{"schema_version":1,"access":"public","rights":"Public-domain or compatibly licensed source editions; provenance is retained per record.","work":{"slug":"cicero-archia","title":"For Archias the Poet","author":"Marcus Tullius Cicero","tradition":"roman","language":"la","genre":"oration","period":"62 BCE","source_url":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PerseusDL/canonical-latinLit/8b536bdf3ed1f43494055efe112433b4a58eab67/data/phi0474/phi016/phi0474.phi016.perseus-lat2.xml","original":{"text":"### Section 1\n\n*Chapter 1*\n\nsi quid est in me ingeni, iudices, quod sentio quam sit exiguum, aut si qua exercitatio dicendi, in qua me non infitior mediocriter esse versatum, aut si huiusce rei ratio aliqua ab optimarum artium studiis ac disciplina profecta, a qua ego nullum confiteor aetatis meae tempus abhorruisse, earum rerum omnium vel in primis hic A. Licinius fructum a me repetere prope suo iure debet. nam quoad longissime potest mens mea respicere spatium praeteriti temporis et pueritiae memoriam recordari ultimam, inde usque repetens hunc video mihi principem et ad suscipiendam et ad ingrediendam rationem horum studiorum exstitisse. quod si haec vox huius hortatu praeceptisque conformata non nullis aliquando saluti fuit, a quo id accepimus quo ceteris opitulari et alios servare possemus, huic profecto ipsi, quantum est situm in nobis, et opem et salutem ferre debemus.\n\n### Section 2\n\nac ne quis a nobis hoc ita dici forte miretur, quod alia quaedam in hoc facultas sit ingeni neque haec dicendi ratio aut disciplina, ne nos quidem huic uni studio penitus umquam dediti fuimus. etenim omnes artes quae ad humanitatem pertinent habent quoddam commune vinclum et quasi cognatione quadam inter se continentur.\n\n### Section 3\n\n*Chapter 2*\n\nsed ne cui vestrum mirum esse videatur, me in quaestione legitima et in iudicio publico, cum res agatur apud praetorem populi Romani, lectissimum virum, et apud severissimos iudices, tanto conventu hominum ac frequentia hoc uti genere dicendi quod non modo a consuetudine iudiciorum verum etiam a forensi sermone abhorreat, quaeso a vobis ut in hac causa mihi detis hanc veniam accommodatam huic reo, vobis, quem ad modum spero, non molestam, ut me pro summo poeta atque eruditissimo homine dicentem hoc concursu hominum litteratissimorum, hac vestra humanitate, hoc denique praetore exercente iudicium, patiamini de studiis humanitatis ac litterarum paulo loqui liberius, et in eius modi persona quae propter otium ac studium minime in iudiciis periculisque tractata est uti prope novo quodam et inusitato genere dicendi.\n\n### Section 4\n\nquod si mihi a vobis tribui concedique sentiam, perficiam profecto ut hunc A. Licinium non modo non segregandum, cum sit civis, a numero civium verum etiam, si non esset, putetis asciscendum fuisse.\n\n*Chapter 3*\n\nnam ut primum ex pueris excessit Archias atque ab eis artibus quibus aetas puerilis ad humanitatem informari solet, se ad scribendi studium contulit, primum Antiochiae— nam ibi natus est loco nobili—celebri quondam urbe et copiosa atque eruditissimis hominibus liberalissimisque studiis adfluenti, celeriter antecellere omnibus ingeni gloria coepit. post in ceteris Asiae partibus cunctaque Graecia sic eius adventus celebrabantur ut famam ingeni exspectatio hominis, exspectationem ipsius adventus admiratioque superaret.\n\n### Section 5\n\nerat Italia tum plena Graecarum artium ac disciplinarum, studiaque haec et in Latio vehementius tum colebantur quam nunc isdem in oppidis, et hic Romae propter tranquillitatem rei publicae non neglegebantur. itaque hunc et Tarentini [et Locrenses] et Regini et Neapolitani civitate ceterisque praemiis donarunt, et omnes qui aliquid de ingeniis poterant iudicare cognitione atque hospitio dignum existimarunt. hac tanta celebritate famae cum esset iam absentibus notus, Romam venit Mario consule et Catulo. nactus est primum consules eos quorum alter res ad scribendum maximas, alter cum res gestas tum etiam studium atque auris adhibere posset. statim Luculli, cum praetextatus etiam tum Archias esset, eum domum suam receperunt. dedit etiam hoc non solum [lumen] ingeni ac litterarum verum etiam naturae atque virtutis ut domus, quae huius adulescentiae prima favit, eadem esset familiarissima senectuti.\n\n### Section 6\n\nerat temporibus illis iucundus Q. Metello illi Numidico et eius Pio filio, audiebatur a M. Aemilio, vivebat cum Q. Catulo et patre et filio, a L. Crasso colebatur, Lucullos vero et Drusum et Octavios et Catonem et totam Hortensiorum domum devinctam consuetudine cum teneret, adficiebatur summo honore, quod eum non solum colebant qui aliquid percipere atque audire studebant verum etiam si qui forte simulabant.\n\n*Chapter 4*\n\ninterim satis longo intervallo, cum esset cum M. Lucullo in Siciliam profectus et cum ex ea provincia cum eodem Lucullo decederet, venit Heracleam. quae cum esset civitas aequissimo iure ac foedere, ascribi se in eam civitatem voluit idque, cum ipse per se dignus putaretur, tum auctoritate et gratia Luculli ab Heracliensibus impetravit.\n\n### Section 7\n\ndata est civitas Silvani lege et Carbonis: “si qui foederatis civitatibus ascripti fuissent, si tum cum lex ferebatur in Italia domicilium habuissent et si sexaginta diebus apud praetorem essent professi.” Cum hic domicilium Romae multos iam annos haberet, professus est apud praetorem\n\n### Section 8\n\nQ. Metellum, familiarissimum suum. si nihil aliud nisi de civitate ac lege dicimus, nihil dico amplius; causa dicta est. quid enim horum infirmari, Gratti, potest? Heracleaene esse tum ascriptum negabis? adest vir summa auctoritate et religione et fide, M. Lucullus; qui se non opinari sed scire, non audisse sed vidisse, non interfuisse sed egisse dicit. adsunt Heraclienses legati, nobilissimi homines, huius iudici causa cum mandatis et cum publico testimonio venerunt; qui hunc ascriptum Heracliae esse dicunt. hic tu tabulas desideras Heracliensium publicas, quas Italico bello incenso tabulario interisse scimus omnes? est ridiculum ad ea quae habemus nihil dicere, quaerere quae habere non possumus, et de hominum memoria tacere, litterarum memoriam flagitare et, cum habeas amplissimi viri religionem, integerrimi municipi ius iurandum fidemque, ea quae depravari nullo modo possunt repudiare, tabulas quas idem dicis solere corrumpi desiderare.\n\n### Section 9\n\nan domicilium Romae non habuit is qui tot annis [ante] civitatem datam sedem omnium rerum ac fortunarum suarum Romae conlocavit? an non est professus? immo vero eis tabulis professus quae solae ex illa professione conlegioque praetorum obtinent publicarum tabularum auctoritatem.\n\n*Chapter 5*\n\nnam, cum Appi tabulae neglegentius adservatae dicerentur, Gabini, quam diu incolumis fuit, levitas, post damnationem calamitas omnem tabularum fidem resignasset, Metellus, homo sanctissimus modestissimusque omnium, tanta diligentia fuit ut ad L. Lentulum praetorem et ad iudices venerit et unius nominis litura se commotum esse dixerit. his igitur [in] tabulis nullam lituram in nomine A. Licini videtis.\n\n### Section 10\n\nquae cum ita sint, quid est quod de eius civitate dubitetis, praesertim cum aliis quoque in civitatibus fuerit ascriptus? etenim cum mediocribus multis et aut nulla aut humili aliqua arte praeditis gratuito civitatem in Graecia homines impertiebant, Reginos credo aut Locrensis aut Neapolitanos aut Tarentinos, quod scaenicis artificibus largiri solebant, id huic summa ingeni praedito gloria noluisse! quid? cum ceteri non modo post civitatem datam sed etiam post legem Papiam aliquo modo in eorum municipiorum tabulas inrepserunt, hic qui ne utitur quidem illis in quibus est scriptus, quod semper se Heracliensem esse voluit, reicietur?\n\n### Section 11\n\ncensus nostros requiris. scilicet; est enim obscurum proximis censoribus hunc cum clarissimo imperatore L. Lucullo apud exercitum fuisse, superioribus cum eodem quaestore fuisse in Asia, primis Iulio et Crasso nullam populi partem esse censam. sed, quoniam census non ius civitatis confirmat ac tantum modo indicat eum qui sit census ita se iam tum gessisse, pro cive, eis temporibus [is] quem tu criminaris ne ipsius quidem iudicio in civium Romanorum iure esse versatum et testamentum saepe fecit nostris legibus, et adiit hereditates civium Romanorum, et in beneficiis ad aerarium delatus est a L. Lucullo pro consule.\n\n*Chapter 6*\n\nquaere argumenta, si quae potes; numquam enim hic neque suo neque amicorum iudicio revincetur.\n\n### Section 12\n\nquaeres a nobis, Gratti, cur tanto opere hoc homine delectemur. quia suppeditat nobis ubi et animus ex hoc forensi strepitu reficiatur et aures convicio defessae conquiescant. an tu existimas aut suppetere nobis posse quod cotidie dicamus in tanta varietate rerum, nisi animos nostros doctrina excolamus, aut ferre animos tantam posse contentionem, nisi eos doctrina eadem relaxemus? ego vero fateor me his studiis esse deditum. ceteros pudeat, si qui ita se litteris abdiderunt ut nihil possint ex eis neque ad communem adferre fructum neque in aspectum lucemque proferre; me autem quid pudeat qui tot annos ita vivo, iudices, ut a nullius umquam me tempore aut commodo aut otium meum abstraxerit aut voluptas avocarit aut denique somnus retardarit?