Political Speeches (Oxford World's Classics)

by Cicero

  Licinius Lenticula: otherwise unknown. Gambling (with dice) was illegal, except at the Saturnalia. Those convicted were deprived of their civic rights until their debts were paid, not exiled (as we can tell from ‘as if it were really the case …!’, below); hence ‘restored’, not ‘recalled’.

  Caesar … handed Italy over to this man here: Caesar left Antony in charge of Italy during his Spanish campaign (early summer 49).

  than to me who was not: Cicero is trying to cover up the fact that he delayed in Italy until 7 June before joining Pompey in Greece: he actually had two months to observe Antony’s administration of Italy for himself.

  Lictors … marched in front of him: tribunes were not entitled to lictors; but Antony in fact had been given the status of a praetor, and therefore was entitled to them. The laurels would have been awarded for Caesar’s victories in Gaul.

  an actress: Antony’s mistress Volumnia Cytheris, a mime actress (see first note on § 20 above). The townspeople (below) addressed her as ‘Volumnia’, rather than by her stage name ‘Cytheris’, because that name was more respectable.

  such disastrous offspring: she was also the mother of Antony’s brothers Gaius and Lucius Antonius (praetor and tribune in 44 respectively).

  dangerous: i.e. because of the risk of giving offence to Caesar’s veterans (as Cicero explains below).

  He took part in the war: he commanded Caesar’s left wing at Pharsalus.

  And there you did not kill me: see § 5.

  he was appointed … Master of the Horse: Caesar reached Alexandria at the beginning of October 48. Later in the month, he was named dictator at Rome, with Antony as his Master of the Horse. Caesar was not in direct communication with Rome at this time, but had no doubt left instructions.

  to live with Hippias … with Sergius the actor: Plutarch (Ant. 9.6–7) informs us that Hippias was an actor at whose wedding Antony got disgracefully drunk, and Sergius, another actor, was someone who had considerable influence over him. The reason Cicero brings in these characters at this point is to make a play with ‘Master of the Horse’, Hippias (which means ‘horsey’ in Greek), and then the reference to hired horses. There is a further subtlety in that the Greek for ‘Master of the Horse’ is hipparchos: Hipparchus and Hippias were the sons of the sixth-century Athenian tyrant Pisistratus.

  not the house … but that of Marcus Piso: the former house was that of Pompey, which Antony had purchased in 47 (§ 64), but which at the time of writing was claimed by Pompey’s son Sextus Pompeius, who was in Spain with an army. Marcus Piso was probably the son of Marcus Pupius Piso Frugi Calpurnianus, the consul of 61; he was presumably on the Pompeian side at Pharsalus, although he was praetor in 44.

  Lucius Rubrius … Lucius Turselius: see §§ 40–1.

  an instant heir: he bought their property, which had been confiscated, at auction in 47.

  Caesar returned from Alexandria: in October 47. On his way back to Rome he had defeated Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, at Zela in August (the victory referred to in the slogan veni, vidi, vici, ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’; cf. Plut. Caes. 50.3).

  A spear was planted … Jupiter Stator: a spear planted in the ground denoted a public auction. On the temple of Jupiter Stator, see first note on Cat. 1.11 above.

  ‘rags to riches’: possibly the title of a mime.

  some poet: Naevius (third century BC), as Cicero was of course aware. In his speeches he avoids alienating his audience by displaying literary erudition.

  Charybdis: see first note on Ver. 2.5.146 above.

  one man’s patrimony: i.e. that of Sextus Pompeius.

  those naval trophies: captured by Pompey in the war against the pirates (67).

  He has told that woman … as the Twelve Tables prescribe: i.e. he has divorced her (the Twelve Tables were the first collection of Roman statutes, compiled in 451–450 BC). The woman Cicero is referring to is of course Cytheris (see first note on § 20 above), not Fulvia.

  ‘both consul and Antonius’: i.e. both consul and (unlike Cicero) an aristocrat in his own right. Antony may have made the remark (not necessarily more than once) in his speech of 19 September.

  your grandfather: Marcus Antonius the orator (see second note on Ver. 2.5.3 above).

  My colleague, your uncle: Gaius Antonius Hybrida, the consul of 63 (see first note on § 56 above).

  At this point: i.e. at the end of 47, the point Cicero has reached. Caesar departed for Africa in December 47, but Antony stayed in Rome throughout the campaign. J. T. Ramsey (CQ, NS 54 (2004), 161–73) has shown that Antony must have failed to accompany Caesar not because he had fallen out with him, as was traditionally assumed, but because Caesar needed him for the vital task of breaking up and disposing of Pompey’s property in order to raise money for his troops.

  Lucius Domitius: Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, the consul of 54 and the only consular killed at Pharsalus. He was a relentless enemy of Caesar; his son was one of the conspirators (§§ 27, 30).

  after his return from Africa: Caesar returned to Rome on 25 July 46, having defeated the republicans at Thapsus in February.

  quaestor: in 51 (§ 50). On the special bond between a quaestor and the magistrate under whom he served, see note on Ver. 11 above.

