declinavi, quae se vel potius exscindi quam e suo complexu ut eriperer facile pateretur. In hortos me M. Laenii Flacci contuli, cui quum omnes metus, publicatio bonorum, exsilium, mors proponeretur, haec perpeti si acciderent maluit quam custodiam mei capitis dimittere. Cujus ego et parentis ejus prudentissimi atque optimi senis et fratris et utriusque filiorum manibus in navi tuta ac fideli collocatus, eorumque preces et vota de meo reditu exaudiens, Dyrrachium quod erat in fide mea petere contendi. Quo quum venissem, cognovi, id quod audieram, refertam esse Graeciam sceleratissimorum hominum ac nefariorum, quorum impium ferrum ignesque pestiferos meus ille consulatus e manibus extorserat ; qui antequam de meo adventu audire potuissent, quum tantum abessent aliquot dierum viam, in Macedoniam ad Planciumque perrexi. Hic vero simul atque me mare transisse cognovit―audi, audi, atque attende, Laterensis, ut scias quid ego Plancio debeam, confiteareque aliquando me quod faciam et grate et pie facere; huic, quae pro salute mea fecerit, si minus profutura sint, obesse certe non oportere nam simul ac me Dyrrachium attigisse audivit, statim ad me lictoribus dimissis, insignibus abjectis, veste mutata, profectus est. O acerbam mihi, judices, memoriam temporis illius et loci, quum hic in me incidit, quum complexus est conspersitque lacrimis, nec loqui prae maerore potuit! O rem quum auditu crudelem, tum visu nefariam! o reliquos omnes dies noctesque eas, quibus iste a me non recedens Thessalonicam me in quaestoriumque perduxit! Hic ego nunc de praetore Macedoniae nihil dicam amplius nisi eum et civem optimum semper et mihi amicum fuisse, sed eadem timuisse quae ceteros; Cn. Plancium fuisse unum, non qui minus timeret, sed si acciderent ea quae

omnes metus] Wunder; who quotes Pro Sestio, c. 15, "alii metus atque aliae curae." He speaks of Flaccus in a letter to his wife (Ad Div. xiv. 3): "Nos Brundisii apud M. Laenium Flaccum dies XIII fuimus, virum optimum," &c. This letter is dated 'pridie Kal. Maias, Brundisio.' Flaccus is mentioned in the Pro Sestio, c. 63.-Cujus ego' T.; hujus ego,' Wunder.

exaudiens] When he was on shipboard. See Vol. iii., Index, Exaudire.

Dyrrachium] was a libera civitas,' as Cicero says (Ad Div. xiv. 1), "et in me officiosa et proxima Italiae;" but this letter was not written on his first visit to Dyrrachium, but when he returned thither from Thessalonica (A.D. VI Kal. Dec.) (Garat.).

tantum abessent] T. E. have 'tamen.'

timerentur mecum ea subire et perpeti vellet. Qui, quum ad me L. Tubero, meus necessarius, qui fratri meo legatus fuisset, decedens ex Asia venisset, easque insidias quas mihi paratas ab exsulibus conjuratis audierat ad me animo amicissimo detulisset, in Asiam me ire propter ejus provinciae mecum et cum meo fratre necessitudinem comparantem non est passus: vi me, inquam, Plancius et complexu suo retinuit, multosque menses a capite meo non discessit abjecta quaestoria persona comitisque sumpta.

XLII. O excubias tuas, Cn. Planci, miseras! o flebiles vigilias! o noctes acerbas! o custodiam etiam mei capitis infelicem ! si quidem ego tibi vivus non prosum, qui fortasse mortuus profuissem. Memini enim, memini, neque umquam obliviscar noctis illius, quum tibi vigilanti, assidenti, maerenti vana quaedam miser atque inania falsa spe inductus pollicebar; me, si essem in patriam restitutus, praesentem tibi gratias relaturum; sin autem vitam mihi fors ademisset aut vis aliqua major reditum peremisset, hos, hos-quos enim ego tum alios animo intuebar?-omnia tibi illorum laborum praemia pro me persoluturos. Quid me aspectas? quid mea promissa repetis? quid meam fidem imploras? Nihil tibi ego tum de meis opibus pollicebar, sed de horum erga me benevolentia promittebam; hos pro me lugere, hos gemere, hos decertare pro meo capite vel vitae periculo velle videbam; de horum desiderio, luctu, querelis quotidie aliquid tecum simul audiebam: nunc timeo ne nihil tibi praeter lacrimas queam reddere, quas tu in meis acerbitatibus plurimas effudisti. Quid enim possum aliud nisi maerere, nisi flere, nisi te cum mea salute complecti? Salutem tibi iidem

