This speech was delivered for Q. Ligarius in 46 B.C.
The translation is by N.H. Watts (1931). Click on the L symbols to go to the Latin text of each section. Click on ** to go to the translator's footnotes.
[1.] L [1] Strange, indeed, Gaius Caesar, and hitherto unparalleled is the charge which has been submitted to you by my kinsman ** Quintus Tubero - that Quintus Ligarius has been in Africa; and this charge Gaius Pansa, ** with all his outstanding ability, has made bold to admit; fortified, possibly, by his intimacy with you. So what my course is to be I know not. For, hoping that you knew nothing of the matter at first hand and that you could have known nothing of it at second hand, I had come prepared to take advantage of your ignorance to save an unfortunate man. But now that his dark secret has been disclosed by an indefatigable opponent, there is nothing for it, I suppose, but to plead guilty to the charge, especially as, thanks to my friend Pansa, it is no longer a debatable question. So I must needs eschew controversy and convert my whole speech into an appeal for your compassion, to which so many have owed their safety, winning from you not indeed absolution from guilt but pardon for their errors. [2] You have then, Tubero, the benefit of what is the dearest dream of counsel for the prosecution, a prisoner who pleads guilty, but guilty of having been on the same side as you, Tubero, and as that very estimable gentleman your father. You must needs therefore plead guilty to your own offence, before you proceed to arraign that of Ligarius.
Quintus Ligarius, when there was as yet no hint of war, left for Africa to serve as legate under Gaius Considius, and in that capacity he acted so greatly to the satisfaction of our citizens and allies, that when Considius left the province the populace would not be contented with the appointment of anyone else as governor. So, after persistent but fruitless protest, Ligarius reluctantly accepted the province, and his administration of it in time of peace was such that citizens and allies alike were delighted with his incorruptibility and honour. [3] War broke out so suddenly that the inhabitants of Africa heard that it was being waged before they learned that it was being prepared. On hearing this, partly with unthinking eagerness, partly with a sort of blind fear, they were looking for somebody who might take the lead first in securing their safety and then also in realising their desires, while Ligarius, with his eye fixed on home and eager to return to his dear ones, refused to involve himself in any trouble. Meanwhile Publius Attius Varus, who had governed Africa as propraetor, arrived at Utica. All attention immediately converged upon him. He with significant alacrity seized the government, if that could be called government which was vested in him without official sanction but merely in compliance with the irresponsible agitation of an unintelligent mob. [4] Accordingly Ligarius, since he was anxious to avoid all such embarrassments, on the arrival of Varus remained for a time wholly inactive.
[2.] L Up to this point, Gaius Caesar, Quintus Ligarius stands clear of all blame. So far from leaving his home at the call of war, he left it when there was not the remotest suspicion of war; he went out as legate in time of peace, and in an utterly peaceable province he so bore himself that peace was its highest interest. His departure at least can give you no just cause of affront. And what of his remaining? Far less this; for while his departure implied an inclination which did him no discredit, his remaining was due to an honourable necessity. These two conjunctures, then, are unimpeachable : the first, when he left Rome as legate; the second, when, in response to the demands of the province, he was given the charge of Africa. [5] The third conjuncture is the period during which he stayed behind in Africa after Varus's arrival, and if this is indictable, it is his necessity that you must indict, not his inclination. Do you think that, if by any means he could have escaped, he would have preferred to be at Utica than to be at Rome, with Publius Attius than with the brothers who were as the apple of his eye, with strangers than with his dear ones? An inconceivable affection for those brothers had made even the tenure of his legateship into a torment of deprivation, and was it possible that he calmly endured to be torn from his brothers by the divorce of war? [6] You have then, Caesar, up to this point no evidence of any clash of wills between Ligarius and yourself ; and note, I pray you, with what loyalty I defend his cause; I am betraying my own. O marvellous clemency and worthy to be adorned by every commendation and advertisement that literature and historical record can supply ! When Marcus Cicero maintains in your presence that another was not an adherent of the cause which he admits that he himself embraced, he feels no fear of what unspoken reflections may fill your mind, nor does he shudder at what thoughts about himself may be suggesting themselves to you as you listen to his defence of that other. [3.] L See how I