The translation is by W.G. Williams (1927). Click on the L symbols to go to the Latin text of each section. Click on ** to go to the translator's footnotes.
CONTENTS: 1 2 3 4 to M. Marius ; 5 to C. Caesar ; 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 to Trebatius Testa ; 23 24 25 26 to M. Fabius Gallus ; 27 to T. Fabius Gallus ; 28 to M'. Curius ; 29 from M'. Curius ; 30 31 to M'. Curius ; 32 33 to P. Volumnius Eutrapelus
← Book 6
[1] L { September/October, 55 }
M. CICERO TO M. MARIUS, ** GREETING
If it was some bodily pain or weakness of health that prevented you coming to the games, I attribute it to chance rather than to your wisdom ; but if you held in contempt what the rest of the world admires, and though your health permitted of your doing so, you still had no wish to come, then I am delighted for both reasons - that you were free from bodily pain, and that you showed strength of mind in disdaining what others unjustifiably admire ; provided only that you have got some real profit out of your leisure ; and indeed you have had a wonderful opportunity of profiting by it to the full, left as you were almost alone, amid all that beautiful scenery of yours. And yet I doubt not that you, looking out of that chamber of yours, from which, by making a gap, ** you have opened out for yourself a view of the Stabian stage, have spent the morning hours of all those days in taking peeps at the scenery, ** while they meantime, who left you where you are, were gazing at farces on the public stage, - and could scarcely keep awake.
The remaining hours of the day, however, you have been spending in such amusements as you had provided for yourself according to your fancy, while we had to go through with any thing that Sp. Maecius ** - just think of it ! - had sanctioned.
2 If you ask me, the games were of course most magnificent ; but they would not have been to your taste ; that l infer from my own feelings. For in the first place those actors had returned to the stage out of respect for the occasion, ** who had, as I thought, quitted it out of self-respect. Indeed your favourite, our friend Aesopus, ** was such a failure that nobody in the world would have regretted his leaving off. When he began to swear the oath, his voice failed him at the crucial point, "If wittingly I deceive." Why should I tell you anything more? You know what the rest of the games were like. Why, they were not even as attractive as games on a middling scale often are. For any feeling of cheerfulness was extinguished by the spectacle of such magnificence - a magnificence which, I am sure, it will not disturb you in the least to have missed seeing. For what pleasure can there be in the sight of six hundred mules in the Clytaemnestra, or of three thousand bowls in the Trojan Horse, or of the varied accoutrements of foot and horse in some big battle? All of which excited the admiration of the people, but would have given you no pleasure at all.
3 But as for you, if during those days you listened attentively to your reader Protogenes, always provided that he read out to you anything rather than my speeches, depend upon it, you have had a great deal more pleasure than any single one of us. For I don't think you were sorry to miss the Greek and Oscan plays, especially when you can witness your Oscan plays in your own town-council, ** while as for the Greeks, you have so little love for them that you do not often go even to your own villa by the Greek Road. ** As to the athletics, why should I suppose that you are sorry to have missed them - you, who treated the gladiators so contemptuously ? And on them Pompey himself admits that he wasted both toil and oil. **
There remain the wild-beast hunts, two a day for five days - magnificent ; there is no denying it. But what pleasure can it possibly be to a man of culture, when either a puny human being is mangled by a most powerful beast, or a splendid beast is transfixed with a hunting-spear? ** And even if all this is something to be seen, you have seen it more than once ; and I, who was a spectator, saw nothing new in it. The last day was that of the elephants, and on that day the mob and crowd were greatly impressed, but showed no pleasure. Indeed the result was a certain compassion and a kind of feeling that that huge beast has a fellowship with the human race.
4 However, during those days, I mean the performances on the stage, lest you should happen to think that I was not only enjoying myself but entirely free, I almost strained myself to death at the trial of your dear friend, Gallus Caninius. ** But if I found the people as ready to dispense with me as Aesopus found them, I swear I should be glad to retire from practice, and live with you and those of our set. For not only was I sick of it in the old days when I had youth and ambition to urge me on, and it was open to me absolutely to decline to defend a man I did not wish to defend, but in these days, I assure you, life is not worth living. I have no fruits of my toil to look forward to, and there are times when I am obliged to defend men who have not deserved very well of me, at the instance of those who have deserved well of me.
5 And so I am eager to find any excuse for at last living just as I choose, and I heartily applaud and approve of you and your scheme of leisure ; and I am the less annoyed at your so seldom coming to see me because, even if you were in Rome, neither should I be allowed to enjoy the charm of your society, nor you that of mine (if there is any charm in me), because of the galling burden of my engagements. If I can get some relief from them - to be entirely released from them is more than I ask - you may be sure that I shall teach you, yes, you, who have been thinking of nothing else for years and years, the true meaning of a life of cultured refinement. It only remains for you to nurse and watch that feeble health of yours, as indeed you do, so that you may be able to make the tour of my country-houses, and travel about with me in the same litter.
6 I have written thus to you at greater length than usual out of the abundance not of my leisure, but of my love for you, because you hinted to me in a certain letter, if you remember, that you would like me to write you something that would tend to lessen your regret at having missed the games. If I have attained that object, I am glad; if not, I I can still console myself with the fact that you will come to the games at some future time and pay me a visit, and not leave any hope you may have of entertainment to depend entirely upon my letters.
M. CICERO TO M. MARIUS, GREETING
I will attend to your commission with all care. ** But, clever fellow that you are, you have entrusted that commission to the very man of all others whose interest it is that the property should fetch as high a price as possible. But you showed remarkable foresight in fixing beforehand a figure beyond which I should not go. Had you only given me carte blanche, such is my regard for you, I should have come to some arrangement with my co-heirs. As it is, now that I know the price you have fixed, I shall put up a sham bidder sooner than let it go for less than your limit. But my joke has gone far enough. I'll do the job for you, as I am bound to do it, with all care.
2 I am quite sure that you are glad about Bursa, ** but you are too modest in your congratulations, evidently thinking, as indeed you write, that because he was such a low scoundrel, I did not think it any great reason for being delighted.
Now I want you to believe me when I say that I derived more delight from this trial than from the death of my enemy. ** For in the first place, I had rather win in a court of law than by the sword, and secondly, by bringing about the triumph rather than the political downfall of a friend. ** And I was above all delighted that the enthusiasm of honest men on my behalf stood out so conspicuously to resist the inconceivably strenuous efforts of a most distinguished and powerful personage. **
3 Lastly (perhaps you will think it hardly probable) I hated this man much worse than I hated the notorious Clodius himself; for the latter I had attacked, the former I had defended. ** And Clodius, when the whole State was likely to be jeopardised in my person, fixed his eyes on something big, and that not on his own initiative, but with the assistance of those who could not stand firm as long as I did so ; but this little ape of a fellow, just by way of amusing himself, had picked me out to be the object of his attacks, and had convinced some of my ill-wishers that he would always be at hand to let loose upon me. So I bid you rejoice right heartily ; it has been a great achievement. Never have any of my fellow- citizens shown greater courage than those who dared to condemn him, and defy the enormous resources of the man by whom the jurors themselves had been chosen. This they would never have done had they not made my grievance their own.
4 Here I am so distracted by the number of cases, and the crowded state of the law-courts, and by the new legislation, ** that I offer prayers daily that there may be no intercalary month, ** so that I may see you as soon as possible.
M. CICERO TO M. MARIUS, GREETING
Thinking, as I very often do, of the miseries, common to us all, in which we have been living for many years past, and shall, I can see, continue to live, I am constantly reminded of the time when we last met; indeed, I remember the very day. When I arrived at my Pompeian villa on the evening of the 12th of May in the consulship of Lentulus and Marcellus, ** you were there to meet me in an anxious state of mind. But your anxiety was due to your brooding over the double problem of my duty and my danger. If I remained in Italy, you feared that I should be failing in my duty; if I set out for the scene of war, you were appalled at the thought of my danger. And on that occasion, as you must surely have noticed, I too was so agitated that I could form no clear conception of what was best to be done. Anyhow I decided to yield to my sense of honour and to public opinion rather than consider my own safety.
2 That decision of mine I have since regretted, not so much on account of any danger I incurred as of the many signs of weakness I came across at the end of my journey. In the first place, I found that the troops were neither numerous nor in good fighting trim; secondly, apart from the commander and some few others (I am speaking of the leading men), the rest were, firstly, so greedy of loot during the campaign itself, and secondly, so bloodthirsty in the way they spoke, that I shuddered at the thought of even victory itself; and last but not least, there was the insolvency of men of the highest rank. In short there was nothing sound about them but their cause. At the sight of all this, despairing of victory, first I began to advise the peace I had always advocated ; and then, when Pompey shrank in horror from such a proposal, I set about advising him to protract the war. This advice he was now and again inclined to approve, and seemed likely to remain of that opinion, and perhaps would have done so, had he not, in consequence of a certain engagement, ** begun to feel confidence in his own troops. From that moment, for all his eminence, he was no commander-in-chief. With his untrained and hastily assembled army he gave battle to the most hard-bitten legions in the world. He was defeated, he lost even his camp in the most disgraceful way, and he fled all alone.
