M. TULLI CICERONIS ACADEMICORUM PRIORUM LIBER SECUNDUS. I. MAGNUM ingenium L. Luculli magnumque optimarum 1 artium studium, tum omnis liberalis et digna homine nobili ab eo percepta doctrina, quibus temporibus florere in foro maxime potuit, caruit omnino rebus urbanis. Vt enim admodum adu5 lescens cum fratre pari pietate et industria praedito paternas 4 urbanis: humanis codd. excepto V a secunda manu; A tamen uocem urbanis, quattuor codd. Dauisii urbanus, post u. admodum addunt. 2. tum introduces, as in § 43, and often, a clause forming part of an enumeration, where the preceding clause or clauses are not introduced by any particle such as cum or tum. liberalis et digna homine nobili: for Roman feeling on these subjects see Introd. p. 23. As to the expressions cf. De Or. 1, 17 eruditio libero digna; ib. 1, 72; ib. 1, 137; Lael. 89; Fin. 5, 47; Tim. 1; Rab. perd. 16; Pis. 22; Seneca ep. 88, 2 quare liberalia studia dicta sint uides; quia homine libero digna sunt. 3. percepta: 'gained', won'; 'cf. percipere fruges to reap', Cat. m. 24. 4. caruit... rebus urbanis : carere often means to be unavoidably absent from', 'to be cut off from ', as in Mil. 18 foro carere; Att. 9, 19, 1 Roma carere; Brut. 32 forensi luce caruit; Verr. 4, 41; Iuuen. 11, 53. This sense is easily derived from the meaning of the root of careo, viz. skar, separate, divide, for which see Corssen, Ausspr. I, 403. So Ter. Ph. 517 urbe priuari. The abstract subjects of caruit, viz. ingenium, studium, doctrina, have their parallel in uis, the subject of afuit in § 3. For the three nouns with singular verb see n. on I, II. admodum adulescens: see n. on § 86. 5. fratre: M. Lucullus, consul in 73 B. C. paternas inimicitias...persecutus: the elder Lucullus was most righteously condemned, yet Roman feeling was entirely on the side of his sons when they endeavoured to ruin the man who had prosecuted their father for his misdeeds. The duty of a son in such cases is curiously discussed in Off. 3, 90, from which passage it will be seen that Seneca was altogether out of harmony with popular sentiment when he laid down the maxim (De Ira 2, 34, 3) nihil est iniquius quam aliquem heredem paterni odii fieri. Revenge is assigned by Cicero (Off. 2, 50) as one of the few motives which would justify a man of high position in appearing as a prosecutor. inimicitias magna cum gloria est persecutus, in Asiam quaestor profectus, ibi permultos annos admirabili quadam laude prouinciae praefuit; deinde absens factus aedilis, continuo praetorlicebat enim celerius legis praemio-post in Africam, inde ad consulatum, quem ita gessit ut diligentiam admirarentur omnes, 5 ingenium agnoscerent. Post ad Mithridaticum bellum missus a senatu non modo opinionem uicit omnium, quae de uirtute 2 eius erat, sed etiam gloriam superiorum. Idque eo fuit mirabilius, quod ab co laus imperatoria non admodum exspectabatur, 2 permultos: per multos H Bait. 6 agnoscerent: cognoscerent G Harl. I. magna cum gloria: the same expression in Liu. 6, 10, 6. quaestor: cf. the n. on § 11 pro quae. store. 2. permultos annos: about ten years, 87-77 B.C. 3. factus aedilis: in 78 B.C. 4. celerius: before the usual time, the customary interval not having been observed. 5 diligentiam hic Cant. uocem multi inserit. 