXVII, p. 89.

^[633]: Quintus Cicero and his son. The object of the seals affixed was to shew that the document was the one which the testator acknowledged in the presence of witnesses to be his will. The execution of the will was the testator's acknowledgment, not the sealing.

^[634]: tu/xh| a)gaqh=|, sc. paidopoiou=men, as Casaubon explains. The connexion of the whole of this passage with the context is obscure. It seems to be this. Atticus, who married late in life, had been wont to argue against the duty or pleasure of parentage. Cicero says, "Now you find so much delight in your little daughter you will recant your denial of the doctrine (of the Peripatetics and Academies), which makes the instinct of procreation the first law of nature and the origin of social morality" (see Polybius, 6.6, who there points out that society begins thus: pa/ntwn pro\s ta\s sunousi/as o(rmw/ntwn kata\ fu/sin, e)k de\ tou/twn poidopoii/as a)poteloume/nhs, k.t.l.). Cicero then goes on to say that Carneades's remark as to procreation may be indecent, but is not so bad as the Epicurean doctrine which would attribute this act, like all others, to mere self-gratification, not to the natural duty ot producing children. With fusikh/n in the text understand o(rmh/n. Patro is an Epicurean philosopher, of whom we have heard before (p. 32). Lucius is L. Manlius Torquatus, the Epicurean speaker in the first book of the de Finibus.

^[635]: The de Republica.

^[636]: See pp. 184-185.

^[637]: M. Livius Drusus, consul B.C. 113.

^[638]: It was customary for a slave before manumission, in some cases, to promise that on manumission he would take an oath to perform certain duties to his patronus. It was at present an unsettled question whether, if he afterwards declined to do so, he could be brought back to slavery. In any case, his position, if manumitted privately (inter amicos), was less secure than if he had been brought before the praetor and touched by his rod (vindicta). This difference was later on recognized by law. See Tac. Ann. 13.27.

^[639]: Who recommended a life of action, and therefore would have approved of Cicero remaining at his post in Cilicia.

^[640]: This differs in tone from what Cicero has been saying for some time of his relations with Caesar, to whom he owed money. Can it be a covert allusion to his treatment of Quintus after his indiscretion at Aduatuca (Caes. B. G. 6.36), after which Quintus seems to have had no important command? There is a total absence of allusion in the letter to the gallantry of Quintus in defending the camp (near mod. Charleroi) earlier in the year, or to his faux pas later. But Caesar wrote severely to Cicero about this, who may have thought that Caesar had not treated Quintus with generosity.

^[641]: The statuette of Minerva, which Cicero dedicated in the Capitol before his exile. C. Fabius Maximus and C. Caninius Rebilus were Caesar's legati. If he treated them badly in any way, they yet do not seem to have resented it, for they stuck by him in the Civii War, unlike others.

^[642]: L. Volcatius Tullus (consul B.C. 66) tried to steer a middie course, and refused to accompany Pompey to Epirus. Servius Sulpicius Rufus (consul B.C. 51) took much the same line as Volcatius. They both had sons serving with Caesar in his invasion of Italy B.C. 49.

^[643]: In B.C. 52. See pp. 204, 228.

^[644]: pou= ska/fous to\ tw=n *)atreidw=n, altered from Eurip. Troad. 455.

^[645]: Caelius, bribed like Curio, had become Caesarian.

^[646]: Near which Caelius had bought the property of Lucceius.

^[647]: Eun. 539, 115.

^[648]: Caesar.

^[649]: Balbus, a native of Gades (Tartessus).

^[650]: The reading is very doubtful. There is no authority for the meaning assigned by Tyrrell for aperuerimus. Other suggestions are averterimus, repudiarimus.

^[651]: Perhaps Ti. Claudius Nero, whom Cicero preferred as a son-in-law. See pp. 97, 190.

^[652]: Pompey's father-in-law.

^[653]: tekmhriw=des.

^[654]: A villa belonging to Quintus.

^[655]: See p. 216.

^[656]: Perhaps the head of the canal (Treponti) which ended near Tarracina. In Fam. 7.18, Cicero writes from "Pomptinum," a villa of M. Aemilius Philemo, and it is perhaps here that he means to stay.

^[657]: Pompey was already commissioned by the consul Marcellus to visit the municipia and levy troops. Curio had in vain tried to induce the senate to send an order round that he was not to be obeyed (Appian, B.C. 2.31).

^[658]: Homer, Od. 12.209. Cicero means that they have no more reason to resist Caesar than before, for his claim to keep his province is not more unconstitutional than his former claims. "We can't suppose that our object in yielding the old demands was to arm him against ourselves!" Nisi forte is here practically a negative; it introduces an impossible supposition.

^[659]: The Compitahlia were always about this time, though the exact day varied. At them slaves took part in the family festival. It was therefore like arriving on Christmas Day to come to a house then.

^[660]: Renowned for the stupidity of its inhabitants.

^[661]: I.e., get rid of my imperium by entering the city.

