CICERO
4 DE C. MANILIO
A problematic speech, with only one attested fragment, consisting of a single sentence. As the testimonia make clear, Cicero spoke to a public assembly on the last day of his praetorship (of 66: MRR 2:152) about the arrangements he had made for the trial of C. Manilius, claiming that giving Manilius only one day to prepare his defense was a friendly gesture to ensure that he himself would still be the presiding officer at the trial.1 Under pressure from the crowd, he agreed to extend the deadline for the trial and take on Manilius’ defense himself. On the day the trial was to convene (in 65), it was disrupted by the interference of a mob suborned by Manilius (T 2 and 6). The question arises: did Cicero have a chance to speak at the aborted trial, and, if so, is our fragment from that speech or the assembly speech? It seems doubtful that Cicero spoke at all at the trial or that, even if he did, he would have wanted to publish the speech and so memorialize the event and his
4 ON C. MANILIUS
4 ON C. MANILIUS (end of 66 bc)
connection with it, which was clearly an embarrassment to him (T 4 = 5 F 17). However, publishing the assembly speech might have helped him repair the damage to his reputation that Dio claims he suffered in its aftermath (T 6). The content of the one fragment, such as it is, also suggests that Cicero was responding to pressure and criticism, as in the assembly speech.2 Given that almost all of Cicero’s nonsenate speeches are designated On Behalf of ___, it should not surprise us if this one was falsely so designated (F 1); even one senate speech was mistakenly called On Behalf of Marcellus.3