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Quod: connecting relative.

servos suos ad se vocat – his imperat ut se ipsum neglegant: the *alliteration underscores the telling dynamic of Philodamus summoning his slaves to him only to tell them to disregard his own safety.

ut se ipsum neglegant, filiam defendant: the *asyndeton (no et or equivalent after neglegant) conveys something of the breathlessness and urgency with which Philodamus issues his orders.

excurrat: subjunctive – syntactically, Cicero continues the ut-clause introduced by imperat. Just as the *asyndeton (see previous note), the disjointed, *elliptic language underscores the stress Philodamus experiences.

domestici mali … tota domo … domi suae: Cicero emphasizes by means of a *figura etymologica and the *polyptoton domo – domi that the commotion takes place not in public spaces but a private dwelling – this is not a riot of provincials, but an attack carried out by Romans on what ought to be a sanctuary of peace for the owners. The domestic motif continues with ad aedis contendit and ad aedis … convenerunt.⁷⁵

pugna inter servos Rubri atque hospitis: Cicero elides the verb; it is either est or fit (from the previous sentence).

iactatur domi suae vir primarius et homo honestissimus: Cicero’s syntax enacts the confusion he depicts – the subject comes at the end (rather than the beginning) and the verb (iactatur) at the beginning (rather than the end).

vir primarius et homo honestissimus: Cicero uses an elaborate paraphrasis of Philodamus that combines the generic terms vir and homo with superlative attributes and a climactic increase of syllables (1:4 :: 2:5); the *alliteration homo honestissimus reinforces the overall effect of pathos and outrage at the Romans’ utter disregard for the respectability and social standing of their host.

… Philodamus perfunditur: again, the subject is effectively delayed until the very end; the two words go well together at the sound level (perhaps enacting the drenching?), not least since all five vowels feature (i-o-a-u + e-u-i-u).

Haec ubi filio nuntiata sunt: there is a minor inconcinnity in Cicero’s account: for the violence against the father, of which the son is notified here, occurred after Philodamus’ orders to his slaves to fetch his son (see excurrat aliquis); so either the slaves waited to witness the further developments or we have to reckon with two messengers.

exanimatus: literally, exanimatus (the participle of ex-animo) means ‘deprived of one’s soul/ life (anima)’, hence killed, but it is also used figuratively to signify ‘paralyzed with fear or passion’. This metaphorical usage is particularly widespread in New Comedy; Cicero, too, uses exanimatus frequently in this sense to heighten the drama of a situation.

lictor istius Cornelius: Roman magistrates were accompanied by attendants who helped them carry out their official duties; they famously carried the fasces, which symbolized the right and the power to command and exercise jurisdiction. The number of lictors varied according to office: a Roman consul had twelve, a legate two.⁷⁶ The presence of the lictor, at an advanced stage of the fighting, comes as somewhat of a surprise. Cicero gives the impression that he had been there from the start, and was supposed to play a key role in the abduction plot. But another scenario, suggested by Steel (2004) 241, is equally plausible: that he was ‘summoned once the fight began’. The brawling, after all, went on for some time: if Philodamus was able to dispatch messengers to recall his son (and the entire town to gather around Philodamus’ house at the news of the commotion), Verres, too, must have become aware of the disorder in the city – and sending a lictor in the first instance to see that order was observed would have been an obvious thing to do.

Cornelius … occiditur; servi … vulnerantur; ipse Rubrius … sauciatur: in all three passive constructions, Cicero studiously suppresses the agent – in contrast to his earlier specification that Philodamus was drenched in boiling water ‘by Rubrius’ (a Rubrio ipso Philodamus perfunditur). The killing and the wounding occur in the wake of the son rushing (contendit) to the house to aid his father and sister and the Lampsacenes coming together (convenerunt) in outrage, but Cicero passes over in silence what these parties actually did upon arrival. He thereby elegantly sidesteps the issue of who was actually responsible for the death of a Roman official.

quasi in praesidio ad auferendam mulierem conlocatus: a paradoxical formulation: praesidium usually occurs in scenarios of protection, not abduction. As often when he experiments conceptually, Cicero here hedges with the modifier quasi, which puts imaginary scare-quotes around in praesidio, thus signalling the irony.

Iste … qui … videret: Cicero here describes Verres’ reaction to the turmoil as if he were an eye-witness (clearly the impression he wished to generate among members of the jury). But videre can also have (as here) the more abstract meaning, ‘perceive’, ‘come to understand’. As Steel (2004) 238 points out ‘Cicero is not saying something obviously false, and the alert reader will see that he must mean that Verres wished that he were no longer in Lampsacus.’

cupere: Cicero uses the historic infinitive, instead of a finite verb form, to enhance the vividness of his account.