Letters to Friends

^[1]: B.C. 62. Coss., D. Iunius Silanus, L. Licinius Murena.

^[2]: The essay on the duties of a candidate attributed to Quintus is hardly a letter, and there is some doubt as to its authenticity. I have therefore relegated it to an appendix.

^[3]: Dio, 37.10

^[4]: Q Metellus Celer had been praetor in B.C. 63 and was now (B.C. 62), as proconsul in Gallia Cisalpina, engaged against the remains of the Catilinarian Conspiracy. Meanwhile his brother (or cousin) Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos, a tribune after trying in vain to bring Cicero to trial for the execution of the conspirators at last proposed to summon Pompey to Rome to prevent danger to the lives of citizens. This attempt led to riots and contests with Cato, and Nepos finally fled from Rome to Pompey. By leaving Rome he broke the law as to the tribunes, and the senate declared his office vacant, and this letter would even seem to show that the senate declared him a public enemy. This letter of remonstrance is peremptory if not insolent, in tone, and the reader will observe that the formal sentences, dropped in more familiar letters, are carefully used.

^[5]: Metellus had been employed with Antonius against the camp at Faesulae, but was now engaged against some Alpine tribes.

^[6]: When Metellus was commanding against Catiline, it is suggested that he marched towards Rome to support his brother, but this is conjecture.

^[7]: Sister of P. Clodius. Of this famous woman we shall hear often again. She is believed to be the Lesbia of Catullus, and she is the Palatine Medea" of the speech pro Caelio. Yet, in spite of Cicero's denunciations of her, he seems at one time to have been so fond of her society as to rouse Terentia's jealousy.

^[8]: Wife of Pompey—divorced by him on his return from the East.

^[9]: On the next meeting of the senate. The second was a dies comitialis on which the senate usually did not meet (Caes. B. Civ. 1.1).

^[10]: For the riots caused by his contests with Cato (on which the senate seems to have passed the senatus consuitum ultimum), and for his having left Rome while tribune.

^[11]: P. Sestius was serving as proquaestor in Macedonia under Gaius Antonius. As tribune in B.C. 57 he worked for Cicero's recall, but was afterwards prosecuted de vi and defended by Cicero.

^[12]: Gaius Antonius, Cicero's colleague in the consulship. He had the province of Macedonia after the consulship, Cicero having voluntarily withdrawn in his favour to secure his support against Catiline. Scandal said that he had bargained to pay Cicero large sums from the profits of the province. He governed so corruptly and unsuccessfully that he was on his return condemned of majestas.

^[13]: The word (comperisse) used by Cicero in regard to the Catilinarian conspiracy; it had apparently become a subject of rather malignant chaff.

^[14]: Cicero is hinting at the danger of prosecution hanging over the head of Antonius.

^[15]: Reading tibi ipsi (not ipse), with Tyrrell.

^[16]: There is no direct means of dating these letters, as we have no other information as to the proconsulship of Culleolus. Illyricum was not always a separate government, but was sometimes under the governor of Macedonia, sometimes under the governor of Gaul. The indications of date are (1) Pompey is at home and often seen by Cicero, therefore it is not between the spring of B.C. 67 and the end of 62; (2) it is not later than March, B.C. 58, because from that time for ten years Caesar was governor of Illyricum, and before he ceased to be so Pompey had left Italy, never to return. Even if Culleolus was not governor of Illyricum, but of Macedonia, the same argument holds good, for C. Antonius was in Macedonia B.C. 63-60, and Octavius from B.C. 60 to March, B.C. 59. That is, Culleolus could not have been in Macedonia while Pompey was in Italy till after March, B.C. 59.

^[17]: L. Lucceius, whom we have heard of before as a candidate for the consulship with Caesar, and whom we shall hear of again as the author of a history of the social and civil wars (Sulla and Marius), and as being asked to write on Cicero's consulship. He was a close friend of Pompey, and took his side in B.C. 49 (Caes. B.C. 3.18). The people of Bullis owed Lucceius money, and Cicero asks for "mandatory letters " from Culleolus to get it.

^[18]: Reading prid. Kal. instead of a. d. II. Kal., which Tyrrell calls audacius in Schütz. But absolute nonsense is not to be kept even for a MS. (1) Cicero says that he has been thirteen days at Brundisium. In the next letter he tells Atticus he arrived on the 17th. That, in the Roman way of counting, brings it to prid. (29th). (2) Either the date at the end of the letter is wrong, or prid. must be used here (3) There is no such date properly as a. d. II. Pal. The day before prid. is a. d. III. In regard to dates we must remember that Cicero is using the pre-Julian calendar, in which all months, except February, March, May, July, and October, had twenty-nine days. These last four had thirty-one and February twenty-eight.

^[19]: Cicero does not mean that young Marcus is to come to him at once, but that, when Tullia's marriage portion is settled, Terentia is to bring him with her if she comes. Really he didn't mean any of them to come, at any rate for a long while. Piso is Tullia's husband.

^[20]: If Cicero's property was confiscated, it might be held that the slaves went with it, and would be sold with it, and that his manumission of them was an evasion, which could not hold good at law. If his property was not confiscated, they were to remain in their status as slaves. See Letter CXCII.

^[21]: Terentia, whose half-sister was a Vestal, seems to have taken sanctuary with the Vestals, as did the mother and sister of Augustus in B.C. 43. The special indignity of which Cicero complains is that she had been forced to leave the sanctuary and appear at the bank of Valerius, but for what purpose we cannot now tell. It is suggested that it was to make some solemn declaration as to her husband's property, some of which she may be supposed to have tried to conceal. The term ducta esses is that applied to prisoners led through the streets, but we may regard it as used ad invidiam.

^[22]: In securing her husband's advocacy.

^[23]: Mention is made of Terentia's separate estate in Letters XXX and LXXXI.

^[24]: The party of the triumvirs.

^[25]: See Letter LXI, p. 142.

^[26]: A centurion or other officer in the army of Piso crossing to Macedonia. But the name is otherwise unknown, and some have thought that it is an intentional disguise for the name of Piso himself.

^[27]: Cicero's son-in-law.

^[28]: The greater part of this letter was evidently written at Thessalonica. Cicero appears to have put the date and place of departure to it after arriving at Dyrrachium, and then added a postscript to explain why he had come there.

^[29]: As a libera civitas Dyrrachium had the jus exilii, and would not be filled with Roman officials. The crowded state of the town—by which Cicero means crowded with Romans—would arise from its being the usual place of disembarcation from Rome across the north of the Greek peninsula to the East. There was doubtless always a large traffic between it and Brundisium, but at this time of year, when sailing would be, if possible, avoided, he might hope to find it somewhat less crowded.

^[30]: Either the libera legatio or the acting legatio in Gaul, both of which Caesar offered him.

^[31]: This intentionally enigmatical sentence is meant to contain a menace against Clodius, who is hinted at in the word omnium, just as he is earlier in the letter in the word tuorum. Clodius was a connexion by marriage of Metellus (through his late brother, the husband of Clodia), and Cicero assumes that Metellus is restrained from helping him by regard for Clodius. He knows, however, by this time, that one of the new tribunes, Milo, is prepared to repel force by force, and he hints to Metellus that if he countenances Clodius's violence he may some day find that there is no Clodius to save—if that is his object. In Letter LXXXIX he shews how early he had contemplated Clodius being killed by Milo (occisum iri ab ipso Milone video).

^[32]: The year of this letter has been inferred from the mention of Lentulus's augural banquet. For P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, son of the consul of B.C. 57, was in this year elected into the college of augurs. Yet as we know that Cicero's Tusculan villa was dismantled by Clodius, and was advertised for sale (though not sold), it seems rather extraordinary that Cicero should have gone there for his health. The Fadii Galli were a family of Cicero's native place, Arpinum.

^[33]: There were several sumptuary laws. Those which may possibly be referred to here are (1) the lex Licinia (? B.C. 103), which defined certain foods as illegal at banquets, but excepted quod ex terra vite arbore ve sit natum (Macrobius, Sat. 211.17, 9; Gell. 2.24, 7); (2) the lex Aemilia (B.C. 68), which also defined both the quantity and quality of food allowable at banquets (Gell. 2.24,12).

^[34]: C. Anicius, a senator and intimate friend of Cicero's.

^[35]: B.C. 56. Coss., Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, L Marcius Philippus.

^[36]: Consul of B.C. 57, who had gone at the end of his consulship to be governor of Cilicia.

^[37]: When Ptolemy Auletes first appealed to the senate (B.C. 57) to restore him to the throne of Egypt, it appears that a resolution was passed authorizing the proconsul of Cilicia to do so; but as Pompey wished to have the business, the senate found itself in a difficulty, not wishing to put him in military command, or daring to offend him by an open refusal (Dio, 39.12). The tribune C. Cato found up a Sibylline oracle forbidding the employment of an army for the purpose, which served the senate as a decent excuse. The commission to Lentulus was eventually withdrawn by an auctoritas senatus, and Lentulus did not venture to do it. Ptolemy, finding that he could not succeed in getting Pompey commissioned, retired to Ephesus, and afterwards succeeded by an enormous bribe in inducing Gabinius, the proconsul of Syria, to do it (B.C. 55).

^[38]: Of having been induced by greed or ambition to undertake the restoration of Ptolemy.

