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Title: The Letters of Cicero, Volume 1
       The Whole Extant Correspodence in Chronological Order

Author: Marcus Tullius Cicero

Translator: Evelyn S. Shuckburgh

Release Date: April 22, 2007 [EBook #21200]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8

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THE LETTERS OF

CICERO

THE WHOLE EXTANT CORRESPONDENCE
IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER


TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH

BY

EVELYN S. SHUCKBURGH, M.A.

LATE FELLOW OF EMMANUEL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
AUTHOR OF A TRANSLATION OF POLYBIUS, A HISTORY OF ROME, ETC


IN FOUR VOLUMES

VOL. I. B.C. 68-52


LONDON
GEORGE BELL AND SONS
1899


CHISWICK PRESS:--CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.




PREFACE


The object of this book is to give the English-speaking public, in a
convenient form, as faithful and readable a copy as the translator was
capable of making of a document unique in the literature of antiquity.
Whether we regard the correspondence of Cicero from the point of view of
the biographer and observer of character, the historian, or the lover of
_belles lettres_, it is equally worthy of study. It seems needless to
dwell on the immense historical importance of letters written by
prominent actors in one of the decisive periods of the world's history,
when the great Republic, that had spread its victorious arms, and its
law and discipline, over the greater part of the known world, was in the
throes of its change from the old order to the new. If we would
understand--as who would not?--the motives and aims of the men who acted
in that great drama, there is nowhere that we can go with better hope of
doing so than to these letters. To the student of character also the
personality of Cicero must always have a great fascination. Statesman,
orator, man of letters, father, husband, brother, and friend--in all
these capacities he comes before us with singular vividness. In every
one of them he will doubtless rouse different feelings in different
minds. But though he will still, as he did in his lifetime, excite
vehement disapproval as well as strong admiration, he will never, I
think, appear to anyone dull or uninteresting. In the greater part of
his letters he is not posing or assuming a character; he lets us only
too frankly into his weaknesses and his vanities, as well as his
generous admirations and warm affections. Whether he is weeping, or
angry, or exulting, or eager for compliments, or vain of his abilities
and achievements, he is not a phantasm or a farceur, but a human being
with fiercely-beating pulse and hot blood.

The difficulty of the task which I have been bold enough to undertake
is well known to scholars, and may explain, though perhaps not excuse,
the defects of my work. One who undertakes to express the thoughts of
antiquity in modern idiom goes to his task with his eyes open, and has
no right at every stumbling-block or pitfall to bemoan his unhappy fate.
So also with the particular difficulties presented by the great founder
of Latin style--his constant use of superlatives, his doubling and
trebling of nearly synonymous terms, the endless shades of meaning in
such common words as _officium_, _fides_, _studium_, _humanitas_,
_dignitas_, and the like--all these the translator has to take in the
day's work. Finally, there are the hard nuts to crack--often very
hard--presented by corruption of the text. Such problems, though,
relatively with other ancient works, not perhaps excessively numerous,
are yet sufficiently numerous and sufficiently difficult. But besides
these, which are the natural incidents of such work, there is the
special difficulty that the letters are frequently answers to others
which we do not possess, and which alone can fully explain the meaning
of sentences which must remain enigmatical to us; or they refer to
matters by a word or phrase of almost telegraphic abruptness, with which
the recipient was well acquainted, but as to which we are reduced to
guessing. When, however, all such insoluble difficulties are allowed
for, which after all in absolute bulk are very small, there should (if
the present version is at all worthy) be enough that is perfectly plain
to everyone, and generally of the highest interest.

I had no intention of writing a commentary on the language of Cicero or
his correspondents, and my translation must, as a rule, be taken for the
only expression of my judgment formed after reading and weighing the
arguments of commentators. I meant only to add notes on persons and
things enabling the reader to use the letters for biographical, social,
and historical study. I should have liked to dedicate it by the words
_Boswellianus Boswellianis_. But I found that the difficulties of the
text compelled me to add a word here and there as to the solution of
them which I preferred, or had myself to suggest. Such notes are very
rare, and rather meant as danger signals than critical discussions. I
have followed in the main the chronological arrangement of the letters
adopted by Messrs. Tyrrell and Purser, to whose great work my
obligations are extremely numerous. If, as is the case, I have not
always been able to accept their conclusions, it is none the less true
that their brilliant labours have infinitely lightened my task, and
perhaps made it even possible.

I ought to mention that I have adopted the English mode of dating,
writing, for instance, July and August, though Cicero repudiated the
former and, of course, never heard of the latter. I have also refrained
generally from attempting to represent his Greek by French, partly
because I fear I should have done it ill, and partly because it is not
in him as in an English writer who lards his sentences with French. It
is almost confined to the letters to Atticus, to whom Greek was a second
mother-tongue, and often, I think, is a quotation from him. It does not
really represent Cicero's ordinary style.

One excuse for my boldness in venturing upon the work is the fact that
no complete translation exists in English. Mr. Jeans has published a
brilliant translation of a selection of some of the best of the letters.
But still it is not the whole. The last century versions of Melmoth and
Herbenden have many excellences; but they are not complete either (the
letters to Brutus, for instance, having been discovered since), and
need, at any rate, a somewhat searching revision. Besides, with many
graces of style, they may perhaps prove less attractive now than they
did a century ago. At any rate it is done, and I must bear with what
equanimity nature has given me the strictures of critics, who doubtless
will find, if so minded, many blemishes to set off against, and perhaps
outweigh, any merit my translation may have. I must bear that as well as
I may. But no critic can take from me the days and nights spent in close
communion with Rome's greatest intellect, or the endless pleasure of
solving the perpetually recurring problem of how best to transfer a
great writer's thoughts and feelings from one language to another:

    "Cæsar in hoc potuit iuris habere nihil."




LETTERS IN VOLUME I


                      Number
                      in this
                      Translation

Fam. I.            1      94
  "                2      95
  "                3      96
  "                4      97
  "                5      98
  "                5b    102
  "                6     103
  "                7     113
  "                8     118
  "                9     152
  "               10     161
Fam. II.           1     165
  "                2     167
  "                3     168
  "                4     174
  "                5     175
  "                6     176
Fam. III.          1     180
Fam. V.            1      13
  "                2      14
  "                3     112
  "                4      88
  "                5      17
  "                6      15
  "                7      12
  "                8     130
  "               12     108
  "               17     178
  "               18     179
Fam. VII.          1     126
  "                2     181
  "                5     133
  "                6     135
  "                7     136
  "                8     139
  "                9     144
  "               10     160
  "               11     166
  "               12     169
  "               13     170
  "               14     171
  "               15     173
  "               16     156
  "               17     145
  "               18     172
  "               23     125
  "               26      93
Fam. XIII.         6a    114
  "                6b    115
  "               40     128
  "               41      54
  "               42      53
  "               49     162
  "               60     163
  "               73     164
  "               74     127
  "               75     177
Fam. XIV.          1      81
  "                2      78
  "                3      83
  "                4      61
Fam. XVI.         10  p. 386
  "               13  p. 384
  "               14  p. 385
  "               16  p. 387
Q. Fr. I.          1      29
  "                2      52
  "                3      65
  "                4      71
Q. Fr. II.         1      92
  "                2      99
  "                3     101
  "                4     104
  "                5     105
  "                6     116
  "                7     119
  "                8     122
  "                9     131
  "               10     132
  "               11     134
  "               12     138
  "               13     140
  "               14     141
  "               15     146
Q. Fr III.         1     147
  "                2     149
  "                3     150
  "                4     151
  "                5}    154
  "                6}
  "                7     155
  "                8     158
  "                9     159
Petit. Cons.          p. 367
Att. I.            1      10
  "                2      11
  "                3       8
  "                4       9
  "                5       1
  "                6       2
  "                7       3
  "                8       5
  "                9       4
  "               10       6
  "               11       7
  "               12      16
  "               13      18
  "               14      19
  "               15      20
  "               16      21
  "               17      22
  "               18      23
  "               19      24
  "               20      25
Att. II.           1      26
  "                2      27
  "                3      28
  "                4      30
  "                5      31
  "                6      32
  "                7      33
  "                8      34
  "                9      35
  "               10      37
  "               11      38
  "               12      36
  "               13      39
  "               14      40
  "               15      41
  "               16      42
  "               17      43
  "               18      44
  "               19      45
  "               20      46
  "               21      47
  "               22      48
  "               23      49
  "               24      50
  "               25      51
Att. III.          1      58
  "                2      56
  "                3      55
  "                4      57
  "                5      59
  "                6      60
  "                7      62
  "                8      63
  "                9      64
  "               10      66
  "               11      67
  "               12      68
  "               13      70
  "               14      69
  "               15      72
  "               16      73
  "               17      74
  "               18      75
  "               19      76
  "               20      77
  "               21      79
  "               22      80
  "               23      82
  "               24      84
  "               25      85
  "               26      86
  "               27      87
Att. IV.           1      89
  "                2      90
  "                3      91
  "                4a    100
  "                4b    106
  "                5     107
  "                6     109
  "                7     110
  "                8a    111
  "                8b    117
  "                9     121
  "               10     120
  "               11     123
  "               12     124
  "               13     129
  "               14     137
  "               15     143
  "               16}    142, 148, 157
  "               17}
  "               18     153




INTRODUCTION


[Sidenote: Ground covered by the Correspondence.]

The correspondence of Cicero, as preserved for us by his freedman Tiro,
does not open till the thirty-ninth year of the orator's life, and is so
strictly contemporary, dealing so exclusively with the affairs of the
moment, that little light is thrown by it on his previous life. It does
not become continuous till the year after his consulship (B.C. 62).
There are no letters in the year of the consulship itself or the year of
his canvass for the consulship (B.C. 64 and 63). It begins in B.C. 68,
and between that date and B.C. 65 there are only eleven letters. We
have, therefore, nothing exactly contemporaneous to help us to form a
judgment on the great event which coloured so much of his after life,
the suppression of the Catilinarian conspiracy and the execution of the
conspirators, in the last month of his consulship. But setting aside the
first eleven letters, we have from that time forward a correspondence
illustrating, as no other document in antiquity does, the hopes and
fears, the doubts and difficulties, of a keen politician living through
the most momentous period of Roman history, the period of the fall of
the Republic, beginning with Pompey's return from the East in B.C. 62,
and ending with the appearance of the young Octavian on the scene and
the formation of the Triumvirate in B.C. 43, of whose victims Cicero was
one of the first and most illustrious. It is by his conduct and speeches
during this period that Cicero's claim to be a statesman and a patriot
must be judged, and by his writings in the same period that his place in
literature must chiefly be assigned. Before B.C. 63 his biography, if we
had it, would be that of the advocate and the official, no doubt with
certain general views on political questions as they occurred, but not
yet committed definitely to a party, or inclined to regard politics as
the absorbing interest of his life. In his early youth his hero had
been his fellow townsman Marius, in whose honour he composed a poem
about the time of taking the _toga virilis_. But it was as the
successful general, and before the days of the civil war. And though he
served in the army of Sulla in the Marsic war (B.C. 90-88), he always
regarded his cruelties with horror, however much he may have afterwards
approved of certain points of his legislation. It was not till the
consulship that he became definitely a party man[1] and an Optimate, and
even then his feelings were much distracted by a strong
belief--strangely ill-founded--that Pompey would be as successful as a
statesman as he had been fortunate as a general. For him he had also a
warm personal attachment, which never seems to have wholly died out, in
spite of much petulance of language. This partly accounts for the
surrender of B.C. 56, and his acquiescence in the policy of the
triumvirs, an acquiescence never hearty indeed, as far as Cæsar and
Crassus were concerned, but in which he consoled himself with the belief
that nothing very unconstitutional could be done while Pompey was
practically directing affairs at Rome.

[Sidenote: The various nature of the Correspondence.]

It is through this period of political change and excitement that the
correspondence will take us, with some important gaps indeed, but on the
whole fullest when it is most wanted to shew the feelings and motives
guiding the active politicians of the day, or at any rate the effect
which events had upon one eager and acute intellect and sensitive heart.
One charm of the correspondence is variety. There is almost every sort
of letter. Those to Atticus are unstudied, spontaneous, and reflect the
varying moods of the writer. At times of special excitement they follow
each other day by day, and sometimes more than once in the same day; and
the writer seems to conceal nothing, however much it might expose him to
ridicule, and to the charge of fickleness, weakness, or even cowardice.
Those addressed to other friends are sometimes familiar and playful,
sometimes angry and indignant. Some of them are careful and elaborate
state papers, others mere formal introductions and recommendations.
Business, literature, and philosophy all have their share in them; and,
what is so rare in ancient literature, the family relations of the
writer, his dealings with wife, son, and daughter, brother and nephew,
and sons-in-law, are all depicted for us, often with the utmost
frankness. After reading them we seem to know Cicero the man, as well as
Cicero the statesman and orator. The eleven letters which precede the
consulship are happily, from this point of view, addressed to Atticus.
For it was to Atticus that he wrote with the least concealment, and with
the confidence that any detail, however small, which concerned himself
would be interesting to his correspondent. It is well, therefore, that,
though we thus come into his life when it was more than half over, we
should at once hear his genuine sentiments on whatever subjects he may
be speaking. Besides his own, we have about ninety letters to Cicero
from some of the chief men of the day--Pompey, Cæsar, Cato, Brutus,
Antony, and many others. They are of very various excellence. The best
of them are by much less known men. Neither Pompey nor Cæsar were good
letter-writers, or, if the latter was so, he was too busy to use his
powers.

[Sidenote: Cicero's position previous to the beginning of the
Correspondence in B.C. 68.]

[Sidenote: Quæstor, B.C. 75.]

The letters begin, then, in B.C. 68, when Cicero was in his
thirty-seventh year. He was already a man of established reputation both
as a pleader and a writer. Rhetorical treatises (B.C. 86), translations
from Xenophon and Plato (B.C. 84), and from the poems of Aratus (B.C.
81), had given evidence of a varied literary interest and a promise of
future eminence, while his success as an advocate had led to the first
step in the official _cursus honorum_ by his becoming a quæstor in B.C.
75. The lot assigned Lilybæum as his sphere of work, and though the
duties of a quæstor in Sicily were not such as to bring a man's name
much before the Roman public, Cicero plumes himself, as was not unusual
with him, on the integrity and energy which he displayed in his
administration. He has indeed the honesty to tell against himself the
story of the acquaintance who, meeting him at Puteoli on his return
journey, asked him what day he had left Rome and what was the news
there. When he answered rather crossly that he had just come from
Sicily, another acquaintance put in with "Why, of course. Didn't you
know he has just been quæstor _at Syracuse_!" At any rate he had done
sufficiently well in Lilybæum to give him his next step, the ædileship
to which he was elected B.C. 70, and to induce the Sicilians to apply to
him, when in that year they desired the prosecution of the extortionate
Verres. His energy and success in this business raised him, without
question, to the first rank of advocates, and pledged him to a righteous
policy in regard to the government of the provinces.

[Sidenote: Cicero's Boyhood and Education.]

Still Cicero was a _novus homo_, and the jealous exclusiveness of the
great families at Rome might yet prevent his attainment of the highest
office of all. When the correspondence opens he is a candidate for the
prætorship, which he obtained without difficulty, at the head of the
poll. But his birth might still be a bar to the consulship. His father,
M. Tullius, lived at Arpinum, an ancient city of the Volscians and
afterwards of the Samnites, which had long enjoyed a partial, and from
B.C. 188 a complete, Roman franchise, and was included in the Cornelian
tribe. Cicero's mother's name was Helvia, of whom we know nothing but
the one anecdote told by Quintus (_Fam._ xvi. 26), who says that she
used to seal the wine jars when they were emptied, so that none might be
drained without her knowing it--a testimony to her economy and careful
housewifery. His father had weak health and resided almost entirely in
his villa at Arpinum, which he had considerably enlarged, much devoted
to study and literature (_de Leg._ ii. 1). But though he apparently
possessed considerable property, giving him equestrian rank, and though
Cicero says that his family was very ancient, yet neither he nor any of
his ancestors had held Roman magistracies. Marcus and his brother
Quintus were the first of their family to do so, and both had to depend
on character and ability to secure their elections. But though the
father did nothing for his sons by holding curule office himself, he did
the best for their education that was possible. Cicero calls him
_optimus et prudentissimus_, and speaks with gratitude of what he had
done for his sons in this respect. They were sent early to Rome to the
house of C. Aculeo, a learned jurisconsult, married to a sister of
Helvia; and attended--with their cousins, the sons of Aculeo--the best
schools in the city.[2] The young Marcus shewed extraordinary ability
from the first, and that avidity for reading and study which never
forsook him. As a young man he diligently attended the chambers of
renowned jurisconsults, especially those of the elder and younger
Scævola, Crassus, and Antonius, and soon found that his calling in life
was oratory. It was not till he was twenty-eight years old,
however--when he had already written much and pleaded many cases--that
he went on a visit of between two and three years to Greece, Asia, and
Rhodes, to study in the various schools of rhetoric and philosophy, and
to view their famous cities (B.C. 79-77). It was after his return from
this tour that his age (he was now thirty-one) made the seeking of
office at Rome possible. From that time his election to the several
offices--quæstorship, ædileship, prætorship, consulship--followed
without any repulse, each in the first year of his age at which he was
legally capable of being elected.

He had doubtless made the acquaintance of Titus Pomponius, afterwards
called Atticus, early in life. But it seems that it was their intimacy
at Athens (B.C. 79), where Atticus, who was three years his senior, had
been residing for several years, that began the very close and warm
friendship which lasted with nothing but the slightest and most passing
of clouds till his death. His brother Quintus was married to Pomponia, a
sister of Atticus; but the marriage turned out unfortunately, and was a
strain upon the friendship of Cicero and Atticus rather than an
additional bond. This source of uneasiness meets us in the very first
letter of the correspondence, and crops up again and again till the
final rupture of the ill-assorted union by divorce in B.C. 44. Nothing,
however, had apparently interrupted the correspondence of the two
friends, which had been going on for a long time before the first letter
which has been preserved.

[Sidenote: Cicero the successful Advocate.]

[Sidenote: Death of Cicero's Father.]

The eleven letters, then, which date before the consulship, shew us
Cicero in full career of success as an advocate and rising official,
not as yet apparently much interested in party politics, but with his
mind, in the intervals of forensic business, engaged on the adornment of
the new villa at Tusculum, the first of the numerous country residences
which his growing wealth or his heightened ideas of the dignity of his
position prompted him to purchase. Atticus is commissioned to search in
Athens and elsewhere for objects of art suitable for the residence of a
wealthy Roman, who at the same time was a scholar and man of letters. He
is beginning to feel the charm of at any rate a temporary retreat from
the constant bustle and occupations of the city. Though Cicero loved
Rome, and could hardly conceive of life unconnected with its business
and excitements,[3] and eagerly looked for news of the city in his
absence, yet there was another side to his character. His interest in
literature and philosophy was quite as genuine as his interest in the
forum and senate-house. When the season came for temporarily withdrawing
from the latter, he returned to the former with eager passion. But
Tusculum was too near Rome to secure him the quiet and solitude
necessary for study and composition. Thus, though he says (vol. i., p.
4), "I am so delighted with my Tusculan villa that I never feel really
happy till I get there," he often found it necessary, when engaged in
any serious literary work, to seek the more complete retirement of
Formiæ, Cumæ, or Pompeii, near all of which he acquired properties,
besides an inheritance at Arpinum.[4] But the important achievements in
literature were still in the future. The few letters of B.C. 68-67 are
full of directions to Atticus for the collection of books or works of
art suitable to his house, and of matters of private interest. They are
also short and sometimes abrupt. The famous allusion to his father's
death in the second letter of this collection, contained in a single
line--_pater nobis decessit a.d. 111 Kal. Decembris_--followed by
directions to Atticus as to articles of _vertu_ for his villa, has much
exercised the minds of admirers, who do not like to think Cicero capable
of such a cold-hearted sentence. It is certainly very unlike his usual
manner.[5] He is more apt to exaggerate than understate his emotions;
and in the first letter extant he speaks with real feeling of the death
of a cousin. Elsewhere--as we have seen--he refers to his father with
respect and gratitude. How then are we to account for such a cold
announcement? Several expedients have been hit upon. First, to change
_decessit_ to _discessit_, and to refer the sentence to the father's
quitting Rome, and not life; in which case it is not easy to see why the
information is given at all. Second, to suppose it to be a mere answer
to a request for the information on the part of Atticus; in which case
the date must refer to some previous year, or the letter must be placed
considerably later, to allow of time for Atticus to hear of the death
and to write his question. In favour of the first is the fact that
Asconius (§ 82) says that Cicero lost his father when he was a candidate
for the consulship (B.C. 64). Some doubt has been thrown upon the
genuineness of the passage in Asconius; and, if that is not trustworthy,
we have nothing else to help us. On the whole I think we must leave the
announcement as it stands in all its baldness. Cicero's father had long
been an invalid, and Atticus may have been well aware that the end was
expected. He would also be acquainted with the son's feelings towards
his father, and Cicero may have held it unnecessary to enlarge upon
them. It is possible, too, that he had already written to tell Atticus
of the death and of his own feelings, but had omitted the date, which he
here supplies. Whatever may be the true explanation--impossible now to
recover--everything we know of Cicero forbids us to reckon insensibility
among his faults, or reserve in expressing his feelings among his
characteristics.

[Sidenote: The Prætorship, B.C. 66.]

In the next year (B.C. 67) we find Cicero elected to the prætorship,
after at least two interruptions to the _comitia_, which, though not
aimed at himself, gave him a foretaste of the political troubles to come
a few years later. He is, however, at present simply annoyed at the
inconvenience, not yet apprehensive of any harm to the constitution. The
double postponement, indeed, had the effect of gratifying his vanity:
for his own name was returned three times first of the list of eight.
His prætorship (B.C. 66) passed without any startling event. The two
somewhat meagre letters which remain belonging to this year tell us
hardly anything. Still he began more or less to define his political
position by advocating the _lex Manilia_, for putting the Mithridatic
war into the hands of Pompey; and one of his most elaborate forensic
speeches--that for Cluentius--was delivered in the course of the year:
in which also his brother Quintus was elected to the ædileship.

[Sidenote: B.C. 65-64. Preparations for the Consulship.]

So far Cicero had risen steadily and without serious difficulty up the
official ladder. But the stress was now to come. The old families seem
not to have been so ready to oppose the rise of the _novus homo_ to the
prætorship. It was the consulship on which they tried to keep a tight
hand. Accordingly, immediately after the year of his prætorship, we find
him anxiously looking out for support and inquiring who are likely to be
his competitors. The interesting point in regard to this is his
connexion with Catiline. In his speech in the senate delivered in the
following year (_in toga candida_, B.C. 64) he denounced Catiline in the
most violent language, accusing him of every conceivable crime; yet in
B.C. 65 he not only contemplated being elected with him without any
expression of disgust, but even considered whether he should not
undertake his defence on some charge that was being brought against
him--perhaps for his conduct during the Sullan proscriptions. To
whitewash Catiline is a hopeless task; and it throws a lurid light upon
the political and moral sentiments of the time to find Cicero even
contemplating such a conjunction.

After this, for two years, there is a break in the correspondence.
Atticus had probably returned to Rome, and if there were letters to
others (as no doubt there were) they have been lost. A certain light is
thrown on the proceedings of the year of candidature (B.C. 64) by the
essay "On the duties of a candidate," ascribed to his brother Quintus,
who was himself to be a candidate for the prætorship in the next year
(B.C. 63). We may see from this essay that Pompey was still regarded as
the greatest and most influential man at Rome; that Catiline's character
was so atrocious in the eyes of most, that his opposition was not to be
feared; that Cicero's "newness" was a really formidable bar to his
election, and that his chief support was to be looked for from the
individuals and companies for whom he had acted as counsel, and who
hoped to secure his services in the future. The support of the nobles
was not a certainty. There had been a taint of _popularity_ in some of
Cicero's utterances, and the writer urges him to convince the consulars
that he was at one with the Optimates, while at the same time aiming at
the conciliation of the equestrian order. This was, in fact, to be
Cicero's political position in the future. The party of the
Optimates--in spite of his disgust at the indifference and frivolity of
many of them--was to be his party: his favourite constitutional object
was to be to keep the equites and the senate on good terms: and his
greatest embarrassment was how to reconcile this position with his
personal loyalty to Pompey, and his views as to the reforms necessary in
the government of the provinces.

[Sidenote: The Consulship, B.C. 63.]

For the momentous year of the consulship we have no letters. His brother
Quintus was in Rome as candidate and then prætor-designate; Atticus was
also in Rome; and the business, as well as the dignity of a consul, were
against anything like ordinary correspondence. Of the earlier part of
the consulship we have little record. The speeches against Rullus were
delivered at the beginning of the year, and commit Cicero pretty
definitely to a policy as to the _ager publicus_--which was, to his
disgust, entirely reversed by the triumvirs in B.C. 59--but they do not
shew any sense of coming trouble. Cicero, however, throughout his
consulship took a very definite line against the _populares_. Not only
did he defend Rabirius Postumus, when accused by Cæsar of the
assassination of Saturninus, and address the people against offering
violence to L. Roscius on account of the unpopular _lex theatralis_,[6]
but he even resisted the restoration to their civil rights of the sons
of the men proscribed by Sulla, avowedly on the ground of the necessity
of maintaining the established order, though he knew and confessed the
justice of the proposal.[6]

[Sidenote: The Conspiracy of Catiline.]

Any movement, therefore, on the side of the popular party had now his
opposition with which to reckon. He professes to have known very early
in his year of office that some more than usually dangerous movement was
in contemplation. We cannot well decide from the violent denunciation of
Catiline contained--to judge from extant fragments--in the speech _in
toga candida_, how far Cicero was really acquainted with any definite
designs of his. Roman orators indulged in a violence of language so
alien from modern ideas and habits, that it is difficult to draw
definite conclusions. But it appears from Sallust that Catiline had in a
secret meeting before the elections of B.C. 64, professed an intention
of going all lengths in a revolutionary programme and, if that was the
case, Cicero would be sure to have had some secret information on the
subject. But his hands were partly tied by the fact that the _comitia_
had given him a colleague--C. Antonius--deeply implicated in Catiline's
policy, whatever it was. Pompey, whom he regarded as the champion of law
and order, was in the East: and Catiline's candidature--and it was
supposed his policy also--had had the almost open support of the richest
man in Rome, M. Licinius Crassus, and of the most influential man of the
_populares_, C. Iulius Cæsar. In the house of one or the other of them,
indeed, the meeting at which Catiline first unfolded his purposes was
believed to have been held. Still Catiline had not been guilty of any
overt act which enabled Cicero to attack him. He had, indeed, been
informed, on very questionable authority, that Catiline had made a plot
to assassinate him while holding the elections, and he made a
considerable parade of taking precautions for his safety--letting it be
seen that he wore a cuirass under his toga, and causing his house to be
guarded by the younger members of his party. The elections, according
to Plutarch, had at least been once postponed from the ordinary time in
July, though this has been denied.[7] At any rate it was not till they
had taken place and Catiline had been once more rejected, that any
definite step is alleged to have been taken by him, such as Cicero could
lay hold of to attack him. On the 20th of October, in the senate, Cicero
made a speech warning the Fathers of the impending danger, and on the
21st called upon Catiline for an explanation in their presence. But,
after all, even the famous meeting of the 5th of November, in the house
of M. Porcius Læca, betrayed to Cicero by Fulvia, the mistress of Q.
Curius, would not have sufficed as grounds for the denunciation of the
first extant speech against Catiline (7th of November), if it had not
been for something else. For some months past there had been rumours of
risings in various parts of Italy; but by the beginning of November it
was known that C. Manlius (or Mallius) had collected a band of
desperadoes near Fæsulæ, and, having established there a camp on the
27th of October, meant to advance on Rome. Manlius had been a centurion
in Sulla's army, and had received an allotment of confiscated land in
Etruria; but, like others, had failed to prosper. The movement was one
born of discontent with embarrassments which were mostly brought about
by extravagance or incompetence. But the rapidity with which Manlius was
able to gather a formidable force round him seems to shew that there
were genuine grievances also affecting the agricultural classes in
Etruria generally. At any rate there was now no doubt that a formidable
disturbance was brewing; the senate voted that there was a _tumultus_,
authorized the raising of troops, and named commanders in the several
districts affected. It was complicity in this rising that Cicero now
sought to establish against Catiline and his partisans in Rome. The
report of the meeting in the house of Læca gave him the pretext for his
first step--a fiery denunciation of Catiline in the senate on the 7th of
November. Catiline left Rome, joined the camp of Manlius, and assumed
the ensigns of _imperium_. That he was allowed thus to leave the city
is a proof that Cicero had as yet no information enabling him to act at
once. It was the right of every citizen to avoid standing a trial by
going into exile. Catiline was now under notice of prosecution for
_vis_, and when leaving Rome he professed to be going to Marseilles,
which had the _ius exilii_. But when it was known that he had stopped
short at Fæsulæ, the senate at once declared both him and Manlius
_hostes_, and authorized the consuls to proceed against them. The
expedition was intrusted to Antonius, in spite of his known sympathy
with Catiline, while Cicero was retained with special powers to protect
the city. The result is too well known to be more than glanced at here.
Catiline's partisans were detected by letters confided to certain envoys
of the Allobroges, which were held to convict them of the guilt of
treason, as instigating Catiline to march on Rome, and the senate of the
Allobroges to assist the invasion by sending cavalry to Fæsulæ.

[Sidenote: Execution of the conspirators, December, B.C. 63. Its legal
grounds and consequences.]

The decree of the senate, _videant consules, etc._, had come to be
considered as reviving the full _imperium_ of the consul, and investing
him with the power of life and death over all citizens. Cicero acted on
this (questionable) constitutional doctrine. He endeavoured, indeed, to
shelter himself under the authority of a senatorial vote. But the senate
never had the power to try or condemn a citizen. It could only record
its advice to the consul. The whole legal responsibility for the
condemnation and death of the conspirators, arrested in consequence of
these letters, rested on the consul. To our moral judgment as to
Cicero's conduct it is of primary importance to determine whether or not
these men were guilty: to his legal and constitutional position it
matters not at all. Nor was that point ever raised against him. The
whole question turns on whether the doctrine was true that the _senatus
consultum ultimum_ gave the consul the right of inflicting death upon
citizens without trial, _i.e._, without appeal to the people, on the
analogy of the dictator _seditionis sedandæ causa_, thus practically
defeating that most ancient and cherished safeguard of Roman liberty,
the _ius provocationis_. The precedents were few, and scarcely such as
would appeal to popular approval. The murder of Tiberius Gracchus had
been _ex post facto_ approved by the senate in B.C. 133-2. In the case
of Gaius Gracchus, in B.C. 121, the senate had voted _uti consul Opimius
rempublicam defenderet_, and in virtue of that the consul had authorized
the killing of Gaius and his friends: thus for the first time exercising
_imperium sine provocatione_. Opimius had been impeached after his year
of office, but acquitted, which the senate might claim as a confirmation
of the right, in spite of the _lex_ of Gaius Gracchus, which confirmed
the right of _provocatio_ in all cases. In B.C. 100 the tribune
Saturninus and the prætor Glaucia were arrested in consequence of a
similar decree, which this time joined the other magistrates to the
consuls as authorized to protect the Republic: their death, however, was
an act of violence on the part of a mob. Its legality had been impugned
by Cæsar's condemnation of Rabirius, as _duovir capitalis_, but to a
certain extent confirmed by the failure to secure his conviction on the
trial of his appeal to the people. In B.C. 88 and 83 this decree of the
senate was again passed, in the first case in favour of Sulla against
the tribune Sulpicius, who was in consequence put to death; and in the
second case in favour of the consuls (partisans of Marius) against the
followers of Sulla. Again in B.C. 77 the decree was passed in
consequence of the insurrection of the proconsul Lepidus, who, however,
escaped to Sardinia and died there.

In every case but one this decree had been passed against the popular
party. The only legal sanction given to the exercise of the _imperium
sine provocatione_ was the acquittal of the consul Opimius in B.C. 120.
But the jury which tried that case probably consisted entirely of
senators, who would not stultify their own proceedings by condemning
him. To rely upon such precedents required either great boldness (never
a characteristic of Cicero), or the most profound conviction of the
essential righteousness of the measure, and the clearest assurance that
the safety of the state--the supreme law--justified the breach of every
constitutional principle. Cicero was not left long in doubt as to
whether there would be any to question his proceeding. On the last day
of the year, when about to address the people, as was customary, on
laying down his consulship, the tribune Q. Cæcilius Metellus Nepos
forbade him to speak, on the express ground that he "had put citizens to
death uncondemned"--_quod cives indemnatos necavisset_. Cicero consoled
himself with taking the required oath as to having observed the laws,
with an additional declaration that he had "saved the state."
Nevertheless, he must have felt deeply annoyed and alarmed at the action
of Metellus, for he had been a _legatus_ of Pompey, and was supposed to
represent his views, and it was upon the approbation and support of
Pompey, now on the eve of his return from the East, that Cicero
particularly reckoned.

[Sidenote: Letters after B.C. 63.]

The letters in our collection now recommence. The first of the year
(B.C. 62) is one addressed to Pompey, expressing some discontent at the
qualified manner in which he had written on recent events, and affirming
his own conviction that he had acted in the best interests of the state
and with universal approval. But indeed the whole correspondence to the
end of Cicero's exile is permeated with this subject directly or
indirectly. His quarrel with Metellus Nepos brought upon him a
remonstrance from the latter's brother (or cousin), Metellus Celer
(Letters XIII, XIV), and when the correspondence for B.C. 61 opens, we
find him already on the eve of the quarrel with Publius Clodius which
was to bring upon him the exile of B.C. 58.

[Sidenote: Publius Clodius Pulcher.]

P. CLODIUS PULCHER was an extreme instance of a character not uncommon
among the nobility in the last age of the Republic. Of high birth, and
possessed of no small amount of ability and energy, he belonged by
origin and connexion to the Optimates; but he regarded politics as a
game to be played for his personal aggrandizement, and public office as
a means of replenishing a purse drained by boundless extravagance and
self-indulgence. His record had been bad. He had accompanied his
brother-in-law Lucullus, or had joined his staff, in the war with
Mithridates, and had helped to excite a mutiny in his army in revenge
for some fancied slight. He had then gone to Cilicia, where another
brother-in-law, Q. Marcus Rex, was proprætor, and while commanding a
fleet under him had fallen into the hands of pirates, and when freed
from them had gone--apparently in a private capacity--to Antioch, where
he again excited a mutiny of Syrian troops engaged in a war against the
Arabians (B.C. 70-65). On his return to Rome he attempted to make
himself conspicuous by prosecuting Catiline, but accepted a bribe to
withdraw. In B.C. 64, on the staff of the governor of Gallia
Narbonensis, he is accused of having enriched himself with plunder. For
a time after that he was still acting as a member of the party of the
Optimates; seems to have supported Cicero during the Catiline
conspiracy; and in B.C. 62 stood for the quæstorship and was elected.
His violation of the mysteries was alleged to have been committed in
December of that year, and before he could go to the province allotted
to him as quæstor in Sicily he had to stand a trial for sacrilege. Such
an offence--penetrating in disguise into the house of the Pontifex
Maximus, when his wife was engaged in the secret rites of the Bona
Dea--would place him under a curse, and not only prevent his entering
upon his quæstorship, but would disfranchise and politically ruin him.
Clodius would seem not to have been a person of sufficient character or
importance to make this trial a political event. But not only had he
powerful backers, but his opponents also, by proposing an innovation in
the manner of selecting the jurors for trying him, had managed to give a
spurious political importance to the case. One of the most brilliant of
the early letters (XV, p. 37) gives us a graphic picture of the trial.
Clodius was acquitted and went to his province, but returned in B.C. 60,
apparently prepared for a change of parties. Cicero and he had
quarrelled over the trial. He had said sarcastic things about the sacred
consulship, and Cicero had retaliated by bitter speeches in the senate,
and by giving evidence at the trial of having seen Clodius in Rome three
hours before he professed to have been at Interamna, on the day of the
alleged sacrilege. It is perhaps possible that his alibi may have been
true in substance, for he may have been well out of Rome on his way to
Interamna after seeing Cicero. But, however that may be, he nourished a
grudge against Cicero, which he presently had an opportunity of
satisfying. The year of his return to Rome from Sicily (B.C. 60) was the
same as that of Cæsar's return from Spain. Pompey--who had returned the
year before--was at enmity with the senate on account of the
difficulties raised to the confirmation of his _acta_ and the allotments
for his veterans. Cæsar had a grievance because of the difficulties put
in the way of his triumph. The two coalesced, taking in the millionaire
Crassus, to form a triumvirate or coalition of three, with a view to
getting measures they desired passed, and offices for themselves or
their partisans. This was a great blow to Cicero, who clung feverously
to Pompey as a political leader, but could not follow him in a coalition
with Cæsar: for he knew that the object of it was a series of measures
of which he heartily disapproved. His hope of seeing Pompey coming to
act as acknowledged leader of the Optimates was dashed to the ground. He
could not make up his mind wholly to abandon him, or, on the other hand,
to cut himself adrift from the party of Optimates, to whose policy he
had so deeply committed himself. Clodius was troubled by no such
scruples. Perhaps Cæsar had given him substantial reasons for his change
of policy. At any rate, from this time forward he acts as an extreme
_popularis_--much too extreme, as it turned out, for Pompey's taste. As
a patrician his next step in the official ladder would naturally have
been the ædileship. But that peaceful office did not suit his present
purpose. The tribuneship would give him the right to bring forward
measures in the _comitia tributa_, such as he desired to pass, and would
in particular give him the opportunity of attacking Cicero. The
difficulty was that to become tribune he must cease to be a patrician.
He could only do that by being adopted into a plebeian gens. He had a
plebeian ready to do it in B.C. 59. But for a man who was _sui iuris_ to
be adopted required a formal meeting of the old _comitia curiata_, and
such a meeting required the presence of an augur, as well as some kind
of sanction of the pontifices. Cæsar was Pontifex Maximus, and Pompey
was a member of the college of augurs. Their influence would be
sufficient to secure or prevent this being done. Their consent was, it
appears, for a time withheld. But Cæsar was going to Gaul at the end of
his consulship, and desired to have as few powerful enemies at Rome
during his absence as possible. Still he had a personal feeling for
Cicero, and when it was known that one of Clodius's objects in seeking
to become a plebeian and a tribune was to attack him, Cæsar offered him
two chances of honourable retreat--first as one of the commissioners to
administer his land law, and again as one of his _legati_ in Gaul. But
Cicero would not accept the first, because he was vehemently opposed to
the law itself: nor the second, because he had no taste for provincial
business, even supposing the proconsul to be to his liking; and because
he could not believe that P. Clodius would venture to attack him, or
would succeed if he did. Cæsar's consulship of B.C. 59 roused his worst
fears for the Republic; and, though he thought little of the
statesmanship or good sense of Cæsar's hostile colleague Bibulus, he was
thoroughly disgusted with the policy of the triumvirs, with the
contemptuous treatment of the senate, with the high-handed disregard of
the auspices--by means of which Bibulus tried to invalidate the laws and
other _acta_ of Cæsar--and with the armed forces which Pompey brought
into the _campus_, nominally to keep order, but really to overawe the
_comitia_, and secure the passing of Cæsar's laws. Nor was it in his
nature to conceal his feelings. Speaking early in the year in defence of
his former colleague, C. Antonius, accused of _maiestas_ for his conduct
in Macedonia, he expressed in no doubtful terms his view of the
political situation. Within a few hours the words were reported to the
triumvirs, and all formalities were promptly gone through for the
adoption of Clodius. Cæsar himself presided at the _comitia curiata_,
Pompey attended as augur, and the thing was done in a few minutes. Even
then Cicero does not appear to have been alarmed, or to have been fully
aware of what the object of Publius was. While on his usual spring visit
to his seaside villas in April (B.C. 59), he expressed surprise at
hearing from the young Curio that Clodius was a candidate for the
tribuneship (vol. i., p. 99). His surprise no doubt was more or less
assumed: he must have understood that Clodius's object in the adoption
was the tribunate, and must have had many uneasy reflexions as to the
use which he would make of the office when he got it. Indeed there was
not very much doubt about it, for Publius openly avowed his intentions.
We have accordingly numerous references, in the letters to Atticus, to
Cicero's doubts about the course he ought to adopt. Should he accept
Cæsar's offer of a legation in Gaul, or a free and votive legation?
Should he stay in Rome and fight it out? The latter course was the one
on which he was still resolved in July, when Clodius had been, or was on
the point of being, elected tribune (p. 110). He afterwards wavered (p.
113), but was encouraged by the belief that all the "orders" were
favourable to him, and were becoming alienated from the triumvirs (pp.
117, 119), especially after the affair of Vettius (pp. 122-124), and by
the friendly disposition of many of the colleagues of Clodius in the
tribuneship. With such feelings of confidence and courage the letters of
B.C. 59 come to an end.

[Sidenote: The Exile, April, B.C. 58--August, B.C. 57.]

The correspondence only opens again in April of B.C. 58, when the worst
has happened. Clodius entered upon his tribuneship on the 10th of
December, B.C. 59, and lost little time in proposing a law to the
_comitia_ for the trial of any magistrate guilty of putting citizens to
death without trial (_qui cives indemnatos necavisset_). The wording of
the law thus left it open to plead that it applied only to such act as
occurred after its enactment, for the pluperfect _necavisset_ in the
dependent clause answers to the future perfect in a direct one. And this
was the interpretation that Cæsar, while approving the law itself,
desired to put upon it.[8] He again offered Cicero a legation in Gaul,
but would do nothing for him if he stayed in Rome; while Pompey, who had
been profuse in promises of protection, either avoided seeing Cicero, or
treated his abject entreaties with cold disdain.[9] Every citizen, by a
humane custom at Rome, had the right of avoiding a prosecution by
quitting the city and residing in some town which had the _ius exilii_.
It is this course that we find Cicero already entered upon when the
correspondence of the year begins. In the letters of this year of exile
he continually reproaches himself with not having stayed and even
supported the law, in full confidence that it could not be applied to
himself. He attributes his having taken the less courageous course to
the advice of his friends, who were actuated by jealousy and a desire
to get rid of him. Even Atticus he thinks was timid, at the best, in
advising his retirement. It is the only occasion in all the
correspondence in which the least cloud seems to have rested on the
perfect friendship of the two men. Atticus does not appear to have shewn
any annoyance at the querulous remarks of his friend. He steadily
continued to write, giving information and advice, and made no
difficulty in supplying his friend with money. During Cicero's absence
Atticus became still more wealthy than before by inheriting the estates
of his cross-grained uncle Cæcilius. But he was always careful as to the
investment of his money and he would not, perhaps, have been so ready to
trust Cicero, had he not felt confidence in the ultimate recovery of his
civil status. Still his confidence was peculiarly welcome at a time
which would have been otherwise one of great pressure. For Clodius had
followed up Cicero's retirement with the usual _lex_ in regard to
persons leaving Rome to avoid a trial--a prohibition "of fire and water"
within a fixed distance from Italy, which involved the confiscation of
all his property in Italy. His villas were dismantled, his town house
pulled down, and a vote of the people obtained by Clodius for the
consecration of its site as a _templum_ dedicated to Liberty, and a
scheme was formed and the work actually commenced for occupying part of
it by an extension of an existing porticus or colonnade (the _porticus
Catuli_) to contain a statue of Liberty. That this consecration was
regular is shewn by the pleas by which it was afterwards sought to
reverse it.[10] When Cicero was recalled the question came before the
pontifices, who decided that the consecration was not valid unless it
had been done by the "order of the people." It could not be denied on
the face of it that there had been such an order. Cicero was obliged to
resort to the plea that Clodius's adoption had been irregular and
invalid, that therefore he was not legally a tribune, and could not take
an order of the people. Finally, the senate seems to have decided that
its restoration to Cicero was part of the general _restitutio in
integrum_ voted by the _comitia centuriata_; and a sum of money was
assigned to him for the rebuilding of the house. Clodius refused to
recognize the validity of this decree of the senate, and attempted by
violence to interrupt the workmen engaged on the house. We have a lively
picture of this in Letter XCI (vol. i., pp. 194-196).

[Sidenote: Letters of the Exile (Letters LV-LXXXVIII).]

The letters from Cicero as an exile are painful reading for those who
entertain a regard for his character. It was not unnatural, indeed, that
he should feel it grievously. He had so completely convinced himself of
the extraordinary value of his services to the state, of the importance
of his position in Roman politics, and of the view that the Optimates
would take of the necessity of retaining him, that to see himself
treated like a fraudulent or unsuccessful provincial governor, of no
importance to anyone but himself, was a bitter blow to his self-esteem.
The actual loss was immense. His only means were now the amount of money
he had been able to take with him, or was able to borrow. All was gone
except such property as his wife retained in her own right. He was a
dependent upon her, instead of being her support and the master of his
own household. The services of freedmen--readily rendered when he was
prosperous--would now be a matter of favour and personal attachment,
which was not always sufficient to retain them. The "life and light" of
the city, in which no man ever took a more eager interest and delight,
were closed to him. He was cut off from his family, and from familiar
intercourse with friends, on both of which he was much dependent for
personal happiness. Lastly, wherever he lived, he lived, as it were, on
sufferance, no longer an object of respect as a statesman, or the source
of help to others by his eloquence. But, disagreeable as all this was to
a man of Cicero's sensitive vanity, there was something still worse.
Even in towns which were the legal distance from Italy he could not
safely stay, if they were within the jurisdiction of one of his personal
enemies, or contained other exiles, who owed him an ill turn. He was
protected by no law, and more than one instance of such a man's falling
a victim to an enemy's dagger is recorded. Cicero's first idea was to go
to Malta: but Malta was for some purposes in the jurisdiction of the
governor of Sicily, and the governor of Sicily (C. Vergilius[11])
objected to his passing through Sicily or staying at Malta. We have no
reason for supposing Vergilius personally hostile to Cicero, but he may
have thought that Cicero's services to the Sicilians in the case of
Verres would have called out some expression of feeling on their part in
his favour, which would have been awkward for a Roman governor. Cicero
therefore crossed to Epirus, and travelled down the Egnatian road to
Thessalonica. This was the official capital of the province of
Macedonia, and the quæstor in Macedonia, Gnæus Plancius, met Cicero at
Dyrrachium, invited him to fix his residence there with him, and
accompanied him on his journey. Here he stayed till November in a state
of anxiety and distress, faithfully reflected in his letters, waiting to
hear how far the elections for B.C. 57 would result in putting his
friends in office, and watching for any political changes that would
favour his recall: but prepared to go still farther to Cyzicus, if the
incoming governor, L. Calpurnius Piso, who, as consul in B.C. 58 with
Gabinius, had shewn decided animus against him, should still retain that
feeling in Macedonia. Events, however, in Rome during the summer and
autumn of B.C. 58 gave him better hopes. Clodius, by his violent
proceedings, as well as by his legislation, had alienated Pompey, and
caused him to favour Cicero's recall. Of the new consuls Lentulus was
his friend, and Q. Cæcilius Metellus Nepos (who as tribune in B.C. 63-62
had prevented his speech when laying down his consulship) consented to
waive all opposition. A majority of the new tribunes were also
favourable to him, especially P. Sestius and T. Annius Milo; and in
spite of constant ups and downs in his feelings of confidence, he had on
the whole concluded that his recall was certain to take place. Towards
the end of November he therefore travelled back to Dyrrachium, a _libera
civitas_ in which he had many friends, and where he thought he might be
safe, and from which he could cross to Italy as soon as he heard of the
law for his recall having been passed. Here, however, he was kept
waiting through many months of anxiety. Clodius had managed to make his
recall as difficult as possible. He had, while tribune, obtained an
order from the people forbidding the consuls to bring the subject before
the senate, and Piso and Gabinius had during their year of office
pleaded that law as a bar to introducing the question.

[Sidenote: The Recall, August, B.C. 57.]

The new consuls were not, or did not consider themselves, so bound, and
Lentulus having brought the subject forward, the senate early passed a
resolution that Cicero's recall was to take precedence of all other
business. In accordance with the resolution of the senate, a law was
proposed by the consul Lentulus in the _comitia centuriata_, and
probably one by Milo to the _tributa_. But Clodius, though no longer
armed with the tribuneship, was not yet beaten. He obtained the aid of
some gladiators belonging to his brother Appius, and more than once
interrupted and dispersed an assembly of the _comitia_. In the riots
thus occasioned blood was shed on both sides, and Cicero's brother
Quintus on one occasion nearly lost his life. This was the beginning of
the series of violent contests between Clodius and Milo, only ended by
the murder of the former on the Appian road in B.C. 52. But Clodius was
a candidate for the ædileship in this year (B.C. 57), and could be
barred from that office legally by a prosecution for _vis_, of which
Milo gave notice against him. It was, perhaps, a desire to avoid this,
as much as fear of Milo's counter exhibition of violence, that at length
caused him to relax in his opposition, or at any rate to abstain from
violently interrupting the _comitia_. Accordingly, on the 4th of August,
the law proposed by both consuls, and supported by Pompey, was passed
unanimously by the centuries. Cicero, we must presume, had received
trustworthy information that this was to be the case (shewing that some
understanding had been come to with Clodius, or there would have been no
certainty of his not violently dispersing the _comitia_ again), for on
that same day he set sail from Dyrrachium and landed at Brundisium on
the 5th. His triumphant return to Rome is described in the eighty-ninth
letter of this collection. For Pompey's share in securing it he
expressed, and seems really to have felt, an exaggerated gratitude,
which still influenced him in the unhappy months of B.C. 49, when he was
hesitating as to joining him beyond seas in the civil war.

But though Clodius had somehow been prevented from hindering his recall,
he by no means relaxed his hostility. He not only tried to excite the
populace against him by arguing that the scarcity and consequent high
price of corn, from which the people were at that time suffering, was in
some way attributable to Cicero's policy, but he also opposed the
restoration of his house; and when a decree of the senate was passed in
Cicero's favour on that point, brought his armed ruffians to prevent the
workmen from going on with the rebuilding, as well as to molest Cicero
himself (vol. i., p. 195). This was followed by a determined opposition
by Milo to the holding of the elections for B.C. 56, until his
prosecution of Clodius _de vi_ should have been tried. Clodius, however,
was acquitted,[12] and, being elected ædile, immediately commenced a
counter accusation against Milo for _vis_. He impeached him before the
_comitia_ in February (B.C. 56), on which occasion Pompey spoke in
Milo's defence in the midst of a storm of interruptions got up by the
friends of Clodius (vol. i., pp. 214, 217). Milo was also acquitted, and
the rest of Clodius's ædileship seems to have passed without farther
acts of open violence.

[Sidenote: Cicero and the Triumvirs.]

But Cicero had now other causes of anxiety. He had spoken in favour of
the commission offered to Pompey in B.C. 57 for superintending the
corn-supply of Rome (_cura annonæ_). Pompey was to have fifteen legates,
a good supply of ships and men, and considerable powers in all
corn-growing countries in the Mediterranean. Cicero supported this,
partly from gratitude to Pompey, but partly also from a wish to promote
his power and influence against the ever-increasing influence and fame
of Cæsar. He secretly hoped that a jealousy might grow up between them;
that Pompey would be drawn closer to the Optimates; and that the union
of the triumvirate might be gradually weakened and finally disappear.
Pompey was thoroughly offended and alarmed by the insults offered him by
the Clodian mob, and by Clodius's own denunciations of him; and if he
could be convinced that these were suggested or approved by Cæsar or
Crassus, it would go far to withdraw him from friendship with either of
them. With Crassus, indeed, he had never been on cordial terms: it was
only Cæsar's influence that had caused him to form any union with him.
Cæsar, on the other hand, was likely to be uneasy at the great powers
which the _cura annonæ_ put into Pompey's hands; and at the possible
suggestion of offering him the dictatorship, if the Clodian riots became
quite intolerable. On the whole, Cicero thought that he saw the element
of a very pretty quarrel, from which he hoped that the result might be
"liberty"--the orderly working of the constitution, that is, without the
irregular supremacy of anyone, at any rate of anyone of the popular
party. He had, however, a delicate part to play. He did not wish or dare
to break openly with Cæsar, or to speak too openly to Pompey; and he was
conscious that the intemperance, folly, or indifference of many of the
Optimates made it difficult to reckon on their support, and made that
support a very questionable benefit if accorded. But though his letters
of this period are full of expressions indicating doubt of Pompey and
irritation with him, yet he seems still to have spoken of him with
warmth on public occasions, while he avoided mentioning Cæsar, or spoke
of him only in cold terms.

[Sidenote: Renewal of the Triumvirate at Luca, April, B.C. 56, and
Cicero's change of policy.]

[Sidenote: Quintus Cicero in Gaul.]

