Pro Archia 28-32: A Prosaic Analysis

We are back yet again with another analysis of Pro Archia, although this one will likely be our last. I can envision many reacting to this statement in fury, pondering why on earth I did not progress linearly through the text (although that anger would have originated in our latest Pro Archia post), and why I appear to harbor such great disrespect for Cicero that I continue to handpick sections of his magnum opus for translation and analysis. To those who feel this strongly, I have only two responses. First, you should absolutely, if you have not yet already, take up Latin poetic analysis or, at the very least, try your hand at translating some Latin texts -- this sort of passion should not go uncultivated. And second, in the same vein, I respond by restating what exactly my goal is with this blog. While I will caveat that this is by and large self-indulgent, as I am an avid lover of all things Latin poetry and prose and have concocted a platform in which I can share that love, there is an additional motivation underpinning Aeterna Poesis: to spread my love of Latin to others and provide an environment for everyone to grow into Latin readers, translators, and analyzers.

If I provided the translation and analysis of every section of Pro Archia, or every section of any piece of prose, or every poem ever written by our beloved Latin poets, then there would be little room for burgeoning translators to attempt to decipher the text on their own. Far too often, the words of others can infect us learners, especially in our Latin infancy, and we will take their teachings as dogma. I would be extremely worried if anyone here took any piece of writing on this blog as undeniably true, because I, just like all of you, am a student first. I am still learning how to decipher Ancient Roman texts, and I am not always correct -- I try to be, but perfection is a tall order not even the Ancient Roman emperors could ever achieve (don't tell them I said that I do not want to be haunted, thank you very much). Part of my learning process is sharing my passion and my work with you all, including you in the way I work through these difficult passages. Especially in the realm of prose, I have been, and I will continue to, share my translation alongside more experienced professionals whose translations are more baroque and more reliable than mine. I hope that my doing so inspires you to similarly provide your own translation, and that the excitement you feel from that first step encourages you to dive in headfirst to the uncovered pieces of prose that I have chosen to leave out of a formal post.

After that long-winded explanation, I hope it makes slightly more sense why I have chosen to leave out certain sections of Pro Archia. Before we dive into the Latin, however, there is one last question I'd like to address: why skip to the end? Endings are often overinflated in terms of their importance in everyday life (I do acknowledge I have opened a philosophical gold mine fit for another blog to mine through), but the ending of Pro Archia, I feel, must be addressed in Aeterna Poesis proper. Indeed, as it completes Cicero's defense of Archias and closes out the peroratio, it finds Cicero at his most vehement and, at times, most concise. Serving as a summary of all the grandiloquence that predated it in the last 28 entries, this end to Pro Archia must be attention-grabbing and an honest, compelling final statement to finish Cicero's tangential defense of the arts and much shorter defense of Archias' citizenship. It provides the best snapshot of Cicero's prosaic genius and life philosophy that we have, and therefore deserves to be translated and examined as thoroughly as this blog can. So, without further ado, let us dive in.

The Original Latin

[28]: atque ut id libentius faciatis, iam me vobis, iudices, indicabo et de meo quodam amore gloriae nimis acri fortasse, verum tamen honesto vobis confitebor. nam quas res nos in consulatu nostro vobiscum simul pro salute huius urbis atque imperi et pro vita civium proque universa re publica gessimus, attigit hic versibus atque inchoavit. quibus auditis, quod mihi magna res et iucunda visa est, hunc ad perficiendum adornavi. nullam enim virtus aliam mercedem laborum periculorumque desiderat praeter hanc laudis et gloriae; qua quidem detracta, iudices, quid est quod in hoc tam exiguo vitae curriculo et tam brevi tantis nos in laboribus exerceamus?

[29]: Certe, si nihil animus praesentiret in posterum, et si, quibus regionibus vitae spatium circumscriptum est, isdem omnis cogitationes terminaret suas, nec tantis se laboribus frangeret neque tot curis vigiliisque angeretur nec totiens de ipsa vita dimicaret. Nunc insidet quaedam in optimo quoque virtus, quae noctes ac dies animum gloriae stimulis concitat atque admonet non cum vitae tempore esse dimittendam commemorationem nominis nostri, sed cum omni posteritate adaequandam.