^[39]: Reading tibicini for the unmeaning tibi. It is not certain, but it makes good sense. Ptolemy was called Auletes (flute-player), of which the Latin tibicen is a translation, meant, no doubt, somewhat jocosely.

^[40]: I.e., before going to the senate on the Ides of January (13th). See next letter.

^[41]: The Sibyiline oracle forbade restoring the king "with a multitude."

^[42]: Pompey had at this time imperium as curator annonae.

^[43]: Because it was on Lentulus's motion that Pompey had been made curator annonae, and so in possession of imperium with naval and military forces.

^[44]: The proposal of Bibulus to send "three legates" implied a concession to the Sibylline verse, in not sending "an army." It was therefore to be voted on as two questions—(1) Shall the Sibylline verse be obeyed, and an army not sent? (2) Shall three legates be sent?

^[45]: That is, the debate went off on the side issue as to who had the prior right of dividing the house. Lupus said he had, because the proposal of Volcatius was really made before the others, i.e., in the previous day's debate (see last letter). The consuls were only too glad thus to avoid having the main question brought to a vote, and let this technical point be spun out in a languid debate.

^[46]: Because they had magistrates ready to stop the comitia by declaring bad omens, and tribunes ready to veto any proposal.

^[47]: A senatus consultum vetoed by a tribune was written out, with the names of its proposers and backers, and a statement at the end as to the tribunes vetoing it. It was thus on record as an auctoritas senatus, "resolution of the senate," not a senatus consultum. A perfect specimen is given in Letter CCXXIII. This auctoritas was to the effect that no one was to undertake the restoration. See Letter CXIII.

^[48]: This is a specimen of the short letter of introduction to a provincial governor which were given almost as a niatter of course by men of position at Rome. We shall have many of them in the course of the correspondence : and Cicero elsewhere warns the recipient of such letters not to pay attention to them unless he expressly indicates his wish by some less formal sentence (see Letter CXIV). T. Ampius was the predecessor of Lentulus in Cilicia.

^[49]: I.e., no meeting of the senate for ordinary business. During the month of February the senate usually devoted all its time to hearing and answering deputations from the provinces or foreign states. The lex Pupia forbade the meeting of the senate on dies comitiales, and after the 14th the days in January were all comitiales: but another law (lex Vatinia) ordered it to meet every day in February for the business of the legations. If this business was concluded or deferred it remained a moot point whether a magistrate was not still bound or, at least, allowed to summon it for other business (ad Q. Fr. 2.13).

^[50]: That of the tribune C. Cato for the recall of Lentulus.

^[51]: A money-lender, and friend of Lentulus Spinther.

^[52]: Pompey.

^[53]: Ptolemy was at Ephesus.

^[54]: The famous C. Asinius Pollio.

^[55]: The postponement of the Egyptian commission.

^[56]: e)c a)pa/lwn o)nu/xwn, i.e., "from your earliest youth." Others explain it to mean "from the bottom of your heart," or "thoroughly," from the idea that the nerves ended in the nails. e)c au)tw=n tw=n o)nu/xwn, "thoroughly," occurs in late Greek, and similar usages in the Anthology.

^[57]: L. Lucceius, of whom we have heard before, as having some quarrel with Atticus. His work has not survived. No letter of the correspondence has brought more adimadversion on Cicero, and yet log-rolling and the appealing to friends on the press to review one's book are not wholly unknown even in our time.

^[58]: Cicero appears by a slip to have written Themistocles instead of Aristeides. The dramatic return of the latter just before the battle of Salamis is narrated in Herodotus : whereas the former never returned, though his dead body was said to have been brought to Athens.

^[59]: Fratris. The mother of Clodius, Caecilia, was a daughter of Q. Caecilius Metellus Balearicus (consul B.C. 123), father of the writer of this letter.

^[60]: See Letter XCV

^[61]: See Letter CII.

^[62]: Joined to the province of Cilicia by Cato in B.C. 58-57. What Cicero is recommending is a clear evasion Lentulus is not to take Ptolemy back, but to go to Egypt and make it ready for him.

^[63]: Cicero says elsewhere that he supported this (pro Balbo, 61; de Prov. Cons. 28; cp. Dio, 39.25).

^[64]: The law of Gaius Gracchus (B.C. 123) enacting that the senate should name before the elections the provinces to be held by the next consuls.

^[65]: Paludatum, lit. dressed in the paludamentum, the military dress in which provincial governors left Rome with imperium.

^[66]: Notam, some cipher, which he had agreed upon with Valerius to indicate that the commendation was not to be looked upon as a mere matter of course.

^[67]: The extreme Optimates, such as Cato.

^[68]: Against the predatory and piratic inhabitants of Cilicia.

^[69]: C. Arrianus Evander, a dealer in statues, it seems, from whom Fadius had bought some for Cicero. He offers to let the debt for them (and so the interest) run from any day Cicero pleases.

^[70]: A well.known connoisseur, mentioned by Horace, Sat. 2.3.64, seq.). He seems to have offered to take the bargain off Cicero's hands.

^[71]: That is, for his pa'astra or gymnasium, as he calls it, in his Tusculanum. See Letters I, II, VII.

^[72]: An ornamental leg or stand for table or sideboard (abacus). See picture in Rich's Dictionary ofAntiquities.

^[73]: "On the via Appia", where the canal across the marshes began. Cicero stops there a night between Formiae and Pomptina Summa (Att. 7.5).

^[74]: One who professes to be an amateur of art like Damasippus.

^[75]: As in Letter CVI, Tullia, not Terentia, seems to be in Cicero's confidence and presiding in his house. Terentia must already have been on bad terms with him, and perhaps was residing on her own property.

^[76]: Half-sister of Gaius Cassius.

^[77]: Communis, which is not satisfactory. But neither is the emendation proposed, cominus. For communis, "common," "vulgar," see de Off. 2.45.

^[78]: Whom Pompey employed to select the plays to be exhibited in his new theatre.

^[79]: Pliny (Plin. N. H. 8.21) says that the people were so moved that they loudly cursed Pompey.

^[80]: L. Caninius Gallus (see p. 210). What he was accused of does not appear.

^[81]: Ido not like to think this letter a mere rhetorical exercise, as has been suggested, rather than a true account of Cicero's feelings as to the theatre and amphitheatre. He often expresses his want of interest in the latter. The vulgar display in the theatre, unlike the severe simplicity of Greek art, was an old evil (see Polyb. 30.14).

^[82]: B.C. 54. Coss., L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, Ap. Claudius Pulcher

^[83]: The date has been lost.

^[84]: Pompey had two functions at this time: he was governor of Spain and praefectus annonae. The latter office, as being extraordinary, might be, perhaps, held with the other without an actual breach of law, but it was certainly against the spirit of the constitution. Cicero knows that Pompey's staying in Italy and governing his province by legati will not be acceptable to Caesar, and he alludes to it in carefully guarded terms. He had been named his legatus when Pompey first undertook the care of the corn-supply, but it does not seem as if he ever seriously contemplated going on actual service.

^[85]: L. Cornelius Balbus, whom Cicero defended, and who acted as Caesar's agent.

^[86]: The name of the person jocosely referred to by Caesar is uncertain from corruption of the text. Q. Lepta is Caesar's praefectus fabrum.

^[87]: Trebatius is going to join Caesar, who is about to sail to Britain; hence the jest about the essedarii, drivers of Gallic and British war-chariots. Letter CXXXIII recommended him to Caesar. The lines quoted are from the Medea of Ennius, adapted or translated from Euripides. I date these two letters from Cumae, because he speaks of writing to Balbus, who was at Rome (p.267).

^[88]: Vacerra, Manilius, Cornelius, well-known lawyers or jurists of the day.

^[89]: We shall afterwards see that Trebatius did not go to Britain.

^[90]: For the death (in September) of his daughter Iulia, wife of Pompey.

^[91]: A nickname, it is said, of Vacerra (perhaps because he stuttered), who had been a teacher of Trebatius.

^[92]: To Ptolemy Auletes, who had agreed to pay large sums to certain persons for supporting his interests in the senate.

^[93]: Cicero gives him this title, by which he had been greeted by his soldiers after some victory over the predatory tribes in Cilicia. This letter is Cicero's most elaborate apology for his change of policy in favour of the triumvirs.

^[94]: Cicero has been variously supposed to refer to C. Cato (who proposed the recall of Lentulus), to Appius the Consul, and finally to Pompey. The last seems on the whole most likely, though the explanation is not without difficulties. In that case the "disclosure" will refer to Pompey's intrigues as to the restoration of Ptolemy Auletes, of which he wished to have the management.

^[95]: I.e., to keep in with the Optimates, who were at this time suspicious of; and hostile to Pompey.

^[96]: At the trial of Sestius.

^[97]: B.C. 59, when Vatinius proposed the law for Caesar's five years' rule in Gaul.

^[98]: B.C. 56.

^[99]: Pompey is only speaking metaphorically. Quintus had guaranteed Cicero's support. Pompey half-jestingly speaks as though he had gone bail for him for a sum of money.

^[100]: Q. Caecilius Metellus Numidius, expelled from the senate and banished B.C. ion for refusing the oath to the agrarian law of Saturninus, but recalled in the following year. Cicero is fond of comparing himself with him. See Letter CXLVII.