8 etiam: et y. 9 exspectabatur: V2 Cant.; sued for office in contravention of the law without having secured Sulla's permission. Val. Max. 6, 9, 9 speaks of Ventidius as having been consul and praetor in succession. Nothing is gained by the correction procemio; and the phrase legis prooemium for exordium is hardly Latin; see Leg. 2, 16. legis praemio: an unusual expression, which has generally been regarded as a variation for iegis beneficio 'thanks to a certain enactment'. The Latinity of the phrase has been hastily denied by those who have condemned the prologue to the Lucullus as spurious. We have an exact parallel in Balb. 57 legum praemiis 'rewards resting on, or depending on, statutes'. The similar usage of beneficio followed by a gen. with the sense of thanks to' is very common in the whole of Latin prose literature; so too Verg. Aen. 8, 658 dono noctis opacae; Ouid. Met. 10, 476 caecae munere noctis. Cf. esp. Vat. 27 ut homo consularis spoliaretur beneficio et aequitate legis tuae; Arch. 31 caussa quae beneficio legis comprobetur; Brut. 224; Val. M. 3, 7, 9; also Mur. 89 noua poena legis. The circumstances of the statute by which Lucullus benefited can only be conjectured. Mommsen, Staatsrecht 1 429 supposes that a special act was passed as a reward for certain services of which no record is preserved. It is far more likely that Sulla, who by his lex de magistratibus vigorously re-enacted the old lex annalis, introduced a clause excepting from its operation a number of his own officers. It is well known that Sulla put one of his leading officers, L. Lucretius Ofella, to death, because he in Africam: scarcely to be described as an ellipse of a verb of motion (so Du Mesnil on Leg. 2, 69 styles it), since the construction is exactly parallel to that of in Asiam above. With inde a verb like rediit must be supplied. 8. superiorum: a somewhat extravagant statement, seeing that Sulla was among the superiores. 9. laus: in the sense of 'merit' or that which deserves praise; as above, I § 12 and often; so praemium in Verg. Aen. 12, 437 means 'a deed worthy of reward'. admodum: the use of admodum with verbs, though much rarer than with adjectives, is occasionally found throughout Latin prose. 10. diuturnum...gerente: the passage only means that Murena's war fell within the time of Lucullus' pro-quaestorship (for which see n. on § 11). The war occupied less than two years, 83-81 B.C. II. in Asia pace consumpserat: for the readings see crit. n. There is no real difficulty in the passage, which has been much discussed by the editors. Cicero indeed nearly always says consumere aliquid in aliqua re; not aliqua re merely. Madvig on Fin. 5, 53 says 'always', but this is a too sweeping statement. There are two classes of exceptions to the rule. First, we have nouns used adverbially in the ablative, which do not require the preposition; so pace here has the sense of 10 qui adulescentiam in forensi opera, quaesturae diuturnum tempus Murena bellum in Ponto gerente in Asia pace consumpserat. Sed incredibilis quaedam ingeni magnitudo non desiderauit indocilem usus disciplinam. Itaque cum totum iter et nauigationem consumpsisset partim in percontando a peritis, partim in rebus 15 gestis legendis, in Asiam factus imperator uenit, cum esset Roma profectus rei militaris rudis. Habuit enim diuinam quandam memoriam rerum, uerborum maiorem Hortensius, sed quo plus spectabatur Cy Harl. II in Asia pace: VG Cant. (de quo errat Dau.) H; in Asiae pace ABE; in Asia in pace Guilelmius et M; in [Asia] pace Bait. 14 percontando: V24; percontendo A; percontanda B; percontenda V1; percunctando Cant. Harl. pus. 14. rebus gestis: 'military history'; a common sense of the phrase. In Sallust. Iug. 85 Marius bitterly ridicules those who learn the art of war from books. Ancient commanders studied the history of warfare not a little; cf. Cato m. 