\n\n### Section 13\n\nqua re quis tandem me reprehendat, aut quis mihi iure suscenseat, si, quantum ceteris ad suas res obeundas, quantum ad festos dies ludorum celebrandos, quantum ad alias voluptates et ad ipsam requiem animi et corporis conceditur temporum, quantum alii tribuunt tempestivis conviviis, quantum denique alveolo, quantum pilae, tantum mihi egomet ad haec studia recolenda sumpsero? atque id eo mihi concedendum est magis quod ex his studiis haec quoque crescit oratio et facultas quae, quantacumque [est] in me, numquam amicorum periculis defuit. quae si cui levior videtur, illa quidem certe quae summa sunt ex quo fonte hauriam sentio.\n\n### Section 14\n\nnam nisi multorum praeceptis multisque litteris mihi ab adulescentia suasissem nihil esse in vita magno opere expetendum nisi laudem atque honestatem, in ea autem persequenda omnis cruciatus corporis, omnia pericula mortis atque exsili parvi esse ducenda, numquam me pro salute vestra in tot ac tantas dimicationes atque in hos profligatorum hominum cotidianos impetus obiecissem. sed pleni omnes sunt libri, plenae sapientium voces, plena exemplorum vetustas; quae iacerent in tenebris omnia, nisi litterarum lumen accederet. quam multas nobis imagines non solum ad intuendum verum etiam ad imitandum fortissimorum virorum expressas scriptores et Graeci et Latini reliquerunt! quas ego mihi semper in administranda re publica proponens animum et mentem meam ipsa cogitatione hominum excellentium conformabam.\n\n### Section 15\n\n*Chapter 7*\n\nquaeret quispiam: “quid? illi ipsi summi viri quorum virtutes litteris proditae sunt istane doctrina quam tu effers laudibus eruditi fuerunt?” difficile est hoc de omnibus confirmare, sed tamen est certum quid respondeam. ego multos homines excellenti animo ac virtute fuisse sine doctrina, et naturae ipsius habitu prope divino per se ipsos et moderatos et gravis exstitisse fateor; etiam illud adiungo, saepius ad laudem atque virtutem naturam sine doctrina quam sine natura valuisse doctrinam. atque idem ego hoc contendo, cum ad naturam eximiam et inlustrem accesserit ratio quaedam conformatioque doctrinae, tum illud nescio quid praeclarum ac singulare solere exsistere.\n\n### Section 16\n\nex hoc esse hunc numero quem patres nostri viderunt, divinum hominem, Africanum, ex hoc C. Laelium, L. Furium, moderatissimos homines et continentissimos, ex hoc fortissimum virum et illis temporibus doctissimum, [M.] Catonem illum senem; qui profecto si nihil ad percipiendam colendamque virtutem litteris adiuvarentur, numquam se ad earum studium contulissent. quod si non hic tantus fructus ostenderetur, et si ex his studiis delectatio sola peteretur, tamen, ut opinor, hanc animi remissionem humanissimam ac liberalissimam iudicaretis. nam ceterae neque temporum sunt neque aetatum omnium neque locorum; at haec studia adulescentiam acuunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis perfugium ac solacium praebent, delectant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur.\n\n### Section 17\n\nquod si ipsi haec neque attingere neque sensu nostro gustare possemus, tamen ea mirari deberemus, etiam cum in aliis videremus.\n\n*Chapter 8*\n\nquis nostrum tam animo agresti ac duro fuit ut Rosci morte nuper non commoveretur? qui cum esset senex mortuus, tamen propter excellentem artem ac venustatem videbatur omnino mori non debuisse. ergo ille corporis motu tantum amorem sibi conciliarat a nobis omnibus; nos animorum incredibilis motus celeritatemque ingeniorum neglegemus?\n\n### Section 18\n\nquotiens ego hunc Archiam vidi, iudices,—utar enim vestra benignitate, quoniam me in hoc novo genere dicendi tam diligenter attenditis—quotiens ego hunc vidi, cum litteram scripsisset nullam, magnum numerum optimorum versuum de eis ipsis rebus quae tum agerentur dicere ex tempore, quotiens revocatum eandem rem dicere commutatis verbis atque sententiis! quae vero accurate cogitateque scripsisset, ea sic vidi probari ut ad veterum scriptorum laudem perveniret. hunc ego non diligam, non admirer, non omni ratione defendendum putem? atque sic a summis hominibus eruditissimisque accepimus, ceterarum rerum studia ex doctrina et praeceptis et arte constare, poetam natura ipsa valere et mentis viribus excitari et quasi divino quodam spiritu inflari. qua re suo iure noster ille Ennius “sanctos” appellat poetas, quod quasi deorum aliquo dono atque munere commendati nobis esse videantur.\n\n### Section 19\n\nsit igitur, iudices, sanctum apud vos, humanissimos homines, hoc poetae nomen quod nulla umquam barbaria violavit. Saxa atque solitudines voci respondent, bestiae saepe immanes cantu flectuntur atque consistunt; nos instituti rebus optimis non poetarum voce moveamur? Homerum Colophonii civem esse dicunt suum, Chii suum vindicant, Salaminii repetunt, Smyrnaei vero suum esse confirmant itaque etiam delubrum eius in oppido dedicaverunt, permulti alii praeterea pugnant inter se atque contendunt.\n\n*Chapter 9*\n\nergo illi alienum, quia poeta fuit, post mortem etiam expetunt; nos hunc vivum qui et voluntate et legibus noster est repudiamus, praesertim cum omne olim studium atque omne ingenium contulerit Archias ad populi Romani gloriam laudemque celebrandam? nam et Cimbricas res adulescens attigit et ipsi illi C. Mario qui durior ad haec studia videbatur iucundus fuit.\n\n### Section 20\n\nneque enim quisquam est tam aversus a Musis qui non mandari versibus aeternum suorum laborum praeconium facile patiatur. Themistoclem illum, summum Athenis virum, dixisse aiunt, cum ex eo quaereretur quod acroama aut cuius vocem libentissime audiret: “eius a quo sua virtus optime praedicaretur.” itaque ille Marius item eximie L. Plotium dilexit, cuius ingenio putabat ea quae gesserat posse celebrari.\n\n### Section 21\n\nMithridaticum vero bellum magnum atque difficile et in multa varietate terra marique versatum totum ab hoc expressum est; qui libri non modo L. Lucullum, fortissimum et clarissimum virum, verum etiam populi Romani nomen inlustrant. populus enim Romanus aperuit Lucullo imperante Pontum et regiis quondam opibus et ipsa natura et regione vallatum, populi Romani exercitus eodem duce non maxima manu innumerabilis Armeniorum copias fudit, populi Romani laus est urbem amicissimam Cyzicenorum eiusdem consilio ex omni impetu regio atque totius belli ore ac faucibus ereptam esse atque servatam; nostra semper feretur et praedicabitur L. Lucullo dimicante, cum interfectis ducibus depressa hostium classis est, incredibilis apud Tenedum pugna illa navalis, nostra sunt tropaea, nostra monumenta, nostri triumphi. quae quorum ingeniis efferuntur, ab eis populi Romani fama celebratur.\n\n### Section 22\n\ncarus fuit Africano superiori noster Ennius, itaque etiam in sepulcro Scipionum putatur is esse constitutus ex marmore. at eis laudibus certe non solum ipse qui laudatur sed etiam populi Romani nomen ornatur. in caelum huius proavus Cato tollitur; magnus honos populi Romani rebus adiungitur. omnes denique illi maximi, Marcelli, Fulvii non sine communi omnium nostrum laude decorantur.\n\n*Chapter 10*\n\nergo illum qui haec fecerat, Rudinum hominem, maiores nostri in civitatem receperunt; nos hunc Heracliensem multis civitatibus expetitum, in hac autem legibus constitutum de nostra civitate eiciamus?\n\n### Section 23\n\nnam si quis minorem gloriae fructum putat ex Graecis versibus percipi quam ex Latinis, vehementer errat, propterea quod Graeca leguntur in omnibus fere gentibus, Latina suis finibus exiguis sane continentur. qua re, si res eae quas gessimus orbis terrae regionibus definiuntur, cupere debemus, quo hominum nostrorum tela pervenerint, eodem gloriam famamque penetrare, quod cum ipsis populis de quorum rebus scribitur haec ampla sunt, tum eis certe qui de vita gloriae causa dimicant hoc maximum et periculorum incitamentum est et laborum.\n\n### Section 24\n\nquam multos scriptores rerum suarum magnus ille Alexander secum habuisse dicitur! atque is tamen, cum in Sigeo ad Achillis tumulum astitisset: “o fortunate,” inquit, “adulescens, qui tuae virtutis Homerum praeconem inveneris!” et vere. nam, nisi Ilias illa exstitisset, idem tumulus qui corpus eius contexerat nomen etiam obruisset. quid? noster hic Magnus qui cum virtute fortunam adaequavit, nonne Theophanem Mytilenaeum, scriptorem rerum suarum, in contione militum civitate donavit, et nostri illi fortes viri, sed rustici ac milites, dulcedine quadam gloriae commoti quasi participes eiusdem laudis magno illud clamore approbaverunt?\n\n### Section 25\n\nitaque, credo, si civis Romanus Archias legibus non esset, ut ab aliquo imperatore civitate donaretur perficere non potuit. Sulla cum Hispanos et Gallos donaret, credo, hunc petentem repudiasset; quem nos vidimus, cum ei libellum malus poeta de populo subiecisset, quod epigramma in eum fecisset tantum modo alternis versibus longiusculis, statim ex eis rebus quas tum vendebat iubere ei praemium tribui, sed ea condicione ne quid postea scriberet. qui sedulitatem mali poetae duxerit aliquo tamen praemio dignam, huius ingenium et virtutem in scribendo et copiam non expetisset?\n\n### Section 26\n\nquid? a Q. Metello Pio, familiarissimo suo, qui civitate multos donavit, neque per se neque per Lucullos impetravisset? qui praesertim usque eo de suis rebus scribi cuperet ut etiam Cordubae natis poetis pingue quiddam sonantibus atque peregrinum tamen auris suas dederet.