The hope, however, of detaching Pompey from Cæsar was dashed by the
meeting at Luca in April, B.C. 56, at which a fresh arrangement was made
for the mutual advantage of the triumvirs. Cæsar got the promise of the
introduction of a law giving him an additional five years of command in
Gaul, with special privileges as to his candidature for the consulship
of B.C. 48; while Pompey and Crassus bargained for a second consulship
in B.C. 55, and the reversion of the Spains (to be held as a single
province) and Syria respectively, each for five years. The care taken
that none of the three should have _imperium_ overlapping that of the
others was indeed a sign of mutual distrust and jealousy. But the
bargain was made with sufficient approval of the members of the party
crowding Luca to secure its being carried out by the _comitia_. The
union seemed stronger than ever; and Cicero at length resolved on a
great change of attitude. Opposition to the triumvirs had been
abandoned, he saw, by the very party for whom he had been incurring the
enmity of Pompey and Cæsar. Why should he hold out any longer? "Since
those who have no power," he writes to Atticus in April, "refuse me
their affection, let me take care to secure the affection of those who
have power. You will say, 'I could have wished that you had done so
before.' I know you did wish it, and that I have made a real ass of
myself."[13] This is the first indication in the letters of the change.
But it was soon to be publicly avowed. The opposition to the consulship
of Pompey and Crassus was so violent that no election took place during
B.C. 56, and they were only elected under the presidency of _interreges_
at the beginning of February, B.C. 55. But by the _lex Sempronia_ the
senate was bound to name the consular provinces--_i.e._, the provinces
to be governed by the incoming consuls after their year of
office--before the elections, and in his speech on the subject (_de
Provinciis Consularibus_), delivered apparently in July, B.C. 56,
Cicero, while urging that Piso and Gabinius should have successors
appointed to them in Macedonia and Syria, took occasion to announce and
defend his own reconciliation with Cæsar, and to support his continuance
in the governorship of Gaul. Shortly afterwards, when defending the
citizenship of L. Cornelius Balbus, he delivered a glowing panegyric on
Pompey's character and services to the state. This was followed by a
complete abstention from any farther opposition to the carrying out of
Cæsar's law for the allotment of the Campanian land--a subject which he
had himself brought before the senate only a short time before, and on
which he really continued to feel strongly.[14] Cicero's most elaborate
defence of his change of front is contained in a long letter to P.
Lentulus Spinther, written two years afterwards.[15] The gist of it is
much the same as the remark to Atticus already quoted. "Pompey and
Cæsar were all-powerful, and could not be resisted without civil
violence, if not downright civil war. The Optimates were feeble and
shifty, had shewn ingratitude to Cicero himself, and had openly favoured
his enemy Clodius. Public peace and safety must be the statesman's chief
object, and almost any concession was to be preferred to endangering
these." Nevertheless, we cannot think that Cicero was ever heartily
reconciled to the policy, or the unconstitutional preponderance of the
triumvirs. He patched up some sort of reconciliation with Crassus, and
his personal affection for Pompey made it comparatively easy for him to
give him a kind of support. Cæsar was away, and a correspondence filled
on both sides with courteous expressions could be maintained without
seriously compromising his convictions. But Cicero was never easy under
the yoke. From B.C. 55 to B.C. 52 he sought several opportunities for a
prolonged stay in the country, devoting himself--in default of
politics--to literature. The fruits of this were the _de Oratore_ and
the _de Republica_, besides poems on his own times and on his
consulship. Still he was obliged from time to time to appear in the
forum and senate-house, and in various ways to gratify Pompey and Cæsar.
It must have been a great strain upon his loyalty to this new political
friendship when, in B.C. 54, Pompey called upon him to undertake the
defence of P. Vatinius, whom he had not long before attacked so fiercely
while defending Sestius. Vatinius had been a tribune in B.C. 59, acting
entirely in Cæsar's interests, and Cicero believed him to have been his
enemy both in the matter of his exile and in the opposition to his
recall. He had denounced him in terms that would have made it almost
impossible, one would think, to have spoken in his defence in any cause
whatever. At best he represented all that Cicero most disliked in
politics; and on this very election, to the prætorship, for which he was
charged with bribery (_de sodalitiis_), Cicero had already spoken in
strongly hostile terms in the senate. For now undertaking his defence he
has, in fact, no explanation to give to Lentulus (vol. i., p. 319), and
he was long sore at having been forced to do it. Through B.C. 54 and 53
he was busied with his _de Republica_, and was kept more in touch with
Cæsar by the fact that his brother Quintus was serving as _legatus_ to
the latter in Britain and Gaul, and that his friend Trebatius
(introduced by himself) was seeking for promotion and profit in Cæsar's
camp. But even his brother's service with Cæsar did not eventually
contribute to the formation of cordial feeling on his part towards
Cæsar, whom he could not help admiring, but never really liked. For
Quintus, though he distinguished himself by his defence of his camp in
the autumn of B.C. 54, lost credit and subjected himself to grave rebuke
by the disaster incurred in B.C. 53, near Aduatuca (_Tongres_), brought
about by disregarding an express order of Cæsar's. There is no allusion
to this in the extant correspondence, but a fragment of letter from
Cæsar to Cicero (_neque pro cauto ac diligente se castris
continuit_[16]), seems to shew that Cæsar had written sharply to Cicero
on his brother's _faux pas_, and after this time, though Cicero met
Cæsar at Ravenna in B.C. 52, and consented to support the bill allowing
him to stand for the consulship in his absence,[17] there is apparent in
his references to him a return to the cold or critical tone of former
times. But of course there were other reasons.

[Sidenote: Pompey's third Consulship and the trial of Milo, B.C. 52.]

Pompey's six months' sole consulship of B.C. 52 ("that divine third
consulship"), the rumour of his dictatorship, and the growing
determination of the Optimates to play off Pompey against Cæsar (Crassus
having disappeared) and to insist on Cæsar resigning his province and
army before the end of his ten years' tenure, and before standing for a
second consulship, caused Cicero's hope of a final dissolution of the
unconstitutional compact to revive again; and made him draw more and
more closely to Pompey as the chief hope of the _boni_. In the beginning
of the year he had found himself in opposition, or quasi-opposition, to
Pompey in regard to the prosecution of Milo for the murder of Clodius.
But though in the previous year he had declared that the election of
Milo to the consulship was of the utmost importance to his own position
and the safety of the state,[18] now that it was rendered impossible by
Milo's condemnation, he seems to have placed all his hopes on Pompey.
Unfortunately, there is here a break in the correspondence. There is no
letter of the last six months of B.C. 53, and only four (perhaps only
three) of B.C. 52.[19] So that the riots which prevented Milo's
election, the death of Clodius and the riots following it, and the
consequent sole consulship of Pompey, with the latter's new legislation
and the trial of Milo--all have to be sought for elsewhere. The last
letter of this volume and of this year, addressed to M. Marius in
December, B.C. 52, alludes to the condemnation of Milo, and to the
numerous prosecutions following it. "Here, in Rome, I am so distracted
by the number of trials, the crowded courts, and the new legislation,
that I daily offer prayers that there may be no intercalation."[20]

[Sidenote: Cicero appointed Proconsul of Cilicia, B.C. 51-50.]

When the correspondence opens again in the spring of B.C. 51 an event
has happened, of no particular importance in itself, but of supreme
interest to Cicero, and very fortunate for the readers of the
correspondence. One of Pompey's new laws ordained that no one was to
take a province till the fifth year after laying down his consulship or
prætorship. Pompey broke his own law by keeping his province, the
Spains--his position in regard to them was altogether exceptional--but,
in order to carry out the law in other cases, the senate arranged that
ex-consuls and ex-prætors who had not been to provinces should in turn
draw lots for vacant governorships. Cicero and Bibulus appear to have
been the senior _consulares_ in that position, and with much reluctance
Cicero allowed his name to be cast into the urn. He drew Cilicia and
Bibulus Syria. He says that his motive was a desire to obey the wishes
of the senate. Another motive may have been a desire to be away from
Rome while the controversy as to Cæsar's retirement from his province
was settled, and to retrieve a position of some political importance,
which he had certainly not increased during the last few years. When it
came to the actual start, however, he felt all the _gêne_ of the
business--the formation and control of his staff, the separation from
friends, and the residence far from the "light and life" of Rome, among
officials who were certainly commonplace and probably corrupt, and
amidst a population, perhaps acute and accomplished, but certainly
servile and ill content, and in some parts predatory and barbarous. At
the best, they would be emphatically provincial, in a dreary sense of
the word. He felt unequal to the worry and bore of the whole business,
and reproached himself with the folly of the undertaking. Of course,
this regret is mingled with his usual self-congratulation on the purity
with which he means to manage his province. But even that feeling is not
strong enough to prevent his longing earnestly to have the period of
banishment as short as possible, or to prevent the alarm with which he
hears of a probable invasion by the Parthians. One effect of his almost
two years' absence from Rome was, I think, to deprive him of the power
of judging clearly of the course of events. He had constant intelligence
and excellent correspondents--especially Cælius--still he could not
really grasp what was going on under the surface: and when he returned
to find the civil war on the point of breaking out, he was, after all,
taken by surprise, and had no plan of action ready. This, as well as his
government of the province, will be fully illustrated in the next volume
of the correspondence.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: Cicero's Correspondents.]

The persons to whom the chief letters are addressed in this volume,
besides Atticus, are Cicero's brother Quintus and P. Lentulus Spinther.
There are two excellent letters to M. Marius, and one very interesting,
though rather surprising, epistle to L. Lucceius. Others of more than
average interest are to Terentia, M. Fadius Gallus, C. Scribonius Curio,
and Tiro.

[Sidenote: Titus Pomponius Atticus.]

ATTICUS (B.C. 109-32) is a man of whom we should be glad to know more
than we do. He was the friend of all the leading men of the day--Pompey,
Cæsar, Cicero, Antony, Brutus--father-in-law of Agrippa, and survived to
be a constant correspondent of Augustus, between B.C. 43 and his death
in B.C. 32. He was spared and respected by both sides in the civil
wars, from Sulla to the Second Triumvirate. The secret of his success
seems to have been that he was no man's rival. He resolutely declined
all official employment, even on the staff of his brother-in-law Quintus
Cicero. He committed himself to no side in politics, and, not being in
the senate, had no occasion by vote or speech to wound the feelings of
anyone. So, too, though he cared for literature, it was rather as a
friendly critic of others than as an author. He did, it is true, compile
some books on Roman history, on historical portraits, and certain family
biographies; but they were not such as made him a rival of any of his
contemporaries. They were rather the productions of a rich amateur, who
had leisure to indulge a quasi-literary taste, without any thought of
joining the ranks of professed writers. Thirdly, he had great wealth,
partly inherited, partly acquired by prudent speculation in the purchase
of town properties, or in loans to states or public bodies on fair
terms: and this wealth was at the service of his friends, but not in the
lavish or reckless manner, which often earns only ingratitude without
being of any permanent service to the recipients. He lent money, but
expected to be repaid even by his brother-in-law. And this prudence
helped to retain the confidence, while his sympathetic temperament
secured the liking, of most. Again, he had the valuable knack of
constantly replenishing the number of his friends among men junior to
himself. His character attracted the liking of Sulla, who was
twenty-seven years his senior, and he remained the close friend of his
contemporaries Hortensius and Cicero (the former five years his senior,
the latter three years his junior) till the day of their death. But we
also find him on intimate terms with Brutus, twenty-four, and Octavian,
forty-six years junior to himself. Lastly, he was not too much at Rome.
More than twenty years of his earlier manhood (B.C. 87-65) were spent in
Greece, principally at Athens, partly in study and partly in business.
And Athens at this time, long deprived of political importance, had
still the charm not only of its illustrious past, but also of its
surviving character as the home of culture and refinement. When he at
length returned to Rome in B.C. 65, he had already purchased a property
in Epirus, near Buthrotum (see p. 3), where he built a villa, in which
he continued to spend a considerable part of his remaining years. This
was sufficiently remote, not only from Rome, but from the summer
residences of the Roman nobles, to secure his isolation from the
intrigues and enmities of Roman society. He did not indeed--as who
does?--always escape giving offence. At the very beginning of the
correspondence we hear of his vain attempts to mollify the anger of L.
Lucceius--how incurred we do not know; and Quintus Cicero, of whose
sharp temper we hear so much, was on more than one occasion on the point
of a rupture with him. But his family life was generally as pleasing as
his connexion with his friends. With his mother, who lived to a great
age, he boasted that he had never been reconciled, because he had never
quarrelled. He was the only one who could get on with the crusty uncle
Cæcilius. In the delicate matter of his sister Pomponia's differences
with her husband Quintus Cicero, he seems to have acted with kindness as
well as prudence; and though he married late in life (B.C. 56, when he
was in his fifty-third year), he appears to have made an excellent
husband to Pilia and a very affectionate father to his daughter. His
unwearied sympathy with the varied moods of Cicero--whether of
exultation, irritation, or despair--and the entire confidence which
Cicero feels that he will have that sympathy in every case, are
creditable to both. It is only between sincere souls that one can speak
to the other as to a second self, as Cicero often alleges that he does
to Atticus.

[Sidenote: Quintus Tullius Cicero.]

Of QUINTUS CICERO, the next most important correspondent in this volume,
we get a fairly clear picture. Four years younger than his famous
brother (b. B.C. 102), he followed him at the due distance up the ladder
of official promotion to the prætorship, to which he was elected in the
year of his elder's consulship. There, however, Quintus stopped. He
never seems to have stood for the consulship. He had no oratorical
genius to give him reputation in the forum, nor were his literary
productions of any value, either for style or originality. His abilities
for administration, as shewn in his three years' government of Asia,
appear to have been respectable, but were marred by faults of temper,
which too often betrayed him into extreme violence of language. In
military command he shewed courage and energy in defending his camp in
the rising of the Gauls in the winter of B.C. 54-53; but he spoilt the
reputation thus gained by the mistake committed in the autumn of B.C.
53, which cost the loss of a considerable number of troops, and all but
allowed the roving Germans to storm his camp. He remained another year
in Gaul, but did nothing to retrieve this mistake. In military affairs
fortune rarely forgives. In politics he seems to have contented himself
generally with saying ditto to his brother. And this continued to be the
case up to Pharsalia. After that, finding himself on the losing side, he
turned somewhat fiercely upon the brother, whom he regarded as having
misled him; and for a time there was a miserable breach between them,
which, however, did not last very long. When the end came it found the
brothers united in heart as in misfortune. His private happiness was
marred by an uncongenial marriage. Pomponia--sister of Atticus--seems to
have been as high-tempered as her husband, and less placable. The
constant quarrels between them exercised the patience both of Cicero and
Atticus, and crops up all through the correspondence. One effect of them
was the loss of all control over their son, who, being called upon to
smooth over the differences between father and mother, naturally took up
at an early age a line of his own, and shewed a disposition to act
independently of his elders.

[Sidenote: Terentia.]

The letters to TERENTIA do not fill much space in the correspondence,
and are rarely interesting. Married about B.C. 80, Cicero seems to have
lived in harmony with her at least till the time of his return from
exile, during which unhappy period he acknowledges the activity of her
exertions in support of his recall, and the drain which his ruin was
making upon her resources. Terentia had a large private fortune, and
apparently used it liberally in his service. Nevertheless, immediately
on his return from exile, there seems to have been some cause of
coldness between the husband and wife. He darkly alludes to certain
domestic troubles in the first letter to Atticus written from Rome (vol
i., p. 189), and repeats the hint in the next (p. 193). When he landed
at Brundisium it was Tullia, not Terentia, who came to meet him (p.
187), and for some time after she appears to be presiding in his house
rather than Terentia (see pp. 224, 257). Whatever the cause of this
coldness was, however, it appears to have been removed for a time. He
kept up a correspondence with her while he was in Cilicia (B.C. 51-50),
and though he does not seem pleased at her having arranged the marriage
of Tullia with Dolabella, he addresses her warmly when about to return,
and was met by her on landing. During the five or six months that
followed, before Cicero left Italy to join Pompey, there is no
indication of any alienation: but the short notes from Pompey's camp,
and in the first half of B.C. 47, are cold and conventional, and on his
return to Brundisium after Pharsalia, and during his lengthened stay
there, he appears to have declined to allow her to come and see him.
Soon after his return to Rome, in September, B.C. 47, matters came to a
climax. Perhaps some of the mischief was caused by the mismanagement or
dishonesty of Terentia's steward, Philotimus, of whom we hear a good
deal in the letters from Cilicia: but whatever was the origin of the
quarrel, Cicero asserts that on his return he found his affairs in a
state of utter disorder. It may well have been that, like other
adherents to the losing cause, he had to suffer from loss of any
property that could be easily laid hands on in Rome, and that Terentia
had had no power to save it. But Cicero, rightly or wrongly, attributed
the embarrassment which he found awaiting him to his wife. He says in a
letter to Gnæus Plancius:[21] "I should not have taken any new step at a
time of such general disaster had I not on my return found my private
affairs in as sorry a position as the public. The fact is, that when I
saw that, owing to the criminal conduct of those to whom my life and
fortunes ought, in return for my never-to-be-forgotten services, to have
been their dearest object, there was nothing safe within the walls of my
house, nothing that was not the subject of some intrigue, I made up my
mind that I must arm myself by the faithful support of new marriage
connexions against the perfidy of the old." This is a lame excuse for a
man of sixty separating from the companion of his whole manhood, and in
the eyes of Roman Society it was rendered still more questionable by a
prompt marriage with a young girl, rich, and his own ward: from whom,
however, he soon again divorced himself, angered, it is said, by her
want of feeling at the death of Tullia. Terentia long survived her
husband, living, we are told, to be over a hundred years old. Divorce
was, of course, not regarded in these days of the Republic as it had
once been, or as it is now among ourselves; still we should have been
glad, both for his fame and his happiness, if the few years remaining to
him had not had this additional cloud. A man of sixty embarking on such
matrimonial enterprise is not a dignified spectacle, or one pleasing to
gods and men.

The other correspondents may be dismissed in few words.

[Sidenote: P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther.]

P. CORNELIUS LENTULUS SPINTHER, to whom some of the longest letters are
addressed, represents the high aristocracy, to which Cicero wished to
commend himself, though seeing keenly the weakness which underlay their
magnificence. The part played by Lentulus in politics had been showy,
but never founded on steadfast principle. He owed his earlier promotions
to Cæsar's influence, but in his consulship of B.C. 57 had taken the
side of the aristocracy in promoting the recall of Cicero, though he had
gone against their sentiment by supporting Pompey's appointment to the
_cura annonæ_. But as he was going to Cilicia in B.C. 56, Lentulus
wished to have the lucrative task of restoring Ptolemy Auletes to the
throne of Egypt, from which he had been righteously driven by his
subjects. Therefore it was all to the good that Pompey should have
business at home preventing him from taking this in hand. How Lentulus
was baulked in this desire will appear in the letters. He no doubt had
his full share of the _Lentulitas_ distinguishing his family. But all
was forgiven by Cicero to a man who had promoted his recall, and he
takes great pains to justify to Lentulus his own change of policy in
regard to the triumvirs after B.C. 56. When the civil war began Lentulus
joined Domitius at Corfinium, and with him fell into Cæsar's hands, and
was dismissed unharmed. He afterwards joined Pompey in Epirus, intent on
succeeding Cæsar as Pontifex Maximus, as soon as the latter had been
satisfactorily disposed of. After Pharsalia he sought refuge at Rhodes,
but was refused sanctuary by the islanders, and was eventually put to
death, though we do not know by whom (_Att._ xi. 13; _Fam._ ix. 18).

[Sidenote: M. Fadius Gallus, M. Marius, L. Lucceius, C. Scribonius
Curio, C. Trebatius Testa.]

M. FADIUS GALLUS, the Epicurean, and M. MARIUS, the valetudinarian and
wit, were among friends valued for their personal and agreeable
qualities rather than for any public or political importance attaching
to them. The same may be said of L. LUCCEIUS, of whose Roman history
Cicero thought so well, that he wrote a remarkable letter begging for an
honourable place in it for his consulship, as Pliny did to Tacitus.[22]
C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO, son of a great friend of Cicero, after a _jeunesse
orageuse_, returned to Rome from his quæstorship in Asia, in B.C. 53, to
take up the inheritance of his father, which he quickly dissipated.
Cicero seems to have had a high idea of his abilities, and to have
believed him capable of taking the lead of the Optimates. But in his
tribuneship of B.C. 51-50 he disappointed all such hopes by openly
joining Cæsar's party, and resisting all attempts to recall him. He
joined Cæsar at Ravenna as soon as his tribuneship was out, and urged
him to march on Rome. In B.C. 49 he was sent to secure Sicily and
Africa. The first he did, but in the second he perished in battle
against the senatorial governor and king Iuba. Cicero's relation to C.
TREBATIUS TESTA, a learned jurisconsult, was apparently that of a patron
or tutor, who, thinking that he has found a young man of ability,
endeavours to push him. He sent him with a letter of introduction to
Cæsar, who was good-natured, though rather sarcastic as to the scope for
legal abilities to be found in Gaul. He gave him, however, a military
tribuneship, without exacting military duties, and apparently kept on
good terms with him, for he employed him in B.C. 49 to communicate his
wish to Cicero as to his remaining at Rome. Cicero's letters to him,
though numerous, are not among the most interesting. They are full of
banter of a rather forced and dull kind; and Cicero was evidently
annoyed to find that his scheme for advancing Trebatius in Cæsar's
province had not been very successful. The friendship, however, survived
the civil war, and we find Cicero in B.C. 44 dedicating his _Topica_ to
Trebatius.

[Footnote 1: That Cicero up to the time of his consulship had been
connected rather with the _populares_ is illustrated by Quintus (_de
Petit._ i.) urging him to make it clear that he had never been a
demagogue, but that if he had ever spoken "in the spirit of the popular
party, he had done so with the view of attracting Pompey."]

[Footnote 2: _De Orat._ ii. §§ 1, 2.]

[Footnote 3: "The city, the city, my dear Rufus--stick to that, and live
in its full light. Residence elsewhere--as I made up my mind early in
life--is mere eclipse and obscurity to those whose energy is capable of
shining at Rome."--_Fam._ ii. 12 (vol. ii., p. 166).]

[Footnote 4: Even at these he found troublesome people to interrupt him.
See vol. i., pp. 102, 104.]

[Footnote 5: Yet the announcement of the birth of his son (p. 16) and of
the dangerous confinement of Tullia (vol. ii., p. 403) are almost
equally brief.]

[Footnote 6: See _Att._ ii. 1, vol. 1., p. 62; Plut. _Cic._ 13; Cic. _in
Pis._ § 4.]

[Footnote 7: _Die Entstchungsgeschichte der catilinarischen
Verschwörung_, by Dr. Constantin John, 1876. I am still of opinion that
Plutarch's statement can be strongly supported.]

[Footnote 8: Cæsar said, οὺ μὴν καὶ προσήκειν ἐπὶ τοῐς παρεληλυθόσι
τοιοῠτόν τινα νόμον συγγράφεσθαι (Dio, xxxviii. 17).]

[Footnote 9: "The man who did not so much as raise me up, when I threw
myself at his feet."--_Att._ x. 4 (vol. ii., p. 362). Similar allusions
to Pompey's conduct to him on the occasion often occur.]

[Footnote 10: See vol. i., p. 190.]

[Footnote 11: See vol. i., pp. 129, 138; cp. _pro Planc._ §§ 95-96.]

[Footnote 12: _Fam._ i. 9, 15 (vol. i., p. 316).]

[Footnote 13: Letter CVII, vol. i., pp. 219, 220.]

[Footnote 14: Ever since its capture in the second Punic War, Capua had
ceased to have any corporate existence, and its territory had been _ager
publicus_, let out to tenants (_aratores_). Cæsar had restored its
corporate existence by making it a _colonia_, and much of the land had
been allotted to veterans of his own and Pompey's armies. The state thus
lost the rent of the land, one of the few sources of revenue from Italy
now drawn by the exchequer of Rome.]

[Footnote 15: Letter CLII, vol. i., pp. 310-324.]

[Footnote 16: Quoted by Flavius Charisius, _Ars Gramm._ i., p. 126 (ed.
Kiel).]

[Footnote 17: Vol. ii., p. 204.]

[Footnote 18: Vol. i., p. 357.]

[Footnote 19: CLXXVIII-CLXXXI. The date of the letter to P. Sittius
(CLXXVIII) is not certain.]

[Footnote 20: Vol. i., p. 366.]

[Footnote 21: Letter DXXXIII (_Fam._ iv. 14), about October, B.C. 46.]

[Footnote 22: Vol. i., p. 226; Pliny, _Ep._, vii. 33.]




    "TULLIUS, of all the sons of royal Rome
    That are, or have been, or are yet to come,
    Most skilled to plead, most learned in debate,--
    Catullus hails thee, small as thou art great.
    Take thou from him his thanks, his fond regards,
    The first of patrons from the least of bards."

CATULLUS, xlix. (J. E. S.)




CICERO'S LETTERS

ERRATA IN VOL. I.


Page 107, note 3, last line, _dele_ note of interrogation after "expenses."
 "   193, note 4, last line, _for_ B.C. 45 _lege_ B.C. 46.
 "   253, Letter CXXII, _for_ A IV, 1, _lege_ A IV, 2.




CICERO'S LETTERS




I (A I, 5)


[Sidenote: B.C. 68. Coss., L. Cæcilius Metellus, Q. Marcius Rex.]

     This opening of the correspondence finds Cicero, now in his
     thirty-ninth year, in the midst of his official career. He had
     already been quæstor (B.C. 75) and ædile (B.C. 69), and was looking
     forward to his election to the prætorship in the next year (B.C.
     67). He had already risen almost to the highest place in his
     profession as advocate, and had partly delivered, partly published
     his great indictment of Verres only a year ago. He is married to
     Terentia (B.C. 80), and has one daughter, Tullia or Tulliola, born
     on August 5, probably the next year (B.C. 79). His intimacy with T.
     Pomponius Atticus (three years his senior), perhaps begun at
     school, had lasted at least eleven years, from the time when he met
     him at Athens (B.C. 79), and with him had been initiated in the
     Eleusinian mysteries (_de Leg._ 2, § 36). There too they had both
     seen much of the writer's cousin Lucius, whose death he deplores in
     this letter (_de Fin._ 5, § 1). Atticus had lived abroad in Athens
     and Epirus, with occasional visits home from B.C. 88 to B.C. 65, in
     which latter year he seems to have returned for a more lengthened
     stay (Nep. _Att._ 4). The two friends have already corresponded
     frequently, but this is the first letter preserved.


TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

ROME

[Sidenote: B.C. 68, ÆT. 38]

We are such intimate friends that more than almost anyone else you can
appreciate the grief as well as the actual public and private loss that
the death of my cousin Lucius is to me. There is absolutely no
gratification which any human being can receive from the kindly
character of another that I have not been accustomed to receive from
him. I am sure, therefore, that you will share my grief. For, in the
first place, whatever affects me affects you; and in the second place,
you have yourself lost in him a friend and connexion of the highest
character and most obliging disposition, who was attached to you from
personal inclination, as well as from my conversation.

As to what you say in your letter about your sister,[23] she will
herself bear me witness what pains I have taken that my brother Quintus
should show her proper affection. Thinking him somewhat inclined to be
angry with her, I wrote to him in such a way as I thought would not hurt
his feelings as a brother, while giving him some good advice as my
junior, and remonstrating with him as being in the wrong. The result is
that, from frequent letters since received from him, I feel confident
that everything is as it ought and as we should wish it to be.

As to the frequency of my letters you have no ground for your complaint.
The fact is our good sister Pomponia never informed me of there being a
courier ready to take a letter. Farthermore, I never chanced to know of
anyone going to Epirus,[24] and I was not till recently informed of your
being at Athens.

Again, as to the business of Acutilius which you had left in my hands. I
had settled it on my first visit to Rome after your departure. But it
turned out that, in the first place, there was no urgency in the matter,
and, in the second place, as I felt confidence in your judgment, I
preferred that Peducæus[25] rather than myself should advise you by
letter on the subject. For having submitted my ears to Acutilius for
several days (and I think you know his style), I should scarcely have
regarded it as a hardship to write you a letter describing his
grumblings after patiently enduring the bore (and it _was_ rather a
bore, I can tell you) of hearing them. Moreover, though you find fault
with me, allow me to observe that I have had only one letter from you,
though you had greater leisure for writing, and more opportunity of
sending letters.

As to what you say in your letter, "Even if anyone is inclined to be
offended with you, I ought to bring him to a better mind"--I understand
to what you allude, and I have not neglected the matter. But the truth
is that the extent of his displeasure is something surprising. However,
I have not omitted to say anything there was to say in your behalf: but
on what points I am to hold out your wishes, I consider, ought to be my
guide. If you will write me word distinctly what they are, you will find
that I have had no desire to be more exacting, and in the future shall
be no more yielding, than you wish.[26]

As to the business of Tadius. He tells me that you have written him word
that there was no need of farther trouble, since the property is secured
by prescription. I am surprised that you do not know that in the case of
a statutory wardship of an unmarried girl prescription cannot be
pleaded.[27]

I am glad you like your purchase in Epirus. What I commissioned you to
get for me, and anything you see suitable to my Tusculan villa, I should
be glad if you will, as you say in your letter, procure for me, only
don't put yourself to any inconvenience. The truth is, there is no other
place that gives me complete rest after all my worries and hard work.

I am expecting my brother Quintus every day. Terentia has a severe
attack of rheumatism. She is devoted to you, to your sister, and your
mother, and adds her kindest regards in a postscript. So does my pet
Tulliola. Love me, and be assured that I love you as a brother.

[Footnote 23: Pomponia, married to Cicero's younger brother Quintus. We
shall frequently hear of this unfortunate marriage. Quintus was four
years younger than his brother, who had apparently arranged the match,
and felt therefore perhaps somewhat responsible for the result (Nep.
_Att._ 5).]

[Footnote 24: Atticus had estates and a villa near Buthrotum in
Epirus,--_Butrinto_ in Albania, opposite Corfu.]

[Footnote 25: This is probably Sext. Peducæus the younger, an intimate
friend of Atticus (Nep. _Att._ 21); his father had been prætor in Sicily
when Cicero was quæstor (B.C. 76-75), the son was afterwards a partisan
of Cæsar in the Civil War, governor of Sardinia, B.C. 48, and proprætor
in Spain, B.C. 39.]

[Footnote 26: The person alluded to is L. Lucceius, of whom we shall
hear again. See Letters V, VII, VIII, CVIII. What his quarrel with
Atticus was about, we do not know.]

[Footnote 27: Prescriptive right to property was acquired by possession
(_usus_) of two years. But no such right could be acquired to the
property of a girl under guardianship (_pro Flacco_, § 84).]




II (A I, 6)

TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

ROME, DECEMBER


[Sidenote: B.C. 68, ÆT. 38]

I won't give you any excuse hereafter for accusing me of neglecting to
write. It is you that must take care that with all your leisure you keep
up with me.

Rabirius's house at Naples,[28]for the improvement of which you have
designs drawn out and completed in imagination, has been bought by M.
Fonteius[29] for 130,000 sesterces (about £1,040). I wished you to know
this in case you were still hankering after it.

We may be quite satisfied, I think, with my brother's feelings towards
Pomponia. He is with her at present in his villa at Arpinum, and has
Decimus Turanius with him, who is great in _belles lettres_.

The date of my father's death was the 28th of November.

That is about all my news. If you light on any articles of _vertu_
suitable for a gymnasium, which would look well in the place you wot
of,[30] please don't let them slip. I am so delighted with my Tusculan
villa that I never feel really happy till I get there. Let me know
exactly what you are doing and intending to do about everything.

[Footnote 28: C. Rabirius, whom Cicero defended in B.C. 63, when
prosecuted by Cæsar for his share in the murder of Saturninus (B.C.
100). He lived, we know, in Campania, for his neighbours came to give
evidence in his favour at the trial.]

[Footnote 29: M. Fonteius made a fortune in the province of Gaul beyond
the Alps, of which he was proprætor, B.C. 77-74. In B.C. 69 he had been
accused of malversation, and defended by Cicero. After his acquittal he
seems to be buying a seaside residence in Campania, as so many of the
men of fashion did.]

[Footnote 30: Cicero's "gymnasium" was some arrangement of buildings and
plantations more or less on the model of the Greek gymnasia, at his
Tusculan villa.]




III (A I, 7)

TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

ROME, DECEMBER


[Sidenote: B.C. 68, ÆT. 38]

All's well at your mother's,[31] and I keep an eye on her. I have
undertaken to pay L. Cincius 20,400 sesterces[32] to your credit on the
Ides of February. Pray see that I receive at the earliest possible
opportunity what you say in your letters that you have bought and
secured for me. I should also be very much obliged if you would, as you
promised, think over the means of securing the library for me. My hope
of getting the one enjoyment which I care for, when I come to retire,
depends entirely on your kindness.

[Footnote 31: The mother of Atticus lived to be ninety, dying in B.C.
33, not long before Atticus himself, who at her funeral declared that
"he had never been reconciled to her, for he had never had a word of
dispute with her" (Nep. _Att._ 17).]

[Footnote 32: This sum (about £163) is for the works of art purchased
for the writer by Atticus.]




IV (A I, 9)


[Sidenote: B.C. 67. Coss., C. Calpurnius Piso, M. Acilius Glabrio.]

     The year of Cicero's election to the prætorship. It is the year
     also of Pompey's great commission by the _lex Gabinia_ against the
     Pirates. But Cicero does not seem as yet much concerned with
     "foreign politics."


TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

ROME

[Sidenote: B.C. 67, ÆT. 39]

I get letters from you far too seldom considering that you can much more
easily find people starting for Rome than I to Athens: considering, too,
that you are more certain of my being at Rome than I of your being at
Athens. For instance, it is owing to this uncertainty on my part that
this very letter is somewhat short, because not being sure as to where
you are, I don't choose my confidential talk to fall into strange hands.
The Megaric statues and the Hermæ, which you mentioned in your letters,
I am waiting for impatiently. Anything you have of the same kind which
may strike you as worthy of my "Academia," do not hesitate to send, and
have complete confidence in my money-chest. My present delight is to
pick up anything particularly suitable to a "gymnasium." Lentulus
promises the use of his ships. I beg you to be zealous in these matters.
Thyillus begs you (and I also at his request) to get him some writings
of the Eumolpidæ.[33]




V (A I, 8)

TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

ROME


[Sidenote: B.C. 67, ÆT. 39]

All well at your house. Your mother and sister are regarded with
affection by me and my brother Quintus. I have spoken to Acutilius. He
says that he has not heard from his agent, and professes surprise that
you should make any difficulty of his having refused to guarantee you
against farther demands. As to the business of Tadius, the announcement
in your letter that you have settled the matter out of court I saw
gratified and pleased him very much. That friend of mine[34]--a most
excellent man, upon my honour, and most warmly attached to me--is very
angry with you. If I could but know how much you care about it, I should
be able to decide how much trouble I am to take in the matter. I have
paid L. Cincius the 20,400 sesterces for the Megaric statues in
accordance with your letter to me. As to your Hermæ of Pentelic marble
with bronze heads, about which you wrote to me--I have fallen in love
with them on the spot. So pray send both them and the statues, and
anything else that may appear to you to suit the place you wot of, my
passion, and your taste--as large a supply and as early as possible.
Above all, anything you think appropriate to a gymnasium and terrace. I
have such a passion for things of this sort that while I expect
assistance from you, I must expect something like rebuke from others. If
Lentulus has no vessel there, put them on board anyone you please. My
pet Tulliola claims your present and duns me as your security. I am
resolved, however, to disown the obligation rather than pay up for you.

[Footnote 33: Thyillus (sometimes written Chilius), a Greek poet living
at Rome. See Letters XVI and XXI. The Eumolpidæ were a family of priests
at Athens who had charge of the temple of Demeter at Eleusis. The πάτρια
Εὐμολπιδῶν (the phrase used by Cicero here) may be either books of
ritual or records such as priests usually kept: πάτρια is an appropriate
word for such rituals or records handed down by priests of one race or
family.]

[Footnote 34: Lucceius, as in the first letter and the next.]




VI (A I, 10)

TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

TUSCULUM


[Sidenote: B.C. 67, ÆT. 39]

"Being in my Tusculan villa" (that's for your "being in the
Ceramicus")--however, I being there, a courier sent by your sister
arrived from Rome and delivered me a letter from you, announcing at the
same time that the courier who was going to you started that very
afternoon. The result is that, though I do send _an_ answer, I am forced
by the shortness of the time to write only these few words. First, as to
softening my friend's feeling towards you, or even reconciling him
outright, I pledge you my word to do so. Though I have been attempting
it already on my own account, I will now urge the point more earnestly
and press him closer, as I think I gather from your letter that you are
so set upon it. This much I should like you to realize, that he is very
deeply offended; but since I cannot see any serious ground for it, I
feel confident that he will do as I wish and yield to my influence. As
for my statues and Hermeracles, pray put them on board, as you say in
your letter, at your very earliest convenience, and anything else you
light upon that may seem to you appropriate to the place you wot of,
especially anything you think suitable to a palæstra and gymnasium. I
say this because I am sitting there as I write, so that the very place
itself reminds me. Besides these, I commission you to get me some
medallions to let into the walls of my little entrance-court, and two
engraved stone-curbs. Mind you don't engage your library to anyone,
however keen a lover you may find; for I am hoarding up my little
savings expressly to secure that resource for my old age. As to my
brother, I trust that all is as I have ever wished and tried to make it.
There are many signs of that result--not least that your sister is
_enceinte_. As for my election, I don't forget that I left the question
entirely to you, and I have all along been telling our common friends
that I have not only not asked you to come, but have positively
forbidden you to do so, because I understood that it was much more
important to you to carry through the business you have now in hand,
than it is to me to have you at my election. I wish you therefore to
feel as though you had been sent to where you are in my interests. Nay,
you will find me feeling towards you, and hear of it from others,
exactly as though my success were obtained not only in your presence,
but by your direct agency.

Tulliola gives notice of action against you. She is dunning me as your
surety.




VII (A I, 11)

TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

ROME


[Sidenote: B.C. 67, ÆT. 39]

I was doing so before spontaneously, and have been since greatly stirred
by your two letters, with their earnest expressions to the same effect.
Besides, Sallustius has been always at my side to prompt me to spare no
pains to induce Lucceius to be reconciled to you. But after doing
everything that could be done, not only did I fail to renew his old
feelings towards you, but I could not even succeed in eliciting the
reason of his alienation. On his part, however, he keeps harping on that
arbitration case of his, and the other matters which I knew very well
before you left Rome were causing him offence. Still, he has certainly
got something else fixed deeper in his mind; and this no letters _from_
you, and no commissioning of me will obliterate as easily as you will do
in a personal interview, I don't mean merely by your words, but by the
old familiar expression of your face--if only you think it worth while,
as you will if you will listen to me, and be willing to act with your
habitual kindness. Finally, you need not wonder why it is that, whereas
I intimated in my letters that I felt hopeful of his yielding to my
influence, I now appear to have no such confidence; for you can scarcely
believe how much more stubborn his sentiment appears to me than I
expected, and how much more obstinate he is in this anger. However, all
this will either be cured when you come, or will only be painful to the
party in fault.

As to the sentence in your letter, "you suppose by this time I am
prætor-elect," let me tell you that there is no class of people at Rome
so harassed by every kind of unreasonable difficulty as candidates for
office; and that no one knows when the elections will be.[35] However,
you will hear all this from Philadelphus. Pray despatch at the earliest
opportunity what you have bought for my "Academia." I am surprisingly
delighted with the mere thought of that place, to say nothing of its
actual occupation. Mind also not to let anyone else have your books.
Reserve them, as you say in your letter, for me. I am possessed with the
utmost longing for them, as I am with a loathing for affairs of every
other kind, which you will find in an incredibly worse position than
when you left them.[36]

[Footnote 35: The _comitia_ were twice postponed this year. Apparently
the voting for Cicero had in each case been completed, so that he is
able to say that he was "thrice returned at the head of the poll by an
unanimous vote" (_de Imp. Pomp._ § 2). The postponement of the elections
was probably connected with the struggles of the senate to hinder the
legislation (as to bribery) of the Tribune, Gaius Cornelius (Dio, 36,
38-39).]

[Footnote 36: The first allusion in these letters to the disturbed
position of public affairs. See the passage of Dio quoted in the
previous note. There were so many riots in the interval between the
proclamation and the holding of the elections, not without bloodshed,
that the senate voted the consuls a guard.]




VIII (A I, 3)


[Sidenote: B.C. 66. Coss., M. Æmilius Lepidus, L. Volcatius Tullus.]

     In this year Cicero was prætor, and delivered his first extant
     public speech (_apud populum_) in support of the _lex Manilia_,
     which gave Pompey the command in the Mithridatic War with the
     provinces of Asia and Bithynia. The strict Optimates opposed it.
     Cicero supported it on the grounds of the importance of the war and
     the proofs Pompey had already given of military ability, courage,
     personal prestige, and good fortune. He takes occasion to point out
     the mischief done to the Roman name by oppressive or fraudulent
     governors and imperators. In this same year he delivered one of his
     ablest speeches in court in defending A. Cluentius Habitus on a
     charge of poisoning. At the consular elections this year the two
     first elected were disabled for bribery.


TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

ROME, JANUARY

[Sidenote: B.C. 66, ÆT. 40]

I have to inform you of the death of your grandmother from pining at
your long absence, and at the same time because she was afraid that the
Latin towns would revolt and fail to bring the victims up the Alban
Mount. I presume that L. Saufeius will send you a letter of condolence
on the subject.[37] I am expecting you here in the course of January--is
it a mere rumour or does it come from letters of yours to others? For to
me you have not mentioned the subject. The statues which you got for me
have been landed at Caieta. I haven't seen them, for I have been unable
to leave Rome. I have sent a man to clear the freightage. I am
exceedingly obliged to you for having taken so much trouble to get them,
and so reasonably. As to your frequent remarks in your letters about
pacifying my friend, I have done everything I could and tried every
expedient; but he is inveterate against you to a surprising degree, on
what suspicions, though I think you have been told, you shall yet learn
from me when you come. I failed to restore Sallustius[38] to his old
place in his affections, and yet he was on the spot. I tell you this
because the latter used to find fault with me in regard to you. Well, he
has found by personal experience that _he_ is not so easy to pacify, and
that on my part no zeal has been lacking either on his or your behalf. I
have betrothed Tulliola to C. Piso Frugi, son of Lucius.[39]

[Footnote 37: The point of this frigid joke is not clear. Was the
grandmother really dead? What was she to do with the Latin _feriæ_? Mr.
Strachan Davidson's explanation is perhaps the best, that Cicero means
that the old lady was thinking of the Social War in B.C. 89, when the
loyalty of the Latin towns must have been a subject of anxiety. She is
in her dotage and only remembers old scares. This is understanding
_civitates_ with _Latinæ_. Others understand _feriæ_ or _mulieres_.
Saufeius, a Roman eques, was an Epicurean, who would hold death to be no
evil. He was a close friend of Atticus, who afterwards saved his
property from confiscation by the Triumvirs (Nep. _Att._ 12).]

[Footnote 38: Cneius Sallustius, a learned friend of Cicero's, of whom
we shall often hear again.]

[Footnote 39: C. Calpurnius Piso, quæstor B.C. 58, died in B.C. 57. The
marriage took place in B.C. 63.]




IX (A I, 4)

TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

ROME


[Sidenote: B.C. 65, ÆT. 41]

You keep on making me expect you again and again. Only the other day,
when I thought you on the point of arriving, I was suddenly put off by
you till Quintilis (July). Now, however, I _do_ think that you should
come at the time you mention if you possibly can. You will thereby be in
time for my brother Quintus's election, will pay me a long-deferred
visit, and will settle the dispute with Acutilius. This latter Peducæus
also suggested my mentioning to you, for I think it is full time that
you settled that affair. My good offices are at your service and always
have been so. Here at Rome I have conducted the case of Gaius Macer with
a popular approval surpassing belief and unparalleled. Though I had been
inclined to take a lenient view of his case, yet I gained much more
substantial advantage from the popular approval on his condemnation
than I should have got from his gratitude if he had been acquitted.[40]
I am very glad to hear what you say about the Hermathena. It is an
ornament appropriate to my "Academia" for two reasons: Hermes is a sign
common to all gymnasia, Minerva specially of this particular one. So I
would have you, as you say, adorn the place with the other objects also,
and the more the better. The statues which you sent me before I have not
yet seen. They are in my villa at Formiæ, whither I am at this moment
thinking of going. I shall get them all transferred to my Tusculan
villa. If I find myself with more than I want there I shall begin
adorning Caieta. Please reserve your books, and don't despair of my
being able to make them mine. If I succeed in that, I am superior to
Crassus in wealth and look down on everybody's manors and pastures.[41]

[Footnote 40: The annalist C. Licinius Macer was impeached _de
repetundis_ (he was prætor about B.C. 70 or 69, and afterwards had a
province), and finding that he was going to be condemned, committed
suicide. He was never therefore condemned regularly (Val. Max. ix. 127;
Plut. _Cic._ 9). Cicero presided at the court as prætor.]

[Footnote 41: The books must have been a very valuable collection, or
Cicero would hardly have made so much of being able to buy them,
considering his lavish orders for statues or antiques.]




X (A I, 1)


[Sidenote: B.C. 65. Coss., L. Aurelius Cotta, L. Manlius Torquatus.]

     The election to the consulship is not till the next year (B.C. 64),
     but Cicero is already making preparation for it, and looking out
     for support. In July his only son was born. He does not refer to
     the so-called "first Catilinarian conspiracy," but mentions
     Catiline as a possible competitor, and even contemplates defending
     him on some charge brought against him to prevent his standing for
     the consulship.


TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

ROME, JULY

[Sidenote: B.C. 65, ÆT. 41]

The state of things in regard to my candidature, in which I know that
you are supremely interested, is this, as far as can be as yet
conjectured. The only person actually canvassing is P. Sulpicius
Galba.[42] He meets with a good old-fashioned refusal without reserve or
disguise. In the general opinion this premature canvass of his is not
unfavourable to my interests; for the voters generally give as a reason
for their refusal that they are under obligations to me. So I hope my
prospects are to a certain degree improved by the report getting about
that my friends are found to be numerous. My intention was to begin my
own canvass just at the very time that Cincius[43] tells me that your
servant starts with this letter, namely, in the _campus_ at the time of
the tribunician elections on the 17th of July. My fellow candidates, to
mention only those who seem certain, are Galba and Antonius and Q.
Cornificius.[44] At this I imagine you smiling or sighing. Well, to make
you positively smite your forehead, there _are_ people who actually
think that Cæsonius[45] will stand. I don't think Aquilius will, for he
openly disclaims it and has alleged as an excuse his health and his
leading position at the bar. Catiline will certainly be a candidate, if
you can imagine a jury finding that the sun does not shine at noon. As
for Aufidius and Palicanus,[46] I don't think you will expect to hear
from me about them. Of the candidates for this year's election Cæsar is
considered certain. Thermus is looked upon as the rival of Silanus.[47]
These latter are so weak both in friends and reputation that it seems
_pas impossible_ to bring in Curius over their heads. But no one else
thinks so. What seems most to my interests is that Thermus should get
in with Cæsar. For there is none of those at present canvassing who, if
left over to my year, seems likely to be a stronger candidate, from the
fact that he is commissioner of the _via Flaminia_, and when that has
been finished, I shall be greatly relieved to have seen him elected
consul this election.[48] Such in outline is the position of affairs in
regard to candidates up to date. For myself I shall take the greatest
pains to carry out all the duties of a candidate, and perhaps, as Gaul
seems to have a considerable voting power, as soon as business at Rome
has come to a standstill I shall obtain a _libera legatio_ and make an
excursion in the course of September to visit Piso,[49] but so as not to
be back later than January. When I have ascertained the feelings of the
nobility I will write you word. Everything else I hope will go smoothly,
at any rate while my competitors are such as are now in town. You must
undertake to secure for me the _entourage_ of our friend Pompey, since
you are nearer than I. Tell him I shall not be annoyed if he doesn't
come to my election.[50] So much for that business. But there is a
matter for which I am very anxious that you should forgive me. Your
uncle Cæcilius having been defrauded of a large sum of money by P.
Varius, began an action against his cousin A. Caninius Satyrus for the
property which (as he alleged) the latter had received from Varius by a
collusive sale. He was joined in this action by the other creditors,
among whom were Lucullus and P. Scipio, and the man whom they thought
would be official receiver if the property was put up for sale, Lucius
Pontius; though it is ridiculous to be talking about a receiver at this
stage in the proceedings. Cæcilius asked me to appear for him against
Satyrus. Now, scarcely a day passes that Satyrus does not call at my
house. The chief object of his attentions is L. Domitius,[51] but I am
next in his regard. He has been of great service both to myself and to
my brother Quintus in our elections. I was very much embarrassed by my
intimacy with Satyrus as well as that with Domitius, on whom the success
of my election depends more than on anyone else. I pointed out these
facts to Cæcilius; at the same time I assured him that if the case had
been one exclusively between himself and Satyrus, I would have done what
he wished. As the matter actually stood, all the creditors being
concerned--and that too men of the highest rank, who, without the aid of
anyone specially retained by Cæcilius, would have no difficulty in
maintaining their common cause--it was only fair that he should have
consideration both for my private friendship and my present situation.
He seemed to take this somewhat less courteously than I could have
wished, or than is usual among gentlemen; and from that time forth he
has entirely withdrawn from the intimacy with me, which was only of a
few day's standing.[52] Pray forgive me, and believe that I was
prevented by nothing but natural kindness from assailing the reputation
of a friend in so vital a point at a time of such very great distress,
considering that he had shewn me every sort of kindness and attention.
But if you incline to the harsher view of my conduct, take it that the
interests of my canvass prevented me. Yet, even granting that to be so,
I think you should pardon me, "since not for sacred beast or oxhide
shield."[53] You see in fact the position I am in, and how necessary I
regard it, not only to retain but even to acquire all possible sources
of popularity. I hope I have justified myself in your eyes, I am at any
rate anxious to have done so. The Hermathena you sent I am delighted
with: it has been placed with such charming effect that the whole
gymnasium seems arranged specially for it.[54] I am exceedingly obliged
to you.

[Footnote 42: One of the judices rejected by Verres on his trial, a
pontifex and augur.]

[Footnote 43: Agent of Atticus.]

[Footnote 44: C. Antonius (uncle of M. Antonius) was elected with
Cicero. Q. Cornificius had been tr. pl. in B.C. 69. See Letter XVIII.]

[Footnote 45: M. Cæsonius, Cicero's colleague in the ædileship. He had
lost credit as one of the _Iunianum concilium_ in the trial of
Oppianicus.]

[Footnote 46: Aufidius Lurco, tr. pl. B.C. 61. M. Lollius Palicanus, tr.
pl. some years previously.]

[Footnote 47: L. Iulius Cæsar, actually consul in B.C. 64,
brother-in-law of Lentulus the Catilinarian conspirator, was afterwards
_legatus_ to his distant kinsman, Iulius Cæsar, in Gaul. A. Minucius
Thermus, defended by Cicero in B.C. 59, but the identification is not
certain. D. Iunius Silanus got the consulship in the year after Cicero
(B.C. 62), and as consul-designate spoke in favour of executing the
Catilinarian conspirators.]

[Footnote 48: The text is corrupt in all MSS. I have assumed a reading,
something of this sort, _quæ cum erit absoluta, sane facile ac libenter
eum nunc fieri consulem viderim_. This at any rate gives nearly the
required sense, which is that Cicero regards the influence which Thermus
will gain by managing the repair of the _Flaminia_ as likely to make him
a formidable candidate, and therefore he would be glad to see him
elected in the present year 65 (_nunc_) rather than wait for the next,
his own year.]

[Footnote 49: C. Calpurnis Piso, consul in B.C. 67, then proconsul of
Gallia Transalpina (Narbonensis). He was charged with embezzlement in
his province and defended by Cicero in B.C. 63. There were no votes in
Transalpine Gaul, but Cicero means in going and coming to canvass the
Cispadane cities.]

[Footnote 50: Pompey was this year on his way to take over the
Mithridatic War. But Cicero may have thought it likely that he or some
of his staff would pass through Athens and meet Atticus.]

[Footnote 51: L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, prætor in B.C. 58, and consul
B.C. 54, fell at Pharsalia, fighting against Cæsar.]

[Footnote 52: Q. Cæcilius, a rich uncle of Atticus, so cross-grained
that no one but Atticus could get on with him, to whom he accordingly
left his large fortune (Nep. _Att._ 5).]

[Footnote 53: Hom. _Il._ xxii. 159, Achilles pursuing Hector:

    "Since not for sacred beast or oxhide shield
    They strove,--man's guerdon for the fleet of foot:
    Their stake was Hector's soul, the swift steed's lord."
]

[Footnote 54: Reading _eius_ ἀνάθημα, and taking the latter word in the
common sense of "ornament": the Hermathena is so placed that the whole
gymnasium is as it were an ornament to it, designed to set it off,
instead of its being a mere ornament to the gymnasium. Professor
Tyrrell, however, will not admit that the words can have this or any
meaning, and reads, ἡλίου ἄναμμα, "sun light"--"the whole gymnasium
seems as bright as the sun"--a curious effect, after all, for one statue
to have.]




XI (A I, 2)

TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

ROME, JULY


[Sidenote: B.C. 65, ÆT. 41]

I have to inform you that on the day of the election of L. Iulius Cæsar
and C. Marcius Figulus to the consulship, I had an addition to my family
in the shape of a baby boy. Terentia doing well.

