These letters were sent in the years 68-60 B.C.
The translation is by E.O. Winstedt (1919). 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 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
[1] L { shortly before 17 July 65 }
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
With regard to my candidature, ** in which I know you take the greatest interest, things stand as follows, so far as one can guess at present. P. Galba is the only canvasser who is hard at work ; and he meets with a plain and simple, old-fashioned, "No." As people think, this unseemly haste of his in canvassing is by no means a bad thing for my interests : for most refusals imply a pledge of support to me. So I have hope that I may derive some advantage from it, when the news gets abroad that my supporters are in the majority. I had thought of beginning to canvass in the Campus Martius at the election of tribunes on the 17th of July, the very time that, Cincius tells me, your man will be starting with this letter. It seems certain that Galba, Antonius, and Q. Cornificius will be standing with me.
I can imagine your smile or sigh at the news. To make you tear your hair, there are some who think Caesonius will be a candidate too. I don't suppose Aquilius will. He has said not, pleading his illness and his supremacy in the law courts in excuse. Catiline will be sure to be standing, if the verdict is that there is no sun at midday. ** Of course you will know all about Aufidius and Palicanus, without waiting for letters from me.
2 Of those who are now standing, ** Caesar is thought to be a certainty : the real fight is expected to lie between Thermus and Silanus. But they are so unpopular and so unknown, that it seems to me to be on the cards to smuggle in Curius. Nobody else thinks so, however. It would probably suit us best for Thermus to get in with Caesar : for, of the present batch of candidates, he would be the most formidable rival if he were put off to my year, as he is commissioner for the repairing of the Flaminian road. That will easily be finished by then : so I should like to lump him together with Caesar now. Such is the present rough guess of the chances of the candidates. I shall take the greatest care to fulfil all a candidate's duties: and, as Gaul's vote counts high, I shall probably get a free pass and take a run up to visit Piso, ** as soon as things have quietened down in the law courts here, returning in January. When I have discovered the views of the nobles, I will let you know. The rest I hope will be plain sailing, with my civilian rivals at any rate. For our friend Pompey's followers you must be responsible, as you arc quite close to them. Tell him I shall not take it unkindly if he does not come to my election. So much for that.
3 But there is a thing for which I have to crave your pardon. Your uncle, Caecilius, was cheated out of a large sum of money by P. Varius, and has taken an action against his brother, A. Caninius Satyrus, about some property which he says was fraudulently made over to him by Varius. The other creditors have made common cause with him: and among them are L. Lucullus and P. Scipio and the man who was expected to act for them at the sale, if the goods were put up for auction, L. Pontius. But it is absurd to talk of anyone acting for them at present.
Now for the point. Caecilius asked me to take a brief against Satyrus. Now there is hardly a day but Satyrus pays me a visit. He is most attentive to L. Domitius and after him to me, and he was of great assistance to me and to my brother Quintus when we were canvassing. 4 I am really embarrassed on account of the friendliness of Satyrus himself and of Domitius, who is the mainstay of my hopes. I pointed this out to Caecilius, assuring him at the same time that, if he stood alone against Satyrus, I would have done my best for him : but, as things were, when the creditors had combined and were such influential persons that they would easily win their case without any special advocate whom Caecilius might retain on his own account, it was only fair for him to consider my obligations and my circumstances. He seemed to take it more ungraciously than I could have wished or than a gentleman should : and afterwards he withdrew entirely from the intimacy which had grown up between us in the last few days.
Please try to forgive me and to believe that delicacy prevented me from appearing against a friend whose very good name was at stake, in the hour of his misfortune, when the friendly attentions he had paid to me had been unfailing. If you cannot take so kind a view, you should consider that my candidature stood in the way. I think even so I may be forgiven : for it is not "a trifle, some worthless matter," ** at stake. You know the game I am playing, and how important it is for me to keep in with every one and even to make new friends. I hope I have justified myself to you. I am really anxious to do so.
5 I am highly delighted with your Hermathena, and have found such a good position for it that the whole class-room seems but an offering ** at its feet. Many thanks for it.
[2] L { shortly after previous letter }
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
I beg to inform you that on the very day that L. Julius Caesar and C. Marcius Figulus were elected to the consulship I was blessed with a baby boy ; and Terentia is doing well. It is ages since I had a letter from you! I have written before and told you all my affairs. At the present minute I am thinking about defending my fellow candidate Catiline. We can have any jury we like with the greatest good will of the prosecutor. ** I hope, if Catiline is acquitted, it will make us better friends in our canvassing: but, if it does not, I shall take it quietly.
2 I badly want you back soon : for there is a widespread opinion that some friends of yours among the nobles are opposed to my election, and I can see that you will be of the greatest assistance to me in winning their goodwill. So be sure you come back to town in January, as you proposed.
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
I beg to inform you that your grandmother has died of grief at your absence and of fear that the Latin tribes would revolt and not bring the beasts to the Alban hill for sacrifice. No doubt Saufeius will send you a letter of condolence.
2 I am expecting you back by January - from mere hearsay, or was it perhaps from letters you have sent to others? You have not said anything about it to me. The statues you have obtained for me have been landed at Caieta. I've not seen them yet, as I've not had a chance of getting away from town : but I've sent a man to pay for the carriage. Many thanks for the trouble you've taken in getting them - so cheaply too.
3 You keep writing to me to make your peace with our friend. I have tried every means I know : but it is surprising how estranged he is from you. I expect you have heard what he thinks about you: anyhow I'll let you know when you come. I have not been able to restore the old terms of intimacy between him and Sallustius, though the latter was on the spot. I mention it because Sallustius used to grumble at me about you. Now he has found out that our friend is not so easy to appease, and that I have done my best for both of you. Our little Tullia is engaged to C. Piso Frugi, son of Lucius.
[4] L { first half of 66 } CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
You keep on raising our hopes of seeing you : and just the other day, when we thought you were nearly here, we find ourselves suddenly put off till July.
Now I really do think you ought to keep your promise and come if you possibly can manage it. You will be in time for my brother Quintus' election : ** you will see me after all this long while ; and you will settle the bother with Acutilius. The latter point Peducaeus too suggested that I should mention to you : we think it would be much better for you to get the thing settled at last. I am and have long been ready to use my influence for you. 2 You would never believe how pleased every one is with my conduct of Macer's case. ** I might certainly have shown more partiality to him: but the popularity I have gained from his condemnation is far more important to me than his gratitude at an acquittal would have been.