^[101]: M. Aemilius Scaurus, consul B.C. 115 and 108, censor 109, and long princeps senatus. Cicero comments elsewhere on his severitas (de Off. 1.108).

^[102]: Plato, Crit. xii.

^[103]: Like the character in the play (Terence, Eun. 440), if the nobles annoyed Cicero by their attentions to P. Clodius, he would annoy them by his compliments to Publius Vatinius.

^[104]: By Livius Andronicus or Naevius. Tyrrell would write the proverb in extremo sero sapiunt, "'tis too late to be wise at the last." There was a proverb, sero parsimonia in fundo, something like this, Sen. Ep. i. 5, from the Greek (Hes. WD 369), deilh\ d' e)n puqme/ni feidw/.

^[105]: In Gallia Belgica, mod. Amiens.

^[106]: He seems to refer to the rising of the Nervii against the Roman winter quarters (Caes. B.C. 5.39 seq).

^[107]: Andabatam, a gladiator with a closed helmet covering the face, who thus fought without seeing his adversary.

^[108]: A title granted to the Haedui by the senate (Caes. B.G. 1.33; Tac. Ann. 11.25).

^[109]: Terence, Heautont. 86.

^[110]: Cicero perhaps means that Valerius's "opinions" are too right to suit such a set as are to be found in the province. Valerius will not mind people there thinking him a bad lawyer. "At Rome you are considered a good lawyer, in Cilicia they don't think so!"

^[111]: Cognosces tuorum neminem. Others read cognoscere tuorum nemini, "you will not be recognized by any of your friends," which agrees better with Homer's account of the return of Ulysses. But perhaps the exact comparison is not to be pressed.

^[112]: B.C. 53. Coss. M. Domitius Calvinus, M. Valerius Messalia.

^[113]: The younger Curio was now quaestor to C. Clodius, brother of Publius and Appius, in Asia. He was tribune in B.C. 50, when he suddenly changed sides and joined Caesar, who purchased his adhesion by paying his immense debts.

^[114]: Curio had supported Cicero against Clodius, and had worked for his recall. He seems to have attended at Cicero's house for the study of rhetoric or legal practice, as was the fashion for young men to do. He presently married Fulvia, the widow of Clodius, who after his death in Africa (B.C. 48) married Antony.

^[115]: The interregna lasting this year till July. No legal business could be done, as the law courts were closed during an interregnum. But Cicero jestingly says that he advises clients to apply to each interrex (who only held office for five days) for two adjournments, whereby he would get his case postponed indefinitely: for if each adjournment was to the third day, the two would cover each interregnum. Of course he is only jesting, for in any case the cause would not come on.

^[116]: There is a play on the double meaning of signa, "signs" and "statues." Cicero did not like the statues in his Tusculanum. See Letter CXXV.

^[117]: Samobriva (Amiens), where Trebatius was, or had been, in Caesar's camp. Caesar spells it Samarobriva.

^[118]: Laberius is a rival jurisconsult, Valerius a writer of mimes. Though Cicero jests at the supposed comic character, "a lawyer in Britain" (as we might say, "a lawyer among the Zulus"), it does not appear that Trebatius went to Britain with Caesar.

^[119]: A freedman and agent of Curio's. The question is of funeral games and an exhibition of gladiators in honour of Curio's father. Curio gave them, and involved himself in huge debt in consequence.

^[120]: C. Vibius Pansa had been in Gaul, and was now home to stand for the tribuneship, which he obtained for B.C. 52-51.

^[121]: Where he would have been in luxury.

^[122]: A follower of the new academy, with which Cicero was more in sympathy than with the Epicurean ethics, but apparently only partly so. The leading doctrine was the denial of the possibility of knowledge, and, applied to ethics, this might destroy all virtue.

^[123]: All these jesting objections to a lawyer being an Epicurean are founded on the Epicurean doctrine that individual feeling is the standard of morals, and the summum bonum is the good of the individual. The logical deduction that a man should therefore hold aloof from politics and social life, as involving social obligations and standards, was, of course, evaded in practice.

^[124]: For the Epicureans believed the gods to exist, but not to trouble themselves with the affairs of men. In taking an oath by Jupiter lapis the swearer took a stone in his hand and said, "If I abide by this oath may he bless me: but if I do otherwise in thought or deed, may all others be kept safe, each in his own country, under his own laws, in enjoyment of his own goods, household gods, and tombs—may I alone be cast out, even as this stone is now." Then he throws down the stone. This passage from Polybius (iii. 25) refers to treaties, but the same form seems to have been used in suits about land.

^[125]: Ulubrae—like other municipia—had a patronus at Rome to look after its interests. If Trebatius (who was its patronus) would take no part in politics, he would be of no use to the Ulubrani. politeu/esqai"to act as a citizen," "to act as a member of a political body."

^[126]: I will make fast the doors and gild myself With some more ducats.—SHAKESPEARE.

^[127]: Ennius, Ann. 275. The phrase manum consertum in legal language meant to make a joint claim by the symbolical act of each claimant laying a hand on the property (or some representation of it) in court. But it also meant "to join hands in war." Hence its equivocal use in this passage. consertum is a supine, and some such word as eunt must be understood before it.

^[128]: Reading at tu non soles. I cannot explain Prof. Tyrrell's reading et tu soles in connexion with what follows.

^[129]: This elaborate joke is founded on a pun upon the name of the Gallic Treviri and the commissioners in Rome: (1) the III viri capitales, who had charge of prisons, executions, etc. (2) the III viri auro argento aeri flando feriundo, "the commissioners for coining gold, silver, and bronze." Also there is a reference to the meaning of capitalis, "deadly," "affecting the life or citizenship."

^[130]: Graeculum tibi misi cautionem chirographi mei. Various interpretations have been given to this : (1) "a truly Greek security," i.e., not to be depended on"; (2) referring to a poem in Greek, perhaps the one in praise of Caesar's achievements, mentioned before (p.338), in which some compliment to Trebatius was introduced; (3) Prof. Tyrrell would make it refer to this letter itself, which he supposes to have been written in Greek, and afterwards translated by Tiro. But this letter does not read like a translation, and, after all, is not of a nature to shew as a "commendation." It is conceived in too jocular a vein. I have taken it to refer to some enclosure written in Greek which he might use in this way, and the mention of his "own handwriting" to refer to the fact that he would naturally have employed a Greek secretary to write Greek. The diminutive GraeculamI take to be apologetic for the Greek. But it is not at all certain.

^[131]: On his journey along the via Appia to one of his seaside villas Cicero has put up at a friend's house (a freedman of Lepidus), near the Pomptine marshes, as was his wont (Att. 7.5). It was near Ulubrae, of which he was deputy patronus in the absence of Trebatius, and he jestingly pretends that the frogs which he bears croaking in the marshes are frogs of Ulubrae turning out to do him honour, as though they were the citizens of the town. Ulubrae was a very dull and decaying town.

^[132]: The great rising in Gaul in B.C. 54-53, and the second expedition across the Rhine.

^[133]: The friendship between Trebatius and Matius remained as long as we know anything about them. Cicero afterwards acknowledges (F. 2.27) the great services Matius had done him with Caesar, to whom Matius remained attached to the end.

^[134]: In these vague though ominous sentences Cicero is referring to the constant and violent hindrances to the election of magistrates, that is, to the orderly working of the constitution, which were occurring. No consuls were elected till September.

^[135]: Milo. His full name is T. Annius Milo Papianus; originally of the gens Papia, be had been adopted by his maternal grandfather, T. Annius.

^[136]: Pompey was prafectus annonae B.C. 57-52. As such he had a number of legati, of whom this Titus Titius was one; but there is nothing to shew in which of the corn-supplying countries he was employed. Avianius is a corn merchant, and wants concessions as to the importation of his cargoes.

^[137]: B.C. 52. from V Kal. Mart., Coss. Cn. Pompeius Magnus (alone); from 1st August, with Q. Metellus Scipio

^[138]: The letter in some MSS. is inscribed to Sextius or Sestius. Of P. Sittius of Nuceria we hear in the speech pro Sulla, 56, 58. Sulla (who was accused of assisting Catiline) had sent P. Sittius on a mission to Spain, as it was alleged, to raise a rebellion there in support of Catiline. It does not, however, appear that his condemnation took place then. It seems to have been just previous to Cicero's return from exile (August, B.C. 57), and it is suggested that it was after his aedileship of the previous year, when a scarcity of corn had contributed to his unpopularity. The date of the letter is uncertain.

^[139]: P. Sulla. Sittius was not, it seems, brought to trial with Sulla, but his journey to Spain formed part of the allegations against Sulla.

^[140]: Titus Fadius Gallus had been a quaestor in Cicero's consulship (B.C. 63), and a tribune in B.C. 58, when Cicero reckoned him among those on whom he depended to resist Clodius. He also, among others, had a motion prepared for Cicero's recall, of which Cicero speaks with approbation (p. 178). We do not know on what charge he had been condemned, but a number of prosecutions followed the death of Clodius and Pompey's legislation as to violence and corruption of juries.

^[141]: Pompey. He uses the word potentia, as he generally does, in an invidious sense of "tyrannical, or, unconstitutional power," as opposed to auctoritas, " legitimate influence."