12, and below, § 4; Balb. 47; Pro imp. Cn. P. 28 where the Scholiast supposes Lucullus to be hinted at; Font. 43 C. Marium, P. Didium, Q. Catulum, P. Crassum, non litteris homines ad rei militaris scientiam sed rebus gestis ac uictoriis eruditos. tranquillo, the prep. being no more 13. totum iter:= totum itineris temneeded than in the phrase pace alicuius dicere; Livy often uses pace et bello, and cf. Prop. 4, 1, 17 quod pace legas; and a similar use is Tusc. 4, 23 hoc loco consumitur. Then, further, the instrumental abl. does undoubtedly sometimes follow consumere in Cic.; e.g. Fam. 7, 1, 1; ib. 11, 27, 5. Caesar uses the abl. with or without in almost indifferently; Livy mostly the simple abl. [If em. were needed cum pace, which is not uncommon in Cic., would be far more probable than in pace, on account of the preceding in, which indeed most likely induced Cic. to omit in before pace; cf. Att. 6, 2, 6 nonis Maiis in Ciliciam cogitabam; ibi cum Iunium Mensem consumpsissem, atque utinam in pace (magnum enim bellum impendet a Parthis) etc. To take Asia as an adjective qualifying pace (so Corti on Lucan 1, 106 and others) is absurd; nor is the expression Asiae pace, 'the peace of Asia' supportable.] 12. incredibilis quaedam : here quaedam really emphasizes the adjective by rendering it indefinite; as though its degree were beyond expression and must be left to the imagination. So diuinam quandam below; and ris in Greek, often. indocilem: the passive sense (= non doctum) is undoubtedly rare, if not unique, in prose, though easily paralleled in poetry; e.g. Prop. 1, 2, 12 et sciat indocilis currere lympha uias; Ouid. Trist. 4, 1, 6 indocili numero; the poets use too indocilis indoctus of persons and more rarely docilis=doctus (Lucan 1, 326 and 426). With the context cf. Plin. ep. 1, 20, 12 quod me docuit usus magister egregius; Pan. 15 ita egisti tribunum ut esse dux statim posses, nihilque discendum haberes tempore docendi. 15. factus: 'trained', 'fully formed'; almost perfectus, as in Att. 2, 24, 3 factus institutusque; Brut. 30 and 325; De Or. 1, 63; ib. 3, 184; Or. 172; Verr. 4, 126; Nep. Att. 13, 4 domi natum domique factum; so in Acad. 1, 17; Hor. sat. 1, 5, 33 and 1, 10, 58; Plin. pan. 20 imperator factus is contrasted with imp. futurus. 16. rei militaris rudis: these words have been much insisted on by those who have condemned the whole prologue as spurious. Undoubtedly Lucullus had in early life served with distinction during the Social war (Plut. Luc. 2) and Cicero's statement that his quaestorship was passed in tranquillity is incorrect, since he had engaged in operations both by land and sea of considerable importance. But Cicero was far from infallible in matters of history, and historical blunders of far greater magnitude than this would be needed, in order to prove the spuriousness of a piece of writing so thoroughly in Cicero's style. diuinam quandam memoriam: the same phrase occurs in De Or. 2, 360. 17. uerborum maiorem Hortensius: in negotiis gerendis res quam uerba prosunt, hoc erat memoria illa praestantior, quam fuisse in Themistocle, quem facile Graeciae principem ponimus, singularem ferunt, qui quidem etiam pollicenti cuidam se artem ei memoriae, quae tum primum proferebatur, traditurum respondisse dicitur obliuisci se malle discere ; 5 credo, quod haerebant in memoria quaecumque audierat et uiderat. Tali ingenio praeditus Lucullus adiunxerat etiam illam, quam Themistocles spreuerat, disciplinam. Itaque ut litteris consignamus quae monumentis mandare uolumus, sic ille in animo 3 res insculptas