[30]: An vero tam parvi animi videamur esse omnes qui in re publica atque in his vitaе periculis laboribusque versamur ut, cum usque ad extremum spatium nullum tranquillum atque otiosum spiritum duxerimus, nobiscum simul moritura omnia arbitremur? An statuas et imagines, non animorum simulacra, sed corporum, studiose multi summi homines reliquerunt; consiliorum relinquere ac virtutum nostrarum effigiem nonne multo malle debemus summis ingeniis expressam et politam? Ego vero omnia quae gerebam iam tum in gerendo spargere me ac disseminare arbitrabar in orbis terrae memoriam sempiternam. Haec vero sive a meo sensu post mortem afutura est, sive, ut sapientissimi homines putaverunt, ad aliquam animi mei partem pertinebit, nunc quidem certe cogitatione quadam speque delector.

[31]: Quare conservate, iudices, hominem pudore eo quem amicorum videtis comprobari cum dignitate, tum etiam vetustate, ingenio autem tanto quantum id convenit existimari, quod summorum hominum iudiciis expetitum esse videatis, causa vero eius modi quae beneficio legis, auctoritate municipi, testimonio Luculli, tabulis Metelli comprobetur. Quae cum ita sint, petimus a vobis, iudices, si qua non modo humana verum etiam divina in tantis ingeniis commendatio debet esse, ut eum qui vos, quivestros imperatores, qui populi Romani res gestas semper ornavit, qui etiam his recentibus nostris vestrisque domesticis periculis aeternum se testimonium laudis daturum esse profitetur, quique est ex eo numero qui semper apud omnis sancti sunt habiti itaque dicti, sic in vestram accipiatis fidem ut humanitate vestra levatus potius quam acerbitate violatus esse videatur.

[32]: Quae de causa pro mea consuetudine breviter simpliciterque dixi, iudices, ea confido probata esse omnibus; quae a foro aliena iudicialique consuetudine et de hominis ingenio et communiter de ipso studio locutus sum, ea, iudices, a vobis spero esse in bonam partem accepta, ab eo qui iudicium exercet, certo scio.

Literal Translation

[28]: And so that you may do so more freely, now I will show myself to you all, jurors, and I will confess to you all about my certain love of glory, perhaps too keen, but still, nevertheless, honest. For those things which we established in our consultation with you all at the same time, those things for the safety of the salvation of this city and this empire and for the life of the citizens and for the everlasting state, he addressed and stated with his verses. With these having been heard, because these things seemed to me great and agreeable, I encouraged him to complete his writings. For virtue desires no other reward of dangerous labor except the reward of praise and glory; indeed, these rewards having been removed, judges, what it is that we should strive for with labor in so short and so brief a course of life.

[29]: Certainly, if the mind predicts nothing into the future, and if, by which bounds the space of life is limited, by these same boundaries all thought is delimited, then our mind would not break itself with so many labors nor be distressed about so many concerns and vigilances, nor fight so often about its own life. Now, there is present in every very great man a certain virtue, which for nights and days excites the mind with the spurs of glory and reminds us that the memory of our name must not diminish with the time of life, but must be equated with all eternity.

[30]: Or still, do we all seem to be of such small mind, we who have been versed in the state and in the dangerous labors of life, so that we suppose that when we have drawn no tranquil or leisurely breath to the final space, that we will die at the same time as all things about to die? And how many of the many greatest men earnestly left behind statues and images, not copies of their minds, but of their bodies; don't we ought to prefer by much to relinquish a representation of our councils and of our virtues, having been carved and polished by our greatest geniuses? I, in truth, was thinking that now I was scattering and disseminating that which I was carrying on, at the moment I was carrying them on, into the everlasting memory of this world. Whether these will be absent from my sense after death, or whether, as the wisest men have thought, they will pertain to a certain piece of my mind, now indeed I certainly am delighted by this certain thought and hope.

