[744]: This is the subject of the eighth Philippic delivered on the 3rd of February. Antony's postulata are discussed in §§ 25-58. They included: (1) amnesty for all proceedings of the past year; (2) confirmation of his consular acta; (3) lands for his soldiers; (4) no inquiry as to the money taken from the temple of Ops; (5) the amnesty to include all his agents and friends; (6) the governorship of Gallia Comata for five years with six legions. In return he will give up Gallia Cisalpina.
[745]: Dolabella had spent some time in Asia on his way to Syria. The murder of Trebonius took place on the 2nd of February. He then went on to Syria. The quidnuncs spoke jestingly of his Opposition to Cassius
[746]: When Antony had met the legions from Macedonia at Brundisium, he preceded them with a strong detachment to Rome, arriving between the 15th and 22nd of November, his main body of troops being ordered to muster at Tibur. He ordered in an edict a meeting of the senate un the 23rd, but did not appear, having put off the meeting by another edict to the 28th. He, however, only transacted some formal business—a supplicatio in honour of Lepidus, and a sortitio of the provinces—and then hurriedly left the city for Tibur, probably on hearing of the desertion of the two legions.
[747]: This is the speech known as the third Philippic.
[748]: Cicero had advocated in the senate on the 1st and following days of January the most uncompromising hostility to Antony, the fullest recognition of Octavian and of the action of the two legions, and of Decimus Brutus. But he could not get his motion passed, the embassy to Antony being voted on the 7th, as a tentative measure before pro- ceeding to extremities.
[749]: Servius Sulpicius Rufus, who died while on the mission in Antony's camp, near Mutina.
[750]: See p.145.
[751]: The Martia and the quarta. See p. 166.
[752]: Playful irony, for Paetus gave good though not extravagant dinners (vol. iii., p.98).
[753]: Cicero is quoting ftom his own essay on Old Age. See de Sen. § 45. For his liking for dinner-parties, see vol. iii., p.103.
[754]: Referring to M. Brutus having collected an army, occupied Greece, Macedonia, and Illyricum (App. B.C. 3.79; Dlo, 47, 21 sq.).
[755]: Modern Quaderna, on the Aemilian road between Forum Cornelium and Bononia (Bologna).
[756]: The surviving consulars were in several cases those who had owed their promotion to Caesar.
[757]: See vol. iii., p. 335. Crispus and Murcus had been sent with proconsular authority by Caesar to put down Bassus. Allienus was a legatus of Trebonius (Phil. 11.30). Cassius says nothing of the murder of Trebonius by Dolabella, but he must have known it by this time.
[758]: The proposal of Calenus supported in the eleventh Philippic, delivered in the senate after the news of the murder of Trebonius, intrusting the war against Dolabella, already declared a public enemy, to Cassius. The contio on the same subject to which Cicero alludes, has not been preserved. They were delivered early in March.
[759]: Servilia, whose daughter Tertia was the wife of Cassius.
[760]: It is not clear whom Pollio means. Lepidus was in possession of the northern province of Spain and of Narbonensis, and might intercept letters coming from the south for Italy that way, and letter-carriers starting from Rome might be stopped nearer the city by Antony or some of his followers.
[761]: Vegetius (Res Mil. 5.9) reckons the close season, during which ordinary navigation was suspended, as from 3rd November to 5th March. But see p. 287.
[762]: We cannot be sure who is meant. It is evidently some one with Pollio, and not Antony, as has been generally thought, and some one against whom Cicero had warned Pollio. It may be—as has been suggested -his fraudulent quaestor Balbus. See Letter DCCCXCIII.
[763]: There is no means of deciding what particular person Pollio means. We have heard of his prosecuting Gaius Cato (vol. i., p.281); and Quintilian mentions a speech against Labienus. But Pollio was a great orator, and may have prosecuted many persons and thus made enemies.
[764]: Cicero uses the common phrase non invita Minerva, "not without success" (vol. i., p. 363), in order to bring in the double reference to ,the feast of Minerva (quinquatrus Minervae) and to the statue of bust of Minerva which he had dedicated on the Capitol before he went into exile, as a guardian goddess of the city. See de Leg. 2.42.