Why such a time without a letter from you? I have already written to you
fully about my circumstances. At this present time I am considering
whether to undertake the defence of my fellow candidate, Catiline.[55]
We have a jury to our minds with full consent of the prosecutor. I hope
that if he is acquitted he will be more closely united with me in the
conduct of our canvass; but if the result be otherwise I shall bear it
with resignation. Your early return is of great importance to me, for
there is a very strong idea prevailing that some intimate friends of
yours, persons of high rank, will be opposed to my election. To win me
their favour I see that I shall want you very much. Wherefore be sure to
be in Rome in January, as you have agreed to be.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Sidenote: B.C. 62. Coss., D. Iunius Silanus, L. Licinius Murena.]

     We have no letters to or from Cicero in the years B.C. 64 and
     63,[56] partly, no doubt, because Atticus was in Rome a great deal
     during these years. We take up the correspondence, therefore, after
     an interval of two years, which in many respects were the most
     important in Cicero's life. In B.C. 64 he attained his chief
     ambition by being elected to the consulship, but we have little
     trace of his public actions that year, only the fragments of one
     speech remaining, in defence of Q. Gallius on a charge of
     _ambitus_. The animus of the popular party, however, is shewn by
     the prosecution of some surviving partisans of Sulla on charges of
     homicide, among them Catiline, who by some means escaped conviction
     (Dio, xxxvii. 10). In the year of the consulship (B.C. 63) some of
     Cicero's most important speeches were delivered. The three on the
     agrarian proposals of Rullus present him to us for the first time
     as discussing an important question of home politics, the disposal
     of the _ager publicus_, a question which had become again prominent
     owing to the great additions made to it by the confiscations of
     Sulla. He also defended C. Rabirius, prosecuted by Iulius Cæsar for
     the murder of Saturninus as long ago as B.C. 100, and later in the
     year defended Murena on a charge of _ambitus_. Finally, the three
     Catilinarian speeches illustrate the event which coloured the whole
     of Cicero's life. In B.C. 62 his brother Quintus was prætor and
     Cicero defended in his court P. Sulla, accused of complicity with
     Catiline. On the 29th of December (B.C. 63) the tribune Q. Cæcilius
     Metellus Nepos prevented Cicero from making a speech when laying
     down his consulship, and went on to propose summoning Pompey to
     Rome, "to protect the lives of the citizens." This led to scenes of
     violence, and Metellus fled to Pompey, who reached Italy late in
     the year B.C. 62 from the East.

[Footnote 55: Asconius assigns this to the accusation of embezzlement in
Africa. But that seems to have been tried in the previous year, or
earlier in this year. The new impeachment threatened seems to have been
connected with his crimes in the proscriptions of Sulla (Dio, xxxvii,
10). Cicero may have thought of defending him on a charge relating to so
distant a period, just as he did Rabirius on the charge of murdering
Saturninus (B.C. 100), though he had regarded his guilt in the case of
extortion in Africa as glaring.]

[Footnote 56: The essay on the duties of a candidate attributed to
Quintus is hardly a letter, and there is some doubt as to its
authenticity. I have therefore relegated it to an appendix.]




XII (F V, 7)

TO CN. POMPEIUS MAGNUS

ROME

_M. Tullius Cicero, son of Marcus, greets Cn. Pompeius, son of Cneius,
Imperator._


[Sidenote: B.C. 62. ÆT. 44]

If you and the army are well I shall be glad. From your official
despatch I have, in common with everyone else, received the liveliest
satisfaction; for you have given us that strong hope of peace, of which,
in sole reliance on you, I was assuring everyone. But I must inform you
that your old enemies--now posing as your friends--have received a
stunning blow by this despatch, and, being disappointed in the high
hopes they were entertaining, are thoroughly depressed. Though your
private letter to me contained a somewhat slight expression of your
affection, yet I can assure you it gave me pleasure: for there is
nothing in which I habitually find greater satisfaction than in the
consciousness of serving my friends; and if on any occasion I do not
meet with an adequate return, I am not at all sorry to have the balance
of kindness in my favour. Of this I feel no doubt--even if my
extraordinary zeal in your behalf has failed to unite you to me--that
the interests of the state will certainly effect a mutual attachment and
coalition between us. To let you know, however, what I missed in your
letter I will write with the candour which my own disposition and our
common friendship demand. I did expect _some_ congratulation in your
letter on my achievements, for the sake at once of the ties between us
and of the Republic. This I presume to have been omitted by you from a
fear of hurting anyone's feelings. But let me tell you that what I did
for the salvation of the country is approved by the judgment and
testimony of the whole world. You are a much greater man than Africanus,
but I am not much inferior to Lælius either; and when you come home you
will recognize that I have acted with such prudence and spirit, that
you will not be ashamed of being coupled with me in politics as well as
in private friendship.




XIII (F V, I)

Q. METELLUS CELER TO CICERO

CISALPINE GAUL

_Q. Metellus Celer, son of Quintus, proconsul, greets M. Tullius
Cicero._[57]


[Sidenote: B.C. 62. ÆT. 44]

If you are well I am glad. I had thought, considering our mutual regard
and the reconciliation effected between us, that I was not likely to be
held up to ridicule in my absence, nor my brother attacked by you in his
civil existence and property for the sake of a mere word. If his own
high character was not a sufficient protection to him, yet either the
position of our family, or my own loyal conduct to you and the Republic,
ought to have been sufficient to support him. As it is, I see that he
has been ruined and I abandoned by the last people in the world who
ought to have done so. I am accordingly in sorrow and wearing mourning
dress, while actually in command of a province and army and conducting a
war. And seeing that your conduct in this affair has neither been
reasonable nor in accordance with the milder methods of old times, you
must not be surprised if you live to repent it. I did not expect to find
you so fickle towards me and mine. For myself, meanwhile, neither family
sorrow nor ill-treatment by any individual shall withdraw me from the
service of the state.

[Footnote 57: Q. Metellus Celer had been prætor in B.C. 63 and was now
(B.C. 62), as proconsul in Gallia Cisalpina, engaged against the remains
of the Catilinarian conspiracy. Meanwhile his brother (or cousin) Q.
Cæcilius Metellus Nepos, a tribune, after trying in vain to bring Cicero
to trial for the execution of the conspirators, at last proposed to
summon Pompey to Rome to prevent danger to the lives of citizens. This
attempt led to riots and contests with Cato, and Nepos finally fled from
Rome to Pompey. By leaving Rome he broke the law as to the tribunes, and
the senate declared his office vacant, and this letter would even seem
to shew that the senate declared him a public enemy. This letter of
remonstrance is peremptory, if not insolent, in tone, and the reader
will observe that the formal sentences, dropped in more familiar
letters, are carefully used.]




XIV (F V, 2)

TO Q. METELLUS (IN CISALPINE GAUL)

ROME

_M. Tullius, son of Marcus, to Q. Metellus Celer, son of Quintus,
proconsul, wishes health._


[Sidenote: B.C. 62, ÆT. 44]

If you and the army are well I shall be glad. You say in your letter
that you "thought, considering our mutual regard and the reconciliation
effected between us, that you were not likely to be held up to ridicule
by me." To what you refer I do not clearly understand, but I suspect
that you have been informed that, while arguing in the senate that there
were many who were annoyed at my having saved the state, I said that
your relations, whose wishes you had been unable to withstand, had
induced you to pass over in silence what you had made up your mind you
ought to say in the senate in my praise. But while saying so I also
added this--that the duty of supporting the Republic had been so divided
between us that I was defending the city from internal treachery and the
crime of its own citizens, you Italy from armed enemies and covert
conspiracy;[58] yet that this association in a task so noble and so
glorious had been imperilled by your relations, who, while you had been
complimented by me in the fullest and most laudatory terms, had been
afraid of any display of mutual regard on your part being put to my
credit. As this sentence betrayed how much I had looked forward to your
speech, and how mistaken I had been in that expectation, my speech
caused some amusement, and was received with a moderate amount of
laughter; but the laugh was not against you, it was rather at my
mistake, and at the open and _naïve_ confession of my eagerness to be
commended by you. Surely it cannot but be a compliment to you that in
the hour of my greatest triumph and glory I yet wished for some
testimony of approval from your lips. As to your expression,
"considering our mutual regard"--I don't know your idea of what is
"mutual" in friendship; mine is an equal interchange of good feeling.
Now if I were to mention that I passed over a province for your sake,
you might think me somewhat insincere; for, in point of fact, it suited
my convenience, and I feel more and more every day of my life the
advantage and pleasure which I have received from that decision. But
this I do say--the moment I had announced in public meeting my refusal
of a province, I began at once thinking how I might hand it on to you. I
say nothing as to the circumstances of your allotment: I only wish you
to suspect that nothing was done in that matter by my colleague without
my cognizance. Recall the other circumstances: how promptly I summoned
the senate on that day after the lots had been drawn, at what a length I
spoke about you. You yourself said at the time that my speech was not
merely complimentary to you, but absolutely a reflexion on your
colleagues. Farther, the decree of the senate passed on that day has
such a preamble that, so long as it is extant, there can never be any
doubt of my services to you. Subsequently, when you had gone out of
town, I would have you recall my motions in the senate, my speeches in
public meetings, my letters to yourself. And having reviewed all these
together, I would like you to judge yourself whether you think that your
approach to Rome the last time you came quite shewed an adequate return
for all these services.[59] Again, as to your expression, "the
reconciliation effected between us"--I do not understand why you speak
of "reconciliation" in the case of a friendship that had never been
broken. As to what you say, that your brother Metellus ought not "to
have been attacked by me for a mere word," in the first place I would
like to assure you that your feeling and fraternal partiality--so full
of human kindness and natural affection--meet with my warmest
approbation; in the next place I must claim your indulgence if I have in
any matter opposed your brother in the interests of the Republic, for my
devotion to the Republic is paramount. If, however, it is my personal
safety that I have defended against a most ruthless assault of his, I
think you should be content that I make no complaint even to you of your
brother's injurious conduct. Now, when I had become aware that he was
deliberately making every preparation to use his tribunician office to
my ruin, I appealed to your wife Claudia[60] and your sister Mucia[61]
(of whose kindness to me for the sake of my friendship with Pompey I had
satisfied myself by many instances) to deter him from that injurious
conduct. And yet, as I am sure you have heard, on the last day of
December he inflicted upon me--a consul and the preserver of my
country--an indignity such as was never inflicted upon the most disloyal
citizen in the humblest office: that is to say, he deprived me when
laying down my office of the privilege of addressing the people--an
indignity, however, which after all redounded to my honour. For, upon
his forbidding me to do anything but take the oath, I pronounced an oath
at once the most absolutely true and the most glorious in a loud
voice--an oath which the people swore also in a loud voice to be
absolutely true. Though I had actually suffered this signal indignity, I
yet on that same day sent common friends to Metellus to persuade him to
alter his resolution; to whom he answered that he was no longer free to
do so. And, in fact, a short time previously he _had_ said in a public
meeting that a man who had punished others without trial ought not
himself to be allowed the privilege of speech. What a model of
consistency! What an admirable citizen! So he deemed the man who had
saved the senate from massacre, the city from the incendiary, Italy from
war, deserving of the same penalty as that inflicted by the senate, with
the unanimous approval of all loyal citizens, upon those who had
intended to set fire to the city, butcher magistrates and senate, and
stir up a formidable war! Accordingly, I did withstand your brother
Metellus to his face: for on the 1st of January, in the senate, I
maintained a debate with him on the state of the Republic, such as
taught him that he had to contend with a man of courage and firmness. On
the 3rd of January,[62] on again opening the debate, he kept harping on
me and threatening me at every third word of his speech; nor could any
intention be more deliberate than his was to overthrow me by any means
in his power, not by calm and judicial argument, but by violence and
mere browbeating. If I had not shewn some boldness and spirit in
opposing his intemperate attack, would not everyone have concluded that
the courage I had displayed in my consulship was the result of accident
rather than design? If you did not know that Metellus was contemplating
these measures in regard to me, you must consider that you have been
kept in the dark by your brother on matters of the utmost importance:
if, on the other hand, he did intrust any part of his designs to you,
then surely I ought to be regarded by you as a man of placable and
reasonable temper for not addressing a word of reproach to you even on
such occurrences as these. Understanding then that it was by no "mere
word" (as you express it) of Metellus that I was roused, but by his
deliberate policy and extraordinary animosity towards me, next observe
my forbearance--if "forbearance" is the name to be given to irresolution
and laxity under a most galling indignity. I never once delivered a vote
in a speech against your brother: every time a motion was before the
house I assented without rising to those whose proposal appeared to me
to be the mildest. I will also add that, though in the circumstances
there was no obligation upon me to do so, yet so far from raising
objections I actually did my best to secure that my enemy, because he
was your brother, should be relieved from penalties by a decree of the
senate.[63] Wherefore I have not "attacked" your brother, but only
defended myself from your brother's attack; nor have I been "fickle" (to
quote your word), but, on the contrary, so constant, that I remained
faithful to my friendship to you, though left without any sign of
kindness from you. For instance, at this moment, though your letter
amounts almost to a threat, I am writing back an answer such as you see.
I not only pardon your vexation, I even applaud it in the highest
degree; for my own heart tells me how strong is the influence of
fraternal affection. I ask you in your turn to put a liberal
construction upon my vexation, and to conclude that when attacked by
your relatives with bitterness, with brutality, and without cause, I not
only ought not to retract anything, but, in a case of that kind, should
even be able to rely upon the aid of yourself and your army. I have
always wished to have you as a friend: I have taken pains to make you
understand that I am a warm friend to you. I abide by that sentiment,
and shall abide by it as long as _you_ will let me; and I shall more
readily cease to be angry with your brother for love of you, than I
shall from anger with him abate in the smallest degree my kindness for
you.

[Footnote 58: Metellus had been employed with Antonius against the camp
at Fæsulæ, but was now engaged against some Alpine tribes.]

[Footnote 59: When Metellus was commanding against Catiline, it is
suggested that he marched towards Rome to support his brother, but this
is conjecture.]

[Footnote 60: Sister of P. Clodius. Of this famous woman we shall hear
often again. She is believed to be the Lesbia of Catullus, and she is
the "Palatine Medea" of the speech _pro Cælio_. Yet, in spite of
Cicero's denunciations of her, he seems at one time to have been so fond
of her society as to rouse Terentia's jealousy.]

[Footnote 61: Wife of Pompey--divorced by him on his return from the
East.]

[Footnote 62: On the next meeting of the senate. The second was a _dies
comitialis_ on which the senate usually did not meet (Cæs. _B. Civ._ i.
I).]

[Footnote 63: For the riots caused by his contests with Cato (on which
the senate seems to have passed the _senatus consultum ultimum_), and
for his having left Rome while tribune.]




XV (F V, 6)

TO P. SESTIUS[64] (IN MACEDONIA)

ROME, DECEMBER


[Sidenote: B.C. 62, ÆT. 44]

Decius the copyist has been to see me, and begged me to try and secure
that no successor should be appointed to you this turn. Though I
regarded him as a man of good character and attached to you, yet,
remembering the tenor of your previous letter to me, I could not feel
certain that the wishes of a cautious man of the world like yourself had
undergone so complete a change. But after your wife Cornelia had called
on Terentia, and I had had a conversation with Q. Cornelius, I took care
to be present at every meeting of the senate, and found that the
greatest trouble was to make Fufius the tribune, and the others to whom
you had written, believe me rather than your own letters. The whole
business has, after all, been postponed till January, but there is no
difficulty about it. Roused by your congratulations--for in a letter
sometime ago you wished me good luck on the completion of my purchase of
a house from Crassus--I have bought that very house for 3,500 sestertia
(about £28,000), a good while subsequent to your congratulation.
Accordingly, you may now look upon me as being so deeply in debt as to
be eager to join a conspiracy if anyone would admit me! But, partly from
personal dislike they shut their doors in my face and openly denounce me
as the punisher of conspiracy, partly are incredulous and afraid that I
am setting a trap for them! Nor do they suppose that a man can be short
of money who has relieved the money-lenders from a state of siege. In
point of fact, money is plentiful at six per cent., and the success of
my measures has caused me to be regarded as a good security. Your own
house, and all the details of its construction, I have examined and
strongly approve. As for Antonius,[65] though everyone notices his want
of attention to my interests, I have nevertheless defended him in the
senate with the utmost earnestness and persistence, and have made a
strong impression on the senate by my language as well as by my personal
prestige. Pray write to me more frequently.

[Footnote 64: P. Sestius was serving as proquæstor in Macedonia under
Gaius Antonius. As tribune in B.C. 57 he worked for Cicero's recall, but
was afterwards prosecuted _de vi_, and defended by Cicero.]

[Footnote 65: Gaius Antonius, Cicero's colleague in the consulship. He
had the province of Macedonia after the consulship, Cicero having
voluntarily withdrawn in his favour to secure his support against
Catiline. Scandal said that he had bargained to pay Cicero large sums
from the profits of the province. He governed so corruptly and
unsuccessfully that he was on his return condemned of _maiestas_.]




XVI (A I, 12)

[Sidenote: B.C. 61. Coss., M. Papius Piso, M. Valerius Messalla.]

     The letters of this year are much concerned with the sacrilege of
     P. Clodius, who, it was alleged, had been detected in disguise in
     the house of the Pontifex Maximus Iulius Cæsar, when his wife was
     celebrating the mysteries of the Bona Dea, from which males were
     excluded. His trial was made the occasion of bitter party
     struggles, and by giving evidence in contradiction of Clodius's
     alibi Cicero incurred his enmity, and eventually, therefore, his
     own exile. Quintus is proprætor in Asia, Cæsar in Spain. Pompey
     reached Rome early this year. The _ordo equester_ is much irritated
     with the senate on the question of the contracts for the collection
     of the Asiatic taxes.


TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME, 1 JANUARY

[Sidenote: B.C. 61, ÆT. 45]

The Teucris[66] business hangs fire, and Cornelius has not called on
Terentia since. I suppose I must have recourse to Considius, Axius, and
Selicius:[67] for his nearest relations can't get a penny out of
Cæcilius[68] under twelve per cent. But to return to my first remark: I
never saw anything more shameless, artful, and dilatory. "I am on the
point of sending my freedman," "I have commissioned Titus"--excuses and
delays at every turn! But perhaps it is a case of _l'homme propose_,[69]
for Pompey's advance couriers tell me that he means to move in the
senate that a successor to Antonius ought to be named, and the prætor
intends to bring the proposal before the people at the same time. The
facts are such that I cannot defend him in view of the opinion either
of the aristocrats or the people, and, what is more than anything else,
that I have no wish to do so. For a thing has happened into the truth of
which I charge you to look thoroughly. I have a freedman, who is a
worthless fellow enough; I mean Hilarus, an accountant and a client of
your own. The interpreter Valerius gives me this information about him,
and Thyillus writes me word that he has been told the same story: that
the fellow is with Antonius, and that Antonius, in exacting money
payments, frequently remarks that a part is being collected for me, and
that I have sent a freedman to look after our common interests. I felt
exceedingly disturbed, and yet could not believe it; but at any rate
there has been some gossip of the sort. Pray look into the whole matter,
learn the truth, find out the author, and get the empty-headed idiot out
of the country, if you possibly can. Valerius mentions Cn. Plancius as
the origin of this gossip. I trust you thoroughly to investigate and
find out what is at the bottom of it. I have good reason to believe that
Pompey is most kindly disposed to me. His divorce of Mucia is strongly
approved.[70] I suppose you have heard that P. Clodius, son of Appius,
was caught in woman's clothes at Gaius Cæsar's house, while the state
function was going on, and that he was saved and got out by means of a
maid-servant; and that the affair is causing immense scandal. I feel
sure you will be sorry for it.[71] I have nothing else to tell you. And,
indeed, at the moment of writing, I am in considerable distress: for a
delightful youth, my reader Sosthenes, has just died, and his death has
affected me more than that of a slave should, I think, do. Pray write
often. If you have no news, write just what comes uppermost.

1 January, in the consulship of M. Messalla and M. Piso.

[Footnote 66: From expressions in the following letters it seems certain
that this refers to money expected from Gaius Antonius; but we have no
means of deciding whether or no Teucris is a pseudonym for some agent.
Cicero had undertaken to be the advocate and supporter of Antonius, and
though as an actual _patronus_ in court he could not take money, he may
have felt justified in receiving supplies from him. Still, he knew the
character of Antonius, and how such wealth was likely to be got, and it
is not a pleasant affair.]

[Footnote 67: Money-lenders.]

[Footnote 68: The rich and cross-grained uncle of Atticus. See Letter
X.]

[Footnote 69: Cicero quotes half a Greek verse of Menander's, ταὐτόματον
ἡμῶν, leaving Atticus to fill up the other two words, καλλίω βουλεύεται,
"Chance designs better than we ourselves."]

[Footnote 70: Mucia was suspected of intriguing with Iulius Cæsar.]

[Footnote 71: The chief festival of the Bona Dea (Tellus) was in May.
The celebration referred to here took place on the night between the 3rd
and 4th of December. It was a state function (_pro populo_), and was
celebrated in the presence of the Vestals and the wife of the consul or
prætor urbanus, _in ea domo quæ est in imperio_. As Cæsar was Pontifex
Maximus, as well as prætor urbanus, it took place in the _Regia_, the
Pontiff's official house (Plutarch, _Cic._ 19; Dio, xxxvii. 35).]




XVII (F V, 5)

TO C. ANTONIUS (IN MACEDONIA)

ROME, JANUARY

_M. Cicero wishes health to Gaius Antonius, son of Marcus, Imperator._


[Sidenote: B.C. 61, ÆT. 45]

Though I had resolved to write you nothing but formal letters of
introduction (not because I felt that they had much weight with you, but
to avoid giving those who asked me for them an idea that there had been
any diminution in our friendship), yet since Titus Pomponius is starting
for your province, who knows better than anyone else all that I feel and
have done for you, who desires your friendship and is most devotedly
attached to me, I thought I must write something, especially as I had no
other way of satisfying Pomponius himself. Were I to ask from you
services of the greatest moment, it ought not to seem surprising to
anyone: for you have not wanted from me any that concerned your
interests, honour, or position. That no return has been made by you for
these you are the best witness: that something even of a contrary nature
has proceeded from you I have been told by many. I say "told," for I do
not venture to say "discovered,"[72] lest I should chance to use the
word which people tell me is often falsely attributed to me by you. But
the story which has reached my ears I would prefer your learning from
Pomponius (who was equally hurt by it) rather than from my letter. How
singularly loyal my feelings have been to you the senate and Roman
people are both witnesses. How far you have been grateful to me you may
yourself estimate: how much you owe me the rest of the world estimates.
I was induced to do what I did for you at first by affection, and
afterwards by consistency. Your future, believe me, stands in need of
much greater zeal on my part, greater firmness and greater labour.[73]
These labours, unless it shall appear that I am throwing away and
wasting my pains, I shall support with all the strength I have; but if I
see that they are not appreciated, I shall not allow you--the very
person benefited[74]--to think me a fool for my pains. What the meaning
of all this is you will be able to learn from Pomponius. In commending
Pomponius to you, although I am sure you will do anything in your power
for his own sake, yet I do beg that if you have any affection for me
left, you will display it all in Pomponius's business. You can do me no
greater favour than that.

[Footnote 72: The word (_comperisse_) used by Cicero in regard to the
Catilinarian conspiracy; it had apparently become a subject of rather
malignant chaff.]

[Footnote 73: Cicero is hinting at the danger of prosecution hanging
over the head of Antonius.]

[Footnote 74: Reading _tibi ipsi_ (not _ipse_), with Tyrrell.]




XVIII (A 1, 13)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME, 27 JANUARY


[Sidenote: B.C. 61, ÆT. 45]

I have now received three letters from you--one by the hands of M.
Cornelius, which you gave him, I think, at Three Taverns; a second which
your host at Canusium delivered to me; a third dated, according to you,
from on board your pinnace, when the cable was already slipped.[75] They
were all three, to use a phrase from the schools of rhetoric flavoured
with the salt of learning, and illumined with the marks of affection. In
these letters, indeed, I am urgently pressed by you to send answers, but
what renders me rather dilatory in this respect is the difficulty of
finding a trustworthy carrier. How few of these gentry are able to
convey a letter rather weightier than usual without lightening it by
skimming its contents! Besides, I do not always care to send[76]
whenever anyone is starting for Epirus: for I suppose that, having
offered victims before your Amaltheia,[77] you at once started for the
siege of Sicyon. And yet I am not even certain when you start to visit
Antonius or how much time you are devoting to Epirus. Accordingly, I
don't venture to trust either Achæans or Epirotes with a letter somewhat
more outspoken than usual. Now some events _have_ occurred since you
left me worth my writing to you, but they must not be trusted to the
risk of a letter being lost, opened, or intercepted.

Well, then, to begin with: I was not called upon to speak first, and the
pacifier of the Allobroges[78] was preferred to me, and though this met
with some murmurs of disapprobation from the senate, I was not sorry it
was done. For I am thereby freed from any obligation to shew respect to
an ill-conditioned man, and am at liberty to support my position in the
Republic in spite of him. Besides, the second place has a dignity almost
equal to that of _princeps senatus_, and does not put one under too much
of an obligation to the consul. The third called on was Catulus; the
fourth, if you want to go still farther, Hortensius. The consul
himself[79] is a man of a small and ill-regulated mind, a mere buffoon
of that splenetic kind which raises a laugh even in the absence of wit:
it is his face rather than his facetiousness[80] that causes merriment:
he takes practically no part in public business, and is quite alienated
from the Optimates. You need expect no service to the state from him,
for he has not the will to do any, nor fear any damage, for he hasn't
the courage to inflict it. His colleague, however, treats me with great
distinction, and is also a zealous supporter of the loyalist party. For
the present their disagreement has not come to much; but I fear that
this taint may spread farther. For I suppose you have heard that when
the state function was being performed in Cæsar's house a man in woman's
dress got in,[81] and that the Vestals having performed the rite again,
mention was made of the matter in the senate by Q. Cornificius--he was
the first, so don't think that it was one of us consulars--and that on
the matter being referred by a decree of the senate to the [Virgins and]
pontifices, they decided that a sacrilege had been committed: that then,
on a farther decree of the senate, the consuls published a bill: and
that Cæsar divorced his wife. On this question Piso, from friendship for
P. Clodius, is doing his best to get the bill promulgated by himself
(though in accordance with a decree of the senate and on a point of
religion) rejected. Messalla as yet is strongly for severe measures. The
loyalists hold aloof owing to the entreaties of Clodius: bands of
ruffians are being got together: I myself, at first a stern Lycurgus, am
becoming daily less and less keen about it: Cato is hot and eager. In
short, I fear that between the indifference of the loyalists and the
support of the disloyal it may be the cause of great evils to the
Republic. However, your great friend[82]--do you know whom I mean?--of
whom you said in your letter that, "not venturing to blame me, he was
beginning to be complimentary," is now to all appearance exceedingly
fond of me, embraces me, loves and praises me in public, while in secret
(though unable to disguise it) he is jealous of me. No good-breeding, no
straightforwardness, no political morality, no distinction, no courage,
no liberality! But on these points I will write to you more minutely at
another time; for in the first place I am not yet quite sure about them,
and in the next place I dare not intrust a letter on such weighty
matters to such a casual nobody's son as this messenger.

The prætors have not yet drawn their lots for the provinces. The matter
remains just where you left it. The description of the scenery of
Misenum and Puteoli which you ask for I will include in my speech.[83] I
had already noticed the mistake in the date, 3rd of December. The points
in my speeches which you praise, believe me, I liked very much myself,
but did not venture to say so before. Now, however, as they have
received your approval, I think them much more "Attic" than ever. To the
speech in answer to Metellus[84] I have made some additions. The book
shall be sent you, since affection for me gives you a taste for
rhetoric. What news have I for you? Let me see. Oh, yes! The consul
Messalla has bought Antonius's house for 3,400 sestertia (about
£27,200). What is that to me? you will say. Why, thus much. The price
has convinced people that I made no bad bargain, and they begin to
understand that in making a purchase a man may properly use his friends'
means to get what suits his position. The Teucris affair drags on, yet I
have hopes. Pray settle the business you have in hand. You shall have a
more outspoken letter soon.

27 January, in the consulship of M. Messalla and M. Piso.

[Footnote 75: _Ora soluta._ Or, if _ancora sublata_ be read, "when the
anchor was already weighed." In either case it means "just as you were
starting." Atticus wrote on board, and gave the letter to a carrier to
take on shore.]

[Footnote 76: A word lost in the text.]

[Footnote 77: See end of Letter XXI. Cicero playfully supposes that
Atticus only stayed in his villa in Epirus to offer sacrifices to the
nymph in his gymnasium, and then hurried off to Sicyon, where people
owed him money which he wanted to get. He goes to Antonius first to get
his authority for putting pressure on Sicyon, and perhaps even some
military force.]

[Footnote 78: C. Calpurnius Piso (consul B.C. 67), brother of the consul
of the year, had been governor of Gallia Narbonensis (B.C. 66-65), and
had suppressed a rising of the Allobroges, the most troublesome tribe in
the province, who were, in fact, again in rebellion.]

[Footnote 79: M. Pupius Piso.]

[Footnote 80: "By the expression of his face rather than the force of
his expressions" (Tyrrell).]

[Footnote 81: See p. 27, note 2.]

[Footnote 82: Pompey.]

[Footnote 83: Or, "inclose with my speech"; in both cases the dative
_orationi meæ_ is peculiar. No speech exists containing such a
description, but we have only two of the previous year extant (_pro
Flacco_ and _pro Archia Poeta_). Cicero was probably sending it,
whichever it was, to Atticus to be copied by his _librarii_, and
published. Atticus had apparently some other works of Cicero's in hand,
for which he had sent him some "queries."]

[Footnote 84: Apparently the speech in the senate referred to in Letter
XIV, p. 23, spoken on 1st January, B.C. 62. Metellus had prevented his
_contio_ the day before.]




XIX (A I, 14)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME, 13 FEBRUARY


[Sidenote: B.C. 61, ÆT. 45]

I fear it may seem affectation to tell you how occupied I have been; but
I am so distracted with business that I have only just found time for
this short letter, and that has been stolen from the most urgent
engagements. I have already described to you Pompey's first public
speech--it did not please the poor, nor satisfy the disloyal, nor find
favour with the wealthy, nor appear sound to the loyalists; accordingly,
he is down in the world.[85] Presently, on the instigation of the consul
Piso, that most insignificant of tribunes, Fufius, brought Pompey on to
the platform. The meeting was in the _circus Flaminius_, and there was
in the same place that day a crowd of market people--a kind of _tiers
état_.[86] He asked him to say whether he approved of the jurymen being
selected by the prætor, to form a panel for the prætor himself to
employ. That was the regulation made by the senate in the matter of
Clodius's sacrilege. Thereupon Pompey made a highly "aristocratic"
speech, and replied (and at great length) that in all matters the
authority of the senate was of the greatest weight in his eyes and had
always been so. Later on the consul Messalla in the senate asked Pompey
his opinion as to the sacrilege and the bill that had been published.
His speech in the senate amounted to a general commendation of all
decrees of the house, and when he sat down he said to me, "I think my
answer covers your case also."[87] When Crassus observed that Pompey had
got a cheer from the idea in men's minds that he approved my consulship,
he rose also to his feet and delivered a speech in the most
complimentary terms on my consulship, going so far as to say that he
owed it to me that he was still a senator, a citizen, nay, a free man;
and that he never beheld wife, home, or country without beholding the
fruits of my conduct. In short: that whole topic, which I am wont to
paint in various colours in my speeches (of which you are the
Aristarchus), the fire, the sword--you know my paint-pots--he elaborated
to the highest pitch. I was sitting next to Pompey. I noticed that he
was agitated, either at Crassus earning the gratitude which he had
himself neglected, or to think that my achievements were, after all, of
such magnitude that the senate was so glad to hear them praised,
especially by a man who was the less under an obligation to praise me,
because in everything I ever wrote[88] my praise of Pompey was
practically a reflexion on him. This day has brought me very close to
Crassus, and yet in spite of all I accepted with pleasure any
compliment--open or covert--from Pompey. But as for my own speech, good
heavens! how I did "put it on" for the benefit of my new auditor Pompey!
If I ever did bring every art into play, I did then--period, transition,
enthymeme, deduction--everything. In short, I was cheered to the echo.
For the subject of my speech was the dignity of the senate, its harmony
with the equites, the unanimity of Italy, the dying embers of the
conspiracy, the fall in prices, the establishment of peace. You know my
thunder when these are my themes. It was so loud, in fact, that I may
cut short my description, as I think you must have heard it even in
Epirus. The state of things at Rome is this: the senate is a perfect
Areopagus. You cannot conceive anything firmer, more grave, or more
high-spirited. For when the day came for proposing the bill in
accordance with the vote of the senate, a crowd of our dandies with
their chin-tufts assembled, all the Catiline set, with Curio's girlish
son at their head, and implored the people to reject it. Moreover, Piso
the consul, who formally introduced the bill, spoke against it.
Clodius's hired ruffians had filled up the entrances to the voting
boxes. The voting tickets were so manipulated that no "ayes" were
distributed. Hereupon imagine Cato hurrying to the rostra, delivering an
admirable invective against the consul, if we can call that an
"invective" which was really a speech of the utmost weight and
authority, and in fact containing the most salutary advice. He is
followed to the same effect by your friend Hortensius, and many
loyalists besides, among whom, however, the contribution of Favonius was
conspicuous. By this rally of the Optimates the _comitia_ is dissolved,
the senate summoned. On the question being put in a full house--in spite
of the opposition of Piso, and in spite of Clodius throwing himself at
the feet of the senators one after the other--that the consuls should
exhort the people to pass the bill, about fifteen voted with Curio, who
was against any decree being passed; on the other side there were fully
four hundred. So the vote passed. The tribune Fufius then gave in.[89]
Clodius delivered some wretched speeches to the people, in which he
bestowed some injurious epithets on Lucullus, Hortensius, C. Piso, and
the consul Messalla; me he only charged with having "discovered"
everything.[90] In regard to the assignation of provinces to the
prætors, the hearing legations, and other business, the senate voted
that nothing should be brought before it till the bill had been brought
before the people. There's the state of things at Rome for you. Yet pray
listen to this one thing more which has surpassed my hopes. Messalla is
a superlatively good consul, courageous, firm, painstaking; he praises,
shows attachment to, and imitates me. That other one (Piso) is the less
mischievous because of one vice--he is lazy, sleepy, unbusiness-like, an
utter _fainéant_, but in intention he is so disaffected that he has
begun to loathe Pompey since he made the speech in which some praise was
bestowed on the senate. Accordingly, he has alienated all the loyalists
to a remarkable degree. And his action is not dictated by love for
Clodius more than by a taste for a profligate policy and a profligate
party. But he has nobody among the magistrates like himself, with the
single exception of the tribune Fufius. The tribunes are excellent, and
in Cornutus we have a quasi-Cato. Can I say more?

Now to return to private matters. "Teucris" has fulfilled her
promise.[91] Pray execute the commission you undertook. My brother
Quintus, who purchased the remaining three-fourths of the house in the
Argiletum for 725 sestertia (about £5,800), is now trying to sell his
Tusculan property, in order to purchase, if he can, the town house of
Pacilius. Make it up with Lucceius! I see that he is all agog to stand
for the consulship. I will do my best. Be careful to let me know exactly
how you are, where you are, and how your business goes on.

13 February.

[Footnote 85: The letter giving this description is lost. I think
_frigebat_ is epistolary imperfect--"_he_ is in the cold shade," not,
"_it_ fell flat."]

[Footnote 86: πανήγυρις. Cicero uses the word (an honourable one in
Greek) contemptuously of the rabble brought together at a market.]

[Footnote 87: Pompey's general commendation of the decrees of the senate
would include those regarding the Catiline conspirators, and he
therefore claimed to have satisfied Cicero.]

[Footnote 88: _Meis omnibus litteris_, the MS. reading. Prof. Tyrrell's
emendation, _orationibus meis, omnibus litteris_, "in my speeches, every
letter of them," seems to me even harsher than the MS., a gross
exaggeration, and doubtful Latin. _Meis litteris_ is well supported by
_literæ forenses et senatoriæ_ of _de Off._ 2, § 3, and though it is an
unusual mode of referring to speeches, we must remember that they were
now published and were "literature." The particular reference is to the
speech _pro Imperio Pompeii_, in which, among other things, the whole
credit of the reduction of Spartacus's gladiators is given to Pompey,
whereas the brunt of the war had been borne by Crassus.]

[Footnote 89: Fufius, though Cicero does not say so, must have vetoed
the decree, but in the face of such a majority withdrew his veto. The
practice seems to have been, in case of tribunician veto, to take the
vote, which remained as an _auctoritas senatus_, but was not a _senatus
consultum_ unless the tribune was induced to withdraw.]

[Footnote 90: _Comperisse_. See Letter XVII, note 1, p. 28.]

[Footnote 91: See Letters XVI and XVIII, pp. 26, 32.]




XX (A I, 15)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME, 15 MARCH


[Sidenote: B.C. 61, ÆT. 45]

You have heard that my dearest brother Quintus has got Asia; for I do
not doubt that rumour has conveyed the news to you quicker than a letter
from any of us. Now then, considering how desirous of a good reputation
he and I have ever been, and how unusually Philhellenic we are and have
the reputation of being, and considering how many there are whose enmity
we have incurred for the sake of the Republic, "call to mind all your
valour,"[92] to secure us the praise and affection of all concerned. I
will write at greater length to you on these points in the letter which
I shall give to Quintus himself.[93] Please let me know what you have
done about the business I confided to you, and also in your own affair;
for I have had no letter from you since you left Brundisium. I am very
anxious to hear how you are.

15 March.

[Footnote 92: παντοίης ἀρέτης μιμνήσκεο (Hom. _Il._ xxii. 8)]

[Footnote 93: The allotment of provinces had been put off (see last
letter) till the affair of Clodius's trial was settled; consequently
Quintus would not have much time for preparation, and would soon set
out. He would cross to Dyrrachium, and proceed along the _via Egnatia_
to Thessalonica. He might meet Atticus at Dyrrachium, or go out of his
way to call on him at Buthrotum.]




XXI (A I, 16)

TO ATTICUS

ROME (MAY)


[Sidenote: B.C. 61, ÆT. 45]

You ask me what has happened about the trial, the result of which was so
contrary to the general expectation, and at the same time you want to
know how I came to make a worse fight of it than usual. I will answer
the last first, after the manner of Homer.[94] The fact is that, so long
as I had to defend the authority of the senate,[95] I battled with such
gallantry and vigour that there were shouts of applause and crowds round
me in the house ringing with my praise. Nay, if you ever thought that I
shewed courage in political business, you certainly would have admired
my conduct in that cause. For when the culprit had betaken himself to
public meetings, and had made an invidious use of my name, immortal
gods! What battles! What havoc! What sallies I made upon Piso, Curio, on
the whole of that set! How I fell upon the old men for their
instability, on the young for their profligacy! Again and again, so help
me heaven! I regretted your absence not only as the supporter of my
policy, but as the spectator also of my admirable fighting. However,
when Hortensius hit on the idea of a law as to the sacrilege being
proposed by the tribune Fufius, in which there was no difference from
the bill of the consul except as to the kind of jurymen--on that point,
however, the whole question turned--and got it carried by sheer
fighting, because he had persuaded himself and others that _he_ could
not get an acquittal no matter who were the jurymen, I drew in my sails,
seeing the neediness of the jurors, and gave no evidence beyond what was
so notorious and well attested that I could not omit it.[96] Therefore,
if you ask the reason of the acquittal--to return at length to the
former of the two questions--it was entirely the poverty and low
character of the jury. But that this was possible was entirely the
result of Hortensius's policy. In his alarm lest Fufius should veto the
law which was to be proposed in virtue of a senatorial decree, he failed
to see that it was better that the culprit should be left under a cloud
of disgrace and dishonour than that he should be trusted to the
discretion of a weak jury. But in his passionate resentment he hastened
to bring the case into court, saying that a leaden sword was good enough
to cut _his_ throat. But if you want to know the history of the trial,
with its incredible verdict, it was such that Hortensius's policy is now
blamed by other people after the event, though I disapproved of it from
the first. When the rejection of jurors had taken place, amidst loud
cheers and counter-cheers--the accuser like a strict censor rejecting
the most worthless, the defendant like a kind-hearted trainer of
gladiators all the best--as soon as the jury had taken their seats, the
loyalists at once began to feel distrust. There never was a seedier lot
round a table in a gambling hell. Senators under a cloud, equites out at
elbows, tribunes who were not so much made of money as "collectors" of
it, according to their official title.[97] However, there were a few
honest men in the panel, whom he had been unable to drive off it by
rejection, and they took their seats among their uncongenial comrades
with gloomy looks and signs of emotion, and were keenly disgusted at
having to rub elbows with such rascals. Hereupon, as question after
question was referred to the panel in the preliminary proceedings, the
severity of the decisions passes belief: there was no disagreement in
voting, the defendant carried none of his points, while the accuser got
even more than he asked. He was triumphant. Need I say more? Hortensius
would have it that he was the only one of us who had seen the truth.
There was not a man who did not think it impossible for him to stand his
trial without being condemned a thousand times over. Farther, when I was
produced as a witness, I suppose you have been told how the shouts of
Clodius's supporters were answered by the jury rising to their feet to
gather round me, and openly to offer their throats to P. Clodius in my
defence. This seemed to me a greater compliment than the well-known
occasion when your fellow citizens[98] stopped Xenocrates from taking an
oath in the witness-box, or when, upon the accounts of Metellus
Numidicus[99] being as usual handed round, a Roman jury refused to look
at them. The compliment paid me, I repeat, was much greater.
Accordingly, as the jurymen were protecting me as the mainstay of the
country, it was by their voices that the defendant was overwhelmed, and
with him all his advocates suffered a crushing blow. Next day my house
was visited by as great a throng as that which escorted me home when I
laid down the consulship. Our eminent Areopagites then exclaimed that
they would not come into court unless a guard was assigned them. The
question was put to the whole panel: there was only one vote against the
need of a guard. The question is brought before the senate: the decree
is passed in the most solemn and laudatory terms: the jurymen are
complimented: the magistrates are commissioned to carry it out: no one
thought that the fellow would venture on a defence. "Tell me, ye Muses,
now how first the fire befell!"[100] You know Bald-head, the Nanneian
millionaire,[101] that panegyrist of mine, whose complimentary oration
I have already mentioned to you in a letter. In two days' time, by the
agency of a single slave, and one, too, from a school of gladiators, he
settled the whole business--he summoned them to an interview, made a
promise, offered security, paid money down. Still farther, good heavens,
what a scandal! even favours from certain ladies, and introductions to
young men of rank, were thrown in as a kind of _pourboire_ to some of
the jurors. Accordingly, with the loyalists holding completely aloof,
with the forum full of slaves, twenty-five jurors were yet found so
courageous that, though at the risk of their lives, they preferred even
death to producing universal ruin. There were thirty-one who were more
influenced by famine than fame. On seeing one of these latter Catulus
said to him, "Why did you ask us for a guard? Did you fear being robbed
of the money?" There you have, as briefly as I could put it, the nature
of the trial and the cause of the acquittal.

Next you want to know the present state of public affairs and of my own.
That settlement of the Republic--firmly established by my wisdom, as you
thought, as I thought by God's--which seemed fixed on a sure foundation
by the unanimity of all loyalists and the influence of my
consulship--that I assure you, unless some God take compassion on us,
has by this one verdict escaped from our grasp: if "verdict" it is to be
called, when thirty of the most worthless and dissolute fellows in Rome
for a paltry sum of money obliterate every principle of law and justice,
and when that which every man--I had almost said every animal--knows to
have taken place, a Thalna, a Plautus, and a Spongia, and other scum of
that sort decide not to have taken place. However, to console you as to
the state of the Republic, rascaldom is not as cheerful and exultant in
its victory as the disloyal hoped after the infliction of such a wound
upon the Republic. For they fully expected that when religion, morality,
the honour of juries, and the prestige of the senate had sustained such
a crushing fall, victorious profligacy and lawless lust would openly
exact vengeance from all the best men for the mortification which the
strictness of my consulship had branded in upon all the worst. And it is
once more I--for I do not feel as if I were boasting vaingloriously when
speaking of myself to you, especially in a letter not intended to be
read by others--it was I once more, I say, who revived the fainting
spirits of the loyalists, cheering and encouraging each personally.
Moreover, by my denunciations and invectives against those corrupt
jurors I left none of the favourers and supporters of that victory a
word to say for themselves. I gave the consul Piso no rest anywhere, I
got him deprived of Syria, which had been already plighted to him, I
revived the fainting spirit of the senate and recalled it to its former
severity. I overwhelmed Clodius in the senate to his face, both in a set
speech, very weighty and serious, and also in an interchange of
repartees, of which I append a specimen for your delectation. The rest
lose all point and grace without the excitement of the contest, or, as
you Greeks call it, the ἀγών. Well, at the meeting of the senate on the
15th of May, being called on for my opinion, I spoke at considerable
length on the high interests of the Republic, and brought in the
following passage by a happy inspiration: "Do not, Fathers, regard
yourselves as fallen utterly, do not faint, because you have received
one blow. The wound is one which I cannot disguise, but which I yet feel
sure should not be regarded with extreme fear: to fear would shew us to
be the greatest of cowards, to ignore it the greatest of fools. Lentulus
was twice acquitted, so was Catiline, a third such criminal has now been
let loose by jurors upon the Republic. You are mistaken, Clodius: it is
not for the city but for the prison that the jurors have reserved you,
and their intention was not to retain you in the state, but to deprive
you of the privilege of exile. Wherefore, Fathers, rouse up all your
courage, hold fast to your high calling. There still remains in the
Republic the old unanimity of the loyalists: their feelings have been
outraged, their resolution has not been weakened: no fresh mischief has
been done, only what was actually existing has been discovered. In the
trial of one profligate many like him have been detected."--But what am
I about? I have copied almost a speech into a letter. I return to the
duel of words. Up gets our dandified young gentleman, and throws in my
teeth my having been at Baiæ. It wasn't true, but what did that matter
to him? "It is as though you were to say," replied I, "that I had been
in disguise!" "What business," quoth he, "has an Arpinate with hot
baths?" "Say that to your patron," said I, "who coveted the
watering-place of an Arpinate."[102] For you know about the marine
villa. "How long," said he, "are we to put up with this king?" "Do you
mention a king," quoth I, "when Rex[103] made no mention of you?" He,
you know, had swallowed the inheritance of Rex in anticipation. "You
have bought a house," says he. "You would think that he said," quoth I,
"you have bought a jury." "They didn't trust you on your oath," said he.
"Yes," said I, "twenty-five jurors did trust me, thirty-one didn't trust
you, for they took care to get their money beforehand." Here he was
overpowered by a burst of applause and broke down without a word to say.

My own position is this: with the loyalists I hold the same place as
when you left town, with the tagrag and bobtail of the city I hold a
much better one than at your departure. For it does me no harm that my
evidence appears not to have availed. Envy has been let blood without
causing pain, and even more so from the fact that all the supporters of
that flagitious proceeding confess that a perfectly notorious fact has
been hushed up by bribing the jury. Besides, the wretched starveling
mob, the blood-sucker of the treasury, imagines me to be high in the
favour of Magnus--and indeed we have been mutually united by frequent
pleasant intercourse to such an extent, that our friends the boon
companions of the conspiracy, the young chin-tufts, speak of him in
ordinary conversation as Gnæus Cicero. Accordingly, both in the circus
and at the gladiatorial games, I received a remarkable ovation without a
single cat-call. There is at present a lively anticipation of the
elections, in which, contrary to everybody's wishes, our friend Magnus
is pushing the claims of Aulus's son;[104] and in that matter his
weapons are neither his prestige nor his popularity, but those by which
Philip said that any fortress could be taken--if only an ass laden with
gold could make its way up into it. Farthermore, that precious consul,
playing as it were second fiddle to Pompey,[105] is said to have
undertaken the business and to have bribery agents at his house, which I
don't believe. But two decrees have already passed the house of an
unpopular character, because they are thought to be directed against the
consul on the demand of Cato and Domitius[106]--one that search should
be allowed in magistrates' houses, and a second, that all who had
bribery agents in their houses were guilty of treason. The tribune Lurco
also, having entered on his office irregularly in view of the Ælian law,
has been relieved from the provisions both of the Ælian and Fufian laws,
in order to enable him to propose his law on bribery, which he
promulgated with correct auspices though a cripple.[107] Accordingly,
the _comitia_ have been postponed to the 27th of July. There is this
novelty in his bill, that a man who has promised money among the tribes,
but not paid it, is not liable, but, if he has paid, he is liable for
life to pay 3,000 sesterces to each tribe. I remarked that P. Clodius
had obeyed this law by anticipation, for he was accustomed to promise,
and not pay. But observe! Don't you see that the consulship of which we
thought so much, which Curio used of old to call an apotheosis, if this
Afranius is elected, will become a mere farce and mockery? Therefore I
think one should play the philosopher, as you in fact do, and not care a
straw for your consulships!

You say in your letter that you have decided not to go to Asia. For my
part I should have preferred your going, and I fear that there may be
some offence[108] given in that matter. Nevertheless, I am not the man
to blame you, especially considering that I have not gone to a province
myself. I shall be quite content with the inscriptions you have placed
in your Amaltheium,[109] especially as Thyillus has deserted me and
Archias written nothing about me. The latter, I am afraid, having
composed a Greek poem on the Luculli, is now turning his attention to
the Cæcilian drama.[110] I have thanked Antonius on your account, and I
have intrusted the letter to Mallius. I have heretofore written to you
more rarely because I had no one to whom I could trust a letter, and was
not sure of your address. I have puffed you well. If Cincius should
refer any business of yours to me, I will undertake it. But at present
he is more intent on his own business, in which I am rendering him some
assistance. If you mean to stay any length of time in one place you may
expect frequent letters from me: but pray send even more yourself. I
wish you would describe your Amaltheium to me, its decoration and its
plan; and send me any poems or stories you may have about
Amaltheia.[111] I should like to make a copy of it at Arpinum. I will
forward you something of what I have written. At present there is
nothing finished.

[Footnote 94: ὕστερον πρότερον Ὁμηρικῶς.]

[Footnote 95: That is, the resolution of the senate, that the consuls
should endeavour to get the bill passed.]

[Footnote 96: Cicero deposed to having seen Clodius in Rome three hours
after he swore that he was at Interamna (ninety miles off), thus
spoiling his alibi.]

[Footnote 97: The difficulty of this sentence is well known. The juries
were now made up of three _decuriæ_--senators, equites, and _tribuni
ærarii_. But the exact meaning of _tribuni ærarii_ is not known, beyond
the fact that they formed an _ordo_, coming immediately below the
equites. Possibly they were old tribal officers who had the duty of
distributing pay or collecting taxes (to which the translation supposes
a punning reference), and as such were required to be of a _census_
immediately below that of the equites. I do not profess to be satisfied,
but I cannot think that Professor Tyrrell's proposal makes matters much
easier--_tribuni non tam ærarii, ut appellantur, quam ærati_; for his
translation of _ærati_ as "bribed" is not better supported, and is a
less natural deduction than "moneyed."]

[Footnote 98: _I.e._, the Athenians. Xenocrates of Calchedon (B.C.
396-314), residing at Athens, is said to have been so trusted that his
word was taken as a witness without an oath (Diog. Laert. IV. ii. 4).]

[Footnote 99: Q. Cæcilius Numidicus, consul B.C. 109, commanded against
Iugurtha. The event referred to in the text is said to have occurred on
his trial _de repetundis_, after his return from a province which he had
held as proprætor (Val. Max. II. x. 1).]

[Footnote 100: Hom. _Il._ xvi. 112:

    ἕσπετε νῦν μοι, Μοῦσαι, Ὀλύμπια δώματ' ἔχουσαι
    ὅππως δὴ πρῶτον πῦρ ἔμπεσε νηυσὶν Ἀχαίων.
]

[Footnote 101: The reference is to Crassus. But the rest is very dark.
The old commentators say that he is here called _ex Nanneianis_ because
he made a large sum of money by the property of one Nanneius, who was
among those proscribed by Sulla. His calling Crassus his "panegyrist" is
explained by Letter XIX, pp. 33-34.]

[Footnote 102: C. Curio, the elder, defended Clodius. He had bought the
villa of Marius (a native of Arpinum) at Baiæ.]

[Footnote 103: Q. Marcius Rex married a sister of Clodius, and dying,
left him no legacy.]

[Footnote 104: L. Afranius.]

[Footnote 105: Reading _deterioris histrionis similis_, "like an
inferior actor."]

[Footnote 106: Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, married to Cato's sister.
Consul B.C. 54. A strong aristocrat and vehement opponent of Cæsar.]

[Footnote 107: Aufidius Lurco had apparently proposed his law on bribery
between the time of the notice of the elections (_indictio_) and the
elections themselves, which was against a provision of the _leges Ælia
et Fufia_. What his breach of the law was in entering on his office
originally we do not know: perhaps some neglect of auspices, or his
personal deformity.]

