M. Tullius Cicero, Pro Archia Poeta, Charles Duke Yonge (Translator), 13

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[13] Who then can reproach me or who has any right to be angry with me, if I allow myself as much time for the cultivation of these studies as some take for the performance of their own business, or for celebrating days of festival and games, or for other pleasures, or even for the rest and refreshment of mind and body, or as others devote to early banquets, to playing at dice, or at ball? And this ought to be permitted to me, because by these studies my power of speaking and those faculties are improved, which, as far as they do exist in me, have never been denied to my friends when they have been in peril. And if that ability appears to any one to be but moderate, at all events I know whence I derive those principles which are of the greatest value.

Pro Archia Poeta. M. Tullius Cicero. Charles Duke Yonge (Translator). London. 1856.

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Current edition Perseus

For A.L. Archias (English) (Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 2. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Bell, 1856.)

Editions (1)

Pro Archia Poeta Perseus (Cicero. M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes, Volume 6. Clark, Albert Curtis, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911.) — 13 focus

[13] qua re quis tandem me reprehendat, aut quis mihi iure suscenseat, si, quantum ceteris ad suas res obeundas, quantum ad festos dies ludorum celebrandos, quantum ad alias voluptates et ad ipsam requiem animi et corporis conceditur temporum¹, quantum alii tribuunt tempestivis conviviis, quantum denique alveolo², quantum pilae, tantum mihi egomet ad haec studia recolenda sumpsero? atque id eo³ mihi concedendum est magis quod ex his studiis haec quoque crescit oratio et facultas quae, quantacumque est⁴ in me, numquam amicorum periculis defuit. quae si cui levior videtur, illa quidem certe quae summa sunt ex quo fonte hauriam sentio.

Commentary

Commentary on Oration For Archias (Select Orations of Cicero (Allen and Greenough's Edition). Greenough, James Bradstreet; Kittredge, George Lyman, editors. Boston, London: Ginn & Company, 1897.) focus

ceteris depends on

conceditur (l. 4).

ad ipsam requiem , even to repose .

temporum limits

quantum (1.3), which has

tantum (l.6) for antecedent.

alii : notice how this differs in meaning from

ceteris , the first-mentioned pursuits (attending to business, celebrating festivals, etc.) are common to everybody, the last (being dissipations) belong only to "some people."

tempestivis conviviis , early dinners, i.e. beginning by daylight, or in business hours,

a mark of luxury and idleness : we should refer to "late dinners."

oratio et facultas : hendiadys.

quantacumque , etc., i.e. such as I have (a modest disclaimer).

periculis : Cicero prided himself on defending cases rather than acting for the prosecution (cf. amicorum temporibus, etc., Pompey's Military Command, sect. 1 ).

quae , i.e. the mere ability to speak.

illa (obj. of

hauriam ), i.e. the moral character resulting from the

praecepta mentioned below.

M. Tullius Cicero Pro Archia Poeta 13

Charles Duke Yonge (Translator)

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