Ninth Philippic
Philippica IX
Headnote
Delivered in the Senate on 4 February 43 BC, the day after the Eighth Philippic, the Ninth is a speech in an altogether different key: not invective but eulogy. The embassy Cicero had opposed in the Sixth and Seventh Philippics — three legates sent in early January to carry the Senate’s terms to Antony before Mutina — had come back with nothing but Antony’s defiance; and its senior member did not come back at all. Servius Sulpicius Rufus, consul of 51 BC and the most celebrated jurist of the age, had undertaken the winter journey already gravely ill, and died near Antony’s camp. On 4 February the consul Pansa proposed public honours for him and spoke at length in his praise. Cicero rises to second the motion — and to answer the one man who had spoken against its fullest form.
That man was Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus, who held that the honour of a statue belonged only to an envoy killed by the sword while on embassy, and who proposed a public tomb but no statue. Cicero’s answer is the legal heart of the speech, and it is argued like the jurist it commemorates: our ancestors, he says, looked to the cause of death, not its manner. The man for whom the embassy itself proved fatal earned his monument as surely as one cut down by violence, for the point of the honour was to make men undertake dangerous embassies more boldly. He marshals the precedents — the four envoys whom Lars Tolumnius, king of Veii, slew at Fidenae, and Gnaeus Octavius, murdered at Laodicea on an embassy in which no danger had been foreseen, both honoured with statues on the Rostra — and turns the argument against Antony himself: the man who was the cause of death was the killer, so that Antony slew Sulpicius no less than Leptines slew Octavius. The statue, Cicero insists, will stand as a permanent witness that the war was grave enough to cost a legate his life, and an everlasting testimony to the embassy Antony spurned.
The speech is also an elegy for a friend. Cicero recalls Sulpicius’s reluctance, his pleading of ill health, the moment when — urged on by Pansa, and unwilling to set his own life above the Senate’s authority — he drew his son and Cicero aside and consented to go; his parting words, Cicero says, seemed an omen of his fate. There is even a connoisseur’s note in the honour proposed: recalling Sulpicius’s love of old Roman restraint and his scorn for the extravagance of the age, Cicero decrees a statue of bronze and on foot — pedestris — rather than the gilded equestrian kind first set up for Sulla, “as though by his own authority and will.” He keeps Servilius’s public tomb and adds the statue to it, against the rule that statues go to many and tombs to few. The speech closes, as the deliberative ones do, in a formal motion (§15–17): the bronze pedestrian statue on the Rostra, a reserved space of five feet for the family at the games, an inscription recording that he died for the commonwealth, a magnificent public funeral, and a public tomb thirty feet square in the Esquiline field for Sulpicius and his line. It is the gentlest speech of the series, and the only one given wholly to the dead.
I could wish, senators, that the immortal gods had brought it about that we were giving thanks to Servius Sulpicius alive, rather than seeking honours for him dead. Nor indeed do I doubt that, if that man had been able to bring back his report on the embassy, his return would have been both welcome to you and a source of safety to the commonwealth — not that Lucius Philippus and Lucius Piso lacked either zeal or care in so great a duty and so great a charge, but that, since Servius Sulpicius surpassed them in age and all men in wisdom, when he was suddenly torn from the cause he left the whole embassy bereft and crippled.
vellem di immortales fecissent, patres conscripti, ut vivo potius Ser. Sulpicio gratias ageremus quam honores mortuo quaereremus. nec vero dubito quin, si ille vir legationem renuntiare potuisset, reditus eius et vobis gratus fuerit et rei publicae salutaris futurus, non quo L. Philippo et L. Pisoni aut studium aut cura defuerit in tanto officio tantoque munere, sed cum Ser. Sulpicius aetate illis anteiret, sapientia omnibus, subito ereptus e causa totam legationem orbam et debilitatam reliquit.
