[411] Mr. Purser's reading of nisi anteferret before proscripsit seems to me to darken the passage. What happened was this. Marcellinus's sententia was never put to the vote, because Metellus, Appius, and Hortensius (Cicero seems to mean him) talked out the sitting. Accordingly, Marcellinus published it, i.e., put it up outside the Curia to be read: and under it he (or some other magistrate whose name has dropped out of the text) put a notice that he was going to "watch the sky" all the dies comitiales, so as to prevent the election being held. But this had been rendered inoperative by Clodius's amendment of the lex Ælia Fufia (see 2 Phil. § 81)—or at any rate of doubtful validity—and, accordingly, the only thing left was the obnuntiatio by a magistrate, which Milo proceeded to make. The rule, however was that such obnuntiatio must be made before the comitia were begun (2 Phil. ib.), which again could not begin till sunrise. Hence Milo's early visit to the campus. For the meaning of proposita see Letter XLVII.
[412] After which the comitia could not be begun.
[413] P. Clodius, his brother Appius, and his cousin Metellus Nepos.
[414] Metellus means that he shall take the necessary auspices for the comitia in the comitium, before going to the campus to take the votes.
[415] Generally called inter duos lucos, the road down the Capitolium towards the Campus Martius, originally so called as being between the two heads of the mountain. It was the spot traditionally assigned to the "asylum" of Romulus.
[416] On the nundinæ and the next day no comitia and no meeting of the senate could be held.
[417] Candidate for the ædileship, of whom we know nothing.
[418] Apparently a poor lantern, whose sides were made of canvas instead of horn.
[419] Quintus Cicero was in Sardinia as Pompey's legatus as superintendent of the corn-supply, to which office he had been appointed in August. The letter is written not earlier than the 10th of December, for the new tribunes for B.C. 56 have come into office, and not later than the 16th, because on the 17th the Saturnalia began. Perhaps as the senate is summoned and presided over by Lupus, it is on the 10th, the day of his entrance upon office.
[420] "Full," that is, for the time of year. A "full house" is elsewhere mentioned as between three and four hundred.
[421] P. Rutilius Lupus, one of the new tribunes.
[422] This refers to Cicero's attempts to exempt the ager publicus in Campania from being divided (see Letter XXIV, p. 55); and not only to his speeches against Rullus. It was because Cæsar disregarded the ancient exception of this land from such distribution that Cicero opposed his bill, and refused to serve on the commission.
[423] Nihil vos moramur were the words used by the presiding magistrate, indicating that he had no more business to bring before the senate. If no one said anything, the senate was dismissed; but any magistrate, or magistrate-designate, could speak, and so continue the sitting up to nightfall, when the house stood adjourned.
[424] Because consul-designate. L. Racilius, one of the new tribunes.
[425] The sortitio iudicum was performed by the prætor drawing out the required number of names from the urn, which contained the names of all liable to serve. The accused could, however, challenge a certain number, and the prætor had then to draw others.
[426] The formula whereby the senate declared its opinion that so and so was guilty of treason. It had no legal force, but the magistrates might, and sometimes did, act on it.
[427] C. Porcius Cato, distant relation of Cato Uticensis, one of the new tribunes.
[428] I.e., Marcellinus (Cn. Cornelius Lentulus).
[429] The senators not in office only spoke when called on (rogati). The consuls-designate (if there were any) were always called first, and then the consulars in order. To be called first was a subject of ambition, and an opportunity for the presiding magistrate to pay a compliment or the reverse.
[430] They went and sat or stood near the speaker they wished to support. It was not, however, a formal division till the speeches ended, and the presiding magistrate counted. Still, it made the division easier.
[431] A platform outside the senate-house, where representatives originally of Greek and then of other states were placed. It was apparently possible to hear, or partly hear, the debates from it. It was a locus substructus (Varro, L. L. v. 155). There is no evidence that it was a building to lodge ambassadors in, as Prof. Tyrrell says.
[432] 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.
[433] 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. iii. 17, 9; Gell. ii. 24, 7); (2) the lex Æmilia (B.C. 68), which also defined both the quantity and quality of food allowable at banquets (Gell. ii. 24, 12).
[434] C. Anicius, a senator and intimate friend of Cicero's.
[435] Consul of B.C. 57, who had gone at the end of his consulship to be governor of Cilicia.
[436] 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, xxxix. 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).
[437] Of having been induced by greed or ambition to undertake the restoration of Ptolemy.
[438] 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.
[439] I.e., before going to the senate on the Ides of January (13th). See next letter.
[440] The Sibylline oracle forbade restoring the king "with a multitude."
[441] Pompey had at this time imperium as curator annonæ.
[442] Because it was on Lentulus's motion that Pompey had been made curator annonæ, and so in possession of imperium with naval and military forces.
[443] 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?
[444] 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.
[445] Because they had magistrates ready to stop the comitia by declaring bad omens, and tribunes ready to veto any proposal.
