M. Tullius Cicero, Philippicae, ed. Albert Curtis Clark, 13

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[13] is enim demum est mea quidem sententia iustus triumphus ac verus, cum bene de re publica meritis testimonium a consensu civitatis datur. nam sive in communi gaudio populi Romani uni gratulabantur, magnum iudicium, sive uni¹ gratias agebant, eo maius, sive utrumque, nihil magnificentius cogitari² potest.

tu igitur ipse de te? dixerit quispiam. equidem invitus, sed iniuriae dolor facit me praeter consuetudinem gloriosum. nonne satis est ab hominibus virtutis ignaris gratiam bene merentibus non referri? etiam in eos qui omnis suas curas in rei publicae salute defigunt, crimen et invidia quaeretur³?

Philippicae. 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

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

Translations (1)

Philippics Perseus (Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Vol. 4. Yonge, Charles Duke, translator. London: Bell, 1856.) — 13 focus

But since, O conscript fathers, the gift of glory is conferred on these most excellent and gallant citizens by the honor of a monument, let us comfort their relations, to whom this indeed is the best consolation. The greatest comfort for their parents is the reflection that they have produced sons who have been such bulwarks of the republic; for their children, that they will have such examples of virtue in their family; for their wives, that the husbands whom they have lost are men whom it is a credit to praise, and to have a right to mourn for; and for their brothers, that they may trust that, as they resemble them in their persons, so they do also in their virtues.

Would that we were able by the expression of our sentiments and by our votes to wipe away the tears of all these persons; or that any such oration as this could be publicly addressed to them, to cause them to lay aside their grief and mourning, and to rejoice rather, that, while many various kinds of death impend over men, the most honorable kind of all has fallen to the lot of their friends; and that they are not unburied, nor deserted; though even that fate, when incurred for one a country, is not accounted miserable; nor burned with equable obsequies in scattered graves, but entombed in honorable sepulchers, and honored with public offerings; and with a building which will be an altar of their valor to insure the recollection of eternal ages. 35

Wherefore it will be the greatest possible comfort to their relations, that by the same monument are clearly displayed the valor of their kinsmen, and also their piety, and the good faith of the senate, and the memory of this most inhuman war, in which, if the valor of the soldiers had been less conspicuous, the very name of the Roman people would have perished by the parricidal treason of Marcus. Antonius. And I think also, O conscript fathers, that those rewards which we promised to bestow on the soldiers when we had recovered the republic, we should give with abundant usury to those who are alive and victorious when the time comes; and that in the case of the men to whom those rewards were promised, but who have died in the defense of their country, I think those same rewards should be given to their parents or children, or wives or brothers.

Notes on the current edition

Philippicae

1. uni om. s, Ferrarius

2. cogitari bos: excog. htv

3. crimen et invidia quaeretur scripsi: impetus crimen queretur t: in peius (impetus b) crimen invidia quereretur (queretur b) cett.: crimen invidiaque quaeretur Faernus: impetus crimenque quaer. Madvig ( varia lectio in peius = impetus e § 15 huc illata turbas dedit, cf. ii. 104, 106)

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

meritis , masculine gender. 246.26

tu igitur , Sc. gloriaris.

dixerit , potential subjunctive. 246.29

gratiam non referri , that a favor should not be returned. 246.30

impietatis : the stories told charged Cicero with intended treason (see l.10), which would be impietas against his patria.

M. Tullius Cicero Philippicae 13

ed. Albert Curtis Clark

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