Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T08:23:58.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cicero's Journey to his Province of Cilicia in 51 B.C.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

L. W. Hunter
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper has been written in connexion with Sir William Ramsay's Oxford Seminar for Historical Research in the Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire. It is the result of an examination of Cicero's correspondence during his journey to Cilicia in the summer and autumn of the year 51; and while there is probably nothing contained in it which has not already been the subject of comment before, yet the conclusions arrived at respecting the precise dates and details of Cicero's movements will be found to differ in some considerable degree from the estimates of previous editors or commentators, especially those of O. E. Schmidt, the latest scholar, so far as I know, who has published a detailed reckoning of the times and rates of the journey in question.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 3 , November 1913 , pp. 73 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © L. W. Hunter1913. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 73 note 1 Der Briefwechsel des M. T. Cicero; Leipzig (Teubner), 1893, pp. 74–82Google Scholar.

page 73 note 2 He left Brundisium soon after writing Fam. iii, 4, to Appius. This letter was written on the 4th or 5th of June: see §1; but Schmidt thinks he did not start before the 10th (p. 74).

page 73 note 3 Att. v, 9, I: “Actium venimus a.d. xvii kal. Quinctilis … Actio maluimus iter facere pedibus qui incommodissime navigassemus, et Leucatam flectere molestum videbatur, actuariis autem minutis Patras accedere sine impedimentis non satis visum est decorum.”

There is a similar anxiety to preserve the decencies of official state betrayed in Fam. iii, 6, I: “Cum ille mihi respondisset nihil me tibi gratius facere posse, quam si ad Sidam navigassem, etsi minus dignitatis habebat ille adventus et ad multas res mihi minus erat aptus, tamen ita me dixi esse facturum.”

page 73 note 4 Att. v, 10, I: “Athenas a.d. vii kal. Quinctilis veneram.” See excursus at end. vii is the reading of Manutis for the question. Tyrrell accepts vii, but explains it as if it were vi: vi is, as a matter of fact, the reading adopted by Purser (O.C.T.) following Wesenberg, but vii is palaeographically rather more probable; and I hope to show in the excursus below that it is also demanded by the phrase “decem ipsos dies,” which Cicero uses twice in describing his stay at Athens.

page 73 note 5 Fam. ii, 8, 3: “Ego cum Athenis decem ipsos dies fuissem, … proficiscebar in die pridie nonas Quinctilis, cum hoc ad te litterarum dedi.” See excursus.

page 73 note 6 Fam. ii, 8.

page 75 note 1 Fam. ii, 8, I: “Quid? Tu me hoc tibi mandasse existimas, ut mihi mitteres ea quae nobis, cum Romae sumus, narrare nemo audeat.” Fam. viii, 7 is a good example of Caelius in his most frivolous vein.

page 75 note 2 Att. v, 12, I: “Negotium magnum est navigare atque id mense Quinctili.” Here atque id obviously has an adversative force: “even though it is July.”

page 75 note 3 Att. v, 13, I: “Ephesum venimus a.d. xi kal. Sextiles sexagesimo et quingentesimo post pugnam Bovillanam.”

page 75 note 4 p. 78: “So liegt nach meiner Ansicht eine Hinzurechnung der Reisezeit von Ort zu Ort zu Grunde.”

page 75 note 5 See excursus at end.

page 76 note 1 i.e. from Philomelium to Iconium: the fact that he has seriously overestimated the distance (which is in reality less than 100 miles) does not affect the argument here.

page 76 note 2 Fam. iii, 5, 5: “Triduum illud, quod ego Ephesi commoratus sum.”

page 76 note 3 Att. v, 14, I: “Dederam Epheso pridie: has dedi Trallibus.”

page 76 note 4 Att. v, 13.

page 76 note 5 “Sed hactenus, praesertim cum cenanti mihi nuntiarit Cestius se de nocte proficisci.”

page 76 note 6 e.g. Att. vi, 1, 2: “Haec ante lucem scribebam” (though this, it is true, is in January); Alt. iv, 3, 5: “Haec ego scribebam hora noctis nona” (in December); and still better, Att. vi, 2, 10, at the end of a very long letter: “Cupiebam etiam nunc plura garrire, sed lucet” (this is in May).