^[662]: When he was given his five extra years, i. e., up to March, B.C. 48, the right of standing for the consulship was practically given him also.

^[663]: Of Balbus by Theophanes of Mitylene. The latter was a friend of Pompey, who had given him civitas He adopted Balbus (Caesar's friend) when Pompey and Caesar were on good terms.

^[664]: Because Caesar promised them full citizenship instead of their existing Latinitas, , a promise which he promptly fulfilled in B.C. 48.

^[665]: See p. 226.

^[666]: That is, he took a third of a third, i. e., one-ninth of the whole estate. We don't know who Livia was, and there is no evidence of Dolabella having changed his name. He therefore probably renounced the legacy.

^[667]: politiko\n ske/mma.

^[668]: filosofw/teron dieukrinh/somen.

^[669]: su/gxusin th=s politei/as, perhaps coup d' état might represent it, but it does not really represent Pompey's view.

^[670]: Hom. Il. 18.309.

^[671]: M. Antonius had just become tribune (l0th December, B.C. 50), but he had been quaestor in Gaul in B.C. 52, and seems to have been in high favour with Caesar, who had been exerting himself to get him elected augur. The "condemned" are the victims of Pompey's law on bribery of B.C. 52 (see vol. i., p. 366). The Caesarians always maintained that these men had been in many cases unfairly condemned, and one of the first measures after Caesar's success was their recall.

^[672]: The text is very uncertain here. I read invidia (MS. í) relinquenda urbis.

^[673]: On the via Appia. Though close to the city, it was a place notorious for highway robberies, according to Asconius, § 50.

^[674]: Habere rationem is here used in a double sense: (1) to allow votes being taken for (technical); (2) to have consideration for, "to take into account" (common).

^[675]: Pompey left Rome, it appears, on the 7th or 8th. The consuls and other magistrates of his party remained in town, but on hearing of Caesar's advance (about the 17th) they hurriedly quitted Rome (Caes. B.C. 1.14). Caesar says that this took place on a false alarm on the day after Pompey's leaving Rome: but it is apparent ftom this letter that Pompey had started some time before.

^[676]: Eurip. Phoen. 509.

^[677]: Lucrativo, a very doubtful word here; it has been emended in various ways, Lucretino ("near Lucretilis"), Lucretiano, etc.

^[678]: Hom. Il. 9.524.

^[679]: Cruelty like that of the tyrant Phalaris.

^[680]: For this quotation—Cicero's constant way of indicating public opinion—see vol. i., p 90.

^[681]: T. Atius Labienus had been Caesar's legatus in Gaul, and was so trusted by him as to be left in charge of Gallia Togata in Caesar's absence (B.C. 50). Caesar was warned that he was being tampered with, but refused to believe it (Caes. B. G. 8.52). It was, however, true, and he became one of the most violent of the Pompeians. He eventually fell at Munda.

^[682]: Cp. Blücher's reported remark on seeing London—was für plunder!

^[683]: See p. 253, note.

^[684]: ma/ntis d' a)/ristos, which, as usual, he leave Atticus to fill up. It is a line from a lost tragedy of Euripides: ma/ntis d' a)/ristos o(/stis ei)ka/zei kalw=s, the best prophet is the good guesser.

^[685]: The "nuptial number" in the Republic, 545c-547A. On its interpretation much learned ink has been spent, mostly in vain. See Nuptial Number of Plato, its Solution and Significance, by James Adam, 1891.

^[686]: The Oppii were money-lenders who had a house in Rome close to that of Atticus (see Letter CCCXXXIII). What Atticus had said about them we cannot tell, or whether there was an obscure pun in the name thus given them by Atticus (from o)po/s, "fig juice," sucus), we cannot be sure. If there was it is no wonder that Cicero found the riddle a dark one. Tyrrell and Purser, who read saccones, "bagmen," object to the pun on sucus as too bad even for Cicero; it is not Cicero's, however, but Atticus's, and Cicero evidently thought it pretty bad.

^[687]: A distant connexion of Iulius Caesar. His father was Caesar's legatus, and he visited Caesar at Ariminum with a message from Pompey (with one of the praetors), and brought back a proposal that Pompey should go to his province of Spain, and that all troops in Italy should be disbanded, the comitia left free, and an interview immediately arranged between them (Caes. B.C. i. 8-9).

^[688]: L. Domitius Ahenobarbus occupied Corfinium, but presently had to surrender it to Caesar. The same had happened to P. Attius Varus at Auximum (not Cingulum), and Q. Minucius Thermus had to surrender Iguvium to Curio (Caesar, B.C. 1.12.17).

^[689]: Caesar (B.C. 1.14) calls this proposal unfair, for Pompey, who consented to promise to go to his province, mentioned no time at which he would go to Spain, and proposed to retain his province and legions, while Caesar's army was to be disbanded.

^[690]: Many of Pompey's own veterans had been settled with grants of land in the ager Campanus, the old territory of Capua, by Caesar's agrarian law of B.C. 59.

