Auctoritas, Dignitas, Otium

Author(s): J. P. V. D. Balsdon
Source: The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 10, No. 1 (May, 1960), pp. 43-50
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
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AUCTORITAS, DIGNITAS, OTIUM

was naturally one of Cicero's favourite concepts. In the ideal
'AucTORITAS'
with the Senate ('Cum potestas
republic power lay with the people, auctoritas
in populo, auctoritas in senatu sit', De leg. 3. 28). Alternatively, in a balanced
state, potestaswould lie with the magistrates, libertaswith the people, but still
auctoritaswould be the property of the Senate, 'in principum consilio' (De
rep. 2. 57).
This auctoritas,which was the Senate's function in government, was, as
Mommsen said, 'an indefinite word, evading strict definition'. Instructions
went out to priests and others 'auctoritate senatus' (Mommsen, Staatsr.iii.
2.3 I033, n. 2), and Livy frequently wrote of laws whose initiation lay in a
senatorial decree as introduced 'ex auctoritate patrum'. By the end of the
Republic, however, an effective resolution of the Senate was a senatusconsultum,
while senatusauctoritas
in the strict technical sense-which, Dio tells us (55- 3- 5),
could not be expressedin Greek-was an ineffective resolutionof the Senate. It
reflected the will and intention of a majority of the senatorspresent and voting
on a specific resolution, and was indeed recorded as such in the Journal of the
Senate, but it was a resolution to which effect could not constitutionally be
given, either because one of the tribunes had vetoed it after it was passed
(Adfam. I. 7. 4; 8. 8. 6-8) or because of some procedural irregularity.
Apart from Dio's statement, the only evidence for senatusauctoritasin the
sense of 'a resolution made ineffective through tribunician veto' is supplied by
Cicero's correspondenceand is both late and sparse-a vetoed decree on the
restoration of Ptolemy Auletes in 56 (Adfam. I. 7. 4), the three auctoritates
reported by Caelius in October 51 (Adfam. 8. 8. 4 ff.), and a letter of Cicero
in the same year (Ad Att. 5. 2. 3)-'
The Senate gave the sanction of its auctoritasto the decisions of the people,
and was the consiliumof the magistrates,who were themselves 'in auctoritate
senatus'. ('Huius ordinis auctoritate uti magistratus et quasi ministros gravissimi consilii esse voluerunt (maioresnostri)', ProSest. 137.) But the Senate was
no more than the sum of its members; so that the exercise of auctoritasand
consiliumwas the function of the individual senator, in particular of the senior
senators who spoke first and whose opinions could be expected to sway the
House.
Anyone who spoke in the Senate gave consilium.A senior senator who spoke
and, if things went properly, made the
early in the debate spoke with auctoritas
side on which he spoke the winning side. So Cicero paid tribute to the assistance which he had received in 63 from the 'consilium et auctoritas' of L.
Lucullus (Acad.2. 3) and of P. Servilius Vatia and M. Lucullus (De dom.132).
Yet the senior senator'sauctoritas
did not depend on his success in carrying the
House with him. Rome's tragedy in 51, Cicero thought five years later, was
that the 'consilium et auctoritas' of the consul Ser. Sulpicius Rufus went
unheeded: 'cuius si essemus et auctoritatem et consilium secuti, togati
potius potentiam (Caesaris) quam armati victoriam subissemus' (Ad fam.
6. i. 6). If, by his own later account, Cicero had been listened to in early 49,

x There is a nice municipal parallel for this meaning of 'auctoritas' from Veii in A.D. 26,
Dessau, IL.S. 6579.