3 I am delighted at your news about the Hermathena. ** It is a most suitable ornament for my Academy, since no class-room is complete without a Hermes, and Minerva has a special appropriateness in mine. So please do as you suggest and send as many ornaments as possible for the place. The statues you sent before I have not seen yet. They are in my house at Formiae, where I am just thinking of going. I'll have them all brought to my place at Tusculum, and, if that ever gets too full, I'll begin decorating Caieta. Keep your books and don't despair of my making them mine some day. If I ever do, I shall be the richest of millionaires and shan't envy any man his manors and meadows.
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
You, who know me so well, can guess better than anyone the grief I have felt at the death of my cousin Lucius and the loss it means to me both in my public and in my private life. He has always been kindness itself to me, and has rendered me every service a friend could. I am sure you too will feel it, partly out of sympathy with me, and partly because you will miss a dear and valued friend and relative, who was attached to you of his own accord and at my prompting.
2 You mention your sister. She herself will tell you the pains I have taken to make my brother Quintus behave as he should to her. When I thought he was a little annoyed, I wrote to him trying to smooth matters down with him as a brother, to give him good advice as my junior and to remonstrate with him as in error. Judging by all the letters I have had from him since, I trust things are as they should be and as we wish them to be.
** ERROR ** plus at 99 +1Pomp
3 You have no reason to complain of lack of letters from me, as +1Pomponia has never let me know when there was a messenger to give them to. Besides it has so happened that I have not had anyone starting for Epirus and have not yet heard of your arrival at Athens. 4 Acutilius' business I settled according to your directions, as soon as ever I got to Rome after your departure : but, as it happened, there was no hurry, and, knowing I could trust your good judgement, I preferred Peducaeus to advise you by letter rather than myself It was not the bother of writing you an account of his grievances that I shirked. I spent several days listening to him, and you know his way of talking; and I did not mind, though it was a bit of a bore Though you grumble at me, I've only had one letter from you, let me tell you, and you have had more time to write and a better chance of sending letters than I've had.
5 You say, if so and so ** is a little annoyed with you, I ought to patch things up. I know what you mean, and I've done my best : but he is in a very odd mood. I've said all I could for you. I think I ought to follow your wishes as to what special arguments I should use. If you will write and tell me your wishes, you will find that I did not wish to be more energetic than you were, nor will I be less energetic than you wish.
6 In that matter about Tadius' property, he tells me you have written to him that there is no necessity for him to trouble any more about it: the property is his by right of possession. I wonder you forgot, that in the case of legal wards - and that is what the girl is said to be - right of possession does not count.
7 I am glad you like your new purchase in Epirus. ** Please carry out my commissions, and, as you suggest, buy anything else you think suitable for my Tusculan villa, if it is no trouble to you. It is the only place I find restful after a hard day's work. 8 I am expecting my brother Quintus every day. Terentia has a bad attack of rheumatism. She sends her love and best wishes to you and your sister and mother : and so does my little darling Tullia. Take care of yourself, and don't forget me. Your devoted friend.
[6] L { shortly after 23 November 68 }
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
I'll take care that you shall not have any reason to complain of my slackness in writing to you in the future. See to it yourself that you keep up with me. You have plenty of spare time. M. Fonteius has bought Rabirius' house at Neapolis, which you had in your mind's eyes ready mapped out and finished, for 130,000 sesterces. I mention it in case you still hanker after it. 2 My brother is getting on as well as we can wish, I think, with Pomponia. He is living with her at his estate at Arpinum now, and has with him a litterateur, D. Turranius. My poor father died on November the 27th.
That is about all my budget of news. If you can come across any objects d'art fit for my Gymnasium, please don't let them slip. You know the place and what suits it. I'm so pleased with my house at Tusculum that I am never really happy except when I am there. Send me a full account of your doings and of what you are thinking of doing.
[7] L { before 13 February 67 }
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Things are all right at your mother's : and I have got my eye on her. I've arranged to deposit 20,400 sesterces with L. Cincius on February the 13th. Please hurry up with the things you say you have bought and got ready for me. I want them as soon as possible. And keep your promise to consider how you can secure the library for me. All my hopes of enjoying myself, when I retire, rest on your kindness.
[8] L { after 13 February 67 }
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
All's well - as well as could be desired - at home. Quintus and I are looking after your mother and sister. I've spoken to Acutilius. He says his broker has not advised him, and is much surprised there should have been such a fuss because he refused to guarantee that there should be no further claims on you. The settlement that you have arranged about Tadius' affairs is, I am sure, very good news for him, and he is pleased about it. That friend of mine, who is really quite a good soul and very amiable to me, is exceedingly annoyed with you. When I know how deeply you take it to heart, I may be able to lay my plans accordingly.
2 I have raised the 20,400 sesterces for L. Cincius for the statues of Megaric marble, as you advised me. Those figures of Hermes in Pentelic marble with bronze heads, about which you wrote, I have already fallen in love with : so please send them and anything else that you think suits the place, and my enthusiasm for such things, and your own taste - the more the merrier, and the sooner the better - especially those you intend for the Gymnasium and the colonnade. For my appreciation for art treasures is so great that I am afraid most people will laugh at me, though I expect encouragement from you. If none of Lentulus' boats are coming, put them on any ship you like.
3 My little darling, Tullia, keeps asking for your promised present and duns me as though I were answerable for you. But I am going to deny my obligation rather than pay up.
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Your letters are much too few and far between, considering that it is much easier for you to find some one coming to Rome than for me to find one going to Athens. Besides you can be surer that I am at Rome than I can be that you are in Athens. The shortness of this letter is due to my doubts as to your whereabouts. Not knowing for certain where you are, I don't want private correspondence to fall into a stranger's hands.
2 I am awaiting impatiently the statues of Megaric marble and those of Hermes, which you mentioned in your letter. Don't hesitate to send anything else of the same kind that you have, if it is fit for my Academy. My purse is deep enough. This is my little weakness ; and what I want especially are those that are fit for a Gymnasium. Lentulus promises his ships. Please bestir yourself about it. Thyillus asks you, or rather has got me to ask you, for some books on the ritual of the Eumolpidae. **
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
When I was in my house at Tusculum - that's tit for tat against your "When I was in Ceramicus" - when I really was there, your sister sent a man from Rome with a letter from you, and told me that some one was going to start for Greece that very afternoon. So for lack of time I must make a very short answer to your letter.
2 First I promise to patch up the quarrel between you and our friend, ** even if I cannot quite make peace. I should have done it before of my own accord : but now that I see from your note that you have set your heart on it, I'll give my mind to it and try harder than ever to win him over. I would have you to know that he is very seriously annoyed with you : but, as I cannot see any serious ground for his annoyance, I hope I shall find him pliable and amenable to my influence.