^[142]: Brother of Cicero's enemy, P. Clodius. He had been consul in B.C. 54, and was now proconsul in Cilicia, in which government Cicero was to succeed him. His relations with Cicero had been varied, and though Cicero speaks warmly to him, he does not do so often of him, and his compliments are evidently not really sincere.

^[143]: "I shall, in compliment to your accomplishments, call the goddess of learning and wisdom 'Appias,'" i.e., the "Appian Goddess." But the meaning of the elaborate and dull joke or compliment is far from clear, especially the phrase si forte de tuis sumpsero. Was Cicero expecting a present of a bust of Minerva, or intending to purchase one from Appius's collection? Or does he allude, as has been suggested, to the Minerva he had himself dedicated before his exile, and which had probably fallen into the hands of the Appian family?

^[144]: The condemnation of T. Munatius Plancus Bursa, who, being tribune in B.C. 52, had promoted the riots following the death of Clodius, especially in regard to burning his body in the Curia, and had, after his office terminated (10th December), been prosecuted de vi by Cicero successfully. Bursa, with others, had supported Pompey's wish for the dictatorship, as well as his legislation, and accordingly, in attacking him, Cicero had against him the weight of Pompey's influence. He therefore looks upon it as a great triumph.

^[145]: The condemnation of Bursa was a point in favour of Milo, whereas Milo's murder of Clodius only brought his ultimate condemnation and exile. Milo's trial had taken place in April.

^[146]: Pompey and his friends.

^[147]: The new laws introduced by Pompey de vi, de magistratibus, de pecunia ob iudicium.

^[148]: The intercalary month was inserted between the 23rd and 24th of February. Whether it was to be inserted or not depended on the pontifices, who kept their secret jealously. If it is inserted, Cicero will be kept all the longer in town with senatorial and legal business, and so be prevented from seeing Marius, who lived near his Pompeian villa.

^[149]: From fio, according to Cicero, credamus quia "fiat" quod dictum est, appellatum fidem (de Off. 23). He is referring to his promise to emancipate Tiro On a particular day.

^[150]: B.C. 51. COSS., M. Claudius Marcellus, Servius Sulpicius Rufus.

^[151]: Cicero's correspondent while in Cilicia, M. Caelius Rufus, was a young man still, and had been rendered notorious by his long intrigue with Clodia, who, when she quarrelled with him, accused him of attempting to poison her. He was brought to trial de vi, in B.C. 56, by L. Sempronius Atratinus, whose father he had himself accused of bribery; and among the counts against him was his connexion with Clodia and his attempt on her life. An interesting essay on this brilliant, though dissolute person, will be found in Boissier's Cicéron et ses Amis. He ended his life disastrously : adhering to Caesar in the Civil War, he was praetor in B.C. 48, but in Caesar's absence in Egypt he attempted to secure popularity by opposing his law for relieving financial distress, and after many conflicts with Antony, fled from Rome to join Milo, who was attempting to force his own recall, and was killed. Cicero's defence of him on the accusation of Atratinus is extant.

^[152]: Not " on leaving town," for Caelius evidently accompanied Cicero to Campania or met him there.

^[153]: See Letter CLXXXIV, p. 6.

^[154]: Caesar's ten years' government of this province would be over in March, B.C. 48; but if he was to stand for the consulship for that year in the usual way, he must come home in July, B.C. 49. Caesar maintained that by the clause in Pompey's law he was authorized to stay in his province and be elected in his absence, and so would only return to Rome at the end of B.C. 49 to take up his consulship. Thus he complains that a resolution of the senate compelling him to come home in July, B.C. 49, would deprive him " of a six months' imperium bestowed on him by the people,' (Caes. B.C. 1.9).

^[155]: That Marcellus was weak and irresolute. Expressit is not the word Cicero would have used. It is a slang use of the word which means (I) to squeeze out, (2) to describe, to exhibit.

^[156]: See Letters CLXXXVIII, CLXXXIX, pp. 12, 13.

^[157]: Caesar's serious struggle with the Bellovaci (round Beauvais, in Normandy) is described in Hirtius's continuation of Caesar's commentaries, B. G. viii. 6-22. A slight cavalry disaster, which may have given rise to the reported loss of the cavalry, is described in ch. 12. Caesar invaded the Bellovaci with the 7th, 8th, and 9th legions, but at one time he was at any rate in a sufficiently difficult position to make it necessary for him to send for another legion, the 13th (B. G. viii. 8-11.)

^[158]: Q. Pompeius Rufus, tribune in B.C. 52, afterwards condemned for his promotion of the riots connected with the burning of Clodius's body and the destruction of the Curia.

^[159]: Reading peinhtikh\n facere.

^[160]: The de Republica was begun in B.C. 54, and probably published before Cicero left Rome in B.C. 51.

^[161]: Cn. Pompeius, elder son of Cn. Pompeius Magnus, married a daughter of Appius Claudius M. Brutus married, first, Claudia, daughter of Appius Claudius; and, secondly, Porcia, daughter of Cato and widow of Bibulus.

^[162]: By the dedication of the liber auguralis, after Cicero's election into the college of augurs (B.C. 52).

^[163]: I have followed Messrs. Tyrrell and Purser in placing this letter in June instead of July, principally because it appears to have been written a considerable time before the elections.

^[164]: Reading viderint modo. This is very likely not the true reading, but nothing can be made of vide modo of the MSS. Another suggestion is ride modo, "well, pass it over with a smile." The acquittal referred to is that of M. Valerius Messalla (consul B.C. 53), on a charge of bribery (ambitus).

^[165]: Having been acquitted on the charge of ambitus, the only thing to be done with Messalla was to accuse him of having used his political club (sodalitas) for corrupt purposes. The lex Licinia de sodalitus (B.C. 55) was a harsher law than others de ambitu in regard to the composition of the jury pro Planc. 36). Caelius therefore thinks that Messalla will have less chance under it.

^[166]: Two wooden theatres that swung round, with spectators sitting in them, to form an amphitheatre for gladiators. Curio had therefore determined on giving the funeral games against which Cicero advised him. See Letter CLXVIIL

^[167]: The office Caelius was seeking was that of curule aedile; as aedile he and his colleague had charge of the ludi Romani and Megalensia, as well as in some degree other games. It was the fashion to endeavour, in some way, to make their office notable by something fresh or costly; and one of the most popular features of such games was the venatio, a killing of wild animals. Caelius wants these panthers to exhibit in this way.

^[168]: As candidate for the curule aedileship.

^[169]: The reading and the interpretation of this clause are both very doubtful.

^[170]: See p. 18.

^[171]: Gaius Memmius Gemellus (to whom Lucretius dedicated his poem) was praetor in B.C. 58. Of his conduct when curule aedile we have heard before (vol. i., p. 51). He was condemned for ambitus in B.C. 54 (see vol. i., p. 304). He selected Athens as his place of exile, being deeply versed in Greek literature (Brut. 247), but spent part of his time at Mitylene.

^[172]: An Epicurean who taught at Athens and at Rome. Philo was an Academician, to which sect Cicero was in later years more drawn. Phaedrus came to Rome in B.C. 88, and immediately won the devotion of the young Cicero (Brut. 306).

^[173]: Epicurus was noted for his barbarous style, and his followers, Greek and Latin, according to Cicero, generally had the same defect. See Brut. 131; Tuscul. 2.7: Epicurii Latini ipsi profitentur neque distincte, neque distribute, neque eleganter, neque ornate scribere.

^[174]: u(pomnhmatismo/n, "record," "memorial." This it appears from inscriptions was the technical word for a decree of the Areopagus, though other words are also found, such as do/gma, eperw/thma (consultum), e)/doce, etc. A series of inscriptions also shews that in the Roman period the Areopagus was an important executive body: thus we find it superintending the prosecutions of users of false weights and measures, and constantly joined with the council of 600 (or 500 later) in voting honours to benefactors. In one inscription (Add. 4315, n. C. I. G.) it is joined with the "Epicureans at Athens" and the theatrical guild in paying honour to a physician. The minute or record here to be canceled appears to be a grant or sale to Memmius of a building site in Athens, on which were the ruins of the house of Epicurus, which the Epicurean Patron wished to preserve.

^[175]: L. Caninius Gallus, a strong supporter of Pompey tribune B.C. 56. What he was doing at Athens is uncertain ; it is suggested that he was propraetor of Achaia, but it is doubtful whether such an officer existed at this period.

^[176]: Perhaps Q. Mucius Scaevola, who was with Quintus Cicero in Asia. He was tribune in B.C. 54, and was therefore possibly a legatus of Appius

^[177]: Messalla, convicted (after his acquittal for ambitus) under the Licinian law de sodalitiis (see Letter CXCV). M. Calidius, praetor B.C. 57, accused now of ambitus had himself formerly accused Q. Gallius on the same charge. P. Cornelius Dolabella, afterwards son-in-law of Cicero, but a partisan of Caesar in the Civil War, is now elected as one of the quindecimviri sacris faciendis. L. Cornelius Lentulus Crus consul in B.C. 49, had been praetor B.C. 58, a strong Optimate. Of Servaeus nothing is known ; he is prosecuted for ambitus between his election and the day of entering office, and being condemned, is ipso facto incapable of taking it up. C. Curio, of whom we have heard so often, the pupil and friend of Cicero, of whom he hoped such high things, had ruined himself by his extravagant funeral games, and during his year of office was won over to Caesar's side by being relieved by him from his enormous debts.