stand unterrified ! see how largely the light of your generosity and wisdom breaks upon me as I speak! I will strain my voice to the uttermost that this word of mine may penetrate to the hearing of the people of Rome : [7] not until war had been engaged, Caesar, not indeed until it had run most of its course, did I, constrained by no compulsion, but led only by a deliberate act of will, go forth to join those who had taken up arms against you. ** And in whose presence do I aver this? Why, in the presence of one who, though he knew all this, yet restored me to the commonwealth before he had seen me ; who sent me a letter from Egypt, bidding me remain what I had always been ; who, though he himself was the only true imperator in the whole world that the Roman people commanded, yet suffered me ** to be the second; from whose hand, by a mandate of which this same Gaius Pansa was the bearer, I held the grant of laurelled fasces for such time as I thought good to hold them; who thought that then only was he rendering me full restoration, if he had given it despoiled of none of its distinctions. [8] Mark, Tubero, I pray, how I, who flinch not from confessing my own fault, dare not to acknowledge that of Ligarius! ** And I have spoken thus about myself in order that Tubero might forgive me when I said the same about him ; for his close relationship to me, or possibly the gratification his ability and enthusiasm give me, or, it may be, the thought that the credit of a young kinsman reacts in some degree to my personal interest, makes me look with favour upon his energy and rising repute. [9] My question, however, is this : who thinks it an indictable offence in Ligarius "to have been in Africa"? Why, the very man who himself expressed a wish to be in Africa and complains that he was excluded by Ligarius, and who undoubtedly met Caesar himself in armed encounter! When your sword, Tubero, was unsheathed on the field of Pharsalus, what was its object, at whose breast was its blade directed, what was the significance of your weapons, upon what were your thoughts; your eyes, your strong right arm, your fiery spirit bent? What desires, what dreams did you cherish? I am too insistent; my young friend betrays embarrassment; I will return to myself. I fought upon the same side. [4.] L [10] But what was our aim, Tubero, if it was not that we might win the power that he has won? Is it then, Caesar, the very men, whose enjoyment of indemnity wins you your title to clemency, who by their eloquence would sting you into cruelty? And in the present suit, Tubero, while I do in some degree sadly miss the discretion which characterises yourself, far more sadly do I miss that of your father, who, with all his outstanding abilities and his deep learning, has failed to understand the true nature of the action before us. For, had he understood, he would have preferred you to take any line rather than that which you are taking ; you are bringing a charge against one who admits it. That is not enough ; you are accusing one whose case is, as I assert, better than your own, or at any rate, as you would rather have it, no worse than your own. [11] This is astonishing, but what I have yet to point out is portentous. The purport of your prosecution is, not that Quintus Ligarius may be condemned, but that he may be executed. No citizen of Rome has ever had such an aim before you. These are foreign ways - the ways of one whose hatred spurs him to bloodshed - of shallow Greeks or unnatural barbarians. For what but this is your pure? That he may live no more at Rome, that his house may know him no more? That his excellent brothers, that Titus Brocchus his uncle, and Brocchus's son his cousin, and that we ourselves, may no longer share his life ? That he may set no foot upon his native soil? But does he set foot there to-day ? Can he be more totally deprived of all these things than he already is? He is debarred from Italy; he is an exile. It is not then of the country which he has lost that you desire to despoil him, but of life. [12] But even under the dictator ** who visited with death all whom he disliked, no one did what you are doing and as you are doing it. He ordered men to be murdered, though none accused ; he lured men by bribes to commit murders ; but his cruelty was requited years afterwards by the very man whom you to-day are urging to cruelty. **
