person
Gaius Memmius
Memmius
also: C. Memmius, C. MEMMIO, Memmio, Memmius
Gaius Memmius (praetor 58 BC), orator and literary patron — Lucretius dedicated the De Rerum Natura to him. He acquired the site of Epicurus's ruined house and garden at Athens, intending to build there; Fam. 13.1 asks him to relinquish the claim so the Epicurean Patro can preserve the school's holy ground. Convicted of ambitus in 52 BC, he withdrew into exile at Athens and then Mytilene.
Reading notes
- Ad Familiares 13.1 §1 M. CICERO S. D. C. MEMMIO
The salutation: "Marcus Cicero sends greetings to Gaius Memmius." C. Memmius was a Roman politician and poet (patron of Lucretius), who had suffered a legal reversal and was living in exile at Athens; the "wrong done to you" in this section refers to that exile.
- Ad Familiares 13.2 §1 CICERO MEMMIO S.
The abbreviated salutation: "Cicero to Memmius, greetings" (salutem dicit). C. Memmius is the same exiled politician-poet addressed in 13.1; he was now living in Athens where he had acquired property.
- Ad Familiares 13.3 §1 CICERO MEMMIO S.
A second brief letter of recommendation to the same C. Memmius in exile at Athens. S. = salutem dicit, "sends greetings."
- Ad Quintum Fratrem 2.14 §4 the syndicate of Memmius and the consuls with Domitius
A coitio: the consular candidate C. Memmius struck a corrupt bargain with the sitting consuls of 54, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus and Ap. Claudius, to pool resources and rig the elections; M. Aemilius Scaurus, a rival candidate, was outbidding them.