^[178]: For Hirrus, too, had proposed that Pompey should he made dictator. The old dictatorship was forgotten ; what people remembered was Sulla's unconstitutional dictatorship and the proscriptions.

^[179]: Pompey, though proconsul of Spain, was retained on the plea of the public service outside the city (ad urbem), as proconsul with imperium. As such he commanded all troops in Italy (for the consuls, while in the city, had no military command). He also, by the special terms of his appointment as praefectus annonae, had the right for five years from B.C. to enlist soldiers in any province. In B.C. 55 he had enlisted a legion in Cisalpine Gaul ; but in B.C. 53, in view of a threatened rebellion throughout Transalpine Gaul, Caesar had asked' him to order this legion to join him, and Pompey had done so. We shall see that its withdrawal at the end of this year, under pretext of a Parthian war, was one of Caesar's alleged grievances (Caes. B.C. 6.1; B.C. i. 4, 11). Of the troops Pompey retained in Italy the main part were at Ariminum, the frontier town of Italy proper and Gaul. Hence, when Caesar crossed the Rubicon in B.C. 49, he found most of the towns on the eastern coast garrisoned by cohorts under Pompey's officers.

^[180]: As to whether Caesar was to stay in Gaul over the elections of B.C. 49, or come home before the full term of his governorship granted him by the law had expired.

^[181]: L. Aemilius Paullus, who had now been or would be elected before the next meeting of the senate, was a strong Optimate. The consuls-designate were always called on first for their sententia in the senate.

^[182]: Letter CXCV.

^[183]: The district of Pisidia included in the province of Cilicia.

^[184]: Ptolemy, father of Cleopatra, of whose restoration (B.C. 55) we have heard so much, left a young son who, as king, ordered Pompey's murder in B.C. 48, and himself perished in the course of the Alexandrine war of B.C. 48.47.

^[185]: See Letter CCV. The motion of Marcellus about the provinces was to come on the 13th of August. According to Willem's Le Sénat (ii. pp. 167, 589) the lex Pompeia de provinciis enacted a minimum number senators for the passing of a decree as to the provinces.

^[186]: I.e., for the augurship.

^[187]: Liberales causas. This phrase does not occur in Cicero, though it does in Terence and in Quintilian. Some of the editors, therefore, have doubted as to its genuineness or its meaning here. The point seems to be that Hirrus, to gain popularity, now took up the cases of the humblest clients, but yet did not exert himself to come to the courts in the afternoons. Law business would generally end between twelve and one, but sometimes cases were renewed after the midday rest and meal.

^[188]: Cicero, as a fact, did leave his quaestor in charge of the province. At the end of a year a provincial governor could do this, though he remained responsible through his nominee.

^[189]: Up to this time the government of the Gauls had been arranged for till the end of B.C. 49 by a lex. The proposal to have a successor allotted for them in the ordinary way raised the entire question of Caesar's rights, and the resolution in the senate to go on with allotting the provinces usual would be vetoed ab initio in order to cover the case of the Gauls.

^[190]: M. Favonius, the admirer and imitator of Cato, was a good aristocrat, but made enemies by his bitter tongue. He was rejected for the praetorship this year, but apparently obtained it in the following year (though there is some uncertainty on that point).

^[191]: Q Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio, Pompey's father-in-law and Colleague in B.C. 52.

^[192]: I.e., not the other provinces.

^[193]: Caesar's friend and agent. See Letter CXCVIII.

^[194]: Calidius, accused by the Gallii (Letter CCV), in his turn accused C. Claudius Marcellus, the consul.designate.

^[195]: The object of this letter addressed to the head of the Optimate party, as far as it had a head, seems to be to induce Cato to propose a reinforcement for Cicero, or to prepare Cato to defend him in case of failure. Cato was not in any office at this time; but as an ex-praetor he would have a fairly early opportunity of delivering a sententia in the senate.

^[196]: In Pamphylia, modern Esky Adalia, then possessing a good harbour, much used by the pirates before Pompey¹s war.

^[197]: An arrival by sea must necessarily prevent much of the state and outward show that the governor would like to have round him on entering his province. Caesar had the same thought apparently, when he gives as a motive for building his bridge on the Rhine that crossing by boats was hardly consonant with the "dignity" of the Roman people.

^[198]: The lex Cornelia of Sulla de ordinandis provinciis, one of the provisions of which was that a retiring governor must leave his province within thirty days of the arrival of his successor.

^[199]: Going to Cybistra, in Cappadocia, where he pitched his camp.

^[200]: As the thirty days within which the outgoing governor was required by the law to quit his province were now expired, it is difficult to see an sincerity in this suggestion.

^[201]: Gaius Claudius Marcellus, consul B.C. 50, and cousin of C. Claudius Marcellus, consul B.C. 49. He is son of C. Claudius Marcellus (augur), to whom the next letter is addressed.

^[202]: The senatorial decree assigning Cilicia to Cicero would mention the term of one year, but so would the lex, which it was necessary to pass in order to give him imperium ; it is to this lex, and not to the lex Pompeia of B.C. 52, that he seems here to refer. See Willem, Le Sénat, Vol. ii., p. 590; cp. ib. p. 167.

^[203]: Of these petty princes, Antiochus had been established in Commagene in B.C. 63-62 by Pompey, as also probably Tarcondimotus in part of Cilicia. Iamblichus, the Bedouin chief, was put to death by Antony in B.C. 31, but his son was restored by Augustus. He had also no doubt owed his establishment or restoration to Pompey in B.C. 63.

^[204]: A governor of one province could not hold levies in another without special grant of the senate. An exception had been proposed for Pompey in B.C. 57, when he was appointed praefectus annonae, and apparently was made in and after his consulships of B.C. 55 and 52.

^[205]: Appius remained outside the gates (ad urbem, not in urbe) because he claimed a triumph, of which, however, Dolabella baulked him. See Letter CCXLI.

^[206]: Legates sent, as was often the case, to commend Appius at Rome and support his claim to a triumph. They were sent at the expense of their own cities, and the system was often much abused and became a heavy burden on the states.

^[207]: These complimentary legationes, he means, were not heard in the senate. Their number created a certain effect, just as petitions are not noticed in the House of Commons, though if numerous they may form some ground for action.

^[208]: He means the three dioceses—properly belonging to the province of Asia, and afterwards reunited to it-Cibyra, Apamea, and Synnad. See p. 45.

^[209]: The tributum in Cilicia, unlike the taxes in Asia, was not sold to publicani, but left to each state to collect. If; however the states fell into arrears, a contract for its collection was sold to publicani, who put the screw on more tightly than the local tax-gatherers.

^[210]: See Letters CCIV, CCXII. The only explanation of the reference to Appius's son-in-law must be that Cicero saw Gnaeus Pompeius at his father's villa at Tarentum But most editors would omit ad generum.

^[211]: Of course this information is subsequent to the public despatch preceding; hut neither that nor this appears to be accurate. The Parthians had crossed the Euphrates and had been repulsed by Cassius, as we shall see; but Cicero is always unwilling to give credit either to Cassius or Bibulus in this matter.

^[212]: To his province, to which, however, he never went.

^[213]: A prosecution de vi took precedence of one de ambitu. Therefore, if he prosecuted Tuccius for vis, Tuccius would have to wait before he could bring his accusation de ambitu. As there was no case in the accusation de vi, Sempronius was accused of bringing a vexatious action, i.e., an action not sincerely meant to be what it pretended, but begun merely for obstructive purposes. Roman games, 4th-19th September.

^[214]: Reading and interpretation are doubtful. Apparently Cicero, as arbitrator between Sempronius and Vestorius, had decided in favour of the latter; but Sempronius, while refusing to submit, pretended to yield as a favour what (as he alleged) Vestorius was wrongfully withholding from him, the point being that he himself is in the wrong all the time.

^[215]: The story is difficult to follow. C. Claudius Pulcher, after his praetorship of Asia (B.C. 56-53), was in B.C. 51 condemned for extortion. He either died or left Rome, and his property was not sufficient to pay the damages. Pausanias (unknown to us) asked leave to prosecute his legatus (or other official), M. Servilius, for wrongful possession of money (quo ea pecunia peroenisset), but the praetor Laterensis decided that there was no case to go into court. Then Pilius began a prosecution of him de repetundis, but this was anticipated by another by Appius (son of C. Claudius), who prosecuted him for wrongful possession, being able to make out a better prima facie case. The votes in this trial were equal, but Servilius was left in a questionable position by an irregularity of the praetor in recording the verdict. Caelius says that he is now going to be prosecuted by Pilius on the criminal charge of extortion. The young Appius had made a mess of it, had exposed his own and his father's malpractices, and was himself now being prosecuted by members of Servilius's family.

^[216]: Praevaricatio, where the professed prosecuters voluntarily, and for corrupt motives, allow the case to go against them.

^[217]: Because they confessed to his father having tried to get off by collusion with the prosecution, thereby acknowledging his guilt.

^[218]: Non redigam, lit. "I will not exact the money," i.e., the money alleged to have been fraudulently received.

^[219]: Such a record would not, on the face of it, prove acquittal, because a man might be acquitted by a small majority in two decuriae and yet be condemned by so large a majority in the third as not to have a majority of the whole jury in his favour as required by law.

