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Cicero · Letters to Friends §5.10b.1

Campaign in Dalmatia and Request for Defense to Caesar

Passage 85 of 413 · Latin

Summary

The writer describes his military successes in Dalmatia, capturing several towns, and his regret at being forced to retreat due to harsh weather, requesting Cicero to plead his cause before Caesar.

§5.10b.1ego post supplicationes mihi decretas in Dalmatiam profectus sum; sex oppida vi oppugnando cepi; unum hoc, quod erat maximum, quater a me iam captum; quattuor enim turris et quattuor muros cepi et arcem eorum totam; ex qua me nives, frigora, imbres detruserunt, indigneque, mi Cicero, oppidum captum et bellum confectum is relinquere sum coactus.
After the thanksgivings were decreed for me, I set out for Dalmatia; I captured six towns by storming them with force; this single one, which was the largest, has already been captured by me four times; for I captured four towers and four walls, and their entire citadel; from which the snow, cold, and heavy rains drove me down, and undeservedly, my Cicero, I was compelled to leave them the captured town and the finished war.
qua re te rogo, si opus erit, ad Caesarem meam causam agas meque tibi in omnis partis defendendum putes, hoc existimans, neminem te tui amantiorem habere.
Therefore I ask you, if there is need, to plead my cause before Caesar and to think that I must be defended by you in every respect, reflecting on this, that you have no one more loving of you than myself.
vale.
Farewell.
D. N. Decembr. Narona.
Given on the Nones of December, at Narona.

Notes

  1. 5.10b.1post supplicationes mihi decretas — The construction of post followed by a noun and a perfect participle ("after thanksgivings having been decreed") expresses the action itself, equivalent to "after the decreeing of thanksgivings" (ab urbe condita construction).
  2. 5.10b.1quater a me iam captum — The auxiliary esse (or est) is omitted after captum, forming either an independent statement ("has already been captured") or an accusative-with-infinitive clause with unum hoc as its subject.
  3. 5.10b.1is — A spelling variant of iis (or eis), the dative plural of the pronoun is, ea, id. Here it means "to them" (referring to the enemy) and functions as the indirect object of the transitive verb relinquere ("to leave behind").
  4. 5.10b.1meque tibi in omnis partis defendendum putes — defendendum is a gerundive, and tibi is the dative of agent, meaning "you should think that I must be defended by you." putes is a subjunctive dependent on rogo with ut omitted.
  5. 5.10b.1neminem te tui amantiorem habere — te is the subject accusative of the infinitive habere. tui is the objective genitive depending on amantiorem ("more loving of you"), a comparative adjective derived from a present participle. The literal meaning is "that you have no one more loving of you," implying "no one loves you more than I do."

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Friends §5.10b.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi056.humanitext-lat1:5.10b.1

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