M. Tullius Cicero, Pro Archia Poeta, ed. Albert Curtis Clark, 19

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[19] sit igitur, iudices, sanctum apud vos, humanissimos homines, hoc poetae nomen quod nulla umquam barbaria violavit. Saxa atque¹ solitudines voci² respondent, bestiae saepe immanes cantu flectuntur atque consistunt; nos instituti rebus optimis non poetarum voce moveamur? Homerum Colophonii civem esse dicunt suum, Chii suum³ vindicant, Salaminii repetunt, Smyrnaei vero suum esse confirmant itaque etiam delubrum eius⁴ in oppido dedicaverunt, permulti alii praeterea pugnant inter se atque contendunt. 9 ergo illi alienum, quia poeta fuit, post mortem etiam expetunt; nos hunc vivum qui et⁵ voluntate et legibus noster est repudiamus⁶, praesertim cum omne olim studium atque omne ingenium contulerit Archias ad populi Romani gloriam laudemque celebrandam? nam et Cimbricas res adulescens attigit et ipsi illi C. Mario qui durior ad haec studia videbatur iucundus fuit.

Pro Archia Poeta. M. Tullius Cicero. ed. Albert Curtis Clark. Oxford. 1911.

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

Current edition Perseus

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

Translations (1)

For A.L. Archias Perseus (Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 2. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Bell, 1856.) — 19 focus

[19] Let then, judges, this name of poet, this name which no barbarians even have ever disregarded, be holy in your eyes, men of cultivated minds as you all are. Rocks and deserts reply to the poet's voice; savage beasts are often moved and arrested by song; and shall we, who have been trained in the pursuit of the most virtuous acts, refuse to be swayed by the voice of poets? The Colophonians say that Homer was their citizen; the Chians claim him as theirs; the Salaminians assert their right to him; but the men of Smyrna loudly assert him to be a citizen of Smyrna, and they have even raised a temple to him in their city. Many other places also fight with one another for the honour of being his birth-place. 9
They, then, claim a stranger, even after his death, because he was a poet; shall we reject this man while he is alive, a man who by his own inclination and by our laws does actually belong to us? especially when Archias has employed all his genius with the utmost zeal in celebrating the glory and renown of the Roman people? For when a young man, he touched on our wars against the Cimbri, and gained the favour even of Caius Marius himself, a man who was tolerably proof against this sort of study.

Notes on the current edition

Pro Archia Poeta

1. atque Quintil. ( quinque locis): et codd.

2. voci Quintil.: voce codd.

3. Chii suum Chii sibi P. Thomas

4. eius ei Lambinus

5. qui et b2k: qui ab1: et qui cett.

6. repudiabimus Lag. 9, Naugerius (1)

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

domicilium and

professio ).

civitatem datam , i.e. by the law before cited.

professione , list of declarations.

conlegio : the praetors, when regarded as a whole, could be spoken of as a "board."

cum , while.

Appi , i.e. Appius Claudius, husband of Caecilia (the friend of Roscius: see Rosc. Am., sect. 50 ) and father of the infamous Clodius.

Gabini : see Introd. to Pompey's Military Command.

damnationem : he was condemned, B.C. 54, for extortion on complaint of the Achaeans.

L. Lentulum : nothing further is known of him; he probably presided over a court ( judices) to determine cases involving citizenship under the new law.

M. Tullius Cicero Pro Archia Poeta 19

ed. Albert Curtis Clark

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