And Shakleton Bailey on Carcopino
"Three letters from you have now come to hand, the first by M. Cornelius, given him I think at Tres Tabernae, the second forwarded to me by your host at Canusium, the third dispatched from the boat 'as they loosed the cable': all of them, to speak euphuistically, not only sprinkled with the salt of courtesy but also distinguished by tokens of affection. In them you challenged a reply, but I have been rather slow in making one because I can't find a trustworthy carrier. There are so few who can carry a letter of any substance without lightening the weight by perusal."
Salutations from Cicero to his friend Atticus, from one of the earlier letters in the book. Where the correspondence takes up, Cicero is about 40, so a man of substance already. As he remarked elsewhere, it was harder for him to find a carrier to Athens than for Atticus to find someone headed for Rome. ("Atticus" is merely a nickname to one who spent much time in Greece; Cicero refers to them both as philhellenes.) It intimates some of the challenges in finding a trustworthy messenger; frequently correspondence will entail reference to "a certain person" when someone specific is meant (say, Pompey)—no doubt a precaution lest the wrong eyes take and misuse the information. Other things he waits till a more dependable messenger becomes available.
So, I am underway: Cicero seems affable, politic, a bit full of himself (as you would expect), but provides a nice picture of machinations in the Senate and courts and public life in Rome—among the upper crust at least. He is a businessman at least, or rather, a man of business—meaning he means business, he takes care of business—so a certain amount of his concerns involves buying and selling properties. From previous readings in Cicero I already know that his house in Tusculum was his greatest pleasure.
D.R. Shackleton Bailey, writing in the 70s, warns in his bibliographical note:
Salutations from Cicero to his friend Atticus, from one of the earlier letters in the book. Where the correspondence takes up, Cicero is about 40, so a man of substance already. As he remarked elsewhere, it was harder for him to find a carrier to Athens than for Atticus to find someone headed for Rome. ("Atticus" is merely a nickname to one who spent much time in Greece; Cicero refers to them both as philhellenes.) It intimates some of the challenges in finding a trustworthy messenger; frequently correspondence will entail reference to "a certain person" when someone specific is meant (say, Pompey)—no doubt a precaution lest the wrong eyes take and misuse the information. Other things he waits till a more dependable messenger becomes available.
So, I am underway: Cicero seems affable, politic, a bit full of himself (as you would expect), but provides a nice picture of machinations in the Senate and courts and public life in Rome—among the upper crust at least. He is a businessman at least, or rather, a man of business—meaning he means business, he takes care of business—so a certain amount of his concerns involves buying and selling properties. From previous readings in Cicero I already know that his house in Tusculum was his greatest pleasure.
D.R. Shackleton Bailey, writing in the 70s, warns in his bibliographical note:
The only modern commentary on the entire correspondence, that of Tyrrell and Purser (7 vols., 1904-33, recently reprinted), is a mine of honest misinformation. On the other hand, J. Carcopino's Les Secrets de la correspondance de Ciceron (2 vols., 1947; Engl. tr. 1951), a farrago of garbled facts and false inferences, is more worthy of an unscrupulous prosecuting attorney than a serious scholar.
I hold Penguins in high regard—certainly those of an earlier era—and have seen nothing as yet to make me sceptical of Shackleton Bailey; so I must take the aspersions he casts against Carcopino with something more than a grain of salt. Available copies online are too costly for me to buy, and our library system in Chicago, which has it, only appears to allow for in-house use downtown, so it is unlikely I will manage to see the Carcopino.
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