M. Tullius Cicero, De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites, ed. Albert Curtis Clark, 22

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[22] 9 requiretur fortasse nunc quem ad modum, cum haec ita sint, reliquum possit magnum esse¹ bellum. cognoscite, Quirites; non enim hoc sine causa quaeri videtur. primum ex suo regno sic² Mithridates profugit ut ex eodem Ponto Medea illa quondam fugisse³ dicitur, quam praedicant in fuga fratris sui membra in eis locis qua se parens persequeretur dissipavisse, ut eorum conlectio dispersa maerorque⁴ patrius celeritatem consequendi⁵ retardaret. sic Mithridates fugiens maximam vim auri atque argenti pulcherrimarumque rerum omnium quas et a⁶ maioribus acceperat et ipse bello superiore ex tota Asia direptas in suum regnum congesserat in Ponto omnem reliquit. haec dum nostri conligunt omnia diligentius, rex ipse e manibus effugit. ita illum⁷ in persequendi studio maeror, hos laetitia tardavit⁸.

De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites. M. Tullius Cicero. ed. Albert Curtis Clark. Oxford. 1908.

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Funding provided by National Endowment For The Humanities (NEH).

Current edition Perseus

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

Translations (1)

In Defense of the Proposed Manilian Law Perseus (Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 2. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Bell, 1856.) — 22 focus

[22]
Perhaps now it will be asked, how, when all this has been already done, there can be any great war left behind. I will explain this, O Romans; for this does not seem an unreasonable question. At first Mithridates fled from his kingdom, as Medea is formerly said to have fled from the same region of Pontus ; for they say that she, in her flight, strewed about the limbs of her brother in those places along which her father was likely to pursue her, in order that the collection of them, dispersed as they were, and the grief which would afflict his father, might delay the rapidity of his pursuit. Mithridates, flying in the same manner, left in Pontus the whole of the vast quantity of gold and silver, and of beautiful things which he had inherited from his ancestors, and which he himself had collected and brought into his own kingdom, having obtained them by plunder in the former war from all Asia . While our men were diligently occupied in collecting all this, the king himself escaped out of their hands.And so grief retarded the father of Medea in his pursuit, but delight delayed our men.

Notes on the current edition

De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites

1. magnum esse HE: esse magnum cett.

2. sic om. E

3. fugisse H: profugisse cett.

4. dispersa maerorque om. H in lac.

5. consequendi H: persequendi cett.

6. et a a H ψ

7. illum δπ: illum Aetam (a tam E: meta t) HEt

8. tardavit E: retardavit cett. ( cf. Zielinski p. 199)

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

autem , now (in contrast to the action of the Roman generals).

reliquum , that followed.

Bosporanis , the people of Bosporus, a flourishing Grecian state, embracing the Crimea and adjoining lands.

ad eos duces , i.e. Sertorius and his comrades. Sertorius was the ablest general of the Marian faction in the Civil Wars. After the victory of Sulla, and the complete overthrow of his own party elsewhere, he continued to hold Spain, where he attempted to found a new republic, entering into alliance with Mithridates and other enemies of Rome.

gereretur (for fut. indic.): subj. of integral part.

de imperio , for supremacy.

M. Tullius Cicero De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites 22

ed. Albert Curtis Clark

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