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Quintus Filius

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Extract

It is just 2,000 years since two boys complained that their schoolmaster furenter irasci. He, however, as such people will, had anticipated their complaint with a report of ambiguously qualified praise, and managed to retain parental confidence in his moral and intellectual qualifications. But the boys probably felt that lessons were out of place. They were abroad for the first time. There had been two grand feasts, a round of sightseeing, a voyage in open boats, a stay on an island, sleeping in tents, and six months at the court of a native prince. A story might have been written about this, but it was Cicero's proconsular year and he had other fish to fry. His was a province already subjugated more Romano with pilum and syngrapha, yet his anxieties were manifold: to meet the outgoing proconsul and tidy up the mess which that gentleman had made; to face a Parthian invasion; to catch a brigand; to square the legal and the economic rates of interest; to restrain his staff from making requisitions, and to dun the bankrupt king of Cappadocia. Then, at Rome, seven weeks' journey away, the republic was tottering, his daughter Tullia was on the marriage-market for the third time, water was being laid on at his suburban villa, and no—he really couldn't supply leopards for the arena, but please, please, would everyone see that his term of office in that dreadful province wasn't extended to a second year.

So Cicero only really noticed his son Marcus and his nephew Quintus when they were a nuisance.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1951

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References

page 11 note 1 A. vi. 1. The material of this article is almost wholly taken from the Epistles of Cicero: Ad Atticum (A.), Ad Quintum fratrem (Q.), and Ad Familiares (F.). Detailed references are not given where these are consecutive as in A. xi. The text is that defended or emended by Tyrrell. No statement is based on a doubtful emendation.

page 11 note 2 A. v, vi.

page 11 note 3 C. Nepos xxv. 5. 25.

page 12 note 1 A. iv. 3.

page 12 note 2 Q. ii. 3, A. i. 14.

page 12 note 3 Q. iii. 1.

page 12 note 4 A. i. 5.

page 12 note 5 A. vi. 2.

page 12 note 6 In 66 Atticus was 44 and Nepos (xxv. 17. 1) describes Pomponia as prope aequalem.

page 12 note 7 Q. ii. 4, iii. 4.

page 12 note 8 Q. iii. 5.

page 12 note 9 Q. ii. 6.

page 12 note 10 A. iv. 7.

page 12 note 11 A. ii. 4.

page 12 note 12 A. v. 4.

page 12 note 13 A. vi. 1. Compare his chuckles over Vedius, whose luggage, accidentally opened, proved to be encumbered with portraits of other people's wives.

page 13 note 1 Q. ii. 14.

page 13 note 2 Q. ii. 1.

page 13 note 3 Q. iii. 1; cf. A. iv. 17.

page 13 note 4 Q. iii. 3.

page 13 note 5 Q. iii. 9.

page 13 note 6 F. vii. 26.

page 14 note 1 A. v. 1.

page 14 note 2 A. iii. 14.

page 15 note 1 Pro Rege Detotaro ix.

page 15 note 2 A. iii. 20.

page 15 note 3 A. iv. 8.

page 15 note 4 A. iv. 15, 18.

page 15 note 5 A. viii. 4.

page 15 note 6 A. vi. 1.

page 15 note 7 A. vi. 2, negoti satis.

page 15 note 8 A. vi. 3.

page 15 note 9 A. vi. 7.

page 16 note 1 F. xiv. 5.

page 16 note 2 F. xvi passim.

page 16 note 3 A. vii. 2.

page 16 note 4 F. xvi. 8.

page 16 note 5 A. vii, viii, ix.

page 17 note 1 A. viii. 4, 10, ix. 12.

page 17 note 2 A. xiii. 2.

page 17 note 3 A. ix. 18.

page 17 note 4 Caesar, B.G. v. 40–9.

page 17 note 5 A. ix. 19.

page 17 note 6 A. x. 4.

page 18 note 1 A. x. 6.

page 18 note 2 A. x. 10.

page 18 note 3 A. x. 12.

page 18 note 4 A. x. 13.

page 18 note 5 A. xi. The reader of this book readily—and rightly—sympathizes with Cicero, but it is worth while to consider the other point of view. But see A. ix. 1.

page 20 note 1 F. xiii. 11.

page 20 note 2 A. xiii. 37.

page 20 note 3 A. xi. 13.

page 20 note 4 A. xiii. 38.

page 20 note 5 A. xiii. 39.

page 20 note 6 A. xiii. 41. The problem of hooking Cana was a financial and not a moral one. The divorced Cana could not object to a divorced but she might object to a bankrupt father-in-law.

page 21 note 1 A. xiii. 42.

page 21 note 2 A. xv. 21.

page 21 note 3 A. xiv. 13, 17.

page 21 note 4 A. xv. 29.

page 22 note 1 A. xiv. 14.

page 22 note 2 A. xiv. 19.

page 22 note 3 A. xiv. 17.

page 22 note 4 A. xiv. 20.

page 22 note 5 A. xiv. 9.

page 22 note 6 A. xv. 21.

page 23 note 1 A. xv. 26.

page 23 note 2 A. xv. 27.

page 23 note 3 A. xv. 29.

page 23 note 4 A. xvi. 1, 4.

page 23 note 5 A. xvi. 5.

page 24 note 1 A. xvi. 14.

page 24 note 2 Dio Cassius xlvii. 10.

page 25 note 1 Appian C. iv. 4.