page 77 note 1 cf. Att. iv, 3,4: “In comitium Milo de nocte venit”; and pro Murena, 69: “Prope de nocte.”

page 77 note 2 Schmidt (p. 77) supposes that Att. v, 13 was written on the 26th, and that Cicero started late that same day; but in this case I am at a loss to explain “praesertim cum cenanti mihi, etc.” It is true that night-travelling was not unknown; but I find it hard to believe that Cicero would enter on the first stage of an impressive official pilgrimage after dinner in the evening.

page 77 note 3 Sir W. Ramsay and Mr. J. G. C. Anderson assure me that Cicero's remark on the “pulverulenta via” (Att. v, 14, 1) is as true to-day of the railway in the Maeander valley as it ever was of the road. For the distance see Ramsay in J.H.S. 1881, p. 46.

page 77 note 4 Fam. iii, 5, I.

page 77 note 5 Att. vi 14, I: “Nunc iter conficiebamus aestuosa et pulverulenta via”; cf. §3: “Habes epistulam plenam festinationis et pulveris.”

page 77 note 6 Fam. iii, 5, I: “Ibi mihi praesto fuit L. Lucilius cum litteris mandatisque tuis.”

page 78 note 1 cf. Fam. xv, 4, 2: “Cum propter anni tempus ad exercitum mihi confestim esse eundum viderem.”

page 78 note 2 Sir W. Ramsay has kindly supplied me with the following estimate of distances, taking into account: (i) hours of modern Turkish muleteers' reckoning; (ii) numbers on Roman milestones; (iii) distances on railway lines or surveys of projected lines; (iv) measurements along roads in Kiepert's map.

Ephesus to Tralles …… 32 m.p.

Tralles to Laodicea …… 81 m.p.

Laodicea to Apamea …… 70 m.p.

Apamea to Synnada …… 50 m.p.

Synnada to Philomelium …. 60 m.p.

Philomelium to Iconium …… 91 m.p.

Schmidt's estimates are considerably in excess of this. He gives:

Tralles to Laodicea …… 100–110 m.p.

Laodicea to Apamea …… 70 m.p.

Apamea to Synnada …… 64 m.p.

Synnada to Philomelium …. 67 m.p.

Philomelium to Iconium …. 126 m.p.

page 78 note 1 Att. v, 16, 2: “Perditam et plane eversam in perpetuum provinciam.”

page 78 note 4 id. ib. 3: “Incredibilem in modum concursus fiunt ex agris, ex vicis, ex domibus omnibus.”

page 79 note 1 Att. v, 16, 2: “Monstra quaedam non hominis sed ferae nescio cuius immanis.”

page 79 note 2 Att. v, 15, I: “Laodiceam veni pridie kal. Sextilis. Ex hoc die clavum anni movebis,” but cf. v. 14, I: “Ex ea die (sc. kal. Sext.) si me amas, παράπηϒμα ἐνιαύσιον commoveto.” Also Fam. iii, 6, 6: “Ego in provinciam veni pridie It. Sextilis.” The actual frontier of the province was probably some 20 miles west of Laodicea, at a village called Corura, where there were hot springs (Ramsay).

page 79 note 3 Att. v, 15, 3: “Iter Laodicea faciebam a.d. iii non. Sext. cum has litteras dabam, in castra in Lycaoniam.”

page 79 note 4 See below, p. 82.

page 79 note 5 Att. v, 20, 2: “Inde in castra veni a.d. vii kal. Septembris.”

page 80 note 1 It is perhaps hardly necessary to remind the reader that before the Julian reform of the calendar, all the months except March, May, July, October (31) and February (28) contained 29 days.

page 80 note 2 Hofmann-Lehmann, , Ausgewäblte Briefe (6th ed.) vol. I, p. 143,Google Scholar and Moll, , de Temporibus Epist. Tull. (Diss. Inaug. Berlin, 1883), p. 23,Google Scholar defend the manuscript; Schmidt (pp. 80, 81) controverts their arguments, as I think, unsuccessfully.

