M. Tullius Cicero, Philippicae, 7

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

← Previous Next →

Would that those great men were still alive, who, after my consulship, when I myself was willing to yield to them, were themselves desirous to see me in the post of leader. But at the present moment, when there is such a dearth of wise and fearless men of consular rank, how great do you not suppose must be my grief and indignation, when I see some men absolutely disaffected to the republic, others wholly indifferent to every thing, others incapable of persevering with any firmness in the cause which they have espoused; and regulating their opinions not always by the advantage of the republic, but sometimes by hope, and sometimes by fear. 18 But if any one is anxious and inclined to struggle for the leadership—though struggle there ought to be none—he acts very foolishly, if he proposes to combat virtue with vices. For as speed is only outstripped by speed, so among brave men virtue is only surpassed by virtue. Will you, if I am full of excellent sentiments with respect to the republic, adopt the worst possible sentiments yourself for the purpose of excelling me? Or if you see a race taking place for the acquisition of honors, will you summon all the wicked men you can find to your banner? I should be sorry for you to do so; first of all, for the sake of the republic, and secondly, for that of your own dignity. But if the leadership of the state were at stake, which I have never coveted, what could be more desirable for me than such conduct on your part? 19 For it is impossible that I should be defeated by wicked sentiments and measures,—by good ones perhaps I might be, and I willingly would be.

Some people are vexed that the Roman people should see, and take notice of, and form their opinion on these matters. Was it possible for men not to form their opinion of each individual as he deserved? For as the Roman people form a most correct judgment of the entire senate, thinking that at no period in the history of the republic was this order ever more firm or more courageous; so also they all inquire diligently concerning every individual among us; and especially in the case of those among us who deliver our sentiments at length in this place, they are anxious to know what those sentiments are; and in that way they judge of each one of us, as they think that he deserves. 20 They recollect that on the nineteenth of December I was the main cause of recovering our freedom; that from the first of January to this hour I have never ceased watching over the republic; that day and night my house and my ears have been open to the instruction and admonition of everyone; that it has been by my letters, and my messengers, and my exhortations, that all men in every part of the empire have been roused to the protection of our country; that it is owing to the open declaration of my opinion ever since the first of January, that no ambassadors have been ever sent to Antonius; that I have always called him a public enemy, and this a war; so that I, who on every occasion have been the adviser of genuine peace, have been a determined enemy to this pretense of fatal peace. 21

Have not I also at all times pronounced Ventidius an enemy, when others wished to call him a tribune of the people? If the consuls had chosen to divide the senate on my opinion, their arms would long since have been wrested from the hands of all those robbers by the positive authority of the senate.

Philippicae. M. Tullius Cicero. London. 1903.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

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

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.) — 7 focus

[7] gratae vero nostrae dis immortalibus gratulationes erunt, gratae victimae, cum interfecta sit civium multitudo! de improbis inquit et audacibus. nam sic eos appellat clarissimus vir: quae sunt urbanarum maledicta litium, non inustae belli internecini notae¹. testamenta, credo, subiciunt aut eiciunt vicinos aut adulescentulos circumscribunt: his enim vitiis adfectos et talibus malos aut² audacis appellare consuetudo solet³.

[7] gratae vero nostrae dis immortalibus gratulationes erunt, gratae victimae, cum interfecta sit civium multitudo! de improbis inquit et audacibus. nam sic eos appellat clarissimus vir: quae sunt urbanarum maledicta litium, non inustae belli internecini notae⁴. testamenta, credo, subiciunt aut eiciunt vicinos aut adulescentulos circumscribunt: his enim vitiis adfectos et talibus malos aut⁵ audacis appellare consuetudo solet⁶.

[7] gratae vero nostrae dis immortalibus gratulationes erunt, gratae victimae, cum interfecta sit civium multitudo! de improbis inquit et audacibus. nam sic eos appellat clarissimus vir: quae sunt urbanarum maledicta litium, non inustae belli internecini notae⁷. testamenta, credo, subiciunt aut eiciunt vicinos aut adulescentulos circumscribunt: his enim vitiis adfectos et talibus malos aut⁸ audacis appellare consuetudo solet⁹.

