ORATION FOR THE MANILIAN LAW

DELIVERED IN THE FORUM BEFORE THE ROMAN PEOPLE IN THE YEAR 66 B.C.

INTRODUCTION

IN this oration, Cicero appeared for the first time upon the Rostra before the Roman people. He was already forty years of age, and held the important office of praetor. He spoke in support of a bill, proposed by the tribune Manilius, conferring upon Pompey the sole command in the war against Mithridates, king of Pontus.

Gnaeus Pompey, upon whom it was proposed to confer such extraordinary powers, had already greatly distinguished himself in the field, and was rapidly becoming the favorite of the people. His career had been in many respects very remarkable. At the age of twenty-five he was permitted, contrary to all precedent, to celebrate his victories in Sicily and Africa with a triumph. Ten years later, his victories in Spain secured him the same honor a second time. He entered the city in triumphal procession on the thirty-first of December, 71 B.C., and, on the following day, entered upon the duties of the consulship to which he had been elected, though legally ineligible, as he had never filled the lower offices of quaestor and praetor. His administration was marked by several bold reforms in the interest of the people.

Three years later, having been appointed under the Gabinian law to the sole command in the war against the pirates, he entered upon a vigorous campaign which, in the brief period of ninety days, was crowned with complete success.

But the Romans were still engaged in another war which required in its leader the rarest gifts and powers. Upwards of twenty years before, Mithridates, king of Pontus, having allied himself with Tigranes, king of Armenia, by giving him his daughter in marriage, had formed the bold design of expelling the Romans from their extensive possessions in Asia Minor. For a time, brilliant success seemed likely to crown the

undertaking. City after city threw open its gates and welcomed the victor as a deliverer from the Roman yoke. Elated by these early successes, he issued an order almost unparalleled in cruelty, for a general massacre of Roman citizens in Asia, an order which was executed with relentless severity. Eighty thousand Romans, without distinction of age or sex, were ruthlessly massacred. At this juncture the great Sulla was sent against him. The victories won by this famous general and by Fimbria, who succeeded him after murdering the consul Flaccus, led, in 84 B.C., to a treaty of peace. A second Mithridatic war, unwisely instigated by Murena whom Sulla had left as propraetor of Asia, was soon brought to a close through the influence of Sulla, 81 B.C., and for the next six years Mithridates was nominally at peace with the Romans, but in 75 B.C. he invaded Bithynia, which led to the renewal of hostilities. In 74 B.C. Lucullus was appointed commander of the Roman armies in Asia. For seven years he prosecuted the war with great vigor and success; he conquered Mithridates, took the greater part of Pontus, invaded Armenia, defeated Tigranes, and took the Armenian capital; but this brilliant career of conquest was finally checked by the disaffection of his soldiers. Accordingly, in the year 67 B.C., he was superseded by Glabrio, who proved to be a very inefficient commander. Mithridates and Tigranes promptly availed themselves of the opportunity thus offered them of recovering the territory and power which they had lost. It was at this crisis in the Roman affairs in the East, that the tribune Gaius Manilius, in the spring of 66 B.C., moved that Pompey, who had just achieved such signal success in the war against the pirates, and who was still in Asia at the head of a large and victorious army, should be intrusted with the chief command in the war against Mithridates and Tigranes. The bill, generally known as the Manilian law, proposed to clothe Pompey with almost unlimited power, and accordingly met with violent opposition from Catulus and Hortensius, on the ground that it would be perilous to the best interests of the republic to place such extraordinary powers in the hands of any one man. It was, however, warmly advocated by Caesar and Cicero, and was carried by acclamation. It was on this occasion that Cicero pronounced his oration for the Manilian law.

Pompey, on receiving this appointment, hastened to encounter Mithridates, over whom he soon gained a signal victory. The vanquished king barely escaped with his life, and, unable to find shelter in Armenia,

the dominions of his own son-in-law, he made his way through the rugged defiles of the Caucasian Mountains to the Crimea, where he finally terminated his life with his own hand.

ANALYSIS

I. CICERO'S REASONS FOR THIS, HIS FIRST APPEARANCE BEFORE HIS

FELLOW-CITIZENS, I.

II. STATEMENT OF THE Case, 2.

III. THE CHARACTER OF THE WAR AGAINST MITHRIDATES, 3–7.

IV. THE GREATNESS AND IMPORTANCE OF THE WAR, 8, 9.

V. THE APPOINTMENT OF A COMMANDER TO CONDUCT IT:

1. POMPEY ALONE HAS THE REQUISITE QUALIFICATIONS, 10-16. 2. REPLY TO THE OBJECTIONS OF HORTENSIUS AND CATULUS, 17-23. VI. CICERO OFFERS MANILIUS ENCOURAGEMENT AND SUPPORT, 24.