J. P. V. D. BALSDON

44

Pompey would have gone to Spain and Caesar would have been allowed to
stand in absence for the consulship, 'sed victa est auctoritas mea' (Adfam.
6. 6.6).
'Dic, M. Tulli.' The whole essence of republicanism lay in free senatorial
debate, with the seniors taking the lead, on the current problems of the day.
This Caesar effectively abolished. The world of the dictator was one in which
there was no more place for 'consilium' and 'auctoritas'. 'Cum dominatu
unius omnia tenerentur neque esset usquam consilio aut auctoritati locus'
(De offic.2. 2). So Cicero wrote when Caesar was dead. He wrote the same in
46, in the Brutus,when Caesar was alive. The state, he said, had no more use
for the only arms which he knew how to wield, 'consili, ingeni, auctoritatis
arma' (Brutus7). 'In qua urbe modo gratia, auctoritate, gloria floruimus, in
ea nunc his quidem omnibus caremus' (Ad.fam. 4. 13. 2 (46 B.c.) ; cf. 6. 10. 2.)

The earlier you spoke in a senatorial debate, the greater your auctoritas.In
the interval between the election and the end of the year the consuls-designate
spoke first; so before I January they had auctoritasas consuls-designate,after
as consuls.
I January imperium
Then the praetors-elect,the praeAfter the consuls-designate,the consulares.
tors, and the praetorii.In the good old days junior senatorsdid not presume to
speak, even if given the opportunity. They acknowledged the greater wisdom
of Age, and voted as the consulars had voted (Dion. Hal. 7. 47-. ).
It was a feature and in part a cause of the failure of republicanismat the end
that the repositories of auctoritasin the Senate were so little fitted for their
responsibilityor, alternatively, were so easily frightened from discharging it.
We do not know how well D. lunius Silanus spoke as consul-designatewhen
he opened the debate on the punishment of Catiline's associateson the Nones,
since, of our two main authorities, Cicero's interest does not extend beyond
himself, and it was Sallust's object to minimize the importance of other
speeches in order to emphasize the importance of that comparatively junior
senator, the tribune-elect Cato. But, Catulus perhaps excepted,' no consular, it
seems, had anything important to say.
In the first debate on the food crisis on 7 September 57-when, admittedly,
there were hooligans about, throwing stones2--only three consulares-out of a
possible number of about seventeen-attended (Ad Att. 4. I. 6), 'quod tuto se
negarent posse sententiam dicere'. On the following day, when the issue was
already settled and the danger was evidently over, they were all there: 'omnes
consulares nihil Pompeio postulanti negarunt.' Again in early 43 we hear the
same story: 'erat firmissimussenatus, exceptis consularibus'(Adfam. 12. 5. 2).
If auctoritasis <dlwjia in Greek, so possibly is dignitas. There is more evidence

than Mommsen's faulty restoration of the Latin of the Res Gestaeto establish
the very close relationshipof the two concepts. 'Praestitiauctoritate.' 'Auctoritate praestans' is a phrase which occurs at least once in Cicero (Pro Cluent.
Io7) and once in Valerius Maximus (7. 2, ext. I7); and if the expression

'dignitate praestans'does not exist in surviving Latin, that is no more than an

accident. Tacitus' 'dignitas', as we know, 'started, grew, and advanced' (Hist.
I. I). The senatorial order's dignitaswas greater than that of the equestrian

order (De dom. 74; Suet. Vesp. 9. 2). There were 'gradus dignitatis' (De rep.
Plutarch, Cic. 21. 4. The roll call ofconsulares in Ad Att. 12. 2 I1. I is a roll call, no more.

- De dom. 5 ff.; 8, 'Primum dico senatoris

esse boni semper in senatum venire nec cum

his sentio qui statuunt minus bonis temporibus in senatum ipsum non venire.'