[7] gratae vero nostrae dis immortalibus gratulationes erunt, gratae victimae, cum interfecta sit civium multitudo! de improbis inquit et audacibus. nam sic eos appellat clarissimus vir: quae sunt urbanarum maledicta litium, non inustae belli internecini notae¹⁰. testamenta, credo, subiciunt aut eiciunt vicinos aut adulescentulos circumscribunt: his enim vitiis adfectos et talibus malos aut¹¹ audacis appellare consuetudo solet¹².

[7] gratae vero nostrae dis immortalibus gratulationes erunt, gratae victimae, cum interfecta sit civium multitudo! de improbis inquit et audacibus. nam sic eos appellat clarissimus vir: quae sunt urbanarum maledicta litium, non inustae belli internecini notae¹³. testamenta, credo, subiciunt aut eiciunt vicinos aut adulescentulos circumscribunt: his enim vitiis adfectos et talibus malos aut¹⁴ audacis appellare consuetudo solet¹⁵.

[7] gratae vero nostrae dis immortalibus gratulationes erunt, gratae victimae, cum interfecta sit civium multitudo! de improbis inquit et audacibus. nam sic eos appellat clarissimus vir: quae sunt urbanarum maledicta litium, non inustae belli internecini notae¹⁶. testamenta, credo, subiciunt aut eiciunt vicinos aut adulescentulos circumscribunt: his enim vitiis adfectos et talibus malos aut¹⁷ audacis appellare consuetudo solet¹⁸.

[7] gratae vero nostrae dis immortalibus gratulationes erunt, gratae victimae, cum interfecta sit civium multitudo! de improbis inquit et audacibus. nam sic eos appellat clarissimus vir: quae sunt urbanarum maledicta litium, non inustae belli internecini notae¹⁹. testamenta, credo, subiciunt aut eiciunt vicinos aut adulescentulos circumscribunt: his enim vitiis adfectos et talibus malos aut²⁰ audacis appellare consuetudo solet²¹.

[7] gratae vero nostrae dis immortalibus gratulationes erunt, gratae victimae, cum interfecta sit civium multitudo! de improbis inquit et audacibus. nam sic eos appellat clarissimus vir: quae sunt urbanarum maledicta litium, non inustae belli internecini notae²². testamenta, credo, subiciunt aut eiciunt vicinos aut adulescentulos circumscribunt: his enim vitiis adfectos et talibus malos aut²³ audacis appellare consuetudo solet²⁴.

[7] gratae vero nostrae dis immortalibus gratulationes erunt, gratae victimae, cum interfecta sit civium multitudo! de improbis inquit et audacibus. nam sic eos appellat clarissimus vir: quae sunt urbanarum maledicta litium, non inustae belli internecini notae²⁵. testamenta, credo, subiciunt aut eiciunt vicinos aut adulescentulos circumscribunt: his enim vitiis adfectos et talibus malos aut²⁶ audacis appellare consuetudo solet²⁷.

[7] gratae vero nostrae dis immortalibus gratulationes erunt, gratae victimae, cum interfecta sit civium multitudo! de improbis inquit et audacibus. nam sic eos appellat clarissimus vir: quae sunt urbanarum maledicta litium, non inustae belli internecini notae²⁸. testamenta, credo, subiciunt aut eiciunt vicinos aut adulescentulos circumscribunt: his enim vitiis adfectos et talibus malos aut²⁹ audacis appellare consuetudo solet³⁰.

[7] gratae vero nostrae dis immortalibus gratulationes erunt, gratae victimae, cum interfecta sit civium multitudo! de improbis inquit et audacibus. nam sic eos appellat clarissimus vir: quae sunt urbanarum maledicta litium, non inustae belli internecini notae³¹. testamenta, credo, subiciunt aut eiciunt vicinos aut adulescentulos circumscribunt: his enim vitiis adfectos et talibus malos aut³² audacis appellare consuetudo solet³³.