  Master of the Horse: from October 48 until late in 47 (§ 62).

  under the terms of his will … his son: in fact Antony was named in Caesar’s will only among the heirs in the second degree. No doubt he had hoped for greater recognition.

  that place at Misenum: see § 48.

  Lucius Rubrius: see §§ 40–1. We know nothing about the decree referred to.

  Caesar … complained about it in the senate: Cicero does not actually claim that Caesar accused Antony of the attempt (and the next sentence makes it pretty clear that Caesar did not consider him responsible).

  Then he set out for Spain: at the end of 46, to fight the sons of Pompey (the elder of whom, Gnaeus Pompeius, would be executed after Munda (45), leaving only Sextus Pompeius surviving).

  for his own self-interest: since Antony had an interest in ensuring that Pompey’s sons did not return to Rome to claim their inheritance.

  Dolabella: Publius Cornelius Dolabella, Antony’s colleague as consul in 44. No doubt he was able to reach Spain without difficulty because he travelled with Caesar, whereas Antony, leaving later, may have encountered bad weather.

  in Thessaly, Africa, and Spain: i.e. at Pharsalus (49), Thapsus (46), and Munda (45).

  Narbo: Narbo was as far as Antony got before he gave up the attempt to reach Spain and turned back to Rome (cf. second note on § 34 above). He arrived at Rome at the beginning of March 45.

  why I had returned … I had undertaken: Cicero returned to Rome on 1 September 44, and explained his reasons for doing so at Phil. 1.7–10, delivered in the senate on 2 September.

  slippers: literally, ‘Gallic sandals’. In popular imagination, the Romans went everywhere in sandals; but in fact the wearing of sandals in public was regarded as a social crime.

  you supposed yourself … Master of the Horse: Cicero implies that his appointment was invalid (cf. § 62).

  Saxa Rubra: ‘Red Rocks’ (modern Grotta Rossa), about 9 miles north of Rome on the Via Flaminia.

  the woman he had come to see: Fulvia.

  you subjected Rome … to many days of uneasiness: it must have been Antony’s return in itself which Cicero claims gave rise to these feelings, not the fact of Antony’s having assumed a disguise. Italy and Rome were most likely afraid that he had been sent back from Spain by Caesar to initiate a purge.

  Lucius Plancus: Lucius Munatius Plancus, one of the city prefects responsible for managing the city of Rome during Caesar’s absence (no praetors had yet been elected). He went on to become consul in 42.

  you gave rise to … jokes at your own expense: because ‘private affairs’ may denote both business matters and sexual ones.

  When Gaius Caesar came back from Spain: in midsummer 45. Antony went back to Narbo to meet him. />
  for you to be elected consul: i.e. for 44.

  Dolabella … than I am doing now: Dolabella would have been objecting to Antony’s opposition to Caesar’s proposal to make him suffect consul when Caesar departed for his Parthian campaign (§§ 80–1)—not to Antony’s alleged persuasion of Caesar to take for himself the consulship which he had been promised (the final sentence of the previous paragraph, a fiction of Cicero’s).

  before he himself left Rome: for the east. Caesar was intending to set out in the spring on a three-year war against the Parthians, to avenge the defeat of Crassus at Carrhae in 53. In the event, his assassination prevented him from undertaking this.

  our fine augur here: see note on § 4 above.

  many months before this: i.e. in the autumn of 45, when Caesar must first have told him of his intention to make Dolabella suffect consul.

  what in the event he did: he let the election take place, but then adjourned the meeting (§§ 82–3).

  his colleague’s litter: i.e. Caesar’s. Antony is pictured as walking obediently behind Caesar’s litter.

  Lots were drawn … the first to vote: Cicero now briefly describes the voting procedure in the centuriate assembly, which elected the consuls; cf. second note on Ver. 2.5.38 above. (On this occasion, Dolabella seems to have been the only candidate; but the procedures still had to be gone through.) There were 193 centuries, their choices were announced serially, and a simple majority (97 centuries) was needed for a candidate to be elected. The century which obtained the privilege of voting first (the praerogativa: see second note on Ver. 26 above) was chosen by lot; and after that the centuries voted within census classes (with the six equestrian centuries voting immediately after the first class).

  The result was announced: i.e. it was announced that the first century had chosen Dolabella.

  Gaius Laelius: the consul of 140, a famous augur and a friend of Scipio Aemilianus. He is given the leading part in Cicero’s De amicitia, written at about the same time as this speech.