AUCTORITAS,DIGNITAS, OTIUM

45

I. 43), and you could speak of 'princepsdignitate' (Phil. I. 34). Augustus could
perfectly well have written 'dignitate omnibus praestiti'; only he did not.'
The two words were very closely linked, the one static, the other dynamic.
was the expression of a man's dignitas-though in his early De
Auzctoritas
inventione
2. 166 Cicero had put it the other way about: 'dignitas est alicuius
honesta et cultu et honore et verecundia digna auctoritas'.
In politics a man's dignitaswas his good name-that 'bona aestimatio' on
which Gaius Gracchus laid such stress.2It was his reputation and standing.
The concept was one of overwhelming importance to every outstanding politician of the late Republic. Florus rightly trumpeted the word when he was
describing the first association of the three dynasts in 59 B.c. Cato's intransigence, he says, drove Pompey to prepare defences (praesidia)for his dignitas;
Crassus was well-buttressed with birth, wealth, and dignitas; so the three
combined, 'Caesare dignitatem comparare, Crasso augere, Pompeio retinere
cupientibus' (2. 13. 9-1 I). Ten years later Caesar's complaint of Pompey was
that he wanted nobody to be his equal in dignitas(B.C. 1. 4. 4). M. Marcellus,
consul in 51, who started the agitation for Caesar's recall from Gaul, 'sibi
omnem dignitatem ex Caesaris invidia quaerebat': so Hirtius wrote (B.G.
8. 53)- Marcellus staked the whole of his reputation on his success in turning
people's feelings against Caesar.
Caesar at once made tremendousplay with his own dignitaswhen the Senate
sought to deny him the advantages promised by the legislation of 52. This is
evident from all three contemporarieswho constitute our primary sources for
the clash-Caesar himself, Hirtius,3and Cicero. Cicero's evidence is best of all
(Ad Att. 7. iI, mid-January 49), 'atque haec ait omnia facere se dignitatis
causa.'
The emotional strength of Caesar's appeal to the claim of dignitascould not
possibly have been heightened. His dignitas,he declared in negotiation with
Pompey's first envoys at Ariminum at the start of 49, was something on which
he would stake his life: 'sibi semperprimam fuissedignitatem vitaque potiorem'
(B.C. I. 9. 2).4 Cicero could not complain of such extravagant language. In 56,
defending Sestius, he had spoken in similar terms (ProSest.48) of his own conduct in 58: 'cum omnia semper ad dignitatem rettulissemnec sine ea quicquam
expetendum esse homini in vita putassem ....'
It was perhaps because of the very strong association of 'dignitas' with
Caesar's 'treason'in 49 that Augustus did not like the word, and found 'auctoritas' an acceptable alternative. As a word, it was at least untarnished.
Caesarwas a man strong enough in the worldly adjunctsof power to fight for
his own dignitas,and to uphold it. Not so Cicero.
In January 55 Cicero wrote sadly to tell Lentulus Spinther that his dream
of life as an elder statesman-'dignitas in sententiis dicendis, libertas in re
publica capessenda'-was shattered (Adfam. I. 8. 3). The acquittal of Gabinius
in October 54 drove him to tell Quintus, 'nullam esse rem publicam, nullum
senatum, nulla iudicia, nullam in ullo nostrum dignitatem' (Ad Q.f 3. 4. I).
Pliny states (Pan. 19. I f.; 61. 2) that
magistrates and administrators lost nothing
of their auctoritasin Trajan's presence, that it
was in dignitasthat he overshadowed them.
2 The phrase occurs three times in his
speech against the lex Aufeia, O.R.F.2, 187 f.

(Aul. Gell. Ii. io).

3 B.G. 8. 6. 2 and 24. 4 on Caesar's care
for his own dignitas in Gaul; 50. 4; 52. 4;
53. i on his dignitasin Rome in and after 51.
4 Cf. B.C. I. 7. 7; 1. 8. 3-