3 Please do as you say about the statues and the Heracles herms : and have them shipped as soon as you can conveniently, and any other things you come across that are suitable for the place - you know what it is like - especially for the Palaestra and Gymnasium. That's where I am sitting and writing now, so my thoughts naturally run on it. I give you a commission too for bas-reliefs for insertion in the stucco walls of the hall, and for two well-covers in carved relief. 4 Be sure you don't promise your library to anyone, however ardent a suitor you may find for it. I am saving up all my little gleanings to buy it as a prop for my old age.
5 My brother's affairs are, I trust, as I have always wished them to be and striven to make them. Everything points that way, and not the least that your sister is enceinte. 6 As for my election, ** I've not forgotten that I gave you leave to stop away : and I've already warned our common friends, who expect you to come, that I've not only forborne to ask you to do so, but even forbidden it, knowing that present business is of much more importance to you than your presence at my election would be to me. I should like you to feel exactly as though it were my business which had taken you away. And you will find and hear from others that my feelings towards you are just as they would be if my success, supposing I have any, were gained not only with you here, but by your aid.
My little Tullia is for having the law of you, and is dunning me as your representative.
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
I had been working for you of my own free will, and my energies were redoubled by the receipt of two letters from you insisting on the same point. Besides Sallustius was continually pressing me to do my best to replace you on your old friendly footing with Lucceius. But when I had done the uttermost, I failed not only to win back his old affection for you, but even to extract from him the reason for his change of feelings towards you. Though he is continually harping on that arbitration case of his, and the other things which I noticed provoked him when you were here, there is something else, I am sure, which is rankling in his mind. And this your presence, a talk with him, and still more the sight of your familiar face, would do more to remove than either your letters or my services as intermediary, if you think it worthwhile to come. And, if you will listen to me and are disposed to act with your usual courtesy, you will certainly think it worth while. You would never believe how self-willed and stiff-necked he seems to be on the point: so don't be astonished that I now appear to doubt my ability to manage him, though in former letters I hinted that I thought he would be under my thumb. But that will be all put right when you come, or whoever deserves it will suffer.
2 You say in your note that my election is thought certain; but let me tell you that candidates are plagued to death nowadays with all sorts of unfairness, and even the date of the election is not fixed. But you will hear about that from Philadelphus.
3 Please send what you have purchased for my Academy as soon as possible. It is astonishing how the mere thought of the place raises my spirits even when I am not in it. Be sure you don't get rid of your books. Keep them for me as you promise. My enthusiasm for them increases with my disgust at everything else. You would never believe how changed for the worse you will find everything has been in the short time you have been away.
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Teucris ** is an unconscionably slow coach and Cornelius has never come back to Terentia : so I suppose I shall have to turn to Considius, Axius or Selicius. Even his relatives can't screw a penny out of Caecilius at less than 12 per cent. But to return to the point; Teucris' behaviour is the most shameless mixture of cunning and laziness I have ever seen. "I'm sending a freedman," says she, or "I've given Titus a commission." All excuses and delays ! But perhaps there is "a silver lining" ** ; for Pompey's advance party bring news that he is going to move for Antonius' retirement, and a praetor will bring the motion forward. Under my circumstances I couldn't honourably champion him. I should lose the respect of both parties if I did : and what's more, I wouldn't, if I could, in view of certain things that have happened, to which I should like to call your attention. 2 There's a freedman of mine, an utter scoundrel - Hilarus I mean - an accountant and a client of yours. Valerius the interpreter sends me news of him, and Thyillus says he has heard too that the fellow is with Antonius, and that Antonius, when he is making requisitions, always asserts that part is levied on my authority, and that I have sent a freedman to look after my share. I am considerably annoyed, though I hardly believe the story : but there has been a good deal of talk. Look into the matter thoroughly and try to get to the bottom of it, and, if you possibly can, get that rascal shifted. Valerius mentioned Cn. Plancius as his authority for the statement. I leave the whole matter entirely in your hands to investigate.
3 I am assured that Pompey is on the best of terms with me. Mucia's divorce meets with everyone's approval. I expect you have heard that P. Clodius, son of Appius, was discovered in woman's clothes in C. Caesar's house, where the sacrifice was going on ** : but a servant girl managed to smuggle him out. It has created a public scandal ; and I am sure you will be sorry to hear of it.
4 I don't think I have any other news for you : and I'm sorry to say I've been rather upset while writing. My reader Sositheus, a charming fellow, has died ; and I am more upset about it than anyone would suppose I should be about a slave's death. Please write frequently. If you've no news, write the first thing that comes into your head.
January 1, in the consulship of M. Messalla and M. Piso.
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
I have had your three letters : one from M. Cornelius, to whom you gave it, I think at the Three Taverns ; another brought by your host at Canusium ; and a third which you say you posted from the boat just as you got under way. All three of them were, as a pupil in the rhetorical schools would say, at once sprinkled with the salt of refinement and stamped with the brand of affection. They certainly provoke an answer: but I have been rather slow about sending one, for lack of a safe messenger. There are very few who can carry a letter of weight without lightening it by a perusal. Besides, I don't hear of every traveller to Epirus. For I suppose, when you have offered sacrifice at your villa Amalthea, you will start at once to lay siege to Sicyon. ** I'm not certain either how or when you are going to join Antonius or how long you will stay in Epirus. So I dare not trust at all outspoken letters to people going either to Achaia or to Epirus.