^[220]: Apparently a jurisconsult, but he is unknown.

^[221]: Divinatio, a technical name for the trial between two or more rival claimants for the conduct of a prosecution.

^[222]: These actions, meant to tie the hands of Appius and prevent his farther attacks on Servilius, were also probably grounded on his own revelations. He had, we may suppose, been with his father in Asia on his staff, and therefore, under the Julian law, was open to prosecution de repetundis. See Pliny, Ep. 3.9.

^[223]: Ego voluptatem animi nimiam summum esse errorem arbitror—"I think the height of exultation the height of error" (Traben ap Tusc. 4.35). This is only a "defence" ironically.

^[224]: Cicero calls himself imperator, as having been greeted by that title by his soldiers in the field. This was a special usage of the title, to be distinguished from the same word applied to a magistrate with imperium. This title by acclamation could only be given once in the same war. It always comes after the name. The chief authority ou this subject is Dio, 43, 44; cp. 70, 21.

^[225]: Hillus for Hirrus. It doesn't seem much of a jest.

^[226]: For a triumph.

^[227]: Which was regarded as unconstitutional, and only to be justified by extreme circumstances. See Caesar, B.C. 1.6.5.

^[228]: Reading senatore with the MSS. It seems to me evidently right. Cicero says that when he first appealed to Curio, he was only a private member of the senate, with only such influence as his rank and popularity gave him—now he is a tribune who could veto any such measure, and therefore had as great power in the matter as any man could have. I doo not think that Cicero would have called Curio his sectator, especially When wishing to secure his services.

^[229]: eu)trapeli/a gracious playfulness," suggesting his friend's cognomen Eutrapelus.

^[230]: Though it cannot be proved, there is no reason why this may not refer to P. Sestius, Cicero's client of B.C. 56, and also the author of the speech which it gave Catullus a fit of the colic to read or hear read (Cat. 44). Though Cicero may have had every respect for him, he may also have thought poorly of his style of wit. Cicero's own faculty for witticisms is often referred to, and at times got him into trouble, as in the camp of Pompey in B.C. 49-48 (2 Phil. 30). For the poor style of Sestius's writing see Letter CCCXIV.

^[231]: He uses two words, a)ku/qhronand venustum, which involve a play on words—" without Cytherea" and "Venus-like "—which cannot well be represented in English.

^[232]: Sacramento, properly the deposit paid into court by the parties to a suit as security.

^[233]: De Oratore, 2.235ff., where, however, the speaker is not Antonius, but C. Iulius Caesar Strabo Vopiscus. The de Oratorewas composed in B.C. 55.

^[234]: Illa Editors generally wish to insert some word here, such as Curionisor extrema, to make the meaning clear. But we must remember that Cicero is answering a letter, and his correspondent would have no doubt of his meaning, though we are left to guess it. The next sentence shows that the reference is to Curio, of whose election Cicero therefore knows, which dates the letter as not earlier than December. See Letter CCXXV.

^[235]: Thermus was propraetor in Asia B.C. 52-50. He was a strong Optimate, and we find him in arms for Pompey in B.C. 49 (Caes. B.C. 1.12). Caesar calls him praetor in B.C. 49, but that is probably a loose expression for praetorius. This and the rest of the letters for this year are formal letters of introduction or recommendation. Their chief interest is the light they throw upon the financial position and dealings of a province. Cicero prided himself upon the composition of such letters, but it will be remembered that he warned his friends that they were not to be taken too seriously unless he gave special indications to that effect.

^[236]: dioi/khsin, i.e., the administrative district of Hellespontus, the district along the Hellespont and Propontis (Dardanelles and Sea of Marmora). The chief town was Cyzicus. Parium was about sixty miles to the west of it, mod. Karnares.

^[237]: M. Cluvius was a banker of Puteoli. He afterwards made Cicero heir to part of his property (Att. 13.46).

^[238]: Commissioners in a province authorized to settle a money or other claim, which could be heard at Rome, whereas legati could only petition the senate for some grant or order.

^[239]: If the money was duly deposited at a bank or temple, interest would not be any longer payable.

^[240]: Cluvius appears to he acting for Pompey, and some suppose that Pompey was the real creditor in all these cases.

^[241]: T. Claudius Nero, the future husband of Livia. He seems to have visited Cicero with a view to marrying Tullia, but was too late, Terentia having already betrothed her to Dolabella. See Letter CCLXXV.

^[242]: Nysa, in Caria, was known at this time for several eminent philosophers and rhetoricians, and was therefore probably visited by Roman Youths, and had need of a patronus (Strabo, 14.2.43-48).

^[243]: Nothing is known of this man, apparently. He seems to be a Carian Greek, a freedman of some Servilius. It is a curious coincidence that the geographer Strabo studied at Nysa, are probably not long after this time.

^[244]: What Cicero means by calling Bithynia a "theatre" is explained by reference to vol. i., p. 85.

^[245]: On the public pastures the inhabitants fed cattle, paying a fixed sum (scriptura) for the privilege. In Asia this scriptura was collected by companies of publicani, who payed a fixed sum to the treasury, and then covenanted with each state as to the amount payable. The head of such a company (consisting of equites) was called magister, the local agent pro magistro on the analogy of pro consule, pro praetore, etc,

^[246]: As agent for his company. The smoother things went, no doubt, the better for the agent, as in all businesses.

^[247]: For Crassipes, who was betrothed, if not married, to Tullia as her Second husband, see Letter CVII. The breaking off the betrothal (discidium) or the divorce (divortium), we don't know which, had evidently not left him at enmity with Cicero.

^[248]: Or, leaving out pars, "is the most important in the city."

^[249]: B.C. 50. coss., L. Aemilius Paulus, C. Claudius C. Claudius

^[250]: These times do not exactly agree with those given in Letters CCVII and CCXXVII, but the differences are unimportant and might easily be accounted for by lapse of memory.

^[251]: Seditione quadam. He qualifies seditione, as he doesn't wish to say that there was a downright mutiny; quadam might be translated "so to speak." He had heard of these difficulties in the army, but hoped that they had been put right by Appius Claudius.

^[252]: The priest of the temple of Bellona at Comana, who had command over a large body of slaves of the temple and its dependencies. It was a position of quasi-royal power. Pompey had confirmed or restored a certain Archelaus in this position.

^[253]: I venture to read et fretus iis, for Tyrrell's ego tuto iis, "with safety to those," which is a very doubtful construction.

^[254]: Some columns put up near the field of the battle of Issus by Alexander, or to mark the line of his march.

^[255]: That is, movable towers pushed up on rollers to the wall.

^[256]: What Cicero wants is a supplicatio of as many days as the senate will grant, i.e., days of solemn thanksgiving such as had been voted in honour of Caesar's Gallic victories and on many other occasions.

^[257]: Probably P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, consul B.C. 57, who did much to secure Cicero's recall. He asked in vain for a supplicatio, or perhaps even a triumph, for his achievements in Cilicia B.C. 56-54. See Letter CXXV.

^[258]: Togato. The consul in Rome, though he had imperium, was a civilian, and wore the toga, not the paludamentum. The difference has been expressed by distinguishing the imperium domi and imperium militiae, which latter he had if he commanded an army, and which a proconsul had when in a province. Thus, in his poem on his own times, Cicero had a line which he was fond of quoting: Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea laudi.

^[259]: See vol. i., p. 64, and 2 Phil. 2. In 2 Phil. 13, he says the motion for a supplicatio after the execution of the conspirators in December, B.C. 63, was made by L. Aurelius Cotta and passed unanimously.

^[260]: The province of Gallia Cisalpina, to which Metellus Celer went in his place and won some victories over the Salassi. See vol. i., pp. 21, 62.

^[261]: A vacancy was made in the college of augurs in B.C. 59 by the death of Metellus Celer, which Cicero would have liked to fill (see vol. i., P.90). But he was not nominated as one of the two candidates, as was necessary. He filled the vacancy caused by the death of P. Crassus B.C. 53.

^[262]: Cato, to get him out of Rome, had been sent in B.C. 58 on the motion of Clodius to take over Cyprus; he therefore (as usual) became its patron. It is not known why he was specially connected with Cappadocia and Deiotarus, but client kings generally selected some prominent Roman to represent their interests. It has been suggested that Ariobarzanes' indebtedness to Cato's nephew Brutus had something to do with it. But we cannot be sure. Brutus, it may be observed, was also a friend of Deiotarus, and defended him before Caesar in B.C. 47, when charged with attempting to poison Caesar.

^[263]: Cicero applies to himself and Cato what he elsewhere repeated from Greek sources of Socrates—that he "brought down philosophy from the sky to the earth and to common life" (Acad. 1.15; Tusc. 5.10). His appeal to their common love of philosophy should be compared with his chaff of Cato's impracticable Stoicism twelve years before in the pro Mur. § 61 seq., which Cato must have well remembered. The contemptuous view of philosophy taken by many serious persons at Rome, and Cicero's early passion for it, are commented upon at greater length in the de Off 2.2.

^[264]: Ex literis meis, i.e., Cicero's public despatch to magistrates and senate. Ex literis was the regular phrase on these occasions. See Caes. B. G. 2.35; 4.38.

