312. vomere: Cicero uses the same grotesque image in the Philippics.
suo more (313): a slur on both his oratorical skills and his drinking habits.
313. quod scribis: as regards your writing (that).
314. profici: proficere, to accomplish.
non nihil: = aliquid; common in Cicero, like non numquam for interdum.
ut in tantis malis (315): lit., as in such great evils = considering the grim situation.
316. consulares: i.e., Cicero, Piso, Servilius as mentioned above.
317. locuti sint…possint: subjunct. in SUBORDINATE CLS. IN IND. STATE.
318. vobis: Cassius, Brutus, and their supporters.
aliquid…gloria: i.e., action against Antony.
velim: sc. ut vos id faciatis.
319. salvis nobis: while I am safe (i.e., still alive). Cicero’s wish, of course, was never realized, as he became a victim of the proscriptions, assassinated at Antony’s order on December 7, 43 B.C., just over a year after the composition of this letter and several months before the defeat of Cassius and Brutus at Philippi.
minus: = non; sc. erit. No matter what happens to Cicero, he is confident that the republic will soon be restored by Cassius and his followers.
320. tuis: sc. amicis.
321. sive…sive: conj., whether…or.
ad me referent:report (matters) to me = consult me.
Quae autem in lustris et in vino commentatio potuit esse? Itaque omnibus est visus, ut ad te antea scripsi, vomere suo more, non dicere. Quare, quod scribis te confidere auctoritate et eloquentia nostra aliquid profici posse, non nihil, ut in tantis 315 malis, est profectum: intellegit enim populus Romanus tres esse consulares, qui, quia quae de re publica bene senserint libere locuti sint, tuto in senatum venire non possint. Quare spes est omnis in vobis; si aliquid dignum vestra gloria cogitatis, velim salvis nobis; sin id minus, res tamen publica per vos brevi tempore 320 ius suum reciperabit. Ego tuis neque desum neque deero: qui sive ad me referent sive non referent, mea tibi benevolentia fidesque praestabitur. Vale.
“Banquet of Anthony and Cleopatra” Francesco Trevisani, 18th century Galleria Spada, Rome, Italy
Scala/Art Resource, NY.
CICERO’S PHILOSOPHICA: “ON MORAL RESPONSIBILITIES” AND “ON FRIENDSHIP”
Throughout his life Cicero was deeply interested in philosophy, and he studied in Rome and Greece, both as a young man in his 20’s and later in life, with some of the leading Stoic, Epicurean, and Academic philosophers of his day. Partly as a consequence of this interest and partly due to his growing disenchantment with the political strife in Rome, Cicero ultimately turned to writing on a wide range of philosophical topics. Prior to his governorship in Cilicia he published, in 55 B.C., the De Oratore, one of several important works he authored on rhetoric, and, a few years later, the De Republica and the De Legibus, political treatises on the ideal state and laws, both much influenced by Stoicism.
Following his proconsulship in Cilicia, Cicero returned to a Rome on the brink of civil war. Soon, in despair over the demise of the Roman republic during the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, and grief-stricken over the death of his daughter Tullia in early 45, Cicero again turned to writing, rapidly producing between February 45 and November 44 a number of works on philosophy, ethics, and theology, with the purpose of translating and transforming much of Greek thought for a Roman audience. Dating to this period are: the De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, a treatise on ethics and the various theories of the summum bonum—what man should regard as the highest good in life; the Tusculanae Disputationes, an exploration of death, fear, and the passions, and what can bring man happiness; and three religious tracts, the De Natura Deorum, De Divinatione, and De Fato, dealing with differing views of the gods, the validity of divination, and the divine role in human life.
The last of Cicero’s philosophica, the Cato Maior de Senectute, a discussion and consolation on old age, Laelius de Amicitia, and the De Officiis, were among his most popular and influential works during the Middle Ages and remain favorites today. In addressing his prefatory remarks in the De Amicitia to his close friend Titus Pomponius Atticus, Cicero makes it clear that he wishes the whole essay to be a tribute to their life-long friendship. This purpose Cicero accomplishes by representing the intellectual Gaius Laelius engaged in a discourse on friendship soon after the death in 129 B.C. of Laelius’ dearest friend, Scipio the Younger (Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus). Laelius delivers the discourse in the framework of a conversation with his two sons-in-law, Gaius Fannius and Quintus Mucius Scaevola (the famous augur and jurist, whom Cicero had known when he was himself a very young man). The excerpts included in this volume explore, inter alia, the origin, nature, and benefits of friendship.
The De Officiis (“On Moral Responsibilities”), begun some months after Caesar’s assassination on the Ides of March 44 B.C. and completed in November of that same year, was dedicated by Cicero to his son, Marcus, then a somewhat irresponsible 21-year-old studying philosophy in Athens. The treatise’s three volumes were based closely upon a work by the second-century Greek philosopher, Panaetius of Rhodes, in which he discussed the nature of morally responsible action, an issue of interest to Cicero both intellectually and from the perspective of his ongoing political conflict with Mark Antony in the wake of Caesar’s death. Despite evidence of haste, this practical moral work provides interesting, instructive reading and, like “On Friendship,” has earned much praise. Among the selections included here are excerpts from Book One on the origin of morality and the cardinal virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation, and from Book Three on the conflict between moral right and expediency, a problem that still confronts us today.
A conversation among philosophers Roman mosaic from Pompeii, 1st century A.D. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy
Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY.
1. quamquam: conj., although.
te…abundare oportet (2):you should be well equipped (lit., overflowing with).
annum: Cicero’s son had gone to study in Athens in April or May of 45 B.C.
audientem:hearing the lectures of, studying under.
Cratippum:Cratippus was a well known Athenian philosopher of the day and a friend of Cicero’s.
2. idque: and that too.
institutis: institutum,custom, institution, instruction, principle.
3. summam: with auctoritatem; Cicero frequently separates adj. from noun, here for emphasis.
urbis: Athens, though it had become politically insignificant, was still venerated as an intellectual capital.
4. augere: increase, enlarge.
5. Latina: n. acc. pl., Latin matters, Latin studies.
7. censeo: censere, to estimate, think, advise.
