M. Tullius Cicero, De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites, Charles Duke Yonge (Translator), 16

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[16] What do you think ought to be the feelings of those who pay us tribute, or of those who get it in, and exact it, when two kings with very numerous armies are all but on the spot? when one inroad of cavalry may in a very short time carry off the revenue of a whole year? when the publicans think that they retain the large households of slaves which they have in the salt-works, in the fields, in the harbours, and custom-houses, at the greatest risk? Do you think that you can enjoy these advantages unless you preserve those men who are productive to you, free not only, as I said before, from calamity, but even from the dread of calamity?

De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites. M. Tullius Cicero. Charles Duke Yonge (Translator). London. 1856.

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Current edition Perseus

In Defense of the Proposed Manilian Law (English) (Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 2. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Bell, 1856.)

Editions (1)

De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites Perseus (Cicero. M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes, Volume 1. Clark, Albert Curtis, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908.) — 16 focus

[16] quo tandem igitur¹ animo esse existimatis aut eos qui vectigalia nobis pensitant, aut eos qui exercent atque exigunt, cum duo reges cum maximis copiis propter² adsint, cum una excursio equitatus perbrevi tempore totius anni vectigal auferre possit, cum publicani familias maximas quas in salinis³ habent, quas in agris, quas in portibus⁴ atque⁵ in custodiis magno periculo se habere arbitrentur? putatisne vos illis rebus frui posse, nisi eos qui vobis fructui sunt⁶ conservaveritis⁷ non solum, ut ante dixi, calamitate sed etiam calamitatis formidine liberatos?

Commentary

Notes on The Manilian Law (Select Orations of Cicero (Allen and Greenough's Edition). Greenough, James Bradstreet; Kittredge, George Lyman, editors. Boston, London: Ginn & Company, 1897.) focus

exercent , manage, refers to the societates publicanorum, who took contracts for collecting the revenues;

exigunt , collect, refers to the agents and slaves who attended to the details of the collection.

familias : see note on Rosc. Am., p. 15, l. 3 . The Roman slaves were not merely rude Gauls and Thracians, but educated Greeks and Asiatics. The latter served in noble families as secretaries, stewards, and tutors, and would naturally be employed by the great tax-collecting corporations as agents and servants.

saltibus , mountain pastures. Here again three classes of revenue are alluded to: scriptura ( in saltibus ), decumae ( in agris), portoria ( in portubus). Observe the art with which Cicero constantly repeats, in different order and different terms, the same detailed description of the revenues, in order to keep this important point before the minds of his hearers.

custodiis , coast-guards, stationed to prevent smuggling, at the custom-houses and toll-houses.

posse , can: for construction of posse, see § 516 , d, 584, b (307, d); G. 248, R.; H.-B. 472, d; the protasis is nisi . . . conservantis (fut. perf.).

M. Tullius Cicero De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites 16

Charles Duke Yonge (Translator)

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