2 Plenty of things have happened worth writing about since your departure, but I dared not commit them to the risk of the letters being either lost or opened or intercepted. First then let me tell you I was not asked my opinion first in the senate, but had to play second fiddle to the pacifier of the Allobroges. ** Nor did I mind much, though the senate murmured disapproval. It has freed me from the necessity of bowing to a crotchety individual, and sets me at liberty to preserve my political dignity in spite of him. The second place carries nearly as much weight with it as the first, and one's actions are not so much bound by obligation to the consul. The third place fell to Catulus : the fourth, if you want to go as far, to Hortensius. The consul is petty-minded and perverse, a quibbler who used that bitter kind of sarcasm, which raises a laugh even when there is no wit in the words, on the strength of his expression rather than his expressions. He is no politician at all, he stands aloof from the optimates : and one cannot expect him to render any good services to the state, because he does not wish to do so, nor any bad, because he does not dare. But his colleague is most polite to me, a keen politician and a bulwark of the good men. 3 There is a slight difference of opinion between them at present : but I am afraid that the contagion may spread. No doubt you have heard that, when the sacrifice was taking place in Caesar's house, a man in woman's clothes got in ; and that after the Vestal Virgins had performed the sacrifice afresh, the matter was mentioned in the senate by Cornificius. Note that he was the prime mover and none of us. Then a resolution was passed, the matter was referred to the virgins and the priests, and they pronounced it a sacrilege. So the consuls were directed by the senate to bring in a bill about it. Caesar has divorced his wife. ** Piso's friendship for Clodius is making him do his best to have the bill shelved, though he is the person who has to bring it forward under the senate's orders - and a bill for sacrilege too! Messalla at present takes a strict view of the case. - The good men are dropping out of it under persuasion from Clodius. Gangs of rowdies are being formed. I, who at first was a perfect Lycurgus, am daily cooling down. Cato, however, is pressing the case with energy. But enough. I am afraid that what with the lack of interest shown in the case by the good men, and its championship by unscrupulous men, it may cause a lot of mischief to the state.
4 Your friend ** - you know whom I mean, the man who, you say, began to praise me as soon as he feared to blame me - is now parading his affection for me openly and ostentatiously; but in his heart of hearts he is envious, and he does not disguise it very well. He is totally lacking in courtesy, candour, in any splendour of his politics, as well as in sense of honour, resolution and generosity. But I'll write more fully about that another time. I've not got hold of the facts properly yet, and I dare not trust an important letter to a man in the street like this messenger.
5 The praetors have not drawn their provinces yet : and things are just as they were when you left. I will insert a description of Misenum and Puteoli in my speech as you suggest. I had already spotted the mistake in the date, December 3. The passages in my speeches which took your fancy were, do you know, just those that I was proud of, but didn't like to say so before : and after Atticus' approval they look much more Attic in my eyes. I have added a little to my reply to Metellus. I'll send the book to you since your affection for me has given you a taste for rhetoric.
6 Is there any news to tell you ? Let me see - yes. The consul Messalla has bought Autronius' house for 20,400,000 sesterces. What business is that of mine, you will ask. Only that it proves that my house was a good investment, and is beginning to open people's eyes to the fact that it is quite legitimate to make use of a friend's pocket to buy a place that gives one a social position. That Teucris is a slow coach; but it is not hopeless yet. Mind you get your part finished. I'll write less guardedly soon.
January 25, in the consulship of M. Messalla and M. Piso.
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
I'm afraid you'll be heartily sick of my pleas of business, but I'm so driven from pillar to post that I can hardly find time for these few lines, and even that I have to snatch from important business. I have already written and told you what Pompey's first public speech was like. The poor did not relish it, the unscrupulous men thought it pointless, the rich were not pleased with it, and the good men were dissatisfied: so it fell flat. Then at the instance of the consul Piso, an untrustworthy tribune, Fufius, must needs trot out Pompey to deliver an harangue. This happened in the Circus Flaminius, where there was the usual market-day gathering of riff-raff. Fufius asked him whether he agreed with the proposal that the praetor should have the selection of the jurymen and then use them as his panel. That of course was the plan proposed by the Senate in Clodius' trial for sacrilege. 2 To this Pompey replied en grand seigneur that he felt and always had felt the greatest respect for the Senate's authority; and very long-winded he was about it. Afterwards the consul Messalla asked Pompey in the Senate for his opinion on the sacrilege and the proposed bill. He delivered a speech eulogising the Senate's measures en bloc, and said to me as he sat down at my side, that he thought he had given a sufficiently clear answer to "those questions."
3 Crassus no sooner saw that he had won public appreciation, because people fancied that he approved of my consulship, than up he got and spoke of it in the most complimentary way. He said that he owed his seat in the senate, his privileges as a citizen, his freedom and his very life, to me. He never saw his wife's face, or his home, or his native land, without recognising the debt he owed to me. But enough. He worked up with great effect all that purple patch which I so often use here and there to adorn my speeches, to which you play Aristarchus - the passage about fire and sword - you know the paints I have on my palette. I was sitting next to Pompey, and noticed that he was much affected, possibly at seeing Crassus snap up the chance of winning popularity, which he had thrown away, and perhaps at realising the importance of my achievements, when he saw that praise of them met with the Senate's entire approval, especially coming from one who had all the less necessity to praise me, because in every one of my works he has been censured for Pompey's benefit. 4 To-day has done a great deal to cement my friendship with Crassus : but still I gladly received any crumbs Pompey let fall openly or covertly. As for me, ye gods, how I showed off before my new listener Pompey! Then, if ever, my flow of rounded periods, my easy transitions, my antitheses, my constructive arguments stood me in good stead. In a word, loud applause! For the gist of it was the importance of the senatorial order, its unison with the knights, the concord of all Italy, the paralysed remains of the conspiracy, peace and plenty. You know how I can thunder on a subject like that. This time my thunders were so loud that I forbear to say any more about them. I expect you heard them right over there.
5 Well, there you have the news of the town. The Senate is a perfect Areopagus, all seriousness, steadfastness and firmness. For when the time came for passing the Senate's measure, all those callow youths, Catiline's cubs, met under the leadership of Curio's effeminate son, and asked the people to reject it. The consul Piso had to propose the law, but spoke against it. Clodius' rowdies held the gangways; and the voting papers were so managed that no 'ayes' were given out. Then you have Cato flying to the rostra and giving Piso a slap - if one can say "slap" of an utterance full of dignity, full of authority, and full of saving counsel. Our friend Hortensius joined him too, and many other good men, Favonius particularly distinguishing himself for his energy. This rally of the optimates broke up the meeting, and the Senate was called together. In a full house a resolution was passed that persuasion should be used to induce the people to accept the measure, though Piso opposed it and Clodius went down on his knees to us one by one. Some fifteen supported Curio's rejection of the bill, while the opposite party numbered easily 400. That settled the matter. Fufius the tribune collapsed. Clodius delivered some pitiful harangues, in which he hurled reproaches at Lucullus, Hortensius, C. Piso, and the consul Messalla: me he only twitted with my sensational discoveries. ** The Senate decided that no action was to be taken as to the distribution of provinces among the praetors, hearing of embassies or anything else, till this measure was passed.