But if a just honour has ever been paid to any envoy who died, none more just will be found than in the case of Servius Sulpicius. The others who met death on an embassy set out toward an uncertain peril to their lives, with no fear of death: Servius Sulpicius set out with some hope of reaching Marcus Antonius, none of returning. And though he was in such a state that, if exertion were added to his grave ill health, he had no confidence in himself, he did not refuse to make the attempt — even with his last breath, if he could bring any aid to the commonwealth. And so neither the violence of winter, nor the snows, nor the length of the journey, nor the roughness of the roads, nor his worsening sickness held him back; and when he had at last come to the meeting and conference with the man to whom he had been sent, in the very midst of his care and study of how to discharge his duty, he departed from life.
quod si cuiquam iustus honos habitus est in morte legato, in nullo iustior quam in Ser. Sulpicio reperietur. ceteri qui in legatione mortem obierunt ad incertum vitae periculum sine ullo mortis metu profecti sunt: Ser. Sulpicius cum aliqua perveniendi ad M. Antonium spe profectus est, nulla revertendi. qui cum ita adfectus esset ut, si ad gravem valetudinem labor accessisset, sibi ipse diffideret, non recusavit quo minus vel extremo spiritu, si quam opem rei publicae ferre posset, experiretur. itaque non illum vis hiemis, non nives, non longitudo itineris, non asperitas viarum, non morbus ingravescens retardavit, cumque iam ad congressum conloquiumque eius pervenisset ad quem erat missus, in ipsa cura ac meditatione obeundi sui muneris excessit e vita.
As in other things, so in this, Gaius Pansa, you have acted admirably, in that you both urged us to honour Servius Sulpicius and yourself spoke much and copiously in his praise. To what you have said I would add nothing beyond my motion, did I not think that Publius Servilius, a most distinguished man, must be answered — he who held that this honour of a statue should be granted to no one except a man killed by the sword while on an embassy. But I, senators, interpret the mind of our ancestors thus: that they held the cause of death, not its manner, was the thing to be looked to. For they willed that a monument should stand to the man for whom the embassy itself had proved fatal, so that in dangerous wars men might undertake the office of envoy more boldly. We must not, then, search out the precedents of our ancestors, but unfold the purpose from which the precedents themselves were born.
Vt igitur alia, sic hoc, C. Pansa, praeclare quod et nos ad honorandum Ser. Sulpicium cohortatus es et ipse multa copiose de illius laude dixisti. quibus a te dictis nihil praeter sententiam dicerem, nisi P. Servilio, clarissimo viro, respondendum putarem, qui hunc honorem statuae nemini tribuendum censuit nisi ei qui ferro esset in legatione interfectus. ego autem, patres conscripti, sic interpretor sensisse maiores nostros ut causam mortis censuerint, non genus esse quaerendum. etenim cui legatio ipsa morti fuisset, eius monumentum exstare voluerunt, ut in bellis periculosis obirent homines legationis munus audacius. non igitur exempla maiorum quaerenda, sed consilium est eorum a quo ipsa exempla nata sunt explicandum.
Lars Tolumnius, king of the Veientes, slew four envoys of the Roman people at Fidenae, whose statues stood on the Rostra down to within my own memory: a just honour — for to those who had met death for the commonwealth our ancestors gave, in exchange for a brief life, an enduring remembrance. We see on the Rostra the statue of Gnaeus Octavius, a famous and great man, the first to bring the consulship into that family which afterwards flourished with the bravest of men. No one then begrudged him his newness; no one failed to honour his merit. And yet the embassy of Octavius was one beneath which lay no suspicion of danger. For when he had been sent by the Senate to look into the dispositions of kings and free peoples, and above all to forbid the grandson of King Antiochus — the Antiochus who had waged war against our ancestors — to keep a fleet and to maintain elephants, he was killed at Laodicea, in the gymnasium, by a certain Leptines.
Lars Tolumnius, rex Veientium, quattuor legatos populi Romani Fidenis interemit, quorum statuae steterunt usque ad meam memoriam in rostris: iustus honos: eis enim maiores nostri qui ob rem publicam mortem obierant pro brevi vita diuturnam memoriam reddiderunt. Cn. Octavi, clari viri et magni, qui primus in eam familiam quae postea viris fortissimis floruit attulit consulatum, statuam videmus in rostris. nemo tum novitati invidebat; nemo virtutem non honorabat. at ea fuit legatio Octavi in qua periculi suspicio non subesset. nam cum esset missus a senatu ad animos regum perspiciendos liberorumque populorum, maximeque, ut nepotem regis Antiochi, eius qui cum maioribus nostris bellum gesserat, classis habere, elephantos alere prohiberet, Laudiceae in gymnasio a quodam Leptine est interfectus.
