Alone in a Crowd: Cicero, Ad Att. I.18.1

 

 

Name:  Cicero Date:  106 – 43 BCE Region:  Rome [modern Italy] Citation:  Letters To Atticus 1.18.1

Atticus, the only thing I need right now is one person that I can unload my troubles to, who cares for me, who knows me, who can talk to me. I need someone I don’t have to be fake around, someone I don’t have to lie to, someone I don’t have to walk on eggshells around.

 

Right now, my brother—my breath of fresh air, my dearest one—isn’t here. Metellus isn’t really a person, but a “deserted beach and air and empty desert.”

And you—who have so often comforted my anxiety and my stress with your kind words and advice, you who are my right-hand man in politics, you who know my every private thought, you who are usually by my side in all my dealings and all my business—where are you?

I have been so utterly forsaken by everybody, that the only refuge I can find is with my wife and my little girl and my sweet son Junior.

All of those social-climbing and fake “friends” I have in public don’t exist in private. Although my home office is full during business hours, and when I travel to the Forum I’m surrounded by a flock of “friends,” but out of that giant flock of people, I can’t really find a single person with whom I can laugh or cry with.

 

And so I wait for you. I long for you. I’m begging for you. I’m really stressed right now. I feel like if I could just talk with you for a little bit, I’d be okay.

Cicero Attico Sal.

Nihil mihi nunc scito tam deesse quam hominem eum, quocum omnia, quae me cura aliqua adficiunt, una communicem, qui me amet, qui sapiat, quicum ego cum loquar, nihil fingam, nihil dissimulem, nihil obtegam. 

Abest enim frater aphelestatos et amantissimus. Metellus non homo, sed "litus atque aer et solitudo mera." Tu autem, qui saepissime curam et angorem animi mei sermone et consilio levasti tuo, qui mihi et in publica re socius et in privatis omnibus conscius et omnium meorum sermonum et consiliorum particeps esse soles, ubinam es? Ita sum ab omnibus destitutus, ut tantum requietis habeam, quantum cum uxore et filiola et mellito Cicerone consumitur. Nam illae ambitiosae nostrae fucosaeque amicitiae sunt in quodam splendore forensi, fructum domesticum non habent. Itaque, cum bene completa domus est tempore matutino, cum ad forum stipati gregibus amicorum descendimus, reperire ex magna turba neminem possumus, quocum aut iocari libere aut suspirare familiariter possimus. Quare te exspectamus, te desideramus, te iam etiam arcessimus. Multa sunt enim, quae me sollicitant anguntque; quae mihi videor aures nactus tuas unius ambulationis sermone exhaurire posse.  

 Cicero [Marcus Tullius Cicero; 106 – 43 BCE, modern Italy] was an Italian-born Roman statesman and author who lived during the complexities of Rome’s transition from Republic to monarchy. Cicero spent most of his life in service of his country, serving as both a lawyer, senator, and even consul [Roman equivalent of president]. He is known for his suppression of the failed governmental coup in 63 BCE known as the Catilinarian conspiracy that occurred during his consulship. After the rise of Octavian [later known as the first Roman emperor Augustus], his views fell out of favor and he was eventually put to death during the proscriptions under the Second Triumvirate [Octavian, Marc Antony and Lepidus]. He was a prolific author in a wide range in genres, and his literary style was adopted by Petrarch as the default model for the Latin language.

Own Voices: A Fragment of Cleomachus, Poetae Lyrici Graeci 32

Cleomachus in Their Own Words: The Only Extant Line of Cleomachus’ poetry

Name:   Cleomachus Date:       4th century BCE    Region:   [modern Greece]    Citation: Greek Lyric Poets, Fragment 2.32

 

Who took my cup? I was still drinking that…

Τίς τὴν ὑδρίην ἡμῶν ἐψόφησ; ἐγὼ πίνων...

Quis mihi calicem ademit?  Ego bibens… Translated into Latin by Kris Masters

Cleomachus [4th century BCE] According to Strabo, Cleomachus was an Olympic boxer who became a poet after falling in love with a man. The Christian author Tertullian adds more information to this transformation, adding that the poet “covered the scars of their gauntlets with bangles, and exchanged their athletic jersey for a dress.”