\n\n*Chapter 11*\n\nneque enim est hoc dissimulandum quod obscurari non potest, sed prae nobis ferendum: trahimur omnes studio laudis, et optimus quisque maxime gloria ducitur. ipsi illi philosophi etiam in eis libellis quos de contemnenda gloria scribunt nomen suum inscribunt; in eo ipso in quo praedicationem nobilitatemque despiciunt praedicari de se ac [se] nominari volunt.\n\n### Section 27\n\nDecimus quidem Brutus, summus vir et imperator, Acci, amicissimi sui, carminibus templorum ac monumentorum aditus exornavit suorum. iam vero ille qui cum Aetolis Ennio comite bellavit Fulvius non dubitavit Martis manubias Musis consecrare. qua re, in qua urbe imperatores prope armati poetarum nomen et Musarum delubra coluerunt, in ea non debent togati iudices a Musarum honore et a poetarum salute abhorrere.\n\n### Section 28\n\natque ut id libentius faciatis, iam me vobis, iudices, indicabo et de meo quodam amore gloriae nimis acri fortasse, verum tamen honesto vobis confitebor. nam quas res nos in consulatu nostro vobiscum simul pro salute huius [urbis] atque imperi et pro vita civium proque universa re publica gessimus, attigit hic versibus atque inchoavit. quibus auditis, quod mihi magna res et iucunda visa est, hunc ad perficiendum adornavi. nullam enim virtus aliam mercedem laborum periculorumque desiderat praeter hanc laudis et gloriae; qua quidem detracta, iudices, quid est quod in hoc tam exiguo vitae curriculo et tam brevi tantis nos in laboribus exerceamus?\n\n### Section 29\n\ncerte, si nihil animus praesentiret in posterum, et si, quibus regionibus vitae spatium circumscriptum est, isdem omnis cogitationes terminaret suas, nec tantis se laboribus frangeret neque tot curis vigiliisque angeretur nec totiens de ipsa vita dimicaret. nunc insidet quaedam in optimo quoque virtus, quae noctes ac dies animum gloriae stimulis concitat atque admonet non cum vitae tempore esse dimittendam commemorationem nominis nostri, sed cum omni posteritate adaequandam.\n\n### Section 30\n\n*Chapter 12*\n\nan vero tam parvi animi videamur esse omnes qui in re publica atque in his vitae periculis laboribusque versamur ut, cum usque ad extremum spatium nullum tranquillum atque otiosum spiritum duxerimus, nobiscum simul moritura omnia arbitremur? an statuas et imagines, non animorum simulacra, sed corporum, studiose multi summi homines reliquerunt; consiliorum relinquere ac virtutum nostrarum effigiem nonne multo malle debemus summis ingeniis expressam et politam? ego vero omnia quae gerebam iam tum in gerendo spargere me ac disseminare arbitrabar in orbis terrae memoriam sempiternam. haec vero sive a meo sensu post mortem afutura est, sive, ut sapientissimi homines putaverunt, ad aliquam animi mei partem pertinebit, nunc quidem certe cogitatione quadam speque delector.\n\n### Section 31\n\nqua re conservate, iudices, hominem pudore eo quem amicorum videtis comprobari cum dignitate, tum etiam vetustate, ingenio autem tanto quantum id convenit existimari, quod summorum hominum iudiciis expetitum esse videatis, causa vero eius modi quae beneficio legis, auctoritate municipi, testimonio Luculli, tabulis Metelli comprobetur. quae cum ita sint, petimus a vobis, iudices, si qua non modo humana verum etiam divina in tantis ingeniis commendatio debet esse, ut eum qui vos, qui vestros imperatores, qui populi Romani res gestas semper ornavit, qui etiam his recentibus nostris vestrisque domesticis periculis aeternum se testimonium laudis daturum esse profitetur, quique est [ex] eo numero qui semper apud omnis sancti sunt habiti itaque dicti, sic in vestram accipiatis fidem ut humanitate vestra levatus potius quam acerbitate violatus esse videatur.\n\n### Section 32\n\nquae de causa pro mea consuetudine breviter simpliciterque dixi, iudices, ea confido probata esse omnibus; quae a foro aliena iudicialique consuetudine et de hominis ingenio et communiter de ipso studio locutus sum, ea, iudices, a vobis spero esse in bonam partem accepta, ab eo qui iudicium exercet certo scio.","download_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/cicero-archia/original.txt"},"translations":[{"id":"trn_cicero_archia_mouseia","translator":"Mouseia","kind":"curated","note":"Complete machine-assisted Musean translation made directly from the Latin in Clark’s 1911 edition; source-language model review recorded. Perseus transcription: CC BY-SA 4.0, credited to the Perseus Project, Tufts University.","text":"### Section 1\n\n*Chapter 1*\n\nIf I have any talent, judges—and I know how slight it is—or any practice in speaking, in which I do not deny that I have gained some experience, or any understanding of this art derived from the study and discipline of the finest branches of learning, from which, I acknowledge, no period of my life has ever been estranged, then Aulus Licinius here has almost a rightful claim to be among the first to demand the fruits of all these things from me. For as far as my mind can look back across the years gone by and recover the earliest memories of childhood, I see him, from that distant beginning, as the first to inspire me to undertake these studies and set me on their path. If this voice, shaped by his encouragement and instruction, has sometimes brought deliverance to others, then surely, to the man from whom I received the means to help others and save them, I owe all the help and protection it lies within my power to give.\n\n### Section 2\n\nAnd let no one be surprised that I speak this way because his talent lies in a different field, rather than in this discipline and practice of speaking. I myself have never been wholly devoted to this one pursuit alone. Indeed, all the arts that cultivate our humanity have a common bond and are joined to one another by a kind of kinship.\n\n### Section 3\n\n*Chapter 2*\n\nBut lest any of you find it strange that, in a statutory inquiry and a public trial, before a praetor of the Roman people, a man of the highest distinction, and before judges of the strictest integrity, amid so large a gathering and such a crowded audience, I should use a manner of speaking foreign not only to courtroom practice but even to the ordinary language of the forum, I ask you to grant me a liberty suited to this defendant and, I hope, not unwelcome to yourselves. Speaking for a poet of the highest order and a man of profound learning, before this gathering of deeply cultivated people, with your own culture to encourage me, and with this particular praetor presiding, allow me to speak somewhat more freely about humane learning and literature. And in defending a man whose quiet, studious life has left him little acquainted with trials and their dangers, allow me a manner of speaking that is almost new and unfamiliar.\n\n### Section 4\n\nIf I find that you grant and allow me this, I shall surely persuade you that Aulus Licinius here should not only remain among our citizens, since he is one, but that, even if he were not, he ought to have been admitted.\n\n*Chapter 3*\n\nFor as soon as Archias passed beyond boyhood and the studies by which the young are ordinarily formed in humane learning, he devoted himself to writing. First at Antioch—where he was born into a distinguished family, in a city once renowned and prosperous, abounding in deeply learned men and the most liberal pursuits—he soon began to surpass everyone in the reputation of his talent. Later, throughout the rest of Asia and all of Greece, his visits were so celebrated that anticipation of the man surpassed the fame of his talent, while his arrival and the admiration he inspired surpassed that anticipation.\n\n### Section 5\n\nItaly was then full of Greek arts and learning. These studies were cultivated more eagerly in Latium then than they are now in the same towns, and here at Rome, too, the peace of the republic allowed them their due attention. Accordingly, the people of Tarentum, Locri, Rhegium, and Naples honored him with citizenship and other rewards, and everyone capable of judging talent considered him worthy of their acquaintance and hospitality. With his reputation so widely celebrated that people already knew him without having met him, he came to Rome in the consulship of Marius and Catulus. He thus first encountered consuls of whom one could supply the greatest deeds for him to write about, while the other could offer both achievements and an attentive, sympathetic ear. The Luculli immediately welcomed him into their home, although Archias still wore the bordered toga of boyhood. The brilliance not only of his talent and learning but also of his character and virtue ensured this further blessing: the household that first encouraged his youth remained his closest friend in old age.\n\n### Section 6\n\nIn those days he was dear to the renowned Quintus Metellus Numidicus and to his son Pius; Marcus Aemilius listened to him; he was close to both the elder and the younger Quintus Catulus; Lucius Crassus held him in esteem. As for the Luculli, Drusus, the Octavii, Cato, and the entire household of the Hortensii, he bound them to himself through intimate friendship and received the highest honors from them. For he was courted not only by those eager to learn and listen, but even by any who merely pretended to be.\n\n*Chapter 4*\n\nMeanwhile, after a considerable interval, he traveled to Sicily with Marcus Lucullus, and on leaving that province with the same Lucullus, he came to Heraclea. Since this community enjoyed exceptionally favorable rights and treaty terms, he wished to be enrolled among its citizens. The people of Heraclea granted his request both because they thought him worthy in his own right and because of Lucullus’s influence and standing.