If the tabellae were used, they were closed with a string (linum); if the papyrus was used, it was rolled up and tied with a string. In either case the ultimate closure, as well as the authentication, was made by the sender's seal, in gypsum or wax, attached to the knot of the string.

The letter was addressed to the receiver on the outside in the dative (perhaps also in the accusative with ad).

There was no public post-office, but the administration had slaves provided beforehand as letter-carriers (tabellarii), and large business interests might have the same arrangement. Less frequent correspondents used chance facilities, or sent private slaves. It would appear also that persons whose special business it was to act as managers or commissionaires could be hired in the Forum.

The formal part of the letter was always in the third person, containing the name of the writer (in the nominative) and that of the recipient (in the dative). Usually there was added a formal expression of good-will: Salutem plurimam dicit (or salutem dicit, or merely salutem 1), frequently abbreviated to S. P. D. (S. D. or S.).

Of course a signature was unnecessary. If the letter was dictated, the seal was the only authentication. It was customary to close the letter with Vale

("farewell").

If the date was given, it was in the form of the ablative or locative of the place (with the day of the month, according to Roman reckoning), preceded by the word data (sc. epistola), i.e. "given" (to the messenger from the place mentioned).

When Cicero's letters were written, this form of composition was hardly recognized as literature. Still, great care was often used in letter-writing, and copies may have been kept for publication. Tiro, Cicero's favorite freedman and private secretary, is thought to have collected his master's letters and given them to the world. Somewhat later, however, epistolary writing became more or less a literary genre (as in the case of Pliny the younger); and in modern times the publication of correspondence has become very common.

I

1691 ames, approve. For omission of ut, see § 565 (331, ƒ, R.); B. 296, 1, a; G. 546, R.2; H. 565, 2 (499, 2); H.-B. 502, 3, footnote 2. - ludos: to visit the games was fashionable with the Romans, like "going to the Derby" (races) in England. Hence to stay away was strength of mind (constantiam).

169 2 Vπоσbokov, something of a solecism (an absurd or inconsistent action); see the etymology and meanings of solecism in any large English dictionary. Greek was the "polite language " of ancient times, as French is to-day. All cultivated Romans could speak and write Greek, and it

1 The indirect expression of the common greeting Salve.

was the fashion to use Greek phrases in society and in letter-writing, as we use savoir faire, comme il faut, préciser, and the like.

169 3 ȧvapalveolaɩ (infin., subject of est), to appear, to let myself be seen. The participial construction (peregrinantem) is in accord with the Greek, which takes a participle after ȧvapaivoμai; but the case of peregrinantem accords with the Latin idiom (acc., agreeing with the implied subject me). — delicate . . . inepte: the common jest about the freedom which respectable men allow themselves when away from home explains this passage. Cicero says that if he were to visit the Antian games, he might appear not merely to be self-indulgent (delicate), but even to be making a fool of himself (inepte) on his tour. Shakspere's play (act i, scene 2):

We never valued this poor seat of England;

And therefore, living hence, did give ourself

To barbarous license; as 't is ever common

That men are merriest when they are from home.

Cf. Henry V in

1702 ab: the Romans often dated from (rather than at) a place. Appii Forum and Tres Tabernae were villages on the Appian Way (see Acts xxviii. 15). Atticus was at Rome. Cicero has written one letter at Tres Taberna, and now dispatches a second from his next stoppingplace, Appii Forum. - dederam, I have written: on the epistolary tense, see § 479 (282); B. 265; G. 252; H. 539, I (472, 1); H.-B. 493.

II

170 4 re publica, the condition of the state.

ego: the verb (scribam)

is omitted; such ellipses are especially common in the epistolary style. - subtiliter, in detail.

170 5 hoc (degree of difference). . . miserior, it is the more wretched. 170 6 dominatio, tyranny: especially used of unconstitutional rule, usurpation of power in a free state.

1707 bonis, i.e. the aristocracy (as opposed to the rabble, who were not regarded as "good"), the conservatives (Cicero's party). — ita . . . ut tamen, though... still.