[765]: As to Calvisius, appointed to succeed Sulpicius, see p. 139. T. Statilius Taurus had been named his legatus. The senate now confirmed Sulpicius in the province of Africa.
[766]: See p.167-168.
[767]: C. Calvisius made provision for retaining the province of Africa by leaving two of his legates there. See p. 160; Phil. 3.26.
[768]: See ante, p.169.
[769]: Because he refused Antony's summons to the senate on the 1st of September.
[770]: The first Philippic on the 2nd of September.
[771]: In the carefully prepared speech of the 19th of September (p.136).
[772]: Where he had been to meet the legions.
[773]: Terence, Andr. 189.
[774]: Decimus Brutus with Plancus was consul-designate for B.C. 42.
[775]: Gnaeus Munatius Plancus, who was a praetor this year. Hence Cicero mentions him with the complimentary viro optimo, almost "his excellency."
[776]: A supplicatio in November (Phil. 3.23); a triumph and gilded chair on the 1st of January (Phil. 5.41; Phil. 13.9). For his wish for peace, see p.187.
[777]: This letter is not included in the Cicero correspondence; yet he
[778]: The Lupercalia had been falling into disrepute, but were revived by Iulius and the Luperci endowed. See vol. iii., p.89.
[779]: See p.30.
[780]: A law, perhaps passed when Hirtius was praetor or praefectus in B.C. 46, to exclude Pompeians from office. But it is not certain.
[781]: Appuleius was quaestor in Asia (App. B.C. 3.63; Plut. Brut. 24, 25).
[782]: See pp.51, 57. Cicero declares that the senate knew nothing about the case.
[783]: That is, with which he killed Caesar.
[784]: Decimus Brutus.
[785]: An allusion to the ornandum, laudandum, tollendum epigram, for which see Letter DCCCLXXIV.
[786]: The senatorial decree which settled the expenses of a provincial governor (de ornanda provincia).
[787]: He probably means Plancus and Lepidus, who had both advised that some terms should be come to with Antony rather than use their forces in support of Decimus Brutus against him. He may also refer to the consulars in the senate of whom he has complained before.
[788]: See p.285.
[789]: See vol ii., p. 76. The decree referred to is very likely that giving the province to Calvisius. See p. 185.
[790]: In B.C. 44, in the consulship of Antony and Dolabella.
[791]: See vol. ii., p.194; vol. iii., p.107.
[792]: See pp. 160, 186. I think it is more probable that this refers to some decree affecting Cornificius's treatment of this man Sempronius, and not to a decree moved by Sempronius. But we know nothing about it.
[793]: Plancus had been preceded in the governorship of Gallia Comata by Hirtius, who, however, had not gone there in person, but had governed by a legatus (see p. 16). Immediately after the death of Caesar, Antony had apparently taken means to secure the fidelity of the Gauls to himself.
[794]: This is Letter DCCCXXX. I think, if Cicero had not been blinded by his extreme desire for the loyalty of Plancus, he would have seen in that despatch the coming treason. It protests too much, and yet avoids really committing the writer. But in spite of Cicero's compliments to Plancus, he probably had his misgivings.
[795]: P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus, Caesar's colleague in the consulship of B.C. 48. Cicero thought him too lukewarm in his condemnation of the party of Antony (9 Phil. §§ 7, 11).
[796]: For this proverbial expression, see vol. ii., p.307.
[797]: The vote of thanks seems to have been successfully resisted by the
[798]: Brother of L. Plancus, the recipient of these letters.
[799]: See ante, p. 218. Ventidius Bassus, as we have seen, did get past Decimus and join Antony.
[800]: Regium Lepidi, mod. Reggio, on the Aemi1ian road between Mutina and Parma.
[801]: Fam. 11.13
[802]: Phil. 14.9
[803]: That is, members of the college of augurs.
[804]: About £320,000.