When Your Name Becomes A Verb: Cleomachus' Fame, Tricha On Meters p. 34

“To Cleomachize:” When Your Name Becomes a Verb

Name:   Tricha Date:     Unknown     Region:      Unknown Citation:    On Metres p.34

“To Cleomachize” is to use the poetic meter that Cleomachus used to use. Cleomachus was a boxer at first, then fell in love with some guy (or so it goes), and began to write poetry.

τοῦτο δὲ καὶ κλεομάχειον λέγεται, ὅτι πολλῷ αὐτῷ  ὁ ποιητὴς Κλεόμαχος χρῆται, ὅς πύκτης μὲν πρότερον, ὡς φασὶν, ἦν, ἐρασθεὶς δε τινος νέου, τὴν ποιητικὴν μετεχειρίσατο.

Quod “Cleomachare” dicitur, est quibusdam metris uti, quibus Cleomachus poeta uti solebat. Qui primum pugil fuit, deinde in iuvenis cuiusdam amore  raptus, versus componere incepit. Translated into Latin by Kris Masters

Tricha Little is known about the life of Tricha, but this author’s work On Metres preserves numerous quotes of otherwise lost poets. It can be found in Appendix ad Draconem Stratonicensem (Teubner, 1814).

Challenging Misogyny: Aulus Gellius, Noct. Att. I.vi.1-3

Name: Aulus Gellius  Date: 125 – 180 CE Region:  Rome [modern Italy] Citation:  Athenian Nights 1.6.1-3

 

The following speech was delivered by the serious and articulate Metellus Numidicus to an audience of many learned men. He delivered this speech on marriage when he was a Censor, when he ought to have encouraged people to marry. In this speech, he said,

 

“Citizens, if we could live without wives, we would all live a trouble-free life. But since nature has arranged that ‘we can’t live with them, can’t live without them,’ we should probably get married so we can have future stability instead of brief pleasure.”

Many people think that as a Censor [who ought to have encouraged people to get married], Metellus shouldn’t have brought up the inconveniences and usual troubles of matrimony, and that this speech seemed to dissuade people from getting married instead of encouraging them. Instead, they say he ought to have said that there aren’t really any troubles in marriage, and if some happen occasionally, they are easy to manage, and that the good times outweigh the bad times. Moreover, these “bad times” do not occur naturally, but only happen because of the spouse’s misdeed.

 Multis et eruditis viris audientibus legebatur oratio Metelli Numidici, gravis ac diserti viri, quam in censura dixit ad populum de ducendis uxoribus, cum eum ad matrimonia capessenda hortaretur. In ea oratione ita scriptum fuit: "Si sine uxore possemus, Quirites, omnes ea molestia careremus; set quoniam ita natura tradidit, ut nec cum illis satis commode, nec sine illis uno modo vivi possit, saluti perpetuae potius quam brevi voluptati consulendum est." Videbatur quibusdam Q. Metellum censorem, cui consilium esset ad uxores ducendas populum hortari, non oportuisse de molestia incommodisque perpetuis rei uxoriae confiteri, neque id hortari magis esse quam dissuadere absterrereque; set contra in id potius orationem debuisse sumi dicebant, ut et nullas plerumque esse in matrimoniis molestias adseveraret et, si quae tamen accidere nonnumquam viderentur, parvas et leves facilesque esse toleratu diceret maioribusque eas emolumentis et voluptatibus oblitterari easdemque ipsas neque omnibus neque naturae vitio, set quorundam maritorum culpa et iniustitia evenire. 

 Aulus Gellius lived during the 2^nd century CE. His work, the Attic Nights, are a collection of anecdotes about literature, history, and grammar.  From internal evidence, we can deduce that he was in the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius’ social circle, having close friendships with Herodes Atticus and Fronto.

 

Found Family: Cleomachus, The Boxer/Poet: Strabo, Geog. XIV.1.41

The Trans Poet Cleomachus’ Found Family

Name:  Strabo Date:         64 BCE – 24 CE Region:     Amasia [modern Turkey] Citation:       Geography 14.1.40

When Cleomachus the Boxer was smitten with a certain cinaedus [1] and the girl he was raising, they began to imitate the speech patterns and mannerisms of a cinaedus.

