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erit. 2. Quod in epistola tua scriptum erat, me iam arbitrari designatum esse, scito nihil tam exercitum esse nunc Romae quam candidatos omnibus iniquitatibus, nec quando futura sint comitia sciri. Verum haec audies de Philadelpho. 3. Tu velim quae Academiae nostrae parasti quam primum mittas. Mire quam illius loci non modo usus, sed etiam cogitatio delectat. Libros vero tuos cave cuiquam tradas. Nobis eos, quem ad modum scribis, conserva. Summum me eorum studium tenet, sicut odium iam ceterarum rerum: quas tu incredibile est quam brevi tempore quanto deteriores offensurus sis, quam reliquisti.

2. arbitrari] The subject of arbitrari is omitted by Cicero, as it would no doubt be easily supplied by the reader. We are not forced to suppose with Zumpt that arbitrari is here passive. Yet the position of me, as well as the sciri following, would seem to point to a passive arbitrari. The dictt. quote more than one instance of arbitrari passive in Cicero's orations, e. g. 2 Verr. v. 106 (where, however, the reading is doubtful); and pro Mar. 34, where there is no ms variation. Arbitrari is found passive in the comic drama, but there we meet the active form arbitrare more than once.

wihil tam] let me tell you the can

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LETTERS OF THE THIRD YEAR OF CICERO'S CORRESPONDENCE,

EPP. VIII., IX.

A. U. C. 688; B. C. 66; AET. CIC. 40.

COSS. M. AEMILIUS LEPIDUS, L. VOLCATIUS TULLUS.

THIS was the year of Cicero's praetorship. While holding that office he defended A. Cluentius Habitus in a very able speech. But the year of his praetorship is rendered memorable chiefly by his speech in favour of the Manilian Law, which gave to Pompeius a commission to carry on the war against Mithridates, with the government of Pontus, Cilicia, and Bithynia. This was his first great political speech. In it he spoke the sentiments of the moderate Optimates, who thought that it was the true policy of the senate to endeavour to make Pompeius the champion of their class.

In this year Cicero's daughter, Tullia, was betrothed to C. Piso. She cannot have been more than ten years of age at this time.

VIII. TO ATTICUS, AT ATHENS (ATT. I. 3).

ROME, A. U. C. 688; B. C. 66; AET. CIC. 40.

De morte aviae Attici, de Attico Romae exspectato, de signis ab eo missis, de Lucceio nondum Attico placato, de Tullia C. Pisoni Frugi desponsa.

CICERO ATTICO SAL.

1. Aviam tuam scito desiderio tui mortuam esse et simul, quod verita sit ne Latinae in officio non manerent et in montem Albanum hostias non adducerent. Eius rei consolationem ad te L. Sau

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1. Ariam] Does Cicero here seriously announce to Atticus the death of his grandmother, and then pass to jest, and say that her death was due to regret for the long absence of Atticus, adding (in ridicule of the lady, whom we must, with Manutius, conjecture to have been too religious') that her death was hastened by a doubt whether the Latin festival would 'come up to time,' and have the due procession of the victims for sacrifice to the sacred mount? Or are we with Mr. Pretor, to regard the whole statement as a piece of pleasantry- let me tell you that regret for your prolonged absence has been the death of your grandmother'? I hold the former view for these reasons: (1). There is no objection to it. It conflicts with modern notions of good breeding to announce the death of a relative in sach a tone but would a modern letterwriter announce the betrothal of his daughter in the laconic fashion which Cicero adopts in this letter? Cicero knew that Atticus would not feel any real grief for her death, and there existed then no code of taste which ordained that he should affect to believe that Atticus would be grieved. (2). The jest would be intolerably poor on Mr. Pretor's hypothesis, and Cicero would have rather said, 'let me tell you your grandmother will not long survive your protracted absence,' morituram esse not mortuam esse. I must again differ from Mr. Pretor in his view that the word understood after Latinae is civitates, not feriae. Latinae is used for Latinae feriae in Q. Fr. ii. 6, 4, and twice in Cicero's poem on his Consulship, preserved in De Div. i. 18. It is a sort of joke to say of a superstitious

and nervous old woman that her death was due to a doubt whether the Latin festival would come up to time, and duly perform its rites. The personification of the festival, and the attributing to them conscious action, is the matter of the joke such as it is. Make Latinae agree with civitates and you will have a more regular subject for manerent and adducerent, but you will also have a serious statement, and not the joke, which lies in the incompatibility of the expression. One may, however, get the meaning which I prefer without personifying feriae: the adj. Latinae may agree with mulieres, the women who would celebrate the Latin festival. Then we should have a regular subject for manerent, adducerent. Mr. Strachan-Davidson, of Balliol College, Oxford, takes Latinae with civitates, and explains in a way which certainly saves the joke. The old lady, according to his view, must have been going back to her memory of the Social War, when the fear, ne Latinae (civitates) in officio non manerent, must have caused much anxiety. When Cicero wrote, it would be like an alarm 'that Bonaparte was coming' in (say)

1840.

The Latinae were celebrated at uncertain periods, as they belonged to the feriae, called conceptivae because the magistrate had to appoint (concipere) the time of their celebration. This was a powerful weapon in the hands of a magistrate, who could, by proclaiming the feriae Latinae, suspend public business for a week. See Introduction, i. § 1.

