M. Tullius Cicero, Philippicae, ed. Albert Curtis Clark, 38

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[38] cumque virtus legionum digna clarissimis imperatoribus exstiterit, senatum, quae sit antea pollicitus legionibus exercitibusque nostris, ea summo studio re publica recuperata persoluturum¹, cumque² legio Martia princeps cum hostibus conflixerit, atque ita cum maiore numero hostium contenderit ut³ plurimos caederent caderent non nulli⁴, cumque sine ulla retractatione pro patria vitam profuderint; cumque simili virtute reliquarum legionum milites pro salute et libertate populi Romani mortem oppetiverint, senatui placere ut C. Pansa A. Hirtius consules, imperatores, alter ambove, si eis videatur, eis qui sanguinem pro vita, libertate, fortunis populi Romani, pro urbe, templis deorum immortalium profudissent monumentum quam amplissimum locandum faciendumque curent: quaestoresque urbanos ad eam rem⁵ pecuniam dare, attribuere, solvere iubeant, ut testetur⁶ ad memoriam posteritatis sempiternam scelus⁷ crudelissimorum hostium militumque divinam virtutem⁸, utique, quae praemia senatus militibus ante constituit, ea solvantur eorum qui hoc bello pro patria occiderunt parentibus, liberis, coniugibus, fratribus: eisque⁹ tribuantur quae militibus ipsis tribui oporteret, si vivi vicissent¹⁰ qui morte vicerunt.

Philippicae. M. Tullius Cicero. ed. Albert Curtis Clark. Oxford. 1918.

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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.) — 38 focus

Why need I mention the countless mass of papers, the innumerable autographs which have been brought forward? writings of which there are imitators who sell their forgeries as openly as if they were gladiators playbills. Therefore, there are now such heaps of money piled up in that man's house, that it is weighed out instead of being counted.¹ But bow blind is avarice! Lately, too, a document has been posted up by which the most wealthy cities of the Cretans are released from tribute; and by which it is ordained that after the expiration of the consulship of Marcus Brutus, Crete shall cease to be a province. Are you in your senses.? Ought you not to be put in confinement? Was it possible for there really to be a decree of Caesar's exempting Crete after the departure of Marcus. Brutus, when Brutus had no connection whatever with Crete while Caesar was alive? But by the sale of this decree (that you may not, O conscript fathers, think it wholly ineffectual) you have lost the province of Crete . There was nothing in the whole world which any one wanted to buy that this fellow was not ready to sell. 98

Caesar too, I suppose, made the law about the exiles which you have posted up. I do not wish to press upon any one in misfortune; I only complain, in the first place, that the return of those men has had discredit thrown upon it, whose cause Caesar judged to be different from that of the rest; and in the second place, I do not know why you do not mete out the same measure to all. For there can not be more than three or four left. Why do not they who are in similar misfortune enjoy a similar degree of your mercy? Why do you treat them as you treated your uncle? about whom you refused to pass a law when you were passing one about all the rest; and whom at the same time you encouraged to stand for the censorship, and instigated him to a canvass, which excited the ridicule and the complaint of every one.

99 But why did you not hold that comitia? Was it because a tribune of the people announced that there had been an ill-omened flash of lightning seen? When you have any interest of your own to serve, then auspices are all nothing; but when it is only your friends who are concerned, then you become scrupulous. What more? Did you not also desert him in the matter of the septemvirate?² “Yes, for he interfered with me.” What were you afraid of? I suppose you were afraid that you would be able to refuse him nothing if he were restored to the full possession of his rights. You loaded him with every species of insult, a man whom you ought to have considered in the place of a father to you, if you had had any piety or natural affection at all, You put away his daughter, your own cousin, having already looked out and provided yourself beforehand with another. That was not enough. You accused a most chaste woman of misconduct. What can go beyond this? Yet you were not content with this. In a very full senate held on the first of January, while your uncle was present, you dared to say that this was your reason for hatred of Dolabella, that you had ascertained that he had committed adultery with your cousin and your wife, Who can decide whether it was more shameless of you to make such profligate and such impious statements against that unhappy woman in the senate, or more wicked to make them against Dolabella, or more scandalous to make them in the presence of her father, or more cruel to make them at all?

Notes on the current edition

Philippicae

1. persoluturum Manutius: soluturum b: resoluturum cett.

2. cumque δ, ed. R: quod mei

3. ut Ferrarius: cum codd.: ut cum Halm

4. caderent nonnulli o, ut voluit Halm: cadere nonnullos cett.

5. faciendumque urbem ad eam rem codd.: suppl. Ferrarius et A. Augustinus

6. testetur Madvig: exstet bosv: exstent h

7. scelus b: ad scelus cett.

8. divina virtus b

9. fratribus: eisque Ferrarius: fratribus hisque (iisque s1: eaque s2) frattribus hsv: fratribusque o: fratribus b

10. si vivi vicissent Ernesti: si illi vicissent bhs1v: si illi vixissent os2: si illi viverent π

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

senatum . . . soluturum : here the statement returns to the form of the indir. disc., — in the decree, senatus . . solvet. 255.33

cum . . . caederent , concessive. 256.5

locandum. . . curent : see note on Cat. 3, sect. 20 ( p. 136, l. 8 ). 256.12

si vivi vicissent , if they had survived their victory.

M. Tullius Cicero Philippicae 38

ed. Albert Curtis Clark

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