3 This I resolved should be for me the end of the war, not thinking it likely that, having proved no match for the enemy when our forces were unimpaired, we should prove superior to them when utterly crushed. I withdrew from a war where there was nothing left but either to die in battle, or to fall into some ambush, or pass into the conqueror's hands, or to take refuge with Juba,** or to find a spot for what would be practically exile, or deliberately to die by one's own hand. At any rate there was no other course open, if you had neither the will nor the courage to throw yourself on the mercy of the conqueror. Now of all the miserable alternatives I have specified, the least unendurable is exile, especially for an innocent man, when there is no moral stigma attached to it ; I may also add, when the city from which you are excluded is one in which there is nothing you can cast your eyes upon without pain. For my own part, I preferred to be with those who belong to me (if anything belongs to anybody in these days), and furthermore among my own possessions. As to what actually happened, I foretold it all.
4 I came home, not that the conditions of life here were of the best, but so that, if there were any definite form of constitution, I might be, as it were, in my own country, if there were none, then, as it were, an exile. Why I should contrive my own death, there seemed no reason ; why I should pray for it, there were many. You know the old saying, "When once your powers are passed, why wish your life to last?" However, it is a great consolation to be blameless, especially when I have two things to support me - a knowledge of the best branches of learning, and the glory of the highest achievements; of the former I shall never be robbed in my lifetime, of the latter not even when I am dead.
5 I have written all this to you with some verbosity, and have ventured thus to bore you, because I am convinced of your warm devotion to myself as well as to the Republic. I was anxious that my entire policy should be known to you, so that you might understand that in the first place I never desired that any one man should have more power than the State as a whole, but that, when through the fault of a certain responsible person, ** one man was so strong as to put resistance out of the question, well, then I was all for peace ; that after the loss of the army and of that commander in whom alone there had been any hope, I resolved to put an end to the policy of war among all the rest of our party also, but failing in that, to put an end to it so far as I was concerned ; but that, as it is, if there be a State, I am a citizen of it, if not, that I am an exile in a place not less convenient than if I had betaken myself to Rhodes or Mitylene.
6 I should have preferred discussing these matters with you in person; but because time was getting on, I determined to convey the same sentiments to you by letter, so that you might know what to say if ever you fell among my detractors. For there are people who, though my passing away was not likely to be of the slightest benefit to the Republic, look upon it as a sort of scandalous reflection upon me that I am still alive. Now these people, I am quite sure, are not satisfied with the many who have already fallen; people who, had they but listened to me, would at any rate be living an honourable life, however harsh the terms of peace ; for inferior as they were in arms, they would not have been so in the justice of their cause.
Well, there's a letter for you, rather more wordy perhaps than you would have liked ; and I shall think that it seems so to you, unless you send me a longer one in reply. If I can settle some business I want done, I shall see you, I hope, before very long.
M. CICERO TO M. MARIUS, GREETING
I arrived at my Cuman villa with your (or rather our) friend Libo, ** on the 16th. I am thinking of going on immediately to my Pompeian villa, but I shall let you know before I do so. I want you always to be in good health, at any rate while I am here. For you see how long it is likely to be before we meet again. ** So if you have any assignation with Madam Gout, mind you put it off to another day. Be careful to keep well then, and look out for me within the next two or three days.
CICERO TO CAESAR IMPERATOR, GREETING
Observe how I take it for granted that I have in you a second self, not only in what concerns me personally, but also in what concerns my friends. It had been my intention, on whatever foreign service I should be sent, to take with me C. Trebatius, ** so as to bring him home as distinguished as possible by every mark of my devotion and kindness. But when Pompey's stay at Rome proved longer than I had expected: and a certain hesitancy on my part too, of which you are well aware, seemed likely to prevent, or at any rate delay, my departure, just see what I have presumed to do, - I am beginning to wish that whatever Trebatius had hoped for from me, he should expect to get from you, and I frankly confess the hopes I held out to him of your goodwill were no less ample than the promises I had frequently made to him of my own.
2 There occurred, however, in the meantime an astonishing incident, whether regarded as a witness to my judgment of you or as a pledge for your generosity. I was having quite a serious conversation at my house with our friend Balbus ** about this very Trebatius, when I was handed a letter from you, at the end of which were the words, "As to the M. Rufus ** you recommend to me, I will even make him king of Gaul, or if you like pass him on to Lepta **; if you care to do so, send me somebody else to give a post to." Balbus and I both raised our hands. So marvellously opportune was it, that it struck us as something that was not mere luck but an intervention of the gods. I therefore send you Trebatius, and I send him with the feeling that I should do so in the first instance of my own free will, and then because of your invitation.
3 He is the man, my dear Caesar, I would have you so welcome with all your characteristic courtesy as to bestow upon him alone whatever favours I might induce you to be kind enough to bestow upon my friends. As to his character I guarantee you this - not using that hackneyed expression ** of mine which you rightly ridiculed when I wrote to you about Milo, but in the good old Roman style, which is the speech of men of the world - that there exists no more upright personality, no better or more unassuming man. I should add that he is at the head of his profession in civil law, and a man of marvellous memory and vast learning. I ask for him no tribunate, nor prefecture, nor any specific appointment you may kindly offer him ; I simply ask your general goodwill and generosity ; and I raise no objection, if it so please you, to your also honouring him with these tokens of a little glory. In short I hand him over to you absolutely, from my hand (as they say) to yours ** - a hand as distinguished for its triumphs in the field, as for its loyalty in friendship. You see I am inclined "to lay it on with a trowel," ** though you will hardly think it pardonable ; but I foresee the day when it will be. ** Pray take care of your health, and continue to love me as you do.
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING **
In all my letters to Caesar or to Balbus there is a sort of statutory appendix, to wit, my recommendation of you; and it is no conventional one, but conveys a distinct intimation of my kindly feeling towards vou. It only remains for you to get rid of your silly fads and longings for the City and City life, and to maintain consistently and courageously the spirit in which you left home. You will be as readily pardoned for doing so by us, your friends, as Medea was pardoned by the
Dames who held th' high keep of Corinth, dames of opulence, dames of rank,
whom she, with her hands all bleached with chalk, ** persuaded not to find fault with her for being away from her fatherland, for
Many a man himself and country well hath served 'neath alien skies ;
Many a man, at home abiding, from his rut hath failed to rise. **
And you would certainly have been in the latter class, had we not forcibly ejected you. But more of this anon.
2 You, who have learnt to take precautionary measures for your clients, must look out in Britain that you are not cheated by the charioteers and (since I have taken to acting the Medea) always remember the line -
Vainly wise, the fruits of wisdom for himself who cannot
pluck.
Take care of your health.
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING
I never cease recommending you, but I am anxious to know from you with what success. My chief hope is in Balbus, to whom I write about you very earnestly and very frequently. I am often surprised at not receiving letters from you as often as I get them from my brother Quintus. I hear that in Britain there is not an ounce of either gold or silver. If that is so, I advise you to capture some war-chariot, and hurry back to me as soon as you can.
2 If, however, setting Britain aside, we can still attain our object, you must make sure of being one of Caesar's intimate friends. In that my brother will be a great help to you, and so will Balbus; but, believe me, the greatest help of all will be your own modesty and hard work. You have a most generous imperator, you are at the most suitable age, ** and your credentials at any rate are exceptionally good. So the one thing you have to fear is, that people may think that you have not done yourself justice.
CICERO TO TREBATIUS , GREETING
Caesar tells me in a most courteous letter that owing to his being so busy you are not yet as intimate with him as he could wish, but that you certainly will be so. I told him in my reply how grateful I should be if he bestowed upon you all the consideration, kindness, and liberality he could. But in your own letter I discovered a certain excess of hastiness on your part, while at the same time I wondered why you disdained the advantages of a tribunate, especially with exemption from military duties.
2 I shall complain of you to Vacerra and Manilius, ** for I dare not say a word to Cornelius, ** whose reputation you have endangered by your folly, since you profess that it was he who taught you wisdom.** Why not make the best of your chances and opportunity ? You will never find a better. You refer in your letter to that great jurist, Precianus ; well, I never cease recommending you to him, particularly as he writes to me himself that you owe him some expression of gratitude. Mind you let me know what it is all about. I am on the look-out for letters from yourself and the others in Britain.
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING
It is long since I heard how you are; you never write, and I have not written to you for the last two months. Since you were not with my brother Quintus, I did not know where, or by whose hand, to send a letter. I am anxious to know how you are getting on, and where you intend spending the winter. I should like you to do so with Caesar, but I have not ventured to write a word to him because he is in mourning. **2 I have, however, written to Balbus. Don't throw away your chances, -
Better return to us later, so you come with a heavier purse.
There is no reason why you should hurry home, especially now that Battara ** is dead. But you have something up your sleeve. I am only anxious to know what you have decided to do.