page 81 note 1 For the relative position of camp and town, see below, p. 86.

page 81 note 2 Fam. iii, 7, 4: “Confestim Iconium veni.”

page 81 note 3 Following the usual method of reckoning, which is to count the day of arrival as well as that of departure.

page 82 note 1 After idem a space of seven letters is left in. M. Schiche proposes to insert Colossis, which is accepted by Purser (O.C.T.) but, apart from the difficulties of date this would create, it is unlikely that Cicero would hold another conventus at Colossae, as Laodicea was the chief town in the Lycus valley.

page 82 note 2 See excursus at end of this paper.

page 82 note 3 Schmidt also reckons the distance at 70 miles, but makes him cover it in two days.

page 83 note 1 Schmidt reckons 67. For the exact route here followed by Cicero, see fig. 6. The easiest and shortest route from Apamea to Philomelium is that through the modern Oman and Geneli which runs south-east of Synnada straight from Apamea to Iulia (Ipsus). See Ramsay, Historical Geography of Asia Minor, p. 171. But Synnada was too important a town to pass unnoticed, being the centre of one of the three Phrygian spheres of jurisdiction (the others being at Cibyra and Apamea) which fell to Cicero as governor of Cilicia (see Att. v, 21, 9). On the other hand, on leaving Synnada, Cicero would not follow the north road as far as Prymnessus, but tum eastwards through the hills to Holmi, and thence to Iulia, where he rejoined the main caravan route to the east. His route, though not marked on Kiepert's map viii, will be found in the index map to Ramsay's Hist. Geog. (facing p. 22) and Murray's Classical Atlas (map 12).

page 83 note 2 Att. v, 16, I: “Etsi in ipso itinere et via discedebant publicanorum tabellarii et eramus in cursu.” cf. Att. v, 17, I: “Hanc epistulam dictavi sedens in raeda.”

page 83 note 3 Compare Att. v, 16, 4: “Nos in castra properabamus quae aberant bidui, with Att. v, 17, I: “cum in castra proficiscerer a quibus aberam bidui.” Here Schmidt (p. 79) is quite right in maintaining, as against Moll (p. 22) that the camp of the five cohorts near Philomehum (see p. 85), not the main camp of the army near Iconium, is referred to, as nothing is said in either letter as to a stay at Philomelium having already taken place.

page 84 note 1 Moll thinks that v, 17 was written on the same day as v, 16, but before It: but general considerations weigh against this: for surely it was the “publicanorum tabellarii” who brought Sestius' letter referred to in v, 17, 4; and the first thing Cicero would do in writing to Atticus would be to give him some account of his journey, which he does not do in v, 17, but in v, 16.

page 84 note 2 Not while actually in motion. That would be quite impossible, in a vehicle without springs. Besides he does not mention that the letter was written “in ipsa via,” as v, 16, when, be it noted, he got out to write it.

page 84 note 3 It was generally quicker to send letters this way than by private messenger; see Fam. viii, 7, 1 (Caelius): “Breviores has litteras properanti publicanorum tabellario subito dedi; tuo liberto pluribus verbis scriptis pridie dederam.” There would be no point in Caelius' scribbling this hurried note if he had not expected it would reach Cicero quicker than the letter he had sent off the day before. On the other hand they were not to be trusted either with important official messages (Fam. ii, 7, 3: “Paucis enim diebus eram missurus domesticos tabellarios, ut … res gestas ad senatum perscriberem”) or very intimate communications, which required certi homines (Att. v, 17, I: “Paucisdiebus habebam certos homines quibus darem litteras.”).

page 84 note 4 Att. v, 16, 4: “Sestius ad me scripsit.”

page 84 note 5 Att. v, 17, I: “Accepi Roma sine epistula tua fasciculum litterarum, in quo, si modo valuisti et Romae fuisti, Philotimi duco esse culpam, non tuam.” Philotimus was Terentia's steward.

