3.A REIGN THAT IS CRUEL IS STORMY
2. THIS IS THE DUTY OF A PARENT, AND IT IS ALSO THE DUTY OF A PRINCE
2. THIS IS THE DUTY OF A PARENT, AND IT IS
could ever have pleaded myself! For he expressed the genius of that great poet (L. Accius), not only by the exercise of his art, but also by his own grief. [Ibid., 57.121]: Then how the Roman people groaned when (shortly afterwards in the same play) these words were delivered (by the same actor): O father! — Me, me in my absence, he considered as a father to be mourned — me, whom Q. Catulus and many others had often in the senate called Father of the Fatherland. How he wept, when he lamented the father’s exile, the affliction of his country, and the burning and ruin of his house! So pathetic was his acting that, after having described that man’s former prosperity… he drew tears even from my enemies and detractors.
[Ibid., 58.123]: I was even mentioned by name in the ‘Brutus’.
Now here he mentions Q. Catulus by name; there is no mention of Cato;
and he positively states that he was so called in the senate, not in the popular assembly. It is obvious that one who makes such a boast of actors, would not neglect to mention a man like Cato, already in other respects a magnificent exponent of his accomplishments.
Certain inconsistencies of the same kind are also to be found in Plutarch:
statements which rely on the authority of the author only, and not on the facts of history. For example, he writes [Cic., 45.1] that Cicero took up such a humble attitude towards the youthful Octavius, that he sometimes addressed him as ‘Father’; and then he immediately goes on to say: For this reason Brutus, in his letters to Atticus, expressed his indignation against Cicero and chided him, saying that he was courting the favor of Caesar out of fear for Antony, and that he seemed not to care for the liberty of his country, but only to obtain a gentle master for himself.
Very different, however, is the sound of Brutus’ own words in his letter to Atticus [Ep. Art., 1.17.5]. “Let Octavius”, he says, “call Cicero ‘father’ as much as he likes, let him defer to him in everything, let him praise him and thank him: it will yet appear that his words go contrary to his acts.”
Of the same sort is also Plutarch’s assertion that Cicero, when the senate decreed a triumph for him on his return from the province, replied he would be more pleased to follow in the train of Caesar’s triumph. But it is clear from Cicero’s words that he not only eagerly desired that triumph and did not spurn it when offered, but that he even put off his own hope in order to triumph with greater that, when the affairs of the city would be
settled, and the sedition quelled. Nor did he abandon his intention until the time he took refuge with Pompey, for he showed great concern about the expenses and went about accompanied by laurel-bearing lictors. Don’t take my word for it; listen to Cicero himself discussing the matter with Atticus [Ep. Art., 6.8.5]: See what you think I should do about the triumph, to which my friends invite me. I should have been quite happy, had no Bibulus been striving passionately after a triumph, though the man never set his foot outside the city gate so long as there was one enemy in Syria any more than he set foot out of his house in town when he was consul. But as it is” ‘ were base to hold one’s peace.” Ibid. [7.1.7]: But as to my position, you will consider first by what scheme we can retain Caesar’s good will: and then my triumph itself, which, barring political obstacles, seems to me easy to get... Ibid. [7.1.9]: I have written to Terentia, and to him (Precianus) that I shall deposit with you any money he may collect, for the equipment of the triumph I anticipate. Ibid. [7.2.6]: As for a triumph, I had no desire for one up to the time Bibulus sent his shameless despatches and got a
thanksgiving voted in the most complimentary way. Now, if he had done what he professed to have done, I should have been glad and supported the honor, but, as it is a disgrace to us — to both of us: for I include you in the business — that I — is; whose army his army relied, should not get the same rewards as a man who my foot outside the city gates so long as there was an enemy on this side of the Euphrates. Therefore, I shall make every effort, and, as I hope, shall succeed. Let the reader now weigh for himself whether these and similar matters which one reads in scattered contexts of his letters are the words of a man refusing a triumph. Let us return to Seneca. He therefore says that the title “father of his country” was not imposed upon the Caesars by flatterers, but in order that the people might show that these princes had no more right over their subjects, than parents have over their children.
THE “GREAT,” THE “FORTUNATE,” AND THE “AUGUST.”
The name “AUGUST” was passed on by Octarian to his successors as a sort of hereditary title. Suetonius [Aug., 7.2]: He afterwards assumed the name of Caius Caesar, and then of Augustus; the former in compliance with the will of his greatunch, and the latter upon a motion of Numatius Planem... For when some proposed to confer upon him the name of
Romulus, as a sort of second founder of the city, it was resolved that be should rather be called Augustus; etc. For the etymology of the word, consult Ovid [Fasti., 1.590], and Servius Comm. Georg. [4.329]. The name “Fortunate,” as fax as my knowledge goes, L. Sulla first applied to himself, as a title obtained from public misfortune. Hence that infamous boast [Suet., Tib., 59.2]:
See Sulla, Romulus, fortunate to himself, but not to you.