3 There is a certain Cn. Octavius (or is it Cn. Cornelius ?), a friend of yours, "A man of highest birth, a very son of earth." ** Well, because he knows I am a friend of yours, he is constantly asking me to dinner. So far he has not been able to induce me to go; still I think it very kind of him.
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING
I have read your letter, from which I gather that our friend Caesar considers you an excellent lawyer. You may well congratulate yourself on having reached those regions where you pass as a man of some legal ability ; had you got as far as Britain too, I am sure you would not have found a single man in all that great island more of an expert than yourself.
But, be that as it may (I am free to laugh, for you challenged me to do so), I am just a little jealous of you - that you were actually summoned without your asking for it by one whom the rest of the world do not aspire to approach, not because he is so proud, but because he is so busy.
2 But you told me nothing in your letter about your affairs, which I declare to you are of no less interest to me than my own. I am very much afraid that you feel the cold in your winter-quarters ; and for that reason, in my judgment, you should have a nice bright stove ; such too is the "considered opinion of counsel" - Mucius and Manilius - especially as you have no superabundance of military cloaks. But no! I hear you are now having quite a hot time of it over there ** - a bit of news that, I assure you, filled me with alarm on your account. You are, however, far more cautious as a soldier than in the legal advice you give, since, enthusiastic swimmer ** as you are, you showed no desire for a swim in the Ocean, or to see a parade of the British charioteers, though at Rome we have never been able to cheat you of so much as a blindfolded gladiator. ** But there, I have joked enough.
3 3 How earnestly I have written to Caesar about you, you know yourself; how often, I alone know. But now, I confess, I have broken off the correspondence, for fear I should be thought to distrust the friendly feeling of one so generous and so fond of me. But for all that in my last letter to him I thought it well to jog his memory. I did so. With what success, I should like you to let me know, and to tell me at the same time all about your position and plans. For I am really anxious to know how you are getting on, what your expectations are, and how long you think your absence from us is likely to last. Pray assure yourself of this, that the one consolation I have to enable me to bear more easily your absence from among us is, that I assume it to be to your material advantage. If it is not, well, then we are a pair of the biggest fools alive, I for not hauling you back to Rome, you for not winging your way home. I am positive that a single interview, be it grave or gay, between us will be worth more, not only than the enemy, but even than "our right trusty cousins" the Haedui. ** So make sure of informing me on all points as soon as possible ;
Comfort, or counsel, or my purse, - 'tis thine.**
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING
Had you not gone abroad before, you would certainly leave Rome behind you now. Who feels the want of a lawyer, when there are so many interregna? ** My own advice to all petitioners would be to insist upon two adjournments from each interrex **! Are you satisfied with the civil procedure I have learnt from you ?
2 But look you here, how are you getting on? Is there any development? For I observe a certain jocularity in your last letters. These are better signs than the signs of bad art at my Tusculan villa. ** But I am anxious to know what it all means. You certainly write that Caesar consults you ; but I had much rather he consulted your interests. But if there is any development or you think there will be, persevere in your military service and stay on; for though I shall miss you, the hope of your profiting by so doing will cheer me up; but if it is all moonshine, come back to us. You may take it that something or other will turn up here some day or other, or even if it doesn't, I swear that a single chat between us will be worth more than all your Samarobrivas ** put together. To conclude, if you return speedily, there will be no talk about it ; if you stay away much longer with nothing to show for it, I shudder at the thought not only of what Laberius, ** but also of what our comrade Valerius may do. For a most surprising character might be put on the stage, - "The Lawyer in Britain."
4 3 I am not laughing at all this, however much you may laugh; I am but jesting with you, as I so often do, on a most serious subject. But joking apart, I give you, in the true spirit of friendship, this piece of advice, - if you establish your position out there with the help of my recommendation, never mind the loss of my society, but promote your own prestige, and add to your wealth; if, however, the prospect is chilling, ** come back to us. But as a matter of fact you will assuredly, both by your own merits and by my very sincere devotion to you, obtain everything you desire.
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING
I was wondering why it was that you had stopped writing to me. Well, my friend Pansa ** has let it out - you have turned Epicurean! What a marvellous camp! What would you have done had I sent you, not to Samarobriva, but to Tarentum **? I felt there was something amiss with you, ever since you supported the same views as my friend Selius. ** 2 But how on earth will you uphold the principles of civil law, when your every act is for yourself alone and not for your fellow-citizens? Besides, what will become of the legal formula in cases of trust, that dealings between honest men should be in accordance with honesty? For who is an honest man, who does nothing except what is to his own interest? What will be your legal ruling as to dividing what is held in common, when nothing can be held in common among those whose one standard of conduct is their own pleasure ? Again, how will you fancy swearing by Jupiter and the Stone ** when you know well enough that it is impossible for Jupiter to be angry with anybody? What, moreover, will become of your people of Ulubrae, ** if you lay it down that it is improper to "discharge the functions of a citizen"? So if you are really and truly deserting us, I am sorry ; but if it only suits you for the time to humour Pansa, I forgive you. Only do write to me some time or other, and tell me what you are doing, and what you wish me to do or to attend to for you.
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING
Did you really imagine that I was so unjust as to be angry with you because I thought you were too restless, and too eager to leave Rome, and do you suppose that that is why I have not written to you for so long? Why, the agitation of mind you so clearly showed in your first letter to me gave me pain ; and there was no other reason whatever for the break in my correspondence but the fact that I had not the slightest idea where you were. Look here, do you really mean this accusation, and refuse to accept my apology? Listen to me, my good Testa! Is it money that swells your pride. or the fact that you are being consulted by an imperator? Upon my life, I believe that, ambitious as you are, you would rather be consulted by Caesar than gilded ** by him. If it is both, who in the world will put up with you except myself, who can put up with anything?
2 But, to return to my point ; I am extremely glad that you have no objection to being where you are, and as your former restlessness was a pain, your present contentment is a pleasure to me. I am only afraid that your profession brings you no adequate profit ; for I am told that out there
Not legally by touch of hand, ** but more
By steel they make their claims.
But you are not accustomed to be briefed to employ violence, and there is no reason for your dreading that reservation in the injunction, "since you have not taken the initiative in forcing an entry by violence and armed men." ** No, for I am sure you are not given to issuing provocative challenges.
But that I too may give you a word of warning about your legal "securities," it is my opinion that you should fight shy of the Treviri. I hear they are like our Tresviri, who see to it that malefactors die ; I had rather it were the "die" used by our other Tresviri, for coining gold, silver, and copper. ** But we can have our joke some other time. I should be glad if you would write to me about all your affairs with the greatest possible particularity.
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING
Chrysippus Vettius, Cyrus ** the architect's freedman, has given me reason to think that you have not quite forgotten me; for he passed your greeting on to me in your own words. A mighty fine person you have become, to find it a nuisance to send me on a letter, especially now that I am almost one of the family. But if you have forgotten how to write a letter, ** there will at once be a decrease in the number of those who lose their cases through engaging you; if you have forgotten me, I shall make an effort to visit you at your quarters, before I slip out of your mind altogether ; but if it is the alarming prospect of your summer quarters that unnerves you, you must devise some means of escape, as you did in the case of Britain.
2 One thing I was told by that same Chrysippus, which gave me great pleasure - that you are on familiar terms with Caesar. But, upon my word, I would rather, and it would be more proper ** too, that I should be informed of your affairs by your writing to me yourself as often as possible ; and you would certainly do so if you had chosen to make yourself thoroughly acquainted with the claims of friendship rather than the claims of litigation. But this is all in jest; it is your way, and to some extent mine also. I love you much, and I would have you love me too, as indeed I am sure you do.
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING
How hard to please are those who love, one may gather even from such an instance as this - at first I was annoyed that you did not like being where you are ; and now again your writing to say that you like it gives me a pang of pain. For I was inclined to resent your not being delighted with the course I recommended, and now I am quite distressed that you can find pleasure in anything without me. But for all that I had sooner endure my own loss of your company than your failing to get all I hope you will.
2 To change the subject, I cannot tell you how exceedingly glad I am that you have become intimate with that most charming and erudite man, C. Matius. ** Make a point of winning his most sincere regard. Believe me, there is nothing you can bring home with you from that province of yours which would give me greater pleasure. Take care of yourself.
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING
You know the words in the Trojan Horse, ** towards the end of it, "man's wisdom comes too late." But with you, my dear old man, ** it is not too late. Those first rather snappish letters of yours were quite silly. Subsequently - well, I find no fault at all with you for not showing too great a passion for sight-seeing in the matter of Britain. Now, however, I understand you are in winter-quarters insufficiently clothed and therefore disinclined to be up and doing. Well,
Be wise in your every deed and word;
The keenest of weapons is Wisdom's sword.
2 Had I been in the habit of dining out, I should not have disappointed your friend Cn. Octavius ** ; though, when he invited me ever so often, the only answer he got from me was "and pray who are you ?" But really, joking apart, he is quite a nice little man ; how I wish you had taken him away with you!