^[691]: Caesar gives an account of this (Caes. B.C. 1.14). He says that Lentulus, the consul, at first called these men out with a promise of freedom. But this seemed shocking to Roman ideas, and, being remonstrated with, he billeted them out as described. Cicero would seem to put the matter, as though this billeting them out in pairs was, from the first, a precautionary measure. It may be that Cicero is right, and that Caesar got a false idea of the transaction from some hostile source.

^[692]: I. e., with Pompey and his party, because Dolabella was with Caesar.

^[693]: Apparently the two legions sent from Gaul a year before by Caesar for the Parthian war, which, according to Plutarch (Pomp. 57), were led into Italy by one Appius. There is, however, a doubt as to the reading between Appianas and Attianas. The legions were in winter quarters in various towns in Apulia. See pp. 243, 247.

^[694]: Sext. Peducaeus.

^[695]: Atticus invested much money in city property (Nepos, Att. 14). Cicero means that Pompey's abandonment of Rome has depreciated the value of such properties.

^[696]: *shstiwde/steron. In the many allusions to P. Sestius (whom he defended) Cicero does not seem ever to have depreciated him, except that once (vol. i., p. 219) he calls him morosus, "whimsical," "difficile," and talks of his "wrong-headedness in certain particulars" (perversitatem quibusdam in rebus).

^[697]: Cicero had been urged to come to Capua to assist in the levy. Those who wish to maintain his veracity assert that he had done nothing in the matter. But at any rate he had accepted the command of the sea-coast of Campania, though he afterwards resigned even that. It must be admitted, however, that he is sailing near the wind.

^[698]: Q. Cassius Longinus, the tnbune who, with Antony, had vetoed the decree about Caesar in January, and had fled to Ariminum. The rumour referred to had no foundation.

^[699]: When we might have prevented the law being passed allowing Caesar to be a candidate in his absence. Others take it, "though we refused him his second consulship even when it was not an opportune moment for doing it", (because he had a strong army). I do not think the Latin will bear this. In support of the translation in the text we may remember that Cicero often traces the whole difficulty to the initial mistake of the law allowing Caesar to be a candidate without coming to Rome.

^[700]: Q. Titinius, a Roman eques, who lent money. He was the father of the Titinius on Casar's staff, immortalized by Shakespeare ("Give me some drink, Titinius '). L. Octavius Ligur was also a lender of money. L. Egnatius is mentioned several times as owing Q. Cicero money.

^[701]: Versuram facere, lit. "to effect a transfer," was the technical term for raising a new loan in order to pay off the principal and interest of an old one.

^[702]: mhde\ di/khn (dika/sh|s pri\n a)\n a)mfoi=n mu=qon a)kou/sh|s), "don't judge till you have heard both sides." Cicero, as usual, indicates the proverb by a word or two, knowing that Atticus can fill it up, just as we do with well-known proverbs. The line does not occur in the extant Hesiodic poems, and was attributed to Phocyllides.

^[703]: The two legions which had been withdrawn from Gaul in B.C. 51. See p. 274.

^[704]: ka)n a)poqanei=n (de/h| me, qa/noim' e(kousi/ws), "if die I must, right willingly I'll die." A verse of Diphilus, indicated, as usual, by one or two words.

^[705]: Sanctius aerarium. A reserve fund, said originally to have been made in case of a Gallic invasion, was replenished by the tax of five per cent. on the selling value of manumitted slaves. This was first levied in B.C. 357 (Livy, vii. i6), and remained in force till a late period of the empire. The reserve fund was drawn upon in B.C. 212, during the second Punic war (Livy, 27.11). According to Caesar (B.C. 1.4), the consuls were just about to open it before they left Rome, but, teirrified by a false report of Caesar's immediate approach, fled without doing so. Pompey now wishes them to go back for it.

^[706]: See Letter CCCVII.

^[707]: L. Vibullius Rufus, Pompey's praefectusfabrum.

^[708]: Caesar (B.C. 1.17) makes Domitius, writing to Pompey, mention "more than thirty cohorts," which agrees with these numbers (thirtyone). L. Domitius Ahenobarbus had been nominated by the senate to the province of Transalpine Gaul.

^[709]: Cicero seems throughout to exaggerate Pompey's failure to obtain troops. When Caesar arrived at Brundisium he found Pompey there with two legions, although the consuls had already crossed with the main army (cum magna parte exercitus, Caesar, B.C. 1.25). Ahenobarbus's obstinacy in staying at Corfinium, however, had deprived Pompey of considerable reinforcements.

^[710]: A line from a Latin translation of Euripides' Medea, 352.

^[711]: A sudden withdrawal of Caesar, like that of the Parthians fr0m Syria. See p. 203.

^[712]: The two legions, of whose withdrawal from Caesar on the plea of a Parthian war we have heard so much. Pompey fears that if they see their old imperator they will desert—a significant commentary on what he had been told and believed at the beginning of the year as to the disaffection of Caesar's army.

^[713]: I. e., in the direction of Brundisium.

^[714]: The two Caesarian legions, as above.