170 8 nunc... omnibus, is now, of a sudden, so hateful to all (both to the conservatives and the populace): omnibus is in the dat. with tanto in odio, which is equiv. to tam odiosa; § 384 (234, a); B. 192, 1, G. 359; H. 434, 2 (391, 1); H.-B. 362, i. eruptura sit: indir. quest. ; for tense, see § 575, a and N. (334, a and N.); cf. B. 269, 3; G. 515; H. 649, ii, 1 (529, ii, 4); H.-B. 470, 4, a.

170 9 horreamus, we shudder to think.

and Crassus, — the so-called First Triumvirate.

illorum, Cæsar, Pompey,

FIG. 45

170 10 Catoni, afterwards called Uticensis (from Utica, the place of his suicide), the leader of the Conservative or Old Republican party, an uncompromising aristocrat and enemy of Cæsar, upright and patriotic, but narrow-minded and impracticable. His death afterward caused him to be regarded as a martyr to ancient liberty. His daughter Porcia was the wife of

Rome; hence this figure was natural to a Roman.

170 12 sibilis volgi, by the hisses of the common people.

170 13 exarserint, have become infuriated. The actions of the "triumvirs" are such that Cicero thinks they have lost patience, and are ready to resort to open violence.

170 15 orbem . . . conversum, i.e. that the revolution in the state had been accomplished. To keep the figure expressed in orbitam (rut, wheel mark), we may translate, that the wheel of the government had made a complete revolution.

1711 fuisset, it would have been (apodosis, contrary to fact).

1712 homines, people (i.e. the Romans and Italians in general, who have not been able to let the revolution take place without expressing their feelings).

171 5 amicus, i.e. Pompey. insolens infamiae, not accustomed to ill-repute.

1716 deformatus corpore: this probably means merely that his

health and personal appearance had suffered from his anxiety and chagrin.

...

171 7 progressum. reditum (observe the chiastic order), i.e. the way before him is a headlong descent, and if he turns back, there is no firm footing. The figure is uncommonly vigorous and condensed.

171 8 bonos, i.e. the optimates (see note on p. 170, l. 7). — inimicos (pred. acc.), as his enemies.

171 10 mollitiem animi, my tenderness of heart. - non tenui lacrimas, could not keep back the tears. — illum, i.e. Pompey.

171 11 edictis Bibuli: M. Calpurnius Bibulus, Cæsar's colleague in the consulship of B.C. 59, was such a nonentity that the year was jocosely spoken of as "the consulship of Julius and Cæsar" (instead of "Bibulus and Cæsar"). Cæsar was anxious to pass certain bills, — especially an act for the division of the public land among the poorer citizens and an act to legalize the acts of Pompey in Asia. Bibulus shut himself up in his house, whence he issued edicts opposing Cæsar's bills, and assailing him and Pompey with unmeasured abuse. These edicts made a great noise but had no permanent effect. — contionantem, addressing the people (in reply to the edicts directed against him by Bibulus). For the nature of a contio, see p. 273.

171 12 illo in loco, i.e. in the Forum, where (or in the Comitium) such public meetings for address or debate were held.

171 13 ut, how (exclamatory).

1721 Crasso Crassus was an old enemy of Pompey's, and, though now his political partner, might be supposed to take secret satisfaction in his waning popularity.

172 3 lapsus quam progressus, i.e. rather to have got into his present position by carelessness than to have advanced into it with his eyes open. 172 6 pictum, etc.: Cicero refers to Pompey as a work of art and of himself as the artist. He has in mind the splendid encomium contained in the Oration for the Manilian Law (see pp. 66–97).

172 8 Clodianum negotium, the Clodius affair. In order to become eligible for the tribunate, Clodius had procured his adoption into a plebeian family. Pompey had countenanced this proceeding, acting as auspex at the ceremony. This was enough to estrange Cicero from him, as everybody thought, for Clodius was Cicero's bitterest enemy.

172 10 Archilochia: the Parian poet Archilochus, said to have invented iambic verse, was a proverbially savage satirist. The edicts of Bibulus handled both Pompey and Cæsar without gloves.

172 12 proponuntur, are posted up.