3 Be sure you let me know exactly what you are all doing, and whether there is any likelihood whatever of your all coming to Italy this winter. Balbus has positively assured me that you are going to be a rich man. Whether he spoke with the literal directness of a Roman, and meant that you would be a moneyed man, or, as the Stoics have it, that all are rich who can enjoy the open air and the earth, I shall see later. Those who come from your neighbourhood object to your superciliousness, because they say you give no reply to those who ask you questions. ** But anyhow you have one reason for exultation - they are all agreed that there is no better lawyer in all Samarobriva ** than yourself ; you stand alone.
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING **
As a result of your letter I have thanked my brother Quintus, and am able at last to compliment you on having now apparently taken your stand upon some definite decision. For your letters during the first months used to worry me exceedingly, because it seemed to me that you were sometimes - pardon my saying so - capricious in your longings for the city and city life, sometimes indolent, sometimes timorous in your military duties, and often too - a thing most foreign to your nature - just a little presumptuous. For you were in a hurry to snatch the money and return home, just as if what you had brought the commander-in-chief was not a letter of recommendation, but a bill of exchange ; and it never occurred to you that even those who went to Alexandria with bills of exchange ** have never yet been able to bring away a single penny.
2 Were I to consider my own interests, I should very much like to have you with me here; for I appreciated in no small degree, whether it was the pleasure of our intimacy, or the benefit I derived from your advice and assistance. But seeing that you have thrown yourself ever since you were a lad upon my friendship and protection, I deemed it incumbent upon me not only to guard your interests, but also to promote your advancement and distinction. And therefore, so long as I imagined that I should be leaving Rome for a province - well, I am sure you remember the offer I made you unasked. ** After the change in my plans, observing that Caesar was treating me with marked honour and exceptional regard, and recognising the man's amazing liberality and uncommon sincerity, I introduced and recommended you to him with all the gravity and earnestness in my power. What I said he accepted in the same spirit, and he has often indicated to me in his letters, and shown you too by word and deed, that he was deeply impressed by my recommendation. Having got hold of such a man (if you think I have any sense, or any desire to serve you) don't let him go; and if now and again anything happens to offend you, when, owing either to his being busy or to some other hindrance, you have thought him too dilatory, possess your soul in patience and look forward to the ultimate issue; I will guarantee its being both gratifying and honourable to you.
3 I have no business to prolong this exhortation ; only I warn you that if you miss this opportunity, you will never find a more favourable chance of firmly establishing a friendship with a most distinguished and generous man, of getting a richer province, or of making the best of your time of life. In this, as your lawyers always put it in your Reports, Q. Cornelius ** "concurs." I am glad you have not set out for Britain for two reasons - it has relieved you of some hard work, and I shall not have to listen to your experiences in that country. I should like you to write and tell me all about where, and with what prospects, and under what conditions, you are likely to spend the winter.
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING
I have received several letters from you at the same time, though you had sent them at different times. Now with one exception they gave me great pleasure, for they showed that you were taking your military service in a spirit of resolution, and were a man of courage and firmness - qualities which for some little time I did miss in you, not because of any weakness in your character, but rather so far as to think that you were restless because you missed me. Go on then as you have begun; face your military duties with a gallant heart ; believe me, you will gain much by it; I shall, of course, repeat my recommendation of you, but all in good time. Be assured of this, that you are no more anxious than I am myself that your separation from me should bear you as rich a harvest as possible. And so, since what you lawyers term "guarantees" don't hold water, I have sent you a "guarantee" in Greek of a sort, - and in my own handwriting. ** I should like you to inform me as to the development of the war in Gaul ; for the less of a fighter my informant is, the more I trust him. **
2 But to revert to your letters; in every other respect they were quite nice, but one thing puzzles me; who is ever in the habit of writing several exact duplicates of his letters - that is, if he writes them with his own hand? As to your using a palimpsest, I admire your thrift. But I am wondering what could have been on that scrap of parchment that you should have been willing to erase it rather than not write what you do, - unless perhaps it was some of your legal rigmaroles. For I am sure you do not erase my letters to write your own on the top of them. Do you really mean to imply that there is nothing doing, that you are out-at-elbows, and that you have even run short of writing-paper? Well, if so, it is your own fault for having added your bashfulness to your kit, and not left it at home with us. **
3 I shall recommend you to Balbus in good old Roman terms, when he sets out to join you. You must not be surprised if there is a longer interval than usual between my letters ; for I am likely to be away in the month of April. In fact I am writing this letter in the Pomptine district, having broken my journey at M. Aemilius Philemon's villa, where I have already heard the distant din of my clients - those, I mean, whom you so kindly introduced to me, For everybody knows that at Ulubrae ** a powerful chorus of dear little frogs have exerted themselves to do me honour.
Take care of yourself. April 8th from the Pomptine district.
4 Your letter, delivered to me by L. Arruntius, I have torn up, though it did not deserve such a fate; for it contained nothing that might not have been quite properly read out, even at a public meeting. But not only did Arruntius say that such were your instructions, but you had yourself added a note to that effect. But let that be. I am greatly surprised at your not having written anything to me subsequently, especially in these sensational times. **
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING **
See how highly I esteem you! And yet that is only as it should be; for I do not excel you in affection. Be that as it may, what I had almost been inclined to refuse you, at any rate did not grant you, when you were present, that I could not leave as an unpaid debt to you in your absence. So as soon as I began my voyage from Velia I set about writing a summary of the Topics of Aristotle, ** being reminded to do so by the sight of a city so sincerely devoted to you. That book I sent you from Rhegium, and it is written as clearly as it was possible to write on such a subject. But if certain passages strike you as a little obscure, you should reflect that no art can be mastered by mere reading without someone to explain, or without a good deal of practice. You will not need to go far to find proof of that; can your own civil law be learnt from books alone? Though there is no lack of such books, they still require a teacher to elucidate them. And yet if you read this with concentration and over and over again, you will get all you want by yourself, at least so far as to grasp the meaning of it. But that the appropriate headings ** should occur to you when a question is proposed, you will only secure by practice. And to that practice I for my part shall keep you, if I return safe and find all safe with you.
July 28th, from Rhegium.
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING
I found Velia all the dearer to me, because I felt that you are dear to Velia. But why should I say that of you, who are universally beloved? Why, upon my honour, even your man Rufio ** is as sorely missed here as if he were one of us; not that I am finding fault with you for transferring his services to your own house-building. For though Velia is every bit as grand as the Lupercal, ** I would rather be where you are than have all there is here. If you listen to me, and you generally do, you will cling on to these ancestral domains of yours (for the Velians have heard some disquieting rumour or other) and not turn your back on that noble river the Halethes, or abandon the mansion of Papirius. ** By the bye, at that very house there is a lotus ** which is often an attraction even to strangers, though if you cut it down it will give you an extensive view.
2 But it seems to me eminently desirable, especially in these days, to have somewhere to flee to, - in the first place, a city where the inhabitants are devoted to you, and secondly, a house of your own and on your own estate, and that in some secluded, salubrious, and beautiful spot ; and this I think, my dear Trebatius, concerns me too. ** But you must keep well, and look after my affairs, and expect to see me, by the favour of Heaven, before midwinter.
3 I have walked off with a book from Sextus Fadius, Nicon's pupil - Nicon on Over-Eating. What a delightful physician he, and what a docile pupil under such tuition! But our friend Bassus kept that book a secret from me, though not, it appears, from you. The wind is rising. ** Mind you keep well.
Velia, July 20th.
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING
I have explained Silius's case to you. Well, since then he has called upon me. When I told him that in your view we might safely make that stipulation ** "If the Praetor, Q. Caepio, in accordance with his edict, has granted me the possession of Turpilia's estate, etc.," he said that Servius maintained that a will, made by one who had not the legal right to make a will, was no will at all, and that Ofilius concurred. Silius said he had not talked it over with you, and asked me to commend him and his case to you. There is no better man, my dear Testa, and I have no better friend than P. Silius, with the exception indeed of yourself. You will therefore greatly oblige me by going to him without an invitation and promising to do what he wants. But, as you love me, do so as soon as possible. This I earnestly beg of you to do, and I reiterate my request.
CICERO TO TREBATIUS, GREETING
You made fun of me yesterday over our wine for saying it was a disputed point whether an heir could lawfully prosecute on a charge of theft committed before he succeeded to the property. So, although I had returned home comfortably mellow and at a late hour, I nevertheless marked the section in which this question is discussed, and I have sent you a correct copy of it, so as to convince you that the opinion held, according to you, by no one, was held by Sextus Aelius, Manius Manilius, and Marcus Brutus; all the same, I agree with Scaevola and Testa.