[446] 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.
[447] This is a specimen of the short letter of introduction to a provincial governor which were given almost as a matter 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.
[448] 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. ii. 13).
[449] That of the tribune C. Cato for the recall of Lentulus.
[450] A money-lender, and friend of Lentulus Spinther.
[451] Pompey.
[452] Agent or steward of Atticus.
[454] Clodius, who was ædile this year.
[455] For commissioning Pompey with two lictors to restore Ptolemy.
[456] Milo impeached by Clodius before the comitia tributa for his employment of gladiators. Dio (xxxix. 18) says that Clodius thus impeached Milo, not with any hope of securing his conviction against the powerful support of Cicero and Pompey, but to get the chance of insulting these latter. Marcellus was one of the candidates for the ædileship with Clodius. See Letter XCI.
[457] In B.C. 129, after making a speech in favour of the claims of the Italians for exemption from the agrarian law of Gracchus, Scipio Æmilianus, the younger Africanus, was found dead in his bed. The common report was that he had been assassinated by Carbo, or with his privity, but it was never proved (see de Orat. ii. § 170). Cicero does not here assume the truth of the story, he merely repeats Pompey's words.
[458] M. Tullius Albinovanus. It was on this charge de vi that Cicero defended Sestius in the extant speech. The charge of bribery does not appear to have been proceeded with.
[459] Adlegatos, probably commissioners named to receive and report on a deposition of an informer before the senate acted.
[460] L. Calpurnius Piso Bestia, a candidate in the last election of ædiles.
[461] Cn. Domitius Calvinus, consul B.C. 53. In the Civil War he sided with Pompey, and perished at sea after Thapsus (B.C. 46).
[462] Ad lucum Pisonis. The place is not known, but there is not sufficient reason for the change to ad lacum Pisonis, a place equally unknown.
[463] A part of Rome on the slope of the Mons Oppius.
[464] I.e., get out of it as soon as you can.
[465] Ptolemy was at Ephesus.
[466] The famous C. Asinius Pollio.
[467] The postponement of the Egyptian commission.
[468] ἐξ ἀπαλῶν ὀνύχων, 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. ἔξ αὐτῶν τῶν ὀνύχων, "thoroughly," occurs in late Greek, and similar usages in the Anthology.
[469] L. Æmilius Paullus, prætor B.C. 53, consul B.C. 50, a strong Optimate and friend of Cicero's.
[470] P. Vatinius, the tribune of B.C. 59, who had supported Cæsar and proposed the law for his five years' command in Gaul. Cicero spoke against him for perjury; but afterwards we shall find them ostensibly reconciled.
[471] A Greek grammarian and geographer, of whom we have heard before, and shall hear of again in connexion with Cicero's library.
[472] P. Furius Crassipes. Tullia's first husband, C. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, died, it seems, before Cicero returned from exile in B.C. 57. This second marriage (or, perhaps, only betrothal) was shortly ended by a divorce.
[473] I.e., on which the sponsalia could not take place.
[474] Not going the right way to work to get it.
[475] At the end of the next letter he says that, pending Quintus's arrival, he has stopped some of his building.
[476] On some alleged informality the feriæ Latinæ were held a second time (instauratæ), really, Cicero implies, in order to bar some additional days for public business, and prevent legislation, as later on the election of Pompey and Crassus was prevented (Dio, xxxix. 30).
[477] At the end of B.C. 57, or the beginning of 56, fifteen days of supplicatio were decreed in consequence of Cæsar's success in Gaul (Cæs. B. G. ii. 35).
[478] Gaius Cato the tribune, who proposed to recall Lentulus.
[479] A scriba or public clerk, and a client of the patrician Clodii.
[480] Unknown. Cicero's words seem to imply that he nearly got convicted, but not quite.
[481] In B.C. 357 a "college" was established for celebrating the ludi Capitolini, in celebration of the failure of the Gauls to take it. It consisted of men living on the Capitoline (Livy, v. 50). The Mercuriales were a "college" or company of merchants who celebrated the fête of the consecration of the temple of Mercury (B.C., 495) on the Ides of May (Livy, ii. 27; Ov. F. v. 669; C. I. L. i. p. 206).
[482] It was on this journey that Pompey visited Luca tomeet Cæsar and Crassus.
[483] The name of a property of Quintus at Arpinum.
[484] Another property of Quintus near Mintumæ.
[486] παλινφδία—something he had apparently written and sent to Pompey or Cæsar, giving in his adhesion to the policy of the triumvirs. It can hardly have been the speech de Provinciis Consularibus or the oratio pro Balbo, which had probably not yet been delivered, for the arrangement recommended in the former speech was not that of the conference of Luca, while in the latter, though he speaks respectfully of Cæsar, there is nothing in the shape of a palinode in general politics.
[487] That is, the dowry and expenses of Tullia's betrothal to Crassipes.