\n\n### Section 7\n\nCitizenship was granted under the law of Silvanus and Carbo “to anyone who had been enrolled in an allied community, provided that he had a home in Italy when the law was proposed and registered before a praetor within sixty days.” Since he had already made his home at Rome for many years, he registered before the praetor\n\n### Section 8\n\nQuintus Metellus, his very close friend. If citizenship and the law are all we are discussing, I need say nothing more: the case is made. For which of these points, Grattius, can be disproved? Will you deny that he was enrolled at Heraclea at that time? Marcus Lucullus is here, a man of the highest standing, scrupulous integrity, and trustworthiness. He declares that he does not suppose it but knows it, did not hear of it but saw it, was not merely present but secured it himself. The delegates from Heraclea are here, men of the highest distinction, who have come for this trial with official instructions and their community’s testimony. They state that he was enrolled at Heraclea. Do you now demand the public records of Heraclea, which we all know were destroyed when the archive burned during the Italian War? It is absurd to say nothing in answer to the evidence we have and to demand what we cannot have; to pass over human memory in silence and insist upon the memory preserved in writing; and, when you have the solemn assurance of a man of the highest distinction and the sworn, trustworthy testimony of a community of impeccable integrity, to reject evidence that cannot possibly be falsified and demand records that you yourself say are regularly tampered with.\n\n### Section 9\n\nOr did he have no residence in Rome—a man who, so many years before citizenship was granted, had established here the center of all his affairs and fortunes? Did he fail to register? On the contrary, he registered in the only records from that registration and that board of praetors that retain the authority of public documents.\n\n*Chapter 5*\n\nFor while Appius’s records were reportedly kept rather carelessly, and Gabinius’s irresponsibility before his conviction and disgrace afterward had destroyed all confidence in his records, Metellus, the most upright and self-controlled of men, was so scrupulous that he appeared before the praetor Lucius Lentulus and the judges to say that an erasure against a single name had disturbed him. In these records, then, you see no erasure against the name of Aulus Licinius.\n\n### Section 10\n\nSince this is so, what reason have you to doubt his citizenship, especially when he was also enrolled as a citizen in other communities? For when people throughout Greece freely granted citizenship to many ordinary men, men with no skill at all or only some humble accomplishment, I suppose the people of Rhegium or Locri or Naples or Tarentum refused this man, whose genius had won the highest renown, what they regularly bestowed on theatrical performers! And consider this: while others somehow slipped into the registers of those municipalities not only after citizenship had been granted but even after the Papian law, is this man to be rejected—he who makes no use even of the citizenships under which he is enrolled, because he has always wished to be a citizen of Heraclea?\n\n### Section 11\n\nYou ask for our census records. Of course! For apparently no one knows that at the most recent census he was with the army under that distinguished commander Lucius Lucullus; at the preceding census he was in Asia with the same man, then quaestor; and at the first, under Julius and Crassus, no part of the people was registered at all. But a census does not establish the right of citizenship: it merely indicates that the person registered was already acting as a citizen at that time. And during the very period when, as you allege, he did not regard himself as enjoying the rights of a Roman citizen, he repeatedly made wills under our laws, entered into inheritances from Roman citizens, and was reported to the treasury by the proconsul Lucius Lucullus among those awarded benefits.\n\n*Chapter 6*\n\nLook for evidence, if you can find any; for neither his own judgment nor that of his friends will ever furnish proof against him.\n\n### Section 12\n\nYou will ask me, Grattius, why I take such delight in this man. Because he provides a place where my mind can recover from this clamor of the courts, and my ears, exhausted by angry shouting, can find rest. Do you suppose I could find enough to say every day on so great a variety of matters unless I cultivated my mind through learning? Or that my mind could endure such strain unless I also relaxed it through that same learning? For my part, I admit my devotion to these studies. Let others feel ashamed, if they have buried themselves in literature so completely that they can bring nothing from it to the common benefit, nothing into the light of public view. But why should I feel ashamed, judges, when for so many years I have lived in such a way that my leisure has never drawn me away from anyone’s need or interests, pleasure has never called me aside, and even sleep has never held me back?\n\n### Section 13\n\nWho, then, could reproach me, or who could justly resent it, if I reserve for renewing these studies as much time as others are allowed for attending to their own affairs, for celebrating festival days with public games, for other pleasures and for the very rest of mind and body—as much as others devote to banquets that begin early, to the gaming board, or to ball games? And I have all the greater claim to this allowance because these studies also nourish my eloquence and my power of speech, which, whatever their measure, have never failed my friends in their hour of danger. If anyone considers that a lesser matter, I certainly know the spring from which I draw those things that matter most.\n\n### Section 14\n\nFor unless, through the teachings of many people and through wide reading, I had convinced myself from my youth that nothing in life deserves to be earnestly sought except glory and moral honor, and that in pursuing them every bodily torment, every danger of death and exile, must count for little, I would never have thrown myself into so many great struggles for your safety, or exposed myself to these daily attacks by corrupt men. But books are full of these lessons, the words of the wise are full of them, and the past is full of examples; all would lie in darkness without the light of literature. How many portraits of the bravest men Greek and Latin writers have left us, vividly drawn not only for us to contemplate but also to imitate! By keeping these always before me as I conducted public affairs, I shaped my heart and mind through the very contemplation of outstanding men.\n\n### Section 15\n\n*Chapter 7*\n\nSomeone will ask: “What, then? Were those very great men whose virtues literature has preserved educated in the learning you praise so highly?” It is difficult to assert this of them all; but I nevertheless have a definite answer. I admit that many men have possessed exceptional spirit and virtue without learning, and that through an almost divine natural disposition they have become self-controlled and serious-minded by their own efforts. I would even add that nature without learning has more often led to glory and virtue than learning without nature. Yet I also maintain this: when an exceptional and distinguished nature is joined by the discipline and cultivation of learning, something splendid and unique is generally the result.\n\n### Section 16\n\nTo this company belonged that godlike man whom our fathers saw, Africanus; to it belonged Gaius Laelius and Lucius Furius, men of the greatest moderation and self-restraint; to it belonged that elder Marcus Cato, a man of extraordinary courage and, for his time, extraordinary learning. Surely, if literature had done nothing to help them understand and cultivate virtue, they would never have devoted themselves to its study. But even if no such great benefit could be shown, even if pleasure alone were sought from these studies, you would still, I think, judge this recreation of the mind the most humane and the most worthy of a free person. For other recreations do not suit every time, every age, or every place; but these studies sharpen youth, delight old age, adorn prosperity, and offer refuge and consolation in adversity. They bring pleasure at home without hindering us abroad; they keep watch through the night with us, travel with us, and accompany us into the country.\n\n### Section 17\n\nBut even if we ourselves could neither pursue these studies nor taste their pleasures, we should still admire them when we saw them in others.\n\n*Chapter 8*\n\nWhich of us was ever so coarse and hard of heart that he was not moved by Roscius’s recent death? Though he died an old man, such were his consummate art and grace that it seemed he should never have died at all. Did he, then, win such love from all of us through the movements of his body, while we are to disregard the astonishing movements of the mind and the swiftness of the intellect?