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Tag Archives: Cicero

To write the thing is to conquer it

22 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by scot mcphee in Latin Classics, Roman history

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Cicero, de provinciis consularibus, latin, literature

Cicero, de Provinciis Consularibus X.25, Piso doesn’t send letters, Gabinius sends them but they are damned, but Caesar’s letters (one presumes) earn him honours as altogether no other man:

vos enim, ad quos litteras L. Piso de suis rebus non audet mittere, qui Gabini litteras insigni quadam nota atque ignominia nova condemnastis, C. Caesari supplicationes decrevistis numero ut nemini uno ex bello, honore ut omnino nemini (Cic. Prov. X.25).

In fact you, to whom L. Piso does not dare to send letters concerning his affairs, you who condemned the letters of Gabinius, with a certain extraordinary censure, and novel dishonour, you voted supplications to C. Caesar, in number as no man, in one war honour as altogether no other.

Later, in XIII.33, we find that a region (Gaul) formerly not known through letters, not even through rumour (fama), has now been tramped all over by Caesar’s army:

… et quas regiones quasque gentis nullae nobis antea litterae, nulla vox, nulla fama notas fecerat, has hoster imperator nosterque exercitus et populi Romana arma peragrarunt. (Cic. Prov. XIII.33)

… and of those regions and those nations, no letters, no voice, no report had before made note to us, these were traversed over by our commander, our army, and by the arms of the Roman people.

And as we know, famously written on by the man himself:

Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres … (Caesar, de Bello Gallico 1.1.1)

The whole of Gaul is divided into three parts …

I don’t want to mention this, but … I’m mentioning it anyway.

27 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by scot mcphee in Latin Classics

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Cicero, de provinciis consularibus, latin, true story

Every Latin student has had to do a Cicero speech or two (We do parts of In Verrem and In Catilinam), and you soon learn that Cicero really had basic stock-in-trade rhetorical strategy of “I’m not about to lower myself to mention that you are a scoundrel and a thief”. Anyway for various other legitimate research purposes I was in Cicero’s de Provinciis Consularibus and I found this little amusing snippet:

Quorum ego nihil dico, patres conscripti, nunc in hominem ipsum: de provincia disputo. Itaque omnia illa, quae et saepe audistis et tenetis animis, etiamsi non audiatis, praetermitto; nihil de hac eius urbana, quam ille praesens in mentibus vestris oculisque defixit, audacia loquor; nihil de superbia, nihil de contumacia, nihil de crudelitate disputo. (Cic. Prov. 4,8)

Of those things I say nothing, conscript fathers, against the man himself [I say nothing] now, it is concerning the provinces that I examine. And so all those things, which often you have both heard and held in mind, even if you would have not heard [them], I let them go. I mention nothing of his temerity concerning this city, which he has fixed powerfully in your minds and eyes, nothing on his arrogance, nothing on his obstinacy, nothing concerning his barbarity, do I investigate.

No, yep. None of those things. Won’t mention them. Yes that’s right, we’ll be passing straight over his character entirely, that calumnious obstinate back-stabbing arrogant barbaric son-of-a-bitch, who has been threatening this very city with all manner of indignities, which, I’m sure, you all recall since I last mentioned it, without me having to drag it up all over again. No, but what I want to discuss, is the disposition of the provinces, a matter of high affair and utmost importance to the state, and nothing at all do with how this guy is a villainous blagger and outrageous chancer (just ask those Greeks that he stole all that loot from, if you want to find out about that, because I’m certain not going to talk about it here), but everything to do with, for the very highest of reasons, mind you, of fuck that guy, for entirely impartial and cooly calculated reasons of state, which have nothing at all do with any personal enmity we may have had in the past.

True story.

How much would an average Roman have known about their history?

08 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by scot mcphee in Classical history, Literature, Roman history

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Ariminum, Cicero, Flaminius, history, Rome, Varro

Recently, writing my paper for ASCS 34 this January I was confronted with the question How much did the average Roman citizen know about their own history?

Walking along, say a major road built 200 years before, would an average Roman citizen of the late Republic and early Empire have known about the person who built the road? Would they know who Flaminius was? His name was on the main road north out of Rome and all the up through Italy to Ariminum (the borderland of Roman territory when he built it in 220 B.C.). Augustus personally undertook its restoration, strategically it was an important road. But its builder died in a famous battle (Trasimene) only a few years thereafter. What sort of education was necessary before they would know? Obviously Cicero and Varro knew who he was but these are men famed for being knowledgeable and erudite. What about your average citizen?

I find this question is almost unanswerable. Does anyone have an opinion?

Ancient Roman advice for the 2012 candidates.

05 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by scot mcphee in 21st century history, Latin Classics, News Items, Roman history

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Cicero, elections, Obama, U.S. president

Slate drags out the Commentariolum Petitionis and applies it the US Presidential election. No mention of its dubious nature though. Looks like its generated from promotional material for the book.

Ancient Roman advice for the 2012 candidates. – Slate Magazine:

Now Princeton University Press has published Freeman’s translation with a catchier yet somehow less dignified title: How to Win an Election. Would you believe it? The advice holds up. These candidates must have classics scholars on staff, because a close read of Cicero reveals they’re following his counsel.

(Via Slate.)

Also, Google turns up an article in the L.A. Times from January, written by the translator. Still no mention of the controversy that the text may not be what it claims to be, however.

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