There was rendered to him then by our ancestors a statue in exchange for his life, which for many years honoured his line, and now alone remains as the memorial of so great a family. And yet to him, and to Tullus Cluvius and Lucius Roscius and Spurius Antius and Gaius Fulcinius, who were cut down by the king of the Veientes, it was not the blood poured out in death but death itself, met for the commonwealth, that brought the honour. And so, senators, if it had been chance that brought Servius Sulpicius his death, I should grieve indeed at so great a wound to the commonwealth, but I should think his death ought to be honoured not with a monument but with public mourning. As it is, who doubts that it was the embassy itself that took his life from him? For he carried his death away with him — a death which, had he stayed among us, he might have escaped by his own care, by the diligence of an excellent son and a most devoted wife.
reddita est ei tum a maioribus statua pro vita quae multos per annos progeniem eius honestaret, nunc ad tantae familiae memoriam sola restaret. atqui et huic et Tullo Cluvio et L. Roscio et Sp. Antio et C. Fulcinio qui a Veientium rege caesi sunt non sanguis qui est profusus in morte, sed ipsa mors ob rem publicam obita honori fuit. itaque, patres conscripti, si Ser. Sulpicio casus mortem attulisset, dolerem equidem tanto rei publicae volnere, mortem vero eius non monumento, sed luctu publico esse ornandam putarem. nunc autem quis dubitat quin ei vitam abstulerit ipsa legatio? secum enim ille mortem extulit quam, si nobiscum remansisset, sua cura, optimi fili fidelissimaeque coniugis diligentia vitare potuisset.
But he, seeing that if he did not obey your authority he would be untrue to himself, and that if he did obey, the charge taken up for the commonwealth’s sake would be the end of his life, chose rather to die at the commonwealth’s greatest crisis than to seem to have served the commonwealth less than he might have. In many cities along the road he travelled he had the chance to restore and tend himself. There was at hand a generous offer of hospitality, befitting the dignity of so great a man, and the urging of those who had been sent with him that he rest and look to his own life. But he, hurrying, hastening, eager to carry out your commands, held to this resolve while the disease fought against him.
at ille cum videret, si vestrae auctoritati non paruisset, dissimilem se futurum sui, sin paruisset, munus sibi illud pro re publica susceptum vitae finem fore, maluit in maximo rei publicae discrimine emori quam minus quam potuisset videri rei publicae profuisse. multis illi in urbibus iter qua faciebat reficiendi se et curandi potestas fuit. aderat et hospitum invitatio liberalis pro dignitate summi viri et eorum hortatio qui una erant missi ad requiescendum et vitae suae consulendum. at ille properans, festinans, mandata vestra conficere cupiens, in hac constantia morbo adversante perseveravit.
And when Antony was thrown into the greatest disturbance by his coming — because the demands served upon him by your order had been framed by the authority and judgment of Servius Sulpicius — he made plain how he hated the Senate, when he bore the death of the Senate’s spokesman with gladness and insolence. Antony, then, killed Servius Sulpicius no less than Leptines killed Octavius, or the king of the Veientes killed the men I named just now: for surely he brought death who was the cause of death. And therefore I think it bears even upon the memory of posterity that there should stand a record of what the Senate’s judgment was concerning this war. For the statue itself will be a witness that the war was so grave that the death of an envoy won the remembrance of an honour.
cuius cum adventu maxime perturbatus esset Antonius, quod ea quae sibi iussu vestro denuntiarentur auctoritate erant et sententia Ser. Sulpici constituta, declaravit quam odisset senatum, cum auctorem senatus exstinctum laete atque insolenter tulit. non igitur magis Leptines Octavium nec Veientium rex eos quos modo nominavi quam Ser. Sulpicium occidit Antonius: is enim profecto mortem attulit qui causa mortis fuit. Quocirca etiam ad posteritatis memoriam pertinere arbitror exstare quod fuerit de hoc bello iudicium senatus. erit enim statua ipsa testis bellum tam grave fuisse ut legati interitus honoris memoriam consecutus sit.