6 There you have the political situation. But there is one piece of news I must tell you, as it is better than I expected. Messalla is an excellent consul, resolute, reliable and energetic : for me he expresses admiration and respect, and shows it by imitating me. That other fellow has only one redeeming vice, laziness, sleepiness, ignorance, and fainéance : but at heart he is such a mauvais sujet that he began to detest Pompey after that speech of his in praise of the Senate. So he is at daggers drawn with all the good men. It was not so much friendship for Clodius that induced him to act like this as a taste for knaves and knavery. But there are none of his sort in office except Fufius. Our tribunes of the people are all sound men, and Cornutus is Cato's double. Can I say more?
7 Now for private affairs. Teucris has kept her promise. Please carry out the commissions you received. My brother Quintus has bought the remaining three-quarters of his house on the Argiletum for 725,000 sesterces, and is selling his place at Tusculum to buy Pacilius' house, if he can. I've made it up with Lucceius. I see he's got the office-seeking complaint badly. I'll do my best for him. Please keep me posted up in your doings, your whereabouts and the progress of our affairs.
13 February.
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
You have heard that that good brother of mine, Quintus, has Asia assigned him as his province. ** I've no doubt a rumour of it has reached you before any of our letters. We have always had a keen regard for our reputation, and both are and are considered unusually philhellenic, and our public services have won us a host of ill-wishers. So now is the time for you to "recollect all virtue," ** and help us to secure universal applause and approval. 2 I will write further about it in a letter which I shall give to Quintus himself. Please let me know which of my orders you have carried out, and how your own affairs are getting on. I haven't had a single letter from you since you left Brundisium : and I badly want to know how you are.
March 15.
[16] L { beginning of July 61 }
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
You ask what can have happened about the trial to give it such an unexpected ending, and you want to know, too, why I showed less fight than usual. Well! In my answer I'll put the cart before the horse {hysteron proteron} like Homer. So long as I had to defend the Senate's decree, I fought so fiercely and doughtily, that cheering crowds rallied round me with enthusiastic applause. You would certainly have marvelled at my courage on this occasion, if ever you credited me with any courage in my country's defence. When Clodius fell back on speechifying and took my name in vain, didn't I just show fight, didn't I deal havoc ! How I charged Piso, Curio, and all that crowd ! Didn't I rate the old men for their frivolity, the young for their wanton passions! Heaven is my witness, I often wanted you not only to prompt my plans, but also to be a spectator of my doughty deeds.
2 But when Hortensius had conceived the idea of letting Fufius bring in his bill about the sacrilege, which only differed from the consular measure in the method of choosing the jury - though that was the point on which everything turned - and fought for his own way, under the impression, which he had also conveyed to others, that no conceivable jury could acquit Clodius, I drew in a reef or two, not being blind to the impecuniosity of the jurymen. I confined my testimony to points so thoroughly well- known and attested that I could not omit them. So, to come at last to the "horse," if you want to know the reason for his acquittal, it lay in the jury's lack of pence and of conscience. But it was Hortensius' plan that made such a result possible. In his fright that Fufius might veto the Senate's measure, he overlooked the fact that it would be better for Clodius to be kept in disgrace with a trial hanging over his head, than for the case to come before an unsound court. Spurred on by hatred, he rushed the matter into court, saying that a leaden sword was sharp enough to cut Clodius' throat.
3 If you want to know about the trial, the result of it was so incredible that now after the event everybody agrees with my forebodings and blames Hortensius. The challenging of the jury took place amidst an uproar, since the prosecutor like a good censor rejected all the knaves, and the defendant like a kind-hearted trainer of gladiators set aside all the respectable people. And as soon as the jury took their seats, the good men began to have grave misgivings: for never did a more disreputable set of people get together even in a gambling hell. Senators with a past, knights without a penny, tribunes whose only right to a title implying pay lay in their readiness to take it. ** The few honest folk among them, that he had not managed to remove in his selection, sat as woe-begone as fish out of water, sadly upset and bemoaning their contact with infamy.
4 At the preliminary proceedings, as point after point was put before the jury, their strict and unanimous uprightness was extraordinary. The defendant never won a point, and the prosecution were granted more than they asked for. It goes without saying that Hortensius was triumphant at his penetration ; and no one regarded Clodius so much as a man on his trial as one that had been condemned a thousand times over. You have no doubt heard how the jury rose in a body to protect me, when I stepped into the witness-box and Clodius' supporters began to hoot : and how they offered their throats to Clodius' sword in defence of me. Thereby, to my mind they paid me a far higher compliment than your fellow-citizens paid Xenocrates, when they refused to let him take the oath before giving his testimony, or our Roman jury paid Metellus Numidicus, when they would not look at the accounts which he passed round as is usual in such cases. 5 I repeat, the honour shown me was far greater. The shouts of the jury, proclaiming me as the saviour of the country crushed and annihilated the defendant and all his supporters. And on the next day a crowd as great as that which conducted me home at the end of my consulship gathered round me. Our noble Areopagites ** declared they would not come without a guard. The votes of the court were taken and there was only one person who voted a guard unnecessary. The point was laid before the Senate, who passed a decree in the strongest and most complimentary terms, thanking the jury and referring the matter to the magistrates. No one thought Clodius would offer a defence. "Tell me now, ye Muses, how first the fire fell." **
You know Baldpate of Nanneian fame, ** my late panegyrist, whose complimentary speech in my honour I have already mentioned in my letters ; well, he managed the whole job in a couple of days with the help of one slave and that an ex-prizefighter. He sent for everybody, made promises, gave security, paid money down. Good heavens, what a scandal there was! Even the favours of certain ladies and introductions to young men of good family were given to some of the jury to swell the bribe. All good men withdrew entirely from the case and the forum was full of slaves. Yet five and twenty of the jury were brave enough to risk their necks, preferring death to treachery : but there were thirty-one who were more influenced by famine than fame. Catulus meeting one of these latter remarked to him : "Why did you ask for a guard? For fear of having your pocket picked?" 6 There you have as short a summary as possible of the trial and the reason for the acquittal.
You want to know next what is the present state of public affairs, and how I am getting on. We thought that the condition of the Republic had been set on a firm footing, you by my prudence, I by divine interposition : and that its preservation was secured and established by the combination of all patriots and by the influence of my consulship. But, let me tell you, unless some god remembers us, it has been dashed from our grasp by this one trial, if one can call it a trial, when thirty of the most worthless scoundrels in Rome have blotted out right and justice for filthy lucre, and when Talnus and Plautus and Spongia and all the riff-raff of that description have declared a thing not to have happened which every man - man did I say? - nay, every beast of the field, knows for a fact.
