P. Africanum, i.e. Aemilianus: he was cousin (by adoption) and brother-in-law of Gracchus, and friendly to the spirit of his reforms, although not sympathizing with his violent course. C. Carbone: C. Carbo was an unscrupulous politician who supported Ti. Gracchus, but afterwards was a bitter antagonist of C. Gracchus. Ahala, etc.: these are cases which would have to be called infamous murders unless the principle that homicide is sometimes justifiable were admitted. The instances referred to were stock examples in Roman oratory (see Cat. 1, sects. 3, 4), though, in fact, Ahala and the others were all driven into exile by a reaction of popular feeling. senatus: because the execution of the Catilinarian conspirators was by vote of the Senate. fictis fabulis, properly, mythical dramas: the reference is to the Eumenides of Aeschylus, which treats of the expiation of the guilt of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, at the court of Areopagus in Athens. When six judges had pronounced for condemnation and six for acquittal, Pallas gave her casting vote for mercy. doctissimi, i.e. the greatest poets.
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Select Orations of. Cicero. Allen and Greenough's Edition. Revised by J. B. Greenough and G. L. Kittredge, with a special vocabulary by J. B. Greenough.
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