EXORDIUM, I

Citizens, in this, my first speech before you, I pledge my best efforts in your behalf in return for the honor of the practorship to which you have elected me; and surely the virtues of Pompey furnish a worthy theme.

1. Quamquam mihi semper frequens conspectus vester multō iucundissimus, hic autem locus ad agendum amplissimus, ad dicendum ōrnātissimus est vīsus, Quirītēs, tamen hōc aditu laudis, qui semper optimō cuique maximē patuit, 5 nōn mea mē voluntās adhuc, sed vitae meae ratiōnēs ab ineunte aetate susceptae prohibuerunt. Nam cum anteā per aetatem nondum huius auctoritātem loci attingere auderem statueremque nihil huc nisi perfectum ingeniō, ēlabōrātum industriā adferrī oportere, omne meum tempus 10 amicōrum temporibus transmittendum putavi. Ita neque hic locus vacuus umquam fuit ab iis qui vestram causam defenderent, et meus labor in privātōrum periculis castē integrēque versātus ex vestrō iudicio fructum est amplissimum consecutus. Nam cum propter dīlātiōnem comi

ΙΟ

tiōrum ter praetor prīmus centuriis cunctīs renuntiātus sum, facile intellexi, Quirītēs, et quid de me iudicārētis et quid aliis praescriberētis. Nunc cum et auctoritatis in me tantum sit quantum vōs honōribus mandandis esse voluistis, et ad agendum facultātis tantum quantum homini vigilanti ex forensi ūsū prope cotidiāna dicendi exercitatio potuit adferre, certe et si quid auctoritatis in mē est, apud eōs ūtar qui eam mihi dederunt, et si quid in dicendo consequi possum, iīs ostendam potissimum qui ei quoque rei fructum suō iudicio tribuendum esse duxērunt.

POMPEIUS

Pompey

5

ΙΟ

Atque illud in primis mihi laetandum iure esse videō, 15 quod in hāc insolitā mihi ex hoc locō ratiōne dicendi causa tālis oblāta est, in qua ōrātiō deesse nēminī possit. Dicendum est enim de Cn. Pompei singulārī eximiaque virtute; huius autem ōrātiōnis difficilius est exitum quam principium invenire. Ita mihi nōn tam cōpia quam modus in 20 dicendo quaerendus est.

NARRATIO, 2

Two powerful kings are at war with the Roman people, and the situation is grave. I shall treat of the matter under three heads: the character of the war, its magnitude, and the choice of a commander.

2. Atque, ut inde ōrātiō mea proficiscatur unde haec omnis causa dūcitur, bellum grave et periculosum vestrīs vectigalibus ac sociis a duobus potentissimis rēgibus infertur, Mithridate et Tigrāne, quorum alter relictus, alter 25

lacessītus occāsiōnem sibi ad occupandam Asiam oblātam esse arbitrātur. Equitibus Rōmānīs, honestissimis virīs, adferuntur ex Asia cotīdiē litterae, quōrum māgnae rēs aguntur in vestrīs vectīgālibus exercendis occupātae; qui 5 ad mē, prō necessitudine quae mihi est cum illō ōrdine, causam rei publicae periculaque rerum suārum dētulērunt: Bithyniae, quae nunc vestra provincia est, vīcōs exūstōs esse complūrēs; rēgnum Ariobarzānis, quod finitimum est vestrīs vectīgālibus, tōtum esse in hostium potestāte; 10 L. Lucullum māgnīs rēbus gestis ab eō bellō discēdere; huic qui successerit non satis esse parātum ad tantum bellum administrandum; unum ab omnibus sociis et civibus ad id bellum imperātōrem dēpōscī atque expeti, eundem hunc ūnum ab hostibus metui, praetereā nēminem.

15

PARTITIO, 2

Causa quae sit vidētis; nunc quid agendum sit considerāte. Prīmum mihi vidētur dē genere belli, deinde de māgnitūdine, tum dē imperātōre dēligendō esse dicendum.

CONFIRMATIO, 2-17

Genus est enim belli eius modi, quod maximē vestrōs animōs excitare atque inflammāre ad persequendi studium 20 debeat, in quō agitur populī Rōmānī glōria, quae vōbīs ā maiōribus cum magna in omnibus rēbus tum summa in rē mīlitārī trādita est; agitur salūs sociōrum atque amīcōrum, prō qua multa maiōrēs vestri magna et gravia bella gesserunt; aguntur certissima populī Rōmānī vectīgālia et 25 māxima, quibus āmissīs et pācis ōrnāmenta et subsidia belli requīrētis; aguntur bona multōrum civium, quibus est ā vōbis et ipsōrum et rei publicae causa consulendum.