^[715]: This seems to be the letter, the contents of which Domitius tried to conceal from his council and the army at Corfinium, pretending that Pompey had promised to come speedily to his relief. The soldiers and centurions detected the truth, and hastened to make terms with Caesar. See Caesar, B.C. 1.19-20.

^[716]: They had halted on the way at Corfinium.

^[717]: Domitius had with him his son, five senators, with many young men of senatorial families, a large number of equites, and magistrates from neighbouring municipia (Caes. B.C. 1.23).

^[718]: See p. 251.

^[719]: I have ventured to emend this difficult passage by writing non ita multi for ita multi. Cicero says the leading Pompeians, who ought to have defended the city, are all gone far away; there are not many left even near him at Formiae, or in suburban residences, much less in the city. I do not feel the difficulty as to the contradiction to Letter CCCXXVII, p. 273, where he says the boni will soon crowd into Rome. He is thinking of different things. In the other letter he was imagining the action of the lukewarm boni, who would soon be making submission to Caesar: here he is thinking of the leading and sincere boni, who have yet shewn (as he thinks) the white feather by seeking distant places of retirement. Non ita multi makes the sentence much easier, and is a favourite phrase of Cicero's.

^[720]: Two of Pompey's legates in Spain, whose resistance and submission to Caesar this summer are described in the first book of Caesar's Civil War.

^[721]: Nomen futurus, for non futurus. The abbreviation of non and nomen would be very nearly the same. Still, the emendation is far from certain. Another is non futurus sit sui iuris, "not even his own master," "a slave."

^[722]: M. Marcellus, consul B.C. 51.

^[723]: Though Cicero had told Pompey that his personal safety did not affect the question! (Letter CCCXXVII, p. 272.)

^[724]: Q Mucius Scaevola (the younger) was put to death by the younger C. Marius B.C. 82. See p. 349.

^[725]: Who retired from Athens during the time of the Thirty, and returned with a force collected at Pylae to free his country, B.C. 404-3.

^[726]: M. Fadius Gallus, one of Caesar's legates.

^[727]: Cicero's freedman Dionysius (of whom we often hear) had apparently declined to come to Formiae to continue his duties as tutor to the young Ciceros, and Cicero thinks he has done so rudely, and from a dislike to serve a ruined man.

^[728]: Caesar (B.C. 1.18) says that the Sulmonians insisted on joining him, but were for a time prevented by Q. Lucretius and Attius Paelignus. Lucretius escaped, but Attius was captured.

^[729]: The name is not in the text of the MSS., but I think the sentence, in Letter CCCXXXIII (Att. 8.3.7), sed turpe Domitium deseri implorantern eius auxilium, makes the emendation almost certain. When Cicero writes letters one after the other so quickly the same words and expressions continually recur.

^[730]: The author is unknown.

^[731]: The words of the text are quite corrupt. This sentence only attempts to conjecture the general sense.

^[732]: Moneta, the temple of luno Moneta, in which was the Mint, where coined money could be purchased for bullion.

^[733]: See p. 249.

^[734]: A fragment of Euripides, parodied by Aristoph. Acharn. 659.

^[735]: That is, in the complimentary procession to meet Caesar on his coming to Rome—the usual custom in respect to returning governors. See p. 234.

^[736]: The de Republica. He proceeds to quote his description of the ideal statesman.

^[737]: From the Alexander of Ennius—Cassandra's prophecy (Vahlen, Fr. 87): Jamque mari magno classis cita texitur, exitium examen rapit: adveniet : fera velivolantibus navibus complebit manus litora. E'en now upon the mighty deep Swift ships are building, soon to sweep- Laden with death and swarming hords Of foemen—on the doomed sea-boards. A cruel host shall fill the shore With ships that fly by sail and oar.

^[738]: In mancipiis. I don't think there is need to object to this, as Tyrrell and Purser do. Of course, Cicero would not seriously call the chief followers of Pompey and Caesar "slaves," but he is thinking of the foreign auxiliaries, Pompey's from the East, Caesar's from Gaul. There is some petulant exaggeration in the word, though not more than is natural in Cicero's frame of mind. Compare his description of Antony's proceedings in Italy in B.C. 49-48, 2 Phil. 57, and his employment of a guard of Ityreans, 2 Phil. 19.

^[739]: I.e., as abortive as that movement. See p. 270.

^[740]: See p. 279.

^[741]: Letter CXXIII, vol. i., p. 254.

^[742]: The praetor L. Roscius Fabatus (Caes. B.C. 1.3).

^[743]: L. Vibullius Rufus and Numerius Magius. The latter Caesar employed to negotiate with Pompey at Brundisium (Caes. B.C. 1.15, 24, 26).

^[744]: Caesar dwells on this point, that Pompey was now joined with those who bad been enemies to them both, in the B.C. i. 4, declaring that much of their enmity, as far as he was concerned, had been actually incurred by his union with Pompey.

^[745]: M. Lepidus and L. Volcatius. See p. 336.

