Book: The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4

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[Footnote 12: Ityra was a town at the foot of Mount Taurus.]

[Footnote 13: Brutus was the Praetor urbanus this year, and that
officer's duty confined him to the city; and he was forbidden by law
to be absent more than ten days at a time during his year of office.]

[Footnote 14: I have translated _jugerum_ "an acre," because it
is usually so translated, but in point of fact it was not quite
two-thirds of an English acre. At the same time it was nearly three
times as large as the Greek [Greek: plethros] such by the fault of
fortune and not by his own. You assumed the manly gown, which you soon
made a womanly one: at first a public prostitute, with a regular price
for your wickedness, and that not a low one. But very soon Curio
stepped in, who carried you off from your public trade, and, as if he
had bestowed a matron's robe upon you, settled you in a steady and
durable wedlock. No boy bought for the gratification of passion was
ever so wholly in the power of his master as you were in Curio's. How
often has his father turned you out of his house? How often has he
placed guards to prevent you from entering? while you, with night
for your accomplice, lust for your encourager, and wages for your
compeller, were let down through the roof. That house could no longer
endure your wickedness. Do you not know that I am speaking of matters
with which I am thoroughly acquainted? Remember that time when Curio,
the father, lay weeping in his bed; his son throwing himself at my
feet with tears recommended to me you; he entreated me to defend you
against his own father, if he demanded six millions of sesterces of
you; for that he had been bail for you to that amount. And he himself,
burning with love, declared positively that because he was unable
to bear the misery of being separated from you, he should go into
banishment. And at that time what misery of that most nourishing
family did I allay, or rather did I remove! I persuaded the father to
pay the son's debts; to release the young man, endowed as he was with
great promise of courage and ability, by the sacrifice of part of his
family estate; and to use his privileges and authority as a father
to prohibit him not only from all intimacy with, but from every
opportunity of meeting you. When you recollected that all this was
done by me, would you have dared to provoke me by abuse if you had not
been trusting to those swords which we behold?]

[Footnote 15: Sisapo was a town in Spain, celebrated for some mines of
vermilion, which were farmed by a company.]

[Footnote 16: She was a courtesan who had been enfranchised by her
master Volumnius. The name of Volumnia was dear to the Romans as that
of the wife of Coriolanus, to whose entreaties he had yielded when he
drew off his army from the neighbourhood of Rome.]

[Footnote 17: This is a play on the name Hippia, as derived from
[Greek: hippos], a horse.]

[Footnote 18: The custom of erecting a spear wherever an auction
was held is well known, it is said to have arisen from the ancient
practice of selling under a spear the booty acquired in war.]

[Footnote 19: There seems some corruption here. Orellius apparently
thinks the case hopeless.]

[Footnote 20: The Latin is, "non solum de die, sed etiam in diem,
vivere;" which the commentators explain, "_De die_ is to feast every
day and all day. Banquets _de die_ are those which begin before the
regular hour." (Like Horace's _Partem solido demere de die_.) "To
live _in diem_ is to live so as to have no thought for the
future."--Graevius.]

[Footnote 21: This accidental resemblance to the incident in the
"Forty Thieves" in the "Arabian Nights" is curious.]

[Footnote 22: The _septemviri,_ at full length _septemviri epulones_
or _epulonum_, were originally triumviri. They were first created BC.
198, to attend to the _epulum Jovis_, and the banquets given in
honour of the other gods, which duty had originally belonged to the
_pontifices_. Julius Caesar added three more, but that alteration did
not last. They formed a _collegium_, and were one of the four
great religious corporations at Rome with the _pontifices_, the
_augures_, and the _quindecemviri_. Smith, Diet, Ant. v. _Epulones_.]

[Footnote 23: It had been explained before that Fulvia had been the
widow of Clodius and of Curio, before she married Antonius.]

[Footnote 24: Riddle (Dict. Lat. in voce) says, that this was
the regular punishment for deserters, and was inflicted by their
comrades.]