[805]: M. Terentius Varro was not a particularly rich man, or at any rate not sufficiently so to be proverbial. But he wrote a book de divitiis, in which he may have told the story of Crassus saying that no one was rich till he could keep a legion on the interest of his capital (Pliny, N. H. 33, § 134). Another suggestion is that it refers to some character in one of Varro's plays.
[806]: The pass-still a mere mule track-leads from Dertona down to Vadu by the medicinal springs called Aquae Statiellae (mod. Acqui). Antony had got his cavalry and other troops through with great energy.
[807]: See p. 18o. Aulus Allienus was a legatus of Trebonius, and had been sent to Egypt lor the legions stationed there.
[808]: See pp. 204, 210.
[809]: L. Murcus and Q. Marcius Crispus, who had been engaged against Caecilius Bassus, and had handed over their legions to Cassius. See p. 180.
[810]: See vol. iii., p.335; ante, pp.15 143, 180.
[811]: This is true of the Odyssey, but in the Iliad Achilles is called ptolipo/rqios four times (viii. 372; 15.77; 21.550; 24.108). But as the great critic Aristarchus made the same remark, he was either referring only to the Odyssey, or he disbelieved in the genuineness of these verses in the iliad. The point here is that, though Ajax and Achilles won victories, it was Ulysses who finished the war by leading the chiefs in the wooden horse; so it is the man who conquers Antony that will finish the war.
[812]: See p.231.
[813]: There is no doubt that Decimus Brutus was completely outmanoeuvred. Antony's despatch of cavalry to Pollentia was a feint to draw Decimus Brutus away from the road to Vada, and he fell into the trap.
[814]: The end of the letter is lost.
[815]: See Letter DCCCXLV. This may have been sent with it.
[816]: A tribune (see p.207). Plancus wants to justify himself in the eyes of his opponents at Rome.
[817]: That is, of Antony and Lepidus.
[818]: That is, as at Mutina.
[819]: Cn. Munatius Plancus was praetor. See p.187.
[820]: The confluence of the Rhone and the Durance, near Avignon.
[821]: A station on the via Aurelia, but its exact site is uncertain. Mr. Hall (The Romans on the Riviera, p.183) places it in the territory of le Luc, twenty-four Roman miles west of Fréjus.
[822]: M. Iunius Silanus was a son of Servilia by her second husband, D. Iunius Silanus, and therefore half-brother of Marcus Brutus and brother-in-law of Lepidus. He commanded the praetorian cohort in Antony's army, and fought at Mutina. He survived to be consul in B.C. 25. His connexion with Lepidus no doubt caused his present move. According to Dio (46, 38), he had been sent by Lepidus to assist Decimus at Mutina with the secret understanding that he was to do nothing. Q. Terentius Culleo—mentioned once or twice before-must have been a rather lukewarm Caesarian (see vol. i., p. 162; vol. ii., p.301). Lepidus had, however, stationed him on the pass over the Maritime Alps—the Riviera—but probably by connivance of Lepidus himself he
[823]: On the 29th of May Lepidus joined Antony.
[824]: App. B.C. 3.83
[825]: P. Ventidius Bassus had in earlier life contracted for the supply of mules to Caesar's army. It was in that capacity that he seems to have attracted Caesar's notice and confidence.
[826]: Decimus Brutus was at Eporedia (Ivree), ready to cross by the Little St. Bernard pass, which would bring him into Provence, and in his march south he would have to cross the Isére.
[827]: After this name the MSS. have ex tribus fratribus Segaviano, which appear to have no meaning. We know nothing of this L. Gellius. If he was a Romanized Gaul, the right reading may be ex tribus fratribus Segallaunis, "one of three brothers of the Segallauni," a people living round Valence on the Rhone.
[828]: The senate transferred the legions of the dead consuls to Decimus Brutus (App. B.C. 3.74). But the fourth and the Martia had joined Octavian, and refused to be so transferred.