^[746]: L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, after having been let go by Caesar from Corfinium, seems to have set about preparations for taking possession of the province of farther Gaul, to which he had been nominated by the senate. He went first to his estates in Etruria and raised his servants and dependents to man a fleet collected at Cosa; from that place he went to Marseilles—a free city, yet closely connected with the province-where his legal position was at once acknowledged, for the people of Marseilles had received additions of territory by Pompey's means and were determined to stand by him (Caes. B.C. 1.34-36). For the younger Domitius, see p. 317.

^[747]: This turned out to be false. Caesar says that, although he knew it was public money, he yet allowed Domitius to keep it (Caes. B.C. 1.23). It was 6,000 sestertia, or about £48,000.

^[748]: A slave, afterwards a freedman, of Cicero's.

^[749]: The text here is quite corrupt. The English is only a guess.

^[750]: To stay quietly in Italy. See last letter, p. 305.

^[751]: Atticus seems to have said in his letter that Pompey would be angry with anyone who stayed in Rome when Caesar came, "even with Jupiter Capitolinus himself" for not leaving his temple. Such an exaggerated way of expressing a strong feeling needs, perhaps, no explanation. But we may remember that the gods were supposed to quit a captured city.

^[752]: apolitikw/taton, a)strathgikw/taton.

^[753]: For Pompey's illness see p. 168

^[754]: This is the number mentioned in Plutarch (Pomp. 55) on the special roll of judices drawn up by Pompey for the trial of Milo in B.C. 52, the album iudicum which Asconius, § 39, says consisted of men of the highest rank and character.

^[755]: This is explained by Letter CCCXLI, p. 294, where Cicero says that Pompey's followers were some of them openly threatening a proscription.

^[756]: I.e., public opinion, his favourite quotation from Hom. Il. 6.442; see vol. i., p. 90, etc.

^[757]: keno/spouda.

^[758]: C. Sosius and P. Rubilius Rufus, praetors.

^[759]: The admirers of Clodius raised such a tumult on the first day of the trial of Milo, that Pompey, being appealed to, promised to be present the next day with an armed guard. According to Asconius, it was M. Marcellus, one of Milo's advocates, and L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who as praetor was presiding at the trial, that asked for the guard, not Cicero (Ascon. 41). But Cicero may very well have joined in the request.

^[760]: The commission of twenty (vigintiviri) for the distribution of the Campanian land under Caesar's law of B.C. 59, on which Cicero had declined to serve. See vol. i., p. 113.

^[761]: A line of Euripides, but from what play is unknown.

^[762]: a)smenisto/n, quoted apparently from the letter of Atticus. It is a word of late Greek.

^[763]: Spain was now held by Pompey's three legates, L. Afranius, M. Petreius, and M. Terentius Varro.

^[764]: Caesar is careful to use the phrase ad urbem (not in), for, as having imperium, he could not constitutionally pass the pomaerium.

^[765]: Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who afterwards was counted by some among the assassins of Iulius, and played a considerable part in events that followed it. His mother was Porcia, sister of Cato Uticensis.

^[766]: Natali die tuo. Several editors wish to omit natali, in which case the words will mean "on the day of your ague fit," as in previous letters.

^[767]: See p. 204.

^[768]: Homer, Il. 18.96

^[769]: See ante, pp. 168, 310.

^[770]: The via Minucia is spoken of by Horace (Ep. 1.18, 20) as an alternative route to the Appia leading to Brundisium. It seems to have been by this road that the Martia and fourth legion came to Alba Fucentia in 44 B.C., instead of proceeding up the coast road from Brundisium to Gaul, as Antony had directed them. According to Caesar, B.C. 1.24, the six cohorts from Alba Fucentia joined Vibius Curius on the march to Brundisium.

^[771]: Usually given at the Liberalia (17th March).

^[772]: M. Curtius Postumus (see p. 316). Cicero had formerly promoted his interests with Caesar (vol. i., p. 277). He may refer to that in calling himself his patronus, or he may have defended him in some lawsuit.

^[773]: Hom. Il. 10.91.

^[774]: Two comrades on the road: two beads in council: Each sees for each and finds the better way But he whose council is his single breast Is scant of skill and slower to divine.—Hom. 51.10.224-226.

^[775]: Acta ne agamus, "let us not do what has been done," a proverb answering to "shutting the stable door when the horse is stolen," or "whipping a dead horse," or as in the text. See de Am. 85, where Cicero calls it an ancient proverb.

^[776]: These Greek theses are merely the doubts entertained by Cicero as to his own particular position, and have been already expressed again and again in every variety of language. Like most people, he imagines that what affects himself has a general application.

^[777]: These words, as the text stands, must apply to Atticus. It seems, however, much more natural that they should refer to Sext. Peducaeus. Accordingly, editors have endeavoured to fill up the lacuna in various ways.

^[778]: Hom. Od. 11.633.

^[779]: o( plo/os w(rai=os. See Letter CCCLXXV, p. 354.

^[780]: Hom. Odyss. 3.22.Athene has taken the shape of Mentor.