[5.] L "But I demand no such thing," you will answer. Indeed I can well believe it, Tubero. For I know you, I know your father, I know your house and your fair name ; the ardour of your family and our household for virtue, for enlightenment, for earning, and for many high and noble accomplishments - all this is known to me. [13] And so I am perfectly aware that you do not aim at bloodshed, but you fail in discernment ; for your conduct of the case suggests that you are not satisfied with the penalty under which Quintus Ligarius has so far fallen. But what other penalty is there except death? If he is in exile, as he is, what more do you ask ? That pardon should be refused him? That were a fate far more heart-breaking, far more cruel. Are you to enter the lists to thwart us in a suit that we supported by prayers, by tears, and by prostrations, trusting not so much to the goodness of our cause as to Caesar's humanity ? Are you to break in upon our weeping, and, as we lie in the dust at your feet, to stile our humble entreaties? [14] If, when we were doing at home what we have actually, and I trust not vainly, done, you had suddenly burst in upon us and raised the cry, "Gaius Caesar, beware how you bestow your pardon! beware how you pity these brothers appealing for a brother's deliverance!" would you not have divested yourself of every rag of finer feeling ? And how far harder is it to bear, that you should thwart in the forum the appeal that we have made at home, and that in our dire plight you should shut the gates of that sanctuary where so many have found a refuge? [15] I will speak without reserve what I feel, Caesar. If, in the greatness of your fortunes, the clemency, in which you purposely, yes, purposely persist - and I realise what I am saying - had not been equally great, then your triumph would be overwhelmed in a flood of bitter mourning. How many of the victors would there be who would have you pitiless, since such are found even among the vanquished? How many would be those who, wishing that none should be pardoned by you, would raise barriers against your mercy, when even those whom you yourself have pardoned would have you show no compassion towards others? [16] But suppose I were able to prove to Caesar that Ligarius had never been in Africa at all, suppose we chose by a splendid and compassionate falsehood ** to bring deliverance to a stricken fellow-citizen, even then it would be no true man's part, in a citizen's dire and dangerous crisis, to rebut and refute our falsehood, and, if the part of any man, not his assuredly who had fought and failed beneath the self-same standard. But it is one thing to wish to save Caesar from a mistake, and quite another to dissuade him from pity. Had the former wish been yours, you would have said, "Caesar, beware how you believe him ; Ligarius was in Africa; he bore arms against you." But as it is, what are your words? "Beware how you pardon him." These are the words of no true man, and no true man would utter them. He who utters them in your presence, Gaius Caesar, is sooner likely to cast charity from his own heart than to tear it from yours.
[6.] L [17] Now in his preliminary application for leave ** to bring this suit Tubero stated, I understand, that he wished to proceed against the crime of Quintus Ligarius. Doubtless you have felt some surprise either that the alleged criminal should have been Ligarius rather than another, or that the prosecutor should have been a fellow-adherent, or as to what strange charge he was bringing. You call his act a crime, do you, Tubero? Why? That is a word that has hitherto not been applied to such a situation. Some use the term "blunder," others "fear," the less charitable speak of hope, ambition, hatred, obstinacy ; the sternest judges of recklessness ; but of crime none till now save you. My own view, if we seek to find a true and appropriate name for our malady, is that it is some predestinate calamity that has befallen and so taken possession of men's improvident minds, that no one ought to wonder that human counsels were overcome by heaven-sent necessity. [18] "Wretched" such men may be, though we cannot be wretched with Caesar triumphant ; - but I speak not of ourselves, I speak of the fallen ; moved they may have been by partisanship, by passion, by obstinacy ; but of the charge of criminal purpose, of frenzy, of parricidal treason, let the dead Gnaeus Pompeius and many others be absolved. When, Caesar, has anyone heard such a word upon your lips, or what aim had your arms save to repel insult ** from yourself? What purpose had your invincible army save to protect its own privileges and your position? Again, at the time when you were bent on peace, did you make it your aim to come to an agreement with scoundrels, or with patriotic citizens? [19] For my own part, Caesar, I should not esteem so highly your great services towards me, if I could look upon myself as a criminal who owed his preservation to you. And how could you have deserved so well of the commonwealth, had you desired that so many criminals should enjoy an unimpaired esteem? At the outset, Caesar, you held that that movement was a secession, not a war, not an outburst of hatred between foes, but of dissension between citizens, a dissension in which either party had the welfare of the state at heart, but in which each, through policy or through passion, swerved from the interest of the general body. The protagonists enjoyed an almost equal prestige, though that of the adherents of one side may perhaps have been inferior. ** Between the two causes it was at the time difficult to decide, for the reason that on either side there was something to approve ; to-day that cause must be adjudged the better, whereto the gods added their assistance. But now that we recognise your clemency, who so blind as to disapprove that victory wherein none save combatants fell ?