[829]: We know nothing of the circumstance. The vernae, "home-born slaves," had apparently been set free on some conditions (as was not unusual) which they disputed or refused to fulfil. Vicetia is the modern Vicenza between Padua and Verona.
[830]: This is the title by acclamation given to a successful commander by his soldiers. It could not properly be given more than once in the same war. Lepidus must therefore refer to some prior campaign (Dio, 70, 21). The official heading of the letter, as well as its style, denotes that Lepidus felt the awkwardness of his position, which he veils under the most stiff and formal language. It will be observed that with much bombast Lepidus contrives to say nothing whatever. He was only seven days from his formal coalition with Antony (p.281).
[831]: The point of the jest is in the double meaning of tollendum, "to be raised" and "to be removed " (see p.191).
[832]: To undo the acta of Antony and arrange for the assignation of land to the veterans.
[833]: Those with Octavian—the fourth, the Martia, and the two veteran legions which he had raised.
[834]: See pp.236, 254.
[835]: The rule was that a full year must elapse between the aedileship and election to the praetorship—that is, two full years between the actual holding of the two offices. Thus, if Furnius had been aedile in B.C. 44, he could only have been elected praetor in B.C. 42, and held the praetorship in B.C. 43.
[836]: The law required a professio seventeen days (trinundinum) before the election. The year's canvassing was a matter of custom, not law, but of such common custom that Cicero calls it "quasi-statutory."
[837]: Plancus was consul-designate for B.C. 42.
[838]: Praetor Urbanus, presiding in absence of consuls. See pp.207, 235.
[839]: P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus. Cicero thinks him always too lenient towards the party of Antony (see p.207). He had been Caesar's colleague in the consulship of B.C. 48. Though so much junior to Cicero as a consular, he seems to have been called on first.
[840]: P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, son ofthe consul of B.C. 57, of whom, as well as of his father, we have heard much before, was one of those who, according to Plutarch (Caes. 67), though not actually engaged in Caesar's assassination, joined the assassins on the Capitol and professed to have been in the plot. He was now in Asia, whither he had gone as quaestor with Trebonius. His year of quaestorship being over at the end of B.C. 44, he is now proquaestor, as having had no successor appointed.
[841]: After the murder of Trebonius, Lentulus went into Macedonia to ask the advice of Brutus (see p.276). Brutus and Cassius had received special authority over all provinces east of the Adriatic from the senate (App. B.C. 3.63).
[842]: Of the taxes, which he would receive as quaestor.
[843]: From Pharsalia. See vol. iii., p 31.
[844]: Consul B.C. 49.
[845]: The refusal of the Rhodians to receive Pompey is not mentioned by any other authority. Appian (B.C. 3.83) says that he was accompanied to Egypt by some triremes from Rhodes. Caesar (B.C. 3.102) tells the story of the exclusion of the two Lentuli. It was at Cyprus and Antioch apparently that Pompey met with rebuffs.
[846]: That is, Hirtius and Pansa, of whose death Lentulus is still ignorant. They would in the ordinary course of things draw lots for it. Meanwhile the senate had given Brutus and Cassius a general superintendence of all the provinces between the Adriatic and Syria (App. B.C. 4.58).
[847]: filw= te/kn' a)lla\ patri/d' e)mh\n ma=llon filw=n, said to be from the Erechtheus of Euripides.
[848]: The title of proquaestor was explained in a note to the previous letter: that of propraetor arose from the fact that, as there was no regular praetorius or consularis in the province (Trebonius being killed), and as the senate had committed the province to the consuls, Lentulus's position was that of legatus to the consuls, and in that case he exercised praetorial functions, and his regular designation was legatus pro praetore. A few years later Augustus used this title for all governors of imperial provinces.
[849]: As opposed to crossing the Hellespont, reached by the coast road from Macedonia. Per insulas is the technical expression for this route, translating the Greek dia\ nh/swn.
[850]: B.C. 51.
[851]: About sixty tons burden.
[852]: Because they always dealt directly with the senate.
[853]: See previous letter, p.273.
[854]: Asia as a peaceful province had no regular army stationed in it. A few cohorts accompanied a proconsul or propraetor as a bodyguard.
