Note 96 — TRANSLATION

In a letter to Atticus (Cic., Att., 15, 44, 1) dated about July 20, 45 B.C., Cicero alludes to the reported proposal of Cotta that Caesar be made king in order that Parthia might be subdued according to the terms of the Sibylline prophecy which stated that Parthia would be proof against any but a king (Cic., Div., 2, 110). Compare also the passage, ‘munerum regiorum’ (regionum?) (Cic., Fam., 6, 19, 2; Tyrrell and Purser 52, p. 162 and note). On August 2, 45 B.C., Cicero actually speaks of Caesar as ‘the king:’ ‘nisi viderem scire regem me animi nihil habere’ (Cic., Att., 25, 37, 2). The episode of the diadem, involving the tribunes Caesetius and Marullus, seems to have occurred in January, 44 B.C. (Dio 44, 10: ‘later, when he was riding in from Albanum;’ CIL 1, p. 461: ‘C. Iulius C.f.C.n. Caesar VI dict. IIII ovans a. DCCIX ex monte Albano VII Kal. Febr.’).