De Consulatu Suo
- Language:
- Latin
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~1,050 words · 5 passages
Cite this work
- APACicero. (n.d.). De Consulatu Suo. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/de-consulatu-suo
- MLACicero. De Consulatu Suo. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/de-consulatu-suo.
- ChicagoCicero. De Consulatu Suo. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/de-consulatu-suo.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
An epic poem Cicero wrote about his own consulship. Only fragments survive, quoted by himself in other works.
Context and history
The work that earned him the most ridicule in antiquity, over a line in which he praises himself, and enough survives to see why. Worth having: it shows that the prudent Cicero of the treatises and the vain Cicero are the same man. Deliberately fragmentary — the whole poem is lost.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
multaque per terras vates oracla furenti pectore fundebant tristis minitantia casus; atque ea quae lapsu tandem cecidere vetusto, haec fore perpetuis signis clarisque frequentans ipse deum genitor caelo terrisque canebat. Nunc ea Torquato quae quondam et consule Cotta Lydius ediderat Tyrrhenae gentis haruspex, omnia fixa tuus glomerans determinat annus. Nam pater altitonans stellanti nixus Olympo ipse suos quondam tumulos ac templa petivit et Capitolinis iniecit sedibus ignis. Tum species ex aere vetus venerataque Nattae concidit, elapsaeque vetusto numine leges, et divom simulacra peremit fulminis ardor. Hic silvestris erat Romani nominis altrix, Martia, quae parvos Mavortis semine natos uberibus gravidis vitali rore rigabat: quae tum cum pueris flammato fulminis ictu concidit atque avolsa pedum vestigia liquit. Tum quis non, artis scripta ac monumenta volutans, voces tristificas chartis promebat Etruscis? Omnes civilem generosa[m] stirpe profectam vier ingentem Cladem pestemque monebant, [vol] tum legum exitium constanti voce ferebant, templa deumque adeo flammis urbemque iubebant eripere et stragem horribilem caedemque vereri; atque haec fixa gravi fato ac fundata teneri, ni prius excelsum ad columen formata decore sancta Iovis species claros spectaret in ortus: tum fore ut occultos populus sanctusque senatus cernere conatus posset, si solis ad ortum conversa inde patrum sedes populique videret. Haec tardata diu species multumque morata consule te tandem celsa est in sede locata, atque una fixi ac signati temporis hora Iuppiter excelsa clarabat sceptra columna, et clades patriae flamma ferroque parata vocibus Allobrogum patribus populoque patebat. Rite igitur veteres, quorum monumenta tenetis, qui populos urbisque modo ac virtute regebant, rite etiam vestri, quorum pietasque fidesque praestitit et longe vicit sapientia cunctos, praecipue coluere vigenti numine divos.…
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