46

J. P. V. D. BALSDON

His augurship came in 53; in 51, the battle of mons Amanus. A supplicatio
and a triumph would have made full amends for 58 and 56. Hence his feverish
anxiety for both. He secured the first; the second vanished in the humiliating
suspenseof living almost under open arrestin south Italy in the winter of 48/47
before Caesar's return. There followed the horror of dynastic rule.
He had resolved, 'desideriopristinae dignitatis', to speak no more in public
(Ad.fam. 4. 4.44). But in September 46 he broke silence with his rapturously
intemperateProMarcelloand later in the year he spoke successfullyfor Ligarius.
From Corcyra Cn. Plancius wrote to congratulate him on the recovery of his
dignitas:'me meam pristinamdignitatem obtinere' (Adfam.4. 14-. ). 'And so I
have,' Cicero replied, 'if loyal feeling for the state and winning good men's
approval of those loyal feelings is all that dignitasamounts to; but if in dignitas
you include the power of translating those loyal feelings into action or of
defending them with complete freedom, then "ne vestigium quidem ullum
est reliquum nobis dignitatis".' 'Imago veteris meae dignitatis', he had written
a little earlier to Ligarius (Adfam. 6. 13. 4; cf. 6. io. 2). All 'dignitatisgradus'
were destroyed, he wrote of this period a little later in the De officiis(2. 65).
Caesar was killed, and for a few months, as it seemed, dignitaswas restored,
even auctoritas.
So much for 'dignitas'. But what of 'dignitas' and 'otium' in conjunction?
What of 'otiosa dignitas'? What of 'cum dignitate otium' ?
In view of the excitement which this latter phrase has caused its appearanceis
surprisinglyinfrequent.' Cicero used it three times. In Pro Sestio98, in March
56, he said that it was the object and duty of the statesmen of the Optimates to
direct their course like steersmen to the attainment of 'cum dignitate otium'.
In the famous letter which he wrote more than two years later to Lentulus
Spinther to explain the state of the political world to which in a few months'
time Lentulus would be returning from Cilicia, and to explain particularly
the change in Cicero's own position within that political world since Lentulus'
departure three years earlier (Adfam. I. 9. 21), he remarked, 'As I have said
on a large number of occasions, the goal of all us politicians should be "cum
dignitate otium" ', and, in between, at the very beginning of the De Oratore,
finished in 55, he wrote, 'When I think over the old days and recall them to
my mind, as I often do, the men above all others to be envied, as it seems to me,
are those who, living when governmentwas at its best, were highly distinguished
for the officeswhich they had held and for the fame of their achievements, and
could hold steadily to a course which enabled them as they pleased to be safe
and active--"in negotio sine periculo"-or "in otio cum dignitate".'
Its three appearances belong, then, to the three years 56-54. 'Otium cum
libertate' and 'otium cum servitio' are expressionsfound in Sallust'sversion of
the speech made by the consul Lepidus in 78 (Hist. I. 55- 9 and 25 M.; cf.
as he sometimes did, in parodying
3. 48. I3 M.). Was Sallust having fun,
Cicero's sententious utterances? Or did Lepidus in fact use those expressions
in 78? In which case Cicero will have made play with a familiarform of expression in 56 and later. Others, indeed, may even have spoken of 'cum dignitate
otium' before he did.
Cicero's earliest association of the two words in what survives of his writing

x For the latest discussion of this concept,

with a survey of the differing views of earlier
scholars, see Ch. Wirszubski, 'Cicero's Cum

Dignitate Otium: a reconsideration', J.R.S.

xliv (1954), 1-13-

AUCTORITAS,DIGNITAS, OTIUM

47

was in the speech which he made to the people on the day after his return to
Rome, on 5 September 57. Praising Pompey's part in securing his restoration,
he said, 'mihi unus uni privato amico eadem omnia dedit quae universae rei
publicae, salutem, otium, dignitatem' (Post red. ad pop. I6). 'Otium', like
'dignitas', could have more than one meaning. When used of individuals, it
was 'private' or 'retired', as opposed to 'active public life'. It was the state of
the man who turned his back on public life, and it was also the state of the man
who had played his full part in public life and retired from it. As such, it was
either creditable or discreditable-'honestum' or 'inhonestum'. 'Otio prodimur', as the younger Pliny was later to say (Pan. 82. 9). The 'otium' of idle
self-indulgencewas discreditable; it was concerned not with 'dignitas'but with
'voluptas' (ProSest.138). Sallust'slate-developingmoral sense austerelyforbade
him to devote his retirement from public life to farming or hunting ('servilia
officia'), but approved of his becoming a historian (Cat.4). This, certainly, was
'honestum otium'. Cicero uses the same epithet frequently of his own absorption in scholarly writing in the years in which he was forced to withdraw from
public life.' But for Cicero this was only a second-best life. It lacked dignitas.
For to desert active life for scholarship and writing, when a free choice was
open to you, was dereliction of duty. 'Cuius studio a rebus gerendis abduci
contra officium est' (De offic. I. 19 and
69-7I).

