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  • THE FRAGMENTS WHICH REMAIN OF THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO ON BEHALF OF MARCUS TULLIUS.
  • THE FRAGMENTS WHICH REMAIN OF THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO ON BEHALF OF MARCUS FONTEIUS.
  • THE ORATION OF M. T. CICERO IN BEHALF OF AULUS CAECINA.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF AULUS CLUENTIUS HABITUS.
  • THE FRAGMENTS OF THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF CAIUS CORNELIUS.
  • THE FRAGMENTS OF THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN HIS WHITE GOWN, AGAINST C. ANTONIUS AND L. CATILINA, HIS COMPETITORS FOR THE CONSULSHIP. DELIVERED IN THE SENATE.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF CAIUS RABIRIUS, ACCUSED OF TREASON.
  • THE ORATION OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF L. MURENA, PROSECUTED FOR BRIBERY.
  • THE ORATION OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF PUBLIUS SULLA.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO FOR AULUS LICINIUS ARCHIAS, THE POET
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF LUCIUS FLACCUS.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO AFTER HIS RETURN. ADDRESSED TO THE SENATE.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO AFTER HIS RETURN. ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO AGAINST PUBLIUS CLODIUS AND CAIUS CURIO.
  • THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF MARCUS AEMILIUS SCAURUS.

    • M. Tullius Cicero, Orations: Three orations on the Agrarian law, the four against Catiline, the orations for Rabirius, Murena, Sylla, Archias, Flaccus, Scaurus, etc. (ed. C. D. Yonge)

    Editions and translations: Latin (ed. Albert Clark) | English (ed. C. D. Yonge)
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    text=Tul.:section=7 text=Tul.:section=21 text=Tul.:section=34 text=Tul. text=Font. text=Font.:section=10 text=Font.:section=21 text=Font. text=Font.:section=44 text=Caec. text=Caec.:section=16 text=Caec.:section=28 text=Caec.:section=41 text=Caec.:section=53 text=Caec.:section=65 text=Caec.:section=77 text=Caec.:section=89 text=Caec.:section=102 text=Man.:section=6 text=Man.:section=18 text=Man.:section=30 text=Man.:section=43 text=Man. text=Man.:section=68 text=Clu.:section=5 text=Clu.:section=18 text=Clu.:section=30 text=Clu.:section=43 text=Clu.:section=54 text=Clu.:section=66 text=Clu.:section=78 text=Clu. text=Clu.:section=98 text=Clu. text=Clu. text=Clu.:section=134 text=Clu.:section=146 text=Clu.:section=158 text=Clu.:section=171 text=Clu.:section=183 text=Clu.:section=196 text=Corn.:speech=1 text=Agr.:speech=1:section=fr3 text=Agr.:speech=1 text=Agr.:speech=1:section=23 text=Agr.:speech=2 text=Agr.:speech=2:section=16 text=Agr.:speech=2:section=27 text=Agr.:speech=2:section=39 text=Agr.:speech=2:section=51 text=Agr.:speech=2 text=Agr.:speech=2:section=75 text=Agr.:speech=2:section=87 text=Agr.:speech=2:section=99 text=Agr.:speech=3:section=6 text=Rab. Perd. text=Rab. Perd. text=Rab. Perd.:section=23 text=Rab. Perd.:section=34 text=Catil.:speech=1:section=5 text=Catil.:speech=1 text=Catil.:speech=1:section=29 text=Catil.:speech=2 text=Catil.:speech=2 text=Catil.:speech=2:section=27 text=Catil.:speech=3:section=7 text=Catil.:speech=3:section=17 text=Catil.:speech=3 text=Catil.:speech=4 text=Catil.:speech=4 text=Mur. text=Mur.:section=9 text=Mur. text=Mur.:section=28 text=Mur.:section=37 text=Mur. text=Mur.:section=57 text=Mur.:section=66 text=Mur.:section=76 text=Mur.:section=86 text=Sul.:section=3 text=Sul. text=Sul. text=Sul.:section=34 text=Sul.:section=44 text=Sul.:section=54 text=Sul.:section=66 text=Sul.:section=77 text=Sul.:section=88 text=Arch. text=Arch.:section=13 text=Arch.:section=24 text=Flac. text=Flac. text=Flac.:section=16 text=Flac.:section=27 text=Flac.:section=37 text=Flac.:section=48 text=Flac.:section=58 text=Flac.:section=69 text=Flac. text=Flac. text=Flac.:section=103 text=Red. Sen.:section=4 text=Red. Sen.:section=15 text=Red. Sen.:section=25 text=Red. Sen.:section=35 text=Red. Pop.:section=3 text=Red. Pop.:section=14 text=Red. Pop. text=Scaur. text=Scaur.:section=8. text=Scaur.:section=13 text=Scaur.:section=29

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    THE SPEECH OF M. T. CICERO IN DEFENCE OF THE PROPOSED MANILIAN LAW.

    THE ARGUMENT.