CICERO TO M. FADIUS GALLUS, GREETING **
I had only just arrived from Arpinum when a letter from you was delivered to me; and by the same hand I received one from Avianius, ** containing this very handsome offer, that when he came he would enter my debt to him on whatever day I pleased. ** Pray put yourself in my place. Is it consistent with either your sense of honour or mine, first to haggle about the day, and then to ask for more than a year's credit? But everything would have been easy, my dear Gallus, had you bought only what I wanted, and that only up to the price I had in my mind. But for all that, the actual purchases mentioned in your letter I shall ratify, and they will gratify me too; for I quite understand that you showed not only your anxiety to please, but your affection also, in buying up, because you considered them worthy of me, things which gave pleasure to yourself, who, as I have always thought, show most refined taste wherever critical skill is needed.
2 Still I should like Damasippus ** to stick to his intention; for out of all your purchases there is absolutely not one that I should really prize. You, however, in ignorance of my regular practice, took over your four or five statues at a price beyond what I set on the whole collection of statues in the world. You compare your Bacchantes with Metellus's ** Muses. Where is the analogy? In the first place, I should never have thought those Muses themselves worth all that money, and all the Muses would have agreed. Still it would have been suitable for a library, and would harmonise with my literary pursuits. But as for Bacchantes, where is there room for them at my house? Ah but, you will say, they are beautiful little figures. I know them perfectly well, and have often seen them. Had I fancied them, I should have specifically commissioned you to buy statues that were known to me. For I often buy the sort of figures that would adorn a place in my palaestra, and make it look like the gymnasia. ** But a statue of Mars! What do I, the advocate of peace, want with that? I am glad there was not one of Saturn, for I should suspect these two statues of having brought debt upon me. ** I should rather there had been some sort of a statue of Mercury. I might have had better luck perhaps in my transaction with Avianius.
3 As for the table-support ** you had intended for yourself, if you like it, you must keep it; if however you have changed your mind, you may be sure that I shall keep it. For the sum you have expended, I declare I would much rather have bought a lodging-house at Tarracina, ** so as not to be an everlasting burden upon my host. On the whole I take it that the fault lies with my freedman, whom I had definitely commissioned to make certain purchases, and also with Junius, whom I think you know, Avianius's friend.
I have built some new reading-rooms in a little colonnade at my Tusculan villa, and I should like to decorate them with pictures ; as a matter of fact, if anything of that sort gives me any pleasure at all, it is painting.
Anyhow, if I am to take over your purchases, I wish you would notify me where they are, when they are to be sent for, and in what kind of conveyance ; for if Damasippus has not the courage of his opinions, I have got to find some soi-disant Damasippus, even if I lose by it.
4 As to what you repeat in your letter about the house, I had already, just as I was leaving home, put the matter in the hands of my daughter Tullia ; for that was the very hour I received your letter. I had also conferred with your friend Nicias, since he is intimate, as you know, with Cassius. ** On my return, however, before I had read this last letter of yours, I asked Tullia what she had done. She told me she had dealt with the matter through Licinia (though I fancy Cassius does not see so very much of his sister), who in her turn declared that in her husband's absence (for Dexius had left for Spain) she had not the courage to change her house, he not only being absent, but knowing nothing about it.
I am very much pleased that you should have valued your close association with me in my life and mode of living so highly as, in the first place, to choose a house where you could dwell, not only near, but absolutely with me ; and secondly, to be in such a mighty hurry to make the move. But I had sooner die than admit that you are any more eager to see the thing through than I am myself; so I shalt leave no stone unturned ; for I see how important it is to me, and indeed to both of us. If I have any success, I shall make a point of letting you know. You will, I am sure, reply by letter on every detail, and will tell me, if you please, when I am to expect you.
CICERO TO M. FADIUS GALLUS, GREETING **
Traces of your devotion to me at every turn! Take the latest instance of all - the affair of Tigellius ; for your letter made me feel that you had taken infinite pains about it; and I am accordingly grateful for your kind thought for me. But a word or two on that matter. It was Cipius ** I believe, who once said "I am not asleep to everybody," so I, my dear Gallus, am not a slave to everybody. And what, after all, does that slavery amount to? In the old days, when I was supposed to be playing the king, ** I had no such deference paid me by any people as is paid me at the present moment by all the most intimate friends of Caesar, with the exception of this person. I reckon it as so much profit to be rid of a fellow who is even more pestilent than the country he comes from **; and I fancy he was effectually disposed of already as a job lot by the Hipponactean advertisement of Calvus Licinius, auctioneer. **
2 But observe the reason of his indignation. I had undertaken Phamea's defence, because he was Phamea ; for he was on very familiar terms with me. Well, he came to me and said that the judge had arranged to take his case on the very day on which the jury had to consider their verdict in the case of P. Sestius. ** I replied that I could not possibly attend, but that if he selected any other day he pleased, I should not fail him. But conscious of the fact that he had a grandson ** who was quite a nice flautist, and not a bad singer, he left me, as it seemed to me, in high dudgeon. There you are, a pair of Sardinians for sale, one worse than the other. You now know all about my case, and the unreasonable behaviour of that coxcomb. Send me your 'Cato' **; I want to read it. That I have not yet done so is no credit to either of us.
CICERO TO M. FADIUS GALLUS, GREETING
You are sorry the letter ** has been torn up; well, don't fret yourself; I have it ** safe at home; you may come and fetch it whenever you like. That you should warn me at all, however, gives me great pleasure ; and I beg you will never cease to do so. You are evidently afraid that unless we have him ** with us, we may have to laugh "on the wrong side of our mouths." But listen! Hands off your tablet! ** The Master is here sooner than we expected. ** I fear he will make Catachthonians of us Catonians. **
2 You must never imagine, my dear Gallus, that anything can beat that part of your letter beginning with the passage "all else passes away." ** This for own ear; keep it to yourself; don't tell even your freedman Apella. Except us two nobody talks in that way; whether it is the right or the wrong way, that I shall see later; but whatever it is, it is peculiar to ourselves. Press on then, and do not let the breadth of a finger-nail (as they say) part you from your pen; for the pen is the manufacturer of eloquence. And, as for me, I now encroach upon a good deal even of the night for the purpose.
CICERO TO M. FADIUS GALLUS, GREETING
I had been suffering seriously for quite ten days from a gastric attack, and being unable to satisfy those who wished to avail themselves of my services that I was an invalid, because I had no fever, I fled to my Tusculan villa, having fasted for two days so strictly, I assure you, as not even to take a sip of water. And so, exhausted as I was with weakness and hunger, I missed your kind attention more keenly than I thought you felt the loss of mine. Now I have a shrinking horror of all diseases, especially of that in regard to which the Stoics put a sinister interpretation upon your great Epicurus's admission that he was troubled with strangury and gastritis; for they attributed the latter to gluttony, and the former to a still baser kind of self-indulgence. I had certainly been in great dread of dysentery; but the change of residence, or simply the easing of my anxiety, or perhaps the abatement of the malady in itself as it wore itself out - whatever it was, it seems to have done me good.
2 But anyhow, in case you should wonder what caused this attack, or how I brought it upon myself, it was that sumptuary law, ** which is supposed to have inaugurated "plain living," - it was that, I say, which proved my undoing. For your gourmets, in their anxiety to bring into favour the fruits of the earth, which are exempted under that law, season their mushrooms, pot-herbs, and greens of every kind with a skill that makes them irresistibly delicious. I was let in for that sort of food at an augural banquet at Lentulus's ** house, with the result that I was seized with an attack of diarrhoea so persistent that not until to-day has it shown any signs of stopping. So I, who had no difficulty in abstaining from oysters and lampreys, was imposed upon by Messrs Beet and Mallow. ** So for the future I shall take better care of myself. As for you however, considering that Anicius had told you all about it - in fact he saw me in the act of being sick - it would have been only reasonable had you not only sent to inquire for me, but even come to see me. I intend staying on here until I am restored to health, for I have lost both strength and weight. But once I have beaten off this attack, I shall easily, I hope, recover both.
CICERO TO T. FADIUS GALLUS, GREETING **
I wonder why you find fault with me, when you have no right to do so; and even if you had the right, you had no business to do so. "I showed my regard for you when you were consul," ** and you add that Caesar is sure to recall you. You certainly have a great deal to say, but nobody believes you. You state that it was in my interests that you stood for the tribuneship. I only wish you were a permanent tribune ; then you would not have to look about for somebody to intercede for you. ** You assert that I dare not say what I think, as though I showed a lack of spirit in my reply to the audacious request you made of me!
2 I have written thus to convince you that even in that style you affect when you aspire to be particularly impressive you do not shine. But had you expostulated with me in terms of ordinary courtesy, I should have willingly, and quite easily, cleared myself in your eyes; for I am not ungrateful for what you have done, but annoyed at what you have written. Now I am really surprised that I, to whom all others owe their liberty, am in your eyes no better than a slave. ** If what you reported to me, ** as you say you did, was not true, what do I owe you? If true, you are the best witness of what the Roman people owe me.