page 85 note 1 Att. v, 17, I: “Paucis diebus habebam certos homines quibus darem litteras.” For the epistolary imperfect (habebam) used with reference to future, not to present time, see Tyrrell's note on this passage (Correspondence of Cicero, iii, p. 63) comparing Att. v, 7, “Proficiscebar Brundisium”; v, 20, 5, “Ipse me Laodiceam recipiebam” (the other reference, to Att. vii, 23, 2, is not a parallel). We use the present in English in a similar way when referring to an event which is imminent or certain to happen (e.g. “I am sending on your letters in a day or two.”)

page 85 note 2 Att. v, 20, §7: “Habes omnia.”

page 85 note 3 Fam. xv, 4: “Cumque ante adventum meum seditione quadam exercitus esset dissipatus, quinque cohortes sine legato, sine tribuno militum, denique etiam sine centurione ullo apud Philomelium consedissent, reliquus exercitus esset in Lycaonia, M. Anneio legato imperavi ut eas quinque cohortes ad reliquum exercitum duceret coactoque in unum locum exercitu castra in Lycaonia apud Iconium facerent.”

page 85 note 4 It is, of course, impossible to decide with certainty the position of the camp relative to the town at Philomelium; but Sir W. Ramsay points out that there is no reason whatever for supposing that the camp lay far from the town, as Schmidt seems to think. It is in the highest degree improbable that the mutineers would choose a remote spot, owing to the difficulty of getting supplies, and there would be little reason for them to fear the inhabitants of a down-trodden Asiatic town. The camp at Iconium again must be placed near the town, for the still more imperative reason of water supply (see below, p. 86).

page 86 note 1 This is in itself probable, and certainly implied by the juxtaposition of the words: “Iconii decem (sc. dies) fecimus. Nihil ea iurisdictione aequabilius” in Att. v, 20, 1.

page 87 note 1 Fam. iii, 6, 5: “Sed plane quando aut ubi te visurus sim, nisi ad me scripseris, ne suspicari quidem possum.”

As Shuckburgh points out, Cicero's Letters (translation, vol. ii, p. 55) the remark in §6, “Et ut habere rationem possis, quo loco me, salva lege Cornelia, convenias, etc.” has a touch of sarcasm when the date (29th Aug.) is considered.

page 87 note 2 Att. v, 20, 2: “A.D. iii exercitum lustravi apud Iconium.”

page 87 note 3 This road, which passes five or six miles north of Barata, would not be chosen for an army, as water is scarce and supplies difficult to obtain. To traverse it would mean preparation and storing of supplies at points en route, and also a quick rate of marching. But we know (see p. 90) that Cicero marched very slowly from Iconium to Cybistra. On the south road there is a succession of towns the whole way; but the old north road ran through a desert country, and the modern road, yet north of that, is worst of all. Doubtless on his return journey, in Jan.-Feb. 50 B.C. when without an army, Cicero took the north road, as did Appius now (Ramsay).

page 87 note 4 Fam. iii, 6, 6: “Iter in Ciliciam facio per Cappadociam.” cf. Att. v, 20, 2: “Perrexi in Ciliciam per Cappadociae partem earn quae Ciliciam attingit.”

page 88 note 1 Fam. iii, 7, 4: “Cum puer tuus ad me secunda fere vigilia venisset isque te ante lucem Iconium mihi venturum nuntiasset, incertumque utra via, cum essent duae, etc.”

This is hardly straightforward, as the slave must have known by which route Appius was travelling, (unless, indeed, the duae viae refer, not to the two main roads mentioned above, but to two ways of entering Iconium by the north road from Cybistra). In any case Cicero is trying to make the most of his case here. Appius wished to be able to spread the news at Rome that Cicero “never came out to meet him” (Fam. iii, 7,4: “quod tibi obviam non prodissem”). Cicero is concerned to show that he did his best.

page 89 note 1 On this interesting point the editors maintain a discreet silence. Drumann, Geschichte Roms, ii, 2, p. 166 (1902)Google Scholar, seems to think they never met: “so zog er unbemerkt vorbei.” In Fam. iii, 8, 2, Cicero says: “Nihil enim (epistulae) habent quod definitum sit aut certum, nisi me vultu et taciturnitate significasse tibi non esse amicum idque pro tribunali cum aliquid ageretur et nonnullis in conviviis intelligi potuisse.” But these words are most naturally taken to refer, not to Cicero's demeanour in Appius' presence at Iconium, but to his general behaviour when Appius' name was mentioned in the course of his jurisdiction; though even on this interpretation there is no objection to supposing that a meeting took place.