[Footnote 108: _I.e._ to Quintus Cicero, now proprætor in Asia, who
apparently wished his brother-in-law to come to Asia in some official
capacity.]

[Footnote 109: Some epigrams or inscriptions under a portrait bust of
Cicero in the gymnasium of Atticus's villa at Buthrotum. Atticus had a
taste for such compositions. See Nepos, _Att._ 18; Pliny, _N. H._ 35, §
11.]

[Footnote 110: Cicero had defended Archias, and Thyillus seems also to
have been intimate with him: but he says Archias, after complimenting
the Luculli by a poem, is now doing the same to the Cæcilii Metelli. The
"Cæcilian drama" is a reference to the old dramatist, Cæcilius Statius
(_ob._ B.C. 168).]

[Footnote 111: Of Amaltheia, nurse of Zeus in Crete, there were plenty
of legends. Atticus is making in his house something like what Cicero
had made in his, and called his academia or gymnasium. That of Atticus
was probably also a summer house or study, with garden, fountains, etc.,
and a shrine or statue of Amaltheia.]




XXII (A I, 17)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME, 5 DECEMBER


[Sidenote: B.C. 61, ÆT. 45]

Your letter, in which you inclose copies of his letters, has made me
realize that my brother Quintus's feelings have undergone many
alternations, and that his opinions and judgments have varied widely
from time to time.[112] This has not only caused me all the pain which
my extreme affection for both of you was bound to bring, but it has also
made me wonder what can have happened to cause my brother Quintus such
deep offence, or such an extraordinary change of feeling. And yet I was
already aware, as I saw that you also, when you took leave of me, were
beginning to suspect, that there was some lurking dissatisfaction, that
his feelings were wounded, and that certain unfriendly suspicions had
sunk deep into his heart. On trying on several previous occasions, but
more eagerly than ever after the allotment of his province, to assuage
these feelings, I failed to discover on the one hand that the extent of
his offence was so great as your letter indicates; but on the other I
did not make as much progress in allaying it as I wished. However, I
consoled myself with thinking that there would be no doubt of his seeing
you at Dyrrachium, or somewhere in your part of the country: and, if
that happened, I felt sure and fully persuaded that everything would be
made smooth between you, not only by conversation and mutual
explanation, but by the very sight of each other in such an interview.
For I need not say in writing to you, who know it quite well, how kind
and sweet-tempered my brother is, as ready to forgive as he is sensitive
in taking offence. But it most unfortunately happened that you did not
see him anywhere. For the impression he had received from the artifices
of others had more weight with him than duty or relationship, or the
old affection so long existing between you, which ought to have been the
strongest influence of all. And yet, as to where the blame for this
misunderstanding resides, I can more easily conceive than write: since I
am afraid that, while defending my own relations, I should not spare
yours. For I perceive that, though no actual wound was inflicted by
members of the family, they yet could at least have cured it. But the
root of the mischief in this case, which perhaps extends farther than
appears, I shall more conveniently explain to you when we meet. As to
the letter he sent to you from Thessalonica,[113] and about the language
which you suppose him to have used both at Rome among your friends and
on his journey, I don't know how far the matter went, but my whole hope
of removing this unpleasantness rests on your kindness. For if you will
only make up your mind to believe that the best men are often those
whose feelings are most easily irritated and appeased, and that this
quickness, so to speak, and sensitiveness of disposition are generally
signs of a good heart; and lastly--and this is the main thing--that we
must mutually put up with each other's gaucheries (shall I call them?),
or faults, or injurious acts, then these misunderstandings will, I hope,
be easily smoothed away. I beg you to take this view, for it is the
dearest wish of my heart (which is yours as no one else's can be) that
there should not be one of my family or friends who does not love you
and is not loved by you.

That part of your letter was entirely superfluous, in which you mention
what opportunities of doing good business in the provinces or the city
you let pass at other times as well as in the year of my consulship: for
I am thoroughly persuaded of your unselfishness and magnanimity, nor did
I ever think that there was any difference between you and me except in
our choice of a career. Ambition led me to seek official advancement,
while another and perfectly laudable resolution led you to seek an
honourable privacy. In the true glory, which is founded on honesty,
industry, and piety, I place neither myself nor anyone else above you.
In affection towards myself, next to my brother and immediate family, I
put you first. For indeed, indeed I have seen and thoroughly appreciated
how your anxiety and joy have corresponded with the variations of my
fortunes. Often has your congratulation added a charm to praise, and
your consolation a welcome antidote to alarm. Nay, at this moment of
your absence, it is not only your advice--in which you excel--but the
interchange of speech--in which no one gives me so much delight as you
do--that I miss most, shall I say in politics, in which circumspection
is always incumbent on me, or in my forensic labour, which I formerly
sustained with a view to official promotion, and nowadays to maintain my
position by securing popularity, or in the mere business of my family?
In all these I missed you and our conversations before my brother left
Rome, and still more do I miss them since. Finally, neither my work nor
rest, neither my business nor leisure, neither my affairs in the forum
or at home, public or private, can any longer do without your most
consolatory and affectionate counsel and conversation. The modest
reserve which characterizes both of us has often prevented my mentioning
these facts; but on this occasion it was rendered necessary by that part
of your letter in which you expressed a wish to have yourself and your
character "put straight" and "cleared" in my eyes. Yet, in the midst of
all this unfortunate alienation and anger, there is one fortunate
circumstance--that your determination of not going to a province was
known to me and your other friends, and had been at various times before
distinctly expressed by yourself; so that your not being his guest may
be attributed to your personal tastes and judgments, not to the quarrel
and rupture between you. And so those ties which have been broken will
be restored, and ours which have been so religiously preserved will
retain all their old inviolability.

At Rome I find politics in a shaky condition; everything is
unsatisfactory and foreboding change. For I have no doubt you have been
told that our friends, the equites, are all but alienated from the
senate. Their first grievance was the promulgation of a bill on the
authority of the senate for the trial of such as had taken bribes for
giving a verdict. I happened not to be in the house when that decree was
passed, but when I found that the equestrian order was indignant at it,
and yet refrained from openly saying so, I remonstrated with the
senate, as I thought, in very impressive language, and was very weighty
and eloquent considering the unsatisfactory nature of my cause. But here
is another piece of almost intolerable coolness on the part of the
equites, which I have not only submitted to, but have even put in as
good a light as possible! The companies which had contracted with the
censors for Asia complained that in the heat of the competition they had
taken the contract at an excessive price; they demanded that the
contract should be annulled. I led in their support, or rather, I was
second, for it was Crassus who induced them to venture on this demand.
The case is scandalous, the demand a disgraceful one, and a confession
of rash speculation. Yet there was a very great risk that, if they got
no concession, they would be completely alienated from the senate. Here
again I came to the rescue more than anyone else, and secured them a
full and very friendly house, in which I, on the 1st and 2nd of
December, delivered long speeches on the dignity and harmony of the two
orders. The business is not yet settled, but the favourable feeling of
the senate has been made manifest: for no one had spoken against it
except the consul-designate, Metellus; while our hero Cato had still to
speak, the shortness of the day having prevented his turn being reached.
Thus I, in the maintenance of my steady policy, preserve to the best of
my ability that harmony of the orders which was originally my joiner's
work; but since it all now seems in such a crazy condition, I am
constructing what I may call a road towards the maintenance of our
power, a safe one I hope, which I cannot fully describe to you in a
letter, but of which I will nevertheless give you a hint. _I cultivate
close intimacy with Pompey_. I foresee what you will say. I will use all
necessary precautions, and I will write another time at greater length
about my schemes for managing the Republic. You must know that Lucceius
has it in his mind to stand for the consulship at once; for there are
said to be only two candidates in prospect. Cæsar is thinking of coming
to terms with him by the agency of Arrius, and Bibulus also thinks he
may effect a coalition with him by means of C. Piso.[114] You smile?
This is no laughing matter, believe me. What else shall I write to you?
What? I have plenty to say, but must put it off to another time. If you
mean to wait till you hear, let me know. For the moment I am satisfied
with a modest request, though it is what I desire above everything--that
you should come to Rome as soon as possible.

5 December.

[Footnote 112: Cicero is evidently very anxious as to the
misunderstanding between Quintus and his brother-in-law Atticus, caused,
as he hints, or at any rate not allayed, by Pomponia. The letter is very
carefully written, without the familiar tone and mixture of jest and
earnest common to most of the letters to Atticus.]

[Footnote 113: At the end of the _via Egnatia_, which started from
Dyrrachium.]

[Footnote 114: The election in question is that to be held in B.C. 60
for the consulship of B.C. 59. Cæsar and Bibulus were elected, and
apparently were the only two candidates declared as yet. They were, of
course, extremists, and Lucceius seems to reckon on getting in by
forming a coalition with either one or the other, and so getting the
support of one of the extreme parties, with the moderates, for himself.
The bargain eventually made was between Lucceius and Cæsar, the former
finding the money. But the Optimates found more, and carried Bibulus.
Arrius is Q. Arrius the orator (see Index). C. Piso is the consul of
B.C. 67.]




XXIII (A I, 18)


[Sidenote: B.C. 60. Coss., Q. Cæcilius Metellus Celer, L. Afranius.]

     This was the year in which Cæsar, returning from his proprætorship
     in Spain, found Pompey in difficulties with the senate (1) as to
     the confirmation _en bloc_ of his _acta_ in the East, (2) as to the
     assignation of lands to his veterans; and being met with opposition
     himself as to the triumph that he claimed, and his candidatureship
     for the consulship, he formed with Pompey and Crassus the agreement
     known as the first triumvirate. Cicero saw his favourite political
     object, the _concordia ordinum_, threatened by any opposition to
     the triumvirate, which he yet distrusted as dangerous to the
     constitution. We shall find him, therefore, vacillating between
     giving his support to its policy or standing by the extreme
     Optimates. P. Clodius is taking measures to be adopted into a
     plebeian gens, in order to stand for the tribuneship. Quintus is
     still in Asia. Pompey's triumph had taken place in the previous
     September.


TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME, 20 JANUARY

[Sidenote: B.C. 60, ÆT. 46]

Believe me there is nothing at this moment of which I stand so much in
need as a man with whom to share all that causes me anxiety: a man to
love me; a man of sense to whom I can speak without affectation,
reserve, or concealment. For my brother is away--that most open-hearted
and affectionate of men. Metellus is not a human being, but

    "Mere sound and air, a howling wilderness."

While you, who have so often lightened my anxiety and my anguish of soul
by your conversation and advice, who are ever my ally in public affairs,
my confidant in all private business, the sharer in all my conversations
and projects--where are you? So entirely am I abandoned by all, that the
only moments of repose left me are those which are spent with my wife,
pet daughter, and sweet little Cicero. For as to those friendships with
the great, and their artificial attractions, they have indeed a certain
glitter in the outside world, but they bring no private satisfaction.
And so, after a crowded morning _levée_, as I go down to the forum
surrounded by troops of friends, I can find no one out of all that crowd
with whom to jest freely, or into whose ear I can breathe a familiar
sigh. Therefore I wait for you, I long for you, I even urge on you to
come; for I have many anxieties, many pressing cares, of which I think,
if I once had your ears to listen to me, I could unburden myself in the
conversation of a single walk. And of my private anxieties, indeed, I
shall conceal all the stings and vexations, and not trust them to this
letter and an unknown letter-carrier. These, however--for I don't want
you to be made too anxious--are not very painful: yet they are
persistent and worrying, and are not put to rest by the advice or
conversation of any friend. But in regard to the Republic I have still
the same courage and purpose, though it has again and again of its own
act eluded treatment.[115] For should I put briefly what has occurred
since you left, you would certainly exclaim that the Roman empire cannot
be maintained much longer. Well, after your departure our first scene,
I think, was the appearance of the Clodian scandal, in which having, as
I thought, got an opportunity of pruning licentiousness and keeping our
young men within bounds, I exerted myself to the utmost, and lavished
all the resources of my intellect and genius, not from dislike to an
individual, but from the hope of not merely correcting, but of
completely curing the state. The Republic received a crushing blow when
this jury was won over by money and the opportunity of debauchery. See
what has followed! We have had a consul inflicted upon us, whom none
except us philosophers can look at without a sigh. What a blow that is!
Though a decree of the senate has been passed about bribery and the
corruption of juries, no law has been carried; the senate has been
harassed to death, the Roman knights alienated. So that one year has
undermined two buttresses of the Republic, which owed their existence to
me, and me alone; for it has at once destroyed the prestige of the
senate and broken up the harmony of the orders. And now enter this
precious year! It was inaugurated by the suspension of the annual rites
of Iuventas;[116] for Memmius initiated M. Lucullus's wife in some rites
of his own! Our Menelaus, being annoyed at that, divorced his wife. Yet
the old Idæan shepherd had only injured Menelaus; our Roman Paris
thought Agamemnon as proper an object of injury as Menelaus.[117] Next
there is a certain tribune named C. Herennius, whom you, perhaps, do not
even know--and yet you may know him, for he is of your tribe, and his
father Sextus used to distribute money to your tribesmen--this person is
trying to transfer P. Clodius to the plebs, and is actually proposing a
law to authorize the whole people to vote in Clodius's affair in the
_campus_.[118] I have given him a characteristic reception in the
senate, but he is the thickest-skinned fellow in the world. Metellus is
an excellent consul, and much attached to me, but he has lowered his
influence by promulgating (though only for form's sake) an identical
bill about Clodius. But the son of Aulus,[119] God in heaven! What a
cowardly and spiritless fellow for a soldier! How well he deserves to be
exposed, as he is, day after day to the abuse of Palicanus![120]
Farther, an agrarian law has been promulgated by Flavius, a poor
production enough, almost identical with that of Plotius. But meanwhile
a genuine statesman is not to be found, even "in a dream." The man who
could be one, my friend Pompey--for such he is, as I would have you
know--defends his twopenny embroidered toga[121] by saying nothing.
Crassus never risks his popularity by a word. The others you know
without my telling you. They are such fools that they seem to expect
that, though the Republic is lost, their fish-ponds will be safe. There
is one man who does take some trouble, but rather, as it seems to me,
with consistency and honesty, than with either prudence or
ability--Cato. He has been for the last three months worrying those
unhappy _publicani_, who were formerly devoted to him, and refuses to
allow of an answer being given them by the senate. And so we are forced
to suspend all decrees on other subjects until the _publicani_ have got
their answer. For the same reason I suppose even the business of the
foreign embassies will be postponed. You now understand in what stormy
water we are: and as from what I have written to you in such strong
terms you have a view also of what I have not written, come back to me,
for it is time you did. And though the state of affairs to which I
invite you is one to be avoided, yet let your value for me so far
prevail, as to induce you to come there even in these vexatious
circumstances. For the rest I will take care that due warning is given,
and a notice put up in all places, to prevent you being entered on the
census as absent; and to get put on the census just before the
lustration is the mark of your true man of business.[122] So let me see
you at the earliest possible moment. Farewell.

20 January in the Consulship of Q. Metellus and L. Afranius.

[Footnote 115: Reading (mainly with Schutz) _animus præsens et voluntas,
tamen etiam atque etiam ipsa medicinam refugit_. The verb _refugit_ is
very doubtful, but it gives nearly the sense required. Cicero is ready
to be as brave and active as before, but the state will not do its part.
It has, for instance, blundered in the matter of the law against
judicial corruption. The senate offended the equites by proposing it,
and yet did not carry the law. I think _animus_ and _voluntas_ must
refer to Cicero, not the state, to which in his present humour he would
not attribute them.]

[Footnote 116: The temple of Iuventas was vowed by M. Livius after the
battle of the Metaurus (B.C. 207), and dedicated in B.C. 191 by C.
Licinius Lucullus, games being established on the anniversary of its
dedication (Livy, xxi. 62; xxxvi. 36). It is suggested, therefore, that
some of the Luculli usually presided at these games, but on this
occasion refused, because of the injury done by C. Memmius, who was
curule ædile.]

[Footnote 117: By Agamemnon and Menelaus Cicero means Lucius and Marcus
Lucullus; the former Memmius had, as tribune in B.C. 66-65, opposed in
his demand for a triumph, the latter he has now injured in the person of
his wife.]

[Footnote 118: A man who was _sui iuris_ was properly adopted before the
_commitia curiata_, now represented by thirty lictors. What Herennius
proposed was that it should take place by a regular _lex_, passed by the
_comitia tributa_. The object apparently was to avoid the necessity of
the presence of a pontifex and augur, which was required at the _comitia
curiata_. The concurrent law by the consul would come before the
_comitia centuriata_. The adopter was P. Fonteius, a very young man.]

[Footnote 119: L. Afranius, the other consul.]

[Footnote 120: M. Lollius Palicanus, "a mere mob orator" (_Brutus_,
§223).]

[Footnote 121: The _toga picta_ of a triumphator, which Pompey, by
special law, was authorized to wear at the games. Cicero uses the
contemptuous diminutive, _togula_.]

[Footnote 122: To be absent from the census without excuse rendered a
man liable to penalties. Cicero will therefore put up notices in
Atticus's various places of business or residence of his intention to
appear in due course. To appear just at the end of the period was, it
seems, in the case of a man of business, advisable, that he might be
rated at the actual amount of his property, no more or less.]




XXIV (A I, 19)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME, 15 MARCH


[Sidenote: B.C. 60, ÆT. 46]

It is not only if I had as much leisure as you, but also if I chose to
send letters as short as yours usually are, should I easily beat you and
be much the more regular in writing. But, in fact, it is only one more
item in an immense and inconceivable amount of business, that I allow no
letter to reach you from me without its containing some definite sketch
of events and the reflexions arising from it. And in writing to you, as
a lover of your country, my first subject will naturally be the state of
the Republic; next, as I am the nearest object of your affection, I will
also write about myself, and tell you what I think you will not be
indisposed to know. Well then, in public affairs for the moment the
chief subject of interest is the disturbance in Gaul. For the Ædui--"our
brethren"[123]--have recently fought a losing battle, and the Helvetii
are undoubtedly in arms and making raids upon our province.[124] The
senate has decreed that the two consuls should draw lots for the Gauls,
that a levy should be held, all exemptions from service be suspended,
and legates with full powers be sent to visit the states in Gaul, and
see that they do not join the Helvetii. The legates are Quintus Metellus
Creticus,[125] L. Flaccus,[126] and lastly--a case of "rich unguent on
lentils"--Lentulus, son of Clodianus.[127] And while on this subject I
cannot omit mentioning that when among the consulars my name was the
first to come up in the ballot, a full meeting of the senate declared
with one voice that I must be kept in the city. The same occurred to
Pompey after me; so that we two appeared to be kept at home as pledges
of the safety of the Republic. Why should I look for the "bravos" of
others when I get these compliments at home? Well, the state of affairs
in the city is as follows. The agrarian law is being vehemently pushed
by the tribune Flavius, with the support of Pompey, but it has nothing
popular about it except its supporter. From this law I, with the full
assent of a public meeting, proposed to omit all clauses which adversely
affected private rights. I proposed to except from its operation such
public land as had been so in the consulship of P. Mucius and L.
Calpurnius.[128] I proposed to confirm the titles of holders of those to
whom Sulla had actually assigned lands. I proposed to retain the men of
Volaterræ and Arretium--whose lands Sulla had declared forfeited but
had not allotted--in their holdings. There was only one section in the
bill that I did not propose to omit, namely, that land should be
purchased with this money from abroad, the proceeds of the new revenues
for the next five years.[129] But to this whole agrarian scheme the
senate was opposed, suspecting that some novel power for Pompey was
aimed at. Pompey, indeed, had set his heart on getting the law passed.
I, however, with the full approval of the applicants for land,
maintained the holdings of all private owners--for, as you know, the
landed gentry form the bulk of our party's forces--while I nevertheless
satisfied the people and Pompey (for I wanted to do that also) by the
purchase clause; for, if that was put on a sound footing, I thought that
two advantages would accrue--the dregs might be drawn from the city, and
the deserted portions of Italy be repeopled. But this whole business was
interrupted by the war, and has cooled off. Metellus is an exceedingly
good consul, and much attached to me. That other one is such a ninny
that he clearly doesn't know what to do with his purchase.[130] This is
all my public news, unless you regard as touching on public affairs the
fact that a certain Herennius, a tribune, and a fellow tribesman of
yours--a fellow as unprincipled as he is needy--has now begun making
frequent proposals for transferring P. Clodius to the plebs; he is
vetoed by many of his colleagues. That is really, I think, all the
public news.

For my part, ever since I won what I may call the splendid and immortal
glory of the famous fifth of December[131] (though it was accompanied by
the jealousy and hostility of many), I have never ceased to play my part
in the Republic in the same lofty spirit, and to maintain the position I
then inaugurated and took upon myself. But when, first, by the acquittal
of Clodius I clearly perceived the insecurity and rotten state of the
law courts; and, secondly, when I saw that it took so little to alienate
my friends the _publicani_ from the senate--though with me personally
they had no quarrel; and, thirdly, that the rich (I mean your friends
the fish-breeders) did not disguise their jealousy of me, I thought I
must look out for some greater security and stronger support. So, to
begin with, I have brought the man who had been too long silent on my
achievements, Pompey himself, to such a frame of mind as not once only
in the senate, but many times and in many words, to ascribe to me the
preservation of this empire and of the world. And this was not so
important to me--for those transactions are neither so obscure as to
need testimony, nor so dubious as to need commendation--as to the
Republic; for there were certain persons base enough to think that some
misunderstanding would arise between me and Pompey from a difference of
opinion on these measures. With him I have united myself in such close
intimacy that both of us can by this union be better fortified in his
own views, and more secure in his political position. However, the
dislike of the licentious dandies, which had been roused against me, has
been so far softened by a conciliatory manner on my part, that they all
combine to show me marked attention. In fine, while avoiding
churlishness to anyone, I do not curry favour with the populace or relax
any principle; but my whole course of conduct is so carefully regulated,
that, while exhibiting an example of firmness to the Republic, in my own
private concerns--in view of the instability of the loyalists, the
hostility of the disaffected, and the hatred of the disloyal towards
me--I employ a certain caution and circumspection, and do not allow
myself, after all, to be involved in these new friendships so far but
that the famous refrain of the cunning Sicilian frequently sounds in my
ears:[132]

    "Keep sober and distrust: these wisdom's sinews!"

Of my course and way of life, therefore, you see, I think, what may be
called a sketch or outline. Of your own business, however, you
frequently write to me, but I cannot at the moment supply the remedy you
require. For that decree of the senate was passed with the greatest
unanimity on the part of the rank and file,[133] though without the
support of any of us consulars. For as to your seeing my name at the
foot of the decree, you can ascertain from the decree itself that the
subject put to the vote at the time was a different one, and that this
clause about "free peoples" was added without good reason. It was done
by P. Servilius the younger,[134] who delivered his vote among the last,
but it cannot be altered after such an interval of time. Accordingly,
the meetings, which at first were crowded, have long ceased to be held.
If you have been able, notwithstanding, by your insinuating address to
get a trifle of money out of the Sicyonians, I wish you would let me
know.[135] I have sent you an account of my consulship written in Greek.
If there is anything in it which to a genuine Attic like yourself seems
to be un-Greek or unscholarly, I shall not say as Lucullus said to you
(at Panhormus, was it not?) about his own history, that he had
interspersed certain barbarisms and solecisms for the express purpose of
proving that it was the work of a Roman. No, if there is anything of
that sort in my book, it will be without my knowledge and against my
will. When I have finished the Latin version I will send it to you; and
thirdly, you may expect a poem on the subject, for I would not have any
method of celebrating my praise omitted by myself. In this regard pray
do not quote "Who will praise his sire?"[136] For if there is anything
in the world to be preferred to this, let it receive its due meed of
praise, and I mine of blame for not selecting another theme for my
praise. However, what I write is not panegyric but history. My brother
Quintus clears himself to me in a letter, and asserts that he has never
said a disparaging word of you to anyone. But this we must discuss face
to face with the greatest care and earnestness: only _do_ come to see me
again at last! This Cossinius, to whom I intrust my letter, seems to me
a very good fellow, steady, devoted to you, and exactly the sort of man
which your letter to me had described.

15 March.

[Footnote 123: A special title given to the Ædui on their application
for alliance. Cæsar, _B. G._ i. 33.]

[Footnote 124: The migration of the Helvetii did not actually begin till
B.C. 58. Cæsar tells us in the first book of his _Commentaries_ how he
stopped it.]

[Footnote 125: Consul B.C. 69, superseded in Crete by Pompey B.C. 65.
Triumphed B.C. 62.]

[Footnote 126: Prætor B.C. 63, defended by Cicero in an extant oration.]

[Footnote 127: Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus, consul in B.C. 72.
Cicero puns on the name Lentulus from _lens_ (pulse, φακή), and quotes a
Greek proverb for things incongruous. See Athenæus, 160 (from the
_Necuia_ of Sopater):

    Ἴθακος Ὀδυσσεὺς, τὸ ἐκὶ τῇ φακῇ μύρον
    πάρεστι· θάρσει, θυμέ.
]

[Footnote 128: B.C. 133, the year before the agrarian law of Tiberius
Gracchus. The law of Gracchus had not touched the public land in
Campania (the old territory of Capua). The object of this clause (which
appears repeatedly in those of B.C. 120 and 111, see Bruns, _Fontes
Iuris_, p. 72) is to confine the allotment of _ager publicus_ to such
land as had become so subsequently, _i.e._, to land made "public"
principally by the confiscations of Sulla.]

[Footnote 129: That is, he proposed to hypothecate the _vectigalia_ from
the new provinces formed by Pompey in the East for five years.]

[Footnote 130: The consulship. The bribery at Afranius's election is
asserted in Letter XXI.]

[Footnote 131: The day of the execution of the Catilinarian
conspirators.]

[Footnote 132: Epicharmus, twice quoted by Polybius, xviii. 40; xxxi.
21. νᾶφε καὶ μέμνας' ἀπιστεῖν, ἄρθρα ταῦτα τῶν φρενῶν.]

[Footnote 133: _Pedarii_ were probably those senators who had not held
curule office. They were not different from the other senators in point
of legal rights, but as ex-magistrates were asked for their _sententia_
first, they seldom had time to do anything but signify by word their
assent to one or other motion, or to cross over to the person whom they
intended to support.]

[Footnote 134: P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus, son of the conqueror of the
Isaurians. As he had not yet been a prætor, he would be called on after
the _consulares_ and _prætorii_. He then moved a new clause to the
decree, and carried it.]

[Footnote 135: The decree apparently prevented the recovery of debts
from a _libera civitas_ in the Roman courts. Atticus would therefore
have to trust to the regard of the Sicyonians for their credit.]

[Footnote 136: A son must be hard up for something to say for himself if
he is always harping on his father's reputation; and so must I, if I
have nothing but my consulship. That seems the only point in the
quotation. I do not feel that there is any reference to praise of his
father in Cicero's own poem. There are two versions of the proverb:

    τίς πατέρ' αἰνήσει εἰ μὴ κακοδαίμονες υἱοί

and

    τίς πατέρ' αἰνήσει εἰ μὴ εὐδαίμονες υἱοί.
]




XXV (A I, 20)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME, 13 MAY


[Sidenote: B.C. 60, ÆT. 46]

On my return to Rome from my villa at Pompeii on the 12th of May, our
friend Cincius handed me your letter dated 13th February. It is this
letter of yours which I will now proceed to answer. And first let me say
how glad I am that you have fully understood my appreciation of
you;[137] and next how excessively rejoiced I am that you have been so
extremely reasonable in regard to those particulars in which you
thought[138] that I and mine had behaved unkindly, or with insufficient
consideration for your feelings: and this I regard as a proof of no
common affection, and of the most excellent judgment and wisdom.
Wherefore, since you have written to me in a tone so delightful,
considerate, friendly and kind, that I not only have no call to press
you any farther, but can never even hope to meet from you or any other
man with so much gentleness and good nature, I think the very best
course I can pursue is not to say another word on the subject in my
letters. When we meet, if the occasion should arise, we will discuss it
together.

As to what you say about politics, your suggestions indeed are both
affectionate and wise, and the course you suggest does not differ
substantially from my own policy--for I must neither budge an inch from
the position imposed upon me by my rank, nor must I without forces of my
own enter the lines of another, while that other, whom you mention in
your letter, has nothing large-minded about him, nothing lofty, nothing
which is not abject and time-serving. However, the course I took was,
after all, perhaps not ill-calculated for securing the tranquillity of
my own life; but, by heaven, I did greater service to the Republic than,
by suppressing the attacks of the disloyal, I did to myself, when I
brought conviction home to the wavering mind of a man of the most
splendid fortune, influence and popularity, and induced him to
disappoint the disloyal and praise my acts. Now if I had been forced to
sacrifice consistency in this transaction, I should not have thought
anything worth that price; but the fact is that I have so worked the
whole business, that I did not seem to be less consistent from my
complacency to him, but that he appeared to gain in character by his
approbation of me. In everything else I am so acting, and shall continue
so to act, as to prevent my seeming to have done what I did do by mere
chance. My friends the loyalists, the men at whom you hint, and that
"Sparta" which you say has fallen to my lot,[139] I will not only never
desert, but even if I am deserted by her, I shall still stand by my
ancient creed. However, please consider this, that since the death of
Catulus I am holding this road for the loyalists without any garrison or
company. For as Rhinton, I think, says:

    "Some are stark naught, and some care not at all."[140]

However, how our friends the fish-breeders[141] envy me I will write you
word another time, or will reserve it till we meet. But from the
senate-house nothing shall ever tear me: either because that course is
the right one, or because it is most to my interests, or because I am
far from being dissatisfied with the estimation in which I am held by
the senate.

As to the Sicyonians, as I wrote to you before,[142] there is not much
to be hoped for in the senate. For there is no one now to lay a
complaint before it. Therefore, if you are waiting for that, you will
find it a tedious business. Fight some other way if you can. At the time
the decree was passed no one noticed who would be affected by it, and
besides the rank and file of the senators voted in a great hurry for
that clause. For cancelling the senatorial decree the time is not yet
ripe, because there are none to complain of it, and because also many
are glad to have it so, some from spite, some from a notion of its
equity. Your friend Metellus is an admirable consul: I have only one
fault to find with him--he doesn't receive the news from Gaul of the
restoration of peace with much pleasure. He wants a triumph, I suppose.
I could have wished a little less of that sort of thing: in other
respects he is splendid. But the son of Aulus behaves in such a way,
that his consulship is not a consulship but a stigma on our friend
Magnus. Of my writings I send you my consulship in Greek completed. I
have handed that book to L. Cossinius. My Latin works I think you like,
but as a Greek you envy this Greek book. If others write treatises on
the subject I will send them to you, but I assure you that, as soon as
they have read mine, some how or other they become slack. To return to
my own affairs, L. Papirius Pætus, an excellent man and an admirer of
mine, has presented me with the books left him by Servius Claudius. As
your friend Cincius told me that I could take them without breaking the
_lex Cincia_[143], I told him that I should have great pleasure in
accepting them, if he brought them to Italy. Wherefore, as you love me,
as you know that I love you, do try by means of friends, clients,
guests, or even your freedmen or slaves, to prevent the loss of a single
leaf. For I am in urgent need of the Greek books which I suspect, and of
the Latin books which I know, that he left: and more and more every day
I find repose in such studies every moment left to me from my labours in
the forum. You will, I say, do me a very great favour, if you will be as
zealous in this matter as you ever are in matters in which you suppose
me to feel strongly; and Pætus's own affairs I recommend to your
kindness for which he thanks you extremely. A prompt visit from yourself
is a thing which I do not merely ask for, I advise it.

[Footnote 137: Contained in Letter XXII, pp. 46-47.]

[Footnote 138: Reading _tibi_ for _mihi_, as Prof. Tyrrell suggests.]

[Footnote 139: Σπάρτην ἔλαχες κείνην κοσμεῖ. "Sparta is your lot, do it
credit," a line of Euripides which had become proverbial.]

[Footnote 140: οἱ μὲν παρ' οὐδέν εἰσι, τοῖς δ' οὐδεν μέλει. Rhinton, a
dramatist, _circa_ B.C. 320-280 (of Tarentum or Syracuse).]

[Footnote 141: See pp. 52, 56, 65.]

[Footnote 142: See p. 57.]

[Footnote 143: The _lex Cincia_ (B.C. 204) forbade the taking of
presents for acting as advocate in law courts.]




XXVI (A II, 1)

TO ATTICUS (IN GREECE)

ROME, JUNE


[Sidenote: B.C. 60, ÆT. 46]

On the 1st of June, as I was on my way to Antium, and eagerly getting
out of the way of M. Metellus's gladiators, your boy met me, and
delivered to me a letter from you and a history of my consulship written
in Greek.[144] This made me glad that I had some time before delivered
to L. Cossinius a book, also written in Greek, on the same subject, to
take to you. For if I had read yours first you might have said that I
had pilfered from you. Although your essay (which I have read with
pleasure) seemed to me just a trifle rough and bald, yet its very
neglect of ornament is an ornament in itself, as women were once thought
to have the best perfume who used none. My book, on the other hand, has
exhausted the whole of Isocrates's unguent case, and all the paint-boxes
of his pupils, and even Aristotle's colours. This, as you tell me in
another letter, you glanced over at Corcyra, and afterwards I suppose
received it from Cossinius.[145] I should not have ventured to send it
to you until I had slowly and fastidiously revised it. However,
Posidonius, in his letter of acknowledgment from Rhodes, says that as he
read my memoir, which I had sent him with a view to his writing on the
same subject with more elaboration, he was not only not incited to
write, but absolutely made afraid to do so. In a word, I have routed the
Greeks. Accordingly, as a general rule, those who were pressing me for
material to work up, have now ceased to bother me. Pray, if you like the
book, see to there being copies at Athens and other Greek towns;[146]
for it may possibly throw some lustre on my actions. As for my poor
speeches, I will send you both those you ask for and some more also,
since what I write to satisfy the studious youth finds favour, it seems,
with you also. [For it suited my purpose[147]--both because it was in
his Philippics that your fellow citizen Demosthenes gained his
reputation, and because it was by withdrawing from the mere
controversial and forensic style of oratory that he acquired the
character of a serious politician--to see that I too should have
speeches that may properly be called _consular_. Of these are, first,
one delivered on the 1st of January in the senate, a second to the
people on the agrarian law, a third on Otho, a fourth for Rabirius, a
fifth on the Sons of the Proscribed, a sixth when I declined a province
in public meeting, a seventh when I allowed Catiline to escape, which I
delivered the day after Catiline fled, a ninth in public meeting on the
day that the Allobroges made their revelation, a tenth in the senate on
the 5th of December. There are also two short ones, which may be called
fragments, on the agrarian law. This whole cycle I will see that you
have. And since you like my writings as well as my actions, from these
same rolls you will learn both what I have done and what I have said--or
you should not have asked for them, for I did not make you an offer of
them.]

You ask me why I urge you to come home, and at the same time you
intimate that you are hampered by business affairs, and yet say that you
will nevertheless hasten back, not only if it is needful, but even if I
desire it. Well, there is certainly no absolute necessity, yet I do
think you might plan the periods of your tour somewhat more
conveniently. Your absence is too prolonged, especially as you are in a
neighbouring country, while yet I cannot enjoy your society, nor you
mine. For the present there is peace, but if my young friend
Pulcher's[148] madness found means to advance a little farther, I should
certainly summon you from your present sojourn. But Metellus is offering
him a splendid opposition and will continue to do so. Need I say more?
He is a truly patriotic consul and, as I have ever thought, naturally an
honest man. That person, however, makes no disguise, but avowedly
desires to be elected tribune. But when the matter was mooted in the
senate, I cut the fellow to pieces, and taunted him with his
changeableness in seeking the tribuneship at Rome after having given out
at Hera, in Sicily,[149] that he was a candidate for the ædileship; and
went on to say that we needn't much trouble ourselves, for that he would
not be permitted to ruin the Republic any more as a plebeian, than
patricians like him had been allowed to do so in my consulship.
Presently, on his saying that he had completed the journey from the
straits in seven days, and that it was impossible for anyone to have
gone out to meet him, and that he had entered the city by night,[150]
and making a great parade of this in a public meeting, I remarked that
that was nothing new for him: seven days from Sicily to Rome, three
hours from Rome to Interamna![151] Entered by night, did he? so he did
before! No one went to meet him? neither did anyone on the other
occasion, exactly when it should have been done! In short, I bring our
young upstart to his bearings, not only by a set and serious speech, but
also by repartees of this sort. Accordingly, I have come now to rally
him and jest with him in quite a familiar manner. For instance, when we
were escorting a candidate, he asked me "whether I had been accustomed
to secure Sicilians places at the gladiatorial shows?" "No," said I.
"Well, I intend to start the practice," said he, "as their new patron;
but my sister,[152] who has the control of such a large part of the
consul's space, wont give me more than a single foot." "Don't grumble,"
said I, "about one of your sister's feet; you may lift the other also."
A jest, you will say, unbecoming to a consular. I confess it, but I
detest that woman--so unworthy of a consul. For

    "A shrew she is and with her husband jars,

and not only with Metellus, but also with Fabius,[153] because she is
annoyed at their interference in this business.[154] You ask about the
agrarian law: it has completely lost all interest, I think. You rather
chide me, though gently, about my intimacy with Pompey. I would not have
you think that I have made friends with him for my own protection; but
things had come to such a pass that, if by any chance we had quarrelled,
there would inevitably have been violent dissensions in the state. And
in taking precautions and making provision against that, I by no means
swerved from my well-known loyalist policy, but my object was to make
him more of a loyalist and induce him to drop somewhat of his
time-serving vacillation: and he, let me assure you, now speaks in much
higher terms of my achievements (against which many had tried to incite
him) than of his own. He testifies that while he served the state well,
I preserved it. What if I even make a better citizen of Cæsar,[155] who
has now the wind full in his sails--am I doing so poor a service to the
Republic? Farthermore, if there was no one to envy me, if all, as they
ought to be, were my supporters, nevertheless a preference should still
be given to a treatment that would cure the diseased parts of the state,
rather than to the use of the knife. As it is, however, since the
knighthood, which I once stationed on the slope of the Capitoline,[156]
with you as their standard-bearer and leader, has deserted the senate,
and since our leading men think themselves in a seventh heaven, if there
are bearded mullets in their fish-ponds that will come to hand for food,
and neglect everything else, do not you think that I am doing no mean
service if I secure that those who have the power, should not have the
will, to do any harm? As for our friend Cato, you do not love him more
than I do: but after all, with the very best intentions and the most
absolute honesty, he sometimes does harm to the Republic. He speaks and
votes as though he were in the Republic of Plato, not in the scum of
Romulus. What could be fairer than that a man should be brought to trial
who has taken a bribe for his verdict? Cato voted for this: the senate
agreed with him. The equites declared war on the senate, not on me, for
I voted against it. What could be a greater piece of impudence than the
equites renouncing the obligations of their contract? Yet for the sake
of keeping the friendship of the order it was necessary to submit to the
loss. Cato resisted and carried his point. Accordingly, though we have
now had the spectacle of a consul thrown into prison,[157] of riots
again and again stirred up, not one of those moved a finger to help,
with whose support I and the consuls that immediately followed me were
accustomed to defend the Republic. "Well, but," say you, "are we to pay
them for their support?" What are we to do if we can't get it on any
other terms? Are we to be slaves to freedmen or even slaves? But, as you
say, _assez de sérieux!_ Favonius[158] carried my tribe with better
credit than his own; he lost that of Lucceius. His accusation of
Nasica[159] was not creditable, but was conducted with moderation: he
spoke so badly that he appeared when in Rhodes to have ground at the
mills more than at the lessons of Molon.[160] He was somewhat angry
with me because I appeared for the defence: however, he is now making up
to me again on public grounds. I will write you word how Lucceius is
getting on when I have seen Cæsar, who will be here in a couple of days.
The injury done you by the Sicyonians you attribute to Cato and his
imitator Servilius.[161] Why? did not that blow reach many excellent
citizens? But since the senate has so determined, let us commend it, and
not be in a minority of one.[162] My "Amaltheia"[163] is waiting and
longing for you. My Tusculan and Pompeian properties please me
immensely, except that they have overwhelmed me--me, the scourge of
debt!--not exactly in Corinthian bronze, but in the bronze which is
current in the market.[164] In Gaul I hope peace is restored. My
"Prognostics,"[165] along with my poor speeches, expect shortly. Yet
write and tell me what your ideas are as to returning. For Pomponia sent
a message to me that you would be at Rome some time in July. That does
not agree with your letter which you wrote to me about your name being
put on the census roll. Pætus, as I have already told you, has presented
me with all books left by his brother. This gift of his depends upon
your seeing to it with care. Pray, if you love me, take measures for
their preservation and transmission to me. You could do me no greater
favour, and I want the Latin books preserved with as much care as the
Greek. I shall look upon them as virtually a present from yourself. I
have written to Octavius:[166] I had not said anything to him about you
by word of mouth; for I did not suppose that you carried on your
business in that province, or look upon you in the light of general
money-lender: but I have written, as in duty bound, with all
seriousness.

[Footnote 144: Nep. _Att._ c. 18.]

[Footnote 145: Atticus seems to have seen a copy belonging to some one
else at Corfu. Cicero explains that he had kept back Atticus's copy for
revision.]

[Footnote 146: Cicero evidently intends Atticus to act as a publisher.
His _librarii_ will make copies. See p. 32, note 1.]

[Footnote 147: The passage in brackets is believed by some, not on very
good grounds, to be spurious. Otho is L. Roscius Otho, the author of the
law as to the seats in the theatre of the equites. The "proscribed" are
those proscribed by Sulla, their sons being forbidden to hold office, a
disability which Cicero maintained for fear of civil disturbances. See
_in Pis._ §§ 4-5.]

[Footnote 148: Pulchellus, _i.e._, P. Clodius Pulcher, the diminutive of
contempt.]

[Footnote 149: Where he had been as quæstor. Hera is said to be another
name for Hybla. Some read _heri_, "only yesterday."]

[Footnote 150: Clodius is shewing off his modesty. It was usual for
persons returning from a province to send messengers in front, and to
travel deliberately, that their friends might pay them the compliment of
going out to meet them. Entering the city after nightfall was another
method of avoiding a public reception. See Suet. _Aug._ 53.]

[Footnote 151: See p. 37, note 3.]

[Footnote 152: Clodia, wife of the consul Metellus. See p. 22, note.]

[Footnote 153: We don't know who this is; probably a _cavaliere
servente_ of Clodia's.]

[Footnote 154: _I.e._, in the business of her brother Clodius's attempt
to get the tribuneship.]

[Footnote 155: Though Cæsar has been mentioned before in regard to his
candidature for the consulship, and in connexion with the Clodius case,
this is the first reference to him as a statesman. He is on the eve of
his return from Spain, and already is giving indication of his coalition
with Pompey. His military success in Spain first clearly demonstrated
his importance.]

[Footnote 156: During the meeting of the senate at the time of the
Catilinarian conspiracy (2 _Phil._ § 16).]

[Footnote 157: The consul Cæcilius Metellus was imprisoned by the
tribune Flavius for resisting his land law (Dio, xxxvii. 50).]

[Footnote 158: M. Favonius, an extreme Optimate. _Ille Catonis æmulus_
(Suet. _Aug._ 13). He had a bitter tongue, but a faithful heart (Plut.
_Pomp._ 60, 73; Vell. ii 73). He did not get the prætorship (which he
was now seeking) till B.C. 49. He was executed after Philippi (Dio. 47,
49).]

[Footnote 159: P. Scipio Nasica Metellus Pius, the future father-in-law
of Pompey, who got the prætorship, was indicted for _ambitus_ by
Favonius.]

[Footnote 160: Ἀπολλόνιος Μόλων of Alabanda taught rhetoric at Rhodes.
Cicero had himself attended his lectures. He puns on the name Molon and
_molæ_, "mill at which slaves worked."]

[Footnote 161: See pp. 57, 60.]

[Footnote 162: Reading _discessionibus_, "divisions in the senate," with
Manutius and Tyrrell, not _dissentionibus_; and _deinde ne_, but not
_st_ for _si_.]

[Footnote 163: His study, which he playfully calls by this name, in
imitation of that of Atticus. See p. 30.]

[Footnote 164: See Letter XV, p. 25.]

[Footnote 165: His translation of the _Prognostics_ of Aratus.]

[Footnote 166: Gaius Octavius, father of Augustus, governor of
Macedonia.]




XXVII (A II, 2)

TO ATTICUS (ON HIS WAY TO ROME)

TUSCULUM (DECEMBER)


[Sidenote: B.C. 60, ÆT. 46]

Take care of my dear nephew Cicero, I beg of you. I seem to share his
illness. I am engaged on the "Constitution of Pellene," and, by heaven,
have piled up a huge heap of Dicæarchus at my feet.[167] What a great
man! You may learn much more from him than from Procilius. His
"Constitution of Corinth" and "Constitution of Athens" I have, I think,
at Rome. Upon my word, you will say, if you read these, "What a
remarkable man!" Herodes, if he had any sense, would have read him
rather than write a single letter himself.[168] He has attacked me by
letter; with you I see he has come to close quarters. I would have
joined a conspiracy rather than resisted one, if I had thought that I
should have to listen to him as my reward. As to Lollius, you must be
mad. As to the wine, I think you are right.[169] But look here! Don't
you see that the Kalends are approaching, and no Antonius?[170] That the
jury is being empanelled? For so they send me word. That Nigidius[171]
threatens in public meeting that he will personally cite any juror who
does not appear? However, I should be glad if you would write me word
whether you have heard anything about the return of Antonius; and since
you don't mean to come here, dine with me in any case on the 29th. Mind
you do this, and take care of your health.

[Footnote 167: The roll being unwound as he read and piled on the
ground. Dicæarchus of Messene, a contemporary of Aristotle, wrote on
"Constitutions" among other things. Procilius seems also to have written
on polities.]

[Footnote 168: Herodes, a teacher at Athens, afterwards tutor to young
Cicero. He seems to have written on Cicero's consulship.]

[Footnote 169: These remarks refer to something in Atticus's letter.]

[Footnote 170: Gaius Antonius, about to be prosecuted for _maiestas_ on
his return from Macedonia.]

[Footnote 171: P. Nigidius Figulus, a tribune (which dates the letter
after the 10th of December). The tribunes had no right of summons
(_vocatio_), they must personally enforce their commands.]




XXVIII (A II, 3)

TO ATTICUS (ON HIS WAY TO ROME)

ROME (DECEMBER)


[Sidenote: B.C. 60, ÆT. 46]

First, I have good news for you, as I think. Valerius has been
acquitted. Hortensius was his counsel. The verdict is thought to have
been a favour to Aulus's son; and "Epicrates,"[172] I suspect, has been
up to some mischief. I didn't like his boots and his white
leggings.[173] What it is I shall know when you arrive. When you find
fault with the narrow windows, let me tell you that you are criticising
the Cyropædeia.[174] For when I made the same remark, Cyrus used to
answer that the views of the gardens through broad lights were not so
pleasant. For let α be the eye, βγ the object seen, δ and ε the rays ...
you see the rest.[175] For if sight resulted from the impact of
images,[176] the images would be in great difficulties with a narrow
entrance: but, as it is, that "effusion" of rays gets on quite nicely.
If you have any other fault to find you won't get off without an answer,
unless it is something that can be put right without expense.

I now come to January and my "political attitude," in which, after the
manner of the Socratics, I shall put the two sides; at the end, however,
as they were wont to do, the one which I approve. It is, indeed, a
matter for profound reflexion. For I must either firmly oppose the
agrarian law--which will involve a certain struggle, but a struggle full
of glory--or I must remain altogether passive, which is about equivalent
to retiring to Solonium[177] or Antium; or, lastly, I must actually
assist the bill, which I am told Cæsar fully expects from me without any
doubt. For Cornelius has been with me (I mean Cornelius Balbus,[178]
Cæsar's intimate), and solemnly assured me that he meant to avail
himself of my advice and Pompey's in everything, and intended to
endeavour to reconcile Crassus with Pompey.[179] In this last course
there are the following advantages: a very close union with Pompey, and,
if I choose, with Cæsar also; a reconciliation with my political
enemies, peace with the common herd, ease for my old age. But the
conclusion of the third book of my own poem has a strong hold on me:

    "Meanwhile the tenor of thy youth's first spring,
    Which still as consul thou with all thy soul
    And all thy manhood heldest, see thou keep,
    And swell the chorus of all good men's praise."[180]

These verses Calliope herself dictated to me in that book, which
contains much written in an "aristocratic" spirit, and I cannot,
therefore, doubt that I shall always hold that

    "The best of omens is our country's cause."[181]

But let us reserve all this for our walks during the Compitalia[182].
Remember the day before the Compitalia. I will order the bath to be
heated, and Terentia is going to invite Pomponia. We will add your
mother to the party. Please bring me Theophrastus _de Ambitione_ from my
brother's library.

[Footnote 172: "The Conqueror," _i.e._, Pompey. Aulus's son is L.
Afranius.]

[Footnote 173: _I.e._, his military get-up.]

[Footnote 174: Cyrus was Cicero's architect; his argument or theory he
calls Cyropædeia, after Xenophon's book.]

[Footnote 175: He supposes himself to be making a mathematical figure in
optics:

[Illustration]]

[Footnote 176: The theory of sight held by Democritus, denounced as
unphilosophical by Plutarch (_Timoleon_, Introd.).]

[Footnote 177: Apparently a villa in the _Solonius ager_, near
Lanuvium.]

[Footnote 178: The Cornelius Balbus of Gades, whose citizenship Cicero
defended B.C. 56 (consul B.C. 40). He was Cæsar's close friend and
agent.]

[Footnote 179: Cicero was apparently not behind the scenes. The
coalition with Pompey certainly, and with Crassus probably, had been
already made and the terms agreed upon soon after the elections. If
Cicero afterwards discovered this it must have shewn him how little he
could trust Pompey's show of friendship and Cæsar's candour. Cæsar
desired Cicero's private friendship and public acquiescence, but was
prepared to do without them.]

[Footnote 180: From Cicero's Latin poem on his consulship.]

[Footnote 181: εἶς οἰωνός ἄριστος ἀμύνεσθαι περὶ πάτρης (Hom. _Il._ xii.
243).]




XXIX (Q FR I, 1)


     Quintus Cicero was prætor in B.C. 62. In B.C. 61 (March) he went
     out to "Asia" as proprætor; his first year of office would be up in
     March, B.C. 60, but his governorship was, as was very common,
     extended till March, B.C. 59. Towards the end of B.C. 60 the senate
     seems to have arranged not to appoint his successor, that is, he
     would be left in office till about March, B.C. 58. It is in view of
     this third year of office that Cicero writes this essay-letter to
     him on the duties of a provincial governor. Apparently Quintus had
     faults of temper which had caused some scandals to reach Rome. We
     have seen how he was one of the few who managed to quarrel with
     Atticus; and in B.C. 48 we shall find how fiercely he resented the
     exercise of his brother's influence which had led him to take the
     losing side, which from his attachment to Cæsar he may have been
     half inclined to think the wrong side. His constant squabbles with
     his wife (though the fault was evidently in great part hers) also
     go towards forming our conclusion about him that, with some ability
     and honesty, he was _un peu difficile_.


TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN ASIA)

ROME (DECEMBER)

[Sidenote: B.C. 60, ÆT. 46]

I. Though I have no doubt that many messengers, and even common rumour,
with its usual speed, will anticipate this letter, and that you will
already have heard from others that a third year has been added to my
loss and your labour, yet I thought you ought to receive from me also
the news of this tiresome circumstance. For not in one, but in several
of my previous letters, in spite of others having given up the idea in
despair, I gave you hope of being able at an early date to quit your
province, not only that I might as long as possible cheer you with a
pleasurable belief, but also because I and the prætors took such pains
in the matter, that I felt no misgiving as to the possibility of its
being arranged. As it is, since matters have so turned out that neither
the prætors by the weight of their influence, nor I by my earnest
efforts, have been able to prevail, it is certainly difficult not to be
annoyed, yet our minds, practised as they are in conducting and
supporting business of the utmost gravity, ought not to be crushed or
weakened by vexation. And since men ought to feel most vexed at what has
been brought upon them by their own fault, it is I who ought in this
matter to be more vexed than you. For it is the result of a fault on my
part, against which you had protested both in conversation at the moment
of your departure, and in letters since, that your successor was not
named last year. In this, while consulting for the interests of our
allies, and resisting the shameless conduct of some merchants, and while
seeking the increase of our reputation by your virtues, I acted
unwisely, especially as I made it possible for that second year to
entail a third. And as I confess the mistake to have been mine, it lies
with your wisdom and kindness to remedy it, and to see that my
imprudence is turned to advantage by your careful performance of your
duties. And truly, if you exert yourself in every direction to earn
men's good word, not with a view to rival others, but henceforth to
surpass yourself, if you rouse your whole mind and your every thought
and care to the ambition of gaining a superior reputation in all
respects, believe me, one year added to your labour will bring us, nay,
our posterity also, a joy of many years' duration. Wherefore I begin by
entreating you not to let your soul shrink and be cast down, nor to
allow yourself to be overpowered by the magnitude of the business as
though by a wave; but, on the contrary, to stand upright and keep your
footing, or even advance to meet the flood of affairs. For you are not
administering a department of the state, in which fortune reigns
supreme, but one in which a well-considered policy and an attention to
business are the most important things. But if I had seen you receiving
the prolongation of a command in a great and dangerous war, I should
have trembled in spirit, because I should have known that the dominion
of fortune over us had been at the same time prolonged. As it is,
however, a department of the state has been intrusted to you in which
fortune occupies no part, or, at any rate, an insignificant one, and
which appears to me to depend entirely on your virtue and self-control.
We have no reason to fear, as far as I know, any designs of our enemies,
any actual fighting in the field, any revolts of allies, any default in
the tribute or in the supply of corn, any mutiny in the army: things
which have very often befallen the wisest of men in such a way, that
they have been no more able to get the better of the assault of fortune,
than the best of pilots a violent tempest. You have been granted
profound peace, a dead calm: yet if the pilot falls asleep, it may even
so overwhelm him, though if he keeps awake it may give him positive
pleasure. For your province consists, in the first place, of allies of a
race which, of all the world, is the most civilized; and, in the second
place, of citizens, who, either as being _publicani_, are very closely
connected with me, or, as being traders who have made money, think that
they owe the security of their property to my consulship.

