Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

iniicimus, divisores ratione aliqua coërcemus, perfici potest ut largitio aut nulla sit aut nihil valeat. 58. Haec sunt, quae putavi non melius scire me quam te, sed facilius his tuis occupationibus colligere unum in locum posse et ad te perscripta mittere. Quae tametsi ita sunt scripta, ut non ad omnes, qui honores petant, sed ad te proprie et ad hanc petitionem tuam valeant, tamen tu, si quid mutandum esse videbitur aut omnino tollendum aut si quid erit praeteritum, velim hoc mihi dicas. Volo enim hoc commentariolum petitionis haberi omni ratione perfectum.

law courts, and thoroughly inspire their agents with fear' (of detection and punishment). Bribery at Rome was an art. Three different sets of agents were employed: (1) interpretes, who made the bargain, Verr. i. 36; (2) the sequestres, with whom the money to be used as a bribe was deposited, Cluent. 72; (3) the divisores, who distributed the money to the persons bribed, Att. i. 16, 12.

58. his tuis occupationibus] This is a good example of what Roby (§ 1242) calls the ablative of attendant circumstances. He quotes tabulas in foro summa hominum frequentia exscribo. This usage will be frequently met in the letters, and will afterwards be more fully illustrated.

commentariolum petitionis] handbook of electioneering.'

PART II.

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF CICERO, FROM ITS RESUMPTION AFTER HIS CONSULSHIP TO HIS EXILE.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

PART II.

AFTER July, 689 (b. c. 65), we have no letters from Cicero for more than two years, and only one to him-the letter of Quintus. His correspondence with Atticus does not recommence for three years and a-half. Cicero concludes his last letter (Ep. xi.), written July, 689, with the words, qua re Ianuario mense, ut constituisti, cura ut Romae sis. Atticus seems to have complied with this request, and to have remained at Rome for three years, after an absence in Athens of twenty-two years. Cicero's next letter to Atticus (Att. i. 12) was written on the Kalends of January, 693 (b. c. 61), when Atticus had left Rome for Epirus, where he remained until the end of 694 (b. c. 60). Atticus then returned to Rome for a few months, but went back to Epirus in May, 695 (b.c. 59), and remained there till November, when he again visited Rome.

The year of Cicero's celebrated consulship, with C. Antonius as colleague, need not be dwelt on here. It was marked by the delivery of the Orationes Consulares, of which a list is given (Att. ii. 1, 3), in a passage not unreasonably suspected of spuriousness, as it omits the speeches pro Murena and pro Pisone, and contains some rather un-Ciceronian expressions. One of the most important of these speeches was the or. pro Rabirio, as it turns mainly on the question whether the senatorial decree videant consules ne quid detrimenti respublica capiat really invested the consuls with absolute power over the lives of seditious citizens; and this was the question on which depended the legality or illegality of the execution of Lentulus and his accomplices-the act which led to the exile of Cicero.

For a discussion of Cicero's conduct in the suppression of the Catilinarian conspiracy, and a description of the circumstances which led to his exile and restoration, see Introduction, i. § 1.

N

LETTERS OF THE SEVENTH YEAR OF CICERO'S CORRESPONDENCE.

EPP. XIII.-XVI.

A. U. C. 692; B. C. 62; AET. CIC. 44.

COSS. D. JUNIUS SILANUS, L. LICINIUS MURENA.

THIS year the Catilinarian conspiracy was completely crushed, and Catiline himself slain in an engagement with Petreius, the legate of Antonius, Cicero's colleague.

Cicero's correspondence recommences with a letter to Pompeius; a letter from Q. Metellus Celer with Cicero's answer to it; and a letter to P. Sestius, in which he mentions the purchase of his house on the Palatine from M. Crassus for HSXXXV (about £30,000).

In this year Cicero defended P. Sulla, and his former colleague Antonius. He also pleaded the cause of the poet Archias before his brother Quintus, who was one of the praetors. Caesar, who also was a praetor, proposed to transfer to Pompeius the dedication of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and in many ways sought to effect a reconciliation with him. In this course he was aided by the tribune Metellus Nepos, who had refused to allow Cicero to address the people on laying down his consulship. They attempted to procure for Pompeius the command against Catiline. Caesar and Metellus were suspended from their functions (see letter XV.). Metellus fled to the camp of Pompeius. Caesar was reinstated in his office.

That is, the seventh from the commencement of the extant correspondence.

« AnteriorContinuar »