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 [1] The term cinaedus is an umbrella term and cannot be accurately translated here. The original term refers to a bird that wiggles its tail, used to describe exotic dancers who "shake their booty." It can refer to human trafficking victims, same-sex couples, non-binary persons, etc. Although some authors use it as an insult (e.g., Catullus), it does not always have a negative connotation; Phlegon of Tralles uses this term in the next passage to describe men capable of giving birth.

καὶ Κλεόμαχος ὁ πύκτης, ὃς εἰς ἔρωτα ἐμπεσὼν κιναίδου τινὸς καὶ παιδίσκης ὑπὸ τῷ κιναίδῳ τρεφομένης ἀπεμιμήσατο τὴν ἀγωγὴν τῶν παρὰ τοῖς κιναίδοις διαλέκτων καὶ τῆς ἠθοποιίας:

Item Cleomachus pugil, qui in cinaedi cuiusdam & ancillae amore incidens, quae a cinaedo alebatur, cinaedorum et orationem et mores est imitatus. Translated into Latin by  Conradus Heresbachius

A Boxer, and A Fighter By Her Trade: Cleomachus, Tertullian de Pallio 4.4

Cleomachus, a Boxer and a Fighter by Her Trade

Name: Tertullian Date:  155 – 220 CE Region:   Carthage [modern Tunisia] Citation:   On the Pallium 4.4

But there’s someone who surpasses the Hercules: the boxer Cleomachus! After their masculinity underwent an unbelievable transformation at Olympia, (where they had their surgery) they were lauded in Novius’ Fullers’ Tale and memorialized in the mime Lentulus’ Catinians. They covered the scars of their gauntlets with bangles, and exchanged their athletic jersey for a dress.

 

Cleomachus, a Boxer and a Fighter by Her Trade

Sed et qui ante Tirynthium accesserat, pugil Cleomachus, post Olympiae cum incredibili mutatu de masculo fluxisset, intra cutem caesus et ultra, inter Fullonesiam Novianos coronandus meritoque mimographo Lentulo in Catinensibus commemoratus, utique sicut vestigia cestuum viriis occupauit, ita et endromidis solocem aliqua multicia synthesi extrusit.

Tertullian [Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 – 220 CE, modern Tunisia] was an early Christian theologian who lived in Carthage during the 2nd century CE. He was one of the most prolific authors of his age; more than thirty of his treatises are extant. These works shaped the core beliefs of the early Christian church. Although some of his beliefs were later deemed heretical, he was nevertheless granted sainthood for his profound impact on Christianity.

Caeneus: A Trans Warrior Battling Centaurs, Apollodorus Epitome xxii

Name: [Pseudo]Apollodorus Date:   1st – 2nd century CE Region:    Unknown Citation:    Library Epitome 22

Caeneus was originally a woman, but after being attacked by Poseidon, asked to become an invulnerable man. Therefore, when he was battling the centaurs, he slew many of them without receiving any injury himself, until finally the remaining centaurs surrounded him and drove him into the earth with fir trees. 

Caeneus, virgo ab Neptuno compressa, petiit ut vir fieret, et atrotus*; et sic evenit. Qui cum pugnaret contra centauros, multos se incolumi interfecit; tandem reliqui centaurorum eum circumstantes abietibus in terram compresserunt et suffocaverunt.

ὅτι Καινεὺς πρότερον ἦν γυνή, συνελθόντος δὲ αὐτῇ Ποσειδῶνος ᾐτήσατο ἀνὴρ γενέσθαι ἄτρωτος: διὸ καὶ ἐν τῇ πρὸς Κενταύρους μάχῃ τραυμάτων καταφρονῶν πολλοὺς τῶν Κενταύρων ἀπώλεσεν, οἱ δὲ λοιποί, περιστάντες αὐτῷ, ἐλάταις τύπτοντες ἔχωσαν εἰς γῆν.

atrotus, a, um (ἄτρωτος ): unwounded, invulnerable 

--Apollodorus, Epitome I.22; Translated into Latin by K. Masters

  Apollodorus [1st – 2nd century CE] is the name of the author of a famous collection of myths called the Bibliotheca / Library. Little is known about the author’s background or history.