But if you will recall, senators, the excuse Servius Sulpicius made for undertaking the embassy, no doubt will be left that by honouring him dead we make amends for the wrong we did him living. For you, senators — it is a hard thing to say, but it must be said all the same — you, I say, deprived Servius Sulpicius of his life. For when you saw him pleading his sickness more by his very state than by his words, you were not, indeed, cruel — for what is less in keeping with this order? — but, since you hoped there was nothing that could not be accomplished by his authority and wisdom, you stood the more vehemently against his excuse, and drove from his resolve a man who had always judged your common consent the weightiest thing.
quod si excusationem Ser. Sulpici, patres conscripti, legationis obeundae recordari volueritis, nulla dubitatio relinquetur quin honore mortui quam vivo iniuriam fecimus sarciamus. vos enim, patres conscripti, —grave dictu est sed dicendum tamen—vos, inquam, Ser. Sulpicium vita privastis: quem cum videretis re magis morbum quam oratione excusantem, non vos quidem crudeles fuistis—quid enim minus in hunc ordinem convenit? —sed cum speraretis nihil esse quod non illius auctoritate et sapientia effici posset, vehementius excusationi obstitistis atque eum qui semper vestrum consensum gravissimum iudicavisset de sententia deiecistis.
But when the urging of the consul Pansa was added — heavier than the ears of Servius Sulpicius had learned to bear — then at last he drew his son and me aside, and spoke in such a way that he said he set your authority above his own life. Marvelling at his virtue, we did not dare to oppose his will. His son was moved by an extraordinary devotion; my own grief yielded little to his distress: but each of us was forced to give way before the greatness of his spirit and the weight of his words, when indeed, to the great praise and gratitude of you all, he promised that he would do what you wished, and would not shun the danger of a course of which he himself had been the author. As he hastened to carry out your commands, we escorted him on his way the next morning. And as he parted, he spoke to me in such a way that his words seemed an omen of his fate.
Vt vero Pansae consulis accessit cohortatio gravior quam aures Ser. Sulpici ferre didicissent, tum vero denique filium meque seduxit atque ita locutus est ut auctoritatem vestram vitae suae se diceret anteferre. cuius nos virtutem admirati non ausi sumus adversari voluntati. movebatur singulari pietate filius; non multum eius perturbationi meus dolor concedebat: sed uterque nostrum cedere cogebatur magnitudini animi orationisque gravitati, cum quidem ille maxima laude et gratulatione omnium vestrum pollicitus est se quod velletis esse facturum, neque eius sententiae periculum vitaturum cuius ipse auctor fuisset: quem exsequi mandata vestra properantem mane postridie prosecuti sumus. qui quidem discedens mecum ita locutus est ut eius oratio omen fati videretur.
Give back, then, senators, the life to him from whom you took it. For the life of the dead rests in the memory of the living. Bring it about that the man whom you, unknowing, sent to his death may have immortality from you. If by your decree you set up a statue to him on the Rostra, no forgetfulness of posterity will darken his embassy. For the rest of the life of Servius Sulpicius will be commended to all remembrance by many illustrious monuments. The fame of all mortals will forever celebrate his gravity, his constancy, his good faith, his outstanding care and prudence in guarding the commonwealth. Nor indeed will there be passed over in silence that admirable and incredible and almost divine knowledge of his in interpreting the laws and in unfolding what is fair. If all men of every age who have had in this state an understanding of the law were brought together into one place, they could not be compared with Servius Sulpicius. For he was no more master of the law than of justice.
reddite igitur, patres conscripti, ei vitam cui ademistis. vita enim mortuorum in memoria est posita vivorum. perficite ut is quem vos inscii ad mortem misistis immortalitatem habeat a vobis. cui si statuam in rostris decreto vestro statueritis, nulla eius legationem posteritatis obscurabit oblivio. nam reliqua Ser. Sulpici vita multis erit praeclarisque monumentis ad omnem memoriam commendata. semper illius gravitatem, constantiam, fidem, praestantem in re publica tuenda curam atque prudentiam omnium mortalium fama celebrabit. nec vero silebitur admirabilis quaedam et incredibilis ac paene divina eius in legibus interpretandis, aequitate explicanda scientia. omnes ex omni aetate qui in hac civitate intellegentiam iuris habuerunt si unum in locum conferantur, cum Ser. Sulpicio non sint comparandi. nec enim ille magis iuris consultus quam iustitiae fuit.
Thus the conclusions that proceeded from the laws and the civil code he always referred back to ease and to equity, nor did he prefer to set actions at law on foot rather than to do away with disputes. He has no need, then, of this monument of a statue; he has others, greater. For this statue will be the witness of an honourable death, the other the memorial of a glorious life — so that it will prove a monument of a grateful Senate more than of a famous man.
ita ea quae proficiscebantur a legibus et ab iure civili semper ad facilitatem aequitatemque referebat, neque instituere litium actiones malebat quam controversias tollere. ergo hoc statuae monumento non eget; habet alia maiora. haec enim statua mortis honestae testis erit, illa memoria vitae gloriosae, ut hoc magis monumentum grati senatus quam clari viri futurum sit.
