Brundisium

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 1.15 §2 Brundisium

  The chief Adriatic port of Italy (modern Brindisi), standard point of embarkation for travellers crossing to Greece and the East; Atticus had sailed from here toward Epirus.

• Ad Atticum 8.8 §2 pushes on for Brundisium

  Brundisium (modern Brindisi), the great port on Italy's south-eastern heel, was Pompey's embarkation point for the crossing to Greece; his march there abandoned the inland Pompeian forces.

• Ad Atticum 8.13 §1 All our expectation hangs upon the news from Brundisium

  Pompey was falling back on Brundisium, the chief port for crossing the Adriatic to Greece; everything turned on whether Caesar would trap him there or whether he would get his army across first. Pompey ultimately evacuated to Greece in March 49 BC.

• Ad Atticum 9.1 §1 what had happened at Brundisium

  Brundisium, the great port on Italy's Adriatic heel, was Pompey's last foothold as he prepared to ship his army across to Greece. The whole of book 9 turns on the news, slow in coming, of whether Pompey had got away or been blockaded there by Caesar.

• Ad Atticum 9.2 §1 From Brundisium nothing had yet been brought

  The recurring refrain of these days: no word yet from Brundisium, where Pompey was bottled up by Caesar's pursuing army. Cicero's every decision hangs on whether the escape succeeds.

• Ad Atticum 11.22 §2 the oppressiveness of this climate

  Cicero blames the unhealthy air of Brundisium, the southern Italian port where he had been stranded for nearly a year, for the bodily languor compounding his despair.

• Ad Atticum 15.13 §2 two legions have come to Brundisium

  Brundisium (modern Brindisi), the great port of the heel of Italy and the usual crossing-point to Greece; legions arriving there from Macedonia (here for Antony) were a closely watched sign of the gathering conflict.

• Ad Atticum 16.2 §4 I am thinking of Brundisium

  Brundisium (modern Brindisi) was the chief port of departure for Greece and the East; Cicero is planning to leave Italy, judging the land route past Antony's legions safer than the sea route infested with pirates.

• Ad Familiares 8.15 §1 hemmed in at Brundisium

  Brundisium (modern Brindisi) was Italy's chief Adriatic embarkation port; in March 49 BC Pompey made his stand there before evacuating his army across to Greece, with Caesar trying to bottle him up by blockading the harbour.

• Ad Familiares 13.50 §1 we were together at Brundisium

  Brundisium (modern Brindisi), the great harbour on Italy's heel and the usual port of departure and arrival for travel to and from Greece and the East. Cicero spent anxious months there in 47 BC awaiting Caesar's pardon after Pharsalus.

• Ad Familiares 14.4 §1 Brundisium, late April 58 BC

  Cicero's first surviving letter to his wife Terentia from exile, written from the embarkation port of Brundisium on 29 April 58 BC, on the eve of his crossing to Greece. The whole family is named: Terentia, his daughter Tullia, his young son Marcus.

• Ad Familiares 16.9 §2 we arrived at Brundisium

  Brundisium (modern Brindisi), the great port of south-east Italy and the standard arrival point for travellers from Greece and the East.

• Fourth Philippic §3 Brundisium

  Brundisium (Brindisi), the chief port of southeast Italy for crossings to Greece. Antony went there in autumn 44 BC to take over the Macedonian legions; Cicero alleges he executed mutinous soldiers there.