[31]: Therefore, save, judges, the man with this modesty whom you all see to be approved with not only the rank of friends, but also the length of their friendship, a man with such great genius as it is proper to estimate, which you all see is sought by the geniuses of the greatest men, a man with a case of this type which, with the benefit of the law, with the authority of the city, with the testimony of Luculls, and with the evidence of Metellus is approved. Since these things are in such a way we seek from you all, judges, if any, not only human but also divine recommendation ought to be in such great talents, that you all receive into your faith he who has always honored you all, has always honored your generals, has always honored the deeds of the Roman people, he who states that he will give eternal testimony for ours and your internal dangers, and finally is of a certain rank which always is held and said to be holy before all of us; we seek that you accept him into your faith so that he may seem to be uplifted with your humanity rather than violated by your bitterness.

[32]: These things about this case, which I have said briefly and simply in accordance with my custom, judges, I trust have been approved by all; these things which I have said alien from the forum and the judicial way of speaking about the genius of this man and also about these studies, judges, I how have been accepted in good part by you all; I know certainly that they have been by he who presides over this trial.

Idiomatic Translation

*Translation provided by N.H. Watts, esteemed translator and former Classical Master at Downside School

[28] And the more to incline you so to do, gentlemen of the jury, I will now proceed to open to you my heart, and confess to you my own passion, if I may so describe it, for fame, a passion over-keen perhaps, but assuredly honourable. The measures which I, jointly with you, undertook in my consulship for the safety of the empire, the lives of our citizens, and the common weal of the state, have been taken by my client as the subject of a poem which he has begun; he read this to me, and the work struck me as at once so forcible and so interesting, that I encouraged him to complete it. For magnanimity looks for no other recognition of its toils and dangers save praise and glory ; once rob it of that, gentlemen, and in this brief and transitory pilgrimage of life what further incentive have we to high endeavour?

[29] If the soul were haunted by no presage of futurity, if the scope of her imaginings were bounded by the limits set to human existence, surely never then would she break herself by bitter toil, rack herself by sleepless solicitude, or struggle so often for very life itself. But deep in every noble heart dwells a power which plies night and day the goad of glory, and bids us see to it that the remembrance of our names should not pass away with life, but should endure throughout all the ages of the future.

[30] Are we to show so poor a spirit to the world, we, who are exposed to all the perils and toils that beset a public career, as to think that, after having lived out our allotted span without ever drawing the breath of peace and repose, all is to die along with us? Many great men have been studious to leave behind them statues and portraits, likenesses not of the soul, but of the body; and how much more anxious should we be to bequeath an effigy of our minds and characters, wrought and elaborated by supreme talent? For my part, in the very enactment of my exploits, I felt that I was sowing broadcast to reap an undying memory throughout the whole world. It may be that after death I shall be insensible to it. It may be that, as philosophers have held, some part of my being shall yet be conscious of it. Be that as it may, now at any rate I find satisfaction in the thought and in the hope.

[31] Wherefore, gentlemen, protect, I beg of you, a man whose honour you see to be attested both by the high position of his friends, and the durability of their friendship, whose genius you can estimate at its true worth by the fact that genius itself has set a premium upon it, and the righteousness of whose cause is established by the support of the law, the authority of a municipality, the evidence of Lucullus, and the citizen-rolls of Metellus. Throughout his career he has shed glory upon you, upon your generals, and upon the history of the Roman people; he is engaged upon a work which promises to be a glorious and undying testimony to those public perils which we have recently faced together; and he belongs to a profession which has been universally held inviolable, both in act and word. I implore you, therefore, gentlemen, if such high talent deserves any commendation from men, nay more, from heaven, let him rest in the assurance of your protection, and let it be seen that so far from being assailed by your displeasure, he has been assisted by your humanity.

[32] I am sure that my statement of the case, brief and straightforward as I, true to my practice, have made it, has appealed to every one of you; and I hope that my departure from the practice and the conventions of the courts, and my digression upon the subject of my client's genius, and, in general terms, upon the art which he follows, has been welcomed by you in as generous a spirit as I am assured it has been welcomed by him who presides over this tribunal.

In Conclusion...

Last time we followed this format, I gave a brief explanation and analysis of the Latin. But as we come to the close of Pro Archia, between these translations and the background and history provided by our previous entries, I will leave the analysis to you; after all, this wouldn't be a blog that prides itself on education if it didn't give its pupils some homework.

We hope you enjoyed this prosaic analysis of Cicero’s Pro Archia 28-32. Please leave any comments, questions, or concerns below, and be sure to recommend future prose or poems for us to dive into!