[488] Tullia de via recta in hortos, for tu, etc., and ad te postridie. This may not be right, but no other suggestions as to the meaning of these abrupt clauses have been made which are in the least convincing. We must suppose that Atticus has asked Tullia to stay with him and his wife Pilia, and Cicero is describing her journey from Antium.
[489] 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.
[490] 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.
[491] Reading communi fueris nomine. After all, the meaning is very doubtful.
[492] Philoxenus, who, having been sent to the quarries by Dionysius of Syracuse, for criticising the tyrant's poetry, was given another chance. After reading a few lines he turned away silently. "Where are you going?" said Dionysius. "Back to the quarries," said Philoxenus. For Σπαρταν ἔλαχες, ταύτην κοσμεῖ, see p. 59.
[493] Ferrei. The true meaning of the word here seems to me to be shewn by de Am. § 87, quis tam esset ferreus, qui eam vitam ferre posset, cuique non auferret fructum voluptatum omnium solitudo? There is an intentional play on the words ferreus and ferre. Others have altered it to servi, and others have explained it as an allusion to the iron age, in both cases spoiling the antithesis—he died, we remain—and in the latter using the word in a sense not elsewhere found. Lentulus is L. Cornelius Lentulus. See Letter L.
[494] A money-lender.
[495] οὐχ ὁσίη φθιμένοισιν, leaving Atticus, as often, to fill in the words ἐπ' ἀνδράσιν εὐχετάασθαι (Hom. Od. xxii. 412, where the word is κταμένοισιν). Terentius is some eques who has stopped payment.
[496] Because Clodius was attempting to pull down Cicero's new-built house on the ground that the site was still consecrated. He was prevented by Milo (Dio, xxxix. 20).
[497] Something that Quintus had done, perhaps about water, on his estate which annoyed his fellow townsmen.
[498] ὁ δ' οὐκ ἐμπάζετο μύθων (Hom. Od. i. 271).
[499] We must suppose Atticus to have mentioned some money loss (see last letter), and to have added that, though a ruinous one, his tastes were simple, and he could live on simple fare. Cicero laughs at the affectation of the rich Atticus. Raudusculum, "a piece of bronze," was the ancient term for the piece of bronze money used in sales, per æs et libram (Varro, L. L. v. 163).
[500] μήπω μέγ' εἴπης πρὶν τελευτήσαντ' ἴδῃς, "Do not boast till you see a man dead"—a well-known line from a lost play of Sophocles, containing a sentiment elsewhere often repeated, especially in Herodotus's account of the interview of Solon and Crœsus.
[501] εἴη μοὶ οὖτος φίλος οἶκος, according to a probable restoration of the Greek words (instead of εἴη μισητὸς φίλος οἶκος, "I might even hate my town house in comparison"); cp. Hor. Od. ii. 6, 7.
[502] Fratris. The mother of Clodius, Cæcilia, was a daughter of Q. Cæcilius Metellus Balearicus (consul B.C. 123), father of the writer of this letter.
[505] 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.
[506] Cicero says elsewhere that he supported this (pro Balbo, §61; de Prov. Cons. §28; cp. Dio, xxxix. 25).
[507] 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.
[508] Paludatum, lit. dressed in the paludamentum, the military dress in which provincial governors left Rome with imperium.
[509] Notam, some cipher, which he had agreed upon with Valerius to indicate that the commendatio was not to be looked upon as a mere matter of course.
[510] One of the tribunes. He was convicted of vis in B.C., 54. Gabinius was governor of Syria B.C. 57-54. He had been engaged in some warlike affairs in Iudæa, for which, or for some successes over the Arabs, he claimed the supplicatio.
[511] εἰλικρινές, "pure," "clear."
[512] Mihi aqua hæret, "there's a stoppage in my water course."
[513] The letter appears to be from Tusculum, because Cicero asks for a letter every day, which he could hardly expect if he were farther off. This year Cicero was much away from Rome, and yet his correspondence is meagre compared with other years. So far as this is not due to accident in the preservation of his letters, it may be accounted for by the fact that he was working at his de Oratore—so hard, that even his brother Quintus had scruples in breaking in upon him.
[514] This may refer to the laws of Trebonius, giving Pompey and Crassus Spain and Syria respectively, and Cæsar an additional five years in Gaul, or to some of Pompey's own legislation.
[515] L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, a candidate for the consulship of B.C. 55, but whose election had never come off. By various contrivances the comitia were prevented, so that the new year opened with an interregnum; and Pompey and Crassus were elected under the presidency of an interrex (Dio, xxxix. 31).
[516] Pompey.
[517] L. Natta, a brother-in-law of Clodius, a pontifex who had presided at the consecratio of Cicero's house. He seems to have just died.
[518] A friend of Pompey's. I think "your guest" must be Pompey himself, whom Atticus is about to entertain at dinner.
[519] The extreme Optimates, such as Cato.
[520] Against the predatory and piratic inhabitants of Cilicia.
[521] His poem "On his own Times."