page 89 note 2 cf. Fam. iii, 9, 4: he hoped that Appius would support his claims to a supplicatio.

page 89 note 3 The frontier of Cappadocia was in all probability on the lake now called Ak Gol, within a day's march from Cybistra (Ramsay); see sketch map (fig. 6).

page 89 note 4 We know from Fam. xiii, 73, 2, that the two were acquaintances. “Cum Antipatro Derbete mibi non solum hospitium sed summa familiaritas intercedit.”

Tyrrell, following the generally accepted opinion, places this whole group of letters (Fam. xiii, 43, 44, 45, 73, 74) as early as 58; but the whole question of the dating of this group of letters deserves treatment in a separate paper, as there are many misconceptions and at least one grave error in the accepted statements on the subject of Antipater and his relations with Cicero.

page 90 note 1 This is, of course, an additional argument against Schmidt's view (p. 81) that he started with his army from Iconium on 29th August. For in this case it becomes harder than ever to explain the time he took covering the distance from Iconium to Cybistra (on Schmidt's reckoning, at least 19 days).

page 90 note 2 Fam. xv, I. I prefer to place this letter before Cicero's arrival at Cybistra, as Schmidt and Purser do, not after xv, 2, as Tyrrell and Shuckburgh. There is no mention in it of his arrival and stay there, or of Deiotarus' ambassadors, or of the interviews with Ariobarzanes. Also, it is written exactly in the tone of a man who has received some alarming news, which has for the moment bewildered him. It was for this reason that when he wrote Att. v, 18, to go by the same post, he says: “His de rebus scripsi ad senatum, quas litteras, si Romae es, videbis putesne reddendas.” He is afraid that his strong remonstrances may seem by the time they arrive at Rome to be a little exaggerated. The only indication of place in the letter is that given in §2, “a.d. xiii kal. Oct. cum exercitum in Ciliciam ducerem, in finibus Lycaoniae et Cappadociae mihi litterae redditae sunt a Tarcondimoto.” Cybistra was probably reached the same day, as it was only just over the frontier (“in Cappadocia extrema.” Fam. xv, 4, 4).

Note the reasons for the allies' weakness, § 5: “Sociorum auxilia propter acerbitatem atque iniurias imperii nostri aut ita imbecilla sunt ut non multum nos iuvare possint, aut ita alienata a nobis ut neque exspectandum ab'iis neque committendum iis quicquam esse videatur.” This plain speaking would not improve relations with Appius, and may have further contributed to Cicero's subsequent anxiety as to whether the letter “ought to be delivered.”

page 90 note 3 Fam. xv, 2, I: “Tempeus ius tndui quod in iis castns morabar.”

page 90 note 4 Fam. xv, 4, 6: “Cum autem ad Cybistra propter rationem belli quinque dies essem moratus.”

page 91 note 1 Fam. xv, I, 6; xv, 2, 2; xv, 4, 4.

page 91 note 2 Att. v, 18, 2: “Tuto consedimus copioso a frumento, Ciliciam prope conspiciente, expedito ad mutandum loco …… frumentum ex agris in loca tuta comportatur. Si fuerit occasio, manu, si minus locis nos defendemus.”

page 91 note 3 Att. v, 19, I: “Obsignaram iam epistulam eam, quam puto te modo perlegisse scriptam mea manu; in qua omnia continentur, cum subito Apellae tabellarius a.d. xi kal. Octobris septimo quadragesimo die Roma celeriter (hui tam longe !) mihi tuas litteras reddidit.”