[855]: This is evidently a postscript to the preceding despatch, written a few days later and sent with it, and at the same time as the private letter to Cicero which precedes. Tyrrell and Purser arrange it as a separate letter; but I think nothing is gained and something lost by that, and I have followed Mueller therefore in maintaining the old arrangement.
[856]: Decimus Brutus, who with Plancus was Consul-designate for B.C. 42.
[857]: To strike the foot twice on the same stone, di\s pro\s to\n au)to\n ai)sxro\n ei)skrou/ein li/qon, bis ad eundem offendere lapidem turpe est. Something like our "A burnt child fears the fire." or "Once bit twice shy."
[858]: This was written on the day after Lepidus consummated his treason by joining Antony. For the titles of Lepidus, see p.265.
[859]: This of course proved true. They kept with Octavian, and refused to have anything to do with an assassin of Caesar. See pp.264, 267.
[860]: To be sent by Cornificius. They arrived on the same day as Octavian reached Rome (App. B.C. 3.91).
[861]: 26th April.
[862]: This letter is lost, but see p.258.
[863]: L. Aelius Lamia (see vol. iii., p.326). He was aedile in B.C. 45.
[864]: Relegatus, i.e., forbidden to come to Rome, but not deprived of civil rights or property. Gabinius was consul in B.C. 58, the year of Cicero's exile. If Cicero calls him princeps ordinis equestris with definite exactness and not as a sort of general compliment, he means that he was the first decurio of the first turma of the equites. But it is very doubtful whether this military organization of the equites existed at this time in reality. It was elaborated by Augustus some years later.
[865]: It seems true that retegatio, or, as it was called in its mildest form, relegatio in agros, does not occur in republican times, at any rate by an edict of a magistrate in the case of a citizen, though peregrini could be, and on several occasions were, ordered to leave Rome. But it was common under the empire. See p.195; Suet. Aug. 16, 24; Ovid. Tr. 2.135: Quippe relegatus, non exul, dicor in illo, Privaque fortunae sunt data verba meae. The edict of Gabinius would only hold good during his year of office.
[866]: That Cicero should have written these two notes on the same subject and with some identical phrases is probably to be explained by the employment of two different bearers. He was very likely uncertain where Brutus was, and which of the two would reach him.
[867]: See p.240.
[868]: April 15th, at Forum Gallorum. See p.182.
[869]: He uses the constitutional word tumultus, which was properly applied to civil war within the borders of Italy as opposed to bellum, a foreign war: though the latter is frequently used of it by Cicero and others, partly because the distinction is not observed in ordinary language, and partly ad invidiam, Antony having been declared a hostis. Pollio's having no suspicion of what was coming is a little too innocent. He was, in fact, at heart a Caesarian, and an opponent of Cicero.
[870]: Lepidus was governor of Northern Spain and Gallia Narbonensis.
[871]: He seems to confuse the afternoon battle at Forum Gallorum by Hirtius, after Pansa's repulse, with the battle fought in the assault on Antony's camp near Mutina, a week after that at Forum Gallorum (April 15th-21st).
[872]: Perhaps this parenthesis was inserted when the letters were edited. The mixture of truth and inaccuracy in the war news reaching Pollio will seem very natural to us in these days (1899-1900).
[873]: Lit. "under standards," i.e., when the several cohorts and maniples were still under their proper standards, and the men not crowded together indiscriminately, as would be the case in a beaten and disorganized legion.
[874]: This name is very uncertain. The MSS. have pupilli Bagienni. It seems likely that a legion raised among the Bagienni living near the source of the Po is meant. "Publius the Bagiennian" may be the commander of it—a Romanized native.
[875]: See p.222.
[876]: That is, cut and stacked in the fields, and therefore he can get plenty without trouble.