In public life 'otium' stood for peace and freedom from disturbance.2It
was relief after war, 'otium ab hostibus'. So Sallust wrote, of the period following the end of the great wars of the second century B.c. (B.I. 41, 4), 'Quod
in advorsisrebus optaverantotium, postquam adepti sunt, asperiusacerbiusque
fuit.' And if 'otium'was freedomfrom external assault,it was also freedomfrom
internal disorder, from 'tumultus' and civil war; this was 'otium domesticum'
(De leg. agr. 2. 9)-'salus communis atque otium' (Pro Sest. 5 and I5). 'Deus
nobis haec otia fecit.' From this it was not a long step to using the word for
acceptance of the statusquo,acceptance of existing political and social conditions, of 'religiones, auspicia, potestates magistratuum, senatus auctoritas,
leges, mos maiorum, iudicia, iuris dictio, fides, provinciae, socii, imperi
laus, res militaris, aerarium' (Pro Sest. 98; cf. 137). This equation was made
frequently by Cicero from 63 onwards (e.g. De leg. agr.2. 8; 3. 4; ProSest. 137)Placid acceptance of the existing r6gime was naturally viewed differentlyby
the supportersand beneficiariesof that regime-the 'natio Optimatium' in the
language of Clodius and the late-republicanPopulares(ProSest.96; cf. 137)3and by its enemies and critics. Acceptance of existing conditions, Lepidus
declared in 78, in Sallust's version of his speech, was tantamount to the
abandonment of liberty; 'otium' was 'otium cum servitio' (Hist. I. 55. 25 M.).

The retort of the conservativepolitician was the retort of Maitre Pangloss,an

assurance to the proletariat that all was for the best in the best of all possible
worlds. This is the theme of an important section of the Pro Sestiowhere,
brave, muddled, and illogical, Cicero hides under an ornamental profusionof
fine oratory the political barrennessof his own thought and the thought of his
political friends. That change and reform is a function of organic life in any
Adfam. 4- 4- 4; 7- 33. 2; Acad. I. II;
De offic. 2. 4; 3- 3. In Adfam. 5. 2I. 2 the
use of 'honestum otium' is different and, in
fact, in Cicero's writing, unique. See
Wirszubski, op. cit. 8.

2 See Wirszubski, op. cit. 4-6 for further

references to the use of 'otium'.
3 Schol. Bob. ad Pro Sest. 132 (139 St.)
says that the phrase 'natio Optimatium' was
Vatinius' invention.