[7.] L [20] But, to say no more about the cause in its larger aspect, let us pass to our own part therein. Which, pray, do you think would have been the easier, Tubero ? - for Ligarius to leave Africa, or for you and your fellows to abstain from visiting Africa? "Could we have abstained," you will ask, "in face of the Senate's decree ? " If you ask my opinion, certainly not. But it was the Senate too which had given Ligarius his appointment ; and, what is more, he obeyed at a time when obedience to the Senate was inevitable; you obeyed it at a time when no one obeyed who did not wish to do so. Do I therefore censure you? Not the least in the world ; there was no other course open to one of your stock, your name, your family, your traditions. But my generosity does not go so far as to allow you to censure that course in others which you make matter for glorification in yourself. [21] Tubero's ** post was assigned to him by a decree of the Senate, when he himself was not present, and was moreover disabled by ill-health ; he had made up his mind to ask to be excused. Of all this the close ties of every kind which subsisted between myself and Tubero made me aware; we were educated beneath the same roof, we shared quarters on service, ** we were later connected by marriage, we were intimate in every department of life; there was too between us the firm bond of community of taste. I am sure, therefore, that Tubero ** wished to remain at home ; but a certain person ** was so pressing, and confronted him so insistently with the sacred claims of the state, that even had his sentiments been other than they were, he could not have held out against the mere weight of bare words. [22] He yielded to, or rather obeyed, the compelling force of a great personality. He left the country in company with his fellow-adherents. His journey was protracted; and consequently he found Africa already under occupation. Hence arises this charge, or rather this outburst, against Ligarius. For if the mere wish is a chargeable offence, it is no less a crime in you to have wished for possession of Africa, the key of all the provinces, designed by nature as a base for hostile operations against this city, than for another to have preferred keeping it for himself. But that other was not Ligarius. Varus maintained that the authority was accredited to himself; at any rate he was in possession of the symbols of power. [23] But however this may be, to what, Tubero, does your grievance amount? "We were refused admission into the province." And what if you had been admitted ? Did you intend to hand it over to Caesar or to retain it against Caesar? [8.] L Mark, Caesar, how great a measure of free speech, or rather of effrontery, your generosity accords to us. If Tubero replies that Africa, whither the Senate and the lot had sent him, would have been handed over by his father to you, I shall have no hesitation, even in your presence, to whose interest it was that he should do so, to censure such a policy in the severest language. For welcome though it might have been, it would not have been approved by you. [24] But I now dismiss the whole topic, not so much to avoid offending your long-suffering ears as that it may not appear that Tubero would ever have done what it never entered his head to do.