CICERO TO CURIUS **, GREETING
I remember when I thought it foolish of you to live with your people over there rather than with us ; for a habitation in this city, when this was a city, was better suited to your refined and amiable nature than any spot in the whole Peloponnese, certainly than Patrae. Now, on the contrary, it seems to me that you showed great foresight when in the desperate state of affairs here you betook yourself to Greece, and that at the present time you are not only wise in absenting yourself from Rome, but happy too. And yet what man of any sense can be happy now ?
2 But as to the relief which you, who were free to do so, obtained by tramping off so as to find some place "where of the sons of Pelops" ** (you know the rest), I too nearly manage to secure the same, though in a different way. For after devoting myself to the reception of my friends, a function more numerously attended than heretofore, because to them the sight of a fellow-citizen of sound sentiments is just as if they saw a white raven, ** I hide myself away in my library. The result is that I finish off works of such importance as even you perhaps will appreciate; for I gathered from a certain conversation I had with you, when you were upbraiding me at your house for my depression and despair, that you were sorry to miss my old spirit in my books.
3 Well, I must confess that at that time I was mourning the loss of the Republic, which, owing to her services to me as well as mine to her, was dearer to me than life itself; and at the present time, although I am comforted not only by rational reflexion, which ought to have more influence than anything, but also by lapse of time, which often cures even fools of their folly, for all that I grieve that the commonwealth has so fallen to pieces as not to leave behind it even the hope of better things to come. And yet just now it is not the fault of him whose autocracy is absolute (except perhaps that it ought never to have been so), but certain things have occurred, some of them by chance and others through our own fault, which make it unreasonable to complain of what is past. There is no hope left that I can see. I therefore go back to what I said at first. If you left all this behind you on purpose, you are wise; if you just happened to do so, you are lucky.
CURIUS TO M. CICERO, GREETING
If you are well, I am content; for by 'usus' I belong to you, but by 'mancipium' ** to our friend Atticus. Therefore while the usufruct of me is yours, the absolute ownership of me is his; but if he advertises me for sale in a job lot of decrepit slaves, ** he won't make much by it. Ah, but how it adds to my value to be able to publish the fact that all I am, all I have, even my recognition as a man among men - I owe all to you. And for that reason, Cicero mine, never cease to persevere in safeguarding my interests, and give me a testimonial of a special brand for Sulpicius's successor ** so that I may the more easily obey your orders, and so be able to see you (how delightful!) in early spring, and pack up my belongings and bring them safe to Rome.
2 But, my famous friend, you must not show this letter to Atticus ; no, let him remain in his delusion, and imagine me to be an honourable man, and not in the habit of "whitewashing two walls out of the same pail." ** Well then, patron mine, a hearty farewell to you, and mind you salute my dear Tiro in my name.
CICERO TO CURIUS , GREETING
Well, no longer do I either urge or ask you to return home! Why, I myself long to fly away from here, and get to some place
Where neither name nor deed may reach my ear
Of any son of Pelops. **
You can't imagine how disgracefully I feel I am behaving in taking part in these affairs. You indeed seem to have foreseen long beforehand what was impending, when you fled from Rome. And yet, painful as things are to hear of, hearing of them is easier to bear than seeing them. At all events you were not in the Campus Martius when, after the opening of the comitia for the election of quaestors, ** at the second hour, ** the chair of Q. Maximus, ** whom Caesar's party declared to be consul, was duly set ; and then, on the announcement of his death, that same chair was put away. But the great man ** having taken the auspices for the comitia tributa, also held the comitia centuriata; and at the seventh hour ** he announced the election of a consul ** to hold office till January 1st, which would be the next morning. So I would have you know that in the consulship of Caninius, nobody lunched. Still nothing untoward occurred while he was consul; for so wonderfully wide awake was he, that during the whole of his consulship he saw no sleep.
2 All very funny, you think; yes, because you are not here ; if you were an eyewitness, you could not keep back your tears. What if I tell you all the rest ? For there are countless cases of the same sort, and it would be more than I could bear, had I not taken refuge in the haven of philosophy and found in my dear Atticus a partner in my literary labours. When you write that you belong to him by right of ownership and legal bond, but to me in usufruct, I am quite satisfied with that arrangement; for it is just that of which he has the enjoyment and profit, which constitutes a man's property. But of this more fully some other time.
3 Acilius, ** who has been sent to Greece with the legions, is under the greatest obligation to me; for I have twice successfully defended him on a charge involving his civic status ; and it is not his nature to be ungrateful, and he shows me marked deference. I have written to him very particularly about you, and have attached that letter to this. Please write and tell me how he has taken it, and what he has promised to do for you.
CICERO TO CURIUS , GREETING
Your letter has left me in no doubt as to two things I have always had at heart - that I am highly esteemed by you and that you quite understand how dear you are to me. And since we have both got so far, it only remains for us to have a competition in mutual good services; and I shall not mind in the least whether I beat you at that game, or you beat me. I am by no means sorry that it was not found necessary to hand my letter to Acilius. ** 2 I gather from your letter that you had no great need of the services of Sulpicius, because your resources were so "contracted" by your contracts, that to quote your words "they had neither head nor feet." ** I could have wished myself that they "had kept their feet," so that you might return some day or other. For you observe that the old flow of wit and humour has quite dried up, which fully justifies our friend Pomponius ** in saying
Were it not that we, we few, conserve the ancient Attic glory. **
So he takes your place, and I his. Come then, I implore you, lest in spite of our efforts, the very seed of wit and humour perish with the Republic.
M. CICERO TO VOLUMNIUS **, GREETING
When you sent me a letter in a familiar style, and quite rightly too, without giving your praenomen ** I was inclined to doubt at first whether it was not from Volumnius the senator, with whom I am in constant touch; but as I read on, the graceful badinage of the letter convinced me that it was from you. Everything in it gave me the greatest pleasure, except the fact that as my representative you are not strenuous enough in your defence of my rights as the proprietor of my own salt-pits. ** For you tell me that since I left Rome, all the bons mots of all the wits, including even those of Sestius, ** are attributed to me. What? Do you permit such a thing? Don't you defend me? Don't you protest? I really did hope that I had left my own bons mots so distinctly characterised that they could be recognised of themselves.
2 But now that the City is such a hot-bed of vulgarity that nothing is so banal as not to seem charming to someone, unless you see at once that a double entente is clever, an hyperbole in good taste, a pun smart, an unexpected conclusion comical, and all the other forms of wit (which I have discussed in the second book of the 'De oratore' in the character of Antonius ** on the subject of jokes), are en règle and finely polished, well then, as you love me, show your mettle, so far as to asseverate on oath that they are none of mine. For as to your grumblings about the law-courts, ** I am much less troubled ; every defendant in the world may be dragged by the heels for all I care; even Selius ** may be eloquent enough to be able to prove himself a free man; it does not trouble me. My proprietary rights in wit and humour, my dear man - those are what we have to defend by any prohibitions you please ; for in that department I fear no man but you ; as for the others, I despise them. You think I am making fun of you ? Ah, now indeed I see you are no fool.
3 But upon my word, joking apart, I thought your letter extremely witty, and nicely worded. What you quote, ** however funny it was, and it was funny, got no laugh out of me. For I am anxious that our eminent friend should show as little levity as possible in his capacity as tribune, as much for his own sake - you know he is one of my favourites - as for the sake (I mean what I say) of the Republic - that Republic which, however ungrateful to myself, I shall never cease to love.
And you, my dear Volumnius, now that you have begun doing so, and see what pleasure it gives me, do write to me as often as you can about affairs in the City and the political situation. The chatty style of your letters is a joy to me.
Then again there is Dolabella, a man I perceive and believe to be most eager to win me, and devotedly attached to me; pray urge him on and encourage him in that desire, and make him absolutely mine. Not, I assure you, that he fails me in any respect, but seeing that I want him so much, I think my anxiety may be justified.
M. CICERO TO VOLUMNIUS , GREETING
You lose nothing by missing my demonstrations in rhetoric. ** As to your saying you would envy Hirtius if you were not so fond of him, there was no reason for envy at all, unless, of course, it was the man's own eloquence, and not his being my pupil, that you envied. For to speak plainly, Volumnius, my charming friend, I am either a hopeless failure, or else I have lost all confidence in myself, now that my old cronies who gave me a certain vogue - and you too applauded me - are lost to me, so that, even if I ever produce something worthy of my reputation, I heave a sigh at the thought that, as Philoctetes says in Accius,
These arrows shoot I now at feathered folk,
Not foes in arms; there is no glory in it.
2 oHowever, if you come, it will make life generally more cheerful for me, though your coming, as you are yourself aware, will coincide with what I may call a massed attack of the most pressing business engagements; and if I can but meet them as I would, well, then I shall bid a long farewell to both forum and senate-house, and spend much of my time with you and those who love us both. For your friend Cassius and my friend Dolabella (or I should rather call them both my friends), are absorbed in the same studies, and find in me a very kindly critic.
