Ecce Romani III

Chapter 58: Background Information

Culture/History: Political climate of the Late Republic

Grammar: The Gerund

The Readings

Asconius details in a straightforward and matter-of-fact manner the facts of the murder of Clodius. In the next chapter You will next have an opportunity to read the defense of Milo by Cicero whose speech is less impartial and filled with emotional rhetoric.

Asconius had access to the transcripts that surrounded the murder of Clodius through the daily records of business transacted in the Roman senate, much as we have the Congressional Record today. These were called ACTA DIURNA or ACTA PUBLICA. These records were open to public inspection after 58 BCE when Caesar, as consul, order that the affairs of the senate become public knowledge. This was one more way in which Caesar angered the members of the Optimates faction.

Visit the Vroma site and travel the Via Appia to the place where this murder is said to have occurred.

Reading Notes

Passage A

1. A.d. xiii Kal. Feb. (line 1) -- before the calendar reforms enacted by Caesar, January had only 29 days, so this date today would be January 18.
2. dictator (line 1) -- meaning "speaker" here, rather than the English meaning of "dictator" (but reflect that a dictator is in essence a speaker, since he tells another what to do).
3. ab Arcia (line 3) -- a town on the Via Appia (you can visit it on the Vroma site).
4. ut ... facientibus (line 4-5) -- consider the hazards of travel; visit the Latin 3 link to MORES/Roman Technology/Roads.
5. eques (line 6) -- originally meant horse soldier or cavalryman. In the plural equites it refers to the second rank of nobility, drawn from those who could probably afford to own and maintain a horse. These men were often merchants as well, a line of work that was considered declassé by the Patricii (patricians). The third social class comprised the plebs, plebes in the plural, plebeian in English. Slaves could be considered a fourth class, although Romans probably did not consider them even worth classifying (it is easier to enslave a man if you don't regard him as human).
6. Sullae (line 7) -- refers to the dictator L. Cornelius Sulla who forced through constitutional reforms and instituted the practice of proscription; read more about him on the Internet by following LINKS to History to Republic.
7. rixam commiserunt (lines 9-10) -- similar to the idiom pugnam commiserunt.

Passage B

1. minitabundus (line 11) -- translate as an adverb.
2. Milo...iussit (line 13-16) -- Note the interplay of the pronouns sibi and eo and the ablative absolutes vivo eo, occiso eo. Milo apparently believed that the removal of his political enemy was worth the risk of an indictment for murder. Note ut + indicative mood -- "as he learned" -- and also note the ellipsis (omission of esse) in lines 13 and 14.

Passage C

1. Fulvia (line 22) -- the wife of Clodius, she would later be the first wife of Marc Antony.
2. contione (line 20) -- a contraction of conventione (ablative singular) meaning assembly .
3. rostris (line 26) -- the rostra that existed during the time of Cicero was located south east of the Curia, near the Argiletum leading out to the Subura section of Rome (remember the story of Eucleides' "mugging" in Ecce Romani Book II?). In 44 BC Caesar had the rostra moved to its present location at the foot of the Capitoline, looking directly out into the Forum. Today a few of the Republican remains coexist with the imperial rostra.
4. Curia (line 28) -- the Curia Hostilia, ordered rebuilt by Caesar, now called the Curia Julia. The present remains are left from a restoration by Diocletian in AD 283. Since the Curia was being rebuilt in March 44 BC, the Senate was meeting in the area of the Campus Martius, in Pompey's theater. That is where Caesar was assassinated rather than in the building one sees when visiting the Forum Romanorum today.
5. Porcia Basilica (line 29) -- no longer exists.

J. Jahnige, September 2003

Fabulae ^