^[781]: This is generally interpreted by a reference to the story told in Tusc. 3.27, of Dionysius the younger, after being expelled from Syracuse, keeping a school at Corinth because he could not live without some absolute power; so the Optimates will not rest, Cicero is supposed to argue, till they get power, and then they will persecute me. Tyrrell and Purser think it sufficient to explain it as an example of the ups and downs of life. This hardly seems sufficiently in point here. I am inclined to dismiss the school-keeping altogether. Plutarch (in his life of Timoleon), giving a pretty full account of Dionysius's exile, says nothing about it; but does say that he adopted a life of dissipation and frivolity in Corinth to avert suspicion of intending to recover his power. Cicero may mean, "The Optimates may be moderate enough men now, as you say; but wait and see what they will do if they gain power, either by Pompey's success, or by joining Caesar."

^[782]: Cicero seems to think that the presence of the younger Titinius in Caesar's company especially disgraceful or dangerous to himself (see pp. 260, 322). His father was on the other side.

^[783]: See Letter CCCLIX, p. 321.

^[784]: The fleet which Pompey was collecting from the East, where his name was still of the greatest weight.

^[785]: I.e., has come home from Syria, and gone back to join Pompey. Bibulus had the command of Pompey's fleet.

^[786]: M. Aemilius Lepidus, praetor this year, consul B.C. 45, master of the horse to Caesar as dictator, Pontifex Maximus B.C. 44, triumvir B.C. 43-36. Cicero elsewhere describes him as the "greatest weathercock in the world" (homo ventosissimus): and his feebleness was afterwards only too clearly manifested. He was expelled from the triumvirate by Augustus in B.C. 36, and lived on in obscurity (though still nominally Pontifex Maximus) till B.C. 14. The constitutional point Cicero now attacks him on was the doctrine that a praetor could "create" a consul —both consuls being away, Caesar would otherwise be unable to be elected—whereas, the true doctrine Cicero holds to be that the less magistrate cannot "create" the greater. See Letter CCCLXXII, p. 349.

^[787]: Letter CCCLVI.

^[788]: Hom. Il. 4.182.

^[789]: I.e., to consult him on the legal question, and so strengthen his hands in answering Caesar.

^[790]: No one knows what this digamma means. It may be some mark used by Atticus in the ledgers containing an account of properties on which he had lent money; or it may be that the word is a mistake for dia/gramma, "a schedule," as was long ago conjectured.

^[791]: B.C. 56.

^[792]: Plato, Ep. 7.348A: kaqaper o)/rnis poqw=n poqe\n a)napta=sqai. It is natural to think of the Psalmist's "O that I had the wings of a dove," etc.

^[793]: Cicero is using language which he had reason to know was such as Caesar had himself used to L. Caesar at Ariminum—doluisse se, quod P. R. beneficium per contumeliam ab inimicis extorqueretur (Caes. B. C. 1.9). It is rather a pitiflil attempt to "sit on the hedge," considering what his real sentiments were.

^[794]: P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, consul B.C. 57, to whom we have had many letters addressed while he was in Cilicia. He had fallen into the hands of Caesar at Corfinium, and had been dismissed unharmed.

^[795]: C. Matius, of whom we shall hear much more, was a friend of Trebatius, and a strong Caesarian. He survived the Civil War and became a friend of Octavian

^[796]: Q. Caecilius Scipio, Pompey's father-in-law, was deeply in debt, and Caesar declares that to have been his motive for wishing for a civil war (Caes. B.C. 1.4); L. Cornelius Sulla Faustus was the son of the dictator Sulla; and L. Scribonius Libo's daughter was married to Sext. Pompeius. Faustus had been a rich man, but had probably squandered his wealth. We hear of Libo afterwards as owing Cicero money but as likely to pay.

^[797]: The previous letter, p. 337.

^[798]: Q Mucius Scaevola, murdered in B.C. 82 by the order of the younger Marius. bee p. 282

^[799]: ou)k e)st' e)/tumos lo/gos, the first words of the palinode of Stesichorus on Helen.

^[800]: Perhaps the blocking up of the harbour of Brundisium, which we know from Caesar (B.C. 1.26, 27) was not completed; or the news on p. 321.

^[801]: In supporting Cicero's recall; though he had failed to prevent his exile.

^[802]: Reading sed et iste-amatur. The alteration to sedet iste and its explanation by Boot as referring to Domitius appear to me to be very harsh. Domitius was not being by any means inactive at the time, and there is no special reason for referring to him here. It is true that amatur is not in the MSS., but its introduction (by Graevius) seems to me a simpler and better way of emending the text.

^[803]: Plato, Ep. vii.

^[804]: That is, beginning early in the afternoon, a sign of idleness and luxury (pro Mur. § 13). See p. 311.

^[805]: Apparently the name of some property near Antium.

^[806]: When Domitius and his army had had to surrender to Caesar; P. Lentulus Spinther was among the senators who were included in the surrender and were dismissed unharmed by Caesar (Caes. B.C. 1.23).

