imperator

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 5.20 §3 We were hailed as imperators

  After a victory a commander's troops could acclaim him 'imperator', the title that qualified him to seek a triumph and a public thanksgiving (supplicatio) at Rome. The acclamation is what Cicero spends much of the rest of book 5 hoping to convert into honours.

• Ad Atticum 6.1 §8 As to my being saluted Imperator

  Imperator was the honorific acclamation given by his troops to a victorious commander, the precondition for seeking a triumph; Cicero had been so saluted after his Cilician campaign at Pindenissus.

• Ad Atticum 9.15 §6 to Cicero \textit{imperator}

  Cicero had been hailed imperator by his troops for a minor campaign in Cilicia (51 BC) and still held the title while awaiting a triumph; Matius and Trebatius address him by it as a courtesy. The title constrained him, since an imperator could not lawfully enter the city.

• Ad Atticum 9.16 §2 ``Caesar \textit{imperator} to Cicero \textit{imperator}, greeting.

  The reciprocal salutation imperator to imperator: both men had been hailed imperator by their soldiers and so addressed one another as equals in military honour, a calculated courtesy on Caesar's part during his courtship of Cicero.

• Ad Familiares 2.7 §1 M. CICERO IMP.

  Cicero had been saluted as imperator by his troops after his campaign against the Amanus highlands and the siege of Pindenissum in late 51 BC; the title is inscribed in his salutation as governor of Cilicia, though he ultimately failed to win the triumph he sought.

• Ad Familiares 2.16 §2 imperator

  The title saluted to a victorious general by his troops; Cicero had received it after his defeat of the Amanus tribes in 51 BC. Holding the title required remaining outside the city pomerium to preserve one's imperium, which was why his laurelled fasces were an embarrassing public signal of his indecision.

• Ad Familiares 3.7 §4 an imperator

  The title acclaimed by an army to a victorious general; Cicero, hailed imperator in Cilicia, ranks the honour among the reasons he would naturally have gone out to meet Appius.

• Ad Familiares 3.9 §4 hailed as imperator

  The acclamation imperator by one's own troops after a victory was the formal prerequisite for seeking a supplicatio and triumph; Cicero won it in his Amanus campaign of 51 BC.

• Ad Familiares 3.10 §1 of a commander by his weight

  Cicero, as the sitting governor (imperator) of Cilicia, the very province Appius had just left, offers to throw the authority of his office behind Appius's defence.

• Ad Familiares 7.13 §1 the imperator consults you

  Imperator, the victory-title of a commander hailed by his troops, here means Caesar; Cicero jokes that what swells Trebatius's head is being asked for legal opinions by the great general himself.

• Ad Familiares 8.7 §2 a commander-in-chief should be obliged to ask each man in turn

  Caelius mock-relishes the picture of Cicero, saluted imperator by his troops after his Cilician campaign, having to go round asking who the adulteress was --- deflating the grand military title with low gossip.

• Ad Familiares 12.11 §1 L. Murcus and Q. Crispus, commanders

  L. Statius Murcus and Q. Marcius Crispus, the two governors with armies in Syria who joined Cassius; "commanders" renders imp. (imperator), the victory-title their troops had given them.

• Ad Familiares 15.4 §1 M. CICERO IMP. S. D. M. CATONI

  IMP. = imperator, the title by which troops acclaimed a victorious general; Cicero's soldiers had hailed him so after the Amanus campaign, and the salutation flags the very claim this letter presses on Cato. S. D. = salutem dicit, 'sends greeting'.