[877]: We do not possess the public despatch referred to, or any more letters from Decimus Brutus. He evidently knew when he wrote this despairing note that Lepidus had joined Antony—as he did on the 29th of May—and that his chance was over. He did, however, effect a junction with Plancus at Cularo (Grenoble) about the 27th of June, and the two kept open the Alpine pass and communication between Eporedia (Ivrea) and Grenoble for some weeks. But in August or early in September—while Octavian, after entering Rome and securing the consulship, had caused Decimus with the other assassins to be condemned under the lex Pedia—Pollio arrived with his legions, joined Lepidus and Antony, and persuaded Plancus to do the same. The frantic attempts of Decimus to march across Italy to Ravenna or Aquileia and take ship to join M. Brutus in Macedonia, the desertion of his army, his being headed off by Octavian from Aquileia, his flight to the Rhine, and his death by the hands of a Sequanian Gaul, at the command of Antony, followed in September—October. He was the third of the assassins to die a violent death, Trebonius and Aquila having already fallen. He had perhaps less excuse than any for taking part in the crime and blunder of the Ides of March. Cicero exalts his character in grandiloquent terms, and Caesar trusted and employed him constantly; yet he seems to have been a man of little political ability.
[878]: Who betrayed the laudandum, ornandum, tollendum epigram. See p.266.
[879]: Appointed to review the acta of Antony (see pp.266, 282, 310; App. B.C. 3.82). The veterans feared for their interests, lest the grants of lands should be revoked.
[880]: Decimus Brutus and Octavian. See p.266.
[881]: See p. 268.
[882]: Servius Sulpicius Galba. See p. 260.
[883]: Grenoble, where Plancus was presently joined by Decimus Brutus.
[884]: He may mean that he kept him as a prisoner of war, but I fear the phrase in Caesar usually means "put to the sword" (in numero hostis habere).
[885]: Plancus has evidently no idea, or poses as having no idea, of the real relation between the senate and Octavian.
[886]: Balbus the younger, nephew of Cicero's client. He had been a warm Caesarian. See vol. ii., p.201.
[887]: Mauretania Tingitana (Tangiers). Bogudes or Bogud was a supporter of the Caesarians.
[888]: That is, he made him an eques. Fourteen rows in the theatres, even in the provinces, were reserved for equites, in accordance with the lex Roscia. The gold ring had been the special mark of equites since some period before the Punic wars. Once it had been confined to senators going abroad on missions, and under the empire it was used by all ingenui. The reference to the action of Iulius Caesar is to his treatment of Decimus Laberius (see Suet. Iul. 39), who played his own mime: donatusque L sestertiis et anulo aureo in quattuordecim e scaena per orchestram transiit. But Suetonius infers that Laberius was an eques already.
[889]: The magistrates of Gades, as a municipium, were quattuorviri. The Balbi were natives of Gades, and he no doubt, being in Spain, had as a favour to his town accepted the office, though he was a Roman quaestor. See the case of Cicero's son at Arpinum, vol. iii., p 63.
[890]: B.C. 56. Sextus Quintilius Varus was praetor in B.C 57.
[891]: The story is told by Velleius Paterculus (ii. 51) how Balbus," with a daring almost passing belief," made his way into Pompey's camp at Dyrrachium, and tried to persuade Lentulus (consul B.C. 49) to desert to Caesar.
[892]: The calcei were taken off before dinner in the house and slippers put on-called soleae or gallicae (see Phil. 2.76). So the story of Caesar's emotion at hearing of Octavius's illness. He was at dinner, and springing up went to the house a)nupo/dhtos, i.e., nudis pedibus, with his dinner-slippers on.
[893]: The brutality is pointed by the wretched man being half-buried and unable to stir.
[894]: About £20.
[895]: Praetexta, sc. fabula, as above. A drama on Roman subjects as opposed to the palliata, a play from the Greek. We know from Horace (Od. 2.1) that Pollio, among other literary accomplishments, was a dramatic writer.
[896]: The poet (B.C. 66-26), the friend of Augustus, first governor of Egypt, who killed himself when he fell into disfavour. His elegiac poems—which Ovid thought the best existing in his time (Tr. 4.10, 5)—have perished.
