Political Speeches (Oxford World's Classics)

by Cicero

  in the women’s quarters: see first note on § 93b above.

  whenever a tyrant is killed … get it back again: Ramsey well comments that, according to this rule, Pompey’s property ought to have been taken from Antony and handed over to Sextus Pompeius, who was claiming it.

  that person: possibly someone up-and-coming such as Publius Alfenus Varus, a pupil of Servius Sulpicius Rufus who later oversaw the land confiscations for the triumvirs in 41.

  we hate the author but defend his acts: see second note on § 6 above. 93a

  Where are … the temple of Ops?: see second note on § 35 above.

  with a sad provenance: because it consisted, in part, of proceeds from the sales of the property of the defeated Pompeians.

  to save us from having to pay tribute: since 167 BC Roman citizens had not had to pay tribute; but they would have to do so again in 43, to meet the cost of the war against Antony. Either Cicero is here showing great foresight, or the possibility of raising tribute from citizens was in the air at this time.

  notebooks … memoranda: see second note on §6 above.

  Marcus Brutus’ term as governor: see fourth note on § 31 above. Crete had been a province only since 66 (first note on Ver. 26 above).

  And was it Caesar … regarding exiles?: Caesar had recalled some exiles in 49 (through Antony as tribune; cf. § 56) and then a second batch in 46 or 45; but Antony’s law, which he passed off as Caesar’s, recalled further individuals whom Caesar, Cicero maintains, had deliberately chosen not to recall, because of their bad characters.

  the way you treated your uncle: Gaius Antonius Hybrida, in 49; see first note on § 56 above.

  you even made him stand for the censorship: in 44; nothing came of it. It was indeed inappropriate for him to stand, given that he had been expelled from the senate in 70 and then convicted and exiled in 59. He was, however, to become censor in 42.

  thunder on the left: thunder from any direction caused an assembly to be dissolved. However, thunder on the left was a good omen; perhaps Cicero’s point is that Antony’s augural knowledge is not strong (cf. §81).

  the Board of Seven: this was set up in mid-June to distribute public land in Italy among Caesar’s veterans and the poor.

  if you said no … in jeopardy: ironic. With the exception of Antony, his brother Lucius Antonius, and Dolabella, the members of the Board were all nonentities.

  your surrogate father: on Antony’s natural father, who died in c.71, see first note on § 42 above.

  His daughter, your cousin: Antonia, to whom Antony had been married before he married Fulvia. Cicero implies at the end of this sentence that Antony had been unfaithful to Antonia prior to divorcing her in 47 (cf. first note on § 48 above).

  wicked of you … Dolabella: Dolabella was in fact a notorious womanizer.

  Did you ever invite anyone to sit on it?: the commission is in fact known to have met at least once (Att. 16.16C.2).

  your tour of the veterans’ colonies: Antony spent April–May settling Caesar’s veterans in Campania. Hitherto they had been staying in Rome, a source of fear and unrest, and the senate wanted them out of the way.

  you even attempted to found a colony at Capua: as Cicero explains at §102, Antony could not legally do this, since Capua was already a colony (founded by Caesar in 59). In the event, he and his would-be colonists were driven out by the Capuans (Phil. 12.7).

  to the soldiers: to Pompey’s Mithridatic veterans in 59 and to Caesar’s veterans in 45.

  To his rhetorician: Sextus Clodius. Three thousand iugera is about 1,875 acres (nearly 3 square miles) and two thousand is about 1,250 (nearly 2 square miles).

  Casilinum: 3 miles north-west of Capua, where the Appian Way crosses the Volturnus. Caesar had founded a colony there in 59.

  You wrote to me asking my opinion: because Cicero was an expert in augury.

  Marcus Varro: Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BC), Rome’s greatest scholar and the author of an estimated 620 books (parts of his work on the Latin language, dedicated to Cicero, and his treatise on farming are all that have survived). He pursued a military career under Pompey, who appointed him governor of Further Spain from (probably) 55 to 49. Caesar pardoned him at some point after Pharsalus, and in 45 asked him to form Rome’s first public library; nothing came of this. Casinum (see note on § 40 above) was on Antony’s way back from Capua to Rome.

  Lucius Rubrius’ heirs … Lucius Turselius’ heirs: see §§40–1.

  the spear in the ground: see second note on § 64 above.

  ‘how different a master’: a quotation from an unknown tragedy. A. R. Dyck (on Off. 1.139) suggests Accius’ Erigona as the source, in which case the original reference would be to Clytemnestra and Aegisthus in Agamemnon’s palace.

  the laws of the Roman people, the records of our ancestors: i.e. Varro’s fifteen books on civil law and forty-one on ‘human and divine antiquities’, all now lost.

  Aquinum, and Interamna: nearby towns. Aquinum was the next town after Casinum on the Via Latina in the direction of Rome. It was only 12 miles from Arpinum: one can sense Cicero’s local knowledge in this passage.