^[807]: Numerius Magius was Pompey's praefectus fabrum. According to Caesar (B.C. 1.24-26, see p. 303), he fell into Caesar's hands during his march on Brundisium, and was sent by him with a message to Pompey, but did not return with any answer. Caesar then sent Caninius Rutilius to endeavour to induce Pompey to, have a personal conference. In the Commentaries Caesar may, from a lapse of memory, have confused matters. Still, it looks as though in the commentary he meant to justify himself. He has represented the proposals for peace as emanating from himself, whereas the letter shews that they came from Pompey. It may, however, be that when Magius is said to have been deprensus ex itinere he was really on his way with a message from Pompey.

^[808]: Caesar occupied nine days in this work, which was only half completed then. He did not really expect to be able thoroughly to block the harbour. His object was to frighten Pompey into leaving Italy thus leaving him free to enter Rome himself and secure his position in the West generally (Caes. B.C. 1.25-28).

^[809]: Carbo was put to death by Pompey in B.C. 82 or the beginning of B.C. 81 at Cossyra. There were two men named M. Brutus who owed their death to Pompey, the former a partisan of Carbo, who committed suicide off Lilybaeum rather than fall into Pompey's hands; the other, the father of the tyrannicide, whom Pompey put to death at Regium B.C. 77 during the troubles caused by Lepidus, he having surrendered, it is said, on promise of his life.

^[810]: Messrs. Tyrrell and Purser adopt a conjecture of Madvig's, et hic copiam mihi et in Albano, etc., which will mean: a letter informing me "that I can have an interview with Caesar either here or in Curio's Alban villa."

^[811]: I.e., leave to absent himself from the senate, and to take neither side in the war.

^[812]: Lit. "I shall ask and obtain something from myself." He means,

^[813]: See pp. 330-331.

^[814]: Who was proscribed by Sulla. For Scaevola see p. 282.

^[815]: Homer, Odyss. 20.18: "Endure, oh heart! still worse hast borne before."

^[816]: Mentor (or, rather, Athene in the guise of Mentor), Hom. Odyss. 3.27.

^[817]: The text of this passage is hopelessly corrupt. I have taken tentatively Schütz's reading, neque descripta attulit illa Lucius. The refer ence is thus to the proposals sent in January by Caesar to the consuls and Pompey by L. Caesar and the praetor Roscius (Caes. B.C. 1.9-10; Letter CCCXIV, p. 257).

^[818]: The distinction between the plural opes and the singular opem can hardly be given by one word in English.

^[819]: I.e., Cicero's presence at Rome.

^[820]: Some other words (in qua erat erosceleri) occur here, manifestly corrupt, of which nothing can be made.

^[821]: *lalageu=san illam, which seems a certain restoration of the Greek letters of the MSS., as is explained by Letter CCCLXI, p. 326, where he quotes another part of the Greek epigram (Anth. 10.1), on the season for sailing announced by the swallow, harbinger of spring: See the meads bloom! the time has come for sailing: The twittering swallow hails spring here at last. Hushed is the sea, the soft west wind prevailing, Late swollen with waves and lashed with bitter blast. Of course, Cicero means that he will sail, as soon as weather permits, to join Pompey.

^[822]: Actum ne agas (see p. 322). It should be noticed that in this account of the interview with Caesar the name of Caesar does not occur, perhaps from caution.

^[823]: Perhaps in favour of sending commissioners to treat with Pompey. Such a proposal was made in the senate. Caesar tells us that he spoke in favour of it himself, but he does not mention the proposer (Caes. B.C. 1.32, 33).

^[824]: Adopted son of Q. Titinius. Servius is Ser. Sulpicius Rufus. See last letter, p. 354.

^[825]: Homer, Il. 22.304. Cicero omits the word a)poloi/mhn, which he expects Atticus, as usual, to supply, but not from such design (I think) as Prof. Tyrrell suggests. The speaker is Sextus Peducaeus, the circumstance the question of how to deal with the Catilinarian conspirators. Peducaeus means, "Strike hard, whatever the consequences to yourself." Quotations seldom exactly represent a man's meaning. They only suggest it.

^[826]: Probably Curio is meant, whose support Caesar, as we have heard, had purchased in the previous year. Others suggest Lepidus.

^[827]: Spain, which was being governed for Pompey by three legates, forced by Caesar in the following summer to surrender.

^[828]: Tyrrell and Purser give a different complexion to this sentence by introducing ut non before magnum, and sit after it, " Even supposing it not to be a problem of haute politique," etc.

^[829]: A word here is tn the MSS. maconi, of which nothing can be made. Various emendations have been suggested, but none are satisfactory. Perhaps na/rkwdes or na/rkwma, "numbness."

^[830]: Servius Sulpicius Rufus (see p. 397).

^[831]: See p. 354.

^[832]: The official residence of Caesar as Pontifex Maximus.

^[833]: That is, by having an interview with Caesar.

^[834]: p. 354.