Eius rei] Saufeius (a follower of the Epicurean school who held that death was no evil) will I suppose send you the

feium missurum esse arbitror. 2. Nos hic te ad mensem Ianuarium exspectamus, ex quodam rumore an ex litteris tuis ad alios missis: nam ad me de eo nihil scripsisti. Signa, quae nobis curasti, ea sunt ad Caietam exposita. Nos ea non vidimus: neque enim exeundi Roma potestas nobis fuit: misimus qui pro vectura solveret. Te multum amamus, quod ea abs te diligenter parvoque curata sunt. 3. Quod ad me saepe scripsisti de nostro amico placando, feci et expertus sum omnia, sed mirandum in modum est animo abalienato: quibus de suspitionibus, etsi audisse te arbitror, tamen ex me, cum veneris, cognosces. Sallustium prae

sentem restituere in eius veterem gratiam non potui. Hoc ad te scripsi, quod is me accusare de te solebat: at in se expertus est illum esse minus exorabilem, meum studium nec sibi nec tibi defuisse. Tulliolam C. Pisoni L. F. Frugi despondimus.

appropriate consolation for the event.' Saufeius (as we learn from Att. ii. 8, 1) was only too glad to preach a sermon on any text. So Cicero says, 'I shall not deprive him of his theme; I shall leave to him the task of offering you consolation.' All this shows clearly that (as Boot says) Cicero knew very well that Atticus did not need much consolation.

2. Nos hic te] I am expecting your arrival here by January from some flying rumour, I suppose-or is it from some letter of yours to someone else, for you did not mention it in any letter to me?' Madv. on Fin. ii. 104, Simonides an quis alius, has an excellent note on this use of an. His conclusion is that comparison of places where it occurs (Fam. vii. 9, 3; Att. i. 3, 2; ii. 7, 3; vii. 1, fin.) shows that the phrase is not used for a disjunctive question, dubium Simonides an quis alius, but for a direct statement, to which is appended an expression of hesitation about its truth.

3. Nostro amico] Lucceius.

Sallustium praesentem] 'I failed to bring about their former friendship between him and Sallustius, though the latter was on the spot (not absent, as you are).

I mention this because Sallustius used to upbraid me with my failure in your case. But he has now found in his own case how sullen Lucceius is, and that no good offices of mine were spared either in his own case or in yours.'

Nec sibi nec tibi] Meum studium nec tibi defuisse is the ms, that my good offices were not wanting to you either.' This is defensible; but it is a very slight change to read, with Klotz (2nd ed.), see sibi nec tibi. This is much better than the reading of Graevius, nec tibi nec sibi, for it supplies a reason for the corruption: the copyist had written the first nec, then he raised his eyes and went on after the second nec. This is a common cause of

error in mss-the next most common to dittography. The term parablepsy might conveniently be used to describe this par ticular case of it. Boot's suggestion for this passage is very good: Hoe ad te scripsi quod is qui me accusare de te solebat, in se expertus illum esse minus exorabilem, meum studium negat tibi defuisse.' This sounds more like Cicero. Perhaps negabit would be still better; NEC TIB might easily have taken the place of negabirTibi.

L. F.] Lucii filio.

IX. TO ATTICUS, AT ATHENS (ATT. I. 4).

ROME, A. U. C. 688; B. C. 66; AET. CIC. 40.

De Attico ad comitia Q. fratris et ad Acutilianam controversiam transigendam exspectato, de condemnatione C. Macri, de signis, ornamentis, libris aut emptis aut emendis.

CICERO ATTICO SAL.

1. Crebras exspectationes nobis tui commoves. Nuper quidem, cum iam te adventare arbitraremur, repente abs te in mensem Quintilem reiecti sumus. Nunc vero sentio, quod commodo tuo facere poteris, venias ad id tempus, quod scribis: obieris Q. fratris comitia, nos longo intervallo viseris, Acutilianam controversiam transegeris. Hoc me etiam Peducaeus ut ad te scriberem admonuit: putamus enim utile esse te aliquando eam rem transigere. Mea intercessio parata et est et fuit. 2. Nos hic incredibili ac singulari populi voluntate de C. Macro transegimus. Cui cum aequi fuissemus, tamen multo maiorem fructum ex populi existimatione illo damnato cepimus, quam ex ipsius, si absolutus esset,

1. reiecti] put off till.'

ntio] This is the ms reading, changed by Lambinus to censeo. Klotz, in ed. 2nd, rightly restores sentio, which is a far more courteous expression than censeo.

Q. fratris comitia] For the curule aedileship, to which he was elected the

next year.

2. Nos hic] 'I have settled the case of C. Macer, and gained thereby such marked approbation as you would hardly have believed possible. Though I might have taken a lenient view of the case (might have let him down easily), I gave sentence against him, and have reaped much greater benefit from the popular approbation thereof, than I could have gained from his good offices had he been acquitted.'

This was the historian, C. Licinius Macer, who, as repetundarum reus, came before Cicero, as praetor, and was condemned. This discreditable sentiment has

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been mitigated by the edd. from Manu-
tius to Merivale, by a mistranslation
of aequus.
Merivale renders I have
done him strict justice, yet,' &c., thus
confounding us and aequum. Aequus
means favourable, friendly, as in uni
aequus virtuti atque eius amicis,'". aequa
Venus Teucris Pallas iniqua fuit,' 'aequi
boni facit,' and other places. Casaubon
first corrected the mistranslation of aequi,
but he took fuissemus as if it were
fuimus. Boot renders as above, quoting
Abeken, though I might have let him
slip through my fingers.' The subjunctive
fuissemus is both concessive and (ellipti-
cally) conditional: though I might have
taken a lenient view (had I so willed)'.
I shall have something to say about
another form of elliptical conditional sen-
tence on Ep. xxvii. § 3. The view of
the passage which I have given was
originated by Tunstall, and is accepted
by Boot.

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