_Act._ ii.) ii.

The speeches _pro Sex. Roscio_ and _pro Murena_ are only known from an
ancient and illegible MS. discovered by Poggio at Cluny, No. 496 in
the old catalogue, and now lost. The most faithful transcript was made
in France (Paris, Lat. 14,749) before the MS. passed into Poggio's
hand by a writer who carefully reproduced the corruptions, sometimes
in facsimile.[26] The speeches _pro Roscio Comoedo_, _pro Rabirio
perduellionis reo_ and _pro Rabirio Postumo_ are only known from
Italian copies of the transcript (now lost) made by Poggio from lost
MSS. The _de Officiis_, _Tusculan Disputations_ and _Cato Maior_ are
found in a number of 9th-century MSS. A collection, consisting of _de
Natura deorum_, _de Divinatione_, _Timaeus_, _de Fato_, _Paradoxa_,
_Lucullus_ (= _Acad. Prior_.) and _de Legibus_, is found in several
MSS. of the same date. Only one MS. of the _Laelius_ is as old as the
10th century.

The _Academica Posteriora_ are said by editors to be found only in
15th-century MSS. A MS. in the Paris library (Lat. 6331) is, however,
assigned by Chatelain to the 12th century.

For the letters _ad Familiares_ our chief source of information is
Laur. xlix. 9 (9th century), which contains all the sixteen books.
There are independent MSS. written in France and Germany in the 11th
and 12th centuries, containing i.-viii. and ix.-xvi. respectively.
There is no extant MS. of the letters to Atticus older than the 14th
century, apart from a few leaves from a 12th-century MS. discovered at
or near Wuerzburg in the last century. Very great importance has been
attached to a Florentine MS. (Laur. xlix. 18) M., which until recently
was supposed to have been copied by Petrarch himself from the lost
_Veronensis_. It is now known not to be in the hand of Petrarch, but
it was still supposed to be the archetype of all Italian MSS., and
possibly of all MSS., including the lost C and Z. It has, however,
been shown by Lehmann that there is an independent group of Italian
MSS., termed by him [Sigma], containing Books i.-vii. in a mutilated
form, and probably connected with the MS. of Capra. These often agree
with CZ against M, and the readings of CZ[Sigma] are generally
superior.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--It is impossible to mention more than a few works as
the literature is so vast. (1) _Historical._--J.L. Strachan-Davidson,
_Life of Cicero_ (Heroes of the Nations);