M. Tullius Cicero, De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites, Charles Duke Yonge (Translator), 17

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[17]
And even this must not be neglected by you, which I had proposed to myself as the last thing to be mentioned, when I was to speak of the kind of war, for it concerns the property of many Roman citizens; whom you, as becomes your wisdom, O Romans, must regard with the most careful solicitude. The publicans, ¹ most honourable and accomplished men, have taken all their resources and all their wealth into that province; and their property and fortunes ought, by themselves, to be an object of your special care. In truth, if we have always considered the revenues as the sinews of the republic, certainly we shall be right if we call that order of men which collects them, the prop and support of all the other orders.

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.) — 17 focus

[17] 7 ac ne illud quidem vobis neglegendum est quod mihi ego extremum proposueram, cum essem de belli genere¹ dicturus, quod ad multorum bona civium Romanorum pertinet; quorum vobis pro vestra sapientia, Quirites, habenda est ratio diligenter. nam et publicani, homines honestissimi atque² ornatissimi, suas rationes et copias in illam provinciam contulerunt, quorum ipsorum per se res et fortunae vobis curae esse debent. etenim, si vectigalia nervos esse rei publicae semper duximus, eum certe ordinem qui exercet illa firmamentum ceterorum ordinum recte esse³ dicemus.

Notes on the current edition

In Defense of the Proposed Manilian Law

1. It has been said before that the publicans were taken almost exclusively from the equestrian order.

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

ac ne , etc., nor must you neglect this point either.

cum essem . . . dicturus : see above, sect. 6 , where the divisions of the subject are specified.

quod . . . pertinet , which bears upon, etc. The antecedent is

illud .

nam et corresponds to deinde (sect. 18 ). Two classes are mentioned: (1) the publicani or tax-farmers, and (2) other citizens who have money invested in Asia (sect. 18 ).

rationes , business enterprises;

copias , fortunes.

in illam provinciam , i.e. the farming of the revenues there.

ipsorum per se , for their own sake (i.e. apart from all question of the safety of the revenues).

nervos : the same figure is seen in our phrase "the sinews of war."

eum . . . ordinem , i.e. the equites these not only farmed the taxes, but they were, in general, the capitalists and bankers of Rome.

M. Tullius Cicero De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites 17

Charles Duke Yonge (Translator)

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