qui: interrog. adj. agreeing with status.
18. nostrae…causae: = meae causae (Cicero typically employs first pers. pl. for sg., cp. nos below). Cicero’s political enemies, especially Publius Clodius Pulcher (brother of the notorious Clodia/Lesbia of Catullus’ poems), were attempting to prosecute him on the grounds that he had executed Roman citizens without right of appeal—as indeed he had done in the case of the Catilinarian conspirators in 63 B.C. Despite his confidence here, his adversaries did finally secure his banishment in 58 B.C.
defuturi: deesse, + dat., to be wanting, fail; here, likely to fail.
mirandum in modum (19):in a way to be marveled at, in a marvelous fashion.
profitentur: profiteri,to speak out openly.
offerunt se: i.e., in his support.
pollicentur: polliceri,to promise, make promises.
20. spe…maxima…maiore…animo: CHIASMUS; the ABL. OF DESCRIPTION, regularly with an adj. as here, is continued in the following els. (spe…animo) without one.
animo: here, courage, confidence.
superiores: i.e., victorious in the political struggle; PRED. ADJ. with fore (= futuros esse) nos, IND. STATE. depending on spe (of the hope that…).
21. ut…pertimescam (22): RESULT CL. with animo (sc. tanto).
22. se…habet: an idiom common in Cicero; lit., the situation thus has itself = the situation is this.
diem…dixerit:appoints a day, fixes a date (for trial); sc. Clodius.
23. concurret: i.e., to support Cicero and oppose Clodius.
discedamus: from court, i.e., escape the charges.
sin: conj., but if.
Pompey 1st century B.C. Louvre Paris, France
Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY.
Nostrae tamen causae non videntur homines defuturi; mirandum in modum profitentur, offerunt se, pollicentur. Equidem 20 cum spe sum maxima, tum maiore etiam animo: spe, superiores fore nos; animo, ut in hac re publica ne casum quidem ullum pertimescam. Sed tamen se res sic habet: si diem nobis dixerit, tota Italia concurret, ut multiplicata gloria discedamus; sin autem vi agere conabitur, spero fore studiis non solum amicorum 25 sed etiam alienorum ut vi resistamus. Omnes et se et suos amicos, clientis, libertos, servos, pecunias denique suas pollicentur. Nostra antiqua manus bonorum ardet studio nostri atque amore. Si qui antea aut alieniores fuerant aut languidiores, nunc horum regum odio se cum bonis coniungunt. Pompeius 30 omnia pollicetur et Caesar; quibus ego ita credo ut nihil de mea comparatione deminuam. Tribuni plebis designati sunt nobis amici; consules se optime ostendunt; praetores habemus amicissimos et acerrimos civis, Domitium, Nigidium, Memmium, Lentulum; bonos etiam alios. Quare magnum fac animum 35 habeas et spem bonam. De singulis tamen rebus quae cotidie gerantur faciam te crebro certiorem.
24. vi agere: the possibility of violence on the part of Clodius and his followers is in ugly contrast to the legal procedure suggested at the beginning of the sent.; the resort to force was all too common in the 1st century B.C.
spero fore…ut…resistamus (25): fore (= futurum esse) + a subjunct. RESULT CL. was a common circumlocution for the fut. inf.
studiis: pl. because amicorum and alienorum are pl.
25. alienorum: i.e., those who were not of Cicero’s immediate political party.
vi: ABL. OF MEANS or possibly (though the form is rare) dat. with resistamus.
26. clientis: acc. pl. of cliens, dependent, client, follower; wealthy Roman patrons (patroni) typically had dozens or even hundreds of dependents, to whom they provided financial and other assistance in return for political support.
libertos: libertus,freedman, former slave.
27. antiqua: Cicero likely has in mind those who had supported him against Catiline in 63 B.C.
bonorum: an epithet frequently applied by Cicero to members of his political faction, the Optimates.
nostri: again = mei; OBJ. GEN.
28. qui: interrog. pron., indef. after si.
29. horum regum: the word rex, boldly applied here to the triumvirs, was despised in Roman politics.
31. comparatione: comparatio, preparation.
tribuni…designati:tribunes-elect; we know half a dozen of the 10 plebeian tribunes for 58 B.C., some of them, including Clodius himself, hostile to Cicero, and others sympathetic.
32. consules: if Cicero means the consuls-elect, as seems to be the case, then his comment here is wishful thinking, or rather encouragement for his brother, since one of the two was Aulus Gabinius and the other Caesar’s father-in-law Calpurnius Piso (see note on 13 above).
praetores: the four men named were praetors-elect for 58.
34. alios: i.e., some of the other four praetors.
fac: idiom, sc. ut, see to it that.
36. faciam te…certiorem: idiom, I shall keep you informed.
crebro: adv., frequently.
