Bloggus Sum

Now, enrolled fathers, that I might dispel and avert certain, almost justified, complaints from myself from the country - listen, I pray, closely to what I say and fix these things deeply in your hearts and minds. Indeed, if to me the country, which is to me far dearer than my life, if all Italy, the whole of the republic - thus asked:

Marcus Tullus - what are you doing? Then him, whom you know to be an enemy, whom you recognise as a future leader of war, whom you feel is expected as leader in the camp of the enemy, author of crime, first among conspirators, evoker of slavery and civil war - then he will you allow to leave, that it will seem he were not sent forth from the city away from you, but invited into the city? Do you not order him lead away in chains, snatched for death, slaughtered with the highest penalty? What thus delays you? Custom of ancestors? But often, even in private, in this republic they punished troublesome citizens by death. Or laws, which were proposed for the punishment of Roman citizens? But never in this city have those who desecrated the republic held the status of citizens. Or fear of future retribution? You give fine return indeed to the Roman People who raised you, a man known on your own merits, without recommendation of ancestors, "so quickly through all grades of office to supreme command", if on account of prejudice and fear of some other danger you neglect the safety of your citizens. But, if there is any fear of vengeance, courageous sternness ought to feear no hatred more vehemently than guilty inaction. Or, when war lays waste to Italy, storms the cities, burns roofs, then do you not think you will be destroyed by burning hatred?

Because I spent about four days juggling words and clauses (see previous post on translating Cicero), I actually get most of it right as soon as I put it on paper. I confess, I took a sneak peak at this page to untangle the bits still hurting my head, and one part I so thoroughly screwed up I had to quote directly.

Two words to learn
maiorum
I took this to mean "majority" throughout - it actually referrs to ancestors.

supplicium
Guessed correctly that this meant a request, a petition, a humble bowing down - but it comes to mean "punishment".

Technical terms in this passage

conscriptus, i (m) - enrolled, elected i.e. the Senate. patres conscripti is the formal way of addressing the Senate.

civis, is (m and f) - citizen
civitas, atis (f) - condition of being a citizen or member of the community, state

coniuratio, onis, (f) - an oath, union, alliance - but in Cicero, always a conspiracy or conspirator.

ius, iuris (n) - duty, law, justice, legal rights. Here it means "rights as a citizen". My dictionary rather nicely describes it as "that which is binding", which aptly covers all its little meanings.

rogo, are, atus, atum - in first year, "to ask", from whence it turns into "beg, implore, solicit". In public life it can mean "ask opinion", or "propose for election, nominate", and when talking about laws, it means "propose, introduce or question concerning". It can also mean "invite", and partiularly talking of military men, "bind by oath"

honorum gradus
Should have got this one without help - doh. It means the same as cursus honorum, the literal equivalent of our "career ladder" referring to the series of posts a Roman gent would hold on his way up.

This page has a brief commentary:
http://www.uah.edu/student_life/organizations/SAL/texts/latin/classical/cicero/index.html

I've always dispised Cicero. I think the problem is the way I have always read him, i.e. in Latin unseen exams where I only have 20 minutes to deciper his chunky tangles. I read some this morning and, aided I admit by copious pencil notes from a previous owner, found myself really getting into it. I therefore offer you tips I have gleaned on the best way to make sense of and (dare I say it?) enjoy your Cicero time.

Having said all this, I still wish they wouldn't set Cicero in exams. They do it because it stretches your Latin to the limit, both in your understanding of basic constructions and technical, unusual vocabulary - but it took me several days to fully make sense of this speech, and I will never be able to read it under exam conditions.

1. Read it out loud
And, if you can, perform it. Before you try and understand what the words mean, try and grasp the swoops and lines of his argument. As you read, emphasise question words (nonne, num, an, quid), connectives (ut, et, atque), personal pronouns (tu, ego) and in particular, words he uses to build his case: si, aut, non. Once you have done this, you will find relative clauses, asides and subclauses popping out at you.

If you are self-conscious or in an exam, imagine someone reading it to you - I always find it helpful to imagine my Latin teacher, but try a favourite actor (someone with gravitas, like Brian Blessed...)

2. Circles and boxes
Like all Latin, your aim is to find a subject, object and main verb. You've just got to look harder because of his rhetorical style. Try not to resent it: Martin Luther King would have got nowhere if he boiled the "I have a dream" speech down to "racism is bad. Let's not do that. Let's be friends".

So start identifying things which definitely not S, O or V - and bracket off chunks which seem to belong together, like in hac re publica.

3. Punctuation
The Romans basically had no punctuation, and when roused to literary fury, write in uber-long sentences known as "periods". Because of this, the punctuation is built into the language, into the way clauses are structured and interelated. Grab a highlighter, and highlight all the words you emphasised before. Then start bracketing off relative clauses and conditional clauses. Try and see where he is balancing with words. For example, look at this mess:

Quid tandem te impedit? mosne maiorum? At persaepe etiam privati in hac re publica perniciosos cives morte multarunt. An leges, quae de civium Romanorum supplicio rogatae sunt? At numquam in hac urbe, qui a re publica defecerunt, civium iura tenuerunt. An invidiam posteritatis times?

Cicero begins with a general question: "OK, mate, so what is preventing you?" He then shoots down all possible reasons for delay with a question-answer structure:

• Quid tandem te impedit?
  
• mosne maiorum?
• At persaepe etiam privati in hac re publica perniciosos cives morte multarunt.
  
• An leges, quae de civium Romanorum supplicio rogatae sunt?
• At numquam in hac urbe, qui a re publica defecerunt, civium iura tenuerunt.
  
• An invidiam posteritatis times?

Even though I don't know what half those words mean yet, I can grasp the rhythm of his argument and can tell that - whatever it is - he is getting angry about something.

4. Before you start writing
Make sure every sentence or clause, you know exactly what the subject, object and verb is. It does bear repeating.


These few ideas occured to me this morning as really helping. Please add your own tips in the comments. And of course, they're not just handy for Cicero - he just writes in such a way that you have to pay more attention.