M. Tullius Cicero, Pro Q. Ligario, ed. Albert Curtis Clark, 7

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[7] suscepto bello, Caesar, gesto etiam¹ ex parte magna, nulla vi coactus, iudicio ac voluntate² ad ea arma profectus sum quae erant sumpta contra te. apud quem igitur hoc dico? nempe apud eum qui, cum hoc sciret, tamen me, ante quam vidit, rei publicae reddidit; qui ad me ex Aegypto litteras misit ut essem idem qui fuissem; qui me³, cum ipse imperator in toto imperio populi Romani⁴ unus esset, esse alterum passus est; a quo hoc ipso C. Pansa mihi hunc⁵ nuntium perferente concessos fascis laureatos tenui quoad tenendos putavi; qui mihi tum denique salutem se putavit dare⁶, si eam nullis spoliatam ornamentis dedisset.

Pro Q. Ligario. M. Tullius Cicero. ed. Albert Curtis Clark. Oxford. 1918.

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

Current edition Perseus

Pro Q. Ligario (Latin) (Cicero. M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes, Vol. 6. Clark, Albert Curtis, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1918.)

Notes on the current edition

Pro Q. Ligario

1. iam etiam Quintil. ix. 2. 28, xi. 3. 166

2. consilio ac voluntate mea Quintil. ix. 2. 28

3. me hoc loco hab αγ: post esse β

4. orbe populi R. γ

5. hunc α: om. βγ

6. sal. se putavit dare αam: se sal. put. reddere βh

Commentary

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

imperator : after the news of Pompey's death ( B.C. 48) Caesar was made dictator rei publicae constituendae, at the same time receiving certain other special grants of power, and retaining the imperium, which he had now held uninterruptedly for twelve years. Hence the exaggerated expression imperator unus; for in the original sense of this title (see note on p. 252, l. 6 ) it could be borne by as many officers as was necessary. It was not until the spring of B.C. 45, some months after the delivery of this oration, that Imperator became the title of a new magistrate in whom the imperium was vested for his life, to be transmitted to his descendants. This was the commencement of the Empire, though the office was suspended from the death of Caesar till it was revived by Augustus. From this time the old use of this title was rare. 228.15

alterum , second. Cicero was imperator by virtue of his provincial government in Cilicia. 228.17

fascis laureatos : the fasces were wreathed with laurel when the commander, after a victory, was greeted as imperator. Cicero had aspired to the honor of a triumph for successes over some mountaineers in Cilicia, and therefore had not laid down his imperium at the time here referred to. 228.18

reddere , restore. This infin. represents a conative present having a future force; hence dedisset for fut. perf. of dir. disc.

M. Tullius Cicero Pro Q. Ligario 7

ed. Albert Curtis Clark

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