[Footnote 25: Cnaeus Octavius, the real father of Octavius Caesar, had
been praetor and governor of Macedonia, and was intending to stand for
the consulship when he died.]

[Footnote 26: Bambalio is derived from the Greek word [Greek: bambala]
to lisp.]

[Footnote 27: Julia, the mother of Antonius and sister of Lucius
Caesar, was also a native of Aricia.]

[Footnote 28: He had intended to propose to the senate to declare
Octavius a public enemy. We must recollect that in these orations
Cicero, even when he speaks of Caius Caesar, means Octavius.]

[Footnote 29: It is quite impossible to give a proper idea of
Cicero's meaning here. He is arguing on the word _dignus_, from which
_dignitas_ is derived. But we have no means of keeping up the play on
the words in English.]

[Footnote 30: The general proceeding on such occasions being to ask
each senator's opinion separately, which gave those who chose an
opportunity for pronouncing some encomium on the person honoured.]

[Footnote 31: Spartacus was the general of the gladiators and slaves
in the Servile war.]

[Footnote 32: Lepidus had not in reality done any particular service
to the republic (he was afterwards one of the triumviri), but he was
at the head of the best army in the empire, and so was able to be of
the most important service to either party, and, therefore, Cicero
hoped to attach him to his side by this compliment.]

[Footnote 33: It has been already explained that this was the name of
one legion.]

[Footnote 34: The mirmillo was the gladiator who fought with the
retiarius; he wore a Gallic helmet with a fish for a crest.]

[Footnote 35: The English reader must recollect that what is called
Gaul in these orations, is Cisalpine Gaul containing what we now call
the North of Italy, coming down as far south as Modena and Ravenna.]

[Footnote 36: After the year B.C. 403 there were two classes of Roman
knights, one of which received a horse from the state, and were
included in the eighteen centuries of service, the other class, first
mentioned by Livy (v. 7) in the account of the siege of Veii, served
with their own horses, and instead of having a horse found them,
received a certain pay, (three times that of the infantry) and were
not included in the eighteen centuries of service. The original
knights, to distinguish them from these latter, are often called
_equites equo publico_, sometimes also ficus vanes or _trossuli_
_Vide_ Smith, Dict. Ant. P. 394-396, v. _Equites_]

[Footnote 37: He had been one of the septemvirs appointed to preside
over the distribution of the lands.]

[Footnote 38: Janus was the name of a street near the temple of Janus,
especially frequented by bankers and usurers. It was divided into
_summus, nedus_ and _imus_ Horace says--


Hase Janus summus ab imo
Edocet [lacuna]
Postquam omms res mea Janum
Ad medium fracta cat.


]

[Footnote 39: _I.e. tumultus_, as if it were _tumor multus_]

[Footnote 40: These were the names of officers devoted to Antonius.]

[Footnote 41: The province between the Alps and the Rubicon was called
Gallia _Citerior_, or _Oisalpina_, from its situation, also _Togata_,
from the inhabitants wearing the Roman toga. The other was called
_Ulterior_, and by Cicero often _Ultima_, or _Transalpina_, and also
_Comata_, from the fashion of the inhabitants wearing long hair]

[Footnote 42: Sulpicius was of about the same age as Cicero, and an
early friend of his, and he enjoyed the reputation of being the first
lawyer of his time, or of all who ever had studied law as a profession
in Rome.]

[Footnote 43: There is some corruption of the text here.]

[Footnote 44: Brutus had been adopted by his maternal uncle Quintus
Servilius Caepio, so that his legal designation was what is given in
the text now, as Cicero is proposing a formal vote--though at all
other times we see that he calls him Marcus Brutus]

[Footnote 45: The Latin is _Samiarius_, or as some read it _Samarius_.
Orellius says, "perhaps it means some sort of trade, for I doubt
its having been a Roman proper name." Nizollius says, "Samarius
exul--_proverbium_." Facciolatti calls him a man whose business it was
to clean the arms of the guards, &c. with Samian chalk.]

