Review
Mary Siani-Davies (trans.), Cicero's Speech: Pro Rabirio Postumo, translated with introduction and commentary. New York and Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. xiv + 282.
ISBN 0-19-924096-5.
Reviewed by Jerise Fogel, Columbia University (jf23@columbia.edu)
(fragment)
Postumus, originally C. Curtius Postumus but as an adult adopted by his uncle C. Rabirius, was a rich eques and publican accused in this case
of having illegally financed Ptolemy Auletes himself and a Roman propraetor who (without the Senate's permission) used a Roman army from
his province to march on Alexandria and replace the King on the Egyptian throne from which he had been expelled, allegedly by popular
uprising. Postumus had been a longtime friend of Cicero. Postumus, S. argues in a tour-de-force, became politically more prominent than one
might expect of a banker because of his successful financing of triumviral adventures such as this one on behalf of both Pompey and
Caesar; he apparently won acquittal in 54/53 and continued as financier to Caesar and later Octavian, possibly retiring to the Bay of Naples
area to become among other things the wealthy elderly addressee of Horace's Ode 2.14. This section of the Introduction freshly combines
literary, papyrological and epigraphic sources, including a tessera nummularia containing the name possibly of Postumus' uncle and adoptive
father (p. 47 n. 30), an unpublished inscription (Gian Luca Gregori's help is acknowledged in preface, and S. should be credited with having
fruitfully developed contacts with many fine scholars internationally on this project), and assorted evidence about Postumus' freedmen and
freedwomen) to provide a convincing identification of Postumus as not only the Curtius Postumus of Cicero's correspondence but also the
Caesarian adherent Rabirius Postumus in Caesar's Bellum Africanum, and Horace's Postumus. The careful nomenclature study here is a model of
its kind and will be useful to all students of the Roman naming system. Again, the use of Carla Balconi's article is a sign of the care S. has
taken. The development of Postumus' apparent Volaterran Etruscan connections and his Campanian connections, is persuasive and explains
many points in Cicero's speech in passing (most notably the reference to Postumus' assistance to his own father, whom Cicero had claimed he
had never seen with his own eyes). Postumus' rise from trader/financier to important political figure with connections to all triumvirs is
outlined in cogent detail on pp. 52-65.
64
61 BC
SPEECH IN DEFENCE OF CAIUS RABIRIUS POSTUMUS
(PDF-bestand)
Marcus Tullius Cicero. Vertaald door Charles Duke Yonge, A.B.
Caesar
Over 'the Caesarian adherent Rabirius Postumus in Caesar's Bellum Africanum' zie:
Julius Caesar's War Commentaries - The African Wars. Paragraaf
8 en
26.
Horatio
Zie over 'Horace's Postumus':
Horace, Ode 2.14 door Michael Gilleland.
Zie ook het gedicht HIS AGE, DEDICATED TO HIS PECULIAR FRIEND,
M. JOHN WICKES, UNDER THE NAME OF POSTHUMUS. door Robert Herrick.
Horaz
Duitse vertaling, (Ubersetzt ins Deutsch, translate into German, traduction en Allemand).
An Postumus.
Bedenk, mein lieber Postumus.
Worte: nach "Eheu fugaces", Q. Horatius Flaccus, übertragen von Theodor Harssewinkel.
Horace
Franse vertaling, (traduction en Francais, Ubersetzt ins Französisch, translate into French).
D'après HORACE - Ode II.14 — à Postumus —,
dans la traduction du Comte de Séguier (1883).
Extrait - Livre 02 - Ode 14 - À POSTUMUS,
traduit du latin par Leconte de Lisle.
Propertius
Over Propertius' Postumus: Synthese Propertius
Hoofdstuk 2 Synthese van informatie uit naslagwerken, paragraaf Leven, sub-paragraaf
Vrienden en collega's.