Cicero 27 & 28 Flashcards
Satis multa mihi verba fecisse videor, quare esset hoc bellum genere ipso necessarium, magnitudine periculosum.
I think that I have spoken long enough as to why this war by its nature was necessary, and dangerous by its enormity:
Restat ut de imperatore ad id bellum deligendo ac tantis rebus praeficiendo dicendum esse videatur.
It remains that it seems that something must be said about the choice of a general for this war and appointment for such great matters.
Utinam, Quirites, virorum fortium atque innocentium copiam tantam haberetis ut haec vobis deliberatio difficilis esset quemnam potissimum tantis rebus ac tanto bello praeficiendum putaretis!
I wish, citizens, that you had such a great supply of brave and innocent men, that this deliberation would be difficult for you about whom, for goodness sake, you would think above all should be put in charge of such great matters and such a great war!
Nunc vero cum sit unus Cn. Pompeius qui non modo eorum hominum, qui nunc sunt, gloriam, sed etiam antiquitatis memoriam virtute superarit, quae res est quae cuiusquam animum in hac causa dubium facere possit?
But as it is, since there is the one and only Cn. Pompey, who has surpassed by means of his merit, not only the glory of those men, who now exist, but also the memory of times past, what reason is there which could make anyone’s mind doubtful in this situation?
Ego enim sic existimo, in summo imperatore quattuor has res inesse oportere: scientiam rei militaris, virtutem, auctoritatem, felicitatem. [28]
For I think thus, that there ought to be 4 qualities in a supreme general: knowledge of military matters, courage/ability, prestige, good luck.
Quis igitur hoc homine scientior umquam aut fuit aut esse debuit?
Who therefore, has ever either been or ought to have been more knowledgeable than this man?
Qui e ludo atque e pueritiae disciplinis, bello maximo atque acerrimis hostibus, ad patris exercitum atque in militiae disciplinam profectus est, qui extrema pueritia miles in exercitu fuit summi imperatoris, ineunte adulescentia maximi ipse exercitus imperator;
This man from school and from the studies of boyhood, in a very great war and against the most fierce enemies, set out for his father’s army and into the training of warfare; this man at the end of his boyhood was a soldier in the army of a supreme general, (and) at the beginning of his youth he himself was the general of a very great army;
Qui saepius cum hoste conflixit quam quisquam cum inimico concertavit, plura bella gessit quam ceteri legerunt, plures provincias confecit quam alii concupiverunt;
This man clashed with a foreign enemy more often than anyone has argued with a personal enemy, he has waged more wars the rest have read about, he has performed more offices than others have coveted;
Cuius adulescentia ad scientiam rei militaris non alienis praeceptis sed suis imperiis, non offensionibus belli sed victoriis, non stipendiis sed triumphis est erudita.
His youth was trained for a knowledge of military matters not by the orders of others but by his own commands, not by the setbacks of war but by victories, not by campaigns but by triumphs.
Quod denique genus esse belli potest, in quo illum non exercuerit fortuna rei publicae?
Finally, what kind of war can there be, in which the misfortune of the state has not trained him?
Civile, Africanum, Transalpinum, Hispaniense, servile, navale bellum, varia et diversa genera et bellorum et hostium, non solum gesta ab hoc uno, sed etiam confecta nullam rem esse declarant in usu positam militari, que huius viri scientiam fugere possit.
The civil, African, Transalpine, Spanish, slave and naval wars, various and different types both of wars and enemies, not only waged but even finished by this one man, demonstrate that there is no matter in military experience, which can escape the knowledge of this man.