  As augur … a consul: i.e. he obstructed Caesar, his colleague as both augur and consul (Caesar had been an augur since c.47).

  to our college: the College of Augurs, which would need to rule on the validity of Dolabella’s election (Antony’s fabricated auspices were taken seriously; cf. § 88).

  but the moment … in order: in the senate on 17 March Antony had recognized Dolabella as his colleague, in spite of his own objection.

  the Lupercalia: the Lupercalia was a festival celebrated annually on 15 February. The priests (Luperci) sacrificed goats and a dog at the cave (the Lupercal) where Romulus and Remus were supposed to have been suckled by a she-wolf; then they dressed in goatskin girdles and ran around the Palatine whipping any women they encountered with goatskin thongs in order to encourage their fertility. In 44, during this ceremony, Antony, who was one of the Luperci, offered Caesar a royal diadem. What his motive was, and what Caesar’s was if he had prearranged the gesture (as would seem likely), are questions which have naturally invited considerable speculation. The festival survived until AD 494, when it was turned into the feast of the Purification of the Virgin.

  what he did at the Porticus Minucia: cf. § 63 ‘at a gathering of the Roman people, while conducting public business, as Master of the Horse, when a mere belch would have been shocking, he vomited, filling his lap and the whole platform with morsels of food stinking of wine’. The Porticus Minucia was in the Campus Martius.

  the point at which … comes into view: i.e. whether Antony’s teacher the rhetorician Sextus Clodius has earned his fee (cf. §§ 43, 101).

  Your colleague: Caesar.

  (you were indeed a Lupercus … also a consul): it was indecorous for a consul to appear (almost) naked (cf. Dio 45.30.1–5).

  You should have requested … happily accept servitude: see §§ 44–6.

  to jab you with cattle-prods: a punishment inflicted on slaves.

  our greatest heroes: Caesar’s assassins.

  he: Caesar, according to Dio (44.11.3); but Cicero, by not specifying the subject, allows the casual reader to infer that Antony was responsible.

  dictator for life: Caesar had assumed this title (dictator perpetuo) at some point after 26 January 44.

  by order of the people: cf. § 86 ‘You certainly had no right to make the request on our behalf, or on that of the Roman people.’

  Lucius Tarquinius … Marcus Manlius: Tarquinius Superbus was Rome’s last king, expelled by Lucius Junius Brutus in 509 BC. On Cassius, see second note on § 26 above; and on Maelius, second note on Cat. 1.3 above. Marcus Manlius Capitolinus, the consul of 392, saved the Capitol from the Gauls in 390, but was later charged with aiming at tyranny (for attempting to alleviate debt) and thrown from the Tarpeian Rock in 384.

  But surely … your view on the auspices?: see first note on § 84 above.

  on that day or the next: i.e. on 15 or 16 March.

  Two days later … the temple of Tellus: on 17 March. The temple was on the west slope of the Esquiline; it was chosen for this meeting of the senate because it was close to Antony’s house.

  peace made through a hostage … Marcus Bambalio!: the boy was Marcus Antonius Antyllus, the infant son of Antony (hence his noble birth) and Fulvia (whose father Marcus Fulvius Bambalio, Cicero implies, was of inferior birth; he insults him further at Phil. 3.16). After the meeting on 17 March, Antyllus was sent as a hostage to the conspirators on the Capitol to persuade them that it was safe for them to come down.

  if funeral is what it was: Caesar’s body was meant to be taken to the Campus Martius (outside the city boundary, as the law prescribed) for formal cremation, but Antony’s funeral oration in the forum so inflamed the crowd that they burned the body on their own initiative then and there. The date was c. 20 March.

  Lucius Bellienus: identity unknown. He was presumably sympathetic to the conspirators.

  no tablet granting exemption: i.e. from taxation. The decree from which Cicero quotes probably did not block Caesar’s acts outright, but merely made them subject to review by the consuls; see J. T. Ramsey, CQ, NS 44 (1994), 130–45.

  to whole communities: in Crete (§ 97).

  to entire provinces: only in fact to Sicily, much of which already possessed Roman citizenship.

  from persons close to you: the reference is to Fulvia (§ 95 ‘in the women’s quarters’; Att. 14.12.1).

  King Deiotarus: the ruler of Galatia in central Asia Minor. In return for his services to Rome during the Mithridatic Wars, Pompey had granted him extensions of his territory into Pontus and Armenia Minor, and the title of king; accordingly he supported Pompey in the Civil War. After Pharsalus, at which he was present with his cavalry, he received Caesar’s pardon, but was deprived of Armenia Minor. He was then accused in 45 of having attempted to poison Caesar, but was defended by Cicero (whom he had helped in Cilicia in 52); the case was unresolved at the time of Caesar’s death. (Cicero’s Pro rege Deiotaro, delivered before the dictator in a private audience, but in Deiotarus’ absence, survives.) After Caesar’s death, Deiotarus immediately retook Armenia Minor and bribed Fulvia to be granted official recognition as its king.

  Massilia: modern Marseilles. It refused to open its gates to Caesar in April 49 and was therefore besieged, forced to surrender, and punished.

  Caesar … enjoying his hospitality: Caesar visited Deiotarus after his victory over Pharnaces at Zela in 47. This was the occasion on which Deiotarus was later alleged to have attempted to poison Caesar.

  a Greek he had brought with him: Mithridates of Pergamum, who had served Caesar well in the Alexandrine War. He claimed to be an illegitimate son of the famous Mithridates VI Eupator.