  Anagnia: a hill town about halfway between Aquinum and Rome, on a ridge overlooking the Via Latina (the ‘main road’ just referred to).

  just as though he were a consul: cf. § 10 ‘he cannot in any sense be regarded as a consul, either in his private life, or in his administration of the state, or in the manner of his appointment’.

  Mustela and Laco: Seius Mustela (§ 8), the swordsman, was a commander of Antony’s guard; Laco is unknown.

  the Sidicini … the people of Puteoli: the Sidicini were a people of northern Campania (their chief city was Teanum); Antony would have passed through their territory when he travelled from Casilinum to Casinum. For Puteoli, see second note on Ver. 2.5.154 above.

  Gaius Cassius and the Bruti: see first two notes on § 26 above.

  Basilus: Lucius Minucius Basilus, patron of the Picene and Sabine territories (Off. 3.74, where he is again criticized); presumably not the man of the same name who was one of Caesar’s assassins.

  when he demolished that tomb: in early April, Caesar’s supporters had erected an altar and column over the place in the forum where the dictator’s body had been cremated, and had began to worship him as a god (in referring to this monument as a tomb, Cicero implicitly denies Caesar’s divinity). Later in the month, after Antony and the soldiers had left for Campania, Dolabella demolished the monument, executed the worshippers, and arranged for the site to be paved over—much to Cicero’s delight.

  I suppose fear … must have prevailed: in fact Antony bought Dolabella off with money from the temple of Ops.

  We remembered … the monarchy of Caesar: an eloquent and impressive statement. On Cinna and Sulla, see second note on Cat. 3.9 above.

  barbarian: Antony made use of archers from Ituraea (§§ 19, 112).

  He extended … provincial governorships: Caesar had limited this to two years for proconsular appointments and one year for propraetorian appointments. On 2 or 3 June Antony extended his and Dolabella’s prospective governorships (of Macedonia and Syria respectively) from two to five years.

  A will he made null and void: technically, Antony did not make Caesar’s will null and void, although he did block Octavian’s inheritance and the payment of legacies to the Roman people.

  Scipio’s villa: see second note on § 42 above.

  a couch, a sacred image, a pediment on his house, a priest: all divine honours voted to Caesar in the last months of his life—and of course a major cause of his assassination. (He was not technically declared a god, however, until 42.) The sacred images of the gods were placed on couches at thanksgivings. Antony had been appointed Caesar’s priest, but was not formally inaugurated until 40.

  your colleagues: i.e. your fellow augurs.

  the fourth day of the Roman Games in the circus: i.e. 18 September. The Roman Games lasted from 4 to 18 September (see first note on Ver. 31 above), bu
t only the last four days (15–18 September), devoted to chariot racing, were held in the Circus Maximus.

  Can you have allowed … similarly polluted?: Cicero’s point is obscure. He seems to mean: why has Antony added an extra day to all the thanksgivings to the gods in Caesar’s honour (the proposal, made on 1 September, seems not to have been specific to the Roman Games; cf. Phil. 1.13), and yet not have been prepared to go so far as to display his image on a couch with those of the gods?

  your grandfather: Marcus Antonius the orator (see second note on Ver. 2.5.3 above).

  he never addressed … in the nude: in (stark, of course) contrast to Antony at the Lupercalia (§86).

  Why are the doors … not standing open?: when the senate met, the doors of the building were normally kept open so that passers-by could listen to what was being said inside.

  owed her third instalment: Fulvia’s first two husbands, Clodius and Curio, had both met violent deaths (cf. §11).

  The Roman people have men: such as Brutus and Cassius. Brutus was in Greece, Cassius at sea off Sicily.

  young men: Brutus and Cassius were both a little over 40. But Cicero probably means young in comparison with himself.

  Brutus made war on Tarquinius: on this example and the three which follow, see fourth note on § 87 above.

  you abolished the dictatorship: cf. § 91. The date will have been around the end of March.

  persons close to you: a reference to Fulvia, as at § 93b.

  something else … afraid of: i.e. assassination.

  And if you are not afraid … tolerate you for long: i.e. even if you are not afraid of being assassinated by patriots, because you have your henchmen to keep them at bay, you ought still to be afraid of being assassinated by your own supporters (as happened to Caesar).

  If nearly twenty years ago … reached the consulship: on 5 December 63, in the debate on the Catilinarian conspirators; cf. Cat. 4.3 ‘For a man of courage, death cannot be shameful; for a man who has reached the consulship, it cannot be untimely; and for a wise man, it cannot be pitiable.’ Cicero’s words also recall the first sentence of this speech.