\n\n### Section 18\n\nHow often, gentlemen of the jury, have I seen Archias here—I will take advantage of your kindness, since you are listening so attentively to this unfamiliar kind of pleading—how often have I seen him, without having written a single letter, improvise a great number of excellent verses on the very matters being discussed at the time! How often, when called upon to repeat himself, have I heard him treat the same subject with different words and thoughts! And the works he had written with care and reflection I have seen acclaimed so highly that he rivaled the renown of the ancient writers. Should I not love this man, not admire him, not consider him worthy of defense by every means?\n\nMoreover, we have learned from men of the greatest distinction and learning that other pursuits depend on teaching, rules, and practiced skill, but that the poet draws his power from nature itself, is stirred by the strength of his own mind, and is filled with something like a divine breath. Rightly, then, does our own Ennius call poets “sacred,” since they seem entrusted to us by a special gift and bounty of the gods.\n\n### Section 19\n\nLet this name of poet, then, which no barbarous people has ever profaned, be sacred in your eyes, gentlemen, with all your refinement. Rocks and solitary places answer the voice; savage beasts are often swayed by song and stop to listen. Are we, nurtured on the finest learning, to remain unmoved by the voice of poets? The people of Colophon say that Homer is their citizen; the Chians claim him as their own; the people of Salamis demand him back; the Smyrnaeans insist that he belongs to them and have even dedicated a shrine to him in their city. Many others besides dispute and contend with one another over him.\n\n*Chapter 9*\n\nDo they, then, seek a stranger even after his death because he was a poet, while we reject this living man, who is ours both by choice and by law—especially when Archias long ago devoted all his energies and all his talent to celebrating the glory and renown of the Roman people? As a young man he treated the war against the Cimbri, and he won the affection even of Gaius Marius himself, who seemed rather unresponsive to such pursuits.\n\n### Section 20\n\nFor no one is so estranged from the Muses that he would not readily welcome an everlasting tribute to his labors enshrined in verse. Themistocles, that foremost man of Athens, is said to have been asked what performer, or whose voice, he most enjoyed hearing. He answered, “The man who best proclaims my valor.” So Marius, too, was exceptionally fond of Lucius Plotius, whose talent, he thought, could celebrate his achievements.\n\n### Section 21\n\nThe Mithridatic War, great and difficult, fought with many turns of fortune on land and sea, has been portrayed in its entirety by Archias. Those books shed luster not only on Lucius Lucullus, a man of outstanding courage and distinction, but also on the name of the Roman people. For it was the Roman people, under Lucullus’s command, who opened Pontus, fortified both by the former wealth of its kings and by the very nature and position of the country. It was the army of the Roman people that, under the same commander, with no very large force routed the countless hosts of the Armenians. It is to the glory of the Roman people that the city of Cyzicus, our devoted friend, was rescued and preserved by his strategy from every assault of the king and from the very jaws and throat of the whole war.\n\nOurs will always be the glory, ours the acclaim, of that incredible naval battle off Tenedos, where Lucius Lucullus fought and the enemy fleet was sunk, its commanders killed. Ours are the trophies, ours the memorials, ours the triumphs. Those whose talents exalt these deeds celebrate the fame of the Roman people.\n\n### Section 22\n\nOur Ennius was dear to the elder Africanus, and a marble statue of him is even believed to stand in the tomb of the Scipios. Yet such praises certainly honor not only the man praised but also the name of the Roman people. Cato, the great-grandfather of the man here before us, is raised to the skies: great honor is added to the achievements of the Roman people. In short, all those great men—the Marcelli, the Fulvii—are adorned with praise that all of us share.\n\n*Chapter 10*\n\nOur ancestors, then, admitted to citizenship the man who had done these things, a man from Rudiae. Are we to expel from our citizenship this man from Heraclea, whom many cities have sought as their own, but whose place in this one is established by law?\n\n### Section 23\n\nFor anyone who thinks that Greek verse yields a smaller harvest of glory than Latin is profoundly mistaken. Greek is read among almost every people, while Latin is confined within its own admittedly narrow borders. Therefore, if the boundaries of our achievements are the ends of the earth, we should wish our glory and fame to penetrate wherever our countrymen’s weapons have reached. For this brings distinction to the very peoples whose deeds are recorded; and for those who risk their lives for glory, it is surely the greatest incentive to face both danger and toil.\n\n### Section 24\n\nHow many chroniclers of his deeds Alexander the Great is said to have kept with him! And yet, when he stood beside Achilles’ tomb at Sigeum, he said, “Fortunate young man, to have found Homer as the herald of your valor!” And rightly so. For had that Iliad never existed, the same mound that covered his body would also have buried his name.\n\nAnd what of our own Pompey the Great, who has matched his fortune with his valor? Did he not grant citizenship to Theophanes of Mytilene, the historian of his deeds, before an assembly of his soldiers? And did not those brave men of ours, rustic soldiers though they were, stirred by the sweetness of glory, approve the act with a mighty shout, as though they shared in that same praise?\n\n### Section 25\n\nAnd so, I suppose, if Archias had not been a Roman citizen by law, he could not have arranged for some commander to grant him citizenship! Sulla, while granting it to Spaniards and Gauls, would surely have rejected his request! Yet we ourselves saw Sulla, when a bad poet from the crowd handed him a little book containing an epigram in his honor, written merely in alternating lines of rather excessive length, immediately order that the man receive a reward from the property he was then selling—but on condition that he never write again. Would a man who thought even a bad poet’s diligence worthy of some reward not have sought this man’s genius, excellence in writing, and abundance of expression?\n\n### Section 26\n\nAnd what of Quintus Metellus Pius, his close friend, who granted citizenship to so many? Could Archias not have obtained it from him, either on his own or through the Luculli? Especially when Metellus was so eager to have his deeds recorded that he even lent his ears to poets born in Corduba, whose verse had a somewhat heavy and foreign sound?\n\n*Chapter 11*\n\nWe should not conceal what cannot be hidden, but acknowledge it openly: we are all drawn by the desire for praise, and the best men are most strongly led by glory. Even those philosophers who write little books about despising glory put their own names on them. In the very work in which they scorn publicity and renown, they wish to be praised and named.\n\n### Section 27\n\nDecimus Brutus, a distinguished man and commander, adorned the entrances of his temples and monuments with the verses of Accius, his closest friend. And Fulvius, who fought against the Aetolians with Ennius at his side, did not hesitate to dedicate the spoils of Mars to the Muses. In a city where commanders, almost still under arms, have honored the name of poets and the shrines of the Muses, judges in the toga of peace should not turn away from honoring the Muses and protecting poets.\n\n### Section 28\n\nAnd to make you do so more willingly, judges, I shall now reveal myself to you and confess a certain love of glory of my own—perhaps too ardent, but honorable nonetheless. The deeds that we accomplished together during my consulship, for the safety of this city and its empire, for the lives of its citizens and for the whole republic, Archias has touched upon in verse and begun to celebrate. When I heard those verses, because the undertaking seemed to me both great and welcome, I encouraged him to complete it. For virtue desires no other reward for its labors and dangers than this reward of praise and glory. Take that away, judges, and what reason have we, in this narrow and brief course of life, to wear ourselves out with such great labors?\n\n### Section 29\n\nCertainly, if the mind had no anticipation of the future, and confined all its thoughts within the same bounds that limit the span of life, it would not break itself with such great labors, torment itself with so many cares and sleepless nights, or so often risk life itself. But a certain virtue dwells in every excellent man, goading his mind night and day with the spur of glory and reminding him that the remembrance of our name must not end with our lifetime, but must endure as long as all posterity.