Peroratio. tyranno- ob miseriam (armatis satellitibus egent. 44. tyrannide: et pericu deterret a Antonium Seip sum Hortatur, ram cu lum necis: a Bruto sit expulsus Tarquinius. 44 regnum affectantes perierint. 44. Cesar regnans occisus sit. 45. recordatione gloriæ adeptæ, cùm dictaturam sustulit. 45. memoriâ lætitiæ senatus, et populi Romani. 45. consideratione virtutis majorum suorum. 46. ait, nec reipublicæ defuturum. 46. nec mortem timere. 46. sed priusquam moriatur, ut moriens populum Romanum li berum relinquat. 46. ut cuique eveniat, prout de republicâ merebitur. 46. Line. Page. 1. Fato: The ancients defined fate to be the connexion and series 129 of all causes, by means of which all things happen, that do happen. 2. Annis viginti: Twenty years elapsed between the consulship of Cicero and the consulship of Antony. 6. Exitus non perhorrescere: Catiline, who conspired against the republic and against Cicero, was slain in battle, bearing arins against his country. His accomplices in that conspiracy were, by a decree of the senate, put to death in prison. Clodius, who was an inveterate enemy to Cicero, and who by his intrigues drove him into exile, was slain by Milo. 7. Aliis: He here means Clodius, Catiline, Vatinius, Piso, and Gabinius, in opposing whose vices Cicero was more active in attacking than in defending. 14. Gratia: The Romans conferred distinguished marks of favor on Cicero. When he was banished by Clodius, almost the whole equestrian order changed their garments: twenty thousand of the young men of the greatest eininence in the city, accompanied those who were to intercede for his restitution; and a full senate decreed a change of dress, as in a general mourning. When he was on his return from exile, the senate and people went out to meet him; they conducted him in triumph, as it were, from the Porta Capena to the Capitol. 16. Detrahi: Antony thought he could diminish the popularity of Cicero by calumniating him in the senate. 16. Qui ordo, etc. The senate had conferred the praise of well governing the republic upon many, but the praise of preserving the republic upon Cicero alone. Cato, when speaking in the senate respecting Catiline's conspiracy, called Cicero "The Father of his Country.' 27. Contra alienum pro familiari....meo: It is not known who this 129 friend and relation was; but the stranger was Q. F. Bambalio, whose daughter Antony had married. Cicero, having appeared for his friend, against this Bambalio, was reproached by Antony with having violated the laws of friendship. 29. Etatis flore, collectam: When Antony was young, he was popular, not on account of his virtues, but rather on account of the vivacity of youth, and his agreeable qualities. 30. İste: It seems from this passage, that, notwithstanding some tribune bribed by Antony interposed against Cicero's friend, yet Bambalio lost his cause. The jus prætorium was a power assumed by the prætors, of mending, supplying, and correcting the civil law, as necessity and equity should require. 32. Infimo ordini: The plebeian order. 130 1. In disciplinam meam: It was customary, when young men took the manly gown, to place them under the tuition of some eminent citizen, that they might be instructed in useful knowledge and the duties of life, and be formed to virtue and humanity. 4. C. Curionem: Curio was a young nobleman of brilliant talents; admirably fitted by nature to adorn the character (in which his father and grandfather had flourished before him) of one of the principal orators of Rome; but a natural propensity to pleasure, stimulated by the example and counsels of his perpetual companion, Antony, hurried him into all the extravagance of expense and debauchery. When his father, by Cicero's advice, obliged him to quit the familiarity of Antony, he reformed his conduct, and, adhering to the instructions and maxims of Cicero, became the favorite of the city, the leader of the young nobility, and a warm assertor of the authority of the senate, against the power of the Triumviri. After his father's death, upon his first participation of public honors and admission into the senate, his ambition and desire of popularity engaged him in so great prodigality, that, to supply the magnificence of the shows and plays, with which he entertained the city, he was soon driven to the necessity of selling himself to Cæsar, and fell the first victim in he civil war. 5. Auguratûs, etc. It was necessary, that a candidate for admission into the college of augurs, should be nominated by two augurs, who gave a solemn testimony upon oath of his dignity and fitness for the office; this was done in Cicero's case by Pompey and Hortensius, the two most eminent members of the college. 