It will be seen that I take “epistulam scriptam mea manu, in qua omnia continentur” to refer not to Fam. xv, 2, the long letter written to the senate upon leaving Cybistra, but to Att. v, 18, which gives a short resume of the latest news. Tyrrell adopts the other view, but two considerations weigh against this:

(i) Fam. xv, 2, must have been written later than Att. v, 19; at least as late as the 22nd, when Cicero probably left Cybistra. cf. Fam. xv, 2, 8: “ex eo loco castra movi” (as we have seen, Cicero did not arrive at Cybistra till the 18th, or possibly the 19th September).

(ii) Both Fam. xv, I, and xv 2 are official correspondence and as such would probably be written not in Cicero's own hand, but dictated to a secretary. So “mea manu” may be taken to refer to Att. v, 18 in contrast to Fam. xv, I (not written “mea manu”) which was going by the same post.

page 91 note 4 We have nothing else as fast as this; in Att. vi, 2, 6, written at the beginning of May, 50, from Laodicea, Cicero mentions that he has the Urban Gazette up till the nones of March: this means a journey of not over 60 days, even supposing it was sent off at once. A letter of Atticus from Epirus written on 29th Dec. reached Cicero at Laodicea on 19th Feb. 48 days' journey in winter: but a double journey to Epirus from Cybistra and back to Laodicea took from 21st Sept. to 19th Feb. (Att. vi, I, 1, 22).

page 91 note 5 I say “apparently” because in Att. vi, I, I, according to the manuscripts, Cicero says this letter was sent off on the 21st: “Recentissimas a Cybistris te meas litteras habere a.d. x kal. Oct. datas.” This appears to be at variance with Att. v, 19, I: but Cicero may not have answered at once; so it does not seem worth while emending to xi (as the Oxford text) in order to secure exact correspondence.

page 92 note 1 Fam. xv, 4, 7: “Interea cognovi mulcorum litteris atque nuntiis magnas Parthorum copias et Arabum ad oppidum Antiochiam accessisse magnumque eorum equitatum qui in Ciliciam transisset, ab equitum meorum turmis et a cohorte praetoria, quae erat Epiphaneae praesidii causa occidione occisum.” “Equites mei” can hardly refer to the force of cavalry that Cicero had detached from his main army on arrival at Cybistra (Fam. xv, 2, 3). There was certainly not time for them to have reached Antioch, defeated the Parthians, and sent the news back to Cicero in three days. We must therefore suppose that Cicero is referring to some forces stationed at Tarsus as “his own,” as opposed to troops of the Syrian command.

page 92 note 2 Fam. xv, 2, 4: “Cum enim vestra auctoritas intercessisset, ut ego regem Ariobarzanem tuerer, etc.”

page 92 note 3 There may possibly be a reference to this in Att. v, 18, 4: “Ego tui Bruti rem sic ago, ut suam ipse non ageret.” This letter was probably written the same day as the first interview.

page 92 note 4 Fam. xv, 2, 6: “Postero autem die cum Ariarathe, fratre suo, et cum paternis amicis venit perturbatus et flens.”

page 92 note 5 Fam. xv, 2, 7: “Illum cohortatus sum ut in sua vita conservanda primum regnare disceret.”

page 93 note 1 Att. v, 20, 2: “Confestim iter in Ciliciam feci per Tauri Pylas. Tarsum veni a.d. iii non. Oct.” This road is for long distances very narrow, and progress for an army would therefore be slow. Water is abundant. The distance is rather greater than that between Iconium and Cybistra, even by the longer road; but on my computation Cicero takes 13 days to cover it, as against 15 between Iconium and Cybistra. This further supports the view that he avoided the north road from Iconium: owing to the lack of water, haste would there be imperative.

page 94 note 1 Hastings' Dict. Bib. v, pp. 375–402.

page 94 note 2 Certainty as to the date of reception of imperial messages was more aimed at than rapidity, except in such cases as change of emperors or great disasters, news of the latter being carried by pinnati nuntii. It was characteristic of the spirit of Roman administration that a message of disaster was regarded as more urgent than one of victory (laureati nuntii).

page 95 note 1 See Ramsay's article in Hastings' Dict. Bib. vol. v, p. 474, Numbers, Hours and Tears.

page 96 note 1 This is obviously the meaning of the corrupt words “sed multum ea philosophia sursum deorsum.”