Here we need the help of your exquisitely refined discrimination and of that esoteric erudition of yours, whereby you often make me rather ashamed of myself when I am speaking. Indeed I have made up my mind, if only Caesar will either permit or press me to do so, at last to drop that rôle ** in which I have so often approved myself even to him, conceal myself completely in literature, and in company with you and all other literary enthusiasts, enjoy the sweets of a most honourable retirement.
As for yourself, I could have wished you had not expressed any fear of my being ever inclined to yawn over any letter of yours, should you by any chance have sent me, as you put it, rather a long one; and I would have you henceforth regard it as settled that the longest letters you send me give me the greatest pleasure.
1. A rich Arpinate, and an esteemed friend of Cicero. He was a man of letters, but suffered from ill health, and generally lived on his estate near Cicero's villa at Pompeii.
2. Hither in the wall of the house by inserting a new casement, or by felling trees.
3. As he would be looking S.W., the morning sun would not be in his eyes.
4. Spurius Maecius Tarpa, whom Pompey appointed licenser of plays - a sort of Lord Chamberlain. Cf. Hor. A.P. 386-7.
5. To honour Pompey.
6. The great tragic actor at Rome, as Roscius was the great comedian. Cicero calls him 'summus artifex.' The oath was that "by Jupiter and the Stone." See note on vii. 12. 1.
7. Marius could get as much fun out of the proceedings of his town council at Pompeii as out of the broadest farces on the stage. By Oscan plays he means the Fabulae Atellanae which originated in Atella, an ancient town of the Osci, in Campania.
8. The road so-called was probably out of repair.
9. The allusion is to "midnight oil" and not to the oil used in the training schools. (Tyrrell)
10. Pliny (NH. viii. 20. 21) tells us that twenty elephants were killed, and their cries so moved the spectators that they rose as one man and cursed Pompey.
11. Tribune of the plebs in 56 B.C. (i. 2. 2 and 4). Cicero defended him in 53. He was with Cicero at Athens in 51. He was a friend of Varro, and died in 44.
12. Marius had commissioned Cicero to purchase some property for him, apparently forgetting that Cicero was one of the heirs to that property.
13. T. Munatius Plancus Bursa, whom Cicero had successfully prosecuted de vi, in spite of Pompey's influence. Bursa had led the riots that followed on the death of Clodius, and the burning of the Curia Hostilia. He was Cicero's bête noire.
14. Clodius, murdered by the followers of Milo at Bovillae on January 20th in this year.
15. Milo, exiled in consequence of the murder of Clodius.
16. Pompey.
17. When Cicero defended Bursa is not known.
18. The new procedure introduced by Pompey.
19. If the intercalary month was inserted by the pontifices it would keep Cicero longer in Rome.
20. In 49 B.C.; Cicero joined Pompey at Dyrrhachium before the end of the year.
21. That near Dyrrhachium, when Pompey was victorious.
22. Cicero deprecated Pompey's calling in the aid of the barbarian king of Numidia.
23. Pompey; the "one man" is of course Caesar.
24. Father-in-law of Sextus Pompeius. His sister Scribonia was the wife of Augustus.
25. Tyrrell reads 'quanto' but translates as though it were 'quantum' - "You see the amount of one another's company we are likely to have in the future ?"
26. See note to the next letter.
27. L. Cornelius Balbus the elder was a native of Gades, to whom Pompey gave Roman citizenship. He served Caesar as praefectus fabrum in Spain in 61 B.C., and still held that position, though staying mostly in Rome. In 56 Cicero successfully defended his claim to Roman citizenship. After Caesar's death he joined Octavian, and was the first consul of provincial extraction.
28. The name is a mere conjecture, the text being utterly corrupt.
29. Afterwards Cicero's praefectus fabrum in Cilicia.
30. Probably some such phrase as 'frugi' or 'bonae frugi', which was conventionally employed in letters of recommendation. Tyrrell.
31. A legal phrase, equivalent to the more usual 'per manus'.
32. Lit. "to be just a little fulsome."
33. Or "but (from the tone of your letter) I fancy you will pardon my importunity."
34. C. Trebatius Testa, to whom this and the next sixteen letters are addressed, was a rising young lawyer and an intimate friend of Cicero. He was now in Gaul with good pecuniary prospects, but he pined for Rome. He was no soldier, and Cicero rallies him on his dread of discomfort. In the Civil War he urged Cicero to remain neutral. In his later years he became the friend of Horace, who dedicated to him Sat. ii. 1.
35. With which actors whitened their hands.
36. In other words "We will excuse your absence from Rome as the dames of Corinth pardoned Medea for leaving her fatherland when she, extending her whitened hands in
37. Trebatius was now about 35.
38. Both noted jurists of the day.
39. Another great lawyer, who had been Trebatius's tutor.
40. 'Sapere' connotes legal learning - "taught you to be a wise lawyer."
41. For the death of his daughter Julia, wife of Pompey. She died in September of this year.
42. Apparently a nickname for the Vacerra mentioned in the preceding letter, perhaps because he stammered.
43. 'Terrae filius' = (1) a clodhopper, (2) an autochthon. "This man's pedigree went back to the beginning of things, but as a matter of fact he was a clown." T.E. Page.
44. A reference to the rising of the Gauls under Ambiorix.
45. For Trebatius's love of swimming see Hor. Sat. ii. 1. 8.
46. The 'andabatae' fought blindfold so as to amuse the lowest class of spectator.
47. Of whom the Senate had spoken as 'fratres consanguineique,' "brothers and kinsmen."
48. Terence, Heaut. 86.
49. No legal business could be transacted during an interregnum, and this year (53) such disorder prevailed at Rome, due to the obstructive tactics of the tribunes, that the interregna continued up to July, when consuls were at last appointed. An interregnum (a term continued after the expulsion of the kings) meant, under the republic, the time between the death or retirement of the consuls and the election of new ones.
50. As each interrex only held office for five days, a defendant who got two "adjournments for obtaining legal assistance {advocationes}," each advocatio being for three days, would be safe during the interregnum.
51. There is a play on the two meanings of 'signa' - "signs" and "statues," hard to reproduce in English; "this shows a better state of things than do the shows at my Tusculan villa."
52. Samarobriva, the modern Amiens, was the chief town of Gallia Belgica.
53. A noted writer of farces {mimi}.
54. "If it turns out to be a frost,'' as we should say.
55. C. Vibius Pansa, who was now at Rome, standing for the tribunate, which he obtained for 52-51.
56. The most luxurious of winter resorts. Cicero means that if the rough camp life at Samarobriva, so far from making a man of Trebatius, had turned him into an Epicurean, what would the softness of Tarentum have made of him ?
57. Who Selius was, and what his opinions were, is unknown except that he was some sort of an Epicurean. Cicero, who always scoffs at the Epicureans, indicates the difficulties in Trebatius's way if he becomes an Epicurean, e.g. "How can he be bonus, if he only regards his own individual well-being, or call the gods to witness if they are 'careless of mankind,' or act as patronus, if all public activity is forbidden ?"
58. The swearer of that oath took up a stone saying "If wittingly I break my oath, then may Diespiter cast me out of my possessions as I cast away this stone."
59. Ulubrae was a municipium, of which Trebatius was the patronus.
60. i.e. "enriched." Cf. Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, II. vi. 50: " I will make fast the doors, and gild myself with some more ducats."
61. 'Manum ex iure conserere' = "to make a joint seizure," the litigant parties laying their hands simultaneously on the property in dispute, each claiming it as his own. There
62. He means that if the claimant had used violence, his opponent, according to the proviso, would have the right of reprisal.
63. A play on Treviri (a formidable tribe in Gaul) and Tresviri, (1) the Tresviri Capitales who had charge of prisoners, executions, etc. (though Capitales here may also mean "deadly folk to deal with"), and (2) the Tresviri auro argento aeri flando feriundo, for casting and stamping coins in those metals. Cicero means he would rather see Trebatius on his way to make a fortune than risking his life on the field of battle.
64. The architect whom Cicero always employed.
65. Lit. "to write a letter," but here obviously used in a legal sense, "to draft a document."
66. Or "more friendly," Tyrrell, who quotes iii. 6. 6 'aequi et iniqui,' " friends and foes."
67. Little is known of Matius beyond what we glean from this reference to him, and from the two letters xi. 27 and 28. See note to the former letter.
68. Ascribed to both Livius and Naevius. 'In extremo' may be part of the quotation - "when all is over."
69. 'Vetule', perhaps implying that Trebatius was old for his years, or simply as a term of endearment, like mon vieux.
70. Cf. vii. 9. 3.
71. i.e, "that you refuse to give a civil answer to a civil question," which as Reid says, was regarded by the Romans as a typical act of rudeness. But 'respondere' also means "to give counsel's opinion," and implies that Trebatius treated his clients de haut en bas.
72. See note to vii. 11. 2.
73. It should be noted that this letter was written in October, and the preceding letter in November, 54 B.C., so that their order should be reversed.
74. Ptolemy Auletes had borrowed immense sums of money, which he used for purposes of bribery in Rome, from Roman speculators whom he never repaid.
