PART I.

CICERO'S EXTANT CORRESPONDENCE COMMENCES

B. C. 68; A. U. C. 686.

CICERO was now 38 years of age. Ten years before he had returned from his travels in Greece and Asia, and shortly after his return (aged about 29) had married Terentia. At the age of 17 he had served under Cn. Pompeius Strabo in the Marsic War. He had filled the quaestorship at the age of 31 (679, b. c. 75), and had distinguished himself by his speech for P. Quintus (673, b. c. 81), and by his daring defence of Sex. Roscius Amerinus and an Arretine woman (674, b. c. 80), against the power of Sulla. He had afterwards, in his defence of Q. Roscius Comoedus (678, b. c. 76), more clearly shown his great qualifications for the Bar. But it was not until he was 36 years old (two years before the date of these letters) that his public life may be said to have begun with the prosecution of Verres (684, b. c. 70). The year after this famous prosecution he became curule aedile, and while holding that office defended A. Caecina, and made the speech for M. Fonteius, charged with misgovernment in Gaul. Except the treatise 'De Inventione Rhetorica' (668, b. c. 86), Cicero had contributed to literature only translations from the Greek, most of which he afterwards retouched, as, for instance, the 'Prognostica' of Aratus. Of these translations we preserve only fragmentary remains.

LETTERS OF THE FIRST YEAR OF CICERO'S CORRESPONDENCE.

EPP. I.-III.

A. U. C. 686; B. C. 68; AET. CIC. 38.

COSS. L. CAECILIUS METELLUS, Q. MARCIUS REX.

THE year of these letters was marked (in Cicero's private life) by the death of his cousin Lucius and probably (see Ep. II. note) of his father. It must have been a little before this time that his brother Quintus married Pomponia, the sister of Atticus.

CICERO'S CORRESPONDENCE.

I. TO ATTICUS, AT ATHENS (ATT. 1. 5).

ROME, A. U. C. 686; B. C. 68; AET. CIC. 38.

De L. Ciceronis fratris patruelis morte, de Q. fratris animo in uxorem suam, Attici sororem, et placando et regendo, de intermissione litterarum, de negotio Acutiliano, de Lucceii offensione lenienda, de re Tadiana, de Epirotica emptione Attici, de ornando Tusculano, de Terentiae valetudine et humanitate.

CICERO ATTICO SAL.

1. Quantum dolorem acceperim et quanto fructu sim privatus et forensi et domestico Lucii fratris nostri morte in primis pro nostra consuetudine tu existimare potes. Nam mihi omnia, quae iucunda ex humanitate alterius et moribus homini accidere possunt, ex illo accidebant. Qua re non dubito quin tibi quoque id molestum sit, cum et meo dolore moveare et ipse omni virtute officioque ornatissimum tuique et sua sponte et meo sermone amantem, adfinem,

1. fructu] Fructu is not enjoyment simply, but enjoyment with profit. The latter idea predominates here. What a loss I have sustained both in public and in private life.' Lucius was the cousin of Cicero. In Fin. v. 1 he expresses the relationship more accurately in calling him 'fratrem, cognatione patruelem, amore germanum. Lucius, according to Asconius, travelled in Sicily with Cicero, to aid him in collecting evidence against Verres. This ex plains forensi. humanitate et position': a very the ἓν διὰ δυοῖν

oribas] 'his kindly dismitigated specimen of so common in the poets

and in Tacitus. Cf. pro Cluent. 111, mores eius et adrogantiam, and Att. i. 12, 3, servatum et eductum, brought out safely.'

omni... ornatum] graced by every charm of character and manner.' Cf. summo officio ac virtute virum praeditum, 2 Verr. i. 135, 'a most obliging fellow.'

ad finem] Rather loosely used here; properly speaking, Q. Cicero only was the adfinis of Atticus, being the husband of Atticus' sister, Pomponia; not even Marcus, the brother of Quintus, still less Lucius the cousin, was adfinis to Atticus in strictness of speech.

amicumque amiseris. 2. Quod ad me scribis de sorore tua, testis erit tibi ipsa quantae mihi curae fuerit, ut Quinti fratris animus in eam esset is, qui esse deberet. Quem cum esse offensiorem arbitrarer, eas litteras ad eum misi, quibus et placarem ut fratrem et monerem ut minorem et obiurgarem ut errantem. Itaque ex iis, quae postea saepe ab eo ad me scripta sunt, confido ita esse omnia, ut et oporteat et velimus. 3. De litterarum missione sine causa abs te accusor. Numquam enim a Pomponia nostra certior sum factus esse cui dare litteras possem, porro autem neque mihi accidit ut haberem qui in Epirum profisceretur nequedum te Athenis esse audiebamus. 4. De Acutiliano autem negotio quod mihi mandaras, ut primum a tuo digressu Romam veni, confeceram, sed accidit ut et contentione nihil opus esset, et ut ego, qui in te satis consilii statuerim esse, mallem Peducaeum tibi · consilium per litteras quam me dare. Etenim cum multos dies aures meas Acutilio dedissem, cuius sermonis genus tibi notum esse arbitror, non mihi grave duxi scribere ad te de illius queri

2. de sorore tua] For an admirable account of the pettishness of Pomponia, see Att. v. 1, 2. Cicero appears afterwards to completely absolve his brother from blame in his unhappy domestic relations.

minorem] Q. was probably about four years younger than M. Cicero-about 34 years of age at the date of this letter.

3. missione] Bembus conjectures intermissione, and this is accepted by Baiter, who compares Fam. vii. 13, 1, where Cic. uses the phrase intermissionis epistolarum, but that supplies no reason why we should impugn here missione of the mss. The phrase may be rendered exactly, 'You have no right to complain of me as a correspondent': quite similarly in Att. iv. 16, 1, Cicero says, De epistolarum frequentia te nihil accuso,' 'I bring no charge touching your regularity as a correspondent,' which is quite as natural a way of speaking as if he had said infre quentia, irregularity. So here he might have said intermissione, but did say (quite as correctly) missione. Cf. Att. v. 10, 3, ut meum consilium saepe reprehendam quod non . emerserim, where consilium really means 'my want of prudence.' Cp. Hor. Sat. ii. 4, 85, haec. prehendi iustius illis, where haec and illis are both pregnant, 'their absence can be more justly found fault with than the

re

absence of those things which,' &c. This usage is common in Greek.

4. De Acutiliano negotio] See Att. i. 4, 1, and Att. i. 8, 1. As the latter letter was written in 687 (b. c. 67), the business must have been unfinished at the end of two years. Well might Cicero say accidit ut contentione nihil opus esset, 'it so happened that there was no need of any great haste.'

confeceram] Perhaps this may be best taken here as the epistolary pluperfect. If not writing a letter, he would have used the imperf. conficiebam, 'I meant to finish the business, but,' &c. In a letter, conficiebam would mean, I am finishing,' so he is forced to use the pluperf., just as in Att. v. 14, Nuno iter conficiebamus pulverulenta via. Dederam Epheso pridie. Has dedi Trallibus. See Roby, § 1468.

duri] One would at first sight expect duxissem, which Malaspina conjectures, and Bosius pretended to have found in one of his fabricated mss. But duri is quite right. Cicero is defending himself from the charge that he neglected to write, so as to escape the trouble of it. 'Seeing that I endured to listen to Acutilius for several days, I did not think it a great task to write you an account of his complaints, when I made so light of listening to them. which was somewhat a bore.' We should rather have expected a word enhancing