^[835]: Neither Cicero's son nor his nephew, apparently, were keen enough anti-Caesarians. His son gave him much anxiety by his conduct in early life, and the nephew not only now shewed his Caesarian leanings, but after Pharsalia turned fiercely on his uncle, as having involved them in a losing cause, and was joined in that by his father Quintus.

^[836]: Young Quintus had insisted on going to Rome to interview Caesar, professing to plead his father's and uncle's cause, but really, Cicero thinks, denouncing them and repudiating their policy.

^[837]: The law passed by Pompey in his third consulship (B.C. 52) on bribery and violence. The Caesarian view was that the laws had been passed, and the trials held, under terrorism, as Pompey had an armed guard in the city.

^[838]: This measure was carried out by Antony under Caesar's direction (Phil. 2.56ff). See p. 396.

^[839]: When Caesar was at Rome after Pompey's flight from Brundisium, he found it impossible to get the measures he wished passed in the

^[840]: This is a striking comment upon Caesar by one of his own partisans; and, though Caesar falsified it by persistent clemency to most of his citizen opponents, there are circumstances in the Gallic campaigns which make us hesitate to acquit Caesar altogether of cruelty. Curio's character, however, takes much from his credibility as a witness or critic.

^[841]: Curio was going to Sicily with imperium. The governor of Sicily was regularly a praetor or propraetor, and would have six lictors. But Curio, not having been elected praetor, or nominated by the senate, was really a legatus of Caesar's, and might have whatever status-pro consule or pro praetore—that Caesar chose. If Curio had only the six lictors by way of posing as a propraetor constitutionally nominated by the senate, then the laurels were out of place: for such successes as he had gained were gained before the senate could have nominated him, and were also over citizens, for which no insignia of victory were ever assumed.

^[842]: Married to Atia, niece of Caesar and mother of Augustus. He was a strong Optimate, and was allowed by Caesar to live where he chose away from Rome, and take no part in the quarrel.

^[843]: He thinks that if his nephew Quintus had, as he suspected, abused him to Caesar or his friend Hirtius, Caesar would not have spoken thus kindly of him.

^[844]: The money difficulty. The Oppii were money-lenders (see pp. 249, 289). I translate the MS. reading, unum periculum. Gronovius conjectured vanum, "the danger of remaining in the city is now groundless." I think Cicero, however, means that Terentia's only difficulty will be to get ready money.

^[845]: You ask me to do what is very difficult. This is explained by Hdt. 1.66, where the Delphic oracle is said to have answered a Spartan envoy who asked for Arcadia: Arcady askest thou, truly a great boon, give it I will not. *)arkadi/an m' ai)tei=s, me/ga m' ai)tei=s, ou)/toi dw/sw.

^[846]: As Vettienus got the lodge for £240 instead of £450, it is not easy to see why Cicero was offended. At the end of Letter CCCXCV it appears that one offence was that he addressed the letter to "Cicero proconsul" instead of "imperator." Another, perhaps, was something unceremonious in the style of the letter itself, or unbusinesslike in the arrangement for payment. The lodge purchased was one of those small houses of call (deversoria) which rich men purchased along the great high roads, in which to put up for the night, rather than burden their friends who might have villas in the neighbourhood (see vol. i., p. 256). Italy was not without inns, rather celebrated for goodness and cheapness (Polyb. 2.15), but men of high position seemed to think it undignified to use them.

^[847]: He seems to mean himself.

^[848]: It is difficult to be certain what Caesar means by iudicio amicitiae. I think he refers to his decision to allow Cicero to abstain from the senate and to give him no active countenance. He appeals to his life as showing that he will keep his word to Cicero, and to this decision to allow of Cicero's neutrality as a proof of his friendliness.

^[849]: Ter. Adelph. 414, Fit sedulo, nihil praetermitto, consuefacio. But it is not certain that this is the quotation, or whether there is really any quotation.

^[850]: The younger Quintus.

^[851]: This, of course, turned out to be a false report.

^[852]: That is, he will put to death the members of the popular party. Cicero has before expressed his horror of the violent language he bears is being used by Pompey's entourage. See, for instance, pp. 326, 334.

^[853]: I. e., denouncing his uncle to Caesar.

^[854]: We have no references in previous letters to any misunderstanding between Antony and Cicero, but in the second Philippic, 2, 48, 49, Cicero says that Antony was an intimate friend of P. Clodius in B.C. 58, that he (Cicero) had interfered to break off his connexion with the younger Curio, and had a controversy with him in regard to a lawsuit with one Sicca, a freedman of Antony's. Again, in B.C. 53, they had both been candidates for the augurship, though Antony retired from the canvass. The *zhlotupi/a may refer either to Curio or the augurship. Antony was now a tribune, but had been left in charge of Italy with the rank of propraetor.

^[855]: Perhaps the L. Calpurnius Piso spoken of afterwards as Antony's legatus and familiaris (Phil. 10.13; Phil. 12.1).

^[856]: Reading, with Schütz, nec dubitantem, etc., for et.

^[857]: Sex. Clodius was one of the followers of P. Clodius, and had been condemned under the lex Pompeia after the trial of Milo. See 2 Phil. 8.