[897]: Lepidus and Cassius were married to the two half-sisters of Brutus, Iunia and Tertia.
[898]: Lepidus joined Antony on the 29th of May. This would be known at Rome in about ten days, which will roughly date this letter at about June 8th-10th.
[899]: The acta of the senate, which would contain the proceedings by which Lepidus was declared a hostis, and Octavian was commissioned to make war on both him and Antony (Dio, 42, 46). For the acta, see Appendix to vol. ii.
[900]: See the recommendatory letters to Cornificius, pp.194-196.
[901]: The consuls had the power of issuing money from the treasury, and even drawing on the reserve fund (vol. ii., p. 263). But in their absence the control of the ordinary treasury was in the hands of the senate. Perhaps Cicero means that the only money available was the reserve, with which the senate could not or would not deal without a consul.
[902]: Tributum, which had never been levied in Italy since the conquest of Macedonia, B.C. 167. It was apparently levied in the course of this year, but the freedom from it remained the privilege of Italy for nearly three centuries afterwards. See Phil. 2.93; de Off. 2.76.
[903]: See p.173. For Tratorius, see p.139.
[904]: See p.225.
[905]: For the official receivers and distributors of bankrupt properties (magistri), see vol. i., p.14; vol. ii., p.140.
[906]: Writing on the 6th of June, Plancus said that he expected to be joined by Decimus Brutus in three days (see p.293). This fragment of a despatch appears in the MSS. at the end of Letter DCCCLXV, but cannot belong there, as it refers to a wholly different state of things. Its ascription to Decimus Brutus and Plancus is a conjecture, but an easy one. The date is less certain, that is, within a few days, more or less. It could not be earlier than the 9th, but might easily be ten days later.
[907]: As to the identity of this man—one of the assassins—see my note on Suet. Aug. 4. He is not mentioned before, but is referred to by Horace (Ep. i. 4, 3) as a writer of eminence, and the grammarians who annotated Horace say that he was an Epicurean and wrote satires, elegies and epigrams. He was executed by Augustus at Athens after the battle of Actium—the last of the assassins to perish. Two or three fragments of his poetry have been preserved: and Suetonius quotes part of a letter abusing Augustus. The elaborate and difficult style of this letter—the only one of his—indicates some pedantry and affectation, rather characteristic of the Roman Epicureans. He was perhaps quaestor or proquaestor in Syria now, though one commentator says he was a tribunus militum along with Horace.
[908]: On the coast of Cilicia Trachea (Korghoz).
[909]: That is, Tarsus and Leodicea were Caesarian.
[910]: Quaestor in Cyprus. See vol. iii., p.367.
[911]: See p.277.
[912]: *krommu/ou a)/kra, the northern cape of Cyprus.
[913]: M. Brutus and C. Cassius having been praetors in B.C. 44 would naturally be candidates for the consulship in B.C. 42, and, if elected, be consuls in B.C. 41.
[914]: See p.303.
[915]: That is, announcing victory.
[916]: See p.290.
[917]: Cicero's radical mistake was his view of Antony's retirement, as a flight of a helpless and demoralized force. It was, in fact, a masterly retreat, carried out with great skill and vigour, and with little or no loss; and before Antony came across Lepidus he had been strongly reinforced by Ventidius.
[918]: Plancus and Decimus Brutus.
[919]: If this was the man who joined in the prosecution of Milo (pro Mil. § 59), and once threatened Quintus Cicero with prosecution (vol. i., p. 165), it is difficult to see why Cicero was interested in him. But the changes in these revolutionary times were many and unexpected.
[920]: Gaius Furnius. See p.311.
[921]: For the adoption of Octavian, see p.21. By vestro Plancus seems to refer to the senate, which, though the curiate law for the formal adoption had not yet been passed, yet practically acknowledged the adoption of Octavian in his great-uncle's will by the wording of its decrees.
[922]: The African legions came from Cornificius, but they almost directly joined Octavian, which was the last blow to the hopes of Cicero and the senate (App. B.C. 3.91, 92).