15. At beneficio sum usus tuo: After Pompey was defeated in the battle of Pharsalia, Cato endeavored to persuade Cicero, at the request of his friends, to take the command of the fleet; but, as Cæsar was pursuing, Cicero fled to Brundusium, with a design to go into Italy. Antony, having been sent there before Cæsar, might have killed Cicero, as he refused both the authority of Pompey and of Cæsar. 19. Victor....latronibus suis: Cæsar sent Antony at the head of an army into Italy, to subject it to his power. Cicero, by using the word latronibus, insinuates, that the soldiers under Antony were rather robbers than honorable warriors. 25. A quo erant servati: In this observation, says Merouille, Brutus and Cassius must not be included. They never submitted to Cæsar. 32. De interitu reipublicæ: Antony was endeavoring to destroy the constitution: he wanted not only to assume the power, which Cæsar usurped, but also to reverse the laws made by Cæsar. 35. Hoc gradu: Cicero was a senator and a man of consular rank, 130 than which there was none higher in the republic. 39. Reliquias reipublicæ: These words probably mean the public money laid up in the temple of Ops, which Antony claimed to himself, and made subservient to the purposes of his ambition; or perhaps they refer to the four thousand talents obtained from Calpurnia, Cæsar's wife. 41. Promulgate: Before any law was passed, it was published twenty days. 1. M. Crasso: Cicero was at enmity with Crassus, because he 131 imagined, that Crassus had been engaged in Catiline's conspiracy. They were, however, reconciled afterwards. 16. Mustellæ, etc. All that is known of these men is, that they were ruffians employed by Antony; illiterate fellows, and qualified only to execute his brutal purposes. 22. In quo, etc.: Referring to Antony's inserting various clauses in Cæsar's will and other papers. 35. Tuas literas: The letters Cicero received from Antony relative to the restoration of Sextus Clodius. 38. Quid enim, etc.: Cicero had no intention to oppose Antony vigorously, as he knew Clodius would return in consequence of a law passed by Cæsar. 16. Homo sapiens: Irony. 20. C. Curionem: Curio, having driven Cato out of Sicily, marched with four legions into Africa against Varus, who, strengthened by the accession of Juba, had reduced the whole province to subjection. Upon his landing, he met with some success, but was afterwards entirely defeated and slain near the river Bagrăda, by Sabăra, Juba's general. and 21. Quod....utrique fatale: Meaning Fulvia, who was first married to Clodius, whom Milo killed; next to Curio, above mentioned; lastly to Antony. 22. P. Servilio: He conquered the Isaurians in Cilicia, and obtained the surname of Isauricus. 24. Q. Lutatio Catulo : Catulus was a man of much respectability and influence in the republic 25. Duobus Lucullis : Lucius and Marcus. Lucius Lucullus con ducted the war against Mithridates. See Notes to the Oration for the Manilian Law.-M. Crasso: Marcus Licinius Crassus was famous for his riches. He was a friend to Cicero, and said, that as often as he thought of his wife, his house and his country, so often he thought of the benefit he derived from Cicero's consulship.Q. Hortensio....C. Curioni, etc.: Of Hortensius, we have already spoken in Note, page 56, line 21. This Curio was consul thirteen years before Cicero. Cicero speaks of him in his treatise De Claris Oratoribus. Lepidus was Cæsar's master of the horse, and afterwards was one of the Triumviri. Piso was the brother of Lucius Piso, the father-in-law of Cæsar. Glabrio was consul four years before Cicero, and was one of those who voted in the senate against Catiline. Volcatius was consul three years before Cicero. Figulus was a man of integrity, and much respected; he was consul the year before Cicero. Šilanus and Murena were consuls elect in the year in which Cicero was consul. For Murena, Cicero delivered an oration, to defend him against the charge of having infringed the law against bribery. 29. M. Catoni: Cato never arrived to the consulship; the highest 139 132 office he ever bore was the prætorship. He was a man of great innocence and influence, addicted to the philosophy of the Stoics; that he might not see his country enslaved by Cæsar, he killed himself at Utica; from which circumstance he is often called Cato Uticensis. 31. Cn. Pompeius: When Pompey returned from his Asiatic expedition, he returned thanks to Cicero, declaring that he should seek a triumph in vain, unless the city had been preserved by Cicero, in which he could triumph. 40. L. Cotta: Cotta was a man of much prudence and virtue, and consul two years before Cicero. 133 1. L. Cæsar was consul a year before Cicero. 134 135 5. Vitrici: This was Lentulus Sura, who, being one of Catiline's conspirators, was put to death in prison.-Avunculi: This was Lucius Cæsar. 9. Dies natales: Birth days were observed by the Romans as great festivals. 