II. But it may be said that among even such men as these there occur
serious disputes, many wrongful acts are committed, and hotly contested
litigation is the result. As though I ever thought that you had no
trouble to contend with! I know that the trouble is exceedingly great,
and such as demands the very greatest prudence; but remember that it is
prudence much more than fortune on which, in my opinion, the result of
your trouble depends. For what trouble is it to govern those over whom
you are set, if you do but govern yourself? That may be a great and
difficult task to others, and indeed it is most difficult: to you it has
always been the easiest thing in the world, and indeed ought to be so,
for your natural disposition is such that, even without discipline, it
appears capable of self-control; whereas a discipline has, in fact, been
applied that might educate the most faulty of characters. But while you
resist, as you do, money, pleasure, and every kind of desire yourself,
there will, I am to be told, be a risk of your not being able to
suppress some fraudulent banker or some rather over-extortionate
tax-collector! For as to the Greeks, they will think, as they behold the
innocence of your life, that one of the heroes of their history, or a
demigod from heaven, has come down into the province. And this I say,
not to induce you to act thus, but to make you glad that you are acting
or have acted so. It is a splendid thing to have been three years in
supreme power in Asia without allowing statue, picture, plate, napery,
slave, anyone's good looks, or any offer of money--all of which are
plentiful in your province--to cause you to swerve from the most
absolute honesty and purity of life. What can be imagined so striking or
so desirable as that a virtue, a command over the passions, a
self-control such as yours, are not remaining in darkness and obscurity,
but have been set in the broad daylight of Asia, before the eyes of a
famous province, and in the hearing of all nations and peoples? That the
inhabitants are not being ruined by your progresses, drained by your
charges, agitated by your approach? That there is the liveliest joy,
public and private, wheresoever you come, the city regarding you as a
protector and not a tyrant, the private house as a guest and not a
plunderer?

III. But in these matters I am sure that mere experience has by this
time taught you that it is by no means sufficient to have these virtues
yourself, but that you must keep your eyes open and vigilant, in order
that in the guardianship of your province you may be considered to vouch
to the allies, the citizens, and the state, not for yourself alone, but
for all the subordinates of your government. However, you have in the
persons of your _legati_ men likely to have a regard for their own
reputation. Of these in rank, position, and age Tubero is first; who, I
think, particularly as he is a writer of history, could select from his
own Annals many whom he would like and would be able to imitate.
Allienus, again, is ours, as well in heart and affection, as in his
conformity to our principles. I need not speak of Gratidius: I am sure
that, while taking pains to preserve his own reputation, his fraternal
affection for us makes him take pains for ours also.[183] Your quæstor
is not of your own selection, but the one assigned you by lot. He is
bound both to act with propriety of his own accord, and to conform to
the policy and principles which you lay down. But should any one of
these adopt a lower standard of conduct, you should tolerate such
behaviour, if it goes no farther than a breach, in his private capacity,
of the rules by which he was bound, but not if it goes to the extent of
employing for gain the authority which you granted him as a promotion.
For I am far from thinking, especially since the moral sentiments of the
day are so much inclined to excessive laxity and self-seeking, that you
should investigate every case of petty misconduct, and thoroughly
examine every one of these persons; but that you should regulate your
confidence by the trustworthiness of its recipient. And among such
persons you will have to vouch for those whom the Republic has itself
given you as companions and assistants in public affairs, at least
within the limits which I have before laid down.

IV. In the case, however, of those of your personal staff or official
attendants whom you have yourself selected to be about you--who are
usually spoken of as a kind of prætor's cohort--we must vouch, not only
for their acts, but even for their words. But those you have with you
are the sort of men of whom you may easily be fond when they are acting
rightly, and whom you may very easily check when they shew insufficient
regard for your reputation. By these, when you were raw to the work,
your frank disposition might possibly have been deceived--for the better
a man is the less easily does he suspect others of being bad--now,
however, let this third year witness an integrity as perfect as the two
former, but still more wary and vigilant. Listen to that only which you
are supposed to listen to; don't let your ears be open to whispered
falsehoods and interested suggestions. Don't let your signet ring be a
mere implement, but, as it were, your second self: not the minister of
another's will, but a witness of your own. Let your marshal hold the
rank which our ancestors wished him to hold, who, looking upon this
place as not one of profit, but of labour and duty, scarcely ever
conferred it upon any but their freedmen, whom they indeed controlled
almost as absolutely as their slaves. Let the lictor be the dispenser of
your clemency, not his own; and let the fasces and axes which they carry
before you constitute ensigns rather of rank than of power. Let it, in
fact, be known to the whole province that the life, children, fame, and
fortunes of all over whom you preside are exceedingly dear to you.
Finally, let it be believed that you will, if you detect it, be hostile
not only to those who have accepted a bribe, but to those also who have
given it. And, indeed, no one will give anything, if it is made quite
clear that nothing is usually obtained from you through those who
pretend to be very influential with you. Not, however, that the object
of this discourse is to make you over-harsh or suspicious towards your
staff. For if any of them in the course of the last two years has never
fallen under suspicion of rapacity, as I am told about Cæsius and
Chærippus and Labeo--and think it true, because I know them--there is no
authority, I think, which may not be intrusted to them, and no
confidence which may not be placed in them with the utmost propriety,
and in anyone else like them. But if there is anyone of whom you have
already had reason to doubt, or concerning whom you have made some
discovery, in such a man place no confidence, intrust him with no
particle of your reputation.

V. If, however, you have found in the province itself anyone, hitherto
unknown to us, who has made his way into intimacy with you, take care
how much confidence you repose in him; not that there may not be many
good provincials, but, though we may hope so, it is risky to be
positive. For everyone's real character is covered by many wrappings of
pretence and is concealed by a kind of veil: face, eyes, expression very
often lie, speech most often of all. Wherefore, how can you expect to
find in that class[184] any who, while foregoing for the sake of money
all from which we can scarcely tear ourselves away,[185] will yet love
you sincerely and not merely pretend to do so from interested motives? I
think, indeed, it is a hard task to find such men, especially if we
notice that the same persons care nothing for almost any man out of
office, yet always with one consent shew affection for the prætors. But
of this class, if by chance you have discovered any one to be fonder of
you--for it may so happen--than of your office, such a man indeed gladly
admit upon your list of friends: but if you fail to perceive that,
there is no class of people you must be more on your guard against
admitting to intimacy, just because they are acquainted with all the
ways of making money, do everything for the sake of it, and have no
consideration for the reputation of a man with whom they are not
destined to pass their lives. And even among the Greeks themselves you
must be on your guard against admitting close intimacies, except in the
case of the very few, if such are to be found, who are worthy of ancient
Greece. As things now stand, indeed, too many of them are untrustworthy,
false, and schooled by long servitude in the arts of extravagant
adulation. My advice is that these men should all be entertained with
courtesy, but that close ties of hospitality or friendship should only
be formed with the best of them: excessive intimacies with them are not
very trustworthy--for they do not venture to oppose our wishes--and they
are not only jealous of our countrymen, but of their own as well.

VI. And now, considering the caution and care that I would shew in
matters of this kind--in which I fear I may be somewhat
over-severe--what do you suppose my sentiments are in regard to slaves?
Upon these we ought to keep a hold in all places, but especially in the
provinces. On this head many rules may be laid down, but this is at once
the shortest and most easily maintained--that they should behave during
your progresses in Asia as though you were travelling on the Appian way,
and not suppose that it makes any difference whether they have arrived
at Tralles or Formiæ. But if, again, any one of your slaves is
conspicuously trustworthy, employ him in your domestic and private
affairs; but in affairs pertaining to your office as governor, or in any
department of the state, do not let him lay a finger. For many things
which may, with perfect propriety, be intrusted to slaves, must yet not
be so intrusted, for the sake of avoiding talk and hostile remark. But
my discourse, I know not how, has slipped into the didactic vein, though
that is not what I proposed to myself originally. For what right have I
to be laying down rules for one who, I am fully aware, in this subject
especially, is not my inferior in wisdom, while in experience he is even
my superior? Yet, after all, if your actions had the additional weight
of my approval, I thought that they would seem more satisfactory to
yourself. Wherefore, let these be the foundations on which your public
character rests: first and foremost your own honesty and self-control,
then the scrupulous conduct of all your staff, the exceedingly cautious
and careful selection in regard to intimacies with provincials and
Greeks, the strict and unbending government of your slaves. These are
creditable even in the conduct of our private and everyday business: in
such an important government, where morals are so debased and the
province has such a corrupting influence, they must needs seem divine.
Such principles and conduct on your part are sufficient to justify the
strictness which you have displayed in some acts of administration,
owing to which I have encountered certain personal disputes with great
satisfaction, unless, indeed, you suppose me to be annoyed by the
complaints of a fellow like Paconius--who is not even a Greek, but in
reality a Mysian or Phrygian--or by the words of Tuscenius, a madman and
a knave, from whose abominable jaws you snatched the fruits of a most
infamous piece of extortion with the most complete justice.

VII. These and similar instances of your strict administration in your
province we shall find difficulty in justifying, unless they are
accompanied by the most perfect integrity: wherefore let there be the
greatest strictness in your administration of justice, provided only
that it is never varied from favour, but is kept up with impartiality.
But it is of little avail that justice is administered by yourself with
impartiality and care, unless the same is done by those to whom you have
intrusted any portion of this duty. And, indeed, in my view there is no
very great variety of business in the government of Asia: the entire
province mainly depends on the administration of justice. In it we have
the whole theory of government, especially of provincial government,
clearly displayed: all that a governor has to do is to shew consistency
and firmness enough, not only to resist favouritism, but even the
suspicion of it. To this also must be added courtesy in listening to
pleaders, consideration in pronouncing a decision, and painstaking
efforts to convince suitors of its justice, and to answer their
arguments. It is by such habits that C. Octavius has recently made
himself very popular;[186] in whose court, for the first time,[187] the
lictor did not interfere, and the marshal kept silence, while every
suitor spoke as often and as long as he chose. In which conduct he would
perhaps have been thought over-lax, had it not been that this laxity
enabled him to maintain the following instance of severity. The
partisans of Sulla were forced to restore what they had taken by
violence and terrorism. Those who had made inequitable decrees, while in
office, were now as private citizens forced to submit to the principles
they had established. This strictness on his part would have been
thought harsh, had it not been rendered palatable by many sweetening
influences of courtesy. But if this gentleness was sufficient to make
him popular at Rome, where there is such haughtiness of spirit, such
unrestrained liberty, such unlimited licence of individuals, and, in
fine, so many magistrates, so many means of obtaining protection, such
vast power in the hands of the popular assembly, and such influence
exercised by the senate, how welcome must a prætor's courtesy be in
Asia, in which there is such a numerous body of citizens and allies, so
many cities, so many communities, all hanging on one man's nod, and in
which there are no means of protection, no one to whom to make a
complaint, no senate, no popular assembly! Wherefore it requires an
exalted character, a man who is not only equitable from natural impulse,
but who has also been trained by study and the refinements of a liberal
education, so to conduct himself while in the possession of such immense
power, that those over whom he rules should not feel the want of any
other power.

VIII. Take the case of the famous Cyrus, portrayed by Xenophon, not as
an historical character, but as a model of righteous government, the
serious dignity of whose character is represented by that philosopher as
combined with a peculiar courtesy. And, indeed, it is not without reason
that our hero Africanus used perpetually to have those books in his
hands, for there is no duty pertaining to a careful and equitable
governor which is not to be found in them. Well, if _he_ cultivated
those qualities, though never destined to be in a private station, how
carefully ought those to maintain them to whom power is given with the
understanding that it must be surrendered, and given by laws under whose
authority they must once more come? In my opinion all who govern others
are bound to regard as the object of all their actions the greatest
happiness of the governed. That this is your highest object, and has
been so since you first landed in Asia, has been published abroad by
consistent rumour and the conversation of all. It is, let me add, not
only the duty of one who governs allies and citizens, but even of one
who governs slaves and dumb animals, to serve the interests and
advantage of those under him. In this point I notice that everyone
agrees that you take the greatest pains: no new debt is being contracted
by the states, while many have been relieved by you from a heavy and
long-standing one. Several cities that had become dilapidated and almost
deserted--of which one was the most famous state in Ionia, the other in
Caria, Samus and Halicarnassus--have been given a new life by you: there
is no party fighting, no civil strife in the towns: you take care that
the government of the states is administered by the best class of
citizens: brigandage is abolished in Mysia; murder suppressed in many
districts; peace is established throughout the province; and not only
the robberies usual on highways and in country places, but those more
numerous and more serious ones in towns and temples, have been
completely stopped: the fame, fortunes, and repose of the rich have been
relieved of that most oppressive instrument of prætorial
rapacity--vexatious prosecution; the expenses and tribute of the states
are made to fall with equal weight on all who live in the territories of
those states: access to you is as easy as possible: your ears are open
to the complaints of all: no man's want of means or want of friends
excludes him, I don't say from access to you in public and on the
tribunal, but even from your house and chamber: in a word, throughout
your government there is no harshness or cruelty--everywhere clemency,
mildness, and kindness reign supreme.

IX. What an immense benefit, again, have you done in having liberated
Asia from the tribute exacted by the ædiles a measure which cost me some
violent controversies! For if one of our nobles complains openly that
by your edict, "No moneys shall be voted for the games," you have robbed
him of 200 sestertia, what a vast sum of money would have been paid, had
a grant been made to the credit of every magistrate who held games, as
had become the regular custom! However, I stopped these complaints by
taking up this position--what they think of it in Asia I don't know, in
Rome it meets with no little approval and praise--I refused to accept a
sum of money which the states had decreed for a temple and monument in
our honour, though they had done so with the greatest enthusiasm in view
both of my services and of your most valuable benefactions; and though
the law contained a special and distinct exception in these words, "that
it was lawful to receive for temple or monument"; and though again the
money was not going to be thrown away, but would be employed on
decorating a temple, and would thus appear to have been given to the
Roman people and the immortal Gods rather than to myself--yet, in spite
of its having desert, law, and the wishes of those who offered the gift
in its favour, I determined that I must not accept it, for this reason
among others, namely, to prevent those, to whom such an honour was
neither due nor legal, from being jealous. Wherefore adhere with all
your heart and soul to the policy which you have hitherto adopted--that
of being devoted to those whom the senate and people of Rome have
committed and intrusted to your honour and authority, of doing your best
to protect them, and of desiring their greatest happiness. Even if the
lot had made you governor of Africans, or Spaniards, or
Gauls--uncivilized and barbarous nations--it would still have been your
duty as a man of feeling to consult for their interests and advantage,
and to have contributed to their safety. But when we rule over a race of
men in which civilization not only exists, but from which it is believed
to have spread to others, we are bound to repay them, above all things,
what we received from them. For I shall not be ashamed to go so
far--especially as my life and achievements have been such as to exclude
any suspicion of sloth or frivolity--as to confess that, whatever I have
accomplished, I have accomplished by means of those studies and
principles which have been transmitted to us in Greek literature and
schools of thought. Wherefore, over and above the general good faith
which is due to all men, I think we are in a special sense under an
obligation to that nation, to put in practice what it has taught us
among the very men by whose maxims we have been brought out of
barbarism.

X. And indeed Plato, the fountain-head of genius and learning, thought
that states would only be happy when scholars and philosophers began
being their rulers, or when those who were their rulers had devoted all
their attention to learning and philosophy. It was plainly this union of
power and philosophy that in his opinion might prove the salvation of
states. And this perhaps has at length fallen to the fortune of the
whole empire: certainly it has in the present instance to your province,
to have a man in supreme power in it, who has from boyhood spent the
chief part of his zeal and time in imbibing the principles of
philosophy, virtue, and humanity. Wherefore be careful that this third
year, which has been added to your labour, may be thought a prolongation
of prosperity to Asia. And since Asia was more fortunate in retaining
you than I was in my endeavour to bring you back, see that my regret is
softened by the exultation of the province. For if you have displayed
the very greatest activity in earning honours such as, I think, have
never been paid to anyone else, much greater ought your activity to be
in preserving these honours. What I for my part think of honours of that
kind I have told you in previous letters. I have always regarded them,
if given indiscriminately, as of little value, if paid from interested
motives, as worthless: if, however, as in this case, they are tributes
to solid services on your part, I hold you bound to take much pains in
preserving them. Since, then, you are exercising supreme power and
official authority in cities, in which you have before your eyes the
consecration and apotheosis of your virtues, in all decisions, decrees,
and official acts consider what you owe to those warm opinions
entertained of you, to those verdicts on your character, to those
honours which have been rendered you. And what you owe will be to
consult for the interests of all, to remedy men's misfortunes, to
provide for their safety, to resolve that you will be both called and
believed to be the "father of Asia."

XI. However, to such a resolution and deliberate policy on your part the
great obstacle are the _publicani_: for, if we oppose them, we shall
alienate from ourselves and from the Republic an order which has done us
most excellent service, and which has been brought into sympathy with
the Republic by our means; if, on the other hand, we comply with them in
every case, we shall allow the complete ruin of those whose interests,
to say nothing of their preservation, we are bound to consult. This is
the one difficulty, if we look the thing fairly in the face, in your
whole government. For disinterested conduct on one's own part, the
suppression of all inordinate desires, the keeping a check upon one's
staff, courtesy in hearing causes, in listening to and admitting
suitors--all this is rather a question of credit than of difficulty: for
it does not depend on any special exertion, but rather on a mental
resolve and inclination. But how much bitterness of feeling is caused to
allies by that question of the _publicani_ we have had reason to know in
the case of citizens who, when recently urging the removal of the
port-dues in Italy, did not complain so much of the dues themselves, as
of certain extortionate conduct on the part of the collectors.
Wherefore, after hearing the grievances of citizens in Italy, I can
comprehend what happens to allies in distant lands. To conduct oneself
in this matter in such a way as to satisfy the _publicani_, especially
when contracts have been undertaken at a loss, and yet to preserve the
allies from ruin, seems to demand a virtue with something divine in it,
I mean a virtue like yours. To begin with, that they are subject to tax
at all, which is their greatest grievance, ought not to be thought so by
the Greeks, because they were so subject by their own laws without the
Roman government. Again, they cannot despise the word _publicanus_, for
they have been unable to pay the assessment according to Sulla's
poll-tax without the aid of the publican. But that Greek _publicani_ are
not more considerate in exacting the payment of taxes than our own may
be gathered from the fact that the Caunii, and all the islands assigned
to the Rhodians by Sulla, recently appealed to the protection of the
senate, and petitioned to be allowed to pay their tax to us rather than
to the Rhodians. Wherefore neither ought those to revolt at the name of
a _publicanus_ who have always been subject to tax, nor those to despise
it who have been unable to make up the tribute by themselves, nor those
to refuse his services who have asked for them. At the same time let
Asia reflect on this, that if she were not under our government, there
is no calamity of foreign war or internal strife from which she would be
free. And since that government cannot possibly be maintained without
taxes, she should be content to purchase perpetual peace and
tranquillity at the price of a certain proportion of her products.

XII. But if they will fairly reconcile themselves to the existence and
name of publican, all the rest may be made to appear to them in a less
offensive light by your skill and prudence. They may, in making their
bargains with the _publicani_, not have regard so much to the exact
conditions laid down by the censors as to the convenience of settling
the business and freeing themselves from farther trouble. You also may
do, what you have done splendidly and are still doing, namely, dwell on
the high position of the _publicani_, and on your obligations to that
order, in such a way as--putting out of the question all considerations
of your _imperium_ and the power of your official authority and
dignity--to reconcile the Greeks with the _publicani_, and to beg of
those, whom you have served eminently well, and who owe you everything,
to suffer you by their compliance to maintain and preserve the bonds
which unite us with the _publicani_. But why do I address these
exhortations to you, who are not only capable of carrying them out of
your own accord without anyone's instruction, but have already to a
great extent thoroughly done so? For the most respectable and important
companies do not cease offering me thanks daily, and this is all the
more gratifying to me because the Greeks do the same. Now it is an
achievement of great difficulty to unite in feeling things which are
opposite in interests, aims, and, I had almost said, in their very
nature. But I have not written all this to instruct you--for your wisdom
requires no man's instruction--but it has been a pleasure to me while
writing to set down your virtues, though I have run to greater length in
this letter than I could have wished, or than I thought I should.

XIII. There is one thing on which I shall not cease from giving you
advice, nor will I, as far as in me lies, allow your praise to be spoken
of with a reservation. For all who come from your province do make one
reservation in the extremely high praise which they bestow on your
virtue, integrity, and kindness--it is that of sharpness of temper. That
is a fault which, even in our private and everyday life, seems to
indicate want of solidity and strength of mind; but nothing, surely, can
be more improper than to combine harshness of temper with the exercise
of supreme power. Wherefore I will not undertake to lay before you now
what the greatest philosophers say about anger, for I should not wish to
be tedious, and you can easily ascertain it yourself from the writings
of many of them: but I don't think I ought to pass over what is the
essence of a letter, namely, that the recipient should be informed of
what he does not know. Well, what nearly everybody reports to me is
this: they usually say that, as long as you are not out of temper,
nothing can be pleasanter than you are, but that when some instance of
dishonesty or wrong-headedness has stirred you, your temper rises to
such a height that no one can discover any trace of your usual kindness.
Wherefore, since no mere desire for glory, but circumstances and fortune
have brought us upon a path of life which makes it inevitable that men
will always talk about us, let us be on our guard, to the utmost of our
means and ability, that no glaring fault may be alleged to have existed
in us. And I am not now urging, what is perhaps difficult in human
nature generally, and at our time of life especially, that you should
change your disposition and suddenly pluck out a deeply-rooted habit,
but I give you this hint: if you cannot completely avoid this failing,
because your mind is surprised by anger before cool calculation has been
able to prevent it, deliberately prepare yourself beforehand, and daily
reflect on the duty of resisting anger, and that, when it moves your
heart most violently, it is just the time for being most careful to
restrain your tongue. And that sometimes seems to me to be a greater
virtue than not being angry at all. For the latter is not always a mark
of superiority to weakness, it is sometimes the result of dullness; but
to govern temper and speech, however angry you may be, or even to hold
your tongue and keep your indignant feelings and resentment under
control, although it may not be a proof of perfect wisdom, yet requires
no ordinary force of character. And, indeed, in this respect they tell
me that you are now much more gentle and less irritable. No violent
outbursts of indignation on your part, no abusive words, no insulting
language are reported to me: which, while quite alien to culture and
refinement, are specially unsuited to high power and place. For if your
anger is implacable, it amounts to extreme harshness; if easily
appeased, to extreme weakness. The latter, however, as a choice of
evils, is, after all, preferable to harshness.

XIV. But since your first year gave rise to most talk in regard to this
particular complaint--I believe because the wrong-doing, the
covetousness, and the arrogance of men came upon you as a surprise, and
seemed to you unbearable --while your second year was much milder,
because habit and reflexion, and, as I think, my letters also, rendered
you more tolerant and gentle, the third ought to be so completely
reformed, as not to give even the smallest ground for anyone to find
fault. And here I go on to urge upon you, not by way of exhortation or
admonition, but by brotherly entreaties, that you would set your whole
heart, care, and thought on the gaining of praise from everybody and
from every quarter. If, indeed, our achievements were only the subject
of a moderate amount of talk and commendation, nothing eminent, nothing
beyond the practice of others, would have been demanded of you. As it
is, however, owing to the brilliancy and magnitude of the affairs in
which we have been engaged, if we do not obtain the very highest
reputation from your province, it seems scarcely possible for us to
avoid the most violent abuse. Our position is such that all loyalists
support us, but demand also and expect from us every kind of activity
and virtue, while all the disloyal, seeing that we have entered upon a
lasting war with them, appear contented with the very smallest excuse
for attacking us. Wherefore, since fortune has allotted to you such a
theatre as Asia, completely packed with an audience, of immense size, of
the most refined judgment, and, moreover, naturally so capable of
conveying sound, that its expressions of opinion and its remarks reach
Rome, put out all your power, I beseech you, exert all your energies to
appear not only to have been worthy of the part we played here, but to
have surpassed everything done there by your high qualities.

XV. And since chance has assigned to me among the magistracies the
conduct of public business in the city, to you that in a province, if my
share is inferior to no one's, take care that yours surpasses others. At
the same time think of this: we are not now working for a future and
prospective glory, but are fighting in defence of what has been already
gained; which indeed it was not so much an object to gain as it is now
our duty to defend. And if anything in me could be apart from you, I
should desire nothing more than the position which I have already
gained. The actual fact, however, is that unless all your acts and deeds
in your province correspond to my achievements, I shall think that I
have gained nothing by those great labours and dangers, in all of which
you have shared. But if it was you who, above all others, assisted me to
gain a most splendid reputation, you will certainly also labour more
than others to enable me to retain it. You must not be guided by the
opinions and judgments of the present generation only, but of those to
come also: and yet the latter will be a more candid judgment, for it
will not be influenced by detraction and malice. Finally, you should
think of this--that you are not seeking glory for yourself alone (and
even if that were the case, you still ought not to be careless of it,
especially as you had determined to consecrate the memory of your name
by the most splendid monuments), but you have to share it with me, and
to hand it down to our children. In regard to which you must be on your
guard lest by any excess of carelessness you should seem not only to
have neglected your own interests, but to have begrudged those of your
family also.

XVI. And these observations are not made with the idea of any speech of
mine appearing to have roused you from your sleep, but to have rather
"added speed to the runner." For you will continue to compel all in the
future, as you have compelled them in the past, to praise your equity,
self-control, strictness, and honesty. But from my extreme affection I
am possessed with a certain insatiable greed for glory for you. However,
I am convinced that, as Asia should now be as well-known to you as each
man's own house is to himself, and since to your supreme good sense such
great experience has now been added, there is nothing that affects
reputation which you do not know as well as possible yourself, and
which does not daily occur to your mind without anybody's exhortation.
But I, who when I read your writing seem to hear your voice, and when I
write to you seem to be talking to you, am therefore always best pleased
with your longest letter, and in writing am often somewhat prolix
myself. My last prayer and advice to you is that, as good poets and
painstaking actors always do, so you should be most attentive in the
last scenes and conclusion of your function and business, so that this
third year of your government, like a third act in a play, may appear to
have been the most elaborated and most highly finished. You will do that
with more ease if you will think that I, whom you always wished to
please more than all the world besides, am always at your side, and am
taking part in everything you say and do. It remains only to beg you to
take the greatest care of your health, if you wish me and all your
friends to be well also.

Farewell.

[Footnote 182: A country festival and general holiday. It was a _feriæ
conceptivæ_, and therefore the exact day varied. But it was about the
end of the year or beginning of the new year (_in Pis._ § 4; Aul. Gell.
x. 24; Macrob. _Sat._ i. 4; _ad Att._ vii. 5; vii. 7, § 2).]

[Footnote 183: Of the persons mentioned, L. Ælius Tubero is elsewhere
praised as a man of learning (_pro Lig._ § 10); A. Allienus (prætor B.C.
49) was a friend and correspondent; M. Gratidius is mentioned in _pro
Flacco_, § 49, as acting in a judicial capacity, and was perhaps a
cousin of Cicero's.]

[Footnote 184: The class of Romans who have practically become
provincials.]

[Footnote 185: Rome and its society and interests.]

[Footnote 186: Father of Augustus, governor of Macedonia, B.C. 60-59.
But he seems to refer to his prætorship (B.C. 61) at Rome; at any rate,
as well as to his conduct in Macedonia.]

[Footnote 187: Reading _primum_; others _primus_, "his head lictor."]




XXX (A II, 4)


[Sidenote: B.C. 59. Coss., C. Iulius Cæsar, M. Calpurnius Bibulus.]

     This year was a crucial one in the history of the Republic, and
     also of Cicero particularly. It witnessed the working of the
     agreement entered into in the previous year between Pompey, Cæsar,
     and Crassus, to secure their several objects, commonly called the
     First Triumvirate. The determined enmity of the consuls to each
     other, the high-handed conduct of Cæsar in regard to the senate,
     his ultimate appointment to the unusual period of five years'
     government of the Gauls and Illyricum, were so many blows at the
     old constitution; and scarcely less offensive to the Catonian
     Optimates were the agrarian laws passed in favour of Pompey's
     veterans, the forcing of his _acta_ through the senate, and the
     arrangement whereby he too was eventually to have the consulship
     again, and an extended period of provincial government. Cicero was
     distracted by hesitation. He had pinned his faith on Pompey's
     ultimate opposition to Cæsar, and yet did not wholly trust him, and
     was fully aware of the unpracticable nature of Cato and the
     weakness of the Optimates. The triumvirs had an instrument for
     rendering him helpless in Clodius, but Cicero could not believe
     that they would use it, or that his services to the state could be
     so far forgotten as to make danger possible. We shall find him,
     then, wholly absorbed in the question as to how far he is to give
     into or oppose the triumvirs. It is not till the end of the year
     that he begins to see the real danger ahead. We have one extant
     oration of this year--_pro Flacco_--which was not much to his
     credit, for Flaccus had evidently been guilty of extortion in Asia.
     He also defended the equally guilty C. Antonius in a speech which
     brought upon him the vengeance of the triumvirs, but it is happily
     lost.


TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

TUSCULUM (APRIL)

[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

I am exceedingly obliged to you for sending me Serapio's book, of which
indeed, between you and me, I scarcely understood a thousandth part. I
have ordered the money for it to be paid you at once, that you may not
put it down to the cost of presentation copies. But as I have mentioned
the subject of money, I will beg you to try to come to a settlement with
Titinius in any way you can. If he doesn't stand by his own proposal,
what I should like best is that what he bought at too dear a rate should
be returned, if that can be done with Pomponia's consent: if that too is
impossible, let the money be paid rather than have any difficulty. I
should be very glad if you would settle this before you leave Rome, with
your usual kindness and exactness.

So Clodius, you say, is for Tigranes? I only wish he would go--on the
same terms as the Skepsian![188] But I don't grudge him the job; for a
more convenient time for my taking a "free legation" is when my brother
Quintus shall have settled down again, as I hope, into private life, and
I shall have made certain how that "priest of the Bona Dea"[189] intends
to behave. Meanwhile I shall find my pleasure in the Muses with a mind
undisturbed, or rather glad and cheerful; for it will never occur to me
to envy Crassus or to regret that I have not been false to myself. As to
geography, I will try to satisfy you, but I promise nothing for
certain.[190] It is a difficult business, but nevertheless, as you bid
me, I will take care that this country excursion produces something for
you. Mind you let me know any news you have ferreted out, and especially
who you think will be the next consuls. However, I am not very curious;
for I have determined not to think about politics. I have examined
Terentia's woodlands. What need I say? If there was only a Dodonean oak
in them, I should imagine myself to be in possession of Epirus. About
the 1st of the month I shall be either at Formiæ or Pompeii.[191] If I
am not at Formiæ, pray, an you love me, come to Pompeii. It will be a
great pleasure to me and not much out of the way for you. About the
wall, I have given Philotimus orders not to put any difficulty in the
way of your doing whatever you please. I think, however, you had better
call in Vettius.[192] In these bad times, when the life of all the best
men hangs on a thread, I value one summer's enjoyment of my Palatine
_palæstra_ rather highly; but, of course, the last thing I should wish
would be that Pomponia and her boy should live in fear of a falling
wall.

[Footnote 188: That is, if it ends in his death, for Meliodorus of
Skepsis was sent by Mithridates to Tigranes to urge him to go to war
with Rome, but privately advised him not to do so, and, in consequence,
was put to death by Mithridates (Plut. _Luc._ 22). The word _Scepsii_
(Σκηψίου) was introduced by Gronovius for the unintelligible word
_Syrpie_ found in the MSS., which so often blunder in Greek names.]

[Footnote 189: Clodius, alluding to his intrusion into the mysteries.]

[Footnote 190: Atticus has asked Cicero for a Latin treatise on
geography--probably as a publisher, Cicero being the prince of
book-makers--and to that end has sent him the Greek geography of
Serapio.]

[Footnote 191: In his Formianum or Pompeianum, his villas at Formiæ and
Pompeii.]

[Footnote 192: An architect, a freedman of Cyrus, of whom we have heard
before.]




XXXI (A II, 5)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

ANTIUM (APRIL)


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

I wish very much, and have long wished, to visit Alexandria, and at the
same time to get away from here, where people are tired of me, and
return when they have begun to feel my loss--but at such a time and at
the bidding of such statesmen![193]

    "I fear to face the men of Troy
    And Trojan matrons with their trailing robes."[194]

For what would my friends the Optimates say--if there are such persons
left? That I had accepted a bribe to change my views?

    "Polydamas the first would lay the charge."

I mean my friend Cato, who is as good as a hundred thousand in my eyes.
What, too, will history say of me six hundred years hence? I am much
more afraid of that than of the petty gossip of the men of to-day. But,
I think, I had better lie low and wait. For if it is really offered to
me, I shall be to a certain extent in a position of advantage, and then
will be the time to weigh the matter. There is, upon my word, a certain
credit even in refusing. Wherefore, if Theophanes[195] by chance has
consulted you on the matter, do not absolutely decline. What I am
expecting to hear from you is, what Arrius says, and how he endures
being left in the lurch,[196] and who are intended to be consuls--is it
Pompey and Crassus, or, as I am told in a letter, Servius Sulpicius with
Gabinius?--and whether there are any new laws or anything new at all;
and, since Nepos[197] is leaving Rome, who is to have the augurship--the
one bait by which those personages could catch me! You see what a high
price I put on myself! Why do I talk about such things, which I am eager
to throw aside, and to devote myself heart and soul to philosophy. That,
I tell you, is my intention. I could wish I had done so from the first.
Now, however, that I have found by experience the hollowness of what I
thought so splendid, I am thinking of doing business exclusively with
the Muses. In spite of that, please give me in your next some more
definite information about Curtius and who is intended to fill his
place, and what is doing about P. Clodius, and, in fact, take your time
and tell me everything as you promise; and pray write me word what day
you think of leaving Rome, in order that I may tell you where I am
likely to be: and send me a letter at once on the subjects of which I
have written to you. I look forward much to hearing from you.

[Footnote 193: The triumvirs. The mission to Egypt was in the affairs of
Ptolemy Auletes (father of Cleopatra), who was this year declared a
"friend and ally." He soon got expelled by his subjects.]

[Footnote 194: _Il._ vi. 442; xxii. 100. Cicero's frequent expression
for popular opinion, or the opinion of those he respects--his Mrs.
Grundy.]

[Footnote 195: Theophanes, a philosopher of Mitylene, a close friend of
Pompey's, in whose house he frequently resided. He took charge of
Pompey's wife and children in B.C. 48-47.]

[Footnote 196: Q. Arrius, an orator and friend of Cæsar's, by whose help
he had hoped for the consulship. See p. 49.]

[Footnote 197: Q. Cæcilius Metellus Nepos (consul B.C. 57). His brother,
the consul of B.C. 60, had just died and made a vacancy in the college
of augurs.]




XXXII (A II, 6)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

ANTIUM (APRIL)


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

As to my promise to you in a former letter that there should be some
product of this country excursion, I cannot confirm it to any great
extent: for I have become so attached to idleness that I cannot be torn
from its arms. Accordingly, I either enjoy myself with books, of which I
have a delightful stock at Antium, or I just count the waves--for the
rough weather prevents my shrimping! From writing my mind positively
recoils. For the geographical treatise, upon which I had settled, is a
serious undertaking: so severely is Eratosthenes, whom I had proposed as
my model, criticised by Serapio and Hipparchus: what think you will be
the case if Tyrannio[198] is added to the critics? And, by Hercules, the
subject is difficult of explanation and monotonous, and does not seem to
admit of as much embellishment as I thought, and, in short--which is the
chief point--any excuse for being idle seems to me a good one: for I am
even hesitating as to settling at Antium and spending the rest of my
life there, where, indeed, I would rather have been a duovir[199] than
at Rome. You, indeed, have done more wisely in having made yourself a
home at Buthrotum. But, believe me, next to that free town of yours
comes the borough of the Antiates. Could you have believed that there
could be a town so near Rome, where there are many who have never seen
Vatinius? Where there is no one besides myself who cares whether one of
the twenty commissioners[200] is alive and well? Where no one intrudes
upon me, and yet all are fond of me? This, this is the place to play the
statesman in! For yonder, not only am I not allowed to do so, but I am
sick of it besides. Accordingly, I will compose a book of secret memoirs
for your ear alone in the style of Theopompus, or a more acrid one
still.[201] Nor have I now any politics except to hate the disloyal, and
even that without any bitterness, but rather with a certain enjoyment in
writing. But to return to business: I have written to the city quæstors
about my brother's affair. See what they say to it, whether there is any
hope of the cash in _denarii_, or whether we are to be palmed off with
Pompeian _cistophori_.[202] Farthermore, settle what is to be done about
the wall. Is there anything else? Yes! Let me know when you are thinking
of starting.

[Footnote 198: A captive brought by Lucullus, who became a friend of
Cicero and tutor to his son and nephew.]

[Footnote 199: One of the two yearly officers of a colony--they answer
to the consuls at Rome. Therefore Cicero means, "I wish I had been a
consul in a small colony rather than a consul at Rome."]

[Footnote 200: For distribution of land under Cæsar's law. P. Vatinius
was a tribune this year, and worked in Cæsar's interests.]

[Footnote 201: Theopompus of Chios, the historian (_Att._ vi. 1, § 12).
Born about B.C. 378. His bitterness censured by Polybius, viii. 11-13.]

[Footnote 202: The money due from the treasury to Q. Cicero in Asia. He
wants it to be paid in Roman currency (_denarii_), not in Asiatic coins
(_cistophori_), a vast amount of which Pompey had brought home and
deposited in the treasury. So an Indian official might like sovereigns
instead of rupees if he could get them.]




XXXIII (A II, 7)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

ANTIUM (APRIL)


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

About the geography I will think again and again. But you ask for two of
my speeches, one of which I did not care to write out because I had
ended it abruptly, the other because I did not want to praise the man I
did not like. But that, too, I will see about. At all events, something
shall be forthcoming to prevent your thinking that I have been
absolutely idle. I am quite delighted to hear what you tell me about
Publius; pray ferret out the whole story, and bring it to me when you
come, and meanwhile write anything you may make out or suspect, and
especially as to what he is going to do about the legation. For my part,
before reading your letter, I was anxious that the fellow should go,
not, by heaven, in order to avoid his impeachment--for I am wonderfully
keen to try issues with him--but it seemed to me that, if he had secured
any popularity by becoming a plebeian, he would thereby lose it. "Well,
why did you transfer yourself to the Plebs? Was it to make a call on
Tigranes? Tell me: do the kings of Armenia refuse to receive
patricians?" In a word, I had polished up my weapons to tear this
embassy of his to pieces. But if he rejects it, and thus moves the anger
of those proposers and augurs of the _lex curiata_,[203] it will be a
fine sight! By Hercules, to speak the truth, our friend Publius is being
treated a little contemptuously! In the first place, though he was once
the only man at Cæsar's house, he is not now allowed to be one in
twenty:[204] in the next place, one legation had been promised him and
another has been given. The former fine fat one[205] for the levying of
money is reserved, I presume, for Drusus of Pisaurum or for the gourmand
Vatinius: this latter miserable business, which might be very well done
by a courier, is given to him, and his tribuneship deferred till it
suits them. Irritate the fellow, I beg you, as much as you can. The one
hope of safety is their mutual disagreement, the beginning of which I
have got scent of from Curio. Moreover, Arrius is fuming at being
cheated out of the consulship. Megabocchus and our blood-thirsty young
men are most violently hostile. May there be added to this, I pray, may
there be added, this quarrel about the augurate! I hope I shall often
have some fine letters to send you on these subjects. But I want to know
the meaning of your dark hint that some even of the _quinqueviri_[206]
are speaking out. What can it be? If there is anything in it, there is
more hope than I had thought. And I would not have you believe that I
ask you these questions "with any view to action,"[207] because my heart
is yearning to take part in practical politics. I was long ago getting
tired of being at the helm, even when it was in my power. And now that I
am forced to quit the ship, and have not cast aside the tiller, but have
had it wrenched out of my hands, my only wish is to watch their
shipwreck from the shore: I desire, in the words of your favourite
Sophocles,

              "And safe beneath the roof
    To hear with drowsy ear the plash of rain."

As to the wall, see to what is necessary. I will correct the mistake of
Castricius, and yet Quintus had made it in his letter to me 15,000,
while now to your sister he makes it 30,000.[208] Terentia sends you her
regards: my boy Cicero commissions you to give Aristodemus the same
answer for him as you gave for his cousin, your sister's son.[209] I
will not neglect your reminder about your Amaltheia.[210] Take care of
your health.

[Footnote 203: As he was a man _sui iuris_, Clodius's adoption into a
new gens (_adrogatio_) would have to take place before the _comitia
curiata_ (now represented by thirty lictors), which still retained this
formal business. The ceremony required the presence of an augur and a
pontifex to hold it. Cicero supposes Pompey and Cæsar as intending to
act in that capacity. Pompey, it seems, did eventually attend.]

[Footnote 204: One of the twenty commissioners under Cæsar's agrarian
law. Cicero was offered and declined a place among them. The "only man,"
of course, refers to the intrusion on the mysteries.]

[Footnote 205: To Egypt.]

[Footnote 206: This seems also to refer to the twenty agrarian
commissioners, who, according to Mommsen, were divided into committees
of five, and were, therefore, spoken of indifferently as _quinqueviri_
and _vigintiviri_. But it is somewhat uncertain.]

[Footnote 207: κατὰ τὸ πρακτικόν.]

[Footnote 208: Castricius seems to have been a _negotiator_ or banker in
Asia. We don't know what mistake is referred to; probably as to some
money transmitted to Pomponia.]

[Footnote 209: It is suggested that Aristodemus is some teacher of the
two young Ciceros, to whom the young Marcus wishes to apologize for his
absence or to promise some study.]

[Footnote 210: Perhaps some inscription or other ornament for Atticus's
gymnasium in his villa at Buthrotum.]




XXXIV (A II, 8)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

ANTIUM, APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

When I had been eagerly expecting a letter from you as usual till
evening, lo and behold a message that slaves have come from Rome. I
summon them: I ask if they have any letters. "No," say they. "What do
you say," said I, "nothing from Pomponius?" Frightened to death by my
voice and look, they confessed that they had received one, and that it
had been lost on the journey. Need I say more? I was intensely annoyed.
For no letter has come from you for the last few days without something
in it important and entertaining. In these circumstances, if there was
anything in the letter, dated 15th April, worth telling, pray write at
once, that I may not be left in ignorance; but if there was nothing but
banter, repeat even that for my benefit. And let me inform you that
young Curio has been to call on me. What he said about Publius agreed
exactly with your letter. He himself, moreover, wonderfully "holds our
proud kings in hate."[211] He told me that the young men generally were
equally incensed, and could not put up with the present state of things.
If there is hope in them, we are in a good way. My opinion is that we
should leave things to take their course. I am devoting myself to my
memoir. However, though you may think me a Saufeius,[212] I am really
the laziest fellow in the world. But get into your head my several
journeys, that you may settle where you intend to come and see me. I
intend to arrive at my Formian house on the Parilia (21st April). Next,
since you think that at this time I ought to leave out luxurious
Crater,[213] on the 1st of May I leave Formiæ, intending to reach Antium
on the 3rd of May. For there are games at Antium from the 4th to the 6th
of May, and Tullia wants to see them. Thence I think of going to
Tusculum, thence to Arpinum, and be at Rome on the 1st of June. Be sure
that we see you at Formiæ or Antium, or at Tusculum. Rewrite your
previous letter for me, and add something new.

[Footnote 211: A verse from Lucilius. "Young Curio" is the future
tribune of B.C. 50, who was bribed by Cæsar, joined him at Ravenna at
the end of that year, was sent by him in B.C. 49 to Sicily and Africa,
and fell in battle with the Pompeians and King Iuba.]

[Footnote 212: L. Saufeius, the Epicurean friend of Atticus (see Letter
II). He seems to mean, "as indefatigable as Saufeius." But Prof. Tyrrell
points out that it might mean, "at the risk of your thinking me as
Epicurean and self-indulgent as Saufeius, I say," etc.]

[Footnote 213: The bay of Misenum, near which was Cicero's Pompeianum.]




XXXV (A II, 9)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

ANTIUM, MAY


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

Cæcilius[214] the quæstor having suddenly informed me that he was
sending a slave to Rome, I write these hurried lines in order to get out
of you the wonderful conversations with Publius, both those of which you
write, and that one which you keep dark, and assert that it would be too
long to write your answer to him; and, still farther, the one that has
not yet been held, which that Iuno of a woman[215] is to report to you
when she gets back from Solonium. I wish you to believe that there can
be nothing I should like more. If, however, the compact made about me is
not kept, I am in a seventh heaven to think that our friend the
Jerusalemitish plebeian-maker[216] will learn what a fine return he has
made to my brilliant speeches, of which you may expect a splendid
recantation. For, as well as I can guess, if that profligate is in
favour with our tyrants, he will be able to crow not only over the
"cynic consular,"[217] but over your Tritons of the fish-ponds
also.[218] For I shall not possibly be an object of anybody's jealousy
when robbed of power and of my influence in the senate. If, on the other
hand, he should quarrel with them, it will not suit his purpose to
attack me. However, let him attack. Charmingly, believe me, and with
less noise than I had thought, has the wheel of the Republic revolved:
more rapidly, anyhow, than it should have done owing to Cato's error,
but still more owing to the unconstitutional conduct of those who have
neglected the auspices, the Ælian law, the Iunian, the Licinian, the
Cæcilian and Didian,[219] who have squandered all the safeguards of the
constitution, who have handed over kingdoms as though they were private
estates to tetrachs,[220] and immense sums of money to a small coterie.
I see plainly now the direction popular jealousy is taking, and where it
will finally settle. Believe that I have learnt nothing from experience,
nothing from Theophrastus,[221] if you don't shortly see the time of our
government an object of regret. For if the power of the senate was
disliked, what do you think will be the case when it has passed, not to
the people, but to three unscrupulous men? So let them then make whom
they choose consuls, tribunes, and even finally clothe Vatinius's wen
with the double-dyed purple[222] of the priesthood, you will see before
long that the great men will be not only those who have made no false
step,[223] but even he who did make a mistake, Cato. For, as to myself,
if your comrade Publius will let me, I think of playing the sophist: if
he forces me, I shall at least defend myself, and, as is the trick of my
trade, I publicly promise to

    "Strike back at him who first is wroth with me."[224]

May the country only be on my side: it has had from me, if not more than
its due, at least more than it ever demanded. I would rather have a bad
passage with another pilot than be a successful pilot to such ungrateful
passengers. But this will do better when we meet. For the present take
an answer to your questions. I think of returning to Antium from Formiæ
on the 3rd of May. From Antium I intend to start for Tusculum on the 7th
of May. But as soon as I have returned from Formiæ (I intend to be there
till the 29th of April) I will at once inform you. Terentia sends
compliments, and "Cicero the little greets Titus the Athenian."[225]

[Footnote 214: Q. Cæcilius Bassus, probably quæstor at Ostia. Antium
would be in his district.]

[Footnote 215: βοῶπις, _sc._ Clodia. She is to talk to her brother about
Cicero. She is "Iuno" perhaps as an enemy--as Bacon called the Duchess
of Burgundy Henry VII.'s Iuno--or perhaps for a less decent reason, as
_coniux sororque_ of Publius.]

[Footnote 216: Pompey, who was proud of having taken Jerusalem.
_Traductor ad plebem_, said of the magistrate presiding at the _comitia_
for adoption.]

[Footnote 217: Cicero himself. Clodius may have called him this from his
biting repartees. Prof. Tyrrell, "Tear 'em."]

[Footnote 218: The nobility, whom Cicero has before attacked as idle and
caring for nothing but their fish-ponds (_piscinarii_, cp. p. 59).]

[Footnote 219: The _lex Ælia_ (about B.C. 150) was a law regulating the
powers of magistrates to dissolve _comitia_ on religious grounds, such
as bad omens, _servata de cœlo, etc._ Cicero (who could have had very
little belief in the augural science) regards them as safeguards of the
state, because as the Optimates generally secured the places in the
augural college, it gave them a hold on elections and legislation.
Bibulus tried in vain to use these powers to thwart Cæsar this year. The
_lex Cæcilia Didia_ (.B.C. 98) enforced the _trinundinatio_, or three
weeks' notice of elections and laws, and forbade the proposal of a _lex
satura_, _i.e._, a law containing a number of miscellaneous enactments.
Perhaps its violation refers to the _acta_ of Pompey in the East, which
he wanted to have confirmed _en bloc_. The senate had made difficulties:
but one of the fruits of the triumvirate was a measure for doing it. The
_lex Iunia et Licinia_ (B.C. 62) confirmed the _Cæcilia Didia_, and
secured that the people knew what the proposed laws were.]

[Footnote 220: As Pompey did in Asia, _e.g._, to Deiotarus of Galatia,
and about ten others. It is curious that Cicero speaks of the _pauci_
just as his opponent Cæsar and Augustus after him. Each side looks on
the other as a coterie (Cæsar, _B. C._ i. 22; Monum. Ancyr. i. § 1)]

[Footnote 221: Theophrastus, successor of Aristotle at the Lyceum,
Athens (p. 70).]

[Footnote 222: The purple-bordered toga of the augur. Vatinius did not
get the augurship. He had some disfiguring swelling or wen.]

[Footnote 223: Himself.]

[Footnote 224: ἄνδρ' ἀπαμύνεσθαι, ὅτε τις πρότερος χαλεπήνῃ (Hom. _Il._
xxiv. 369).]

[Footnote 225: Written in Greek, perhaps by the boy himself.]




XXXVI (A II, 12)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

TRES TABERNÆ, 12 APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

Are they going to deny that Publius has been made a plebeian? This is
indeed playing the king, and is utterly intolerable. Let Publius send
some men to witness and seal my affidavit: I will take an oath that my
friend Gnæus, the colleague of Balbus, told me at Antium that he had
been present as augur to take the auspices. Two delightful letters from
you delivered at the same time! For which I do not know what I am to pay
you by way of reward for good news. That I owe you for them I candidly
confess. But observe the coincidence. I had just made my way from Antium
on to the _via Appia_ at Three Taverns,[226] on the very day of the
Cerealia (18th April), when my friend Curio meets me on his way from
Rome. At the same place and the same moment comes a slave from you with
letters. The former asked me whether I hadn't heard the news? I said,
"No." "Publius," says he, "is a candidate for the tribuneship." "You
don't mean it?" "Yes, I do," says he, "and at daggers drawn with Cæsar.
His object is to rescind his acts." "What says Cæsar?" said I. "He
denies having proposed any _lex_ for his adoption." Then he poured forth
about his own hatred, and that of Memmius and Metellus Nepos. I embraced
the youth and said good-bye to him, hastening to your letters. A fig for
those who talk about a "living voice"! What a much clearer view I got of
what was going on from your letters than from his talk! About the
current rumours of the day, about the designs of Publius, about "Iuno's"
trumpet calls, about Athenio who leads his roughs, about his letter to
Gnæus, about the conversation of Theophanes and Memmius. Besides, how
eager you have made me to hear about the "fast" dinner party which you
mention! I am greedy in curiosity, yet I do not feel at all hurt at your
not writing me a description of the symposium: I would rather hear it by
word of mouth. As to your urging me to write something, my material
indeed is growing, as you say, but the whole is still in a state of
fermentation--"new wine in the autumn." When the liquor has settled down
and become clarified, I shall know better what to write. And even if you
cannot get it from me at once, you shall be the first to have it: only
for some time you must keep it to yourself. You are quite right to like
Dicæarchus; he is an excellent writer, and a much better citizen than
these rulers of ours who reverse his name.[227] I write this letter at
four o'clock in the afternoon of the Cerealia (12th April), immediately
after reading yours, but I shall despatch it, I think, to-morrow, by
anyone I may chance to meet on the road. Terentia is delighted with your
letter, _et Cicéron le philosophe salue Titus l'homme d'état_.