7 Still to give you some consolation about politics - the country has not received so serious a blow as traitors wished, nor is iniquity vaunting itself so rampantly on its victory. For they clearly thought that, when religious and moral scruples, judicial honour and the Senate's authority had been destroyed, iniquity and lust would triumph openly, and would wreak their vengeance on all honest folk for the brand that had been stamped on vice by my consulship. 8 I was the man - I don't think I am boasting unduly in saying so to you privately, especially in a letter which I would rather you didn't read to anyone - I was the man who revived the fainting courage of the patriots, encouraging and cheering them one by one. I attacked and routed that venal jury; and I did not leave the victorious party and its supporters a word to say for themselves. The consul Piso I did not leave an inch to stand on. Syria, which had been promised him as his province, I wrested from him. The Senate I aroused from its despondency, recalling it to its former uprightness. Clodius I bearded and crushed in the Senate with a set speech full of dignity, and then with a cross-examination, of which I will give you a taste. The rest would lose both its verve and its wit, when the fire of battle is out, and the strife, as you Greeks call it, is past.
9 When I entered the senate on the 15th of May, and was asked tor my opinion, I discussed politics at length, and by a happy inspiration introduced this passage: The Senate must not be crushed by a single blow, they must not be faint-hearted. The wound is such that it cannot be disguised, yet it must not be feared, lest by our fear we prove ourselves abject cowards, or by ignoring it, very fools. Lentulus twice obtained an acquittal, and Catiline as often, and this is the third criminal let loose on the country by a jury. But you are mistaken, Clodius. The jury saved you for the gallows, not for public life : their object was not to keep you in the country, but to keep you from leaving it. Keep up your hearts, then, senators, and preserve your dignity. The feelings of all patriots are unchanged; they have suffered grief, but their courage is undiminished. It is no new disaster that has befallen us, we have merely discovered one that existed unnoticed. The trial of one villain has revealed many as guilty as himself.
10 But there, I've nearly copied the whole speech. Now for our passage of arms. Up gets this pretty boy and reproaches me with spending my time at Baiae. It was a lie : and anyhow what did it matter ? "One would think ," said I, "you were accusing me of spending my time in hiding." ** "What need has a man of Arpinum to take the waters?" asks Clodius: and I answered: "You should talk like that to your patron, ** who wanted to take the waters of a man of Arpinum," - you know about the sea-water baths. "How long are we going to let this man king it over us?" says he. I wonder you mention the word king," I replied, "since King { Rex ** } did not mention you." He had been dying to inherit King's money. "You have bought a house," he says. "You seem to think it is the same as buying a jury," I answer. "They did not credit you on your oath," he remarks. To which I answer: "Twenty-five jurymen credited me: the other thirty-one gave you no credit, but took care to get their money first." There was loud applause, and he collapsed without a word, utterly crushed.
11 My own position is this. I have retained the influence I had, when you left, over the good men, and have gained much more influence over the sordid dregs of the populace than I had then. That my testimony was not accepted does me no harm. My unpopularity has been tapped like a dropsy and painlessly reduced, and another thing has done me even more good: the supporters of that crime confess that that open scandal was due to bribery. Besides that blood-sucker of the treasury, the wretched and starveling mob, thinks I am a prime favourite with the "great man" Pompey, and upon my soul we are upon terms of very pleasant intimacy - so much so indeed that these bottle-conspirators, these youths with budding beards in common table-talk call him Gnaeus Cicero. So both at the games and at the gladiatorial shows, I have been the object of extraordinary demonstrations without hisses or catcalls.
12 Now every one is looking forward to the elections. Our "great" Pompey is pushing Aulus' son ** amidst general disapproval : and the means he is using are neither authority nor influence, but those which Philip said, would storm any fort to which an ass laden with money could climb. Piso is said to be playing second fiddle to Pompey and to have bribery-agents in his house: but I don't believe it. But two decrees have been passed on the proposal of Cato and Domitius, which are unpopular because they are thought to be directed against the consul ; one, making it lawful to search the house of any magistrate, and the other making it a treasonable offence to have bribery agents in one's house. 13 The tribune Lurco, who entered on his office under another law, has been freed from the obligations of the Aelian and Fufian laws, ** so that he may propose his law about bribery. He had luck in publishing it in spite of his deformity. Accordingly the elections have been postponed till the 27th of July. The new point about this law is that a mere promise to bribe the tribesmen counts for nothing, if it is not fulfilled ; but, if it is fulfilled, the man who made it is liable for life to a fine of 3,000 sesterces per tribe. I remarked Clodius had kept this law before it was passed ; for he is always promising and not paying. But, I say, if he gets in, that consulship of mine which Curio used to call a deification will become an absolute farce. ** So, I suppose I must take to philosophy like yourself, and not give a button for consulships.
14 You write that you have made up your mind not to go to Asia. I would rather you did go, and I am afraid it may cause unpleasantness if you do not. But I cannot blame your decision, especially as I have refused to go to a province.
15 I shall be contented with the inscriptions you have put in your Amaltheum, especially as Thyillus has deserted me and Archias has not written anything about me. I am afraid, now he has written his Greek poem on the Luculli, he is turning to the Caecilian drama. ** 16 I have thanked Antonius on your behalf, and given that letter to Mallius. My letters to you up to now have been fewer than they should have been, as I had no trusty messenger nor any certain address to send them to. I have sung your praises loudly. 17 If Cincius delegates any of your business to me, I will undertake it. But just at present he is more concerned with his own, in which I am ready to assist him. Expect frequent letters from me, if you are settled ; and send me even more. 18 Please write me a description of your Amaltheum, its adornment and situation ; and send me any poems and tales you have about Amalthea. I should like to make one too in my place at Arpinum. I will send you some of my writings : but there is nothing finished.
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Your letter and the enclosed copy of one of my brother Quintus' letters show me that he has continually changed his mind and wavered in his opinion and judgement. I am exceedingly disturbed about it, as indeed I could not help being, considering my affection for both of you, and I wonder what can have happened to cause my brother Quintus such grave offence and to make him change his mind so extraordinarily. I grasped some time ago, what I think you were beginning to suspect, when you left, that at the bottom of it must be some idea of an insult, and that his feelings were wounded and some unpleasant suspicions had taken deep root. Though I often before sought to heal the wound, and redoubled my efforts after the allotment of his province, I could neither find that he was as much annoyed as your letter makes out, nor yet make as much headway with him as I wished. 2 However, I used to console myself with the thought that he would be sure to see you either at Dyrrachium or somewhere thereabout. And I had quite made up my mind that when that occurred, all the difficulties between you would be smoothed over as much by the mere sight of one another and the pleasure of meeting as by conversation and discussion. For I need not tell you, who know it yourself, how amiable and kindly my brother Quintus is, and how sensitive he is and ready both to take offence and to forget it. But it has happened most unfortunately that you have not seen him anywhere. For the impression he has received from some designing persons has had more weight with him than either his duty or your old intimacy and affection which ought to have had the greatest weight of all.
