place
Corfinium
also: Corfini, Corfinio, Corfiniensi, Corfiniensem
The chief town of the Paeligni in central Italy, on the Via Valeria, where L. Domitius Ahenobarbus tried to hold out for Pompey. Its siege and surrender to Caesar in February 49 BC — followed by Caesar's celebrated clemency to the captured commanders — was the decisive turn of the war's Italian phase.
Reading notes
- Ad Atticum 8.3 §7 Caesar at Corfinium
Corfinium was the Paelignian stronghold in central Italy where L. Domitius Ahenobarbus tried to make a stand for Pompey. Its siege and surrender to Caesar in late February 49 BC, followed by Caesar's celebrated clemency to the prisoners, was the decisive turn of the campaign in Italy.
- Ad Atticum 8.5 §2 the Corfinium business
Corfinium, a stronghold of the Paeligni, was where L. Domitius Ahenobarbus was besieged by Caesar in February 49; its fall (and Caesar's celebrated clemency to the captured Pompeians) was the decisive event of the campaign in Italy. Cicero is in suspense because, as he says, the safety of the state hangs on it.
- Ad Atticum 8.14 §1 Caesar set out from Corfinium
Corfinium, the chief town of the Paeligni in central Italy, had just fallen to Caesar after a short siege (mid-February 49 BC), with L. Domitius Ahenobarbus and other Pompeians captured and released. Caesar then drove south toward Brundisium in pursuit of Pompey.
- Ad Atticum 9.13 §7 He dreads a repetition
At Corfinium in February 49 BC Caesar had taken and then pointedly released the Pompeian garrison and its commanders; Lentulus Spinther, one of those freed, fears being put through the same humiliating capture-and-pardon again.
- Ad Atticum 9.16 §1 that famous clemency of his at Corfinium
At Corfinium in February 49 BC Caesar captured the Pompeian garrison under L. Domitius Ahenobarbus and pointedly released the senators unharmed; this celebrated act of clementia was the cornerstone of his propaganda, which Cicero here flatters back to him.