[Footnote 226: Where the road from Antium joins the Appia. Cicero seems
to be on his way to Formiæ, where he had intended to arrive on the 21st.
He must be going very leisurely.]

[Footnote 227: Δικαίαρχος and ἀδικαίαρχοι, a pun on a name not
reproducible in English: "just-rulers" and "unjust-rulers."]




XXXVII (A II, 10)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

APPII FORUM,[228] APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

Please admire my consistency. I am determined not to be at the games at
Antium: for it is somewhat of a solecism to wish to avoid all suspicion
of frivolity, and yet suddenly to be shewn up as travelling for mere
amusement, and that of a foolish kind. Wherefore I shall wait for you
till the 7th of May at Formiæ. So now let me know what day we shall see
you. From Appii Forum, ten o'clock. I sent another a short time ago from
Three Taverns.

[Footnote 228: On the _via Appia_. Cicero halts at Appii Forum and at
once despatches a short note, probably by some one he finds there going
to Rome, to announce a change of plan. He had meant to get back to
Antium on 6th May, because Tullia wanted to see the games. See Letter
XXXIV, p. 96.]




XXXVIII (A II, 11)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIÆ, APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

I tell you what it is: I feel myself a downright exile since arriving at
Formiæ. For at Antium there was never a day that I didn't know what was
going on at Rome better than those who were there. For your letters
used to shew me not only what was doing at Rome, but the actual
political situation also--and not only that, but also what was likely to
happen. Now, unless I snatch a bit of news from some passing traveller,
I can learn nothing at all. Wherefore, though I am expecting you in
person, yet pray give this boy, whom I have ordered to hurry back to me
at once, a bulky letter, crammed not only with all occurrences, but with
what you think about them; and be careful to let me know the day you are
going to leave Rome. I intend staying at Formiæ till the 6th of May. If
you don't come there by that day, I shall perhaps see you at Rome. For
why should I invite you to Arpinum?

    "A rugged soil, yet nurse of hardy sons:
    No dearer land can e'er my eyes behold."[229]

So much for this. Take care of your health.

[Footnote 229: Homer, _Odyss._ ix. 27.]




XXXIX (A II, 13)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIÆ, APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

What an abominable thing! No one gave you my letter written on the spot
at Three Taverns in answer to your delightful letters! But the fact is
that the packet into which I had put it arrived at my town house on the
same day as I wrote it, and has been brought back to me to Formiæ.
Accordingly, I have directed the letter meant for you to be taken back
again, to shew you how pleased I was with yours. So you say that the
talk has died out at Rome! I thought so: but, by Hercules, it hasn't
died out in the country, and it has come to this, that the very country
can't stand the despotism you have got at Rome. When you come to
"Læstrygonia of the distant gates"[230]--I mean Formiæ--what loud
murmurs! what angry souls! what unpopularity for our friend Magnus! His
surname is getting as much out of fashion as the "Dives" of Crassus.
Believe me, I have met no one here to take the present state of things
as quietly as I do. Wherefore, credit me, let us stick to philosophy. I
am ready to take my oath that there is nothing to beat it. If you have a
despatch to send to the Sicyonians,[231] make haste to Formiæ, whence I
think of going on the 6th of May.

[Footnote 230: τηλέπυλον Λαιστρυγονίην, whose king Lamus (_Odyss._ x.
81) was supposed to have founded Formiæ (Horace, _Od._ iii. 17).]

[Footnote 231: A despatch from senate or consuls. See Letter XXIV, p.
60.]




XL (A II, 14)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIÆ, APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47.]

How you rouse my curiosity as to what Bibulus says, as to your
conversation with "Iuno," and even as to your "fast" dinner party!
Therefore make haste to come, for my ears are thirsty for news. However,
there is nothing which I think is now more to be dreaded by me than that
our dear Sampsiceramus, finding himself belaboured by the tongues of
all, and seeing these proceedings easy to upset, should begin striking
out. For myself, I have so completely lost all nerve, that I prefer a
despotism, with the existing peace, to a state of war with the best
hopes in the world. As to literary composition, to which you frequently
urge me, it is impossible! My house is a basilica rather than a villa,
owing to the crowds of visitors from Formiæ. But (you'll say) do I
really compare the Æmilian tribe to the crowd in a basilica?[232] Well,
I say nothing about the common ruck--the rest of them don't bother me
after ten o'clock: but C. Arrius is my next door neighbour, or rather,
he almost lives in my house, and even declares that the reason for his
not going to Rome is that he may spend whole days with me here
philosophizing! And then, lo and behold, on my other side is Sebosus,
that friend of Catulus! Which way am I to turn? By heaven, I would start
at once for Arpinum, only that I see that the most convenient place to
await your visit is Formiæ: but only up to the 6th of May! For you see
with what bores my ears are pestered. What a splendid opportunity, with
such fellows in the house, if anyone wanted to buy my Formian
property![233] And in spite of all this am I to make good my words, "Let
us attempt something great, and requiring much thought and leisure"?
However, I _will_ do something for you, and not spare my labour.

[Footnote 232: _At comparem_ for _at quam partem_. _At_ has its usual
force of introducing a supposed objection. I can't, say you, compare the
Æmilian tribe, the Formiani, to a crowd in a court-house! They are not
so bad as that, not so wasteful of time! I take _basilica_ to mean the
saunterers in a basilica, as we might say "the park" for the company in
it, "the exchange" for the brokers in it. I feel certain that Prof.
Tyrrell is wrong in ascribing the words _sed--sunt_ to a quotation from
Atticus's letter. What is wanted is to remove the full stop after
_sunt_. The contrast Cicero is drawing is between the interruption to
literary work of a crowd of visitors and of one or two individuals
always turning up. The second is the worse--and here I think all workers
will agree with him: the crowd of visitors (_vulgus_) go at the regular
hour, but individuals come in at all hours.]

[Footnote 233: Because he would be inclined to sell it cheap in his
disgust.]




XLI (A II, 15)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIÆ, APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

As you say, things are as shifting (I see) in public affairs as in your
letter; still, that very variety of talk and opinion has a charm for me.
For I seem to be at Rome when I am reading your letter, and, as is the
regular thing in questions of such importance, to hear something first
on one side and then on the other. But what I can't make out is
this--what he can possibly hit upon to settle the land question without
encountering opposition. Again, as to Bibulus's firmness in putting off
the _comitia_, it only conveys the expression of his own views, without
really offering any remedy for the state of the Republic. Upon my word,
my only hope is in Publius! Let him become, let him become a tribune by
all means, if for no other reason, yet that you may be brought back from
Epirus! For I don't see how you can possibly afford to miss him,
especially if he shall elect to have a wrangle with me! But, seriously,
if anything of the sort occurs, you would, I am certain, hurry back. But
even supposing this not to be the case, yet whether he runs amuck or
helps to raise the state, I promise myself a fine spectacle, if only I
may enjoy it with you sitting by my side.[234] Just as I was writing
these words, enter Sebosus! I had scarcely got out a sigh when "Good
day," says Arrius. This is what you call going out of town! I shall
really be off to

    "My native mountains and my childhood's haunts."[235]

In fine, if I can't be alone I would rather be with downright
countryfolk than with such ultra-cockneys. However, I shall, since you
don't say anything for certain, wait for you up to the 5th of May.
Terentia is much pleased with the attention and care you have bestowed
on her controversy with Mulvius. She is not aware that you are
supporting the common cause of all holders of public land. Yet, after
all, _you_ do pay something to the _publicani_; she declines to pay even
that,[236] and, accordingly, she and Cicero--most conservative of
boys--send their kind regards.

[Footnote 234: The spectacle Cicero hopes for is Clodius's contests with
the triumvirs.]

[Footnote 235: To Arpinum (see last letter). The verse is not known, and
may be a quotation from his own poem on Marius. He often quotes
himself.]

[Footnote 236: This is not mentioned elsewhere. The explanation seems to
be that for the _ager publicus_ allotted under the Sempronian laws a
small rent had been exacted, which was abolished by a law of B.C. 111
(the name of the law being uncertain). But some _ager publicus_ still
paid rent, and the _publicanus_ Mulvius seems to have claimed it from
some land held by Terentia, perhaps on the ground that it was land (such
as the _ager Campanus_) not affected by the law of Gracchus, and
therefore not by the subsequent law abolishing rent.]





XLII (A II, 16)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIÆ, 29 APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

On the day before the Kalends of May, when I had dined and was just
going to sleep, the letter was delivered to me containing your news
about the Campanian land. You needn't ask: at first it gave me such a
shock that there was no more sleep for me, though that was the result of
thought rather than pain. On reflexion, however, the following ideas
occurred to me. In the first place, from what you had said in your
previous letter--"that you had heard from a friend of his[237] that a
proposal was going to be made which would satisfy everybody"--I had
feared some very sweeping measure, but I don't think this is anything of
the sort. In the next place, by way of consolation, I persuaded myself
that the hope of a distribution of land is now all centred on the
Campanian territory.[238] That land cannot support more than 5,000, so
as to give ten _iugera_ apiece:[239] the rest of the crowd of expectants
must necessarily be alienated from them. Besides, if there is anything
that more than another could inflame the feeling of the aristocrats, who
are, I notice, already irritated, it is this; and all the more that with
port-dues in Italy abolished,[240] and the Campanian land divided, what
home revenue is there except the five per cent. on manumissions? And
even that, I think, it will only take a single trumpery harangue,
cheered by our lackeys, to throw away also. What our friend Gnæus can
be thinking of I can't imagine--

    "For still he blows, and with no slender pipe,
    But furious blasts by no mouth-band restrained"--

to be induced to countenance such a measure as that. For hitherto he has
fenced with these questions: "he approved Cæsar's laws, but Cæsar must
be responsible for his proceedings in carrying them"; "he himself was
satisfied with the agrarian law "; "whether it could be vetoed by a
tribune or no was nothing to do with him"; "he thought the time had come
for the business of the Alexandrine king to be settled"; "it was no
business of his to inquire whether Bibulus had been watching the sky on
that occasion or no"; "as to the _publicani_, he had been willing to
oblige that order"; "what was going to happen if Bibulus came down to
the forum at that time he could not have guessed."[241] But now, my
Sampsiceramus, what will you say to this? That you have secured us a
revenue from the Antilibanus and removed that from the Campanian land?
Well, how do you mean to vindicate that? "I shall coerce you," says he,
"by means of Cæsar's army." You won't coerce me, by Hercules, by your
army so much as by the ingratitude of the so-called _boni_, who have
never made me any return, even in words, to say nothing of substantial
rewards. But if I had put out my strength against that coterie, I should
certainly have found some way of holding my own against them. As things
are, in view of the controversy between your friend Dicæarchus and my
friend Theophrastus--the former recommending the life of action, the
latter the life of contemplation--I think I have already obeyed both.
For as to Dicæarchus, I think I have satisfied his requirements; at
present my eyes are fixed on the school which not only allows of my
abstaining from business, but blames me for not having always done so.
Wherefore let me throw myself, my dear Titus, into those noble studies,
and let me at length return to what I ought never to have left.

As to what you say about Quintus's letter, when he wrote to me he was
also "in front a lion and behind a ----."[242] I don't know what to say
about it; for in the first lines of his letter he makes such a
lamentation over his continuance in his province, that no one could help
being affected: presently he calms down sufficiently to ask me to
correct and edit his Annals. However, I would wish you to have an eye to
what you mention, I mean the duty on goods transferred from port to
port. He says that by the advice of his council he has referred the
question to the senate. He evidently had not read my letter, in which
after having considered and investigated the matter, I had sent him a
written opinion that they were not payable.[243] If any Greeks have
already arrived at Rome from Asia on that business, please look into it
and, if you think it right, explain to them my opinion on the subject.
If, to save the good cause in the senate, I can retract, I will gratify
the _publicani_: but if not, to be plain with you, I prefer in this
matter the interests of all Asia and the merchants; for it affects the
latter also very seriously. I think it is a matter of great importance
to us. But you will settle it. Are the quæstors, pray, still hesitating
on the _cistophorus_ question?[244] If nothing better is to be had,
after trying everything in our power, I should be for not refusing even
the lowest offer. I shall see you at Arpinum and offer you country
entertainment, since you have despised this at the seaside.

[Footnote 237: Cæsar.]

[Footnote 238: The old territory of Capua and the Stellatian Plain had
been specially reserved from distribution under the laws of the Gracchi,
and this reservation had not been repealed in subsequent laws: _ad
subsidia reipublicæ vectigalem relictum_ (Suet. _Cæs._ 20; cp. Cic. 2
_Phil._ § 101).]

[Footnote 239: According to Suetonius 20,000 citizens had allotments on
the _ager publicus_ in Campania. But Dio says (xxxviii. 1) that the
Campanian land was exempted by the _lex Iulia_ also. Its settlement was
probably later, by colonies of Cæsar's veterans. A _iugerum_ is
five-eighths of an acre.]

[Footnote 240: See Letter XXIX, p. 82. They were abolished B.C. 60.]

[Footnote 241: This and the mention of Cæsar's "army" (a bodyguard) is
explained by Suet. _Cæs._ 20: "Having promulgated his agrarian law,
Cæsar expelled his colleague, Bibulus, by force of arms from the Forum
when trying to stop proceedings by announcing bad omens ... and finally
reduced him to such despair that for the rest of his year of office he
confined himself to his house and only announced his bad omens by means
of edicts." Bibulus appears to have been hustled by the mob also.]

[Footnote 242: πρόσθε λέων ὄπιθεν δὲ ----. Cicero leaves Atticus, as he
often does, to fill up the rest of the line, δράκων, μέσση δὲ χίμαιρα
(Hom. _Il._ vi. 181). He means, of course, that Quintus is
inconsistent.]

[Footnote 243: The question seems to be as to goods brought to a port
and paying duty, and then, not finding a sale, being transferred to
another port in the same province. The _publicani_ at the second port
demanded the payment of a duty again, which Cicero decides against
them.]

[Footnote 244: Schutz takes this to mean, "Are the quæstors now doubting
as to paying _even cistophori_?" _i.e._, are they, so far from paying in
Roman _denarii_, even hesitating to pay in Asiatic? But if so, what is
the _extremum_ which Cicero advises Quintus to accept? Prof. Tyrrell,
besides, points out that the quæstors could hardly refuse to pay
anything for provincial expenses. It is a question between _cistophori_
and _denarii_. See p. 92.]




XLIII (A II, 17)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIÆ, MAY


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

I quite agree with your letter. Sampsiceramus is getting up a
disturbance. We have everything to fear. He is preparing a despotism and
no mistake about it. For what else is the meaning of that sudden
marriage union,[245] the Campanian land affair, the lavish expenditure
of money? If these measures were final, even then the mischief had been
very great; but the nature of the case makes finality impossible. For
how could these measures possibly give them any pleasure in themselves?
They would never have gone so far as this unless they had been paving
the way for other fatal steps. Immortal Gods!--But, as you say, at
Arpinum about the 10th of May we will not weep over these questions,
lest the hard work and midnight oil I have spent over my studies shall
turn out to have been wasted, but discuss them together calmly. For I am
not so much consoled by a sanguine disposition as by philosophic
"indifference,"[246] which I call to my aid in nothing so much as in our
civil and political business. Nay, more, whatever vanity or sneaking
love of reputation there is lurking in me--for it is well to know one's
faults--is tickled by a certain pleasurable feeling. For it used to
sting me to the heart to think that centuries hence the services of
Sampsiceramus to the state would loom larger than my own. That anxiety,
at least, is now put to rest. For he is so utterly fallen that, in
comparison with him, Curius might seem to be standing erect after his
fall.[247] But all this when we meet. Yet, as far as I can see, you will
be at Rome when I come. I shall not be at all sorry for that, if you
can conveniently manage it. But if you come to see me, as you say in
your letter, I wish you would fish out of Theophanes how
"Arabarches"[248] is disposed to me. You will, of course, inquire with
your usual zeal, and bring me the result to serve as a kind of
suggestion for the line of conduct I am to adopt. From his conversation
we shall be able to get an inkling of the whole situation.

[Footnote 245: The marriage of Pompey with Cæsar's daughter Iulia.]

[Footnote 246: ἀδιαφορία, a word taken from the Stoies, _huic_
[_Zenoni_] _summum bonum est in his rebus neutram in partem moveri, quæ
ἀδιαφορία ab ipso dicitur_ (_Acad._ ii. § 130).]

[Footnote 247: C. Curius, one of the Catiline set, who had been
ignominiously expelled from the senate.]

[Footnote 248: Another nickname of Pompey, from the title of the head of
the Thebais in Egypt. Like Sampsiceramus and the others, it is meant as
a scornful allusion to Pompey's achievements in the East, and perhaps
his known wish to have the direction of affairs in Egypt.]




XLIV (A II, 18)

TO ATTICUS (ON HIS WAY TO EPIRUS)

ROME


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

I have received several letters from you, which shewed me with what
eagerness and anxiety you desired to know the news. We are bound hard
and fast on every side, and are no longer making any difficulty as to
being slaves, but fearing death and exile as though greater evils,
though they are in fact much smaller ones. Well, this is the
position--one unanimously groaned over, but not relieved by a word from
anyone. The object, I surmise, of the men in power is to leave nothing
for anyone to lavish. The only man who opens his mouth and openly
disapproves is the young Curio. He is loudly cheered, and greeted in the
forum in the most complimentary manner, and many other tokens of
goodwill are bestowed on him by the loyalists; while Fufius[249] is
pursued with shouts, jeers, and hisses. From such circumstances it is
not hope but indignation that is increased, for you see the citizens
allowed to express their sentiments, but debarred from carrying them out
with any vigour. And to omit details, the upshot is that there is now no
hope, I don't say of private persons, but even of the magistrates being
ever free again. Nevertheless, in spite of this policy of repression,
conversation, at least in society and at dinner tables, is freer than it
was. Indignation is beginning to get the better of fear, though that
does not prevent a universal feeling of despair. For this Campanian
law[250] contains a clause imposing an oath to be taken by candidates in
public meeting, that they will not suggest any tenure of public land
other than that provided in the Julian laws. All the others take the
oath without hesitation: Laterensis[251] is considered to have shewn
extraordinary virtue in retiring from his canvass for the tribuneship to
avoid the oath. But I don't care to write any more about politics. I am
dissatisfied with myself, and cannot write without the greatest pain. I
hold my own position with some dignity, considering the general
repression, but considering my achievements in the past, with less
courage than I should like. I am invited by Cæsar in a very gentlemanly
manner to accept a legation, to act as _legatus_ to himself, and even an
"open votive legation" is offered me. But the latter does not give
sufficient security, since it depends too much on the scrupulousness of
Pulchellus[252] and removes me just when my brother is returning;[253]
the former offers better security and does not prevent my returning when
I please. I am retaining the latter, but do not think I shall use it.
However, nobody knows about it. I don't like running away; I am itching
to fight. There is great warmth of feeling for me. But I don't say
anything positive: you will please not to mention it. I am, in fact,
very anxious about the manumission of Statius[254] and some other
things, but I have become hardened by this time. I could wish, or rather
ardently desire, that you were here: then I should not want advice or
consolation. But anyhow, be ready to fly hither directly I call for you.

[Footnote 249: See Letter XIX, p. 35.]

[Footnote 250: _I.e._, Cæsar's _agrarian law_, by which some of the
Campanian _ager publicus_ was to be divided.]

[Footnote 251: M. Iuventius Laterensis. See Letter L, p. 123.]

[Footnote 252: Pulchellus, _i.e._, P. Clodius Pulcher. The diminutive is
used to express contempt. Cicero, since his return to Rome, is beginning
to realize his danger.]

[Footnote 253: A _libera legatio_ was really a colourable method of a
senator travelling with the right of exacting certain payments for his
expenses from the Italian or provincial towns. Sometimes it was simply a
_legatio libera_, a sinecure without any pretence of purpose, sometimes
it was _voti causa_, enabling a man to fulfil some vow he was supposed
to have made. It was naturally open to much abuse, and Cicero as consul
had passed a law for limiting it in time. Clodius would become tribune
on 10 December, and this _libera legatio_ would protect Cicero as long
as it lasted, but it would not, he thinks, last long enough to outstay
the tribuneship: if he went as _legatus_ to Cæsar in Gaul, he would be
safe, and might choose his own time for resigning and returning to
Rome.]

[Footnote 254: Statius, a slave of Quintus, was unpopular in the
province. See p. 125.]




XLV (A II, 19)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME (JULY)


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

I have many causes for anxiety, both from the disturbed state of
politics and from the personal dangers with which I am threatened. They
are very numerous; but nothing gives me more annoyance than the
manumission of Statius: "To think that he should have no reverence for
my authority! But of authority I say nothing--that he should have no
fear of a quarrel with me, to put it mildly!"[255] But what I am to do I
don't know, nor indeed is there so much in the affair as you would think
from the talk about it. For myself, I am positively incapable of being
angry with those I love deeply. I only feel vexed, and that to a
surprising degree. Other vexations are on really important matters. The
threats of Clodius and the conflicts before me touch me only slightly.
For I think I can either confront them with perfect dignity or decline
them without any embarrassment. You will say, perhaps, "Enough of
dignity, like the proverb, 'Enough of the oak':[256] an you love me,
take thought for safety!" Ah, dear me, dear me, why are you not here?
Nothing, certainly, could have escaped you. I, perhaps, am somewhat
blinded, and too much affected by my high ideal. I assure you there
never was anything so scandalous, so shameful, so offensive to all
sorts, conditions and ages of men alike, as the present state of
affairs. It is more so, by Hercules, than I could have wished, but not
more than I had expected. Your _populares_ have now taught even usually
quiet men to hiss. Bibulus is praised to the skies: I don't know why,
but he has the same sort of applause as his

    "Who by delays restored alone our State."[257]

Pompey--the man I loved--has, to my infinite sorrow, ruined his own
reputation. They hold no one by affection, and I fear they will be
forced to use terror. I, however, refrain from hostility to their cause
owing to my friendship for him, and yet I cannot approve, lest I should
stultify my own past. The feeling of the people was shewn as clearly as
possible in the theatre and at the shows. For at the gladiators both
master and supporters were overwhelmed with hisses. At the games of
Apollo the actor Diphilus made a pert allusion to Pompey, in the words:

    "By our misfortunes thou art--Great."

He was encored countless times. When he delivered the line,

    "The time will come when thou wilt deeply mourn
    That self-same valour,"

the whole theatre broke out into applause, and so on with the rest. For
the verses do seem exactly as though they were written by some enemy of
Pompey's to hit the time. "If neither laws nor customs can control,"
etc., caused great sensation and loud shouts. Cæsar having entered as
the applause died away, he was followed by the younger Curio. The latter
received an ovation such as used to be given to Pompey when the
constitution was still intact. Cæsar was much annoyed. A despatch is
said to have been sent flying off to Pompey at Capua.[258] _They_ are
offended with the equites, who rose to their feet and cheered Curio, and
are at war with everybody. They are threatening the Roscian law,[259]
and even the corn law.[260] There has been a great hubbub altogether.
For my part, I should have preferred their doings being silently
ignored; but that, I fear, won't be allowed. Men are indignant at what
nevertheless must, it seems, be put up with. The whole people have
indeed now one voice, but its strength depends rather on exasperation
than anything to back it up. Farthermore, our Publius is threatening me:
he is hostile, and a storm is hanging over my head which should bring
you post haste to town. I believe that I am still firmly supported by
the same phalanx of all loyal or even tolerably loyal men which
supported me when consul. Pompey displays no common affection for me. He
also asserts that Clodius is not going to say a word about me. In which
he is not deceiving me, but is himself deceived. Cosconius having died,
I am invited to fill his place.[261] That would indeed be a case of
"invited to a dead man's place." I should have been beneath contempt in
the eyes of the world, and nothing could be conceived less likely to
secure that very "personal safety" of which you speak. For those
commissioners are disliked by the loyalists, and so I should have
retained my own unpopularity with the disloyal, with the addition of
that attaching to others. Cæsar wishes me to accept a legateship under
him. This is a more honourable method of avoiding the danger. But I
don't wish to avoid it. What do I want, then? Why, I prefer fighting.
However, I have not made up my mind. Again I say, Oh that you were here!
However, if it is absolutely necessary I will summon you. What else is
there to say? What else? This, I think: I am certain that all is lost.
For why mince matters any longer? But I write this in haste, and, by
Hercules, in rather a nervous state. On some future occasion I will
either write to you at full length, if I find a very trustworthy person
to whom to give a letter, or if I write darkly you will understand all
the same. In these letters I will be Lælius, you Furius; the rest shall
be in riddles. Here I cultivate Cæcilius,[262] and pay him assiduous
attention. I hear Bibulus's edicts have been sent to you. Our friend
Pompey is hot with indignation and wrath at them.[263]

[Footnote 255: Terence, _Phorm._ 232.]

[Footnote 256: ἅλις δρυός, _i.e._, feeding on acorns is a thing of the
past, it is out of date, like the golden age when they fed on wild fruit
_et quæ deciderant patula Iovis arbore glandes_ (Ovid, _Met._ i. 106);
and so is dignity, it is a question of _safety_ now.]

[Footnote 257: Ennius on Q. Fabius Maximus Cunctator.]

[Footnote 258: Pompey was in Campania acting as one of the twenty land
commissioners.]

[Footnote 259: The _lex Roscia theatralis_ (B.C. 67), which gave
fourteen rows of seats to the equites.]

[Footnote 260: That is, the law for distribution of corn among poorer
citizens. There were many such. Perhaps the most recent was the _lex
Cassia Terentia_ (B.C. 73). Cæsar, who, when in later years he became
supreme, restricted this privilege, may have threatened to do so now.]

[Footnote 261: _I.e._, as one of the twenty land commissioners. The next
clause seems to refer to some proverbial expression, "to be invited to a
place at Pluto's table," or some such sentence. Cicero means that his
acceptance would be equivalent to political extinction, either from the
obscurity of Cosconius or the inconsistency of the proceeding.]

[Footnote 262: The uncle of Atticus. See p. 15.]

[Footnote 263: After the scene of violence in which Bibulus, on
attempting to prevent the agrarian law being passed, was driven from the
rostra, with his lictors' fasces broken, he shut himself up in his house
and published edicts declaring Cæsar's acts invalid, and denouncing the
conduct of Pompey (Suet. _Cæs._ 20; Dio, xxxviii. 6).]




XLVI (A II, 20)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME (JULY)


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

I have done everything I could for Anicatus, as I understood was your
wish. Numestius, in accordance with your earnestly expressed letter, I
have adopted as a friend. Cæcilius I look after diligently in all ways
possible. Varro[264] does all I could expect for me. Pompey loves me and
regards me as a dear friend. "Do you believe that?" you will say. I do:
he quite convinces me. But seeing that men of the world in all
histories, precepts, and even verses, are for ever bidding one be on
one's guard and forbidding belief, I carry out the former--"to be on my
guard"--the latter--"to disbelieve"[265]--I cannot carry out. Clodius is
still threatening me with danger. Pompey asserts that there is no
danger. He swears it. He even adds that he will himself be murdered by
him sooner than I injured. The negotiation is going on. As soon as
anything is settled I will write you word. If I have to fight, I will
summon you to share in the work. If I am let alone, I won't rout you out
of your "Amaltheia." About politics I will write briefly: for I am now
afraid lest the very paper should betray me. Accordingly, in future, if
I have anything more to write to you, I shall clothe it in covert
language. For the present the state is dying of a novel disorder; for
although everybody disapproves of what has been done, complains, and is
indignant about it, and though there is absolutely no difference of
opinion on the subject, and people now speak openly and groan aloud, yet
no remedy is applied: for we do not think resistance possible without a
general slaughter, nor see what the end of concession is to be except
ruin. Bibulus is exalted to the skies as far as admiration and affection
go. His edicts and speeches are copied out and read. He has reached the
summit of glory in a novel way. There is now nothing so popular as the
dislike of the popular party. I have my fears as to how this will end.
But if I ever see my way clearly in anything, I will write to you more
explicitly. For yourself, if you love me as much as I am sure you do,
take care to be ready to come in all haste as soon as I call for you.
But I do my best, and shall do so, to make it unnecessary. I said I
would call you Furius in my letters, but it is not necessary to change
your name. I'll call myself Lælius and you Atticus, but I will use
neither my own handwriting nor seal, if the letter happens to be such as
I should not wish to fall into the hands of a stranger. Diodotus is
dead; he has left me perhaps 1,000 sestertia. Bibulus has postponed the
elections to the 18th of October, in an edict expressed in the vein of
Archilochus.[266] I have received the books from Vibius: he is a
miserable poet,[267] but yet he is not without some knowledge nor wholly
useless. I am going to copy the book out and send it back.

[Footnote 264: M. Terentius Varro, "the most learned of the Romans," and
author of very large numbers of books. He was afterwards one of Pompey's
_legati_ in Spain. He survived most of the men of the revolutionary
era.]

[Footnote 265: See Letter XXIV, p. 56.]

[Footnote 266: _I.e._, in biting language. _Archilochum proprio rabies
armavit iambo_ (Hor. _A. P._ 79).]

[Footnote 267: The _Cosmographia_ of Alexander of Ephesus. See Letter
XLVIII, p. 120.]




XLVII (A II, 21)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME (JULY)


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

Why should I write to you on the Republic in detail? It is utterly
ruined; and is, so far, in a worse state than when you left it, that
then a despotism seemed to be oppressing it which was popular with the
multitude, and though offensive to the loyalists, yet short of actual
mischief; but now all on a sudden they have become so universally hated,
that I tremble to think what will be the end of it. For we have had
experience of those men's resentment and violence, who have ruined
everything in their anger against Cato; yet they were employing such
slow poisons, that it seemed as though our end might be painless. Now,
however, I fear they have been exasperated by the hisses of the crowd,
the talk of the respectable classes, and the murmurs of Italy. For my
part, I was in hopes, as I often used actually to say to you, that the
wheel of the state chariot had made its revolution with scarcely any
noise and leaving scarcely any visible rut; and it would have been so,
if people could only have waited till the storm had blown over. But
after sighing in secret for a long time they all began, first to groan,
and at last to talk and shout. Accordingly, that friend of ours,
unaccustomed to being unpopular, always used to an atmosphere of praise,
and revelling in glory, now disfigured in body and broken in spirit,
does not know which way to turn; sees that to go on is dangerous, to
return a betrayal of vacillation; has the loyalists his enemies, the
disloyal themselves not his friends. Yet see how soft-hearted I am. I
could not refrain from tears when, on the 25th of July, I saw him making
a speech on the edicts of Bibulus. The man who in old times had been
used to bear himself in that place with the utmost confidence and
dignity, surrounded by the warmest affection of the people, amidst
universal favour--how humble, how cast down he was then! How ill-content
with himself, to say nothing of how unpleasing to his audience! Oh,
what a spectacle! No one could have liked it but Crassus--no one else in
the world! Not I, for considering his headlong descent from the stars,
he seemed to me to have lost his footing rather than to have been
deliberately following a path; and, as Apelles, if he had seen his
Venus, or Protogenes his Ialysus daubed with mud, would, I presume, have
felt great sorrow, so neither could I behold without great sorrow a man,
portrayed and embellished with all the colours of my art, suddenly
disfigured. Although no one thought, in view of the Clodius business,
that I was bound to be his friend, yet so great was my affection for
him, that no amount of injury was capable of making it run dry. The
result is that those Archilochian edicts of Bibulus against him are so
popular, that one can't get past the place where they are put up for the
crowd of readers, and so deeply annoying to himself that he is pining
with vexation. To me, by Hercules, they are distressing, both because
they give excessive pain to a man whom I have always loved, and because
I fear lest one so impulsive and so quick to strike, and so unaccustomed
to personal abuse, may, in his passionate resentment, obey the dictates
of indignation and anger. I don't know what is to be the end of Bibulus.
As things stand at present he is enjoying a wonderful reputation. For on
his having postponed the _comitia_ to October, as that is a measure
which is always against the popular feeling, Cæsar had imagined that the
assembly could be induced by a speech of his to go to Bibulus's house;
but after a long harangue full of seditious suggestions, he failed to
extract a word from anyone. In short, they feel that they do not possess
the cordial goodwill of any section: all the more must we fear some act
of violence. Clodius is hostile to us. Pompey persists in asserting that
he will do nothing against me. It is risky for me to believe that, and I
am preparing myself to meet his attack. I hope to have the warmest
feelings of all orders on my side. I have personally a longing for you,
and circumstances also demand your presence at that time. I shall feel
it a very great addition to my policy, to my courage, and, in a word, to
my safety, if I see you in time. Varro does all I can expect. Pompey
talks like an angel. I have hopes that I shall come off with flying
colours, or at any rate without being molested. Be sure and tell me how
you are, how you are amusing yourself, and what settlement you have come
to with the Sicyonians.




XLVIII (A II, 22)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME (JULY)


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

How I wished you had stayed at Rome! I am sure you would have stayed if
you had foreseen what was going to happen. For then we should have had
no difficulty in keeping "Pulchellus" in order, or at least should have
known what he was going to do. As things are, he darts about, talks like
a madman, never sticks to anything: threatens now this one and now that:
seems likely, in reality, to do whatever turns up. When he sees how
unpopular the present state of things is, he seems to intend an attack
upon the authors of it; but when he again recalls their power and
armies, he transfers his hostility to the loyalists. Me personally he
threatens at one time with violence, at another with impeachment. With
him Pompey has remonstrated, and, as he tells me himself--for I have no
other evidence--has urgently remonstrated, pointing out that he would
himself lie under the extreme imputation of perfidy and unprincipled
conduct, if any danger to me were created by the man whom he had himself
armed by acquiescing in his becoming a plebeian: that both he and
Appius[268] had pledged themselves in regard to me: if Clodius did not
respect that, he should shew such annoyance that everyone would
understand that he valued my friendship above everything. Having said
this and much else to the same effect, he told me that the fellow at
first argued against it at great length and for a long time, but
eventually gave way and declared that he would do nothing against his
wishes. Nevertheless, he has not ceased since then speaking of me with
the greatest bitterness. But even if he had not done so, I should have
felt no confidence in him, but should have been making every
preparation, as in fact I am doing. As it is, I am so conducting myself
that every day the affections of people towards me and the strength of
my position are enhanced. I don't touch politics in any shape or way; I
employ myself with the greatest assiduity in pleading causes and in my
regular forensic business.[269] And this I feel is extremely gratifying,
not only to those who enjoy my services, but also to the people
generally. My house is crowded; I am met by processions; the memory of
my consulship is renewed; men's feelings are clearly shewn: my hopes are
so raised, that the struggle hanging over me seems at times one from
which I need not shrink. Now is the time that I need your advice, your
love and fidelity. Wherefore come post haste! Everything will be easy
for me if I have you. I can carry on many negotiations through our
friend Varro, which will be on firmer ground with you to back them up; a
great deal can be elicited from Publius himself, and be brought to my
knowledge, which cannot possibly be kept concealed from you; a great
deal also--but it is absurd to enumerate particulars, when I want you
for everything. I would like you to be convinced of this above all, that
everything will be simplified for me if I see you: but it all turns on
this coming to pass _before_ he enters on his office. I think that if
you are here while Crassus is egging on Pompey--as you can get out of
Clodius himself, by the agency of "Iuno,"[270] how far they are acting
in good faith--we shall escape molestation, or at any rate not be left
under a delusion. You don't stand in need of entreaties or urgency from
me. You understand what my wish is, and what the hour and the importance
of the business demand. As to politics, I can tell you nothing except
that everybody entertains the greatest detestation for those who are
masters of everything. There is, however, no hope of a change. But, as
you easily understand, Pompey himself is discontented and extremely
dissatisfied with himself. I don't see clearly what issue to expect: but
certainly such a state of affairs seems likely to lead to an outbreak of
some sort. Alexander's books[271]--a careless writer and a poor poet,
and yet not without some useful information--I have sent back to you. I
have had pleasure in admitting Numerius Numestius to my friendship, and
I find him a man of character and good sense, worthy of your
recommendation.

[Footnote 268: Appius Claudius Pulcher, elder brother of P. Clodius.]

[Footnote 269: The speeches known to us of this year are those for his
colleague, C. Antonius, A. Thermus, and L. Flaccus. The two former are
lost, but we know from his own account that he had not avoided touching
on politics in the speech for Antonius, but had so offended Pompey and
Cæsar that they at once carried out the adoption of Clodius (_de Domo_,
§ 41).]

[Footnote 270: Βοῶπις, _i.e._, Clodia. See Letters XXXV, XL. _Crasso
urgente_ is difficult. Cicero must mean that while Crassus (whom he
always regards as hostile to himself) is influencing Pompey, he cannot
trust what Pompey says, and must look for real information elsewhere.]

[Footnote 271: Alexander of Ephesus. See Letter XLVI, p. 115.]




XLIX (A II, 23)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME (JULY OR AUGUST)


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

I don't think you have ever before read a letter of mine not written by
my own hand. You will be able to gather from that how I am distracted
with business. For as I had not a moment to spare and was obliged to
take a walk in order to refresh my poor voice, I have dictated this
while walking. The first thing, then, which I wish you to know is that
our friend "Sampsiceramus" is exceedingly dissatisfied with his
position, and desires to be restored to the place from which he has
fallen; that he confides his annoyance to me, and is without disguise
seeking for a remedy--which I don't think can be found. The second thing
is that all on that side, whether promoters or mere hangers-on, are
falling out of fashion, though no one opposes them: there never was a
greater unanimity of feeling or talk everywhere. For myself (for I am
sure you wish to know it) I take part in no political deliberations, and
have devoted myself entirely to my forensic business and work. Thereby,
as may easily be understood, I have frequent occasion to refer to my
past achievements and to express my regret. But the brother of our
"Iuno" is giving utterance to all kinds of alarming threats, and, while
disclaiming them to "Sampsiceramus," makes an open avowal and parade of
them to others. Wherefore, loving me as much as I know you do, if you
are asleep, wake up; if you are standing, start walking; if you are
walking, set off running; if you are running, take wings and fly. You
can scarcely believe how much I confide in your advice and wisdom, and
above all in your affection and fidelity. The importance of the
interests involved perhaps demands a long disquisition, but the close
union of our hearts is contented with brevity. It is of very great
importance to me that, if you can't be at Rome at the elections, you
should at least be here after his election is declared.[272] Take care
of your health.

[Footnote 272: _I.e._, between the time of his election and of his
entering on his office. The tribunes entered on their office on the 10th
of December; the elections usually took place in July, but were
postponed till October this year by Bibulus. See Letter XLVI, p. 115.]




L (A II, 24)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME (JULY OR AUGUST)


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

In the letter which I delivered to Numestius I begged you to come back,
in the most urgent and vehement terms it was possible to use. To the
speed which I then enjoined even add something if you possibly can. And
yet do not be agitated, for I know you well, and am not ignorant of "how
love is all compact of thought and fear." But the matter, I hope, is
going to be less formidable in the end than it was at its beginning.
That fellow Vettius, our old informer, promised Cæsar, as far as I can
make out, that he would secure young Curio being brought under some
suspicion of guilt. Accordingly, he wormed his way into intimacy with
the young man, and having, as is proved, often met him, at last went the
length of telling him that he had resolved by the help of his slaves to
make an attack upon Pompey and assassinate him. Curio reported this to
his father, the latter to Pompey. The matter was reported to the senate.
Vettius, on being brought in, at first denied that he had ever had any
appointment with Curio. However, he did not long stick to that, but
immediately claimed the protection of the state as giving information.
There was a shout of "no" to this;[273] but he went on to state that
there had been a confederacy of young men under the leadership of Curio,
to which Paullus had at first belonged, and Q. Cæpio (I mean
Brutus[274]) and Lentulus, son of the flamen, with the privity of his
father: that afterwards C. Septimius, secretary to Bibulus, had brought
him a dagger from Bibulus. That made the whole thing ridiculous, as
though Vettius would have been at a loss for a dagger unless the consul
had given him one; and it was all the more scouted because on the 5th of
May Bibulus had told Pompey to be on his guard against plots; on which
occasion Pompey had thanked him. Young Curio, being brought into the
senate, spoke in answer to the allegations of Vettius; and on this
particular occasion the strongest thing against Vettius was his having
said that the plan of the young men was to attack Pompey in the forum,
with the help of Gabinius's gladiators,[275] and that in this the
ring-leader was Paullus, who was ascertained to have been in Macedonia
at that time. A decree of the senate is passed that "Vettius, having
confessed to having 'worn a dagger,'[276] should be cast into prison;
that anyone releasing him would be guilty of treason to the state." The
opinion generally held is that the whole affair had been arranged.
Vettius was to be caught in the forum with a dagger, and his slaves also
with weapons, and he was then to offer to lay an information; and this
would have been carried out, had not the Curios given Pompey previous
information. Presently the decree of the senate was read in public
assembly. Next day, however, Cæsar--the man who formerly as prætor had
bidden Q. Catulus[277] speak on the ground below--now brought Vettius on
to the rostra, and placed him on an elevation to which Bibulus, though
consul, was prevented from aspiring. Here that fellow said exactly what
he chose about public affairs, and, having come there primed and
instructed, first struck Cæpio's name out of his speech, though he had
named him most emphatically in the senate, so that it was easy to see
that a night and a nocturnal intercession[278] had intervened: next he
named certain men on whom he had not cast even the slightest suspicion
in the senate: L. Lucullus, by whom he said that C. Fannius was usually
sent to him--the man who on a former occasion had backed a prosecution
of Clodius; L. Domitius, whose house had been agreed on as the
headquarters of the conspirators. Me he did not _name_, but he said that
"an eloquent consular, who lived near the consul, had said to him that
there was need of some Servilius Ahala or Brutus being found."[279] He
added at the very end, on being recalled by Vatinius after the assembly
had been dismissed, that he had been told by Curio that my son-in-law
Piso was privy to these proceedings, as M. Laterensis also. At present
Vettius is on trial for "violence" before Crassus Dives,[280] and when
condemned he intends to claim the impunity of an informer; and if he
obtains that, there seem likely to be some prosecutions. I don't despise
the danger, for I never despise any danger, but neither do I much fear
it. People indeed shew very great affection for me, but I am quite tired
of life: such a scene of misery is it all. It was only the other day
that we were fearing a massacre, which the speech of that gallant old
man Q. Considius prevented:[281] now this one, which we might have
feared any day, has suddenly turned up. In short, nothing can be more
unfortunate than I, or more fortunate than Catulus, both in the
splendour of his life and in the time of his death. However, in the
midst of these miseries I keep my spirit erect and undismayed, and
maintain my position in a most dignified manner and with great caution.
Pompey bids me have no anxiety about Clodius, and shews the most cordial
goodwill to me in everything he says. I desire to have you to suggest my
policy, to be the partner in my anxieties, and to share my every
thought. Therefore I have commissioned Numestius to urge you, and I now
entreat you with the same or, if possible, greater earnestness, to
literally fly to us. I shall breathe again when I once see you.

[Footnote 273: _Reclamatum est._ The MSS. have _haud reclamatum est_,
"it was not refused."]

[Footnote 274: Marcus Iunius Brutus, the future assassin of Cæsar,
adopted by his uncle, Q. Servilius Cæpio. The father of Lentulus was
_flamen Martialis_ (L. Lentulus), _in Vat._ § 25. Paullus is L. Æmilius
Paullus, consul B.C. 50.]

[Footnote 275: _Cum gladiatoribus._ Others omit _cum_, in which case the
meaning will be "at the gladiatorial shows of Gabinius." As some _date_
is wanted, this is probably right.]

[Footnote 276: Under the _lex de sicariis_ of Sulla carrying a weapon
with felonious intent was a capital crime, for which a man was tried
_inter sicarios_. See 2 _Phil._ §§ 8, 74.]

[Footnote 277: Q. Lutatius Catulus, who died in the previous year, B.C.
60, had been a keen opponent of Cæsar, who tried to deprive him of the
honour of dedicating the restored Capitoline temple, and beat him in the
election of Pontifex Maximus.]

[Footnote 278: Servilia, mother of Brutus, was reported to be Cæsar's
mistress. As Cicero is insinuating that the whole affair was got up by
Cæsar to irritate Pompey with the _boni_, this allusion will be
understood.]

[Footnote 279: If Vettius did say this, he at any rate successfully
imitated Cicero's manner. These names are always in his mouth. See 2
_Phil._ §§ 26, 87; _pro Mil._. §§ 8, 82, etc. For a farther discussion
of Vettius, see Appendix B.]

[Footnote 280: Probably a prætor, not the triumvir.]

[Footnote 281: Q. Considius Gallus, who, according to Plutarch (_Cæs._
13), said in the senate that the attendance of senators was small
because they feared a massacre. "What made you come, then?" said Cæsar.
"My age," he replied; "I have little left to lose."]




LI (A II, 25)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME (JULY OR AUGUST)


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

When I have praised any one of your friends to you I should like you
tell him that I have done so. For instance, you know I lately wrote to
you about Varro's kindness to me, and that you wrote me back word that
the circumstance gave you the greatest delight. But I should have
preferred your writing to him and saying that he was doing all I could
expect--not because he was, but in order that he might do so. For he is
a man of astonishing whims, as you know, "tortuous and no
wise----."[282] But I stick to the rule "Follies of those in power,"
etc.[283] But, by Hercules, that other friend of yours, Hortalus--with
what a liberal hand, with what candour, and in what ornate language has
he praised me to the skies, when speaking of the prætorship of Flaccus
and that incident of the Allobroges.[284] I assure you nothing could
have been more affectionate, complimentary, or more lavishly expressed.
I very much wish that you would write and tell him that I sent you word
of it. Yet why write? I think you are on your way and are all but here.
For I have urged you so strongly to come in my previous letters. I am
expecting you with great impatience, longing for you very much; nor do I
call for you more than circumstances themselves and the state of the
times. Nothing can be more desperate than the position of politics,
nothing more unpopular than the authors of it, I--as I think, hope, and
imagine--am safe behind a rampart of goodwill of the strongest kind.
Wherefore fly to me: you will either relieve me from all annoyance or
will share it. My letter is all the shorter because, as I hope, I shall
be able in a very short time to talk over what I want to say face to
face. Take care of your health.

[Footnote 282:

    ἑλικτὰ κοὐδὲν ὑγιὲς ἀλλὰ πᾶν πέριξ φρονοῦντες.

Eur. _Androm._ 448.

    "With tortuous thoughts, naught honest, winding all."
]

[Footnote 283:

    τὰς τῶν κρατούντων ἀμαθίας φέρειν χρεών.

Eur. _Phœn._ 393.

    "Follies of those in power we needs must bear."
]

[Footnote 284: L. Valerius Flaccus, as prætor in B.C. 63, had assisted
Cicero in the Catiline conspiracy. He was now being tried for
embezzlement in Asia, and was defended by the famous Q. Hortensius
(Hortalus) and Cicero--the only extant speech of this year.]




LII (Q FR I, 2)

TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN ASIA)

ROME, 26 OCTOBER


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

Statius arrived at my house on the 25th October. His arrival gave me
uneasiness, because you said in your letter that you would be plundered
by your household in his absence. However, I thought it a very happy
circumstance that he anticipated the expectation of his arrival, and the
company that would have assembled to meet him, if he had left the
province with you, and had not appeared before. For people have
exhausted their remarks, and many observations have been made and done
with of the "Nay, but I looked for a mighty man"[285] kind, which I am
glad to have all over before you come. But as for the motive for your
sending him--that he might clear himself with me--that was not at all
necessary. For, to begin with, I had never suspected him, nor in what I
wrote to you about him was I expressing my own judgment; but since the
interest and safety of all of us who take part in public business
depends, not on truth alone, but on report also, I wrote you word of
what people were saying, not what I thought myself. How prevalent and
how formidable that talk was Statius ascertained himself on his arrival.
For he was present when certain persons at my house gave vent to some
complaints on that very subject, and had the opportunity of perceiving
that the observations of the malevolent were being directed at himself
especially. But it used to annoy me most when I was told that he had
greater influence with you, than your sober time of life and the wisdom
of a governor required. How many people, do you suppose, have solicited
me to give them a letter of introduction to Statius? How often, do you
suppose, has he himself, while talking without reserve to me, made such
observations as, "I never approved of that," "I told him so," "I tried
to persuade him," "I warned him not to"? And even if these things shew
the highest fidelity, as I believe they do, since that is your judgment,
yet the mere appearance of a freedman or slave enjoying such influence
cannot but lower your dignity: and the long and short of it is--for I am
in duty bound not to say anything without good grounds, nor to keep back
anything from motives of policy--that Statius has supplied all the
material for the gossip of those who wished to decry you; that formerly
all that could be made out was that certain persons were angry at your
strictness; but that after his manumission the angry had something to
talk about.

Now I will answer the letters delivered to me by L. Cæsius, whom, as I
see you wish it, I will serve in every way I can. One of them is about
Zeuxis of Blaundus, whom you say was warmly recommended to you by me
though a most notorious matricide. In this matter, and on this subject
generally, please listen to a short statement, lest you should by chance
be surprised at my having become so conciliatory towards Greeks. Seeing,
as I did, that the complaints of Greeks, because they have a genius for
deceit, were allowed an excessive weight, whenever I was told of any of
them making complaint of you, I appeased them by every means in my
power. First, I pacified the Dionysopolitans, who were very bitter:
whose chief man, Hermippus, I secured not only by my conversation, but
by treating him as a friend. I did the same to Hephæstus of Apameia; the
same to that most untrustworthy fellow, Megaristus of Antandrus; the
same to Nicias of Smyrna; I also embraced with all the courtesy I
possessed the most trumpery of men, even Nymphôn of Colophôn. And all
this I did from no liking for these particular people, or the nation as
a whole: I was heartily sick of their fickleness and obsequiousness, of
feelings that are not affected by our kindness, but by our position.

But to return to Zeuxis. When he was telling me the same story as you
mention in your letter about what M. Cascellius had said to him in
conversation, I stopped him from farther talk, and admitted him to my
society. I cannot, however, understand your virulence when you say that,
having sewn up in the parricide's-sack two Mysians at Smyrna, you
desired to display a similar example of your severity in the upper part
of your province, and that, therefore, you had wished to inveigle Zeuxis
into your hands by every possible means. For if he had been brought into
court, he ought perhaps not to have been allowed to escape: but there
was no necessity for his being hunted out and inveigled by soft words to
stand a trial, as you say in your letter--especially as he is one whom I
learn daily, both from his fellow citizens and from many others, to be a
man of higher character than you would expect from such an obscure town
as his.[286] But, you will say, it is only Greeks to whom I am
indulgent. What! did not I do everything to appease L. Cæcilius? What a
man! how irritable! how violent! In fact, who is there except
Tuscenius,[287] whose case admitted of no cure, have I not softened? See
again, I have now on my hands a shifty, mean fellow, though of
equestrian rank, called Catienus: even he is going to be smoothed down.
I don't blame you for having been somewhat harsh to his father, for I am
quite sure you have acted with good reason: but what need was there of a
letter of the sort which you sent to the man himself? "That the man was
rearing the cross for himself from which you had already pulled him off
once; that you would take care to have him smoked to death, and would be
applauded by the whole province for it." Again, to a man named C.
Fabius--for that letter also T. Catienus is handing round--"that you
were told that the kidnapper Licinius, with his young kite of a son, was
collecting taxes." And then you go on to ask Fabius to burn both father
and son alive if he can; if not, to send them to you, that they may be
burnt to death by legal sentence. That letter sent by you in jest to C.
Fabius, if it really is from you, exhibits to ordinary readers a
violence of language very injurious to you. Now, if you will refer to
the exhortations in all my letters, you will perceive that I have never
found fault with you for anything except harshness and sharpness of
temper, and occasionally, though rarely, for want of caution in the
letters you write. In which particulars, indeed, if my influence had had
greater weight with you than a somewhat excessive quickness of
disposition, or a certain enjoyment in indulging temper, or a faculty
for epigram and a sense of humour, we should certainly have had no cause
for dissatisfaction. And don't you suppose that I feel no common
vexation when I am told how Vergilius is esteemed, and your neighbour
C. Octavius?[288] For if you only excel your neighbours farther up
country, in Cilicia and Syria, that is a pretty thing to boast of! And
that is just the sting of the matter, that though the men I have named
are not more blameless than yourself, they yet outdo you in the art of
winning favour, though they know nothing of Xenophon's Cyrus or
Agesilaus; from which kings, in the exercise of their great office, no
one ever heard an irritable word. But in giving you this advice, as I
have from the first, I am well aware how much good I have done.[289]

Now, however, as you are about to quit your province, pray do leave
behind you--as I think you are now doing--as pleasant a memory as
possible. You have a successor of very mild manners; in other respects,
on his arrival, you will be much missed. In sending letters of
requisition, as I have often told you, you have allowed yourself to be
too easily persuaded. Destroy, if you can, all such as are inequitable,
or contrary to usage, or contradictory to others. Statius told me that
they were usually put before you ready written, read by himself, and
that, if they were inequitable, he informed you of the fact: but that
before he entered your service there had been no sifting of letters;
that the result was that there were volumes containing a selection of
letters, which were usually adversely criticised.[290] On this subject I
am not going to give you any advice at this time of day, for it is too
late; and you cannot but be aware that I have often warned you in
various ways and with precision. But I have, on a hint from Theopompus,
intrusted him with this message to you: do see by means of persons
attached to you, which you will find no difficulty in doing, that the
following classes of letters are destroyed--first, those that are
inequitable; next, those that are contradictory; then those expressed in
an eccentric or unusual manner; and lastly, those that contain
reflexions on anyone. I don't believe all I hear about these matters,
and if, in the multiplicity of your engagements, you have let certain
things escape you, now is the time to look into them and weed them out.
I have read a letter said to have been written by your nomenclator Sulla
himself, which I cannot approve: I have read some written in an angry
spirit. But the subject of letters comes in pat: for while this sheet of
paper was actually in my hands, L. Flavius, prætor-designate and a very
intimate friend, came to see me. He told me that you had sent a letter
to his agents, which seemed to me most inequitable, prohibiting them
from taking anything from the estate of the late L. Octavius Naso, whose
heir L. Flavius is, until they had paid a sum of money to C. Fundanius;
and that you had sent a similar letter to the Apollonidenses, not to
allow any payment on account of the estate of the late Octavius till the
debt to Fundanius had been discharged. It seems to me hardly likely that
you have done this; for it is quite unlike your usual good sense. The
heir not to take anything? What if he disowns the debt? What if he
doesn't owe it at all? Moreover, is the prætor wont to decide whether a
debt is due?[291] Don't I, again, wish well to Fundanius? Am I not his
friend? Am I not touched with compassion? No one more so: but in certain
matters the course of law is so clear as to leave no place for personal
feeling. And Flavius told me that expressions were used in the letter,
which he said was yours, to the effect that you would "either thank them
as friends, or make yourself disagreeable to them as enemies." In short,
he was much annoyed, complained of it to me in strong terms, and begged
me to write to you as seriously as I could. This I am doing, and I do
strongly urge you again and again to withdraw your injunction to
Flavius's agents about taking money from the estate, and not to lay any
farther injunction on the Apollonidenses contrary to the rights of
Flavius. Pray do everything you can for the sake of Flavius and, indeed,
of Pompey also. I would not, upon my honour, have you think me liberal
to him at the expense of any inequitable decision on your part: but I do
entreat you to leave behind you some authority, and some memorandum of a
decree or of a letter under your hand, so framed as to support the
interests and cause of Flavius. For the man, who is at once very
attentive to me, and tenacious of his own rights and dignity, is feeling
extremely hurt that he has not prevailed with you either on the grounds
of personal friendship or of legal right; and, to the best of my belief,
both Pompey and Cæsar have, at one time or another, commended the
interests of Flavius to you, and Flavius has written to you personally,
and certainly I have. Wherefore, if there is anything which you think
you ought to do at my request, let it be this. If you love me, take
every care, take every trouble, and insure Flavius's cordial thanks both
to yourself and myself. I cannot use greater earnestness in making any
request than I use in this.