^[265]: The public despatch referred to in this and the previous and subsequent letters has not been preserved; but no doubt its substance was the same as the letter to Cato.

^[266]: C. Cassius Longinus, the future assassin of Caesar, had gone to Syria as quaestor with M. Licinius Crassus in B.C. 54. On the death of Crassus near Carrhae (B.C. 53) he had managed to lead off the main body of the Roman army to Antioch, and had remained in charge of the province as pro quaestore ever since (defeating a weak attack of the Parthians in B.C. 52), till the arrival of Bibulus in September, B.C. 51. Just before the arrival of Bibulus he had again defeated the attack of the Parthians near Antioch and handed over his province in a state of comparative safety. He is now on the point of returning to Italy.

^[267]: He is referring to a danger of prosecution for extortion in Syria.

^[268]: His brother or cousin Quintus Cassius was being attacked for malversation as quaestor in Spain (B.C. 54-52). See Letter CCXXVII.

^[269]: Cassius, who was some twenty years younger than Cicero, had married Tertia, half-sister to Brutus.

^[270]: Illam. Referring to the proverb, summum ius summa iniuria (de Off. 1.33).

^[271]: The point is this: in old times Cicero was at enmity with Appius (as supporting his brother Clodius). If that had never been the case he might have taken the purely legal view of the matter; but if he does so now, people will say his reconciliation with Appius was all pretence, whereas, if he supports him, nobody can say that he does so from any special feeling of friendship. Cicero is said to have the power of helping Appius because, being governor of the province, in connexion with which Appius's conduct is impugned, he would doubtless facilitate or make difficult the sending of witnesses against him.

^[272]: To think of a suitable husband for Tullia

^[273]: Gnaeus or Sextus Pompeius.

^[274]: As aedile, in which office he had the superintendence of the water supply, state of the streets, fire preventives, etc. The point was that the shopkeepers had been drawing off public water by private pipes. A speech of Caelius de Aquis was once extant on the subject (Frontinus, de Aquaeuct. 75, 76).

^[275]: The metaphor is mixed, but so is Caelius's.

^[276]: The intercalation of a month of twenty-one or twenty-three days (between the 23rd and 24th of February every other year). The decision as to the proper time for doing this was in the hands of the College of pontifices, of which Curio was a member. He apparently tried to induce the pontifices to intercalate this year, which was not the rght year. His object was presumed to be to further postpone the decision as to Caesar's province, which was to come on in the senate on the 1st of March (Dio, 40, 61).

^[277]: For a wholesale repair of the great roads, which would require commissioners with a lengthened term of office, of which he would be one.

^[278]: Nondum rettulerat. The meaning of these words is uncertain. Some would read mundum rettulerat, "she has sent back her dress and ornaments." In case of a divorce by the woman without cause, the husband retained the dos, or a large part of it; but there is no authority for the practice of the wife giving up her wardrobe.

^[279]: Appia or Apia was in Phrygia in the "diocese" of Synnada. The Control thus exercised by the proconsul on local expenditure in building, etc., is well illustrated by Pliny's letters to Trajan (see ad Trai. 37, 38, etc.). The "tax" (tributa) here alluded to is not the tributum to Rome, but a local tax or rate for the public work mentioned.

^[280]: A Stoic philosopher of Tarsus, one of the teachers of Augustus.

^[281]: Hom. 51.1.174-175.

^[282]: For friendship, according to the Epicureans, was founded on utility, it was cultivated for its advantages—though in practice their friendships were particularly close. How they made their theory square with their practice cannot be discussed here.

^[283]: Probably the bench of the tribunes, who might veto the proposal (Willems, Le Sénat, 2.173). Mommsen objects that a special bench of the tribunes is not mentioned till imperial times; but as one of the first honours voted to Iulius, as to Augustus, was that he should sit on the tribunician bench, this implies the existence of such a bench before. See Dio, 42.20; lix,15, e)pi\ tw=n au)tw=n ba/qrwn.

^[284]: Appius's work on the ius augurale, referred to before (see p. 20). Apparently it was only a first part that had come out, and more was expected.

^[285]: Though, according to Willems (ii. 148), there were no regular days for the meeting of the senate (though some on which it could not meet), yet the Kalends and Ides seem to have been the days on which there generally was such a meeting; but April was a month full of holidays, and we have seen that Cicero and others were generally out of town during that month, during which the consuls from custom (though not ftom law) generally did not summon the senate.

^[286]: The festival of Cybele, the Great Mother, began on the 4th of April. It and the ludi Romani were under the charge of the aediles.

^[287]: *kwmiko\s ma/rtus. Phania is a freedman of Appius Claudius, whom Cicero trusts to speak well of his feelings towards Appius. Cicero is fond of illustrating such convenient or sudden events by the incidents of a play. Cp. 2 Phil. 65, Exultabat gaudio persona de mimo "modo egens repente dives."

^[288]: In the college of augurs.

^[289]: His prosecution of Appius for maiestas. See Letter CCXLI.

^[290]: Curio. See same letter.

^[291]: Soon after Curio entered on his tribuneship (10th December, B.C. 51) it became evident that he had changed sides. Caesar had bought him by relieving him of his debts, incurred by his extravagant funeral games and other ways.

^[292]: By the time Cicero reached Italy, Caelius too had become a Caesarian.

^[293]: Gaius Antonius (brother of Marcus), now quaestor in Asia, and the question is whether Thermus should leave him in charge of the province. He was praetor in B.C. 44, and being assigned the province of Macedonia for B.C. 43, was taken prisoner by M. Brutus, and after a time put to death, in revenge, it was said, for the murder of Cicero.

^[294]: M. Antonius was tribune in B.C. 50-49, L. Antonius in B.C. 44, but Gaius does not appear to have been tribune. The three brother were all in office together in B.C. 44, as consul, tribune, and praetor.

^[295]: Because Thermus would only have followed the regular course in appointing his quaestor to take charge of his province in the interval between his departure and the arrival of his successor. It is an irony of destiny, somewhat pathetic, that Cicero should be writing in Antony's favour, and should speak of the brothers as non indisertos, considering the charges of ignorance and every vice which he afterwards flung at Marcus Antonius, to whom also he was to owe his own death.

^[296]: See Letter CXCVIII.

^[297]: Sacrarium is not a temple or chapel, i.e., a place consecrated, but a place where sacred objects (sacra) are kept; and Memmius (in exile in Mitylene) has allowed the freedman C. Avianius Evander, who was a sculptor, to use the sacrarium of the Memmii as a studio and lodging, it may be, while he was doing work for him. Perhaps Memmius expected to be soon returning to Rome, as there was a talk of his recall (Letter CCLI), and had therefore written to Avianius giving him notice that he must quit by the 1st of July.

^[298]: His prosecution by Dolabella.

^[299]: In taking part with his brother Clodius B.C. 58-56.

^[300]: B.C. 54.

^[301]: This is all very well: Cicero now speaks of the guard round the Court during Milo's trial as meant for his protection; but at the time he was so alarmed, that he broke down utterly in his speech.

^[302]: The statement of the measures taken by Cicero is apparently omitted, perhaps by the original editor of the letters, though there does not seem any reasonable motive for doing so.

^[303]: As censor he would be practically, though not legally, safe from prosecution.

^[304]: The quinquatrus Minervae, March 19-23, was a general holiday.

^[305]: Son of a tetrarch of Galatia.

^[306]: As he did at the end of his consulship.

^[307]: The modern Seikun.

^[308]: The first maiestas is used in the proper sense of "majesty of the people." As a crime it is a wide term, covering all kinds of actions, and may therefore be brought against anyone without obvious injustice; whereas ambitus is a definite charge, which must either be groundless, in which case it is discreditable to bring it, or well grounded, when it is discreditable to the defendant. It must be one thing or the other; it can't be vague, or partly true and partly false, as majestas may. Maiestas is used briefly for crimen laesae maiestatis populi Romani, and might include not only acts of treason, but ill-management of any sort, whereby the interests of the people suffered. It took the place (with extended meaning) of the ancient perduellio. It seems first to have been used as a legal term in the law of Saturninus (B.C. 102), and it was afterwards more fully developed by Sulla's lex Cornelia dc maiestate (B.C. 80). (Cic. in Pis. § 50.)

^[309]: The famous App. Claudius Caecus, censor B.C. 312-308.

^[310]: I do not think that Marcellus said that "he had very little hope that the suppiications would pass," as Prof. Tyrrell interprets him: for there was no doubt about them if Curio withdrew his veto-and the remark would have no influence with him. What Marcellus said was that he was "not relying on the supplications in order to stop Curio from doing business with the comitia," while Paullus promised outright hat he would not so use them this year at all. The senate voted a supplicatio, but it depended on the executive magistrate, the consul,

^[311]: De hostiis, i.e., as to the kind and perhaps number of victims, as we find often in Livy. The change to de hostibus makes a considerable ambiguity, for it was on the claim of a triumph, not a supplicatio, that the general had to make a return of the numbers of the enemy that had fallen. Besides, if we read de hostibus, it would be better (with Schiitz) to read ut numerarentur, for the singular number refers to "counting out" the senate.

^[312]: Because in it (B.C. 55) the legislation was passed which gave Caesar his present claims, i.e., the law of Trebonius giving him five more years in his province.