3 Where the blame for this unpleasantness rests, it is easier for me to imagine than to write. For I am afraid that in defending my relatives I may not spare yours. For my view is that, even if no wound was inflicted by members of the family, they could certainly have healed the one which existed. But the real fault of the whole matter, which is of rather wider extent than it appears, I can explain to you more conveniently when we meet. 4 As to the letter which he sent to you from Thessalonica and the language which you think he used about you both to your friends at Rome and on his journey, I cannot see any sufficient cause for them; but all my hope of removing this unpleasantness lies in your kindness. For if you can persuade yourself that the best of men are often those whose feelings are easy to arouse and easy to appease, and that this nimbleness, if I may use the word, and sensitiveness of disposition are generally signs of a good heart, and - what is the main point - that we must put up with one another's unpleasantnesses and faults and insults, then, as I hope, all this can be smoothed over easily. This I beg of you to do. For, as I hold you in such peculiar esteem, it is my dearest wish that there may not be any of my people who either does not love you or is not loved by you.
5 That part of your letter in which you mention the chances of preferment in the provinces or in town, which you neglected in my consulship and at other times, was most unnecessary, for I am thoroughly persuaded of your disinterestedness and magnanimity, and I have never thought that there was any difference between you and me, except our choice of a career. A touch of ambition led me to seek for distinction, while another perfectly laudable motive led you to honourable ease. But in the real glory, which consists in uprightness, industry and piety, there is no one I place above you, not even myself, and as regards affection to myself, after my brother and my immediate connections, I give you the palm. 6 For I have seen time after time, and have had thorough experience of your sorrow and your joy in my changing fortunes. I have often had the pleasure of your congratulations in times of triumph and the comfort of your consolation in hours of despondency. Indeed at this very moment your absence makes me feel the lack not only of your advice, which you excel in giving, but of the interchange of speech, which I enjoy most with you. I hardly know if I miss it most in politics, where I dare not make a slip ; or in my legal work, which I used to undertake for advancement's sake and now keep up to preserve my position through popularity; or in my private concerns. In all of them I have felt your loss all along and especially since my brother's departure. Finally, neither my work nor my recreation, neither my business nor my leisure, neither my legal affairs nor my domestic, my public life or my private, can do without your most agreeable and affectionate advice and conversation any longer.
7 The modesty of both of us has often prevented me from mentioning these facts : but now it was forced upon me by that part of your letter in which you say you want yourself and your character cleared and vindicated in my eyes. There is one good thing as regards the unpleasantness caused by his alienation and anger, that your determination not to go to the province was known to me and other friends of yours, as you told us some time before ; so the fact that you are not with him cannot be attributed to your quarrel and rupture, but to your choice and plans already fixed. So amends will be made for the breach of friendship; and the ties between us, which have been so religiously preserved, will retain their inviolability.
8 The political position here is wretched, rotten and unstable. I expect jou have heard that our friends the knights have almost had a rupture with the Senate. The first point that seriously annoyed them was the publication of a senatorial decree for an investigation into any cases of bribery of jurymen. ** As I did not happen to be present when the decree was passed, and noticed that the knights were annoyed though they did not openly say so, I remonstrated with the Senate very impressively, I think, and spoke with great weight and fluency, considering how shameless the case was. 9 Here is another intolerable piece of petulance on the part of the knights ! Yet I have not only put up with it, but forwarded their cause. The people who farmed the province of Asia from the censors, complained in the Senate that their avariciousness had led them to pay too high a price for it, and requested to have the lease annulled. I was their chief supporter, or rather the second, for it was Crassus who encouraged them to venture on the demand. It is a scandalous affair, a disgraceful request and a confession of foolhardiness. There was considerable danger, that, if they met with a refusal, they might have severed their connection with the Senate entirely. In this case too I was the main person who came to the rescue, and obtained for them a hearing in a very full and friendly senate, and discoursed freely on the dignity and harmony of the two orders both on the first of December and the following day. The matter is not yet settled : but the Senate's inclination is clear. For one person only has opposed it, Metellus the consul elect. Our hero Cato was to have spoken, but the day was too short for it to come to his turn.
10 So I am keeping to our policy and plan, and am preserving to the best of my ability that harmony which I have welded : but still, as that is now in such a shaky condition, I am, I hope, keeping a road open to preserve my position. I cannot explain fully in a letter; but I will give you a gentle hint. I am on the best of terms with Pompey. You know what I mean. I will take all reasonable precautions, and will write again at fuller length as to my plans for managing the republic.
11 Lucceius is thinking of standing for the consulship at once : for only two candidates are spoken of as likely to come forward. With Caesar he thinks he may come to terms through Arrius, and Bibulus' cooperation he hopes to win through C. Piso. You smile ? There is nothing to laugh at, I assure you. Is there anything else I want to tell you? Anything else? Yes, lots of things, but another time . . . you wish to wait (?), let me know. At present I have one modest request to make, though it is my chief desire: that you come as soon as possible.
5 December.
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Believe me, there is nothing I want so much at the present time, as a person with whom I can share anything that causes me the least anxiety, a man of affection and common sense, to whom I can speak without affectation, reserve, or concealment. My brother, who is the most unaffected of persons and most affectionate, is away. Metellus is not a human being, but "sea-shore and airy void and desert waste." ** And you whose conversation and advice have so often lightened my load of care and anxiety, who have aided me in my political life, been my confident in my family affairs and shared my conversations and projects - where are you? So utterly am I deserted, that the only moments of repose I have are those which are spent with my wife, my little daughter and darling boy. For my grand and showy friendships may make a fine show in public, but private satisfaction they have none. And so, when my house has been crowded in the morning, and I have gone down to the forum amid a throng of friends, I cannot find in the whole company a single man with whom I can jest freely or whisper familiarly. So I look forward with longing to your coming and in fact urge you to hurry : for I have many cares and anxieties, which fancy would be banished by a single walk and talk in your sympathetic hearing.