\n\n### Section 30\n\n*Chapter 12*\n\nAre all of us who work in public affairs, amid these dangers and labors of life, really to seem so small-minded that, although we have never drawn a peaceful, idle breath to the very end, we believe everything will die with us? Many great men have eagerly left behind statues and portraits, likenesses not of their minds but of their bodies. Should we not much prefer to leave an image of our purposes and virtues, shaped and polished by the finest talents? For my part, even as I acted, I believed that everything I did was being scattered like seed into the everlasting memory of the world. Whether after death I shall have no awareness of that memory, or whether, as the wisest men have thought, it will touch some part of my spirit, at least for now I find delight in the thought and hope of it.\n\n### Section 31\n\nTherefore, judges, preserve this man. You see his modest character confirmed by the distinction of his friends and the long duration of their friendship; you should esteem his talent as highly as a gift deserves that you see sought out by the judgment of the greatest men. His case is established by the provisions of the law, the authority of his town, the testimony of Lucullus, and the records of Metellus. Since this is so, judges, if such great gifts of genius have any claim on our regard, not merely human but divine, we ask you to take him under your care: the man who has always honored you, your commanders, and the achievements of the Roman people; who promises an everlasting record of our glory amid those recent dangers at home that we shared with you; and who belongs to that company who have always, among all peoples, been held and called sacred. Let him appear to have been relieved by your humanity rather than wounded by your severity.\n\n### Section 32\n\nWhat I have said about the case, judges, briefly and simply in my customary manner, I trust has won everyone’s approval. What I have said outside the usual practice of the courts and the forum, about this man’s genius and more generally about learning itself, I hope you have received kindly; that the man presiding over this trial has done so, I know for certain.","download_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/cicero-archia/translations/trn_cicero_archia_mouseia.txt"},{"id":"trn_cicero_archia_plain","translator":"Mouseia","kind":"plain","note":"Complete machine-assisted Plain English translation made independently and directly from the Latin, not from the Musean edition; source-language model review recorded. Perseus transcription: CC BY-SA 4.0, credited to the Perseus Project, Tufts University.","text":"### Section 1\n\n*Chapter 1*\n\nMembers of the jury, I may have some natural ability, though I know how little it is. I may have some practice in speaking, and I admit to a fair amount of experience in it. I may also have some understanding of this work gained from studying the best subjects. I admit that I have never turned away from those studies at any time in my life. If I have any of these things, Aulus Licinius here has almost a right to be among the first to claim their benefits from me. As far back as my mind can reach into the past, to my earliest childhood memories, I see that he was the first to encourage me to take up these studies and show me how to begin. His encouragement and teaching shaped this voice of mine. If it has sometimes helped save others, I certainly owe him all the help and protection I can give. He gave me the means to help other people and save them.\n\n### Section 2\n\nNo one should be surprised that I say this because his gifts belong to another field, not to the practice and training of a public speaker. I myself have never devoted my whole attention to this one subject. All the arts that develop our humanity have a common bond. They are connected to one another almost like members of a family.\n\n### Section 3\n\n*Chapter 2*\n\nStill, some of you may find my way of speaking surprising. This is a formal criminal trial, held before a praetor of the Roman people, an outstanding man, and before judges who take their duties very seriously. A large crowd has gathered here. Yet I am using a style unlike not only the usual language of trials but even the ordinary language of the courts.\n\nSo I ask you to allow me something suited to this defendant and, I hope, not troublesome to you. I am speaking for a great poet and a deeply learned man. With so many highly educated people gathered here, with your own education and culture, and, finally, with this praetor presiding, please let me speak a little more freely about literature and the studies that develop our humanity. This man has lived a quiet life of study and has had very little experience of trials and their dangers. In defending someone like him, please let me use a style of speaking that is almost new and unfamiliar.\n\n### Section 4\n\nIf I find that you grant me this permission, I will certainly convince you of this: Aulus Licinius is a citizen and should not be removed from the citizen body. Indeed, even if he were not a citizen, you should think that he ought to have been admitted.\n\n*Chapter 3*\n\nAs soon as Archias grew out of childhood and moved beyond the subjects usually taught to give children a well-rounded education, he devoted himself to writing. He first began to outshine everyone in the reputation of his talent at Antioch. He was born there into a distinguished family. It was once a busy, wealthy city, full of highly learned people and the finest intellectual pursuits. Later, people throughout the rest of Asia and all of Greece celebrated his visits. Their eagerness to meet him exceeded even the reports of his talent. When he arrived, their admiration exceeded even their expectations.\n\n### Section 5\n\nGreek learning and the arts flourished all across Italy then. The towns of Latium pursued them more eagerly than those same towns do today. Here in Rome, too, they were not neglected, because the state was at peace. So the people of Tarentum, Locri, Rhegium, and Naples gave him citizenship and other rewards. Everyone capable of judging talent thought him worth getting to know and welcoming into their homes.\n\nHis reputation had spread so widely that people already knew of him without having met him. He came to Rome when Marius and Catulus were consuls. He was fortunate from the start in those consuls. One could supply great deeds for him to write about. The other could offer not only his achievements but also an interested and attentive audience. The Lucullus family immediately welcomed him into their home, although Archias was still young enough to wear the toga with a purple border. The same household that first supported him as a young man remained his closest friend in old age. This showed not only the brilliance of his talent and learning but also his character and goodness.\n\n### Section 6\n\nIn those days, he was a welcome companion to the famous Quintus Metellus Numidicus and his son Pius. Marcus Aemilius would come to hear him. He was a companion of the two Quintus Catuli, father and son. Lucius Crassus valued him. His close friendships bound to him the Lucullus family, Drusus, the Octavius family, Cato, and the entire household of the Hortensii. He received the greatest respect. People who genuinely wanted to learn something from listening to him valued him, and so did even those who only pretended to.\n\n*Chapter 4*\n\nAfter quite a long time, he went to Sicily with Marcus Lucullus. When he left the province with Lucullus, he reached Heraclea. This city enjoyed very favorable legal status and treaty terms. He wanted to be enrolled as one of its citizens. Its people agreed to admit him. They thought he deserved it on his own merits, and Lucullus’s influence and standing also helped him secure it.\n\n### Section 7\n\nSilvanus and Carbo’s law granted citizenship “if people had been enrolled as citizens of allied communities, if they had a home in Italy when the law was being proposed, and if they registered with a praetor within sixty days.” Since this man had already had his home in Rome for many years, he registered with the praetor\n\n### Section 8\n\nQuintus Metellus, a very close friend of his. If we are speaking only about citizenship and the law, I have nothing more to say. The defense is complete.\n\nWhich of these facts can you challenge, Grattius? Can you deny his enrollment in Heraclea then? Here is Marcus Lucullus, a man whose standing, integrity, and trustworthiness are second to none. He says that he does not merely think this happened: he knows it. He did not hear about it: he saw it. He did not merely attend: he handled the business himself.\n\nRepresentatives from Heraclea are also here, men of the highest standing. They have come for this trial with official instructions and testimony from their city. They confirm that the city enrolled him.\n\nAnd now you ask for Heraclea’s official records? We all know that they were destroyed when the records office burned down during the Italian War. You give no answer to the evidence before us. Instead you demand what we cannot produce. That is absurd. You say nothing about what people remember, but insist on written records. You have the conscientious testimony of a highly distinguished man, and the sworn, trustworthy assurance of a town of the greatest integrity. Yet you reject this evidence, which cannot possibly be falsified, and ask for written records that, as you yourself say, are regularly falsified.\n\n### Section 9\n\nOr did he not have a home in Rome? He had made Rome the center of all his affairs and possessions many years before citizenship was granted. Did he fail to declare himself to a praetor? Not at all. The register holding his declaration is the only one from that enrollment and that group of praetors still recognized as an official record.