M. Tullius Cicero, De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites, Charles Duke Yonge (Translator), 51

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[51]
But, to be sure, that most illustrious man, Quintus Catulus, a man most honestly attached to the republic, and loaded with your kindness in a way most honourable to him; and also Quintus Hortensius, a man endowed with the highest qualities of honour, and fortune, and virtue, and genius, disagree to this proposal. And I admit that their authority has in many instances had the greatest weight with you, and that it ought to have the greatest weight; but in this cause, although you are aware that the opinions of many very brave and illustrious men are unfavourable to us, still it is possible for us, disregarding those authorities, to arrive at the truth by the circumstances of the case and by reason. And so much the more easily, because those very men admit that everything which has been said by me up to this time is true,—that the war is necessary, that it is an important war, and that all the requisite qualifications are in the highest perfection in Cnaeus Pompeius.

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.) — 51 focus

[51] at enim vir clarissimus, amantissimus¹ rei publicae, vestris beneficiis amplissimis² adfectus, Q. Quintus Catulus, itemque summis ornamentis honoris, fortunae, virtutis, ingeni praeditus, Q. Quintus Hortensius, ab hac ratione dissentiunt. quorum ego auctoritatem apud vos multis locis plurimum valuisse et valere oportere confiteor; sed in hac causa, tametsi cognostis³ auctoritates contrarias virorum⁴ fortissimorum et clarissimorum, tamen omissis auctoritatibus ipsa re ac ratione exquirere possumus veritatem, atque hoc facilius quod ea omnia quae a me adhuc dicta sunt idem⁵ isti vera esse concedunt⁶, et necessarium bellum esse et magnum et in uno Cn.

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

at enim (objection), but, you will say.

adfectus = enjoying.

Catulus : Quintus Lutatius Catulus, at this time the leader of the senatorial party; an estimable man and an experienced statesman, but no soldier. The beneficia amplissima are the successive offices that had been conferred upon him.

auctoritates contrarias : of course there were men of influence on the side of the Manilian Law as well as opposed to it; Cicero brings forward the names of several in sect. 68 , below.

ipsa re ac ratione : this appeal from theoretical objections (as Cicero thinks them) to experience (i.e. in the Piratic War) would, of course, be very effective in a public assembly, for theoretical considerations weigh little with such bodies in comparison with facts. Cicero makes it doubly effective by pointing out that his opponents agree with his premises as to the necessity and magnitude of the war and the eminent ability of Pompey as a general, but that they avoid, on these merely technical grounds, what seems to him the obvious conclusion: viz. that Pompey should be appointed.

M. Tullius Cicero De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites 51

Charles Duke Yonge (Translator)

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