The devotion of the son, too, will be seen to have counted for much toward the father’s honour; and though, stricken with grief, he is not present, you ought nonetheless to be of such a mind as if he were present. He is in such a state that no one ever grieved more for the death of an only son than he mourns for his father. And indeed I think it bears even upon the good name of the son of Servius Sulpicius that he should be seen to have rendered his father the honour due. And yet Servius Sulpicius could leave behind no clearer monument than the very image of his own character — a son of his virtue, his constancy, his devotion, his genius — whose grief can be lightened either by this honour of yours or by no consolation at all.
multum etiam valuisse ad patris honorem pietas fili videbitur; qui quamquam adflictus luctu non adest, tamen sic animati esse debetis ut si ille adesset. est autem ita adfectus ut nemo umquam unici fili mortem magis doluerit quam ille maeret patris. et quidem etiam ad famam Ser. Sulpici fili arbitror pertinere ut videatur honorem debitum patri praestitisse. quamquam nullum monumentum clarius Ser. Sulpicius relinquere potuit quam effigiem morum suorum, virtutis, constantiae, pietatis, ingeni filium, cuius luctus aut hoc honore vestro aut nullo solacio levari potest.
But to me, recalling the many conversations I had with Servius Sulpicius in our friendship, it seems that — if the dead have any feeling — a bronze statue, and that one on foot, would be more pleasing to him than a gilded equestrian one, of the kind first set up for Lucius Sulla. For Servius wonderfully loved the restraint of our ancestors, and reproached the extravagance of this age. And so, as if I were to consult the man himself as to what he would wish, I decree a statue of bronze, on foot, as though by his own authority and will: a statue that will lessen and soothe the great grief and longing of the citizens by the honour of a monument. And this proposal of mine, senators, must necessarily be confirmed by the proposal of Publius
mihi autem recordanti Ser. Sulpici multos in nostra familiaritate sermones gratior illi videtur, si qui est sensus in morte, aenea statua futura et ea pedestris quam inaurata equestris, qualis L. Sullae primum statuta est. mirifice enim Servius maiorum continentiam diligebat, huius saeculi insolentiam vituperabat. Vt igitur si ipsum consulam quid velit, sic pedestrem ex aere statuam tamquam ex eius auctoritate et voluntate decerno: quae quidem magnum civium dolorem et desiderium honore monumenti minuet et leniet. atque hanc meam sententiam, patres conscripti, P.
Servilius: for he who held that a tomb ought to be decreed at public expense for Servius Sulpicius did not vote a statue. For if the death of an envoy, without slaughter and the sword, calls for no honour, why does he decree the honour of burial, which can be held the greatest a dead man can have? But if he grants to Servius Sulpicius that which was not given to Gnaeus Octavius, why does he hold that what was given to the one ought not to be given to the other? Our ancestors, to be sure, decreed statues to many, tombs to few. But statues perish through storm and age; the sanctity of tombs, however, lies in the very soil, which can be moved or destroyed by no force; and, as all else is blotted out, so tombs grow more sacred with age.
Servili sententia comprobari necesse est: qui sepulcrum publice decernendum Ser. Sulpicio censuit, statuam non censuit. nam si mors legati sine caede atque ferro nullum honorem desiderat, cur decernit honorem sepulturae qui maximus haberi potest mortuo? sin id tribuit Ser. Sulpicio, quod non est datum Cn. Octavio, cur quod illi datum est huic dandum esse non censet? maiores quidem nostri statuas multis decreverunt, sepulcra paucis. sed statuae intereunt tempestate, vetustate, sepulcrorum autem sanctitas in ipso solo est quod nulla vi moveri neque deleri potest, atque, ut cetera exstinguuntur, sic sepulcra sanctiora fiunt vetustate.
