Cimber, C. A'nnius
the son of Lysidicus, had obtained the praetorship from Caesar, and was one of Antony's supporters in B. C. 43, on which account he is vehemently attacked by Cicero.
He was charged with having killed his brother, whence Cicero calls him ironically
Philadelphus, and perpetrates the pun
Nisi forte jure Germanum Cimber occidtit, that is, " unless perchance he has a right to kill his own countryman," as Cimber is the name of a German people, and
Germanus signifies in Latin both a German and a brother. (
Cic. Phil. 13.12, 11.6;
Quint. Inst. 8.3.27; comp.
Cic. Att. 15.13;
Suet. Aug. 86.) Cimber was an orator, a poet, and an historian, but his merits were of a low order, and he is ridiculed by Virgil in an epigram preserved by Quintilian (
l.c.). (Huschke,
De C. Annio Cimbro, Rostoch. 1824.)