M. Tullius Cicero, De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites, ed. Albert Curtis Clark, 9

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[9] 4 Mithridates autem omne reliquum tempus non ad oblivionem veteris belli sed ad comparationem novi contulit. qui postea, cum¹ maximas aedificasset ornassetque classis exercitusque permagnos quibuscumque ex gentibus potuisset comparasset² et se³ Bosphoranis, finitimis suis, bellum inferre simularet, usque in Hispaniam legatos ac litteras⁴ misit ad eos duces quibuscum tum bellum gerebamus, ut, cum duobus in locis disiunctissimis maximeque diversis uno consilio a binis⁵ hostium copiis bellum terra marique gereretur, vos ancipiti contentione districti⁶ de imperio dimicaretis.

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.) — 9 focus

[9]
But Mithridates employed all the time which he had left to him, not in forgetting the old war, but in preparing for a new one; and, after he had built and equipped very large fleets, and had got together mighty armies from every nation he could, and had pretended to be preparing war against the tribes of the Bosphorus, his neighbours, sent ambassadors and letters as far as Spain to those chiefs with whom we were at war at the time, in order that, as you would by that means have war waged against you in the two parts of the world the furthest separated and most remote of all from one another, by two separate enemies warring against you with one uniform plan, you, hampered by the double enmity, might find that you were fighting for the empire itself.

Notes on the current edition

De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites

1. postea cum Benecke: postea quam (postquam ψ2) codd.

2. comparavisset H

3. et se HE: om. cett.

4. ac litteras electanis σψ1: electos viros b ψ2: Ecbatanis Naugerius (2)

5. a binis E2t π: binis H: ab unis cett.

6. districti W δπ: destricti Et: distincti H

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

atque (cf. note on 1.19, above), and now (to come to the point).

inde , from that point

vectigalibus ac sociis , tributaries and allies (of the latter some were tributary and others not).

relictus , i.e. before the contest was fully decided.

lacessitus (next line), am assailed, not seriously attacked. By using these words Cicero artfully prepares for the assertion which he is about to make of the need of an energetic commander.

Asiam , i.e. the province of this name, occupying the western half of Asia Minor and bordering on the dominions of Mithridates.

equitibus , etc.: keep the emphasis by changing the construction: Roman equites are daily receiving, etc.

quorum . . . occupatae , whose large properties, invested in managing your revenues, are endangered. The revenues were farmed out to societates (companies) of publicani, who were members of the equestrian order (see sect. 14 ).

necessitudine : Cicero was of an equestrian family.

M. Tullius Cicero De Imperio Cn. Pompei Ad Quirites 9

ed. Albert Curtis Clark

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