L. Tubero] An intimate friend of Cicero from his youth (Pro Ligario, c. 4 and 7), and a legatus to Q. Cicero in his government of Asia. Garatoni shows from Cicero's letters when Tubero came to him. Quintus after leaving his province (ante Kalendas Maias) reached Athens on the Ides of May (B.C. 58), and if Tubero left Asia at the same time as Quintus, he might easily have reached Thessalonica a little later (Ad Att. iii. 9). Cicero stayed with Plancius till the month of November, when Cicero returned to Dyrrachium, from which place he sent to his wife and to Atticus two letters which were written before he left Thessalonica (Ad Div. xiv. 1; Ad Att. iii. 22). The first of these two letters contains a short postscript in which he tells his wife that he returned to Dyrrachium A.D. VI Kal. Dec.

4

42. praesentem... gratias] T. E. The common reading is 'gratiam,' which makes the meaning ambiguous. The Romans said gratias referre' as well as 'gratiam referre.'

pollicebar-promittebam] Wunder directs our attention to the difference between these two words. He refers to De Lege Agrar. ii. 37, where pollicear' occurs; and to Ad Div. vii. 5, where we have: "neque mehercule minus prolixe de tua voluntate promisi quam eram solitus de mea polliceri." From this it appears that a man cannot be said 'polliceri for another, and this is consistent with the use of polliceri.' But a man can also be said promittere' for himself. See Pro Quintio, c. 8, Vol. ii.

complecti]Make your life and interests one with mine.' In which sense he also

dare possunt qui mihi reddiderunt. Te tamen, exsurge quaeso, retinebo et complectar; nec me solum deprecatorem fortunarum tuarum, sed comitem sociumque profitebor; atque, ut spero, nemo erit tam crudeli animo tamque inhumano, nec tam immemor, non dicam meorum in bonos meritorum, sed bonorum in me qui a me mei servatorem capitis divellat ac distrahat. Non ego meis ornatum beneficiis a vobis deprecor, judices, sed custodem salutis meae; non opibus contendo, non auctoritate, non gratia, sed precibus, sed lacrimis, sed misericordia; mecumque vos simul hic miserrimus et optimus obtestatur parens, et pro uno filio duo patres deprecamur. Nolite, judices, per vos fortunas, per liberos vestros, inimicis meis, iis praesertim, quos ego pro vestra salute suscepi, dare laetitiam gloriantibus vos jam oblitos mei salutis ejus a quo mea salus conservata est hostes exstitisse. Nolite animum meum debilitare quum luctu, tum etiam metu commutatae vestrae voluntatis erga me: sinite me, quod vobis fretus huic saepe promisi, id a vobis ei persolvere. Teque, C. Flavi, oro et obtestor, qui meorum consiliorum in consulatu socius, periculorum particeps, rerum quas gessi adjutor fuisti, meque non modo salvum semper, sed etiam ornatum florentemque esse voluisti, ut mihi per hos conserves eum per quem me tibi et his conservatum vides. Plura ne

uses 'conjungere,' as in Pro Sulla, c. 10, quoted by Wunder.--' exsurge quaeso:' had Plancius thrown himself prostrate before the Judices ?

per vos fortunas] 'per vos per fortunas,' T. E. Garatoni compares Sallust, Jug. c. 14, "per vos liberos atque parentes." Compare Livy xxix. 18, and xxiii. 9, where there is the complete expression, "Per ego te, inquit, fili . . . precor quaesoque ne," &c. Orelli compares the Greek form: un πρός σε τοῦ κατ ̓ ἄκρον Οίταῖον νάπος Διὸς καταστράπτοντος ἐκκλέψῃς λόγον. Sophoc. Trachin. 436.

id a vobis.. persolvere] Ernesti correctly explains this expression, which means not to pay directly, but through another. Compare Pro Flacco, c. 15: "Ab A. Sextilio dicit se dedisse et a suis fratribus."