\n\n*Chapter 5*\n\nAppius’s records were reportedly kept rather carelessly. Gabinius’s unreliability before his conviction, and his downfall afterward, had destroyed all trust in his records. But Metellus, a man of outstanding honesty and restraint, took such care that he went to Lucius Lentulus, the praetor, and to the judges. He told them that an erasure affecting just one name had troubled him. In these records, then, you see no erasure affecting the name of Aulus Licinius.\n\n### Section 10\n\nGiven these facts, what reason have you to doubt his citizenship? Particularly since other towns had also put him on their citizen lists? People in Greece freely granted citizenship to many ordinary men with little skill or none at all. So I suppose the people of Rhegium, Locri, Naples, or Tarentum refused this man, whose talent had won the highest praise, something they regularly gave to stage performers!\n\nAnd consider this. Other people somehow slipped into those towns’ registers, not just after citizenship was granted, but even after the Papian law. Yet this man does not even rely on the other registers where his name appears. He has always wanted to be regarded as a citizen of Heraclea. Is he to be rejected?\n\n### Section 11\n\nYou ask for our census records. Of course! Apparently it is not well known that, the latest census found him serving with the army of that distinguished commander, Lucius Lucullus. At the previous census, he was in Asia with the same man, who was then quaestor. At the first census, under Julius and Crassus, no part of the population was registered.\n\nBut a census does not establish a right to citizenship. It tells us only that the person on the list was behaving as a citizen then. You accuse this man of not having considered himself entitled to the rights of a Roman citizen even in his own judgment. Yet during those years he repeatedly made a will under our laws. He accepted inheritances from Roman citizens. And Lucius Lucullus, as proconsul, registered him at the treasury for a reward.\n\n*Chapter 6*\n\nLook for evidence, if you can find any. You will never prove your case against him from either his own judgment or his friends’ judgment of his status.\n\n### Section 12\n\nYou will ask me, Grattius, why I take such pleasure in this man’s company. It is because he gives my mind a place to recover from the uproar of the courts, and my ears a rest from the shouting that wears them out.\n\nDo you think I could find something to say every day on so many different subjects without developing my mind through learning? Or could my mind bear so much strain unless I also used learning to relax it?\n\nI freely admit that I am devoted to these studies. Others should be ashamed if they have buried their lives in books so deeply that they can offer nothing to the public good and bring nothing out into the light of day. But why should I be ashamed? Throughout these years, judges, I have never let my own free time keep me from helping anyone in a crisis or serving someone’s interests. Pleasure has never distracted me from them. Even sleep has never held me back.\n\n### Section 13\n\nSo who can criticize me? Who has a right to be angry with me if I set aside some time to return to these studies? I ask only as much time as others are allowed for their own affairs, for celebrating festivals and public games, for other pleasures, and for resting their minds and bodies. I ask as much time as others spend on dinners that start early, on board games, or on ball games.\n\nAnd I have all the more right to this time because these studies also develop my speaking ability. Whatever ability I have, it has never failed my friends when they were in danger. Someone may think that ability matters little. But I certainly know the source from which I draw the principles that matter most.\n\n### Section 14\n\nFrom my youth, the teachings of many people and my reading of many works convinced me of this: nothing in life deserves our strong desire except praise and doing what is right. In pursuing these, we should count every physical torment, every danger of death or exile, as a small thing. Without that conviction, I would never have faced so many serious struggles for your safety, or these daily attacks by corrupt men.\n\nAll books are full of such lessons. The words of wise people are full of them. The past is full of examples. All of them would lie in darkness without the light that literature brings. Greek and Latin writers have left us so many vivid pictures of brave men, not just for us to look at, but also to imitate! In managing public affairs, I have always kept these examples before me. Simply by thinking about such outstanding people, I shaped my own mind and character.\n\n### Section 15\n\n*Chapter 7*\n\nSomeone will ask: “Those great men whose virtues survive in writing—did they actually receive this education you admire so much?”\n\nIt is hard to say this of all of them. Still, I have a definite answer. I admit that many people have had outstanding character and courage without formal learning. Their natural gifts, almost divine, have made them self-controlled and responsible without outside help. I would add this: natural ability without learning has led to distinction and good character more often than learning without natural ability has.\n\nBut I also insist on this. When an exceptional and brilliant natural ability gains the guidance and training that learning provides, something remarkable and unique usually results.\n\n### Section 16\n\nAmong these people I count Africanus, that extraordinary, almost godlike man whom our fathers knew. I also count Gaius Laelius and Lucius Furius, men of great moderation and self-control. And I count the elder Marcus Cato, a very brave man and, for his time, a very learned one. Surely they would never have devoted themselves to literature if it had done nothing to help them understand and develop good character.\n\nBut suppose these studies did not offer such great benefits. Suppose people sought only enjoyment from them. Even then, I think you would judge them the most civilized form of mental relaxation, and the one most worthy of a free person.\n\nOther pastimes are not right for every occasion, stage of life, or place. But these studies sharpen the minds of the young and bring pleasure to the old. They add to our happiness when things go well and offer refuge and comfort when things go badly. They delight us at home and do not get in our way when we are out. They stay with us through the night, travel with us, and join us in the country.\n\n### Section 17\n\nEven if we could not take part in these studies ourselves or get a firsthand taste of them, we should still admire them when we see them in others.\n\n*Chapter 8*\n\nWhich of us was so rough and hardhearted that he was not moved by Roscius’s recent death? He died an old man. Yet his outstanding skill and charm made us feel that he should never have died at all. His bodily movements won so much love from all of us. Are we to ignore the amazing movements of the mind and the speed of human talent?\n\n### Section 18\n\nHow often I have seen Archias perform, judges! Let me make use of your goodwill here: you have given such close attention to this unfamiliar kind of speech. How often I have seen him make up a large number of excellent verses on the spot, about the very matters being discussed, without having written a single letter beforehand! How often, when asked to repeat his performance, he has treated the same subject with different words and thoughts! As for the things he wrote with care and thought, I have seen them win praise equal to that given to the ancient writers. Should I not love this man? Should I not admire him? Should I not think he deserves every possible defense?\n\nAnd this is what the greatest and most learned men have taught us. Other fields of study depend on teaching, rules, and trained skill. A poet draws his strength from nature itself. The powers of his mind stir him, and something like a divine breath fills him. So our own Ennius is right to call poets “sacred.” They seem to have been entrusted to our care through some gift and favor of the gods.\n\n### Section 19\n\nJudges, you are deeply cultured men. So let the title of poet be sacred to you. No uncivilized people has ever violated it. Rocks and deserted places answer the human voice. Savage beasts are often calmed by song and stop in their tracks. We have been trained in the finest subjects. Should we not be moved by the voices of poets?\n\nThe people of Colophon say Homer was their citizen. The people of Chios claim him as their own. The people of Salamis also claim him. The people of Smyrna insist that he belongs to them, and they have even dedicated a shrine to him in their town. Many others also dispute and compete with one another over him.\n\n*Chapter 9*\n\nSo they seek to claim a foreigner even after his death because he was a poet. Are we to turn away a man who is still alive, who has chosen to belong to us and is legally one of us? Especially since Archias committed all his energy and talent long ago to making the Roman people’s glory and fame known?\n\nAs a young man, he wrote about the war against the Cimbri. He even pleased Gaius Marius himself, a man who seemed rather unreceptive to these studies.