M. Tullius Cicero, De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites, ed. Albert Curtis Clark, 55

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[55] nos quorum maiores Antiochum regem classe Persenque¹ superarunt omnibusque² navalibus pugnis Carthaginiensis, homines in maritimis rebus exercitatissimos paratissimosque³, vicerunt, ei nullo in loco iam⁴ praedonibus pares esse poteramus. nos qui⁵ antea non modo Italiam tutam habebamus sed omnis socios in ultimis oris auctoritate nostri imperi salvos praestare poteramus, tum cum insula Delus⁶ tam procul a nobis in Aegaeo mari posita, quo omnes undique cum mercibus atque oneribus commeabant, referta divitiis, parva, sine muro nihil timebat, idem non modo provinciis atque oris Italiae maritimis ac portibus⁷ nostris sed etiam Appia iam via carebamus⁸. et eis temporibus nonne⁹ pudebat magistratus populi Romani in hunc ipsum locum escendere¹⁰, cum eum nobis maiores nostri exuviis nauticis et classium spoliis ornatum reliquissent!

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.) — 55 focus

[55] We, whose ancestors conquered with our fleets Antiochus the king, and Perses, and in every naval engagement defeated the Carthaginians, the best practiced and best equipped of all men in maritime affairs; we could now in no place prove ourselves equal to the pirates. We, who formerly had not only all Italy in safety, but who were able by the authority of our empire to secure the safety of all our allies in the most distant countries, so that even the island of Delos , situated so far from us in the Aegean sea, at which all men were in the habit of touching with their merchandise and their freights, full of riches as it was, little and unwalled as it was, still was in no alarm; we, I say, were cut off, not only from our provinces, and from the sea-coast of Italy , and from our harbours, but even from the Appian road; and at this time, the magistrates of the Roman people were not ashamed to come up into this very rostrum where I am standing, which your ancestors had bequeathed to you adorned with nautical trophies, and the spoils of the enemy's fleet.

Notes on the current edition

De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites

1. Persenque H ψ: Persemque cett.

2. omnibusque om. H

3. simul in maritimis rebus homines exercitatissimosque vicerunt H

4. iam om. H

5. nos qui HE: nos quoque qui cett.

6. Delus HT: Delos E δ

7. portubus Eb

8. provinciis... carebamus de provinciis... caperebamur ( i. e. capiebamur, cf. §§33, 53) H

9. nonne H: non cett.

10. escendere H: ascendere 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

Antiochum : Antiochus the Great, king of Syria, defeated at Magnesia, B.C. 190.

Persen : Perses or Perseus, the last king of Macedonia, defeated at Pydna, B.C. 168 .

Karthaginiensis : Carthage was mistress of the sea at the time when her wars with Rome began; but in the First Punic War she was beaten at her own weapons.

ei repeats

nos : we, i.e. that nation.

Delos : a very small island in the Aegean Sea, sacred as the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. It had an excellent harbor, and this, added to its peculiar sanctity, gave it high importance. It had at all times a flourishing commerce and in the time of Cicero was the great slave market of the world, 10,000 slaves being sometimes sold there in a single day.

eidem repeats

nos (1.23, above).

Appia via : the principal highway of Italy, running from Rome to Capua, and thence to Brundisium (see map of Italy, p.1). It was begun by Appius Claudius Caecus, in his censorship, B.C. 312 .

jam , at length.

pudebat magistratus (acc. pl.): no special case is referred to, but it is implied that any magistrate ought to have felt shame, seeing that the beaks of ships, rostra, were naval trophies.

cum : concessive.

M. Tullius Cicero De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites 55

ed. Albert Curtis Clark

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