habebat. Tantus ergo imperator in omni genere 10 5 discere: quam discere tres codd. Dauisii; ut est in ed. Heruagiana. as this clause stands in partial opposition to the preceding words, an adversative or concessive particle might have been expected to introduce it. The omission of the particle in such circumstances occurs now and then, though not often. The distinction between the memory for words and the memory for facts is insisted on in De Or. 2, 359; cf. too Tusc. 1, 65. The memory of Hortensius became proverbial; see Tusc. 1, 59; Brut. 301; Sen. contr. I intr. § 19; Quint. 10, 6, 4 and II, 2, 24; Val. M. 8, 7, ext. 15, 16 (where Mithridates and Cyrus are quoted as having extraordinary memory). 2. Graeciae principem: Cicero expresses different judgments elsewhere; as in Tusc. 1, 4 Epaminondas, princeps meo iudicio Graeciae (Themistocles being named in the same sentence); De Or. 3, 139 Epaminondan, haud scio an summum uirum unum omnis Graeciae; Off. 2, 60 Periclen principem Graeciae. 3. ponimus: esse omitted; cf. n. on 1, 36. The construction with a person for object is rare, as was remarked by Ranitz; cf. Nep. Alc. 11, 6; Sall. Iug. 24, 7. singularem: cf. Fam. 7, 5, 3 where Trebatius is credited with memoria singularis: so too Suet. gram. 7. qui quidem etc.: the same story is given in Fin. 2, 104; De Or. 2, 199 and 351. artem memoriae: this was said to have been founded by Simonides (who is the person meant by cuidam); see Tusc. 1, 59; Plin. n. h. 7, 89. As to the character of the ancient memoria technica cf. Ad Herenn. 3, 28 sq.; Quintil. II, c. 2; Cic. Fin. 5, 2; Xenoph. Symp. 4, 62. 6. credo: the parenthetical credo is usually, but not always, ironical in Cic.; cf. § 77. 12 in 8. consignamus: litteris consignare is a common phrase in Cic.; it is doubtful whether litteris is the local or the instrumental ablative; probably the latter. 9. monumentis mandare: n. on 1, 3. in animo... habebat : cf. Seneca, contr. 1. intr. § 18 superuacuos sibi fecerat codices; aiebat se in animo scribere; also De Or. 2, 360 Charmadam, Metrodorum, quorum uterque tamquam litteris in cera, sic se aiebat imaginibus in eis locis quos haberet, quae meminisse uellet, scribere; and the μvnoves δελτοὶ φρενῶν of the Greeks. 10. insculptas: rare in the metaphorical use; so in N. D. 1, 45; ib. 2, 12 innatum et in animo quasi insculptum. genere: 'department'; cf. n. on 1, 3; also Deiot. 12 quanta in omni genere bellorum gloria; Cat. m. 18 uersatus in uario genere belli. 12. instrumento et apparatu: both these words are frequently used of war at all periods of Latin; the former refers rather to strictly military equipments, the latter to commissariat arrangements and the like. For the former cf. Leg. 2, 45; Sall. Iug. 43, 3; Caes. B. G. 6, 30, 2; Liu. 42, 53, 4; Iustin. 9, 8, 5; Curt. 9, 3, 11; Amm. Marc. 21, 6, 6; 26, 7, 12. For the latter Phil. 5, 30; Caes. B. C. 3, 41, 3, and 44, 1; ib. 2, 2, 1; Liu. 2, 50, 1; 4, 12, 5; 6, 9, 2; 42, 47, 2; Curt. 3, 7, 13; 4, 2, 12; Sen. ben. 6, 31, 8. The phrases instruere, apparare bellum are also common. Yet Ranitz argues that Cic. could not have applied these words to warfare! The reading of some MSS instrumentis can hardly be right here, though in some of the passages quoted both words are used in the plural. For the conjunction of the two words cf. De belli fuit, proeliis, oppugnationibus, naualibus pugnis totiusque belli instrumento et apparatu, ut ille rex post Alexandrum maximus hunc a se maiorem ducem cognitum quam quemquam eorum, quos legisset, fateretur. In codem tanta prudentia fuit 15 in