Appius Claudius Pulcher

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 3.17 §1 Appius is the questor in charge

  Appius Claudius Pulcher, elder brother of Cicero's enemy Clodius, presiding over the court (quaestio) that threatened Quintus --- hence Cicero's alarm. The Latin "Appi quaestio" means "the inquiry is Appius's"; "questor" here renders the presiding role, not the junior magistracy.

• Ad Atticum 4.2 §3 a public meeting which Appius had given him

  A contio, an informal public assembly that any magistrate could convene to address the people without a vote. Appius Claudius Pulcher, Clodius's elder brother and a praetor in 57 BC, summoned this one so Clodius could spin the pontiffs' verdict.

• Ad Atticum 4.18 §4 go off to Cilicia at his own charge, without a law

  Ap. Claudius Pulcher, consul 54, intended to leave for his province of Cilicia without waiting for the usual enabling law (lex curiata); Cicero would succeed him there in 51.

• Ad Atticum 5.14 §1 a mutiny of the soldiers had been put down by Appius

  Ap. Claudius Pulcher, Cicero's predecessor as governor of Cilicia, had quelled a pay-mutiny among the legions before handing over the province. Their stipendium had been paid in full down to the Ides of July, just before Cicero took command.

• Ad Atticum 5.17 §6 set off from Laodicea all the way to Tarsus

  Rather than wait to hand over the province in person, Appius withdrew to its far eastern corner at Tarsus and continued to hold assizes there, an affront to his successor Cicero. Cicero declines to make an issue of it, busy as he is repairing the damage Appius had left behind.

• Ad Familiares 2.13 §2 my own colleague besides, and, in the very prestige and learning of our college, a partisan of mine

  Cicero and Appius were both augurs, members of the prestigious college of augurs; Appius had supported Cicero's augural positions. The collegiality deepened their formal reconciliation after Appius's hostile governorship of Cilicia.

• Ad Familiares 3.1 §1 CICERO APPIO IMP. S. D.

  The formal epistolary heading: "Cicero to Appius, imperator, sends greeting." IMP. (imperator) was the honorific won by a victorious commander and saluted by his troops; Appius held it from his Cilician campaign. S. D. abbreviates salutem dicit.

• Ad Familiares 3.5 §1 CICERO S. D. APPIO PVLCHRO

  The standard epistolary opener: "Cicero salutem dicit Appio Pulchro" --- Cicero sends greeting to Appius Pulcher, the outgoing governor of Cilicia whom Cicero is succeeding.

• Ad Familiares 5.10a §1 an Appius

  Appius Claudius Pulcher (consul 54 BC), Vatinius's predecessor in the command; proverbial for his hauteur, so that "the brass of an Appius" stands for an effrontery Vatinius says even he could not muster in refusing the petitioners.

• Ad Familiares 8.14 §4 Appius our censor is producing prodigies

  As censor in 50 BC Appius Claudius Pulcher conducted a severe purge of senatorial morals; Caelius mocks his zeal over luxury-goods (statues, pictures), property assessment, and debt.

• Ad Quintum Fratrem 2.13 §3 Appius

  Ap. Claudius Pulcher, consul 54 BC, Domitius's colleague; his run on Caesar in Cisalpine Gaul that year is the joke about ``going to fetch some tribunate.'' Cicero will conclude an open accommodation with Appius later in 54.

• On Divination §1.132 the necromancies which your friend Appius was wont to employ

  Psychomancy, the calling-up of the spirits of the dead to foretell the future. Cicero's colleague Appius Claudius Pulcher was notorious for practising it.

• Tusculan Disputations §1.37 my friend Appius used to perform, his \textit{Consultation of the Dead [Greek: nekyomanteia]}

  Appius Claudius Pulcher (cos. 54 BC), an associate of Cicero's known for his interest in augury and necromancy; Cicero gently mocks his practice of consulting the dead (nekyomanteia). The reference is to rites performed near Lake Avernus.