    In the year B.C. 67, Aulus Gabinius had obtained the passing of a decree by which Pompey was invested for three years with the supreme command over all the Mediterranean, and over all the coasts of that sea, to a distance of four hundred furlongs from the sea. And in this command he had acted with great vigour and with complete success; destroying all the pirates' strongholds, and distributing the men themselves as colonists among the inland towns of Asia Minor and Greece. After this achievement he did not return to Rome, but remained in Asia, making various regulations for the towns which he had conquered.

    During this period Lucullus had been prosecuting the war against Mithridates, and proceeding gradually in the reduction of Pontus; he had penetrated also into Mesopotamia, but had subsequently been distressed by seditions in his army, excited by Clodius, his brother-in-law; and these seditions had given fresh courage to Mithridates who had fallen on Caius Triarius, one of his lieutenants, and routed his army with great slaughter. At the time that Pompey commenced his campaign against the pirates, the consul Marcus Aquillius Glabrio was sent to supersede Lucullus in his command, but he was perfectly incompetent to oppose Mithridates, who seemed likely with such an enemy to recover all the power of which Lucullus had deprived him. So in the year B.C. 66, while Glabrio was still in Bithynia, and Pompey in Asia Minor, Caius Manilius, a tribune of the people, brought forward a proposition, that, in addition to the command which Pompey already possessed, he should be invested with unlimited power in Bithynia, Pontus, and Armenia, for the purpose of conducting the war against Mithridates. The measure was strongly opposed by Catulus and by Hortensius, but it was supported by Caesar, and by Cicero in the following speech, which is the first which he ever addressed to the people; and the proposition was carried.

    I. Although, O Romans, your numerous assembly has always seemed to me the most agreeable body that any one can address, and this place, which is most honourable to plead in, has also seemed always the most distinguished place for delivering an oration in, still I have been prevented from trying this road to glory, which has at all times been entirely open to every virtuous man, not indeed by my own will, but by the system of life which I have adopted from my earliest years. For as hitherto I have not dared, on account of my youth, to intrude upon the authority of this place, and as I considered that no arguments ought to be brought to this place except such as were the fruit of great ability, and worked up with the greatest industry, I have thought it fit to devote all my time to the necessities of my friends. [2]  And accordingly, this place has never been unoccupied by men who were defending your cause, and my industry, which has been virtuously and honestly employed about the dangers of private individuals, has received its most honourable reward in your approbation. For when, on account of the adjournment of the comitia, I was three times elected the first praetor by all the centuries, I easily perceived, O Romans, what your opinion of me was, and what conduct you enjoined to others. Now, when there is that authority in me which you, by conferring honours on me, have chosen that there should be, and all that facility in pleading which almost daily practice in speaking can give a vigilant man who has habituated himself to the forum, at all events, if I have any authority, I will employ it before those who have given it to me; and if I can accomplish anything by speaking, I will display it to those men above all others, who have thought fit, by their decision, to confer honours on that qualification. [3]  And, above all things, I see that I have reason to rejoice on this account, that, since I am speaking in this place, to which I am so entirely unaccustomed, I have a cause to advocate in which eloquence can hardly fail any one; for I have to speak of the eminent and extraordinary virtue of Cnaeus Pompey; and it is harder for me to find out how to end a discourse on such a subject, than how to begin one. So that what I have to seek for is not so much a variety of arguments, as moderation in employing them.


    There are a total of 42 comments on and cross references to this page.

    Further comments from J. B. Greenough, G. L. Kittredge, Select Orations of Cicero, Allen and Greenough's Edition.:
    section 1 (general note)
    section 1: frequens conspectus vester
    section 1: hic locus
    section 1: ad agendum
    section 1: ornatissimus
    section 1: Quirites
    section 1: hoc aditu
    section 1: optimo cuique
    section 1: rationes
    section 1: cum
    section 1: auctoritatem
    section 1: attingere
    section 1: perfectum ingenio
    section 1: elaboratum
    section 1: amicorum temporibus
    section 2 (general note)
    section 2: neque . . . et
    section 2: caste
    section 2: integre
    section 2: judicio
    section 2: fructum
    section 2: dilationem
    section 2: quid aliis
    section 2: nunc
    section 2: ad agendum
    section 2: forensi usu
    section 2: quoque
    section 3 (general note)
    section 3: atque
    section 3: illud
    section 3: laetandum
    section 3: mihi
    section 3: ratione
    section 3: oratio
    section 3: orationis
    section 3: virtute

    Cross references from J. B. Greenough, G. L. Kittredge, Select Orations of Cicero, Allen and Greenough's Edition.:
    introduction [Cicero as an Orator.]
    Man. [Argument]
    Man. [Argument]
    Man., 2 [I. Exordium (CHAP. I)]
    Man., 52 [IV. Confutatio]
    Man., 70 [V. Peroratio]
    Arch., 13 [III. Confirmatio]
    Man. [Argument]
    Man. [Argument]
    Man., 43 [III. The Choice of a Commander]
    introduction [Cicero as an Orator.]
    Man. [Argument]
    Man. [Argument]
    Man. [Argument]
    Man., 29 [III. The Choice of a Commander]

    Preferred URL for linking to this page: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Cic.+Man.+1

    The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.

    This text is based on the following book(s):
    M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
    OCLC: 4709897


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