Supplicatio

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 7.3 §5 When Cato dressed him up with the supplication

  A supplicatio was a public thanksgiving voted by the Senate for a victory, often a prelude to a triumph; Cato, who had blocked such honours for Caesar, here helped vote one for Bibulus, exposing his partisanship.

• Ad Familiares 2.15 §1 what you did with Curio in the matter of the supplication

  A supplicatio was a public thanksgiving voted by the Senate to a victorious commander, a necessary preliminary step toward a triumph; Caelius had lobbied Curio as tribune to support the motion for Cicero's supplicatio, and the man who was hostile (a rival candidate, possibly M. Marcellus) had assented.

• Ad Familiares 3.9 §4 a supplicatio be decreed me

  A supplicatio was a public thanksgiving voted by the Senate for a military success, with days of prayer at the temples; it was the usual prelude to a triumph, which Cicero is here soliciting.

• Ad Familiares 5.10a §1 my thanksgivings

  A supplicatio was a public thanksgiving decreed by the Senate after a military success, ordering days of prayer at the temples; for a commander it was the customary prelude to a triumph, which is why Vatinius is so aggrieved at not being voted one.

• Ad Familiares 8.11 §1 Your supplications

  A supplicatio was a formal public thanksgiving voted by the Senate for a general's victory; Cicero, governing Cilicia, had won one for his Amanus campaign and these are the days of thanksgiving being haggled over in Rome.

• Ad Familiares 15.4 §11 you would not vote a thanksgiving to a certain most distinguished and excellent man

  A supplicatio was a public thanksgiving voted by the Senate, opening the temples for prayers; in a victorious general's name it was a high honour and the usual prelude to a triumph. The unnamed man whom Cato opposed is Pompey; Cicero recalls Cato's scruples to flatter the consistency he now asks Cato to extend to him.

• Ad Familiares 15.5 §2 the decreed thanksgiving

  The supplicatio: a Senate-decreed period of public prayer and offerings at the temples in honour of a victory. Cato had argued for crediting Cicero's character rather than fortune, and now explains his vote.

• Ad Familiares 15.6 §2 this honour of mine, the thanksgiving, was gratifying to you, since you were present at the drafting

  The supplicatio voted for Cicero's Cilician victories. Senatorial decrees of honour were drafted (scribendo adesse) by the honorand's closest friends; Cato's presence at the drafting signalled his real goodwill, despite his austere speech against the vote.

• Ad Familiares 15.10 §2 both in the decree of the supplicatio and in other matters

  Cicero presses C. Marcellus, now consul (50 BC), to secure the public thanksgiving voted for his Cilician campaign, the customary prelude to a hoped-for triumph.

• Ad Familiares 15.13 §3 worthy of honour and public thanksgiving

  The supplicatio was a formal period of public thanksgiving to the gods voted by the Senate to honour a general's victory; it counted as official recognition and was a normal precondition for a later triumph. Cicero secured one for his Amanus campaign.

• Ad Quintum Fratrem 3.8 §3 in these leisure days of the thanksgivings

  A supplicatio was a public thanksgiving decreed by the Senate, here for Caesar's victories in Gaul, during which courts and business were suspended. Cicero means to use the holiday to finish a poem honouring Caesar.

• First Philippic §12 supplications

  A supplicatio was a public thanksgiving decreed by the Senate to honour a victorious general; it was the routine business Antony cited to summon Cicero so harshly.

• Philippica XIV §6 You decree a thanksgiving: you do not call him an enemy

  A supplicatio was a public thanksgiving of fixed days at the gods' shrines, voted for major victories. Cicero's central argument is that to decree one is logically to admit that Antony is a foreign-style enemy (hostis), not merely a wayward citizen.

• Second Philippic §13 a public thanksgiving

  A supplicatio was a formal period of public thanksgiving to the gods, decreed by the Senate; one was voted for Cicero's suppression of Catiline, the first ever granted to a man in civilian dress (togatus).

• Third Philippic §23 public thanksgiving

  A supplicatio decreed for Marcus Lepidus; Cicero notes the irony that Antony feared a tribunician veto over Lepidus's ordinary honour while his extraordinary honours were being considered daily.