M. Tullius Cicero, Philippicae, 2

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For the purpose of effecting the liberation of Decimus Brutus, the chief men of the state were sent as ambassadors, to give notice to that enemy and parricidal traitor to retire from Mutina ; for the sake of preserving that same Decimus Brutus, Aulus Hirtius, the consul, went by lot to conduct the war; a man the weakness of whose bodily health was made up for by the strength of his courage, and encouraged by the hope of victory; Caesar, too, after he, with an army levied by his own resources and on his own authority, had delivered the republic from the first dangers that assailed it, in order to prevent any subsequent wicked attempts from being originated, departed to assist in the deliverance of the same Brutus, and subdued some family vexation which he may have felt by his attachment to his country. 5 What other object had Caius Pansa in holding the levies which he did, and in collecting money, and in carrying the most severe resolutions of the senate against Antonius, and in exhorting us, and in inviting the Roman people to embrace the cause of liberty, except to insure the deliverance of Decimus Brutus? For the Roman people in crowds demanded at his hands the safety of Decimus Brutus with such unanimous outcries, that he was compelled to prefer it not only to any consideration of his own personal advantage, but even to his own necessities. And that end we now, O conscript fathers, are entitled to hope is either at the point of being achieved, or is actually gained; but it is right for the reward of our hopes to be reserved for the issue and event of the business, lest we should appear either to have anticipated the kindness of the gods by our over precipitation, or to have despised the bounty of fortune through our own folly. 6

But since the manner of your behavior shows plainly enough what you think of this matter, I will come to the letters which have arrived from the consuls and the propraetor, after I have said a few words relating to the letters themselves.

Philippicae. M. Tullius Cicero. London. 1903.

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Current edition Perseus

Philippics (English) (Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Vol. 4. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Bell, 1856.)

Editions (1)

Philippicae Perseus (Cicero. M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes, Vol. 6. Clark, Albert Curtis, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1918.) — 2 focus

[2] confectio autem huius belli est D. Bruti salus. quae autem est ista sententia ut in hodiernum diem vestitus mutetur, deinde cras sagati prodeamus? nos vero cum semel ad eum quem cupimus optamusque vestitum redierimus, id agamus ut eum in perpetuum retineamus. nam hoc quidem cum turpe est, tum ne dis quidem immortalibus gratum, ab eorum aris ad quas togati adierimus, ad saga sumenda discedere.

Commentary

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

legati : this was in January. At the head of the embassy was the distinguished jurist, Ser. Sulpicius Galba, who died on the journey. 243.8

hosti , i.e. Antony.

denuntiarent , order (with threats). 243.10

Hirtius , the consul (see Introd., p.241 of text).

imbecillitatem , infirm condition. Cicero had said of him before: "How feeble and worn he was! But the infirmity of his body did not check the vigor of his soul." 243.12

Caesar , i.e. Octavianus. 243.13

liberasset : Octavianus had taken an active part in the autumn in thwarting Antony's plans. 243.15

dolorem aliquem domesticum , some private grief i.e. for the death of Julius Caesar, his adoptive father. It should be remembered that D. Brutus was one of the assassins of Caesar.

quid . . . egit , what abject had Pansa? He had set out for Mutina some weeks after his colleague Hirtius. 243.17

faciendis , procuring (i.e. as presiding officer of the Senate). 243.21

necessitati victus , implying that the war brought distress in the provision market. 243.22

quod , i.e. the liberation of Brutus from siege. 243.24

et connects

rei and

evento . 243.25

praeripuisse , seized prematurely, if the news proved true;

contempsisse , scorned, if it proved false.

significatio vestra , the indication you have giver' (i.e. by signs of approval). 243.29

propraetore : Octavianus, upon whom the Senate had specially conferred this rank early in January. He was left in sole command after the death of Hirtius and Pansa. -51... ante, as soon as. 243.30

pertineant : § 592 , 3 (341, d); B. 323; G. 508, 3; H. 649, (528, I); H.-B. 535, I, a. 243.31

exercituumque : this term is added because the legions contained only Romans, while the consular armies had also auxiliaries. 243.32

duobus , Sc. proeliis. The battle was begun by Pansa, who was routed and mortally wounded, although the fatal character of his wound was not yet known at Rome; then the fortune of the day was retrieved by reinforcements led by Hirtius. Octavianus took no part in this engagement, but repulsed an attack upon the camp. 244.1

hostium , civium: Cicero's great point in the Philippics is to make out that Antony — like Catiline — is no citizen, but a public enemy. In the argument that follows he shows that the proposition of a supplicatio (see note, Cat. 3, sect. 15 , p. 133, l. 19 ), which had never been decreed except for a victory over foreign enemies, endorses this view by treating Antony as a hostis.

hostium ,

summa pietas ;

nefarium scelus ,

civium : observe the chiastic order.

M. Tullius Cicero Philippicae 2

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