[Footnote 46: Vopiscus is another name of Bestia.]

[Footnote 47: It is impossible to give the force of the original here,
which plays on the word _tabula_. The Latin is, "vindicem enim novarum
tabularum novam tabulam vidimus," _novae tabulae_ meaning as is well
known a law for the abolition of debts, _nova tabula_ in the singular
an advertisement of (Trebellius's) property being to be sold.]

[Footnote 48: Here too is a succession of puns. Lysidicus is derived
from the Greek [Greek: lyo] to loosen and [Greek: dikae], justice.
_Cimber_ is a proper name, and also means one of the nation of the
Cimbri, _Germanus_ is a German, and _germanus_ a brother, and he means
here to impute to Caius Cimber that he had murdered his brother.]

[Footnote 49: Compare St Paul,--"For if the trumpet give an uncertain
sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" 1 Cor. xiv 8.]

[Footnote 50: That is, without being crucified like a slave.]

[Footnote 51: The Latin here is "Itaque Caesaris munera
rosit,"--playing on the name mus, mouse; but Orellius thinks the whole
passage corrupt, and indeed there is evident corruption in the text
here in many places.]

[Footnote 52: He means Lucius Aemilius Paullus, and Caius Claudius
Marcellus, who were consuls the year after Servius Sulpicius and
Marcus Claudius Marcellus, A.U.C. 704.]

[Footnote 53: These two were tribunes of the people, who had been
dispossessed of their offices by Julius Caesar.]

[Footnote 54: There is some difficulty here. Many editors propose to
read "offen lerint" which Orellius thinks would hardly be Latin. He
says, "Antonius is here speaking of those veterans who had deserted
him indeed but who, at the time of his writing this letter, had not
acted against him". Therefore, he says it is open to them to become
reconciled to him again (wishing to conciliate them, and to alarm his
enemies). On the other hand, Cicero replies, Nothing is so open to
them now as to do what their duty to the republic requires. That is to
say, openly to attack you, whose party they have already abandoned.]

[Footnote 55: There were two wine feasts, Vinalia, at Rome: the
vinalia urbano, celebrated on the twenty-third of April; and the
vinalia rustica, on the nineteenth of October. This was the urbana
vinalia; on which occasion the wine casks which had been filled in the
autumn were tasted for the first time.]

[Footnote 56: There is much dispute as to who is meant here. Some say
Cicero refers to Amphion, some to Orpheus, and some to Mercury; the
Romans certainly did attribute the civilization of men to Mercury, as
Horace says--

Qui feros cultus hominum recenti
Voce formasti catus I. 9, 2.]

[Footnote 57: This is very frequently quoted by Cicero; the Latin
lines being the opening of the Medea of Ennius, translated from the
first lines of the Medea of Euripides.]

[Footnote 58: The Talysus was a hunter at Rhodes, of whom Protogenes
had made an admirable picture, which was afterwards brought to Rome,
and placed in the temple of Peace.]

[Footnote 59: Brutus was at present propraetor in Gaul.]

[Footnote 60: Theophrastus's real name was Tyrtamus, but Aristotle,
whose pupil he was, surnamed him Theophrastus, from the Greek words
[Greek: Theos], God and [Greek: phrazo], to speak.]

[Footnote 61: He refers to the Menexenus.]

[Footnote 62: Cape si vis.]

[Footnote 63: "Assiduus. Prop, sitting down, seated, and so, well to
do in the world, rich. The derivation _ab assis duendis_ is therefore
to be rejected. Servius Tullius divided the Roman people into two
classes, _assidui, i. e._ the rich, who could sit down and take their
ease, and _proletarii_, or _capite censi_, the poor."--Riddle, in voc.
_Assiduus_, quoting this passage. One does not see, however, why aelius
and Cicero should not understand the meaning and derivation of a
Latin word. Smith's Dict. Ant. takes no notice of the word at all.]

[Footnote 64: See chap. x.]

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