3.A REIGN THAT IS CRUEL IS STORMY
10. AND WHEN HE SAW THAT CINNA HAD CAST DOWN HIS EYES
With face cast down looking at the earth, either he did so out of shyness or because he was overwhelmed and stunned by fear of punishment. For he had been so driven into a corner that he could not now pretend innocence.
For, as Juvenal says [Sat., 9.1820]:
In sickly breast one can discern the soul’s Deep torments; discern as well its secret joys:
The face takes on the stamp of either.
SILENT… BECAUSE OF HIS CONSCIENCE
Not to clear oneself, not to refute charges, and to receive an indictment in silence ó this is typical of one who confesses. Hence that common saying among the jurisconsults: He who remains silent seems to consent. For when the accused gives up his cause, the accuser wins.
IT GOES BADLY WITH THE STATE
Let him who cannot rule his own house not aspire to public office. For the household is a sort of shadowing and image of the state, as Aristotle says.
For in the family wife, children, slaves, freedmen constitute a small likeness of the state. The father of the family stands in the king’s place; if
he is unskilled and ill-suited to what purpose will he strive toward greater things? This is what Aeschines’ words against Ctesiphon mean: He who hates his children, and is a bad father, can never be a good governor of the people; nor can he who is evil in private ever be good in public life.
TELL ME, IF I ALONE BLOCK YOUR HOPES I understand this as said by way of “rhetorical permission.” This statement embraces another rhetorical scheme, called “communication,”
and is used especially in “conjectures” when we consult with our adversary.
PAULUS AND FABIUS MAXIMUS
These were families of ancient and noteworthy nobility among the
Romans. For the Pauli are more than sufficiently represented by L. Paulus, who as consul fell at Cannae; and the Fabii not only by the illustrious Maximus, but by those 300 men who to a man gave their lives for the state; the Cossi, by Cossus himself who, when Lars Tolumnius was slain, brought back the spoils to Jupiter Feretrius; the Servilii by Servilius Hala, who as master of horse cut down Sp. Melius when he sought to rule as king. What members of each of these families were famous in Augustus’
time I do not know. Quintilian [Inst., 6.3.52] recalls Fabius, who,
complaining of the smallness of the largesses which Augustus used to give to friends, used to say they were “heroinaria.” And perchance he is the one to whom Ovid addressed elegies in the De Ponto.
COMPANY OF NOBLES, NOT THOSE SWAGGERING WITH EMPTY NAMES
“Name” among its other significations, has this very elegant meaning, when it is used for “nobility.” Cicero, Contra Verr. [1.6.15]: He confronts me with the empty titles of nobility, that is, the names of haughty men. Pro Cn. Planc. [7.18]: You are of consular rank [name] both on your father’s and your mother’s side. Can you then hesitate to believe that your election to the aedileship was supported by all those who uphold the claims of birth, naho count it the most wonderful thing on earth and who are lured by the glamour of your ancestral images and your impressive names? [Ep. Faro.,
3.7.5] Although I had not yet attained those things which are in men’s opinion most glorious, still I never admired these names of yours. I thought those men who had left them to you to be great. Quite often in his oration, Pro Ligario. [e.g., Lig., 7.21]. Juvenal, Sat. [8.272f]:
Trace then your line, unroll the list as far back as you can You’ll find your race with criminals and runaways began.
So Servius interprets Virgil’s lines [A., 2.89f]:
… We have borne Some name and honor.
For Nonius Marcellus [4 (p. 354)] “name” also signifies “honor” and
“dignity”, as Virgil also has used the word in Aeneid [11.845f]:
Not yet will your queen leave you inglorious,
Now in death’s last throes, nor will this decease be without name.
Perhaps the source of “name” in the sense of “highborn nobility” was that a good name is transmitted from ancestors’ nobility to their posterity. But everyone used to take his “name” from his accomplishments. Ovid, Fasti [1.591-594]:
Gaze upon the waxen images set in noble halls, Names so great never came to any one man.
Africa calls her conqueror after herself; another hero Attests by name Isauria conquered; another Crete.
In this way it is also used to mean “family” and “kindred”. Virgil [A., 6.758]:
Who will belong to our name.
And a jurisconsult says that a legacy is given on the condition that it remain permanently under the “name”.
BUT THEY WHO ADD GLORY TO THEIR ANCESTORS’ IMAGES
Explanation. For those who add glory to their ancestor’s images, do not display empty names; those who swell and puff up with the glory of their ancestors, not their own deeds, are said to display empty names, as if so much honor were due the merits of their ancestors, that there was a
surplus to be paid to their posterity. On the “images” I would say what now comes to memory but for the fact that Budaeus has said all that needs to be said. The one thing he has left out I will insert here, since it is
especially to the point: the right to have images used to be given among the Romans in the same manner as senatorial rank, and other public
decorations. Cicero, Verr. [2.5.14.36]:...I have received certain privileges:
priority of speech in the Senate, the fringed toga, the curule chair, the right of leaving to posterity my image as a memorial.