constituendis temperandisque ciuitatibus, tanta aequitas, ut hodie stet Asia Luculli institutis seruandis et quasi uestigiis persequendis. Sed etsi magna cum utilitate rei publicae, tamen diutius quam uellem tanta uis uirtutis atque ingeni peregrinata afuit ab oculis et fori et curiae. Quin etiam, cum uictor a Mith20 ridatico bello reuertisset, inimicorum calumnia triennio tardius strumento: instrumentis Gy Cant. Harl. et multae edd. ueteres; instrumenti V. 17 sed etsi: sed om. Harl. . Or. 3, 23; also n. on § 32 instrumenta uel ornamenta. post Alexandrum maximus: 'greatest since the time of Alexander', rather than 'greatest next after Alexander'. Mithridates is of course meant. Cf. Iustin. 37, 1, 7 superioris aetatis omnes reges superauit (Mithridates). 14. legisset: the subject is rex not Lucullus. In any case quos legisset = de quibus 1. by a not uncommon idiom. With things the usage is very frequent, as in Balb. 47 bella legere; Leg. 1, 2 lucus...lectus; Pro Marc. 9; Nep. Them. 9, 4 res colloqui for de rebus (loqui aliquam rem is common); Liu. 2, 26, 4 audito bello; Plin. ep. 7, 19, 7; so the poets often; cf. toon. on § 32 ea quae disputentur. But the same use occurs (though less commonly, with persons; so probably in De Or. 2, 25 (where see Wilkins' n.); Ovid too has legor, legimur; cf. Tr. 4, 4, 14; also Nep. Ar. 1, 2 audire aliquem = de aliquo; Alc. II, 6 reliquos ordiamur; Hann. 13, 4 imperatores explicare; Sen. Rh. c. 3, pr. 3 auditus longe maior erat quam lectus; scribere aliquem is very com mon. fuit ut stet: cf. §§ 10, 92; Lieven, cons. temp. p. 42. 16. hodie: hodieque (for hodie quoque) which Drakenborch on Liu. 5, 27 wished to read here, is not Ciceronian nor is it found before silver Latin. In passages like De Or. 1, 103 and Verr. 5, 64 (some MSS) the que connects clauses and does not modify hodie. See Madvig, Opusc. 1, 390. stet...seruandis: for the administrative measures of Lucullus in Asia see Plut. Luc. 23. The sense is not 'flourishes in consequence of observing', but 'stands by, or clings to the observance of', etc. Cic. very often uses stare with the abl. in this sense, particularly in the phrase stare alicuius iudicio, to stand by some one's opinion'; so Flacc. 65; Tusc. 2, 63 and 5, 81; Off. 3, 110; Cluent. 132. Similar usages are of frequent occurrence in all Latin, but I do not know a passage in which the noun in the abl. is accompanied by the gerundive, as here. 17. etsi etc. in Cicero, and the best writers, when a clause with etsi has not a verb of its own, the verb of the principal clause must be capable of being supplied with the secondary clause. See Madv. on Fin. 5, 68; in Att. 9, II, I it is necessary to read uix ueri similest for simile. The same rule holds good of quamquam, for which see n. on § 74. Usage in silver Latin was laxer. 18. tanta uis uirtutis: this particular kind of substitution of 'res pro persona' is illustrated by Nägelsbach, Stilist. p. 431, ed. 6. Add to his exx. Sall. Cat. 48, 5 tanta uis hominis magis leniunda quam exagitanda uidebatur; also cf. § 53 grauitatis iudicium. ingeni: it is noticeable that the word ingenium occurs here for the fifth time in Cicero's description of Lucullus. 20. inimicorum: the leader of these was the infamous Memmius; see Plut. Luc. 37. calumnia: strictly, a fraudulent use of legal forms; ouкopavтía. Sallust, Cat. 30, 4, says of Q. Marcius Rex and Q. Metellus Creticus impediti ne triumpharent calumnia paucorum'. triennio Lucullus left his province at the end of 67 B. C. and only triumphed at the end of 64, or beginning of 63. |