Well, you and your friends, Tubero, were going to Africa, a province which was peculiarly and preeminently embittered against Caesar's successes, where there was an all-powerful king ** who hated his cause, where the general feeling was adverse to it, and where there were strong and influential citizen-corporations. ** What, I ask, were you going to do there? Yet can I have any doubt what you were going to do, since I see what you in fact did? You were debarred from setting foot in your province - debarred too with the deepest affront. [25] How did you submit to this? Before whom did you lay a complaint of the affront you had received ? Why, before that very compelling personality your adherence to whom had induced you to share the fortune of his wars. Had it been in Caesar's cause that you meant to visit that province, it would surely have been to him that you would have appealed when you were excluded from the province. You appealed to Pompeius. And what complaint is this to bring to Caesar's ears - plaintively to arraign the man who debarred you from waging war against Caesar! In this connexion I give you full leave to boast, even with lies if you will, that you would have handed the province over to Caesar. Even if you were excluded by Varus and others, still I will readily avow that the blame belongs to Ligarius for having robbed you of the opportunity of winning so rich a glory.
[9.] L [26] But observe, I beg of you, Gaius Caesar, the constancy ** of this gifted gentleman, which, however I respected it myself, as I do respect it, I still should not refer to, had I not reason to know that it is a virtue which meets with your especial commendation. What constancy so great, then, was ever found in any man? Constancy do I call it ? Surely long-sufferingness were the better term! For how few would have acted thus ! - to return to the very party by which at a time of civil dissension he had been coldly treated, nay, had been actually rejected without pity ! There is real greatness of soul in such an act - the act of a hero whom no affront, no constraint, and no peril can make to swerve from the cause he has embraced and the ideal he has set before him! [27] For granted that all else had been possessed by Tubero equally with Varus - honour, birth, distinction, genius - as they certainly were not, Tubero had at least the special advantage that he had come to the province with power formally accredited to him by decree of the Senate. Debarred thence, he goes not to Caesar, lest he should be thought resentful, not homewards, lest he should be thought apathetic, not to some other country, lest he should be thought to condemn the cause he had followed ; he goes to Pompeius's camp in Macedonia, to throw himself into the arms of the very party by which he had been outrageously rejected. [28] And what then? when your plight had failed to stir the heart of him to whom you had come, I imagine you displayed but a half-hearted zeal for the party ; you were merely within the lines, but all your soul revolted from the cause: or was it, as commonly happens in civil wars . . . ** and not in you more than in others; for we were all alike possessed by the thirst for victory. For my part, I had always urged peace, but now such efforts came too late ; for it would have been the act of a madman to dream of peace with the battle set in array before my eyes. We all, I say, wished for success, you assuredly above all, for you had come into a place where you must perish unless you vanquished; although, as things stand now, I doubt not but that you prefer the security you enjoy to such a victory.
[10.] L [29] I should not say this, Tubero, if either you regretted your constancy or Caesar his kindness. As it is, what outrage, I ask, are you seeking to avenge - your own or the state's? If the state's, what answer will you make with regard to your perseverance in that cause? If your own, beware how you fall into the blunder of thinking that Caesar will vent his wrath upon your foes, when he has pardoned his own.
In face of all this, do I appear to you, Caesar, to be engrossed in Ligarius's case, or to dwell upon his conduct? Every word I have spoken I would have referred to one single head - to your humanity or your clemency or your compassion. [30] Often, Caesar, have I pleaded many causes at your side, while the demands of your official career kept you at the bar, ** but never after this fashion : "I crave your pardon for my client, gentlemen; he blundered - he slipped - he never thought - if ever again. . . ." That is the tone one adopts towards a parent, but to a jury we say: "He did not do this thing; he never dreamed of it; the evidence is false; the charge is invented." Do but tell us, Caesar, that you are here to pronounce as judge upon Ligarius's conduct; ask in what lines he was found ; and lo! I am dumb, I do not even enumerate those circumstances that might perhaps have weight even with a jury: "He left the country before the outbreak of war to take up his legateship, he was left behind while peace still reigned, he was suddenly overtaken by the war, and in the war itself he showed no bitterness ; to-day in soul and sympathy he is your devoted adherent." That is the tone to use to a jury, but I plead before a father: "He blundered, he acted thoughtlessly, he is sorry; I throw myself upon your clemency, I crave indulgence for his fault, I implore his pardon."
