M. Tullius Cicero, De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites, Charles Duke Yonge (Translator), 61

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[61]
For what can be so unprecedented as for a young man in a private capacity to levy an army at a most critical time of the republic? He levied one.—To command it? He did command it.—To succeed gloriously in his undertaking? He did succeed. What can be so entirely contrary to usage, as for a very young man, whose age ¹ fell far short of that required for the rank of a senator, to have a command and an army entrusted to him? to have Sicily committed to his care, and Africa , and the war which was to be carried on there? He conducted himself in these provinces with singular blamelessness, dignity, and valour; he terminated a most serious war in Africa , and brought away his army victorious. But what was ever so unheard of as for a Roman knight to have a triumph? But even that circumstance the Roman people not only say, but they thought that it deserved to be thronged to and honoured with all possible zeal.

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.) — 61 focus

[61] 21 quid tam novum quam adulescentulum¹ privatum exercitum difficili rei publicae tempore conficere? confecit. huic praeesse? praefuit. rem optime ductu suo gerere? gessit. quid tam praeter consuetudinem quam homini peradulescenti cuius aetas a senatorio gradu² longe abesset imperium atque exercitum dari, Siciliam permitti atque Africam bellumque in ea provincia³ administrandum? fuit in his provinciis singulari innocentia, gravitate, virtute, bellum in Africa maximum confecit, victorem exercitum deportavit. quid vero tam inauditum quam equitem Romanum triumphare? at eam quoque rem populus Romanus non modo vidit sed omnium etiam⁴ studio visendam et concelebrandam⁵ putavit.

Notes on the current edition

In Defense of the Proposed Manilian Law

1. “As regards the age at which a person might become a senator, we have no express statement for the time of the republic, although it appears to have been fixed by some custom or law, as the aetas senatoria is frequently mentioned, especially during the latter period of the republic; but we may by induction discover the probable age. We know that according to the law of the tribune Villius the age fixed for the quaestorship was thirty-one. Now as it might happen that a quaestor was made the senator immediately after the expiration of his office, we may presume that the earliest age at which a man could become a senator was thirty-two. Augustus at last fixed the senatorial age at twenty-five, which appears to have remained unaltered throughout the time of the empire.”—Smith, Dict. Ant. p. 851, v. Senatus.

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

privatum , i.e. not a magistrate.

a senatorio gradu : no one could legally enter the Senate until after holding the quaestorship, the minimum age for which was thirty at least, and regularly thirty-six, while Pompey was at the time referred to ( B.C. 82) only twenty-three.

in ea provincia , i.e. Africa.

fuit : translate, he showed, etc. (in order to render the abls. of quality, which come in a way foreign to our idiom).

victorem , victorious (pred. adj.).

exercitum deportavit : this was one of the essential conditions of a triumph.

equitem , i.e. not a member of the Senate, having never held a magistracy.

triumphare : the honor of a triumph was restricted to commanders who possessed the imperium by virtue of holding a regular magistracy. Until he was elected consul for the year B.C. 70, Pompey had never had the imperium except by special appointment from the Senate; both his triumphs, therefore, B.C. 80 and 71, were contrary to precedent.

M. Tullius Cicero De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites 61

Charles Duke Yonge (Translator)

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