[7] gratae vero nostrae dis immortalibus gratulationes erunt, gratae victimae, cum interfecta sit civium multitudo! de improbis inquit et audacibus. nam sic eos appellat clarissimus vir: quae sunt urbanarum maledicta litium, non inustae belli internecini notae³⁴. testamenta, credo, subiciunt aut eiciunt vicinos aut adulescentulos circumscribunt: his enim vitiis adfectos et talibus malos aut³⁵ audacis appellare consuetudo solet³⁶.

[7] gratae vero nostrae dis immortalibus gratulationes erunt, gratae victimae, cum interfecta sit civium multitudo! de improbis inquit et audacibus. nam sic eos appellat clarissimus vir: quae sunt urbanarum maledicta litium, non inustae belli internecini notae³⁷. testamenta, credo, subiciunt aut eiciunt vicinos aut adulescentulos circumscribunt: his enim vitiis adfectos et talibus malos aut³⁸ audacis appellare consuetudo solet³⁹.

[7] gratae vero nostrae dis immortalibus gratulationes erunt, gratae victimae, cum interfecta sit civium multitudo! de improbis inquit et audacibus. nam sic eos appellat clarissimus vir: quae sunt urbanarum maledicta litium, non inustae belli internecini notae⁴⁰. testamenta, credo, subiciunt aut eiciunt vicinos aut adulescentulos circumscribunt: his enim vitiis adfectos et talibus malos aut⁴¹ audacis appellare consuetudo solet⁴².

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

cursus , speed. 248.22

tu , though emphatic, does not here refer to a particular person: it merely addresses the whole opposing party as if it were a single individual.

optime sentiam : cf.

male sentire (1.15). 248.23

ad me . . . fieri , etc.: best rendered by changing the construction, all good citizens gathering about me. This refers to such occasions as that of the gratulatio above ( p. 246, l. 16 ). 248.24

nollem , I should regret that (i.e. I should be sorry if that were so): Cf. § 442 , b (267, c) ; B. 280, 2, a; G. 26[, R.; H.-B. 519, 1, C. 248.27

optatius , i.e. than such a course of conduct on the part of the other side.

haec , i.e. —that I am the true champion of the people, and not those demagogues who are jealous of me. In this section Cicero makes an easy transition hack to the subject which he was discussing when he began to digress (at sect. 13 ), — the necessity of declaring Antony a public enemy and of honoring the generals for defeating him. 249.1

maxime , Sc. de nobis. 249.5

XIII Kalendas Januarias (December 20), the day when the third and fourth Philippics were spoken, — one in the Senate and one in the Forum, -declaring Antony a public enemy. 249.6

ex Kalendis Januarus , when, in the fifth Philippic, he urged that no negotiations should be had with Antony. The campaign against Antony may be said to have begun December 20 (see preceding note); but no active measures were taken until the new consuls entered upon their office on the first of January.

meis sententus , i.e. it was in consequence of Cicero's expressed opinion in the Senate that negotiations with Antony were broken off. It was on the question of sending an embassy (see note, sect. 4 , p. 243, l. 7 ) to him that Cicero delivered the fifth Philippic. The embassy was sent on January I, but came to nothing, and the Senate then declared war. 249.11

illum , Sc. esse . 249.12

ut ego , just as I [thought]. 249.13

huic , etc. [but] to this mere name, etc.

P. Ventidium , an officer of Antony's army. He afterwards gained some important successes over the Parthians, B.C. 38.

†volusenum : the manuscripts here are hopelessly corrupt. 249.16

discessionem , "division" (as in the English House of Commons); see general Introd., p. lvii.

voluissent : the presiding consuls could put a question to vote in the Senate—or not—at their discretion, since they alone were regarded as having the initiative in deliberations (see general Introd., p. lvii). 249.19

licuit , i.e. by the consuls (see last note). 249.21

verbis notari : spurious, and to be disregarded in translation.

M. Tullius Cicero Philippicae 7

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

Commentary

Stable identifiers