  GLOSSARY

  aedile the third of the annual magistrates, below consul and praetor. There were four aediles, two curule and two plebeian; they were responsible for city administration, the corn supply, and for putting on public games. Cicero was plebeian aedile in 69 BC, and gave three sets of games.

  allies the socii or ‘federate states’, native communities, in Italy or overseas (e.g. in Sicily), linked to Rome by treaties of alliance; they provided Rome with troops and received certain benefits in return. In 91–87 BC the Italian allies rebelled against Rome in the Social War (the war against the socii) and won their goal of Roman citizenship and incorporation within the Roman state.

  augur a member of the College of Augurs, the official interpreters of religious auspices (sacred signs or omens revealing the gods’ approval or disapproval of an action contemplated or in progress). When an augur announced that an omen was unfavourable, the action that was in progress (e.g. the passage of a law, or an election) would be suspended. As with the College of Pontiffs, there were fifteen members, all high-ranking aristocrats. Cicero was elected to membership in 53 (or 52) BC.

  auspices, see augur.

  Campus Martius the ‘Plain of Mars’, a flood plain to the north-west of the city, between the Capitol and the Tiber. It was used for military training, for elections, and as the place where the census was taken. In Cicero’s time it was already starting to be built over.

  censor one of two magistrates elected every five years for a maximum period of eighteen months. They conducted the census (register of names, ages, and property of all adult male citizens), and revised the list of senators and equites by excluding the unworthy; they also leased out the right to collect taxes and acted as guardians of public morals. The office was of great importance and prestige, and was normally held by ex-consuls.

  centuriate assembly the comitia centuriata, an assembly consisting of all Roman citizens divided into 193 ‘centuries’ (military units), grouped into five census classes based on wealth; it elected the consuls, praetors, and censors, and occasionally passed legislation (it passed the law recalling Cicero from exile in 57 BC). The centuries were unequally composed so as to give greater voting power to the rich, and the voting system also favoured the rich. A result was usually declared before the poorest citizens had had the opportunity to vote.

  century, see centuriate assembly.

  cognomen the third component of a Roman’s name, serving to differentiate different branches of a clan (gens), and usually hereditary; the cognomen of Marcus Tullius Cicero is ‘Cicero’. It tended to be only the grander Romans (originally, the patricians) who had a cognomen; very grand Romans might have several, e.g. Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica (four cognomina). The actual meaning of a cognomen (where it had one) might be not at all complimentary (brutus and crassus mean ‘stupid’; calvus, ‘bald’; strabo, ‘cross-eyed’; verrucosus, ‘covered with warts’). Cognomina were sometimes adopted by generals to commemorate their conquests (e.g. Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus Numantinus). Some prominent Romans had no cognomen: Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony) did not, though his father was Marcus Antonius Creticus. Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey) started off without one, but became Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (‘Great’) in 81 BC.

  colony a town, usually in Italy, founded by official authority (for example, by Sulla in 81) and settled by Roman citizens.

  conscript fathers the ancient term for senators, which senators used formally in the senate.

  consul the most senior of the annual magistrates. The two consuls held office for the calendar year, which (in the absence of any numerical system) was named after them. Ex-consuls were called ‘consulars’ and were influential in the senate. Cicero was consul in 63 BC.

  curule magistrates consuls, praetors, censors, and curule aediles were known as curule magistrates and enjoyed special privileges, including the right to sit on an ivory ‘curule’ chair (sella curulis). (Plebeian aediles, such as Cicero, also enjoyed these privileges by 70 BC.)

  dictator in the early republic, an extraordinary magistrate with supreme powers appointed in an emergency for a maximum of six months. He appointed a deputy who was called Master of the Horse. In the later republic, Sulla and Caesar revived the office for their own ends, Caesar taking it for life. In some other communities, the dictator was simply the chief magistrate.

  eques, see equites.

  equestrian, see equites.

  equites the members of the Roman upper class who were not senators (originally, the equites were the cavalry); there was a property qualification of 400,000 sesterces. Unlike senators, equites were permitted to engage in trade, and some were involved in tax-farming in the provinces. The singular is eques (‘an eques’), the plural equites; it is often translated ‘knight’, but in this translation ‘equestrian’ is preferred (‘an equestrian’, ‘the equestrians’, ‘the equestrian order’). Cicero came from an equestrian, not senatorial, family, and viewed himself as a representative of the equites and defender of their interests; but, as a senator, he wished to minimize conflict between the two groups and promote ‘harmony between the orders’ (concordia ordinum).

  fasces, see lictors.

  federate states, see allies.

  freedman an ex-slave. A freedman/freedwoman would normally remain a dependant of his/her former master.

  legate a senator serving as an assistant to a general or provincial governor.

  lictors attendants of senior magistrates. A consul had twelve, a praetor six. Each lictor carried fasces, a bundle consisting of an axe and some long rods tied together with red straps; the axe and the rods symbolized the right to inflict capital and corporal punishment respectively (though the axe was omitted within Rome, in recognition of Roman citizens’ right of appeal).

  magistrate the holder of a public office (technically, however, tribunes of the ple
bs were not magistrates). They are listed in T. R. S. Broughton’s The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (see Select Bibliography).

  Master of the Horse, see dictator.

  military tribune a senior officer in the legions. The tribunes of the first four legions recruited each year were elected by the tribal assembly and enjoyed considerable prestige; those in the other legions were appointed by their commander, and were not necessarily military men.