Hispania

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 4.9 §1 Spain

  Under the lex Trebonia of February 55 BC, Pompey received both Spanish provinces for five years, Crassus Syria. Pompey is here scornful of Syria (Crassus's portion) and blusters about Spain (his own).

• Ad Atticum 7.9 §2 Pompey for certain is to be in Spain

  Pompey held the two Spanish provinces under the lex Pompeia of 52 BC but governed them through legates while remaining in Italy; were Caesar made consul, Pompey would withdraw to his armies in Spain, leaving Rome to his rival.

• Ad Atticum 10.6 §1 whatever happens in Spain

  The two Spanish provinces, where Pompey's legates Afranius and Petreius faced Caesar, were the strategic pivot of the war in spring 49 BC; Cicero repeatedly makes his own decision to leave Italy contingent on the outcome there.

• Ad Atticum 10.12 §2 Only let things go right in Spain!

  The Spanish provinces held Pompey's veteran legions under his legates; their fate was the war's pivot in 49 BC. Cicero's hopes hang on news from the front, which would in fact end in Caesar's victory at Ilerda.

• Ad Atticum 10.18 §2 if anything comes through from Spain

  In spring 49 BC the decisive theatre was Spain, where Caesar marched against Pompey's legates Afranius and Petreius. News of that campaign would shape Cicero's calculation of whether and when to leave Italy.

• Ad Atticum 12.8 §1 the Fennel-field of Spain

  A rendering of "fenicularius" (campus), the "Fennel Plain" in Hither Spain, here standing for Caesar's Spanish campaign against the Pompeians that culminated at Munda (45 BC). Cicero wonders whether Caesar's mind is on Spain or on the consular elections at Rome.

• Ad Atticum 15.13 §4 The Spanish business is going very well

  News from the Spanish provinces (Hispania), a theatre of the ongoing struggle in 44-43 BC; Cicero hopes the situation there favours the Republican side, tying his own hopes to a friend's safety.

• Ad Atticum 16.4 §2 the six legions he had left in Further Spain

  Further Spain (Hispania Ulterior), the southern Roman province of the Iberian peninsula and the base of Sextus Pompey's resistance after his father's defeat.

• Ad Familiares 2.16 §6 this Spanish outcome

  Caesar's swift campaign against Pompeian forces in Spain (spring–summer 49 BC), concluded at Ilerda; Cicero, writing from his estate at Cumae, expected Caesar to defeat the Pompeian legions under Afranius and Petreius, which he did by August.

• Ad Familiares 4.1 §1 about peace and about the Spains

  "The Spains" renders Latin Hispaniae, the two Roman provinces of the Iberian peninsula (Nearer and Further Spain), then held by Pompey's legates. After seizing Italy, Caesar marched on Spain in 49 BC to defeat Pompey's army there before turning east; control of the Spanish armies was a central issue in the peace debate.

• Ad Familiares 8.16 §3 the Spains --- which I report to you will be ours on Caesar's arrival

  The two Spanish provinces (Hispania Citerior and Ulterior), held for Pompey by his legates Afranius and Petreius; Caesar marched west in spring 49 and forced their surrender at Ilerda that summer, exactly as Caelius predicts.

• Ad Familiares 13.16 §3 Spain

  Caesar was in Spain from late 46 BC for the Munda campaign, which closed the surviving Pompeian resistance in March 45 BC; this dates the letter, since Apollonius travels to him there.

• Ad Familiares 13.16 §3 Spain

  Caesar was in Spain from the end of 46 BC for the Munda campaign, which closed the surviving Pompeian resistance in March 45 BC.

• Ad Familiares 15.17 §3 Of Spain nothing new, but expectation runs very high

  The war against the surviving Pompeians under the sons of Pompey in Spain, which Caesar would end at Munda in March 45 BC. News from the front was eagerly awaited at Rome.

• Ad Familiares 15.18 §2 Of Spain nothing certain yet

  Again the awaited news of Caesar's campaign against the Pompeians in Spain (the Munda campaign), the dominant suspense of these last weeks of 46 BC.