Let this man, then, be exalted even by that honour — a man to whom no honour can be paid that is not his due; let us be grateful in adorning the death of one to whom we can now render no other thanks. Let there be branded, too, the criminal audacity of Marcus Antonius, who wages an abominable war. For with these honours paid to Servius Sulpicius there will remain an everlasting testimony to the embassy that Antony spurned and cast aside. For these reasons I propose as follows: “Whereas Servius Sulpicius, son of Quintus, of the Lemonian tribe, Rufus, in a most difficult time for the commonwealth, afflicted by a grave and dangerous illness, set the authority of the Senate and the safety of the commonwealth above his own life, and strove against the force and severity of his disease so as to reach the camp of Marcus Antonius, to which the Senate had sent him; and, when he had already come near the camp, overwhelmed by the force of the disease, lost his life at a most critical time for the commonwealth; and whereas his death was in keeping with a life passed most blamelessly and most honourably, in which Servius
augeatur igitur isto honore etiam is vir cui nullus honos tribui non debitus potest; grati simus in eius morte decoranda cui nullam iam aliam gratiam referre possumus. notetur etiam M. Antoni nefarium bellum gerentis scelerata audacia. his enim honoribus habitis Ser. Sulpicio repudiatae reiectaeque legationis ab Antonio manebit testificatio sempiterna. quas ob res ita censeo: ‘ cum Ser. Sulpicius Q. f. lemonia Rufus difficillimo rei publicae tempore, gravi periculosoque morbo adfectus, auctoritatem senatus, salutem rei publicae vitae suae praeposuerit contraque vim gravitatemque morbi contenderit, ut in castra M. Antoni quo senatus eum miserat perveniret, isque, cum iam prope castra venisset, vi morbi oppressus vitam amiserit maximo rei publicae tempore, eiusque mors consentanea vitae fuerit sanctissime honestissimeque actae in qua saepe magno usui rei publicae Ser.
Sulpicius was often of great service to the commonwealth, both as a private citizen and in his magistracies: since such a man met death for the commonwealth while on an embassy, it is the pleasure of the Senate that a bronze statue of Servius Sulpicius, on foot, be set up on the Rostra by the decision of this order; and that around that statue his children and descendants have a space of five feet in every direction at the games and the gladiatorial shows; and that the reason be inscribed upon the base, namely that he met death for the commonwealth; and that Gaius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius, the consuls, one or both, if it seem good to them, instruct the urban quaestors to let out the contract for that base and statue to be made and set up on the Rostra, and that, at whatever price they let it, they see to it that so great a sum be assigned and paid to the contractor. And since the Senate has formerly shown its authority in the funerals and the honours of brave men, it is its pleasure that he be borne forth on his last day as magnificently as possible.
Sulpicius et privatus et in magistratibus fuerit: cum talis vir ob rem publicam in legatione mortem obierit, senatui placere Ser. Sulpicio statuam pedestrem aeneam in rostris ex huius ordinis sententia statui, circumque eam statuam locum ludis gladiatoribusque liberos posterosque eius quoquo versus pedes quinque habere, eamque causam in basi inscribi quod is ob rem publicam mortem obierit, utique C. Pansa A. Hirtius consules, alter ambove, si eis videatur, quaestoribus urbanis imperent ut eam basim statuamque faciendam et in rostris statuendam locent, quantique locaverint, tantam pecuniam redemptori attribuendam solvendamque curent. Cumque antea senatus auctoritatem suam in virorum fortium funeribus ornamentisque ostenderit, placere eum quam amplissime supremo suo die efferri.
And since Servius Sulpicius, son of Quintus, of the Lemonian tribe, Rufus, has so deserved of the commonwealth that he ought to be adorned with these distinctions, the Senate resolves, and judges it to be for the good of the commonwealth, that the curule aediles remit, for the funeral of Servius Sulpicius, son of Quintus, of the Lemonian tribe, Rufus, the edict which they have concerning funerals; and that Gaius Pansa the consul assign a site for a tomb in the Esquiline field, or in whatever place shall seem good, thirty feet in every direction, where Servius Sulpicius may be buried; which tomb shall be his own, his children’s, and his descendants’, under the same right as a tomb granted at public expense under the best title.”
et cum Ser. Sulpicius Q. f. lemonia Rufus ita de re publica meritus sit ut eis ornamentis decorari debeat, senatum censere atque e re publica existimare aedilis curulis edictum quod de funeribus habeant Ser. Sulpici Q. f. lemonia Rufi funeri remittere: utique locum sepulcro in campo Esquilino C. Pansa consul, seu quo in loco videbitur, pedes xxx quoquo versus adsignet quo Ser. Sulpicius inferatur; quod sepulcrum ipsius, liberorum posterorumque eius esset, uti quod optimo iure publice sepulcrum datum esset.’