Purser — Cicero's Correspondence during his Procomulate. 405 



from Appius, blockaded tlie Salaminian town council in tlieir 

 City Hall, and pressed his blockade so vigorously that five of the 

 body were starved to death. The Salaminians, however, did not 

 renew the bill ; but they were prepared to settle the matter on fair, 

 equitable, and indeed legal terms ; and waited for the new governor, 

 who perchance might have some regard for just and fair dealing. 

 They w^ere disappointed ; and when even under a Cicero, who was 

 far superior to most of his fellows in uprightness of conduct, and did 

 not care a straw about money, fair and just claims of provincials met 

 with so little support, we can hardly endure to think of what must 

 have been the oppression to which they were subjected by the 

 ordinary rapacious and ruthless pro-consuls. 



jS'ow let us assume, that in February, 52 B.C., the Salaminians 

 gave Scaptius a note-of-hand for about 84 talents, at 4 per cent, per 

 month, and from that time forth paid no more instalments of interest 

 at all. In January, 50 b.c, that is 22 months later, the note-of-hand 

 came before Cicero for adjudication. The Salaminians were willing 

 to pay up 106 talents, i.e. what 84 would amount to in two years at 

 the rate Cicero prescribed, viz., 12 per cent, per annum compound 

 interest. Scaptius would have his bond paid according to the tenour, 

 that is to say at 4 per cent, per month, compound interest, and 

 84 (1 + tM" = 84 X 2-299 = 199 talents about. Hence he said, 

 "the Salaminians really owe me a little less than 200" (v. 21, 



12). 



There remain a few points to mention on the language of Cicero's 

 account of the transaction. First, Mommsen shows by a reference to 

 an inscription given in the Journcd of Hellenic Studies, xii. 175, that 

 the inhabitants of Salamis in Cyprus were called Scdamini,^ not 

 Salaminii : and the former is what is given in the Medicean MS. of 

 Cicero throughout. His emendation, in v. 21, 10, ' si non (sim MSS.) 

 praefectus vellet esse syngraplxae causa, me curatururii id exigeret is 

 possible ('if he would give up the idea of being a commander of 

 military forces, &c.'), but less satisfactory than the vulg. sin (' if he only 

 wanted to have a military command for the purpose of the bond, &c.'). 

 The addition of Stemkopf in § 12, vt ex ea sy^^geapha <ivs 

 DicERETVR Jioc cst, td nec deteriore nee meliore iure ea syngrap}ia> esset 

 quam ceterae sed %it eodem, is practically the same as Boot's, but 

 clearer in sense. 



1 Mommsen, however, did not at first approve of the reference of this inscrip- 

 tion to the Salaminians. 