48

J. P. V. D. BALSDON

healthy society, and that a great many reforms were urgently needed in the
corrupt hooligan world of Clodius, C. Cato, and the heroic Milo is not as much
as suggested. The political world is divided sharply into good men and bad,
Optimates and criminals. All are Optimates who respect the constitution and
love peace (98 f.); such men abound at every social level, from freedmen
upwards. The best men even of the proletariat are Optimates by decent
instinct. 'Omnes optimates sunt qui neque nocentes sunt nec natura improbi
nec malis domesticis impediti' (97)-all who are honest and solvent. Populares
and Optimates were, therefore,one and the same. The so-called Populareswho
preached revolution were, properly considered, 'ficte et fallaciter populares'
(De dom.77) ; or, if they lay debased claim to the title, then in strikingparadox
it could be said, 'populum ipsum non esse popularem'.
At the top level of political society were the political leaders of this great
army of good men, the 'propugnatoresreipublicae' (ProSest. o10), the 'principes' (138), with their policy, the 'consilium principum' (cf. 136). These
were men who did not seek popular applause, and rarely won it (I40 f.).
How were the facts of recent history to be squeezed into this extraordinary
mould ?
First the false 'populares'of Cicero's political world had to be distinguished
from such men as the Gracchi. Bribery was the convenient differential. A
man like Clodius had no hope of securingpolitical support unless he paid for it.
Who could imagine the Gracchi buying votes? Support for them had been
genuine support (104 f.).
Were the Gracchi then Optimates? It had to be admitted that they were not,
and that in fact the great prototypesof optimate politicians-Scaurus, Metellus
Numidicus, and Catulus--opposed that kind of genuinely 'popular' politician. Here was a crux indeed, and Cicero did his poor best to solve it. 'Multitudinis studium aut populi commodum ab utilitate rei publicae discrepabat'
(Pro Sest. IO3). The optimate politicians were right in their opposition andwe can hardly believe the evidence of our ears here-the people admitted the
fact because, when all the fuss and bother of these popular reformswas over,
and when a real crisis arose, it was to these same optimate 'principes'that the
people turned for advice-advice, moreover, which they followed. 'Ac tamen,
si quae res erat maior, idem ille populus horum auctoritate maxime commovebatur' (ProSest. IO5). Wisely Cicero contents himself with making this extraordinary claim, and does not illustrate it by a single example.
'Cum dignitate otium' stood out in contrast to 'otium sine dignitate'.'
When, too late, good men (boni)woke up to the existence of sinister plotting
on the part of seditious 'populares' and, for the sake of momentary peace
(otium),made concessionsto them rather than face a show-down, they achieved
'otium sine dignitate (Ioo), 'otium quod abhorreat a dignitate' (98). If they
woke up altogether too late, of course, they lost 'otium' and 'dignitas'too (Ioo).
Against this background we view Cicero's pipe dream of the contemporary
political world. People and optimate politicians, he claimed, saw eye to eye.
'Iam nihil est quod populus a dilectis principibusque dissentiat.' The people
had no demands to make, and it did not want civil war. 'Nec flagitat rem ullam
neque novarum rerum est cupidus.' 'Et otio suo et dignitate optimi cuiusque
et universae rei publicae gloria delectatur' (Io4). This is the 'cum dignitate
' What today might be called 'the Munich spirit'.

AUCTORITAS,DIGNITAS, OTIUM

49

otium' of the Pro Sestio-freedom from disturbance (otium),and respect for the
government and its members, who themselves deserve respect.
It is a mistake to make a problem of Cicero's saying 'dignitate optimi
cuiusque' instead of 'dignitate senatus' or 'dignitate rei publicae'.' The
'dignitas' of the government, in particular of the Senate, was the 'dignitas' of
its members-'dignitatem rei publicae sustinent' (De dom. 3)--especially its
senior members; and so the young man for whose inspirationthis tract for the
times was inserted into Sestius' defence was reminded that the Senate was
open to merit, to all citizens, whatever their origins (Pro Sest. I37).

In all the five surviving speeches delivered by Cicero in this winter following
his recall from exile there is, explicit or implied, a contrast between orderly
government, such as he thought to have been restored (De dom.25), and the
complete breakdown of government in 58 under two men whom, without
insult to the office, you could not call consuls (De dom. 62; 91), the 'novus

dominatus' (De dom.68), the banishment of Cicero and of the Republic with
him (De dom.87), and the prolonged triumph of gangsterdomwhich followed
his exile. Clodius, the prince of gangsters, was the enemy of peaceful government-'oti et pacis hostis', 'cui salus esse in otio nulla posset', he had said of
him in the De domo(i 2 f.)-while in his own recall there lay 'spes oti et concordiae'. 'Otium' had disappeared during his exile; and so had the 'dignitas'
of government, 'in republica ab aliis oppressa,ab aliis deserta, ab aliis prodita'
(De dom. 2).

