Aulus Hirtius

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 12.34 §2 I have sent you Hirtius' letter, both fresh and kindly written

  Aulus Hirtius, a leading Caesarian and consul-designate, had written warmly to Cicero, who forwards the letter to Atticus. Cultivating such men mattered both for consolation and for the Faberian financing of the gardens.

• Ad Atticum 12.40 §1 from the book Hirtius has sent me

  A. Hirtius, a leading Caesarian and consul-designate, had written his own polemic against Cato that anticipated Caesar's; he sent it to Cicero, who treats it as a foretaste of Caesar's coming Anticato. Cicero ironically notes it abuses Cato but praises Cicero himself.

• Ad Atticum 12.45 §1 do spread Hirtius about

  Cicero urges Atticus to circulate Hirtius's pamphlet attacking Cato, part of the literary war touched off by Cicero's own eulogy the Cato. He reckons the attack will misfire: while readers admire Hirtius's ability, the very project of running Cato down will only make it look ridiculous.

• Ad Atticum 12.48 §1 Distribute Hirtius' book, as you are doing

  Cicero again presses Atticus to put Hirtius's anti-Cato pamphlet into circulation, sure that its hostility will rebound to the dead Cato's credit. The repeated insistence across these letters shows how much the literary contest over Cato's memory occupied him.

• Ad Atticum 13.37 §2 Hirtius has been quarrelling

  Aulus Hirtius, a literary Caesarian (later consul of 43 BC) who continued Caesar's commentaries; here he is reported feuding at dinner parties over Cicero's loyalty to Caesar.

• Ad Atticum 15.1 §2 Hirtius was with me at the Puteolan villa

  Aulus Hirtius, a moderate Caesarian and consul-designate for 43 BC (with Pansa); Cicero sounds him out repeatedly in these letters, finding him sincerely wanting peace but afraid of both armed camps.

• Ad Atticum 15.6 §1 make Hirtius

  Aulus Hirtius, a Caesarian and consul-designate for 43 BC; Brutus and Cassius wanted Cicero to win him over to their side, and the bulk of this letter is Hirtius's guarded reply, which Cicero forwards to Atticus.

• Ad Atticum 15.22 §1 I know he has always been joined with Hirtius

  Aulus Hirtius, consul-designate for 43 BC with Pansa; a moderate Caesarian close to Cicero. Pansa and Hirtius were habitually paired as the two consuls-elect on whom hopes for restraining Antony rested.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.15 §8 Hirtius and Pansa, on Aquila as well

  Aulus Hirtius and Gaius Vibius Pansa, the consuls of 43 BC, both died of wounds sustained at the battles of Forum Gallorum and Mutina in April 43 BC; Pontius Aquila, a tribune of the plebs in 45 BC who had famously refused to stand for Caesar, also died fighting at Mutina — all three received posthumous honours on Cicero's motion.

• Ad Familiares 7.33 §1 Hirtius

  Aulus Hirtius, a Caesarian officer and writer (he completed the eighth book of Caesar's Gallic War); in 46 BC he was Cicero's declamation partner and dinner companion. He would be consul in 43 BC and die at Mutina.

• Ad Familiares 9.16 §7 Hirtius and Dolabella I have as pupils in speaking, masters in dining

  A. Hirtius (Caesar's legate, later cos. 43) and P. Cornelius Dolabella, Cicero's son-in-law, were both Caesarians who took rhetoric lessons from Cicero; in return he dined lavishly at their tables. The witticism captures Cicero's awkward intimacy with Caesar's men and his new taste for fine dining at 46 BC.

• Ad Familiares 9.20 §2 I have even given Hirtius a dinner --- without peacock, however

  Aulus Hirtius, Caesar's legate and one of Cicero's rhetoric-pupils, was himself a famous gourmand. To host him to dinner --- yet stop short of the ruinously fashionable peacock --- is Cicero's mock-proof of his own daring as a new convert to gastronomy.

• Ad Familiares 11.13 §1 I did not know Hirtius had perished, I did not know Aquila had perished

  Hirtius (one of the consuls of 43) and Pontius Aquila (a legate of Decimus Brutus) were both killed in the fighting around Mutina, 21--27 April 43 BC; with Pansa's death soon after, Decimus was left without his fellow commanders.

• Thirteenth Philippic §22 this letter, which I have just received, sent to me by the consul Hirtius

  From here to section 48 Cicero reads aloud and rebuts, sentence by sentence, a letter Antony had sent to the consul Hirtius and to Octavian; the consul Aulus Hirtius had forwarded it to Cicero. The device lets Cicero turn Antony's own words into self-incrimination.

• Seventh Philippic §12 the consul Aulus Hirtius

  A. Hirtius, consul of 43 BC, Caesar's former officer and continuator of his Commentaries. Despite chronic ill health he marched north against Antony and fell at the battle of Mutina.