This web site represents an online version of the book Cicero, On Pompey’s Command (De Imperio), 27-49 by Ingo Gildenhard, Louise Hodgson, et al., published by Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK, in 2014. Paperback, hardback, and .pdf versions can be obtained directly from OBP. The content of this site is substantially the same as that of the book, except that, in conformance with the normal DCC editorial policy, we put macrons on the Latin text, added audio recordings, and omitted the translation, and added full vocabulary lists in the DCC style (certain very common words are omitted). I would like to express my warm thanks to Prof. Gildenhard and to Open Book Publishers, first, for publishing under the kind of open license that makes such re-use possible, and second for their considerable help in the preparation of the site. Particular thanks are due to Bianca Gualandi, OBP's Digital Product Manager, and to Francesca Giovannetti, who undertook the difficult task of putting the original files into HTML files that we could use. Without her work the adaptation to the DCC format would have been far more difficult. The Drupal pages and menus were created by Lara Frymark and Chris Francese at Dickinson College, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Chris Francese, Dickinson College (July 21, 2015)
This commentary has its origins in a neat coincidence: for the years 2015-2017, the prose text of the OCR Latin AS-Level specifications comes from a speech by Cicero, the pro (or de) lege Manilia (‘In support of/ About the law of Manilius’) or (our preference) de imperio Cn. Pompei (‘On the command of Gnaeus Pompeius’) that, for the last few years, has also been one of the set texts first-year Classics students read at the University of Cambridge. (Given that it is now part of the OCR examination, it’s off the Cambridge syllabus from 2015.)
Here was a perfect opportunity to link up the study of Latin at school and university. In the summer of 2013 a group of our so-called ‘Prelims’ – undergraduates who arrive at Cambridge without having studied Latin or Greek at school and spend a ‘preliminary year’ bringing their Latin up to A-level standards, before starting our regular three-year degree programme – signed up to hammering out a commentary on the OCR set text. And in autumn 2013, they were joined by a group of first-year undergraduates who arrived at Cambridge with A-level Latin, happened to have their first-term Latin literature supervision channelled to King’s College, and thus got co-opted into the commentary project. All contributed key ideas and inspiring draft versions to the final product. The student co-authors, and their College affiliation, are George Lord (Christ’s); Molly Richards (Clare); Nnenda Chinda and Rachel Franks (Downing); Hannah Philp (Emmanuel); Charlotte Frude, Grace Miller, Heather Shorthouse, and Samantha Tarling (Fitzwilliam); Jake Cohen-Setton, Eleanor Hussey, Billy Robinson, and Pete Westcott (Jesus); Qasim Alli, Ashley Chhibber, Reece Edmends, Naomi Farhi, and Harry Strawson (King’s); Emily Dean, Charlotte Furniss-Roe, Alice Greenwood, and Georgie Illingworth (Murray Edwards); and Bryony Hutchinson and Alex Nelson (St. Catherine’s).
Last but not least, Louise Hodgson, who received her doctorate from Durham University in 2013 for a dissertation on the political culture of the late Roman republic, generously agreed to do the heavy lifting on the Introduction and the Further Resources and kindly vetted the rest of the volume.
The commentary, then, is a work of multiple authorship. I personally claim credit for a tweak here, an editorial intervention there; any remaining mistakes or oversights are also mine, all mine, though fortunately their number has been vastly reduced (once more) by John Henderson, OBP’s summus lector. It would require a Cicero to sing his praises, so let me simply say that you’ll find his virtus, humanitas, ingenium, and urbanitas sparkling on every page, not least the Introduction.
Ingo Gildenhard, King’s College Cambridge
PS: The portion of the speech set for the AS-examination (§§ 27-45) covers most of Cicero’s portrait of the perfect general but leaves out the end (§§ 46-49). We are convinced that most, if not all, students would wish to read the full account and have therefore included these additional paragraphs in the present edition.
Image on this page: Ingo Gildenhard. Source: The Prince's Teaching Institute.
Cover image on DCC front page: Bust of Pompey the Great in the Copenhagen Glyptotek. Source: Louise Alkjaer, used by permission.