If no one has pleaded for that successfully, it is presumption ; if very many, then grant help, even as you have given hope. [31] Or is Ligarius to have no ground for hope, when to me grace is granted to beg in your presence for mercy for another also? And yet it is not on this appeal of mine that I build my hopes of success; no, nor yet on the efforts of those friends ** of yours who make their suit to you on Ligarius's behalf. [11.] L For I have seen and learnt, when many were anxiously endeavouring to win the safety of one or another, what it was you chiefly regarded; that it was the claims of your suitors that gained your interest rather than their features, and that you regarded not how far the pleader was your friend, but how far he was the friend of him for whom he strove. And so, though your bounties to your friends are so rich that at times I think that those who enjoy your generosity are more highly blest than even you who lavish your graces upon them, yet at the same time, I repeat, I see that claims have more weight with you than prayers, and that you are most profoundly stirred by those who in making their petitions have the best grounds for grief.
[32] In preserving Quintus Ligarius you will indeed gratify many of your friends, but take this, I beg you, into consideration, as you always do: I am able to bring before you gallant gentlemen, Sabines, men most esteemed by you, the whole Sabine district, the flower of Italy and the strength of the state; you know the mettle of these men. ** Mark the grief and dejection of all these; you see the tears and unkempt guise of Titus Brocchus ** - and I have no doubt as to your opinion of him - his own, and his son's. [33] What need for me to speak of Ligarius's brothers? Think not, Caesar, that a single head is at stake; either you must retain three who bear the name of Ligarius in our society, or three must from that society be cast forth. For any exile is to these more desirable than possession of fatherland, of home, and of household gods, if their brother must go forth to banishment alone. As their conduct is brotherly, as it is dutiful, as it is sympathetic, so let their tears, their dutifulness, their fraternal bond appeal to you; let the maxim which won you your victory hold good to-day. For we have often heard you assert that, while we held all men to be our opponents save those on our side, you counted all men your adherents who were not against you. And do you mark the illustrious array before you - Brocchus and his household, Lucius Marcius, Gaius Caesetius, Lucius Corfidius, ** all Roman knights who attend here in the garb of mourning - men who are not merely known to you, but known for good men and true, men who were on your side? And upon these we vented our wrath, for these we sought in vain among our ranks, against these some of us even uttered their threats! Preserve, then, for your adherents their loved ones, that so we may find this maxim of yours as true as we have found all that you have spoken.
[12.] L [34] And could you but see clearly the concord that binds the Ligarii, you would decide that all the brothers had been on your side. Or can any doubt that, had it been possible for Ligarius to remain in Italy, his views would have been the same as those his brothers held? Who is there that knows the single-hearted and well-nigh indissoluble unanimity between these brothers of almost equal age, that does not feel that anything could sooner have happened than that they should have followed divergent views and fortunes? In their wishes they were all with you; the storm broke and swept away one ; and if he had acted of set purpose, he would but be like those whom you have determined, in spite of all, to preserve. [35] Granted that he went to the war, granted that he differed not from you alone, but from his brothers; these your petitioners are your friends. When I was active in all your interests, I remember how Titus Ligarius in the capacity of urban quaestor ** behaved towards you and your great position. But these memories of mine matter little; I trust that you also, whose qualities of heart and head teach you to forget nothing save your wrongs - that you, when you let your memory dwell on certain other quaestors, recollect something of his services to you when he was quaestor. [36] Titus Ligarius, then, whose only aim at that time (for he could not foresee the present situation) was that you should deem him a patriot whose interest was to serve you, to-day humbly sues you for his brother's life. And when, prompted by his services to you, you have granted this to their united prayers, you will thereby make a gift of three excellent and irreproachable brothers not alone to themselves, to all these most worthy gentlemen, and to us your friends, but also to the commonwealth. [37] Repeat, then, to-day in the forum towards excellent brothers who have won the approbation of all gathered here that act which you lately performed in the Senate-house towards a man of distinction and renown. ** As you granted him to the Senate, so grant Ligarius to the people whose wishes you have ever held most dear; and if that day brought great glory to you and great joy to the people of Rome, have no hesitation, I beg you, Gaius Caesar, in earning on every possible occasion the title to a like glory. Nothing is so dear to the people as kindness, and none of your many high qualities arouses such admiration and such pleasure as your compassion. [38] For in nothing do men more nearly approach divinity than in doing good to their fellow-men ** ; your situation has nothing prouder in it than the power, your character nothing in it more noble than the wish, to preserve all whom you can. The case might be held to call for a longer speech, your character to demand a briefer. Deeming it therefore more profitable that you yourself should speak rather than that I or anyone else should address you, I will now close, merely reminding you that in granting life to the absent Ligarius you will grant it to all these here present. **
1.(↑) We do not know how C. was related to Tubero. Note the implication - humanity comes before kinship. Note also the irony, which is "continued all through the speech whenever Tubero is spoken of " (Long).