As to what you say about Hermias, it has been in truth a cause of much
vexation to me. I wrote you a letter in a rather unbrotherly spirit,
which I dashed off in a fit of anger and now wish to recall, having been
irritated by what Lucullus's freedman told me, immediately after hearing
of the bargain. For this letter, which was not expressed in a brotherly
way, you ought to have brotherly feeling enough to make allowance. As to
Censorinus, Antonius, the Cassii, Scævola--I am delighted to hear from
you that you possess their friendship. The other contents of that same
letter of yours were expressed more strongly than I could have wished,
such as your "with my ship at least well trimmed"[292] and your "die
once for all."[293] You will find those expressions to be unnecessarily
strong. My scoldings have always been very full of affection. They
mention certain things for complaint,[294] but these are not important,
or rather, are quite insignificant. For my part, I should never have
thought you deserving of the least blame in any respect, considering the
extreme purity of your conduct, had it not been that our enemies are
numerous. Whatever I have written to you in a tone of remonstrance or
reproach I have written from a vigilant caution, which I maintain, and
shall maintain; and I shall not cease imploring you to do the same.
Attalus of Hypæpa has begged me to intercede with you that you should
not prevent his getting the money paid which has been decreed for a
statue of Q. Publicius. In which matter I both ask as a favour and urge
as a duty, that you should not consent to allow the honour of a man of
his character, and so close a friend of mine, to be lowered or hindered
by your means. Farthermore, Licinius, who is known to you, a slave of my
friend Æsopus, has run away. He has been at Athens, living in the house
of Patron the Epicurean as a free man. Thence he has made his way to
Asia. Afterwards a certain Plato of Sardis, who is often at Athens, and
happened to be at Athens at the time that Licinius arrived there, having
subsequently learnt by a letter from Æsopus that he was an escaped
slave, arrested the fellow, and put him into confinement at Ephesus; but
whether into the public prison, or into a slave mill, we could not
clearly make out from his letter. But since he is at Ephesus, I should
be obliged if you would trace him in any manner open to you, and with
all care either [send him] or bring him home with you. Don't take into
consideration the fellow's value: such a good-for-nothing is worth very
little; but Æsopus is so much vexed at his slave's bad conduct and
audacity, that you can do him no greater favour than by being the means
of his recovering him.

Now for the news that you chiefly desire. We have so completely lost the
constitution that Cato,[295] a young man of no sense, but yet a Roman
citizen and a Cato, scarcely got off with his life because, having
determined to prosecute Gabinius for bribery, when the prætors could not
be approached for several days, and refused to admit anyone to their
presence, he mounted the rostra in public meeting and called Pompey an
"unofficial dictator." No one ever had a narrower escape of being
killed. From this you may see the state of the whole Republic. People,
however, shew no inclination to desert my cause. They make wonderful
professions, offers of service, and promises: and, indeed, I have the
highest hopes and even greater spirit--so that I hope to get the better
in the struggle, and feel confident in my mind that, in the present
state of the Republic, I need not fear even an accident. However, the
matter stands thus: if Clodius gives notice of an action against me, the
whole of Italy will rush to my support, so that I shall come off with
many times greater glory than before; but if he attempts the use of
violence, I hope, by the zeal not only of friends but also of opponents,
to be able to meet force with force. All promise me the aid of
themselves, their friends, clients, freedmen, slaves, and, finally, of
their money. Our old regiment of loyalists is warm in its zeal and
attachment to me. If there were any who had formerly been comparatively
hostile or lukewarm, they are now uniting themselves with the loyalists
from hatred to these despots. Pompey makes every sort of promise, and so
does Cæsar: but my confidence in them is not enough to induce me to drop
any of my preparations. The tribunes-designate are friendly to us. The
consuls-designate make excellent professions. Some of the new prætors
are very friendly and very brave citizens--Domitius, Nigidius, Memmius,
Lentulus[296]--the others are loyalists also, but these are eminently
so. Wherefore keep a good heart and high hopes. However, I will keep you
constantly informed on particular events as they occur from day to day.

[Footnote 285: ἀλλ' αἰεί τινα φῶτα μέγαν καὶ καλὸν ἐδέγμην, "but I ever
expected some big and handsome man" (Hom. _Odyss._ ix. 513). Statius had
been manumitted by Quintus Cicero, and there had been much talk about
it, as we have already heard. See XLIV, p. 109, and XLV, p. 111.]

[Footnote 286: Reading _quam pro civitate sua_ for _prope quam civitatem
suam_. I think _prope_ and _pro_ (_pr_) might easily have been mistaken
for each other, and if the order of _quam_ and _pro_ (mistaken for
_prope_) were once changed, the case of _civitate_ would follow. Prof.
Tyrrell, who writes the town _Blandus_, would read _molliorem_ for
_nobiliorem_, and imagines a pun on the meaning of _Blandus_. But the
name of the town seems certainly _Blaundus_, Βλαῦνδος, or Μλαῦνδος
(Stephanus, Βλαῦδος); see Head, _Hist. Num._ p. 559: and Cicero, though
generally punning on names, would hardly do so here, where he is making
a grave excuse.]

[Footnote 287: Whom he called (Letter XXIX) "a madman and a knave."]

[Footnote 288: C. Vergilius Balbus, proprætor in Sicily (_pro Planc._ §
95; Letter XXIX). C. Octavius (father of Augustus), in Macedonia (see p.
78). L. Marcius Philippus was proprætor of Syria B.C. 61-59. The
governor of Cilicia in the same period is not known; probably some one
left in charge by Pompey.]

[Footnote 289: I have endeavoured to leave the English as ambiguous as
the Latin. Cicero may mean that he has done some good, for at the end of
Letter XXIX he says that Quintus has improved in these points, and had
been better in his second than in his first year. On the other hand, the
context here seems rather to point to the meaning "how _little_ good I
have done!"--impatiently dismissing the subject of temper.]

[Footnote 290: These "requisitionary letters" were granted by a
provincial governor to certain persons requiring supplies, payment of
debts, or legal decisions in their favour in the provinces, or other
privileges, and, if carelessly granted, were open to much abuse. Cicero,
in his own government of Cilicia, boasted that he had signed none such
in six months. The ill-wishers of Quintus had apparently got hold of a
number of these letters signed by him (having been first written out by
the suitors themselves and scarcely glanced at by him), and a selection
of them published to prove his injustice or carelessness.]

[Footnote 291: The governor of a province would stand in such a matter
in the place of the prætor in Rome, _i.e._, he would decide on questions
of law, not of fact, as, whether a debt was due or not. However, Quintus
perhaps only erred in the form of his injunction. He might forbid the
deceased's estate being touched till the question of Fundanius's debt
was decided; but in his letter he assumed (as he had no right to do)
that the claim was good. Substantially it seems to me that Quintus was
right, and certainly in his appeal to him Cicero does not follow his own
injunction to disregard personal feelings.]

[Footnote 292: ὀρθὰν τὰν ναῦν. Quintus had written, it seems, defiantly
about the slanders afloat against him, and had quoted two Greek
proverbial sayings. The first is found in Stobæus, 108 (extract from
Teles): "It was a fine saying of the pilot, 'At least, Poseidon, a ship
well trimmed,'" _i.e._, if you sink my ship, she shall at least go down
with honour. Quintus means, "Whatever my enemies may do afterwards, I
will keep my province in a sound state as long as I am here."]

[Footnote 293: ἅπαξ θανεῖν, perhaps "Better to die once for all than
give in to every unjust demand." The editors quote Æschylus, _Pr. V._
769:

            κρεῖσσον γὰρ εἰσάπαξ θανεῖν
    ἢ θὰς ἁπάσας ἡμέρας πάσχειν κακῶς.

But I don't feel sure that this is the passage alluded to.]

[Footnote 294: Reading _queruntur_ for _quæ sunt_.]

[Footnote 295: Gaius Cato, tribune B.C. 56.]

[Footnote 296: L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who as prætor threatened Cæsar
with impeachment, and as consul (B.C. 54) tried to get him recalled. He
was, in 50-49, appointed Cæsar's successor in Gaul, defended Marseilles
against him, and eventually fell in the battle of Pharsalia. P. Nigidius
Figulus supported Cicero during the Catiline conspiracy. Gaius Memmius,
ædile B.C. 60 (see p. 51). Lucretius dedicated his poem to him. L.
Cornelius Lentulus Crus, consul B.C. 49, accused Clodius in B.C. 61,
murdered in Africa after Pompey, B.C. 48.]




LIII (F XIII, 42)

TO L. CULLEOLUS (IN ILLYRICUM)

ROME[297]


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

My friend L. Lucceius,[298] the most delightful fellow in the world, has
expressed in my presence amazingly warm thanks to you, saying that you
have given most complete and liberal promises to his agents. Since your
words have roused such gratitude in him, you may imagine how grateful he
will be for the thing itself, when, as I hope, you will have performed
your promise. In any case the people of Bullis have shewn that they
intend to do Lucceius right according to the award of Pompey. But we
have very great need of the additional support of your wishes,
influence, and prætorian authority. That you should give us these I beg
you again and again. And this will be particularly gratifying to me,
because Lucceius's agents know, and Lucceius himself gathered from your
letter to him, that no one's influence has greater weight with you than
mine. I ask you once more, and reiterate my request, that he may find
that to be the case by practical experience.

[Footnote 297: There is no direct means of dating these letters, as we
have no other information as to the proconsulship of Culleolus.
Illyricum was not always a separate government, but was sometimes under
the governor of Macedonia, sometimes under the governor of Gaul. The
indications of date are (1) Pompey is at home and often seen by Cicero,
therefore it is not between the spring of B.C. 67 and the end of 62; (2)
it is not later than March, B.C. 58, because from that time for ten
years Cæsar was governor of Illyricum, and before he ceased to be so
Pompey had left Italy, never to return. Even if Culleolus was not
governor of Illyricum, but of Macedonia, the same argument holds good,
for C. Antonius was in Macedonia B.C. 63-60, and Octavius from B.C. 60
to March, B.C. 59. That is, Culleolus could not have been in Macedonia
while Pompey was in Italy till after March, B.C. 59.]

[Footnote 298: L. Lucceius, whom we have heard of before as a candidate
for the consulship with Cæsar, and whom we shall hear of again as the
author of a history of the social and civil wars (Sulla and Marius), and
as being asked to write on Cicero's consulship. He was a close friend of
Pompey, and took his side in B.C. 49 (Cæs. _B. C._ iii. 18). The people
of Bullis owed Lucceius money, and Cicero asks for "mandatory letters"
from Culleolus to get it.]




LIV (F XIII, 41)

TO L. CULLEOLUS (IN ILLYRICUM)

ROME


[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]

In what you have done for the sake of L. Lucceius, I wish you to be
fully aware that you have obliged a man who will be exceedingly
grateful; and that, while this is very much the case with Lucceius
himself, so also Pompey as often as he sees me--and he sees me very
often--thanks you in no common terms. I add also, what I know will be
exceedingly gratifying to you, that I am myself immensely delighted with
your kindness to Lucceius. For the rest, though I have no doubt that as
you acted before for my sake, so now, for the sake of your own
consistency, you will abide by your liberal intentions, yet I reiterate
my request to you with all earnestness, that what you first gave us
reason to hope, and then actually carried out, you would be so good as
to see extended and brought to a final completion by your means. I
assure you, and I pledge my credit to it, that such a course will be
exceedingly gratifying to both Lucceius and Pompey, and that you will be
making a most excellent investment with them. About politics, and about
the business going on here, and what we are all thinking about, I wrote
to you in full detail a few days ago, and delivered the letter to your
servants. Farewell.




LETTERS IN EXILE


[Sidenote: B.C. 58. Coss., L. Piso, A. Gabinius.]

     We have no record in Cicero's correspondence of the final measures
     taken by Clodius against him. We find him when the correspondence
     for this year opens on his way to exile: all his boasts of staying
     and fighting have been thrown to the winds. Clodius, indeed, had
     not simply done what Cicero expected at the worst--impeached him.
     He had gone more systematically to work. Among other measures
     calculated to win popularity, he proposed a modification of the
     _lex Ælia Fufia_, declaring it illegal for a magistrate to stop
     legislative _comitia_ by "watching the sky." Thus freed from one
     hindrance, he next proposed and carried a law for the prosecution
     of any magistrate who had put a citizen to death without trial
     (_qui indemnatos cives necavisset_). Cicero at once recognized his
     danger: if the people voted this law, a jury could scarcely fail to
     condemn. The triumvirs would do nothing. Pompey, after all his
     promises, avoided seeing Cicero as much as possible: Cæsar offered
     him a _legatio_ again; and though he spoke against giving the law a
     retrospective effect, he could not consistently object to the law
     itself, and shewed no sign of desiring to shelter Cicero, except on
     his consenting to leave Rome. Cicero then adopted the course which
     was open to all citizens threatened with a prosecution--that of
     going away from Rome--and started apparently with the view of going
     to Malta. Whether it was wise or not, Cicero afterwards lamented
     having taken this course, and thought that he had better have
     braved the danger and stood his trial. It at any rate facilitated
     the next move of Clodius, who proposed and carried a bill
     forbidding Cicero "fire and water" within 500 (afterwards reduced
     to 400) miles of Italy, and confiscating his property. Accordingly,
     Cicero had to go much farther than he had intended. He crossed from
     Brundisium to Dyrrachium, and proceeded along the _via Egnatia_ to
     its terminus at Thessalonica, where he spent the autumn, B.C. 58.
     In November, B.C. 58, he returned to Dyrrachium, ready for the
     recall which he heard was imminent. Meanwhile his town house was
     destroyed, its site made a _templum_, and a statue of Liberty set
     up in it, and his villas at Tusculum and Antium dismantled. The
     dangers of his position are not exaggerated in his letters, and may
     account for much of their melancholy tone. He had lost the
     protection of the laws, and any one of his many enemies meeting him
     might have killed him with practical impunity. He seems to have
     left Rome in April.




LV (A III, 3)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

VIBO, APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

I hope I may see the day when I shall thank you for having compelled me
to remain alive! At present I thoroughly repent it. But I beg you to
come and see me at Vibo at once, to which town I have for several
reasons directed my journey.[299] But if you will only come there, I
shall be able to consult you about my entire journey and exile. If you
don't do so, I shall be surprised, but I feel sure you will.

[Footnote 299: Mod. _Monte Leone_, on the road to Rhegium, from which at
this time Cicero meant to cross to Sicily, and thence to Malta.]




LVI (A III, 2)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

NARES LUCANÆ,[300] APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

The reason for having come this journey is that there was no place where
I could be independent except on Sica's estate,[301] especially till the
bill is emended,[302] and at the same time because I find that from this
spot I can reach Brundisium, if you were only with me, but without you I
cannot stay in those parts owing to Autronius.[303] At present, as I
said in my previous letter, if you will come to me, we shall be able to
form a plan for the whole business. I know the journey is troublesome,
but the whole calamity is full of troubles. I cannot write more, I am so
heart-broken and dejected. Take care of your health.

From Nares Lucanæ, 8 April.

[Footnote 300: Nares Lucanæ (_Monte Nero_), near the River Silarus, and
on the _via Popilia_ (south-western branch of the _Appia_). Cicero has
therefore come north again from Vibo, having given up the idea of
Rhegium and Sicily, and making for Beneventum, and so by the _via Appia_
for Brundisium.]

[Footnote 301: A friend of Cicero's, of whose death at Brundisium we
afterwards hear (_Fam._ xiv. 4, § 6).]

[Footnote 302: The bill originally named 500 miles as the distance from
Italy. Before passing it had to be put up in public three weeks
(_trinundinæ_), and meanwhile might be amended, and was amended to 400.]

[Footnote 303: P. Autronius Pætus, one of Catiline's confederates, who
would injure Cicero if he could. Cicero would not be able to reach
Epirus without coming within his reach; for he had been condemned for
_ambitus_, and was in exile there or in Achaia. _Illas partes_=Epirus.]




LVII (A III, 4)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

NEAR VIBO, APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

I hope you will attribute my sudden departure from Vibo, whither I had
asked you come, to my unhappiness rather than to fickleness. A copy of
the bill for my ruin was brought to me, in which the correction of which
I had been told was to the effect that I might legally remain anywhere
beyond 400 miles. Since I was not allowed to go yonder,[304] I set out
towards Brundisium before the day for carrying the bill had come, both
to prevent Sica, in whose house I was staying, from being ruined,[305]
and because I was prevented from residing at Malta. So now make haste to
catch me up, if only I shall find any welcome there.[306] At present I
receive kind invitations. But about the rest of my journey I am nervous.
Truly, my dear Pomponius, I am very sorry I consented to live: in which
matter you exercised the chief influence with me. But of these things
when we meet. Only be sure and come.

[Footnote 304: To Malta. The proprætor of Sicily, C. Vergilius, opposed
his going to Malta, which was in the province of Sicily, though it had a
_primus_ of its own (_Planc._ 40; Plut. _Cic._ 32).]

[Footnote 305: Because of entertaining the condemned man, a special
proviso in this law (Dio, xxxviii. 17).]

[Footnote 306: In Epirus, believing that Atticus will understand that
his going to Brundisium means that he will go to Epirus: and as Atticus
lives there, he naturally asks him to come to meet him. Epirus was, for
certain purposes at least, in the province of Macedonia, and it depended
on the governor, L. Appuleius Saturninus, what reception he would meet.
His friend Plancius was quæstor.]




LVIII (A III, 1)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FROM THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF THURIUM, ON THE WAY TO BRUNDISIUM, APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

I always thought that it was of great importance to me that you should
be with me: but when I read the bill, then, indeed, I understood that
there could be nothing more desirable for me than that you should
overtake me as soon as possible, in order that, if after quitting Italy
I should have to travel through Epirus, I might avail myself of your
protection and that of your friends; or, if I had to adopt any other
plan, I might come to some definite resolution in accordance with your
opinion. Wherefore I beg you to do your best to overtake me promptly,
which will be easier for you to do since the law about the province of
Macedonia has now been passed.[307] I would urge you at greater length
were it not that with you facts speak for me.

[Footnote 307: One of Clodius's concessions to the consuls, to keep them
quiet, was to get Macedonia assigned by a _lex_ to L. Calpurnius Piso.
As Atticus lived in what was practically part of the province, and had
much business there, it was important to him to be on the spot, and try
to influence the choice of a governor. That being over, he would not
have so much to detain him in Rome.]




LIX (A III, 5)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THURIUM, 10 APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

Terentia thanks you frequently and very warmly. That is a great comfort
to me. I am the most miserable man alive, and am being worn out with the
most poignant sorrow. I don't know what to write to you. For if you are
at Rome, it is now too late for you to reach me; but if you are on the
road, we shall discuss together all that needs to be discussed when you
have overtaken me. All I ask you is to retain the same affection for me,
since it was always myself you loved. For I am the same man: my enemies
have taken what was mine, they have not taken myself. Take care of your
health.

From Thurium, 10 April.




LX (A III, 6)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

ON THE WAY TO TARENTUM, 18 APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

I had felt certain of seeing you at Tarentum or Brundisium, and that was
of importance to me in many respects: among others, as to my being able
to stay in Epirus and consult you about the future. My disappointment in
this is only another item in the long list of my misfortunes.[308] I
mean to go to Asia, to Cyzicus for choice. I commend my family to you. I
am very wretched and can scarcely support my life.

From near Tarentum, 17 April.

[Footnote 308: We suppose that Cicero has heard from Atticus that he is
not going to be at Tarentum or Brundisium, for he writes before arriving
at either.]




LXI (F XIV, 4)

TO TERENTIA, TULLIOLA, AND YOUNG CICERO (AT ROME)

BRUNDISIUM, 29 APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

Yes, I do write to you less often than I might, because, though I am
always wretched, yet when I write to you or read a letter from you, I am
in such floods of tears that I cannot endure it. Oh, that I had clung
less to life! I should at least never have known real sorrow, or not
much of it, in my life. Yet if fortune has reserved for me _any_ hope of
recovering at any time any position again, I was not utterly wrong to do
so: if these miseries are to be permanent, I only wish, my dear, to see
you as soon as possible and to die in your arms, since neither gods,
whom you have worshipped with such pure devotion, nor men, whom I have
ever served, have made us any return. I have been thirteen days at
Brundisium in the house of M. Lænius Flaccus, a very excellent man, who
has despised the risk to his fortunes and civil existence in comparison
to keeping me safe, nor has been induced by the penalty of a most
iniquitous law to refuse me the rights and good offices of hospitality
and friendship. May I some time have the opportunity of repaying him!
Feel gratitude I always shall. I set out from Brundisium on the 29th of
April,[309] and intend going through Macedonia to Cyzicus. What a fall!
What a disaster! What can I say? Should I ask you to come--a woman of
weak health and broken spirit? Should I refrain from asking you? Am I to
be without you, then? I think the best course is this: if there is any
hope of my restoration, stay to promote it and push the thing on: but
if, as I fear, it proves hopeless, pray come to me by any means in your
power. Be sure of this, that if I have you I shall not think myself
wholly lost. But what is to become of my darling Tullia? You must see to
that now: I can think of nothing. But certainly, however things turn
out, we must do everything to promote that poor little girl's married
happiness and reputation. Again, what is my boy Cicero to do? Let him,
at any rate, be ever in my bosom and in my arms.[310] I can't write
more. A fit of weeping hinders me. I don't know how you have got on;
whether you are left in possession of anything, or have been, as I fear,
entirely plundered. Piso, as you say, I hope will always be our friend.
As to the manumission of the slaves you need not be uneasy. To begin
with, the promise made to yours was that you would treat them according
as each severally deserved. So far Orpheus has behaved well, besides him
no one very markedly so. With the rest of the slaves the arrangement is
that, if my property is forfeited, they should become my freedmen,
supposing them to be able to maintain at law that status.[311] But if my
property remained in my ownership, they were to continue slaves, with
the exception of a very few. But these are trifles. To return to your
advice, that I should keep up my courage and not give up hope of
recovering my position, I only wish that there were any good grounds for
entertaining such a hope. As it is, when, alas! shall I get a letter
from you? Who will bring it me? I would have waited for it at
Brundisium, but the sailors would not allow it, being unwilling to lose
a favourable wind. For the rest, put as dignified a face on the matter
as you can, my dear Terentia. Our life is over: we have had our day: it
is not any fault of ours that has ruined us, but our virtue. I have made
no false step, except in not losing my life when I lost my honours. But
since our children preferred my living, let us bear everything else,
however intolerable. And yet I, who encourage you, cannot encourage
myself. I have sent that faithful fellow Clodius Philhetærus home,
because he was hampered with weakness of the eyes. Sallustius seems
likely to outdo everybody in his attentions. Pescennius is exceedingly
kind to me; and I have hopes that he will always be attentive to you.
Sica had said that he would accompany me; but he has left Brundisium.
Take the greatest possible care of your health, and believe me that I am
more affected by your distress than my own. My dear Terentia, most
faithful and best of wives, and my darling little daughter, and that
last hope of my race, Cicero, good-bye!

29 April, from Brundisium.

[Footnote 309: Reading _prid. Kal._ instead of _a. d. II. Kal._, which
Tyrrell calls _audacius_ in Schutz. But absolute nonsense is not to be
kept even for a MS.

(1) Cicero says that he has been thirteen days at Brundisium. In the
next letter he tells Atticus he arrived on the 17th. That, in the Roman
way of counting, brings it to _prid._ (29th).

(2) Either the date at the end of the letter is wrong, or _prid._ must
be used here

(3) There is no such date properly as _a. d. II. Kal._ The day before
_prid._ is _a. d. III_.

In regard to dates we must remember that Cicero is using the præ-Julian
calendar, in which all months, except February, March, May, July, and
October, had twenty-nine days. These last four had thirty-one and
February twenty-eight.]

[Footnote 310: Cicero does not mean that young Marcus is to come to him
at once, but that, when Tullia's marriage portion is settled, Terentia
is to bring him with her if she comes. Really he didn't mean any of them
to come, at any rate for a long while. Piso is Tullia's husband.]

[Footnote 311: If Cicero's property was confiscated, it might be held
that the slaves went with it, and would be sold with it, and that his
manumission of them was an evasion, which could not hold good at law. If
his property was not confiscated, they were to remain in their status as
slaves. See Letter CXCII.]




LXII (A III, 7)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

BRUNDISIUM, 29 APRIL


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

I arrived at Brundisium on the 17th of April. On that day your slaves
delivered me your letter, and some other slaves, on the next day but
one, brought me another. As to your invitation and advice to stay at
your house in Epirus, your kindness is most gratifying, and far from
being a novelty. It is a plan that would have exactly suited my wishes,
if I might have spent all my time there: for I loathe a crowd of
visitors, I can scarcely bear the light, and that solitude, especially
in a spot so familiar, would have been the reverse of disagreeable. But
to put up there as a mere stage in my journey! In the first place it is
far out of my way, and in the next it is only four days from Autronius
and the rest, and in the third place you are not there. Had I been going
to reside permanently, a fortified castle would have been an advantage,
but to one only passing through it is unnecessary. Why, if I had not
been afraid, I should have made for Athens[312]--there were
circumstances that made me much wish to go--but as it is, I have enemies
in the neighbourhood, you are not there, and I fear they[313] might hold
even that town not to be the legal distance from Italy, nor do you
mention by what day I am to expect you. As to your urging me to remain
alive, you carry one point--that I should not lay violent hands upon
myself: the other you cannot bring to pass--that I should not regret my
policy and my continuance in life. For what is there to attach me to it,
especially if the hope which accompanied me on my departure is
non-existent? I will not attempt to enumerate all the miseries into
which I have fallen through the extreme injustice and unprincipled
conduct, not so much of my enemies, as of those who were jealous of me,
because I do not wish to stir up a fresh burst of grief in myself, or
invite you to share the same sorrow. I say this deliberately--that no
one was ever afflicted with so heavy a calamity, that no one had ever
greater cause to wish for death; while I have let slip the time when I
might have sought it most creditably. Henceforth death can never heal,
it can only end my sorrow.[314] In politics I perceive that you collect
all circumstances that you think may inspire me with a hope of a change:
and though they are insignificant, yet, since you will have it so, let
us have patience. In spite of what you say, you will catch us up if you
make haste. For I will either come into Epirus to be near you, or I will
travel slowly through Candavia.[315] My hesitation about Epirus is not
caused by vacillation on my part, but by the fact that I do not know
where I am likely to see my brother. As to him, I neither know how I am
to see him, nor how I shall let him go. That is the greatest and most
distressing of all my distresses. I would indeed have written to you
oftener, and at greater length, had it not been that sorrow, while it
has affected all parts of my intellect, has above all entirely destroyed
my faculty for this kind of writing. I long to see you. Take care of
your health.

Brundisium, 29 April.

[Footnote 312: He means that had it not been for enemies in Greece and
Epirus, he should not only have gone as far south as Epirus, but
farther--to Athens. There is a good deal to be said for Schutz's
reading, _Achaiam_ for _Athenas_, but as the MS. reading can be
explained, it is safer to keep it.]

[Footnote 313: The Clodian party at Rome. "That town" is Athens.]

[Footnote 314: "I have lost my chance of dying with honour; henceforth
death may end my grief, but cannot heal my damaged reputation." _Reliqua
tempora_, _i.e._, other opportunities of suicide.]

[Footnote 315: A mountain range in Illyria, over which the _via Egnatia_
passes (mod. _Elbassán_).]




LXIII (A III, 8)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA, 29 MAY


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

I wrote to you at Brundisium, when on the point of starting, the reasons
for my not going to Epirus: namely, the proximity of Achaia, which was
full of enemies of the most unscrupulous character, and secondly, the
difficulty of leaving it when I wished to resume my journey. Added to
this, while I was at Dyrrachium two messages reached me: the first, that
my brother was coming from Ephesus to Athens by ship; the second, that
he was coming through Macedonia by land. Accordingly, I sent a message
to meet him at Athens, telling him to come thence to Thessalonica. I
myself continued my journey, and arrived at Thessalonica on the 23rd of
May, but have no certain intelligence about his journey except that he
had left Ephesus some time ago. At present I am feeling very nervous as
to what steps are being taken at Rome. Although you say in one of your
letters, dated the 15th of May, that you hear that he will be vigorously
prosecuted, in another you say that things are calming down. But then
the latter is dated a day before the former; which makes me all the more
anxious. So while my own personal sorrow is every day tearing my heart
and wearing out my strength, this additional anxiety indeed scarcely
leaves me any life at all. However, the voyage itself was very
difficult, and he perhaps, being uncertain where I was, has taken some
other course. For my freedman Phaetho saw nothing of him. Phaetho was
driven by the wind from Ilium[316] to Macedonia, and met me at Pella.
How formidable other circumstances are I am fully aware, and I don't
know what to say to you. I fear everything, nor is there any misery
which would not seem possible in my present unfortunate position.
Miserable as I still am in the midst of my heavy trials and sorrows, now
that this anxiety is added to them, I remain at Thessalonica in a state
of suspense without venturing upon any step whatever.

Now to answer you. I have not seen Cæcilius Trypho. I comprehend from
your letter what you and Pompey have been saying. That any movement in
politics is impending I cannot see as clearly as you either see, or
perhaps only suggest for my consolation. For, as the case of Tigranes
was passed over, all hope of a rupture is at an end.[317] You bid me
thank Varro: I will do so; also Hypsæus.[318] As to your advice not to
go farther off till the _acta_[319] of the month of May reach me, I
think I shall do as you suggest. But where to stay? I have not yet come
to any decision. And indeed my mind is so uneasy about Quintus, that I
can determine on nothing. However, I will let you know immediately. From
the incoherent nature of my letters I think you will understand the
agitation of my mind, caused not so much by my misery, though I have
been overwhelmed by an incredible and unparalleled calamity, as by the
recollection of my blunder. For by whose unprincipled advice I was egged
on and betrayed you certainly now perceive,[320] and oh that you had
perceived it before, and had not given your whole mind to lamentation
along with me! Wherefore, when you are told that I am prostrate and
unmanned with grief, consider that I am more distressed at my own folly
than at the result of it, in having believed a man whom I did not think
to be treacherous. My writing is impeded both by the recollection of my
own disasters, and by my alarm about my brother. Yes, pray look after
and direct all the affairs you mention. Terentia expresses the warmest
gratitude to you. I have sent you a copy of the letter which I have
written to Pompey.

Thessalonica, 29 May.

[Footnote 316: Reading _ab Ilio_ with Madvig for _ab illo_.]

[Footnote 317: Tigranes, a son of the king of Armenia, was brought to
Rome by Pompey to adorn his triumph, and put under the care of Lucius
Flavius. This prince was, for a bribe, released by Clodius by a trick,
and the attempt to get him away led to a scuffle in which lives were
lost. Pompey regarded this as a slight upon himself, and his partisan,
the consul Gabinius, attempted to prevent it. But both were hustled in
the forum and treated with insults. The hope of a breach in the
triumvirate arose from the supposition that Clodius had the support of
Cæsar in his high-handed proceeding (Dio, xxxviii. 30; Plut. _Pomp._ 48;
Ascon. 47).]

[Footnote 318: P. Plautius Hypsæus, who had been Pompey's quæstor and on
intimate terms with him. He had been, it seems, interesting himself on
Cicero's behalf.]

[Footnote 319: The gazette of public transactions and measures passed in
the senate, which was sent round to the provinces. We shall hear of it
again.]

[Footnote 320: The next letter shews that he means Hortensius. The
blunder which he complains of having committed, by the advice of
Hortensius, is that of having left Rome, rather than stay and brave the
impeachment.]




LXIV (A III, 9)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA, 13 JUNE


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

My brother Quintus having quitted Asia before the 1st of May, and
arrived at Athens on the 15th, he would have to make great haste to
prevent proceedings being commenced against him in his absence,
supposing there to be some one who was not content with the misfortunes
we have already sustained. Accordingly, I preferred that he should hurry
on to Rome rather than come to me; and at the same time--for I will tell
you the truth, and it will give you a notion of the extent of my
wretchedness--I could not make up my mind to see him, devotedly attached
to me as he is, and a man of most tender feelings, or to obtrude upon
him my miseries and ruin in all their wretchedness, or to endure their
being seen by him. And I was besides afraid of what certainly would have
happened--that he would not have had the resolution to leave me. I had
ever before my eyes the time when he would either have to dismiss his
lictors,[321] or be violently torn from my arms. The prospect of this
bitter pain I have avoided by the other bitter pain of not seeing my
brother. It is all you, who advised me to continue living, that have
forced me into this distressful position. Accordingly, I am paying the
penalty of my error. However, I am sustained by your letter, from which
I easily perceive how high your own hopes are. This did give me some
consolation, but only, after all, till you passed from the mention of
Pompey to the passage beginning "Now try and win over Hortensius and
men of that sort." In heaven's name, my dear Pomponius, don't you yet
perceive by whose means, by whose treachery, by whose dishonest advice,
I have been ruined? But all this I will discuss with you when we meet. I
will only say this much, which I think you know: it is not my enemies,
but my jealous rivals, that have ruined me. Now, however, if things are
really as you hope, I will keep up my spirits, and will rely upon the
hope on which you bid me rely. But if, as I myself think, this proves
illusory, what I was not allowed to do at the best time shall be done at
a worse.[322] Terentia often expresses her gratitude to you. For myself
one of my miseries also consists in fear--the business of my unhappy
brother. If I could only know how it stands, I should know what I ought
to do. Personally, the hope of the advantages and of the letters you
mention keeps me still, as you advise, at Thessalonica. If I get any
news, I shall know what I ought to do about the rest. Yes, if, as you
say in your letter, you left Rome on the 1st of June, you will soon see
us. I have sent you a letter which I wrote to Pompey.

Thessalonica, 15 June.

[Footnote 321: Because, though a provincial governor retained his
lictors till he reached Rome, he was bound to go straight home or
dismiss them.]

[Footnote 322: _I.e._, suicide.]




LXV (Q FR I, 3)

TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (ON HIS WAY TO ROME)

THESSALONICA, 15 JUNE


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

Brother! Brother! Brother! did you really fear that I had been induced
by some angry feeling to send slaves to you without a letter? Or even
that I did not wish to see you? I to be angry with you! Is it possible
for me to be angry with you? Why, one would think that it was you that
brought me low! Your enemies, your unpopularity, that miserably ruined
me, and not I that unhappily ruined you! The fact is, the much-praised
consulate of mine has deprived me of you, of children, country, fortune;
from you I should hope it will have taken nothing but myself. Certainly
on your side I have experienced nothing but what was honourable and
gratifying: on mine you have grief for my fall and fear for your own,
regret, mourning, desertion. _I_ not wish to see you? The truth is
rather that I was unwilling to be seen by you. For you would not have
seen your brother--not the brother you had left, not the brother you
knew, not him to whom you had with mutual tears bidden farewell as he
followed you on your departure for your province: not a trace even or
faint image of him, but rather what I may call the likeness of a living
corpse. And oh that you had sooner seen me or heard of me as a corpse!
Oh that I could have left you to survive, not my life merely, but my
undiminished rank! But I call all the gods to witness that the one
argument which recalled me from death was, that all declared that to
some extent your life depended upon mine. In which matter I made an
error and acted culpably. For if I had died, that death itself would
have given clear evidence of my fidelity and love to you. As it is, I
have allowed you to be deprived of my aid, though I am alive, and with
me still living to need the help of others; and my voice, of all others,
to fail when dangers threatened my family, which had so often been
successfully used in the defence of the merest strangers. For as to the
slaves coming to you without a letter, the real reason (for you see that
it was not anger) was a deadness of my faculties, and a seemingly
endless deluge of tears and sorrows. How many tears do you suppose these
very words have cost me? As many as I know they will cost you to read
them! Can I ever refrain from thinking of you or ever think of you
without tears? For when I miss you, is it only a brother that I miss?
Rather it is a brother of almost my own age in the charm of his
companionship, a son in his consideration for my wishes, a father in the
wisdom of his advice! What pleasure did I ever have without you, or you
without me? And what must my case be when at the same time I miss a
daughter: How affectionate! how modest! how clever! The express image of
my face, of my speech, of my very soul! Or again a son, the prettiest
boy, the very joy of my heart? Cruel inhuman monster that I am, I
dismissed him from my arms better schooled in the world than I could
have wished: for the poor child began to understand what was going on.
So, too, your own son, your own image, whom my little Cicero loved as a
brother, and was now beginning to respect as an elder brother! Need I
mention also how I refused to allow my unhappy wife--the truest of
helpmates--to accompany me, that there might be some one to protect the
wrecks of the calamity which had fallen on us both, and guard our common
children? Nevertheless, to the best of my ability, I did write a letter
to you, and gave it to your freedman Philogonus, which, I believe, was
delivered to you later on; and in this I repeated the advice and
entreaty, which had been already transmitted to you as a message from me
by my slaves, that you should go on with your journey and hasten to
Rome. For, in the first place, I desired your protection, in case there
were any of my enemies whose cruelty was not yet satisfied by my fall.
In the next place, I dreaded the renewed lamentation which our meeting
would cause: while I could not have borne your departure, and was afraid
of the very thing you mention in your letter--that you would be unable
to tear yourself away. For these reasons the supreme pain of not seeing
you--and nothing more painful or more wretched could, I think, have
happened to the most affectionate and united of brothers--was a less
misery than would have been such a meeting followed by such a parting.
Now, if you can, though I, whom you always regarded as a brave man,
cannot do so, rouse yourself and collect your energies in view of any
contest you may have to confront. I hope, if my hope has anything to go
upon, that your own spotless character and the love of your fellow
citizens, and even remorse for my treatment, may prove a certain
protection to you. But if it turns out that you are free from personal
danger, you will doubtless do whatever you think can be done for me. In
that matter, indeed, many write to me at great length and declare that
they have hopes; but I personally cannot see what hope there is, since
my enemies have the greatest influence, while my friends have in some
cases deserted, in others even betrayed me, fearing perhaps in my
restoration a censure on their own treacherous conduct. But how matters
stand with you I would have you ascertain and report to me. In any case
I shall continue to live as long as you shall need me, in view of any
danger you may have to undergo: longer than that I cannot go on in this
kind of life. For there is neither wisdom nor philosophy with sufficient
strength to sustain such a weight of grief. I know that there has been a
time for dying, more honourable and more advantageous; and this is not
the only one of my many omissions, which, if I should choose to bewail,
I should merely be increasing your sorrow and emphasizing my own
stupidity. But one thing I am not bound to do, and it is in fact
impossible--remain in a life so wretched and so dishonoured any longer
than your necessities, or some well-grounded hope, shall demand. For I,
who was lately supremely blessed in brother, children, wife, wealth, and
in the very nature of that wealth, while in position, influence,
reputation, and popularity, I was inferior to none, however
distinguished--I cannot, I repeat, go on longer lamenting over myself
and those dear to me in a life of such humiliation as this, and in a
state of such utter ruin. Wherefore, what do you mean by writing to me
about negotiating a bill of exchange? As though I were not now wholly
dependent on your means! And that is just the very thing in which I see
and feel, to my misery, of what a culpable act I have been guilty in
squandering to no purpose the money which I received from the treasury
in your name,[323] while you have to satisfy your creditors out of the
very vitals of yourself and your son. However, the sum mentioned in your
letter has been paid to M. Antonius, and the same amount to Cæpio. For
me the sum at present in my hands is sufficient for what I contemplate
doing. For in either case--whether I am restored or given up in
despair--I shall not want any more money. For yourself, if you are
molested, I think you should apply to Crassus and Calidius. I don't know
how far Hortensius is to be trusted. Myself, with the most elaborate
pretence of affection and the closest daily intimacy, he treated with
the most utter want of principle and the most consummate treachery, and
Q. Arrius helped him in it: acting under whose advice, promises, and
injunctions, I was left helpless to fall into this disaster. But this
you will keep dark for fear they might injure you. Take care also--and
it is on this account that I think you should cultivate Hortensius
himself by means of Pomponius--that the epigram on the _lex
Aurelia_[324] attributed to you when candidate for the ædileship is not
proved by false testimony to be yours. For there is nothing that I am so
afraid of as that, when people understand how much pity for me your
prayers and your acquittal will rouse, they may attack you with all the
greater violence. Messalla I reckon as really attached to you: Pompey I
regard as still pretending only. But may you never have to put these
things to the test! And that prayer I would have offered to the gods had
they not ceased to listen to prayers of mine. However, I do pray that
they may be content with these endless miseries of ours; among which,
after all, there is no discredit for any wrong thing done--sorrow is the
beginning and end, sorrow that punishment is most severe when our
conduct has been most unexceptionable. As to my daughter and yours and
my young Cicero, why should I recommend them to you, my dear brother?
Rather I grieve that their orphan state will cause you no less sorrow
than it does me. Yet as long as you are uncondemned they will not be
fatherless. The rest, by my hopes of restoration and the privilege of
dying in my fatherland, my tears will not allow me to write! Terentia
also I would ask you to protect, and to write me word on every subject.
Be as brave as the nature of the case admits.

Thessalonica, 13 June.

[Footnote 323: See pp. 92, 107.]

[Footnote 324: Quintus was a candidate in B.C. 66 for the ædileship of
the following year. The _lex Aurelia_, which divided the juries between
the senators, equites, and _tribuni ærarii_, was passed in Pompey's
first consulship, B.C. 70. As this was the compromise in the matter of
the _iudicia_ favoured by Pompey, Hortensius, and the like, an attack on
it would be likely to give offence.]




LXVI (A III, 10)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA, 17 JUNE


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

The public transactions up to the 25th of May I have learnt from your
letter. I am waiting for the rest, as you advised, at Thessalonica; and
when they arrive I shall be better able to decide where to be. For if
there is any reason, if any action is being taken, if I shall see any
hopes, I shall either wait in the same place or go to your house; but
if, as you say, these hopes have vanished into air, I shall look out for
something else. At present you do not give me any indication except the
disagreement of those friends of yours, which, however, arises between
them on every kind of subject rather than myself. Therefore I don't see
what good it is to me. However, as long as you all will have me hope, I
shall obey you. For as to your scoldings so frequent and so severe, and
your saying that I am faint-hearted, I would ask you what misery is
there so heavy as not to be included in my disfranchisement? Did anyone
ever fall from such a high position, in so good a cause, with such
endowments of genius, wisdom and popularity, with such powerful supports
from all loyalists? Can I forget what I was, and not feel what I am? Of
what honour, of what glory, of what children, of what means, of what a
brother I am deprived? This last, indeed, to draw your attention to a
new kind of disaster--though I valued him, and always had done so, more
than myself--I have avoided seeing, lest I should behold his grief and
mourning, or lest I--whom he had left in the highest prosperity--should
obtrude myself upon him in a state of ruin and humiliation. I pass over
the other particulars that are past bearing: for I am prevented by my
tears. And here, let me ask, am I to be blamed for my grief, or for the
unfortunate mistake of not retaining these advantages (and I could
easily have done so, had not a plot for my destruction been hatched
within my own walls), or at least of not losing them without losing my
life at the same time? My purpose in writing these words is that you
should rather console me, as you do, than think me deserving of
correction or chiding; and the reason of the comparative brevity of my
letters is, in the first place, that I am hindered by outbursts of
sorrow, and, in the second place, that I have news to expect from Rome
rather than any to communicate myself. But when that news arrives I will
let you know my plans. Pray, as you have done hitherto, write to me on
as many subjects as possible, that I may not be ignorant of any possible
thing there is to know.

Thessalonica, 17 June.




LXVII (A III, 11)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA, 27 JUNE


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

I have been kept at Thessalonica up to this time as well by your letter
and some good news (which, however, did not rest on the best authority),
and the expectation of hearing from you all at Rome, as by the fact that
you advised my doing so. When I receive the letters which I expect, if
there turns out to be the hope which rumour brings me, I shall go to
your house;[325] if otherwise, I will inform you of what I have done.
Pray go on, as you are doing, and help me by your exertions, advice, and
influence. Cease now consoling me, but yet don't chide me; for when you
do that, I fail to recognize your affection and regret! Yet I believe
you to be so distressed yourself at my wretchedness, that it is not
within anyone's power to console you. Give your support to Quintus, my
best and kindest of brothers. Pray write to me fully on everything.

27 June.

[Footnote 325: _I.e._, to the house of Atticus at Buthrotum.]




LXVIII (A III, 12)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA, 17 JULY


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

Well, you argue earnestly as to what hope is to be entertained, and
especially through the action of the senate, and yet you mention that
the clause of the bill is being posted up, in virtue of which the
subject is forbidden to be mentioned in the senate. Accordingly, not a
word is said about it. In these circumstances you find fault with me for
distressing myself, when the fact is I am already more distressed than
anybody ever was, as you know very well. You hold out hope as a
consequence of the elections. What hope can there be with the same man
tribune, and a consul-designate who is my enemy?[326] But you have dealt
me a blow in what you say about my speech having got abroad.[327] Pray
do your best to heal that wound, as you express it. I did indeed write
one some time ago, in a fit of anger at what he had first composed
against me; but I had taken such pains to suppress it, that I thought it
would never get into circulation. How it has leaked out I cannot think.
But since the occasion never arose for my having a word of dispute with
him, and since it appears to me to be more carelessly written than my
other speeches, I think it might be maintained not to be by me. Pray
look after this if you think I can do anything to remedy the mischief;
but if my ruin is inevitable, I don't so much care about it. I am still
lying idle in the same place, without conversation, without being able
to think. Though, as you say, I have "intimated" to you my desire that
you should come to me, yet it is now clear to me[328] that you are doing
me useful service where you are, but could not give me even a word of
relief here. I cannot write any more, nor have I anything to say: I am
rather waiting to hear from you all.

Thessalonica, 17 July.

[Footnote 326: Clodius was not re-elected, and Q. Cæcilius Metellus
Nepos, who had as tribune (B.C. 63-62) been hostile to Cicero, now as
consul supported Pompey in befriending Cicero.]

[Footnote 327: The speech in the senate _in Curionem et Clodium_,
_i.e._, against the elder C. Curio, who had been Clodius's advocate in
B.C. 61 on the charge _de incesto_. Fragments only of it are preserved.
They are sufficiently violent. Cicero suggests repudiating the
authorship, because the speech had never been delivered, and therefore
was not necessarily intended for publication. There is no special reason
for abusing Cicero's character on this account. If some enemy had got
hold of the MS. and published it without his consent, it was not really
the expression of his deliberate sentiments.]

[Footnote 328: Reading _nunc tamen intellego_ for _si donatam ut
intellego_, which is meaningless. There may be latent in _si donatam_
some proper name, as _Dodonam_ or _Macedoniam_, but it is not possible
to extract it now. _Istic_, as usual, means "where you are," _i.e._, at
Rome.]




LXIX (A III, 14)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA, 21 JULY


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

From your letter I am full of anxiety to hear what Pompey's view is of
my case, or what he professes to be his view. The elections, I presume,
are over; and when they were over you say that he was of opinion that my
case should be mooted. If I seem foolish to you for entertaining hopes,
it is at your bidding that I do so: yet I know that you have in your
letters been usually inclined rather to check me and my hopes. Now pray
write distinctly what your view is. I know that I have fallen into this
distress from numerous errors of my own. If certain accidents have in
any degree corrected those errors, I shall be less sorry that I
preserved my life then and am still living. Owing to the constant
traffic along the road[329] and the daily expectation of political
change, I have as yet not removed from Thessalonica. But now I am being
forced away, not by Plancius--for he, indeed, wishes to keep me
here--but by the nature of the place, which is not at all calculated for
the residence of a disfranchised man in such a state of sorrow. I have
not gone to Epirus, as I had said I would, because all of a sudden the
messages and letters that arrived have all indicated it to be
unnecessary for me to be in the immediate neighbourhood of Italy. From
this place, as soon as I have heard something about the elections, I
shall set my face towards Asia, but to what particular part I am not yet
certain: however, you shall know.

Thessalonica, 21 July.

[Footnote 329: The _via Egnatia_, the road across Macedonia, which was
one of the great channels of communication between Rome and the East,
and which terminated at Thessalonica.]




LXX (A III, 13)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA, 5 AUGUST


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

As to my having written you word that I meant to go to Epirus, I changed
my plan when I saw that my hope was vanishing and fading away, and did
not remove from Thessalonica. I resolved to remain there until I heard
from you on the subject mentioned in your last letter, namely, that
there was going to be some motion made in the senate on my case
immediately after the elections, and that Pompey had told you so.
Wherefore, as the elections are over and I have no letter from you, I
shall consider it as though you had written to say that nothing has come
of it, and I shall not feel annoyed at having been buoyed up by a hope
which did not keep me long in suspense. But the movement, which you said
in your letter that you foresaw as likely to be to my advantage, people
arriving here tell me will not occur.[330] My sole remaining hope is in
the tribunes-designate: and if I wait to see how that turns out, you
will have no reason to think of me as having been wanting to my own
cause or the wishes of my friends. As to your constantly finding fault
with me for being so overwhelmed by my misfortune, you ought to pardon
me when you see that I have sustained a more crushing blow than anyone
you have ever seen or heard of. As to your saying that you are told that
my intellect in even affected by grief, that is not so; my intellect is
quite sound. Oh that it had been as much so in the hour of danger! when
I found those, to whom I thought my safety was the dearest object of
their life, most bitterly and unfeelingly hostile: who, when they saw
that I had somewhat lost my balance from fear, left nothing undone which
malice and treachery could suggest in giving me the final push, to my
utter ruin. Now, as I must go to Cyzicus, where I shall get letters
more rarely, I beg you to write me word all the more carefully of
everything you may think I ought to know. Be sure you are affectionate
to my brother Quintus: if in all my misery I still leave him with rights
undiminished, I shall not consider myself utterly ruined.

5 August.

[Footnote 330: The probable split among the triumvirs, alluded to in
Letter LXIII.]