^[313]: Not the public gazette (acta), but the private one which Caelius caused to be drawn up for Cicero's benefit.

^[314]: Stomacho ita languenti; referring by a double entendre to his illness. See p. 168.

^[315]: Because he would not acknowledge the Julian laws of B.C. 59, which he considered to have been rendered null and void by his obnuntiato.

^[316]: These are the two legions, of which one was to be supplied by Pompey, and one by Caesar, but which eventually both came to Italy from Caesar's army, and were not sent to Syria.

^[317]: Apparently for the vacancy which was filled up at the beginning of this year by M. Antonius or Q. Cassius Longinus. The surviving son of Bibulus (L. Calpurnius Bibulus)—by his wife Porcia, afterwards wife of M. Brutus—lived till about B.C. 31, and wrote a memoir of his stepfather Brutus.

^[318]: Hirrus, who stood for the augurship against Cicero in B.C. 53, and for the aedileship against Curio in B.C. 51.

^[319]: A triumph.

^[320]: He means that by the complimentary remarks as to Dolabella, Caelius had tried to do away with the impression likely to have been made by what he had said about Dolabella before (Letter CCXLI).

^[321]: Pompey had chosen Cassius, Caesar Antonius, as their quaestors. Cicero argues that he has done less—for he has only employed the quaestor assigned him by lot (vol. i., p. 73; 2 Phil. 50).

^[322]: Cicero is trying to excuse the fact that Dolabella's marriage to Tullia was just at the time that he was prosecuting Claudius.

^[323]: Cicero feels that the case is an awkward one; and his style becomes laboured and involved in trying to put it pleasantly.

^[324]: Magister morum, i.e., censor. In the de Prov. Cons. § 46, he describes the censorship as magisterium morum, for the censors had the right to inquire in many respects into the private life of citizens.

^[325]: Cato had voted against the supplicatio, and Cicero has to tax his skill to appear not to be vexed (as he was), and to assume that Cato's complimentary speech was as good as if he voted fbr it. He is answering Cato's letter. See Letter CCLXV.

^[326]: Apparently the college of augurs, to which Caelius wished to be elected

^[327]: L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, consul B.C. 54 with Appius.

^[328]: L. Piso, the other censor.

^[329]: Against unnatural crimes.

^[330]: To the augurship, which Antony got. See next letter.

^[331]: To the college of augurs (see preceding letter). L. Domitius was already a member of the college of sacerdotes.

^[332]: This is rather like Mr. Pickwick's rule as dealing with two election crowds, "to shout with the largest."

^[333]: I.e., about the amount of such things which it was legal for a man to own.

^[334]: On the coast of Acarnania.

^[335]: About fifteen miles.

^[336]: See p. 173.

^[337]: 0n the coast of Acarnania

^[338]: Also called Hydruntum; mod. Otranto.

^[339]: B.C. 49. Coss., C. Claudius, Marcellus, L. Cornelius Lentulus Crus.

^[340]: Caesar (B.C. 1.5) describes it as containing demands of "the mildest possible kind"—lenissima postulata. It was brought by Curio, who, going out of office on the 10th December, had joined Caesar at Ravenna.

^[341]: This senatus consultum ultimum was passed on the 7th of January, the fifth meeting of the senate-two comitial days, 3rd and 4th, preventing a meeting being held (Caesar, B.C. 1.5). Cicero's assertion that no violence was done to Cassius and Antony seems to be confirmed by Caesar's account, who only says that after this decree profugiunt statim ex urbe tr. pl. If any violence had been used, he would certainly have mentioned it as strengthening his case. In the decree the (unusual) mention of proconsuls was in order to include Pompey and Cicero.

^[342]: Mescinius Rufus had been quaestor in Cilicia during Cicero's government (see p. 167), and was responsible, in part at least, for the accounts.

^[343]: Because the two copies, having been deposited in the provincial towns, could not be altered, and the copy in the treasury was bound to be a verbatim copy of them.

^[344]: Apparently Cicero, having satisfied himself that the proportion of the 1,900 sestertia paid by Valerius was sufficient to save the treasury from loss, entered the balance on the debit side as "remitted" or "returned" on his authority as proconsul. We cannot tell what the debt was, perhaps for some contract, for which Volusius had bid too high, and for which Valerius (a banker) gave securities, and because he be-came thereby the purchaser or contractor (manceps) was liable to the state for the whole.

^[345]: The two points Cicero answers are: (I) Rufus Complained of an item in the accounts, in which Valerius had been entered as a debtor to the state, and also as having discharged the debt, though he had not paid the full sum. This Cicero explains that he did on professional advice, as Valerius, not Volusius, was liable: he had remitted this balance, because the state did not lose anything. (2) Rufus complains that Cicero made no entry of a certain sum, as to which there was a dispute, having been deposited by him in a temple. Cicero says he might have done so, but that, after all, Rufus was protected by a number of formal receipts and other documents. We have heard of disputed money being put in a temple before (p. 131). Pompey and Sestius (Cicero's successor in Cilicia) took this money in virtue of a senatorial decree passed on the 7th of January, giving Pompey a large number of men and complete command of all public money (App. B.C. 2.34; Dio, 41, 3). It was thus that Caesar was justified in regarding what he found in the hands of Pompeian officers as public money (see Caes. B.C. 1.23). The senate having passed this vote, Rufus and Cicero gave their orders or cheque upon the temple to pay the money to Pompey

^[346]: It appears that the senate had granted him an extension of time as to giving in his accounts, but that, having not taken advantage of that, decree, he can only do what the law dictates as to sending in corrections. But the reading and meaning of de logaeo is very uncertain.

^[347]: The reading and meaning are alike uncertain. I suppose it to refer to the sum of money just mentioned, as to the entry of which in Cicero's accounts Rufus found some technical objection. Cicero says, "Well, you and your brother agreed as to the item: and in your office as quaestor you were responsible for the account of the amount actually got in, and were not bound to copy my entry in your own accounts."

^[348]: Not yours also. The contubernales were young men serving with a magistrate as volunteers, for the sake of experience.

^[349]: I. e., considering that I was saving all I Could for my triumph, and that I could ill afford to lose so much (about £800).

^[350]: Aestimationem accipere, i.e., to take property in satisfaction of a debt, on a fixed valuation.

^[351]: Cicero seems to mean that if Rufus thinks the letter against his interest, he is at liberty to destroy it, and so have a freer hand in dealing with his secretary Tullius.

^[352]: That is, seventeen clear days.

^[353]: Two of the three legates of Pompey in Spain.

^[354]: A fragment of Euripides, from what play is unknown.

^[355]: I.e., on dainties, lit. "round apples."

^[356]: The people who have left their name in Ventimiglia.

^[357]: L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who surrendered to Caesar at Corfinium, but was allowed to depart unharmed.

^[358]: Apparently a slave, mother of Bellienus.

^[359]: Probably near Marseilles, where Caesar stopped on his way to Spain for some weeks to organize its siege.

^[360]: The intercessions of Metelius. See previous letter, p. 364

^[361]: See ante, p. 358. Cicero professes to hold that the meeting could not be called a "senate" in the absence of the consuls, many other magistrates, and a considerable number of the ordinary members. But the praetor Lepidus had the legal right of summoning it, and there was no law demanding the presence of other magistrates.

^[362]: See Letter CCCLXXXII, p. 367. This letter to Caelius is far more discreditable to Cicero than the most pitiful of his letters from exile. There is hardly a word in it which is not false, or a suggestio falsi. It was meant to be shewn to Caesar, and is a sad piece of trimming. It is astonishing that he should have sent Atticus a copy of it, when he remembered what he had written continually to him. The idea of Malta, if really entertained, was only a passing one. His real hesitation was as to going to Pompey.

^[363]: Who advocated uncompromising resistance to Caesar.

^[364]: That is, Oppius, a partisan of Caesar's, and generally spoken of in connexion with Balbus, is to have some curule office by Caesar's favour.

^[365]: M. Curtius Postumus, who had also joined Caesar, was to have an augurship (see p. 396). The augurs wore a toga dyed in some special way with two colours, which in Letter XXXV he calls di/bafon (vol. i., p. 98). By infector, "dyer," Cicero seems to mean Caesar, who was to give him the promotion.

^[366]: The jest consists in the jocose description of Oppius and Curtius— Oppius as ordering a new toga, and Curtius as sending his toga to be dyed, and being kept waiting by the dyer (i.e., Caesar). He seasons the bitter herbs of his letter with a dressing of jest. He uses a word (adspersi) specially applied to "dressing" salads or vegetables with oil or vinegar or the like. Cp. pro Cluent. 7 I, Conditor totius negotii Guttam aspergit huic Bulbo.

^[367]: For Caelius's quarrel with Appius, see vol. ii., pp.194, 195. He thinks that if Appius had been a Caesarian that would have made him turn Pompeian. But the reading is doubtful.

^[368]: Reading Ariminum with Mueller. The MSS. have Arimino; Tyrrell and Purser read Arpino. But Caelius evidently refers to his going to join Caesar, and though we do not know otherwise of his having done so at Ariminum, this best accounts for his having been early employed by Caesar, as we know he was, vol. ii., p.298. His visit to Cicero would then be in the first week of January, and he would probably start for Ariminum before the news had come of the crossing of the Rubicon.

^[369]: Trebonius and other Caesarians.