2.(↑) An adherent of Caesar and a supporter of Ligarius ; consul 43. Pansa's '"courage" in admitting so trivial a charge is dwelt on in irony.
3.(↑) There is subtle flattery in C.'s outspokenness. It was to be employed later by Tiberius's senators (Tac. Ann. i. 8. 5).
4.(↑) See Pro Rege Deiot. § 11 note. C., hoping for a triumph, retained his laurelled fasces till 47.
5.(↑) With this. reading the sentence is ironical, preparing the way for the question asked in 9; omitting non we must render "I do not flinch from confessing what I did, and so I am bold to admit L.'s [much smaller] offence."
6.(↑) Sulla.
7.(↑) In 64 Caesar presided over trials for assassination of some agents of Sulla's proscription.
8.(↑) Plato's 'gennaion pseudos', Horace's 'splendide mendax'.
9.(↑) i.e., to the praetor.
10.(↑) C. uses Caesar's own word; see Bell. Civ. i. 9.
11.(↑) i.e., a majority of nobiles were on Pompey's side.
12.(↑) Father of the prosecutor.
13.(↑) They served together in the Social War under Cn. Pompeius Strabo.
14.(↑) i.e., the father.
15.(↑) Perhaps M. Marcellus.
16.(↑) Juba, king of Numidia.
17.(↑) Associations of Roman citizens in provincial towns for trade and other purposes.
18.(↑) The 'constantia' of Tubero, who took an early opportunity of deserting the Pompeian cause, is sarcastically dwelt on.
19.(↑) The sense to be supplied at this gap in the Mss. is "that you had no desire for peace? But this is not more true of you than of others, for . . ."
20.(↑) Caesar, as usual at Rome, made practice at the bar an avenue to office. C. (Brutus 72) says that he spoke Latin better than almost any other orator ; Quintilian (x. 1. 114) that if he had devoted himself to pleading, no one else would have been a match for Cicero.
21.(↑) e.g., Pansa.
22.(↑) Caesar in 82 had taken refuge among the Sabines from Sulla's vengeance.
23.(↑) Ligarius's uncle.
24.(↑) In a letter to Atticus (xiii. 44) C. writes: "Brutus has pointed out to me that my reference, in the speech for Ligarius, to L. Corfidius is a blunder . . . he died before it was delivered. Please . . . have the name removed from all copies."
25.(↑) In 56 a grant of money was made to Caesar for payment of his troops ; T. L. as quaestor urbanus could have expedited payment.
26.(↑) M. Marcellus.
27.(↑) "And earthly power doth then show likest God's / When mercy seasons justice." SHAKESPEARE, Merchant of Venice.
28.(↑) The "Attic " terseness and restraint of this peroration is in pleasing contrast to the exaggerated passion which C. usually employs.
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