With the restoration of what at least by contrast seemed settled conditions,

to talk of 'otium' and 'dignitas' was no more a mockery. A peaceful and
contented populace, a responsible,effective, and respected government-that
was 'otiosa dignitas', 'cum dignitate otium' (Pro Sest. 98). Guiding the ship
of state through the stormy seas stirred up by the 'seditiosi', the stern, hardworking and dutiful 'principes'were determined to jettison none of the traditional institutions of the Republic, to hold on course and make for harbour,
'oti illum portum et dignitatis' (98 f.). The 'otium' which they sought was for
others, not themselves (139; Post red. ad pop. I).

That is what in the Pro Sestio 'cum dignitate otium' meant. But with the
readjustmentin Cicero's own position in politics two or three months after the
Pro Sestiowas delivered, the phrase was given a new twist, and applied by
Cicero to himself, to his own 'otium' and his own 'dignitas'.
The opening remark of the De Oratore,which was finished in 55, introduces
the new conception.3 'Otium' is now retirement, the condition of the elder
statesman. His active political life, his consulshipsand proconsulshipsare at an
end. He is 'consularis', one of those Fathers of the House whose sententia,
delivered at a very early stage in a senatorial debate, could have such a powerful influence in swaying the vote of the House. This influence was his dignitas.
It was this life of influential and independent elder-statesmanship,the effective
exercise of 'consilium' and 'auctoritas', that was snatched from Cicero when
he made his capitulation in 56. 'Quae enim proposita fuerat nobis, cum et
honoribus amplissimis et laboribus maximis perfuncti essemus, dignitas in
' See Wirszubski,
op. cit. 9.
In Pro Sest. 98, 'Neque rerum gerendarum dignitate homines ecferri ita convenit ut otio non prospiciant', 'rerum
gerendarum' is an intrusion. The meaning

must be that no one should pursue careerism

(as Caesar was to do in 49) to the detriment
of the country's peace. On this, Wirszubski,
op. cit. 9 f.
3 Videsupra, p. 46.

50

J. P. V. D. BALSDON

sententiis dicendis, libertas in re publica capessenda, ea sublata totast, nec

mihi magis quam omnibus', he wrote to Spinther in early 55 (Adfam. 8. 3 f.).
I.
'Otium' he might hope still to enjoy, but not 'dignitas'. 'Dignitatem quidem
illam consularem fortis et constantis senatoris nihil est quod cogitemus.' He
had, therefore, to descend to the retirementof the author and scholar. This was
'honestum otium', but it was acceptable only faute de mieux.It was not the
retired statesman's choice.
There is finally the appearance of 'cum dignitate otium' in Adfam. I. 9. 21,
where Cicero revives, with a sad and sinister difference, the language of the
Pro Sestio.The whole plan and purpose of the letter makes his meaning clear.
He had to justify to Spinther his change of political front in 56. He revives the
image of the statesman-gubernator,steering the ship of state. In the Pro Sestio
he stayed on course, battling through the stormy seas of popular agitation to
reach harbour, 'cum dignitate otium'. Here in Adfam. I. 9. 21 is the same
steersmanwith the same object in view: 'cum omnibus nobis in administranda
re publica propositum esse debeat, id quod a me saepissime dictum est, cum
dignitate otium.' But this time the seas are too strong, and he must change
course: 'in navigando tempestati obsequi artis est.' He must make for a different harbour, but one which will give the same good shelter, 'cum dignitate
otium'. This, by his capitulation in 56, Cicero has done. As he had already told
Lentulus, he had lost the hope of 'dignitas' as an active retired politician for
himself, it must be the 'cum dignitate otium' of the Pro Sestio-'peace in our
time and respect for the government'-that, at whatever sacrifice to himself,
he has changed course in order to secure. 'Neque delendum, etiam si id fieri
posset, summorum civium principatum'; refusal to recognize the undeniable
power of the dynasts, persistencein oppositionwhich was doomed to ineffectiveness, would not, for the Roman world at large, promote 'cum dignitate otium'.'
ExeterCollege,Oxford
J. P. V. D. BALSDON
This paper was read to the Oxford
branch of the Classical Association in
January 1959, and I have been helped both

by discussion which followed the paper then

and by comments by Mr. J. R. Hawthorn of
Bradfield College, who read it in typescript.