M. Tullius Cicero, De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites, Charles Duke Yonge (Translator), 19

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[19] In the next place, that which the same Asia , and that same Mithridates taught us, at the beginning of the Asiatic war that, at all events, we, having learnt by disaster, ought to keep in our recollection. For we know that then, when many had lost large fortunes in Asia , all credit failed at Rome , from payments being hindered. For it is not possible for many men to lose their property and fortunes in one city, without drawing many along with them into the same vortex of disaster. But do you now preserve the republic from this misfortune; and believe me, (you yourselves see that it is the case,) this credit, and this state of the money-market which exists at Rome and in the forum, is bound up with, and is inseparable from, those fortunes which are invested in Asia . Those fortunes cannot fall without credit here being undermined by the came blow, and perishing along with them. Consider, then, whether you ought to hesitate to apply yourselves with all zeal to that war, in which the glory of your name, the safety of your allies, your greatest revenues, and the fortunes of numbers of your citizens, will be protected at the same time as the republic.

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.)

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De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites Perseus (Cicero. M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes, Volume 1. Clark, Albert Curtis, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908.) — 19 focus

[19] deinde quod nos¹ eadem Asia atque idem iste Mithridates initio belli Asiatici docuit, id quidem² certe calamitate docti memoria retinere debemus. nam tum, cum³ in Asia magnas permulti res amiserunt⁴, scimus Romae solutione impedita fidem concidisse. non enim possunt una in civitate multi rem ac fortunas amittere ut non pluris secum in eandem trahant calamitatem: a quo periculo prohibete rem publicam. etenim — mihi⁵ credite id quod ipsi videtis — haec fides atque haec ratio pecuniarum quae Romae, quae in foro versatur, implicata⁶ est cum illis pecuniis Asiaticis et cohaeret; ruere illa non possunt ut haec non eodem labefacta motu concidant. qua re videte num⁷ dubitandum vobis sit omni studio ad id bellum incumbere in quo gloria nominis vestri, salus sociorum, vectigalia maxima, fortunae plurimorum civium coniunctae⁸ cum re publica defendantur.

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

deinde : introducing another important point; general credit will invariably suffer when a large class of moneyed men are ruined. The student should remember that Rome was a great commercial centre like London to-day.

initio belli , i.e. in the First Mithridatic War.

memoria , loc. abl.: § 429 , 3 (254, a); G. 389; H. 485, I (425, I, 2); H.-B. 436, b.

cum . . . amiserant , when (as you remember), etc.: § 545 (325, a); cf. B. 288, I, a; G. 580; H. 601 (521, ii, I); H-B. 550 and a.

solutione . . . concidisse (brief description of a financial panic), when payment was embarrassed, credit fell. similar panics in recent times may help us conceive the political importance of commerce in antiquity.

non enim possunt : translate (to preserve the emphasis), for it is impossible that.

ut non . . . trahant (clause of result), without dragging (lit. so as not to drag).

prohibete : for the two senses of this verb, see Vocab. (Cf. also defendo ).

id : § 362 , a (225, a); H.-B. 364, 3 and 4.

ratio pecuniarum , financial system.

versatur , centres.

pecunus , finances.

illa , i.e. those in Asia;

haec , i.e. at Rome.

num . . . sit , whether you ought to hesitate.

dubitandum sit , impersonal.

incumbere : the usual constr. after non dubito in this sense; § 588 , a, N.2 (332, g, N.2); B. 298, b; G. 555, R3; H. 596, I (505, i, 4); cf. H.-B. 586.

fortunae , etc.: with this chapter Cicero closes the discussion " de genere belli." There is no anticlimax, for the stability of the whole Roman financial system was of course more important than either the safety of the allies or the revenues of a single province.

M. Tullius Cicero De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites 19

Charles Duke Yonge (Translator)

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