Flavi] T. E. and all the MSS. as it seems. Garatoni altered Flavi to Flave, and he is followed by Wunder and Baiter. Garatoni has a dissertation on this matter. The Quaesitor is named C. Alfius in c. 17, with the variation C. Alphius in some MSS., which is unimportant. C. Alfius was praetor this year, and he was Quaesitor on this

trial (Ad Q. Fr. iii. 1). But in this chapter the same Quaesitor is addressed by the name of C. Flavius. There was a C. Flavius, whom Cicero mentions, and more than one; but none of them is the Quaesitor who presided at this trial. Garatoni, who had discussed at length the question of these Flavii, says in his Curae Secundae, that all his talk about the Flavii is of no use, and that Cicero is here addressing C. Alfius who is mentioned in c. 17. There is no doubt about that, and here he calls him C. Flavi, as he addresses Caesar (Pro Ligario) by the name of C. Caesar, and so we must conclude that Flavius is a cognomen of Alfius. Garatoni maintains that his name was C. Alfius Flavus, for Seneca the Rhetorician gives Flavus as the cognomen of the Alfii, and in Seneca's time there lived an Alfius Flavus who may have been the grandson or even the son of this man who presided at Plancius' trial. If the man's name was C. Alfius Flavius, we have both a nomen and cognomen ending in ius, which is not usual. But Garatoni cites the name of Marius Alfius, a magistratus of the Campani (Livy xxiii. 35).

dicam tuae me etiam lacrimae impediunt vestraeque, judices, non solum meae, quibus ego magno in metu meo subito inducor in spem, vos eosdem in hoc conservando futuros, qui fueritis in me, quoniam istis vestris lacrimis de illis recordor, quas pro me saepe et multum profudistis.

tuae... lacrimae . . . vestraeque] The 'miseratio' here has its effect. The 'quaesitor' cries, the 'judices' cry: they all cry together; and Cicero ought to win his

cause.

Such a 'miseratio' must not be measured by our opinions and habits. If it were well delivered, who can say that he would have resisted?

PRO C. RABIRIO POSTUMO

ORATIO.

INTRODUCTION.

PTOLEMAEUS, named Auletes, king of Egypt, being driven out by the Egyptians, or having fled for fear of them, went to Rome in B.C. 58 to entreat the senate to restore him. On his voyage to Rome he called at Rhodes, where he had an interview with M. Cato, which Plutarch (Cat. Min. c. 35) has described in a very amusing way. When Ptolemaeus got to Rome he wanted money, which he borrowed and employed in bribing some of the senators. His connexion with Rabirius seems to have begun before he was at Rome (c. 2). Rabirius found money for the king. In B.C. 56 Cicero, who was under obligations to P. Lentulus Spinther, on account of his restoration from exile, made a speech in the senate (Pro Rege Alexandrino), in which he supported Lentulus' claim to manage the business of Ptolemaeus. Lentulus was now Proconsul of Cilicia and Cyprus (B.c. 56), and in a convenient position to attend to the affairs of Egypt. It had been determined the year before that the future Proconsul of Cilicia should restore Ptolemaeus, and Lentulus was now the Proconsul; but at the close of B.C. 57 the enemies of Lentulus found something in the Sibylline books, or they invented it, which declared that it would be dangerous to the Roman state if an Egyptian king should be restored by force of arms. This led to many discussions in the senate (B.c. 56) and to various proposals about the best way managing Ptolemaeus' restoration.

of

As the business was likely to be profitable, the king's restoration became a party question. Both Lentulus and Pompeius wished to have the commission. Cicero, in a letter to his brother (B.C. 56), says that the "king's creditors were openly supplying money against Lentulus." This hint would be more intelligible to his brother than to us, but we may deduce something from it. Rabirius may have been active here also. All

VOL. IV.

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