M. Tullius Cicero, De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites, Charles Duke Yonge (Translator), 20

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[20]
Since I have spoken of the description of war, I will now say a few words about its magnitude. For this may be said of it,—that it is a kind of war so necessary, that it must absolutely be waged, and yet not one of such magnitude as to be formidable. And in this we must take the greatest care that those things do not appear to you contemptible which require to be most diligently guarded against. And that all men may understand that I give Lucius Lucullus all the praise that is due to a gallant man, and most wise ¹ man, and to a most consummate general, I say that when he first arrived in Asia , the forces of Mithridates were most numerous, well appointed, and provided with every requisite; and that the finest city in Asia , and the one, too, that was most friendly to us, the city of Cyzicus , was besieged by the king in person, with an enormous army, and that the siege had been pressed most vigorously, when Lucius Lucullus, by his valour, and perseverance, and wisdom, relieved it from the most extreme danger.

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.) — 20 focus

[20] 8 quoniam de genere belli dixi, nunc de magnitudine pauca dicam. potest enim hoc¹ dici, belli genus esse ita necessarium ut sit gerendum, non esse ita magnum ut sit pertimescendum. in quo maxime laborandum est ne forte ea² vobis quae diligentissime providenda sunt contemnenda esse videantur. atque ut omnes intellegant me L. Lucio Lucullo tantum impertire laudis quantum forti viro et sapienti³ homini et magno imperatori debeatur, dico eius adventu maximas Mithridati⁴ copias omnibus rebus ornatas atque instructas fuisse, urbemque Asiae clarissimam nobisque amicissimam Cyzicenorum oppressam⁵ esse ab ipso rege maxima multitudine et oppugnatam vehementissime; quam L. Lucius Lucullus virtute, adsiduitate, consilio summis obsidionis periculis liberavit.

Notes on the current edition

In Defense of the Proposed Manilian Law

1. The Latin is, “ forti viro, et sapientissimo homini,” and this opposition of vir and homo is not uncommon in Cicero's orations. “ Homo is nearly synonymous with vir, but with this distinction, that homo is used of a man considered as an intellectual and moral being.—namely, where personal qualities are to be denoted; whereas vir signifies a man his relations to the state.”—Riddle, Lat. Dict. v. Homo.

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

potest (emphatic position), etc., it may be said, i.e. in answer to the preceding arguments: of course, in order to justify the wisdom of so exceptional a measure as the Manilian Law, it was necessary to show that the war was of sufficient gravity to require the appointment of Pompey. Observe the skillful transition from the genus of the war to its magnitudo .

belli genus , i.e. the war, in its character.

elaborandum est : use the personal construction in translating.

M. Tullius Cicero De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites 20

Charles Duke Yonge (Translator)

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