Quintus Tullius Cicero (filius)

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 10.6 §2 I wish you had taken on the steering of the lad yourself

  Cicero's nephew, young Quintus, was a source of family anxiety throughout these months; his father (Cicero's brother Quintus) is reproached here as too indulgent to discipline the boy.

• Ad Atticum 11.8 §2 Quintus has sent his son not only as advocate for himself but as accuser of me

  Cicero's brother Quintus had sided with him against Caesar but now broke bitterly with him, sending his son (Cicero's nephew, young Quintus) to plead his own case before Caesar while denouncing his uncle. This family rupture is the recurring wound of the Brundisium letters.

• Ad Atticum 11.10 §1 showed him the roll of a speech which he was going to deliver against me before Caesar

  Cicero's nephew, young Quintus, had drafted a formal denunciation of his uncle to read out to Caesar, hoping to win favour by attacking him. The volumen was the papyrus roll on which the speech was written.

• Ad Atticum 11.18 §1 I am not sending Cicero

  "Cicero" here is young Quintus, Cicero's nephew, whom he had thought to send to Caesar to plead the family's case but now holds back.

• Ad Atticum 11.21 §1 my brother Quintus's wickedness

  The "wickedness" is that of young Quintus, Cicero's nephew, who had denounced his uncle to Caesar to clear his own name; the genitive "Quinti" here is the son, not Cicero's brother. A letter from Atticus had reopened the wound by enclosing the nephew's own accusatory letter.

• Ad Atticum 11.22 §1 his hatred of me and this whole style of letter

  The hatred is the nephew Quintus's: he had written letters denouncing his uncle, copies of which were now circulating. Cicero is mortified that the family's quarrel has become public, but says even Caesar would not be petitioned to suppress them.

• Ad Atticum 11.23 §2 my son Quintus had set out for Caesar

  Young Quintus, the nephew, had gone to Caesar in the East — the journey on which he denounced his uncle. "My son Quintus" (Quintum filium) marks him as the son, distinct from Cicero's brother Quintus named just below.

• Ad Atticum 12.7 §1 outdone in intimacy and in every kind of favour by his cousin

  The cousin is young Quintus Cicero, the nephew, already in close standing with Caesar; Latin frater here means cousin. Cicero fears his own son would resent being eclipsed by him.

• Ad Atticum 13.38 §1 your sister's son

  Cicero's nephew, young Quintus Cicero, son of his brother Quintus and of Pomponia (Atticus's sister); the wayward youth whose double-dealing toward his estranged parents is the subject of letters 13.38--13.41.

• Ad Atticum 14.13 §5 Quintus the son

  Cicero's nephew, Quintus Cicero the younger (son of his brother Quintus), at this time aligned with Antony; he is the gossiping source for the rumour about the villa and the dowry.

• Ad Atticum 14.17 §3 Quintus the son

  Quintus Cicero the younger, Cicero's nephew, who in 44 BC attached himself to Antony as a partisan; Cicero repeatedly calls him a lost cause. Distinct from his father, Cicero's brother Quintus.

• Ad Atticum 14.19 §3 your sister's son

  Quintus Cicero the younger, son of Atticus's sister Pomponia and Cicero's brother Quintus; here "accused by his father" of pro-Caesarian display, in keeping with his attachment to Antony's party.

• Ad Atticum 14.20 §3 About the Quintuses

  "De Quintis" most likely groups the troublesome nephew Quintus Cicero the younger (Antony's "right hand," see section 5) with his father; the surface is bound to the nephew, the active figure in these letters.

• Ad Atticum 14.20 §5 Quintus my nephew, as you write, is Antony's little right hand

  Cicero's nephew, Quintus Cicero the younger, had attached himself to Antony as a confidant ("dextella," diminutive of dextra, "right hand"); Cicero proposes cynically to exploit the connection.

• Ad Atticum 15.19 §2 Quintus Cicero has spoken with him

  Quintus Cicero the younger, Cicero's nephew, who had been close to Antony; his sudden talk of defecting to Brutus and Cassius alarms the family, given his erratic past conduct.

• Ad Atticum 15.21 §1 his son has written that he had wanted to take refuge with Brutus

  Quintus Cicero the younger, the nephew, who after the Ides veered between the Caesarian (Antony) and Republican (Brutus) camps as advantage dictated; Cicero regarded him as thoroughly untrustworthy, hence the closing jibe about a fraud.

• Ad Atticum 15.22 §1 Quintus the younger has gone

  Cicero's nephew Quintus, whose departure he greets with relief; the young man's shifting allegiances and intrigues had made him an awkward and risky presence (see the companion letter 15.21).

• Ad Atticum 15.27 §3 What a disgraceful son your sister has

  Quintus Cicero the younger, Cicero's nephew and son of Atticus's sister Pomponia; his erratic, opportunistic conduct in 44 BC repeatedly drew his uncle's disgust.

• Ad Atticum 15.29 §2 Quintus the son is coming all the way to Puteoli

  Quintus Cicero the younger, Cicero's nephew, whose shifting allegiances after the Ides Cicero distrusts; here he travels to Puteoli claiming he wants to reconcile with his uncle and make peace with Brutus and Cassius.

• Ad Atticum 16.1 §6 Young Quintus promises me he will be a Cato

  Young Quintus, Cicero's nephew (son of his brother Quintus), had been a difficult and faithless young man; here he vows to reform into a model of virtue like the younger Cato, a promise Cicero relays with open scepticism.

• Ad Atticum 16.3 §3 About young Quintus

  Quintus Cicero the younger, Cicero's nephew (son of his brother Quintus); after a difficult, disloyal phase he is now being reconciled, a story that runs through these letters.

• Ad Atticum 16.5 §2 Quintus spent several days with me

  Quintus Cicero the younger, the orator's nephew, who had earlier behaved badly toward his uncle; this letter records his apparent reform and reconciliation, sealed by Brutus's warm reception of him.

• Third Philippic §17 Quintus Cicero, my brother's son

  Quintus Tullius Cicero the younger, the orator's nephew, attacked in Antony's edicts; Cicero says the abuse is in fact a recommendation, since it marks the young man as Octavian's ally and Antony's enemy.