10. Non descendit Antonius: Antony did not come into the senate on that occasion, detained by the birth-day of some parasite. 11. Phormioni, etc.: These were names of famous parasites in the plays of Terence and Plautus. 14. Principem senatorem: L. Cæsar, who was Antony's uncle. 25. Nefaria senatûs-consulta: Cicero speaks ironically, as he refers to those decrees of the senate, by which the republic was preserved from ruin. 34. Consciorum indiciis: Besides others, who confessed, there was one Caparius, who, upon a public promise of protection, discovered the whole conspiracy. 40. Negat a me datum: Antony had objected to Cicero, that he refused burial to the corpse of Lentulus Sura, who, after the death of Antony's father, married his mother, and who was put to death in prison for having been engaged in Catiline's conspiracy; but Plutarch, in his life of Antony, shows that this charge was groundless. 21. Ithyrais circumsederi: Jews (so called from a province of Palestine), whom Antony, when he served under Gabinius, the proconsul, brought with him to Rome, as persons every way qualified to execute his brutal and ambitious purposes. 28. Uxore mimâ: This was Cytheris, one of Antony's mistresses, whom he is said to have carried with him in his military expeditions. Some commentators think she is the person who is mentioned by Virgil in those lines of Eclogue 10th: Galle, quid insanis? inquit: tua cura, Lycoris, She was called Volumnia also, from Volumnius Eutrapělus, who 13. Operâ meâ, etc.: Cicero, indeed, did endeavor to separate Pompey from Cæsar, when it was feared, that if their arms were 135 united, they would destroy the liberties of the republic; but not when he saw there was a probability, that a civil war would exist between them. Cicero was always an adviser of peace. 18. M. Bibulo: Bibŭlus was consul with Cæsar, but Cæsar deprived him of his authority, and even prohibited him from the senate. At this time was formed the triumvirate of Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus; they governed the republic as they pleased. It became an object then with every good man to have Pompey separated from Cæsar. 22. Postea verò, etc.: Pompey married Julia, the daughter of Casar, and, by this means, the alliance between them was strengthened. 27. Ne quinquennii imperium....prorogaret, etc.: By the Vatinian law Cæsar obtained the province of Gaul for five years. When this time had elapsed, by the interest of Pompey and Crassus, he obtained a prolongation of his command. Pompey, when he was consul the third time, in the year of Rome 701, procured also a law, empowering Cæsar to offer himself a candidate for the consulship, without appearing personally at Rome, as law and custom required. To these laws Cicero and Cato were opposed. 30. Omnes opes, etc.: Plutarch relates, that Pompey sent two legions to Cæsar in Gaul. 11. L. Bruti: Lucius Junius Brutus, who expelled the Tarquins. 136 12. Ahala: Servilius Ahala was one of Brutus's ancestors, by the mother's side: he slew Sp. Melius, who was suspected of aiming at sovereignty. 14. C. Cassius: Cassius was descended from that C. Cassius, who put his own son to death, because suspected of having designs against the state. 19. Cn. Domitium: Suetonius gives a high character to this Domitius. He was son to L. Domitius, who fell in the battle of Pharsalia, and nephew to Cato Uticensis. 26. L. Tillius Cimber: Seneca, in his epistles to Lucullus, says, that this Cimber was a notorious drunkard, and that, nevertheless, the secret of Cæsar's assassination was as much intrusted to him as it was to Cassius, who all his life had drunk nothing but water. 30. Duos Servilios: Servilius Isauricus, and his son, who was twice consul. 39. Consimilem: Cicero delivered his country from Catiline's conspiracy; Brutus, from Cæsar's tyranny. 31. Legibus est solutus: Brutus and Cassius being obliged to de- 137 part from Rome after Cæsar's death, and not thinking it safe to return on account of the violence of the mob, their friends solicited the senate for some extraordinary employment to be granted to them, to cover the appearance of a flight, and the disgrace of living in banishment, when invested with one of the first magistracies of the republic. As prætors, their residence was absolutely necessary at Rome, and could not legally be dispensed with for above ten days in the year; but Antony readily procured a decree to absolve them from the laws, being glad to see them in a situation so contemptible, stripped of their power, suffering a kind of exile, and depending, as it were, upon him for their protection. By his means commissions were granted to them to buy up corn in Asia and Sicily, for the use of the republic; which commissions were intended to degrade them, as the offices conferred were much below their characters. 5. Equum Trojanum: Cicero refers to the wooden horse, by 138 |