75. When Cicero thought of going on foreign service as legatus to Pompey, he offered to take Trebatius with him; cf. vii. 5 1.
76. See note on letter 8. 2 above.
77. This probably means that Cicero had sent Trebatius a private letter of instructions as to his behaviour towards Caesar, and that, to ensure secrecy, he had written it in such Greek as he could command, and in his own hand.
78. On the principle that "lookers on see most of the game."
79. Cicero thinks Trebatius too bashful in pushing his fortunes. "He should have left his shyness at home."
80. Trebatius was patronus of Ulubrae, and during his absence had left Cicero in charge of his clients there. Being near the Pomptine marshes, Ulubrae was overrun with frogs, and Cicero pretends that they were the clients Trebatius had made over to him.
81. He refers to the great rising in Gaul in 54 and 53, and the second expedition across the Rhine.
82. Cicero, disgusted with the state of affairs under Antony, is now on his way to Greece, and sends this letter (dated eight days later than the next) from Rhegium on the coast of Bruttium, whither he had sailed from Velia in Lucania, where Trebatius had a house, occupied by Cicero in his absence.
83. Aristotle's 'topoi'' are Cicero's 'loci communes': "general arguments" or "commonplaces," dealt with in his Topica.
84. Or "sections," suggesting answers to particular questions.
85. A slave manumitted by Trebatius and probably his architect, whom Trebatius had transferred from Velia to Rome to superintend the building of a house there.
86. A grotto on the Palatine Hill, sacred to Lupercus (the Lycean Pan).
87. A mansion built at Velia by some member of the Gens Papiria now in the possession of Trebatius, and occupied, during his absence in Rome, by his guest Cicero.
88. A show tree, visited by tourists.
89. Cicero hopes to enjoy Trebatius's hospitality again.
90. The Etesian gales had now begun. Cf ii. 15. 5 and xii. 25. 3.
91. One Turpilia had made a will in favour of Silius ; but no woman could make a will without the auctoritas of her agnati (male blood-relations). Turpilia might have evaded that auctoritas by an elaborate legal process, but had not done so, and her will was, therefore, in the opinion of Servius and Ofilius, invalid.
92. A highly esteemed friend of Cicero. He wrote a panegyric on Cato Uticensis. Cf. vii. 24. 2.
93. From whom Gallus had bought some statues for Cicero.
94. Interest would not be charged on the debt until it was so entered.
95. Damasippus had offered to take the statues off Cicero's hands. Damasippus, a noted art-connoisseur of the day, is mentioned in Hor. Sat. ii. 3. 16.
96. Quintus Caecilius Metellus Scipio, the father of Pompey's first wife, Mucia. He was a connoisseur in statuary. (Att. vi. 1. 17.)
97. This explains his "regular practice" (supra). He did buy statues not adapted for a "gymnasium," but by "gymnasium" he means a place where philosophers met their
98. Mars and Saturn were inauspicious deities; Mercury was the God of Good Luck.
99. A table-leg, which was sometimes a sculptured figure, as that of Chiron in Juvenal (iii. 305), 'sub eodem marmore {the marble table} Chiron.'
100. Where Cicero would often spend a night on his journeys to his Cuman and Pompeian estates.
101. From whom Gallus had bought a house, now occupied by Cassius's sister Licinia and her husband Dexius. Licinia, being on bad terms with her brother, was in no hurry to suit his or Gallus's convenience as regards the house.
102. M. Fadius Gallus was afraid that Cicero might alienate Tigellius, the Sardinian musician, who had much influence with Caesar. See Hor. Sat. i. 3, for an amusing description of him.
103. Cipius, it seems, used to feign sleep, so as not to appear to notice the indiscretions of his wife with influential guests, but when a slave, presuming upon this habit of his master, tried to steal some wine, he suddenly broke in with the above words.
104. Cf. Ad Att. 1. 16. 10, where Clodius is described as asking 'Quousque hunc regem feremus?' "How long are we going to let this fellow king it over us?"
105. Sardinia was notoriously unhealthy.
106. Hipponax of Ephesus (546-520 B.C.) wrote bitter lampoons in the scazontic ("limping") or choliambic ("lame iambic ") metre, so called because it was the iambic trimeter with a spondee, instead of an iambic foot, at the end. Licinius's scazon was 'Sardi Tigelli putidum caput venit,' happily rendered by Tyrrell "For sale Tigellius, the Sardinian oaf."
107. Accused of bribery and corruption.
108. ie., Tigellius.
109. Gallus, as well as Cicero and Brutus, wrote a panegyric of Cato; Caesar and Hirtius both wrote Anti-Catos.
110. Probably the preceding letter, in which Tigellius was severely criticised.
111. No doubt a copy of it.
112. Tigellius, "who, if hostile to us, may make us laugh a bitter laugh" with an allusion, both to the bitter Sardinian herbs (cf. Verg. Ecl. vii. 41), and to Tigellius's Sardinian birth.
113. As we should say to a schoolboy, "Stop scribbling on your slate." It may also mean "stop writing about Cato." See note on letter 24 above.
114. The Master is Caesar, just returned from Spain.
115. Or "send whoever sticks to Cato to the Styx."
116. i.e, "except literature, to which I mean to devote myself." This is mere conjecture, but fits the context.
117. If the date of this Letter is correct, this sumptuary law can be no other than the Lex Aemilia of 115 B.C.
118. Son and namesake of P Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, who was consul in 57 B.C., and promoted the restoration of Cicero. This younger Lentulus was augur in the same year (57), and that is the only clue we have to the date of this letter.
119. The preposition, as Reid observes, indicates a personification of the vegetables.
120. Titus (not to be confounded with Marcus) Fadius Gallus had been condemned on some unknown charge in 52, and was living in exile. See v. 18.
121. A quotation from Gallus's letter to Cicero.
122. A punning reference to the tribunes' ius intercedendi. Gallus appears to have asked Cicero to intercede for him with Caesar.
123. Tyrrell; or, possibly, "may not act as I choose with regard to you."
124. In connexion with the Catilinarian conspiracy, when Gallus must have supplied Cicero with some important information.
125. A banker or factor at Patrae, one of the twelve towns of Achaia, near Rhium, at the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth.
126. "Nothing is heard" has to be supplied. The Pelopidae (here Caesar and his satellites) were notorious as evil-doers in Greek tragedy. The full line is quoted in vii. 30. 1.
127. Something strange and rare, like Juvenal's "black swan."
128. These are the Latin equivalents of the Greek terms, the former being temporary tenure or leasehold of a property, involving the enjoyment of the produce (usus fructus), the latter absolute possession in fee-simple. Cf. Lucretius's famous line 'vitaque mancipio nulli datur, omnibus usu'.
129. Put up for sale not separately, but in a lot; hence 'coemptionales'.
130. Manius Acilius Glabrio, who in 48 succeeded Sulpicius as governor of Achaia, where Curius is now staying.
131. ie., "seeking the favour of two patrons at the same time;" "serving two masters."
132. Probably from the Pelops of Accius.
133. The Comitia Tributa at which the lesser magistrates, quaestors and tribunes, were elected, whereas consuls and praetors were elected at the Comitia Centuriata.
134. About 8 a.m.
135. Q. Fabius Maximus was elected consul with C. Trebonius by Caesar, on his return from Spain, for the last three months of 45. For the preceding nine months Caesar had been consul without a colleague.
136. Caesar is frequently referred to as 'ille'.
137. Between 12 and 1 when the luncheon hour (the prandium was a mid-day meal) would have passed.
138. C. Caninius Rebilus, Caesar's legate in Gaul, Africa, and Spain.
139. See note on vii. 29. 1. It is to him that Cicero's letter commending M'. Curius (xiii. 50) is addressed.
140. See note on vii. 29. 1.
141. Or, "you could make neither head nor tail of them." There may also be a play on 'caput' ="capital". 'Contractas', by a double entente, implies "diminished."
142. Atticus.
143. The "Attic glory" is urbanitas, which in those troubled times had disappeared from public life.
144. A wealthy Roman knight, praefectus fabrum to Antony.
145. i.e., Publius, Eutrapelus being his cognomen, on which Cicero plays in talking of 'eutrapelia' ("graceful badinage") below. St. Paul warns the Ephesians (v. 4) against 'eutrapelia', which is there translated ‘"jesting." Aristotle defines it as 'pepaideumenē hubris', "educated insolence."
146. Where he kept his witticisms ('sales').
147. P. Sestius, whom Cicero defended; he was a highly respectable man, but dull and heavy.
148. If 'per Antoni personam' is not an interpolation, Cicero is guilty of a lapse of memory, the dissertation on jokes referred to being by C. Julius Caesar Strabo Vopiscus.
149. i.e., "about my neglect of them."
150. Some venal orator or other.
151. Certain undignified expressions of Cicero's friend, the tribune Curio.
152. Cicero and his friends were declaiming (Cicero acting as their magister), indulging in rhetorical exercises on unrealities, and that is the point of the quotation from Accius.
153. i.e., that of a man engaged in public affairs.
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