M. Tullius Cicero, De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites, ed. Albert Curtis Clark, 31

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[31] testes nunc¹ vero iam omnes orae atque omnes terrae gentes² nationes, maria denique³ omnia cum universa tum in singulis oris omnes sinus atque portus. quis enim toto mari locus per hos annos aut tam firmum habuit praesidium ut tutus esset, aut tam fuit abditus ut lateret? quis navigavit qui non se aut mortis aut servitutis periculo committeret, cum aut hieme aut referto praedonum mari navigaret? hoc tantum bellum, tam turpe, tam vetus, tam late divisum atque dispersum quis umquam arbitraretur aut ab omnibus imperatoribus uno anno aut omnibus annis ab uno imperatore confici posse?

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

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

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.) — 31 focus

[31] But now, also every coast, all foreign nations and countries, all seas, both in their open waters and in every bay, and creek, and harbour, are my witnesses. For during these last years, what place in any part of the sea had so strong a garrison as to be safe from him? what place was so much hidden as to escape his notice? Whoever put to sea without being aware that he was committing himself to the hazard of death or slavery, either from storms or from the sea being crowded with pirates? Who would ever have supposed that a war of such extent, so mean, so old a war, a war so extensive in its theatre and so widely scattered, could have been terminated by all our generals put together in one year, or by one general in all the years of his life?

Notes on the current edition

De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites

1. nunc HE: om. cett.

2. terrae gentes H: exterae gentes ac cett.

3. maria denique H: denique maria cett.

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

omnes orae , etc.: referring to the Piratic War. There is no extravagance in this; the suppression of piracy was the most glorious part of Pompey's career.

servitutis : the slave system of the ancients made captives a lucrative booty in war.

hieme , i.e. he either had to sail in the winter, exposed to the danger of being lost at sea ( mortis), or, etc.

tam vetus : the piratical forces were made up of the wreck of those numberless armies beaten and broken up in the wars of the past half-century or more. When the lesser states lost their independence, their bravest men would often prefer the outlaw freedom of piracy to personal slavery, or even to political subjugation. In fact, the pirate state in Cilicia made a sort of republic, unrecognized and defiant.

quis . . . arbitraretur : § 444 (268); B. 277; G. 265; H. 559, 4 (484, v); H.-B. 503.

M. Tullius Cicero De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites 31

ed. Albert Curtis Clark

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