\n\n### Section 20\n\nNo one is so hostile to the Muses that he would not gladly have his hard work celebrated forever in verse. They say that Themistocles, that great Athenian, was asked what he most liked to hear—what performer, what voice. He answered, “The voice of the man who praises my courage best.” In the same way, Marius was especially fond of Lucius Plotius. He thought that Plotius’s talent could make his achievements famous.\n\n### Section 21\n\nArchias has also described the whole war against Mithridates. It was a great and difficult war, with many changes of fortune on land and sea. His books bring honor not only to Lucius Lucullus, a very brave and distinguished man, but also to the name of the Roman people.\n\nUnder Lucullus’s command, the Roman people opened up Pontus, which had been protected by its former royal wealth, by nature itself, and by its terrain. Under the same commander, an army of the Roman people, though not especially large, routed countless Armenian troops. It is to the Roman people’s credit that his planning rescued and saved the city of Cyzicus, our very close ally. It escaped the king’s full assault and the very mouth and jaws of the whole war.\n\nThat amazing sea battle near Tenedos will always be told and praised as our victory. Lucius Lucullus fought it; the enemy commanders were killed and their fleet was sunk. The victory trophies are ours. The memorials are ours. The triumphal processions are ours. When writers use their talent to celebrate these things, they spread the fame of the Roman people.\n\n### Section 22\n\nOur own Ennius was dear to the elder Africanus. A marble statue of him is even thought to have been placed in the tomb of the Scipios. When someone is praised in this way, he is certainly not the only one honored. The Roman people’s name gains honor too. Cato, this man’s great-grandfather, is praised to the skies. That brings great distinction to what Rome’s people have done. In short, the honors given to all those great men, the Marcelli and the Fulvii, bring credit to us all.\n\n*Chapter 10*\n\nOur ancestors therefore granted citizenship to the man who had done this, a man from Rudiae. Are we to strip this man from Heraclea of our citizenship? Many cities have wanted to claim him, and the laws have established his place in ours.\n\n### Section 23\n\nAnyone who thinks that Greek verse brings less glory than Latin verse is badly mistaken. Greek is read among nearly all peoples. Latin is confined within its own boundaries, which are very narrow indeed.\n\nSo if our achievements extend to the limits of the world, we should want our glory and fame to reach wherever our people’s weapons have reached. This brings great honor to the peoples whose deeds are described. It is surely the strongest reason to accept danger and hard work for anyone who stakes his life on winning glory.\n\n### Section 24\n\nThey say Alexander the Great kept so many writers with him to record what he did! Still, at Sigeum, standing by Achilles’ tomb, he exclaimed, “Lucky young man! You found Homer to proclaim your courage!”\n\nAnd he was right. If the Iliad had never existed, the same tomb that covered Achilles’ body would also have buried his name.\n\nWhat about our own Pompey the Great, whose good fortune matched his courage? At an assembly of soldiers, did he not make Theophanes of Mytilene a citizen—the man who wrote about his deeds? And those brave men of ours, countrymen and soldiers though they were, felt the attraction of glory. They cheered his action loudly, as though they shared in that same praise.\n\n### Section 25\n\nSo I suppose that if the law had not already made Archias a Roman citizen, he could never have persuaded a commander to give him citizenship! Sulla gave it to Spaniards and Gauls. I suppose he would have refused Archias if he had asked! We saw Sulla’s reaction to a booklet a bad poet in the crowd handed him. The man had written an epigram about him, with nothing to recommend it except alternating lines that were rather too long. Sulla immediately ordered a reward for him out of the property he was selling at the time. There was one condition: the man must not write anything else. Sulla thought even a bad poet’s effort deserved some payment. Would he not have wanted Archias’s talent, skill as a writer, and rich command of language?\n\n### Section 26\n\nWhat about his close friend Quintus Metellus Pius, who gave citizenship to so many people? Could Archias not have got it from him, by asking himself or through the Lucullus family? Metellus was especially eager for people to write about his achievements. He even listened to poets born in Corduba, although their work sounded rather thick and foreign.\n\n*Chapter 11*\n\nWe cannot hide this, so there is no point pretending otherwise. We should admit it openly. All of us want praise, and the best people care most about glory. Even philosophers put their names on the little books they write about not caring for glory. In the very act of dismissing fame and public praise, they want people to praise them and know their names.\n\n### Section 27\n\nDecimus Brutus was a great man and a commander. He decorated the entrances to his own temples and monuments with poems by Accius, his close friend. Then there was Fulvius, who took Ennius with him when he fought the Aetolians. He willingly dedicated the spoils won in war, the spoils of Mars, to the Muses. In this city, commanders have honored poets and the Muses’ shrines almost while still carrying their weapons. Judges wearing civilian togas should not be unwilling to honor the Muses or keep poets safe.\n\n### Section 28\n\nTo encourage you to do this, judges, I will now tell you something about myself. I admit that I too have a love of glory. Perhaps it is too strong, but it is still honorable. During my consulship, I worked together with you to save this city and its empire, the citizens’ lives, and the whole republic. Archias has begun to write about those achievements in verse. When I heard what he had written, I thought it was an important and pleasing undertaking. I urged him to finish it. The only payment that virtue asks for its hard work and dangers is praise and glory. Without that reward, judges, why would we spend our very short, limited lives struggling so hard?\n\n### Section 29\n\nSuppose our minds had no sense of anything to come. Suppose all their thoughts stopped at the boundaries that limit our lives. Then they would not wear themselves out with so much work. They would not suffer so much worry and so many nights without sleep. They would not risk life itself again and again. But the best people have a certain strength of character within them. Day and night it drives their minds forward with the spur of glory. It reminds them that people should not stop remembering our names when our lives end. That memory should last for as long as future generations do.\n\n### Section 30\n\n*Chapter 12*\n\nWe who work in politics spend our lives facing these dangers and burdens. Right to the end, we have never had a quiet, idle breath. Can all of us really be so petty as to think that everything will die when we do? Many great people have taken care to leave statues and portraits behind. Those show their bodies, not their minds. Surely we should much rather leave a picture of our decisions and our good qualities, created and refined by the greatest talents. As I was doing everything I did, I already thought I was sowing it like seed in the world’s everlasting memory. After death I may have no awareness of that memory. Or it may have something to do with a part of my mind, as the wisest thinkers have believed. For now, at least, thinking and hoping about it gives me pleasure.\n\n### Section 31\n\nSo, judges, protect this man. You can see his decent character confirmed by the high standing of his friends and by how long they have been his friends. You can see that the most distinguished people have sought out his talent. Their judgment should show you how highly to value it yourselves. His legal case is supported by the law’s provisions, his town’s authority, Lucullus’s testimony, and Metellus’s records. Given all this, we ask you, judges, to take him into your protection. If great talent of this kind has any claim to our respect, it is not just a human claim but a divine one too. He has always brought honor to you, your commanders, and what the Roman people have done. He promises to leave a permanent record of praise for what we achieved with you during the recent dangers within our own country. And he belongs to a group that people everywhere have always regarded, and called, sacred. Let your humanity bring him relief, rather than let harshness do him harm.\n\n### Section 32\n\nJudges, I am confident that everyone has approved what I have said about the legal case. As usual, I have kept that part short and straightforward. I have also spoken about this man’s talent and about learning in general, in a way that is unusual in the courts and in legal proceedings. I hope you have taken that part in the right spirit. I know for certain that the man in charge of this trial has.","download_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/cicero-archia/translations/trn_cicero_archia_plain.txt"}],"retex_markdown_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/cicero-archia/retex.md"}}