LXXI (Q FR I, 4)

TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA, AUGUST


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

I beg you, my dear brother, if you and all my family have been ruined by
my single misfortune, not to attribute it to dishonesty and bad conduct
on my part, rather than to short-sightedness and the wretched state I
was in. I have committed no fault except in trusting those whom I
believed to be bound by the most sacred obligation not to deceive me, or
whom I thought to be even interested in not doing so. All my most
intimate, nearest and dearest friends were either alarmed for themselves
or jealous of me: the result was that all I lacked was good faith on the
part of my friends and caution on my own.[331] But if your own blameless
character and the compassion of the world prove sufficient to preserve
you at this juncture from molestation, you can, of course, observe
whether any hope of restoration is left for me. For Pomponius, Sestius,
and my son-in-law Piso have caused me as yet to stay at Thessalonica,
forbidding me, on account of certain impending movements, to increase my
distance. But in truth I am awaiting the result more on account of their
letters than from any firm hope of my own. For what can I hope with an
enemy possessed of the most formidable power, with my detractors masters
of the state, with friends unfaithful, with numbers of people jealous?
However, of the new tribunes there is one, it is true, most warmly
attached to me--Sestius--and I hope Curius, Milo, Fadius, Fabricius;
but still there is Clodius in violent opposition, who even when out of
office will be able to stir up the passions of the mob by the help of
that same gang, and then there will be found some one also to veto the
bill.

Such a state of things was not put before me when I was leaving Rome,
but I often used to be told that I was certain to return in three days
with the greatest _éclat_. "What made you go, then?" you will say. What,
indeed! Many circumstances concurred to throw me off my balance--the
defection of Pompey, the hostility of the consuls, and of the prætors
also, the timidity of the _publicani_, the armed bands. The tears of my
friends prevented me seeking refuge in death, which would certainly have
been the best thing for my honour, the best escape from unbearable
sorrows. But I have written to you on this subject in the letter I gave
to Phaetho. Now that you have been plunged into griefs and troubles,
such as no one ever was before, if the compassion of the world can
lighten our common misfortune, you will, it seems, score a success
beyond belief! But if we are both utterly ruined--ah me!--I shall have
been the absolute destruction of my whole family, to whom I used to be
at least no discredit! But pray, as I said in a previous letter to you,
look into the business, test it thoroughly, and write to me with the
candour which our situation demands, and not as your affection for me
would dictate. I shall retain my life as long as I shall think that it
is in your interest for me to do so, or that it ought to be preserved
with a view to future hope. You will find Sestius most friendly to us,
and I believe that Lentulus, the coming consul, will also be so for your
sake. However, deeds are not so easy as words. You will see what is
wanted and what the truth is. On the whole, supposing that no one takes
advantage of your unprotected position and our common calamity, it is by
your means, or not at all, that something may be effected. But even if
your enemies have begun to annoy you, don't flinch: for _you_ will be
attacked by legal process, not by swords. However, I hope that this may
not occur. I beg you to write me back word on all subjects, and to
believe that though I have less spirit and resource than in old times, I
have quite as much affection and loyalty.

[Footnote 331: Reading _defuit_ for _fuit_.]




LXXII (A III, 15)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA, 17 AUGUST


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

On the 13th of August I received four letters from you: one in which you
urge me in a tone of reproof to be less weak; a second, in which you say
that Crassus's freedman has told you about my anxiety and leanness; a
third, in which you describe the proceedings in the senate; a fourth on
the subject of Varro's assurances to you as to the friendly feelings of
Pompey.

To the first my answer is this: though I do grieve, yet I keep all my
mental faculties, and it is precisely that which vexes me--I have no
opportunity and no one with whom to employ so sound an intellect. For if
you cannot find yourself separated from one individual like myself
without sorrow, what do you think must be my case, who am deprived both
of you and of everyone else? And if you, while still in possession of
all your rights, miss me, to what an extent do you think those rights
are missed by me? I will not enumerate the things of which I have been
despoiled, not only because you are not ignorant of them, but also lest
I should reopen my own sorrow. I only assert this, that never did anyone
in an unofficial position possess such great advantages, or fall into
such great miseries. Moreover, lapse of time not only does not soften
this grief, it even enhances it. For other sorrows are softened by age,
this one cannot but be daily increased both by my sense of present
misery and the recollection of my past life. For it is not only property
or friends that I miss, but myself. For what am I? But I will not allow
myself either to wring your soul with my complaints, or to place my
hands too often on my wounds. For as to your defence of those whom I
said had been jealous of me, and among them Cato, I indeed think that he
was so far removed from that crime, that I am above all things sorry
that the pretended zeal of others had more influence with me than his
honesty. As for your excuses for the others, they ought to be excused
in my eyes if they are so in yours. But all this is an old story now.
Crassus's freedman, I think, spoke without any real sincerity. In the
senate you say that the debate was satisfactory. But what about Curio?
Hasn't he read that speech? I can't make out how it got into
circulation! But Axius, in describing the proceedings of the same day,
does not speak so highly of Curio.[332] But he may be omitting
something; I know you have certainly not written anything except what
actually occurred. Varro's talk gives me some hope of Cæsar, and would
that Varro himself would throw himself into the cause! Which he
certainly will do, both of his own accord and under pressure from you.
For myself, if fortune ever grants me the enjoyment of you all and of my
country, I will at least take care that you shall, above all the rest of
my friends, have cause to be glad: and I will so discharge all the
duties of affection and friendship, which (to confess the truth) have
not heretofore been conspicuous, that you shall regard me as restored to
yourself as much as to my brother and my children. If I have in any way
sinned in my conduct to you, or rather since I have done so, pardon me.
For I have sinned more grievously against myself. And I do not write
this to you because I know you not to feel deeply for my misfortune: but
certainly if it had been a matter of _obligation_ with you, and had
always been so, to love me as much as you do and have done, you would
never have allowed me to lack that judgment with which you are so well
supplied,[333] nor would you have allowed me to be persuaded that the
passing of the bill for the "colleges" was to our advantage.[334] But
you did nothing but weep over my sorrow, as though you were my second
self. This was indeed a sign of your affection: but what might have been
done, if I had earned it at your hands--the spending by you of days and
nights in thinking out the course I ought to have pursued--that was
omitted, owing to my own culpable imprudence, not yours. Now if, I don't
say you only, but if there had been anyone to urge me, when alarmed at
Pompey's ungenerous answer,[335] not to adopt that most degrading
course--and you are the person that, above all others, could have done
it--I should either have died honourably, or we should have been living
to-day triumphant. In this you must forgive me. For I find much greater
fault with myself, and only call you in question afterwards, as at once
my second self and the sharer in my error; and, besides, if I am ever
restored, our mistake will seem still less in my eyes, and to you at
least I shall be endeared by your own kindness, since there is none on
my side.[336] There is something in the suggestion you mentioned as
having been made in your conversation with Culleo as to a
_privilegium_,[337] but by far the better course is to have the law
repealed. For if no one vetoes it, what course can be safer? But if
anyone is found to prohibit its passing, he will be equally able to veto
a decree of the senate. Nor is there need for the repeal of anything
else. For the previous law did not touch me: and if, on its publication,
I had chosen to speak in its favour, or to ignore it, as it ought to
have been ignored, it could not have done me any harm at all.[338] It
was at this point first that my judgment failed to assist me, nay, even
did me harm. Blind, blind, I say, was I in laying aside my senator's
toga, and in entreating the people; it was a fatal step to take before
some attack had been begun upon me by name.[339] But I am harping on the
past: it is, however, for the purpose of advising you, if any action is
to be taken, not to touch that law, in which there are many provisions
in the interests of the people. But it is foolish for me to be laying
down rules as to what you are to do and how. I only wish that something
may be done! And it is on that point that your letter displays much
reserve: I presume, to prevent my being too much agitated by despair.
For what action do you see possible to be taken, or in what way? Through
the senate? But you yourself told me that Clodius had fixed upon the
doorpost of the senate-house a certain clause in the law, "that it might
neither be put to the house nor mentioned."[340] How could
Domitius,[341] therefore, say that he would bring it before the house?
How came it about also that Clodius held his tongue, when those you
mention in your letter both spoke on the subject and demanded that a
motion should be brought in? But if you go to the people--can it be
carried except with the unanimous approval of the tribunes? What about
my property? What about my house? Will it be possible to have it
restored? Or, if that cannot, how can I be? Unless you see these
difficulties on the way to be solved, what is the hope to which you
invite me? But if, again, there is no hope, what sort of life is there
for me? So I await at Thessalonica the gazette of the proceedings of the
1st of August, in accordance with which I shall decide whether to take
refuge on your estate, in order at once to avoid seeing people I don't
want to see, to see you, according to your letter, and to be nearer at
hand in case of any motion being made (and this I understand is in
accordance with your view and that of my brother Quintus), or to depart
for Cyzicus. Now, my dear Pomponius, since you imparted to me none of
your wisdom in time to save me, either because you had made up your mind
that I had judgment enough of my own, or that you owed me nothing beyond
being by my side; and since, betrayed, beguiled, and hurried into a
snare as I was, I neglected all my defences, abandoned and left Italy,
which was everywhere on the _qui vive_ to defend me, and surrendered
myself and mine into the hands of enemies while you looked on and said
nothing, though, even if you were not my superior in mental power, you
were at least in less of a fright: now, if you can, raise the fallen,
and in that way assist me! But if every avenue is barred, take care that
I know that also, and cease at length either to scold me or to offer
your kindly-meant consolations. If I had meant to impeach your good
faith, I should not have chosen your roof, of all others, to which to
trust myself: it is my own folly that I blame for having thought that
your love for me was exactly what I could have wished it to be:[342] for
if that had been so, you would have displayed the same good faith, but
greater circumspection; at least, you would have held me back when
plunging headlong into ruin, and would not have had to encounter the
labours which you are now enduring in saving the wrecks of my fortunes.
Wherefore do be careful to look into, examine thoroughly, and write
fully everything that occurs, and resolve (as I am sure you do) that I
shall be _some one_, since I cannot now be the man I was and the man I
might have been; and lastly, believe that in this letter it lis not you,
but myself that I have accused. If there are any people to whom you
think that letters ought to be delivered in my name, pray compose them
and see them delivered.

17 August.

[Footnote 332: Or, as Prof. Tyrrell suggests, "does not quote Curio to
that effect." I think, however, that Cicero does not use _laudo_ in this
sense except in connexion with _auctorem_, _auctores_, and even then
generally with a subsense, at least, of commendation. The speech was
composed to be delivered against the elder Curio and Clodius (see p.
155), but was never delivered. Its personal tone made it dangerous now.]

[Footnote 333: Cicero means that Atticus acted with the emotion
spontaneously arising from his affection, but not with the caution which
he would have shewn in doing a thing which he was under some obligation
to do.]

[Footnote 334: The ancient "colleges" or "clubs" had been gradually
increasing, and a decree of the senate in B.C. 64 had declared certain
of them unlawful. But Clodius had overridden this decree by a _lex_
early in B.C. 58, and many new ones were formed, which he used for his
political purposes (_pro Sest._ § 55; Dio, xxxviii. 13).]

[Footnote 335: That he could do nothing against the wishes of Cæsar
(_Att._ x. 4, § 3; cp. _in Pis._ § 77). According to Plutarch, Pompey
avoided a personal interview (_Cic._ 31).]

[Footnote 336: The kindness has been all on the side of Atticus, who
will therefore be attached to the object of it--for the benefactor loves
more than the benefited.]

[Footnote 337: A _privilegium_ was a law referring to a particular
person, which was forbidden by the twelve tables, and if it was shewn to
be unconstitutional a decree of the senate could declare it void. But
Cicero seems to think that such a proceeding of the senate would give a
possibility of raising the question afresh.]

[Footnote 338: The first bill named no one, but enacted that "anyone who
had put a citizen to death uncondemned should be forbidden fire and
water." The second, "that M. Tullius be forbidden fire and water."
Cicero says that the former did not touch him, I suppose, because it
could not be retrospective. This is in accordance with the view of
Cæsar, who approved of the law, but said that old sores ought not to be
ripped up--οὐ μὴν καὶ προσήκειν ἐπὶ παρεληλυθόσι τοιοῦτόν τινα νόμον
συγγράφεσθει (Dio, xxxviii. 17).]

[Footnote 339: Because it shewed that he considered himself as coming
under the new law.]

[Footnote 340: Letter LXVIII, p. 154.]

[Footnote 341: L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who was a prætor this year.]

[Footnote 342: Though Cicero uses _tantum ... quantum_ here, he does not
mean that Atticus failed to love him enough--that would have been too
unreasonable. In a certain way he means that he loved him too much. He
allowed his spontaneous feelings full vent, without acting with the cool
wisdom which he would have shewn in fulfilling a duty or moral
obligation. It is more fully expressed above. Still, it was a difficult
thing to say, and he doesn't succeed in making it very clear.]




LXXIII (A III, 16)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA, 19 AUGUST


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

My whole journey is in suspense till I receive letters from you all of
the 1st of August. For if there turns out to be any hope, I am for
Epirus: if not, I shall make for Cyzicus or some other place. Your
letter is cheerful[343] indeed, but at the same time, the oftener I read
it, the more it weakens the suggested ground for hope, so that it is
easy to see that you are trying to minister at once to consolation and
to truth. Accordingly, I beg you to write to me exactly what you know
and exactly what you think.

19 August.

[Footnote 343: Reading _lætæ_ for _lectæ_.]




LXXIV (A III, 17)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA, 4 SEPTEMBER


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

News of my brother Quintus of an invariably gloomy nature reached me
from the 3rd of June up to the 29th of August. On that day, however,
Livineius, a freedman of Lucius Regulus, came to me by the direction of
Regulus himself.[344] He announced that absolutely no notice whatever
had been given of a prosecution, but that there had, nevertheless, been
some talk about the son of C. Clodius.[345] He also brought me a letter
from my brother Quintus. But next day came the slaves of Sestius, who
brought me a letter from you not so positive in regard to this alarm as
the conversation of Livineius had been. I am rendered very anxious in
the midst of my own endless distress, and the more so as Appius[346] has
the trial of the case. As to other circumstances mentioned in the same
letter by you in connexion with my hopes, I understand that things are
going less well than other people represent them. I, however, since we
are now not far from the time at which the matter will be decided, will
either go to your house or will still remain somewhere in this
neighbourhood. My brother writes me word that his interests are being
supported by you more than by anyone else. Why should I urge you to do
what you are already doing? or offer you thanks which you do not expect?
I only pray that fortune may give us the opportunity of enjoying our
mutual affection in security. I am always very anxious to get your
letters, in which I beg you not to be afraid of your minuteness boring
me, or your plain speaking giving me pain.

4 September.

[Footnote 344: L. Livineius Regulus, whom Cicero (_F._ xiii. 60) calls a
very intimate friend, and says that his freedman Trypho stood his friend
in the hour of need. He seems to have been condemned (in B.C. 56?) for
something, but he afterwards served under Iulius Cæsar (_B. Afr._ § 9).
The freedman's full name was L. Livineius Trypho.]

[Footnote 345: About Appius acting as prosecutor of Quintus. He was a
nephew of P. Clodius. See Letter CCXXII.]

[Footnote 346: Appius Claudius Pulcher, brother of P. Clodius, was
prætor-designate for B.C. 57, and had allotted to him the _quæstio de
rebus repetundis_ (_pro Sest._ § 78). He was consul B.C. 54.]




LXXV (A III, 18)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA (SEPTEMBER)


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

You raised no little flutter in my mind when you said in your letter
that Varro had assured you as a friend that Pompey would certainly take
up my case, and that as soon as he had received a letter from Cæsar,
which he was expecting, he would even name some one to formally carry
out the business. Was that all mere talk, or was the letter from Cæsar
hostile? Is there some ground for hope? You mentioned, too, that Pompey
had also used the expression "after the elections." Pray, as you can
conceive the severity of the troubles by which I am prostrated, and as
you must think it natural to your kindness to do so, inform me fully as
to the whole state of my case. For my brother Quintus, dear good fellow,
who is so much attached to me, fills his letters with hopeful
expressions, fearing, I suppose, my entirely losing heart. Whereas your
letters vary in tone; for you won't have me either despair or cherish
rash hopes. I beseech you to let me know everything as far as you can
detect the truth.




LXXVI (A III, 19)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA, 15 SEPTEMBER


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

As long as my letters from you all continued to be of such a nature as
to keep expectation alive, I was bound to Thessalonica by hope and eager
longing: afterwards, when all political measures for this year appeared
to me to be over, I yet determined not to go to Asia, both because a
crowd of people is disagreeable to me, and because, in case any movement
was set on foot by the new magistrates, I was unwilling to be far off.
Accordingly, I resolved to go to your house in Epirus, not because the
natural features of the country mattered to me, shunning as I do the
light of day altogether, but because it will be most grateful to my
feelings to set out from a harbour of yours to my restoration; and, if
that restoration is denied me, there is no place where I shall with
greater ease either support this most wretched existence or (which is
much better) rid myself of it. I shall be in a small society: I shall
shake off the crowd. Your letters have never raised me to such a pitch
of hope as those of others; and yet my hopes have always been less warm
than your letters. Nevertheless, since a beginning has been made in the
case, of whatever sort and from whatever motive, I will not disappoint
the sad and touching entreaties of my best and only brother, nor the
promises of Sestius and others, nor the hopes of my most afflicted wife,
nor the entreaties of my most unhappy Tulliola, as well as your own
loyal letter. Epirus will furnish me with a road to restoration or to
that other alternative mentioned above. I beg and entreat of you, Titus
Pomponius, as you see that I have been despoiled by the treachery of men
of all that most adds splendour to life, of all that can most gratify
and delight the soul, as you see that I have been betrayed and cast away
by my own advisers, as you understand that I have been forced to ruin
myself and my family--help me by your compassion, and support my brother
Quintus, who is still capable of being saved; protect Terentia and my
children. For myself, if you think it possible that you may see me at
Rome, wait for me; if not, come to see me if you can, and make over to
me just so much of your land as may be covered by my corpse. Finally,
send slaves to me with letters as soon and as often as possible.

15 September.




LXXVII (A III, 20)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA, 4 OCTOBER

_Cicero greets Q. Cæcilius Pomponianus Atticus, son of Quintus._[347]


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

That this is now the case, and that your uncle has done what he ought to
have done, I approve in the strongest manner possible: I will say I am
"glad," when circumstances shall admit of my using such a word. Ah me!
how well everything would have been going if my own spirit, my own
judgment, and the good faith of those on whom I relied had not failed
me! But I won't review these circumstances lest I increase my sorrow.
Yet I feel sure that it occurs to your mind what a life ours was, how
delightful, how dignified. To recover this, in the name of fortune,
bestow all your energies, as I know you do, and take care that I keep
the birthday of my return in your delightful house with you and my
family. For this hope and expectation, though now put before me as being
very strong, I yet wished to wait in your home in Epirus; but my letters
are such as to make me think it better not to be in the same
neighbourhood. What you say in your letter about my town house and about
Curio's speech is exactly true. Under the general act of restoration, if
only that is accorded me, everything will be included, of which I care
for nothing more than for my house. But I don't give you any precise
injunction, I trust myself wholly to your affection and honour. I am
very glad to hear that you have extricated yourself from every
embarrassment in view of so large an inheritance. As to your promise to
employ your means in securing my restoration, though I am in all points
assisted by you above all others, yet I quite see what a support that
is, and I fully understand that you are undertaking and can carry on
many departments of my cause, and do not need to be asked to do so. You
tell me not to suspect that your feelings have been at all affected by
acts of commission or omission on my part towards you--well, I will obey
you and will get rid of that anxiety; yet I shall owe you all the more
from the fact that your kind consideration for me has been on a higher
level than mine for you. Please tell me in your letters whatever you
see, whatever you make out, whatever is being done in my case, and
exhort all your friends to help in promoting my recall. The bill of
Sestius[348] does not shew sufficient regard for my dignity or
sufficient caution. For the proposed law ought to mention me by name,
and to contain a carefully expressed clause about my property. Pray see
to it.

Thessalonica, 4 October.

[Footnote 347: Cicero gives Atticus his full name, rather playfully, as
it was a new acquisition. His uncle, Q. Cæcilius, dying this year, left
him heir to a large fortune, and adopted him in his will (Nep. _Att._
5). He therefore, according to custom, took his uncle's _prænomen_ and
_nomen_, Q. Cæcilius, retaining his own _nomen_ in an adjectival form
(Pomponianus) as a _cognomen_, just as C. Octavius became, by his
uncle's will, _C. Iulius Cæsar Octavianus_. His additional name of
Atticus remained as before, and in ordinary life was his usual
designation. See p. 15.]

[Footnote 348: Sestius, tribune-elect for B.C. 57, would come into
office 10th December, B.C. 58. He means to bring a bill before the
people for Cicero's recall, and a draft of it has been sent to Cicero,
who criticises it as not entering sufficiently into details, though he
had before said that a general _restitutio in integrum_ covered
everything; but perhaps this bill only repealed the Clodian law as a
_privilegium_, without mentioning anything else.]




LXXVIII (F XIV, 2)

TO TERENTIA (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA, 5 OCTOBER


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

Greetings to Terentia, and Tulliola, and Cicero. Don't suppose that I
write longer letters to anyone else, unless some one has written at
unusual length to me, whom I think myself bound to answer. For I have
nothing to write about, and there is nothing at such a time as this that
I find it more difficult to do. Moreover, to you and my dear Tulliola I
cannot write without many tears. For I see you reduced to the greatest
misery--the very people whom I desired to be ever enjoying the most
complete happiness, a happiness which it was my bounden duty to secure,
and which I should have secured if I had not been such a coward. Our
dear Piso I love exceedingly for his noble conduct. I have to the best
of my ability encouraged him by letter to proceed, and thanked him, as I
was bound to do. I gather that you entertain hopes in the new tribunes.
We shall have reason to depend on that, if we may depend on Pompey's
goodwill, but yet I am nervous about Crassus. I gather that you have
behaved in every respect with the greatest courage and most loyal
affection, nor am I surprised at it; but I grieve that the position
should be such that my miseries are relieved by such heavy ones on your
part. For a kind friend of ours, Publius Valerius, has told me in a
letter which I could not read without violent weeping, how you had been
dragged from the temple of Vesta to the Valerian bank.[349] To think of
it, my dear, my love! You from whom everybody used to look for
help![350] That you, my Terentia, should now be thus harassed, thus
prostrate in tears and humiliating distress! And that this should be
brought about by my fault, who have preserved the rest of the citizens
only to perish myself! As to what you say about our town house, or
rather its site, I shall not consider myself fully restored, until it
has also been restored for me. However, these things are not yet within
our grasp. I am only sorry that you, impoverished and plundered as you
are, should be called upon to bear any part of the present expenses. Of
course, if the business is successfully accomplished we shall get
everything back: but if the same evil fortune keeps us down, will you be
so foolish as to throw away even the poor remains of your fortune?[351]
I beseech you, my life, as far as expense goes, allow others to bear it,
who are well able if they are only willing to do so; and do not, as you
love me, try your delicate constitution. For I have you day and night
before my eyes: I see you eagerly undertaking labours of every kind: I
fear you cannot endure them. Yet I see that everything depends on you!
Wherefore, to enable us to attain what you hope and are striving for,
attend carefully to your health. _I_ don't know to whom to write except
to those who write to me, or to those about whom you say something in
your letters. I will not go farther off, since that is your wish, but
pray send me a letter as often as possible, especially if there is
anything on which we may safely build our hope. Good-bye, my loves,
good-bye!

Thessalonica, 5 October.

[Footnote 349: Terentia, whose half-sister was a Vestal, seems to have
taken sanctuary with the Vestals, as did the mother and sister of
Augustus in B.C. 43. The special indignity of which Cicero complains is
that she had been forced to leave the sanctuary and appear at the bank
of Valerius, but for what purpose we cannot now tell. It is suggested
that it was to make some solemn declaration as to her husband's
property, some of which she may be supposed to have tried to conceal.
The term _ducta esses_ is that applied to prisoners led through the
streets, but we may regard it as used _ad invidiam_.]

[Footnote 350: In securing her husband's advocacy.]

[Footnote 351: Mention is made of Terentia's separate estate in Letters
XXX and LXXXI.]




LXXIX (A III, 21)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA, 28 OCTOBER


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

It is exactly thirty days to the writing of this letter since I have
heard from you. Well, my present intention is, as I have told you, to go
into Epirus and there by preference to await whatever may turn up. I beg
you to write to me with the utmost openness whatever you perceive to be
the state of the case, and whether it is for good or evil, and also to
send a letter, as you say, in my name to whomsoever you think it
necessary.

28 October.




LXXX (A III, 22)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

THESSALONICA AND DYRRACHIUM, 27 NOVEMBER


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

Though my brother Quintus and Piso have given me a careful account of
what has been done, yet I could have wished that your engagements had
not hindered you from writing fully to me, as has been your custom, what
was on foot and what you understood to be the facts. Up to the present,
Plancius[352] keeps me here by his generous treatment, though I have
several times already made an effort to go to Epirus. He has conceived a
hope, which I do not share, that we may possibly quit the province
together: he hopes that that may redound greatly to his credit. But as
soon as news shall come that soldiers are on their way hither,[353] I
shall have to insist on quitting him. And as soon as I do that I will
at once send you word, that you may know where I am. Lentulus,[354] in
his own peculiar zeal for my cause, which he manifests by action and
promises and writings, gives me some hope of Pompey's friendly feelings.
For you have often told me in your letters that the latter was wholly
devoted to him. As to Metellus,[355] my brother has written me word that
by your agency as much has been accomplished as he had hoped. My dear
Pomponius, fight hard that I may be allowed to live with you and my own
family, and write me everything that occurs. I am heavy with sorrow and
regret for all my dear ones, who have always been dearer to me than
myself. Take care of your health.

       *       *       *       *       *

Dyrrachium, 27 November. As, if I went through Thessaly into Epirus, I
should have been likely to be a very long time without any intelligence,
and as I have warm friends in the people of Dyrrachium, I have come to
them, after writing the former part of this letter at Thessalonica. When
I turn my face from this town towards your house I will let you know,
and for your part I would have you write me everything with the utmost
particularity, whatever its nature. I am now expecting some definite
step or the abandonment of all hope.

[Footnote 352: Cn. Plancius, quæstor in Macedonia, whose kindness Cicero
lauds highly when defending him in B.C. 54.]

[Footnote 353: The forces of the new governor, L. Calpurnius Piso, who
was to have Macedonia after his consulship, and would be sending his
troops on before him.]

[Footnote 354: P. Cornelius Lentulus, consul-designate for B.C. 57.]

[Footnote 355: Q. Cæcilius Metellus Nepos, consul-designate for B.C. 57.
See pp. 22-23.]




LXXXI (F XIV, 1)

TO TERENTIA

PARTLY WRITTEN AT THESSALONICA, PARTLY AT DYRRACHIUM, 28 NOVEMBER


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

Greetings to his Terentia, Tulliola, and Cicero. I learn, both from the
letters of many and the conversation of all whom I meet, that you are
shewing a virtue and courage surpassing belief; and that you give no
sign of fatigue in mind or body from your labours. Ah me! To think that
a woman of your virtue, fidelity, uprightness, and kindness should have
fallen into such troubles on my account! And that my little Tullia
should reap such a harvest of sorrow from the father, from whom she used
to receive such abundant joys! For why mention my boy Cicero, who from
the first moment of conscious feeling has been made aware of the
bitterest sorrows and miseries? And if, as you say, I had thought these
things the work of destiny, I could have borne them somewhat more
easily, but they were really all brought about by my own fault, in
thinking myself beloved by those who were really jealous of me, and in
not joining those who really wanted me.[356] But if I had followed my
own judgment, and had not allowed the observations of friends, who were
either foolish or treacherous, to have such great influence with me, we
should have been living at the height of bliss. As it is, since friends
bid us hope, I will do my best to prevent my weakness of health from
failing to second your efforts. I fully understand the magnitude of the
difficulty, and how much easier it will turn out to have been to stay at
home than to get back. However, if we have all the tribunes on our side,
if we find Lentulus as zealous as he appears to be, if, finally, we have
Pompey and Cæsar, there is no reason to despair. About our slaves,[357]
we will do what you say is the opinion of our friends. As to this place,
by this time the epidemic has taken its departure; but while it lasted,
it did not touch me. Plancius, the kindest of men, desires me to stay
with him and still keeps me from departing. I wanted to be in a less
frequented district in Epirus, to which neither Hispo[358] nor soldiers
would come, but as yet Plancius keeps me from going; he hopes that he
may possibly quit his province for Italy in my company. And if ever I
see that day, and come once more into your arms, and if I ever recover
you all and myself, I shall consider that I have reaped a sufficient
harvest both of your piety and my own. Piso's[359] kindness, virtue, and
affection toward us all are so great that nothing can surpass them. I
hope his conduct may be a source of pleasure to him, a source of glory I
see clearly that it will be. I did not mean to find fault with you about
my brother Quintus, but I wished that you all, especially considering
how few there are of you, should be as closely united as possible. Those
whom you wished me to thank I have thanked, and told them that my
information came from you. As to what you say in your letter, my dear
Terentia, about your intention of selling the village, alas! in heaven's
name, what will become of you? And if the same ill-fortune continues to
pursue us, what will become of our poor boy? I cannot write the rest--so
violent is my outburst of weeping, and I will not reduce you to the same
tearful condition. I only add this: if my friends remain loyal to me,
there will be no lack of money; if not, you will not be able to effect
our object out of your own purse. In the name of our unhappy fortunes,
beware how we put the finishing stroke to the boy's ruin. If he has
something to keep him from absolute want, he will need only moderate
character and moderate luck to attain the rest. See to your health, and
mind you send me letter-carriers, that I may know what is going on and
what you are all doing. I have in any case only a short time to wait.
Give my love to Tulliola and Cicero. Good-bye.

Dyrrachium,[360] 27 November.

       *       *       *       *       *

P.S.--I have come to Dyrrachium both because it is a free state, very
kindly disposed to me, and the nearest point to Italy.[361] But if the
crowded condition of the place offends me, I shall take myself elsewhere
and I will write you word.

[Footnote 356: The party of the triumvirs.]

[Footnote 357: See Letter LXI, p. 142.]

[Footnote 358: A centurion or other officer in the army of Piso crossing
to Macedonia. But the name is otherwise unknown, and some have thought
that it is an intentional disguise for the name of _Piso_ himself.]

[Footnote 359: Cicero's son-in-law.]

[Footnote 360: The greater part of this letter was evidently written at
Thessalonica. Cicero appears to have put the date and place of departure
to it after arriving at Dyrrachium, and then added a postscript to
explain why he had come there.]

[Footnote 361: As a _libera civitas_ Dyrrachium had the _ius exilii_,
and would not be filled with Roman officials. The crowded state of the
town--by which Cicero means crowded with Romans--would arise from its
being the usual place of disembarkation from Rome across the north of
the Greek peninsula to the East. There was doubtless always a large
traffic between it and Brundisium, but at this time of year, when
sailing would be, if possible, avoided, he might hope to find it
somewhat less crowded.]




LXXXII (A III, 23)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

DYRRACHIUM, 29 NOVEMBER


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

On the 26th of November I received three letters from you, one dated
25th of October, in which you exhort me to await the month of January
with a good heart, and write at length on such topics as you think tend
to encourage my hopes--as to the zeal of Lentulus, the goodwill of
Metellus, and the general policy of Pompey. In the second letter,
contrary to your usual custom, you append no date, but give sufficient
indication of the time of its writing. For the law having been published
by the eight tribunes, you mention that you wrote this letter on the
very same day, that is, the 29th of October,[362] and you say what good
you think that publication has done. In regard to which, if my
restoration is to be despaired of along with this law, I would have you
think in your affection for me that my fruitless exertions are pitiable
rather than foolish: but if there is any ground for hope, try and secure
that my cause may be hereafter supported with greater attention to
details by the new magistrates. For this bill of the old tribunes[363]
had three clauses, of which the one relating to my return was carelessly
drafted. For nothing is restored to me except my citizenship and
senatorial rank: which, in the circumstances of my position, suffices
me, but it does not escape your observation what special provisions will
have to be made, and in what manner. The second clause is the usual
one--"If anything be done in virtue of this law against other
laws."[364] But observe, my dear Pomponius, what the object of the third
clause is, and by whom it has been put in. For you know that Clodius
provided that it should be scarcely possible, or rather altogether
impossible, for his law to be deprived of validity either by senate or
people. But you must see that the penal provisions of such laws as are
repealed have never been observed. For in that case hardly any law could
be repealed at all--for there is no law which does not hedge itself in
by trying to make repeal difficult--but when a law is repealed, so is
the clause meant to prevent its repeal. Now, though this is in truth the
case, since it has been the universal doctrine and practice, our eight
tribunes introduced the following clause: _If any provision is contained
in this bill which, in view of existing laws or plebiscites_ (_i.e._,
Clodius's law), _it is not lawful without incurring penalty, now or
heretofore, whether to publish, repeal, amend, or supersede, or whereby
he who has so published or amended would be liable to penalty or
fine--such provision is not enacted by this law_. And observe that this
contingency did not touch the case of those eight tribunes, for they
were not bound by a law emanating from their own body.[365] Which makes
one the more suspicious of some evil intention, since they have added a
clause which did not affect themselves, but was against my interests: so
that the new tribunes, if they happened to be somewhat timid, would
think it still more necessary to employ the clause.[366] And Clodius did
not fail to notice this. For he said in the public meeting of November
the third, that by this clause a limit to their legal powers was laid
down for the tribunes-designate; and yet it cannot escape your notice
that in no law is there a clause of the sort: whereas, if it had been
necessary, everybody would have employed it in repealing a law. How this
point came to escape Ninnius[367] and the rest, pray find out, and who
introduced the clause, and how it was that the eight tribunes did not
hesitate to bring my case before the senate--which implies that they did
not think that clause of the law binding--and were yet so cautious in
their proposal for its repeal, as to be afraid (though not personally
liable) of what need not be taken into consideration, even by those who
are bound by the law. This clause I would not have the new tribunes
propose; however, let them only carry something, no matter what: I shall
be content with the single clause recalling me, so long only as the
business is done. I have for some time been feeling ashamed of writing
at such length; for I fear by the time you read this it will be all up
with any hopes, so that this minute criticism of mine may seem pitiable
to you and ridiculous to others. But if there is any ground for hope,
pray look at the law which Visellius[368] drafted for T. Fadius. I like
it very much: for that of our friend Sestius, which you say has your
approbation, I don't like.

The third letter is dated 12th of November, in which you explain with
wisdom and care what the circumstances are which seem to cause a
postponement of my affair, and about Crassus, Pompey, and the rest.
Accordingly, I beg you, if there is any hope that the matter can be
settled by the zeal of the loyalists, by the exertion of influence, and
by getting numbers on our side, to endeavour to break through all
difficulties at a rush, to throw your whole weight into the attempt, and
incite others to do the same. But if, as I perceive from your
conjectures as well as my own, there is no hope left, I beg and implore
you to cherish my brother Quintus, whom I to our mutual misery have
ruined, and not allow him to do anything to himself which would be to
the detriment of your sister's son. My little Cicero, to whom, poor boy!
I leave nothing but prejudice and the blot upon my name, pray protect to
the best of your power. Terentia, that most afflicted of women, sustain
by your kindness. I shall start for Epirus as soon as I have received
news of the first days of the new tribunate.[369] Pray describe fully to
me in your next letter what sort of a beginning is made.

29 November.

[Footnote 362: This bill for Cicero's recall would, of course, be vetoed
by Clodius, and could not therefore be passed, but it would probably
influence the action of the new tribunes for B.C. 57.]

[Footnote 363: _I.e._, the tribunes of B.C. 58.]

[Footnote 364: _I.e._, securing indemnity to the proposers if there is a
technical breach of existing laws, something like the common
clause--"all statutes to the contrary notwithstanding."]

[Footnote 365: The Clodian law.]

[Footnote 366: Because they would not be protected as the previous
tribunes were by the fact of the Clodian law (which alone was
contravened) having emanated from their own _collegium_.]

[Footnote 367: L. Quadratus Ninnius, tribune-elect. On the 1st of June
next he brought forward the question of Cicero's restoration in the
senate.]

[Footnote 368: Cicero's cousin, C. Visellius Varro, a learned
jurisconsult (_Brut._ § 264; 1 _Verr._ § 71).]

[Footnote 369: The tribunes came into office on the 10th of December,
nearly three weeks before the consuls, prætors, etc., who entered office
on the 1st of January.]




LXXXIII (F XIV, 3)

TO TERENTIA (AT ROME)

DYRRACHIUM, 29 NOVEMBER


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

Greetings to his Terentia, Tulliola, and Cicero. I have received three
letters from the hands of Aristocritus, which I almost obliterated with
tears. For I am thoroughly weakened with sorrow, my dear Terentia, and
it is not my own miseries that torture me more than yours--and yours, my
children! Moreover, I am more miserable than you in this, that whereas
the disaster is shared by us both, yet the fault is all my own. It was
my duty to have avoided the danger by accepting a legation,[370] or to
resist it by careful management and the resources at my command, or to
fall like a brave man. Nothing was more pitiful, more base, or more
unworthy of myself than the line I actually took. Accordingly, it is
with shame as well as grief that I am overpowered. For I am ashamed of
not having exhibited courage and care to a most excellent wife and most
darling children. I have, day and night, before my eyes the mourning
dresses, the tears of you all, and the weakness of your own health,
while the hope of recall presented to me is slender indeed. Many are
hostile, nearly all jealous. To expel me had been difficult, to keep me
out is easy. However, as long as you entertain any hope, I will not give
way, lest all should seem lost by my fault. As to your anxiety for my
personal safety, that is now the easiest thing in the world for me, for
even my enemies desire me to go on living in this utter wretchedness. I
will, however, do as you bid me. I have thanked the friends you desired
me to thank, and I have delivered the letters to Dexippus, and have
mentioned that you had informed me of their kindness. That our Piso has
shewn surprising zeal and kindness to us I can see for myself, but
everybody also tells me of it. God grant that I may be allowed, along
with you and our children, to enjoy the actual society of such a
son-in-law! For the present our one remaining hope is in the new
tribunes, and that, too, in the first days of their office; if the
matter is allowed to get stale, it is all over with us. It is for that
reason that I have sent Aristocritus back to you at once, in order that
you may be able to write to me on the spot as to the first official
steps taken, and the progress of the whole business; although I have
also given Dexippus orders to hurry back here at once, and I have sent a
message to my brother to despatch letter-carriers frequently. For the
professed object of my being at Dyrrachium at the present juncture is
that I may hear as speedily as possible what is being done; and I am in
no personal danger, for this town has always been defended by me. When I
am told that enemies are on their way here I shall retire into Epirus.
As to your coming to me, as you say you will if I wish it--for my part,
knowing that a large part of this burden is supported by you, I should
like you to remain where you are. If you succeed in your attempt I must
come to you: but if, on the other hand--but I needn't write the rest.
From your first, or at most, your second letter, I shall be able to
decide what I must do. Only be sure you tell me everything with the
greatest minuteness, although I ought now to be looking out for some
practical step rather than a letter. Take care of your health, and
assure yourself that nothing is or has ever been dearer to me than you
are. Good-bye, my dear Terentia, whom I seem to see before my eyes, and
so am dissolved in tears. Good-bye!

29 November.

[Footnote 370: Either the _libera legatio_ or the acting _legatio_ in
Gaul, both of which Cæsar offered him.]




LXXXIV (A III, 24)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

DYRRACHIUM, 10 DECEMBER


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT. 48]

When, some time ago, I received letters from you all stating that with
your consent the vote for the expenses of the consular provinces had
been taken, though I was nervous as to the result of the measure, I yet
hoped that you saw some good reason for it beyond what I could see: but
when I was informed by word of mouth and by letters that this policy of
yours was strongly censured, I was much disturbed, because the hope
which I had cherished, faint as it was, seemed completely destroyed. For
if the tribunes are angry with us, what hope can there be? And, indeed,
they seem to have reason to be angry, since they, who had undertaken my
cause, have not been consulted on the measure; while by your assenting
to it they have been deprived of all the legitimate influence of their
office: and that though they profess that it was for my sake that they
wished to have the vote for the outfit of the consuls under their
control, not in order to curtail their freedom of action, but in order
to attach them to my cause:[371] that as things stand now, supposing
the consuls to choose to take part against me, they can do so without
let or hindrance, but if they wish to do anything in my favour they are
powerless if the tribunes object. For as to what you say in your letter,
that, if your party had not consented, they would have obtained their
object by a popular vote--that would have been impossible against the
will of the tribunes.[372] So I fear, on the one hand, that I have lost
the favour of the tribunes; and on the other, even supposing that favour
to remain, that the tie has been lost by which the consuls were to be
attached. Added to this is another disadvantage, the abandonment of the
weighty resolution--as, indeed, it was reported to me--that the senate
should pass no decree until my case had been decided, and that, too, in
the case of a measure which was not only not urgent, but even contrary
to custom and unprecedented. For I think there is no precedent for
voting the provincial outfit of magistrates when still only designate:
so that, since in a matter like this the firm line[373] on which my
cause had been taken up has been infringed, there is now no reason why
any decree should not be passed. It is not surprising that those friends
to whom the question was referred assented, for it was difficult to find
anyone to express an opinion openly against proposals so advantageous to
two consuls. It would in any case have been difficult not to be
complaisant to such a warm friend as Lentulus, or to Metellus after the
exceedingly kind way in which he put aside his quarrel with me. But I
fear that, while failing to keep a hold on them, we have lost the
tribunes. How this matter has occurred, and in what position the whole
business stands, I would have you write to me, and in the same spirit as
before: for your outspoken candour, even if not altogether pleasant, is
yet what I prefer.

10 December.

[Footnote 371: The phrase _ornare provincias, ornare consules_, etc.,
means the vote in the senate deciding the number of troops, amount of
money, and other outfit that the magistrates going to their provinces
were to have. The provinces to be taken by outgoing consuls were decided
before the elections--in this case they were Cilicia and Spain. But the
_ornatio_ usually took place after the consuls had entered on their
office, _i.e._, after the 1st of January. For this year, however--we
don't know why--it had taken place before the 1st of December, B.C. 58.
The result of this would be that the new tribunes for B.C. 57--entering
on their office 10th December, B.C. 58--would have no voice in the
matter, and would thus lose a great hold on the consuls. Most of these
tribunes were supporters of Cicero, while he was doubtful as to one of
the consuls--Q. Cæcilius Metellus Nepos. He thinks, therefore, that his
cause has lost by this measure, for the tribunes will have less power of
putting force on the consuls to do anything for him, and yet the same
power of stopping them should they wish to do anything of their own
accord. Besides, the new tribunes may be alienated by what they may
think a measure derogatory to their position. These fears came to
nothing; the tribunes were loyal to Cicero, and the consul Piso
forwarded his recall.]

[Footnote 372: Because the tribunes could have vetoed any measure
brought before the people, and so could have forced the consuls to come
to terms.]

[Footnote 373: _I.e._, that the senate would pass no decree prior to one
recalling Cicero.]




LXXXV (A III, 25)

TO ATTICUS (? IN EPIRUS[374])

DYRRACHIUM (DECEMBER)


[Sidenote: B.C. 58, ÆT 48]

After you left me I received a letter from Rome, from which I see
clearly that I must rot away in this state of disfranchisement: for I
can't believe (don't be offended at my saying so) that you would have
left town at this juncture, if there had been the least hope left of my
restoration. But I pass over this, that I may not seem to be ungrateful
and to wish everything to share my own ruin. All I ask of you is what
you have faithfully promised, that you will appear before the 1st of
January wherever I may be.

[Footnote 374: There is no indication in the letter as to where Atticus
is. He left Rome late in B.C. 58, and apparently did not return till
after Cicero's recall. The most natural explanation is that he was in
Epirus, or somewhere in Greece, and that he had visited Cicero at
Dyrrachium on his way. I do not quite see how this should be thought
impossible in view of the last sentence of LXXXV or the next letter.
Cicero asks Atticus to join him, but he might do so whether Atticus were
at Buthrotum, or Rome, or anywhere else.]




LXXXVI (A III, 26)


[Sidenote: B.C. 57. Coss., P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, Q. Cæcilius
Metellus Nepos.

     The new year found Cicero still at Dyrrachium, waiting for the law
     to pass for his recall, which (owing chiefly to the riotous
     opposition of Clodius) did not pass till the 5th of August. We have
     no letters in the interval between January and August, but a few
     lively ones recounting the nature of his return (4th of September),
     and four speeches dealing with his position and that of his
     property. He seems at once to have attached himself to Pompey, and
     to have promoted his appointment as _præfectus annonæ_.


TO ATTICUS (? IN EPIRUS[374])

DYRRACHIUM, JANUARY

[Sidenote: B.C. 57, ÆT. 49]

I have received a letter from my brother Quintus inclosing the decree of
the senate passed concerning me. My intention is to await the time for
legislation, and, if the law is defeated, I shall avail myself of the
resolution of the senate,[375] and prefer to be deprived of my life
rather than of my country. Make haste, I beg, to come to me.

[Footnote 375: On 1st January, B.C. 57, P. Lentulus brought the case of
Cicero before the senate. The prevailing opinion was that his
_interdictio_ having been illegal, the senate could quash it. But
Pompey, for the sake of security, recommended a _lex_. One of the
tribunes, without actually vetoing the _senatus consultum_, demanded a
night for consideration. The question was again debated in succeeding
meetings of the senate, but on the 25th was not decided. Technically an
_auctoritas_ was a decree that had been vetoed by a tribune, and Cicero
(_pro Sest._ § 74) implies that such a veto had been put in, and at any
rate the _noctis postulatio_ was equivalent to a veto.]




LXXXVII (A III, 27)

TO ATTICUS (? AT ROME)

DYRRACHIUM (AFTER 25 JANUARY)


[Sidenote: B.C. 57, ÆT. 49]

From your letter and from the bare facts I see that I am utterly
ruined.[376] I implore you, in view of my deplorable position, to stand
by my family in whatever respect they shall need your help. I shall, as
you say, see you soon.

[Footnote 376: Perhaps he has just heard that the sitting of the senate
on the 25th of January had been interrupted by Clodius's roughs. But
other similar events happened, and there is no certain means of dating
this note. The difficulty, as it stands, is that it implies Atticus's
temporary return to Rome.]




LXXXVIII (F V, 4)

TO Q. METELLUS THE CONSUL (AT ROME)

DYRRACHIUM (JANUARY)


[Sidenote: B.C. 57, ÆT. 49]

A letter from my brother Quintus, and one from my friend Titus
Pomponius, had given me so much hope, that I depended on your assistance
no less than on that of your colleague. Accordingly, I at once sent you
a letter in which, as my present position required, I offered you thanks
and asked for the continuance of your assistance. Later on, not so much
the letters of my friends, as the conversation of travellers by this
route, indicated that your feelings had undergone a change; and that
circumstance prevented my venturing to trouble you with letters. Now,
however, my brother Quintus has sent me a copy which he had made of your
exceedingly kind speech delivered in the senate. Induced by this I have
attempted to write to you, and I do ask and beg of you, as far as I may
without giving you offence, to preserve your own friends along with me,
rather than attack me to satisfy the unreasonable vindictiveness of your
connexions. You have, indeed, conquered yourself so far as to lay aside
your own enmity for the sake of the Republic: will you be induced to
support that of others _against_ the interests of the Republic? But if
you will in your clemency now give me assistance, I promise you that I
will be at your service henceforth: but if neither magistrates, nor
senate, nor people are permitted to aid me, owing to the violence which
has proved too strong for me, and for the state as well, take care
lest--though you may wish the opportunity back again for retaining all
and sundry in their rights--you find yourself unable to do so, because
there will be nobody to be retained.[377]

[Footnote 377: This intentionally enigmatical sentence is meant to
contain a menace against Clodius, who is hinted at in the word _omnium_,
just as he is earlier in the letter in the word _tuorum_. Clodius was a
connexion by marriage of Metellus (through his late brother, the husband
of Clodia), and Cicero assumes that Metellus is restrained from helping
him by regard for Clodius. He knows, however, by this time, that one of
the new tribunes, Milo, is prepared to repel force by force, and he
hints to Metellus that if he countenances Clodius's violence he may some
day find that there is no Clodius to save--if that's his object. In
Letter LXXXIX he shews how early he had contemplated Clodius being
killed by Milo (_occisum iri ab ipso Milone video_).]




LXXXIX (A IV, 1)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME (SEPTEMBER)


[Sidenote: B.C. 57, ÆT. 49]

Directly I arrived at Rome, and there was anyone to whom I could safely
intrust a letter for you, I thought the very first thing I ought to do
was to congratulate you in your absence on my return. For I knew, to
speak candidly, that though in giving me advice you had not been more
courageous or far-seeing than myself, nor--considering my devotion to
you in the past--too careful in protecting me from disaster, yet that
you--though sharing in the first instance in my mistake, or rather
madness, and in my groundless terror--had nevertheless been deeply
grieved at our separation, and had bestowed immense pains, zeal, care,
and labour in securing my return. Accordingly, I can truly assure you of
this, that in the midst of supreme joy and the most gratifying
congratulations, the one thing wanting to fill my cup of happiness to
the brim is the sight of you, or rather your embrace; and if I ever
forfeit that again, when I have once got possession of it, and if, too,
I do not exact the full delights of your charming society that have
fallen into arrear in the past, I shall certainly consider myself
unworthy of this renewal of my good fortune.

In regard to my political position, I have resumed what I thought there
would be the utmost difficulty in recovering--my brilliant standing at
the bar, my influence in the senate, and a popularity with the loyalists
even greater than I desired. In regard, however, to my private
property--as to which you are well aware to what an extent it has been
crippled, scattered, and plundered--I am in great difficulties, and
stand in need, not so much of your means (which I look upon as my own),
as of your advice for collecting and restoring to a sound state the
fragments that remain. For the present, though I believe everything
finds its way to you in the letters of your friends, or even by
messengers and rumour, yet I will write briefly what I think you would
like to learn from my letters above all others. On the 4th of August I
started from Dyrrachium, the very day on which the law about me was
carried. I arrived at Brundisium on the 5th of August. There my dear
Tulliola met me on what was her own birthday, which happened also to be
the name-day of the colony of Brundisium and of the temple of Safety,
near your house. This coincidence was noticed and celebrated with warm
congratulations by the citizens of Brundisium. On the 8th of August,
while still at Brundisium, I learnt by a letter from Quintus that the
law had been passed at the _comitia centuriata_ with a surprising
enthusiasm on the part of all ages and ranks, and with an incredible
influx of voters from Italy. I then commenced my journey, amidst the
compliments of the men of highest consideration at Brundisium, and was
met at every point by legates bearing congratulations. My arrival in the
neighbourhood of the city was the signal for every soul of every order
known to my nomenclator coming out to meet me, except those enemies who
could not either dissemble or deny the fact of their being such. On my
arrival at the Porta Capena, the steps of the temples were already
thronged from top to bottom[378] by the populace; and while their
congratulations were displayed by the loudest possible applause, a
similar throng and similar applause accompanied me right up to the
Capitol, and in the forum and on the Capitol itself there was again a
wonderful crowd. Next day, in the senate, that is, the 5th of September,
I spoke my thanks to the senators. Two days after that--there having
been a very heavy rise in the price of corn, and great crowds having
flocked first to the theatre and then to the senate-house, shouting out,
at the instigation of Clodius, that the scarcity of corn was my
doing--meetings of the senate being held on those days to discuss the
corn question, and Pompey being called upon to undertake the management
of its supply in the common talk not only of the plebs, but of the
aristocrats also, and being himself desirous of the commission, when the
people at large called upon me by name to support a decree to that
effect, I did so, and gave my vote in a carefully-worded speech. The
other consulars, except Messalla and Afranius, having absented
themselves on the ground that they could not vote with safety to
themselves, a decree of the senate was passed in the sense of my motion,
namely, that Pompey should be appealed to to undertake the business, and
that a law should be proposed to that effect. This decree of the senate
having been publicly read, and the people having, after the senseless
and new-fangled custom that now prevails, applauded the mention of my
name,[379] I delivered a speech. All the magistrates present, except one
prætor and two tribunes, called on me to speak.[380] Next day a full
senate, including all the consulars, granted everything that Pompey
asked for. Having demanded fifteen legates, he named me first in the
list, and said that he should regard me in all things as a second self.
The consuls drew up a law by which complete control over the corn-supply
for five years throughout the whole world was given to Pompey. A second
law is drawn up by Messius,[381] granting him power over all money, and
adding a fleet and army, and an _imperium_ in the provinces superior to
that of their governors. After that our consular law seems moderate
indeed: that of Messius is quite intolerable. Pompey professes to prefer
the former; his friends the latter. The consulars led by Favonius
murmur: I hold my tongue, the more so that the pontifices have as yet
given no answer in regard to my house.[382] If they annul the
consecration I shall have a splendid site. The consuls, in accordance
with a decree of the senate, will value the cost of the building that
stood upon it; but if the pontifices decide otherwise, they will pull
down the Clodian building, give out a contract in their own name (for a
temple), and value to me the cost of a site and house. So our affairs
are

    "For happy though but ill, for ill not worst."[383]

In regard to money matters I am, as you know, much embarrassed. Besides,
there are certain domestic troubles, which I do not intrust to writing.
My brother Quintus I love as he deserves for his eminent qualities of
loyalty, virtue, and good faith. I am longing to see you, and beg you to
hasten your return, resolved not to allow me to be without the benefit
of your advice. I am on the threshold, as it were, of a second life.
Already certain persons who defended me in my absence begin to nurse a
secre