2 However, I will conceal the pricks and stings of my private troubles, and will not entrust them to this letter and an unknown messenger. They are not very grievous - so don't alarm yourself - but still they are persistent and worrying, and I have no friend's advice and discussion to lull them to rest. For the State, though there is still life in it, the very cures that have been tried on it, have again and again opened fresh wounds. If I were to give you a brief summary of what has happened since you left, you would certainly exclaim that Rome cannot possibly stand any longer. For it was after your departure, I believe, that the opening scene of the Clodian drama became the topic of discussion. There I thought I had a chance of using the surgeon's knife on licentiousness and curbing youthful excesses: and I exerted myself, putting forth all the resources of my intellect and mind, not out of private spite, but in the hope of effecting a radical cure of the State.
3 The corruption of the jury by bribery and debauchery dealt a crushing blow to the republic. See what has followed. We have had a consul forced on us, ** at whom no one except us philosophers can look without a sigh. That is a fatal stroke. Though a senatorial decree has been passed about the bribery of juries, no law has been carried; the Senate has been frightened out of it, and the knights have been estranged. So this one year has overturned two bulwarks of the State which had been erected by me alone : for it has destroyed the prestige of the Senate and broken up the harmony of the orders. Now comes this precious year. It was inaugurated by the suspension of the annual rites of the goddess of youth { Juventas} : for Memmius initiated M. Lucullus' wife into some rites of his own. Menelaus took it hard and divorced his wife. Unlike the shepherd of Ida, who only slighted Menelaus, our modern Paris thought Agamemnon as fitting an object for his contempt. **
4 There is one C. Herennius, a tribune - you may not even know him, though perhaps you do, as he is a member of the same tribe as yourself, and his father Sextus used to distribute money to your tribesmen - he is trying to transfer P. Clodius to the plebs, and even proposes that the whole people shall vote on the matter in the Campus Martius. I gave him my usual reception in the Senate ; but he is the most phlegmatic of mortals. 5 Metellus is an excellent consul and an admirer of mine ; but he has lessened his influence by making, only for form's sake, the very same proposal about Clodius. But Aulus' son - heavens above! What a cowardly and spiritless wretch for a soldier ! Just fit to be exposed, as he is, to the daily abuse of Palicanus.
6 An agrarian law has been proposed by Flavius, - a very paltry production, almost identical with the Plotian law. And in the meantime not the ghost of a real statesman is to be found. The man who could be one, my intimate friend - for so he is, I would have you to know - Pompey, wraps that precious triumphal cloak of his around him in silence. Crassus never utters a word to risk his popularity. The others you know well enough - fools who seem to hope that their fish-ponds may be saved, though the country go to rack and ruin. 7 There is one who can be said to take some pains, but, according to my view, with more constancy and honesty than judgement and ability - Cato. It is now three months that he has been worrying those wretched tax-collectors, who used to be great friends of his, and won't let the Senate give them an answer. So we are forced to suspend all decrees on other subjects until the tax-collectors have had an answer. And I suppose even the embassies ** will have to be postponed for the same reason.
8 Now you see the storm we have to weather ; and, as you can grasp from what I have written with such emphasis, something of what I have left unwritten, come and see me again, for it is high time. Though what I invite you to you might well avoid, let your affection for me conquer even your objection under such unpleasant circumstances. I will see to it that notice is given and posted up everywhere, that you may not be entered on the census list as absent. But to get put on the roll just before the census is too thoroughly tradesman-like. So let me see you as soon as possible. Farewell.
Jan. 20 in the consulship of C. Metellus and L. Afranius.
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING
If I had as much time as you have, or if I could bring myself to write such short letters as you generally write, I could beat you hollow and write far more frequently than you write. But on the top of my inconceivable stress of work, you have to add my habit of never sending you a letter without a theme and a moral. First, as one ought to a loyal citizen, I will give you a sketch of political events, and then, as I am the nearest in your affection, I will tell you any of my own affairs that I think you would not be disinclined to know.
2 In politics then at the present minute fears of war in Gaul are the main topic: for "our brothers" the Aedui have had a disastrous battle recently, and the Helvetii are undoubtedly in arms and making raids on our province. The Senate has decreed that the consuls should cast lots for the two Gauls, ** that levies should be made, furloughs cancelled, and ambassadors with full powers sent to visit the Gallic states and prevent them from joining the Helvetii. The ambassadors are Quintus Metellus Creticus, and Lucius Flaccus, and - "the perfume on the lentils" - Lentulus, son of Clodianus. 3 And I cannot forbear adding here that when my lot came up first in the ballot among the ex-consuls, the Senate were unanimous in declaring that I should be kept in Rome. The same happened to Pompey after me, so that we two appear to be kept as pledges of the State. Why should I look for the "bravos" of strangers when these triumphs bloom for me at home?
4 Well, this is the state of affairs in the city. The agrarian law was zealously pushed by the tribune Flavius with the support of Pompey, though its only claim to popularity was its supporter. My proposal to remove from the law any points which encroached on private rights was favourably received by a public meeting. I proposed to exempt from its action such land as was public in the consulship of P. Mucius and L. Calpurnius, ** to confirm Sulla's veterans in their possessions, to allow the people of Volaterra and Arretium to retain in their holding their land which Sulla had made public land, but had not distributed : the only clause I did not reject was that land should be purchased by this wind-fall which will come in from the new foreign revenues in the next five years.
The Senate was opposed to the whole agrarian scheme, suspecting that Pompey was aiming at getting some new powers. Pompey had set his heart on carrying the law through. I on the other hand, with the full approval of the applicants for land, was for securing the holdings of all private persons - for, as you know, the strength of our party consists in the rich landed gentry - while at the same time I fulfilled my desire to satisfy Pompey and the populace by supporting the purchase of land, thinking that, if that were thoroughly carried out, the city might be emptied of the dregs of the populace, and the deserted parts of Italy peopled. But the matter has cooled off now this war has interrupted it. Metellus is an excellent consul and a great admirer of mine. The other one is an utter nonentity and clearly doesn't know what he has bought. 5 That is all my political news, unless you think this has a bearing on politics. One Herennius, a tribune and fellow tribesman of yours, and a man of no character or position, has begun frequently proposing the transference of P. Clodius from a patrician to a plebeian ; and his proposals are vetoed by many of his colleagues. This, I think, is all the public news.
6 For myself, ever since that December day ** when I won such splendid and immortal glory, though it carried with it much envy and enmity, I have not ceased to employ the same high-minded policy and to keep the position I have won and taken up. But, as soon as the acquittal of Clodius showed me the uncertainty and instability of the law courts, and I saw too how easily our friends the tax-gatherers could be estranged from the Senate, though they might not sever their connection with me, while the well-to-do - your friends with the fish-ponds, ** I mean - took no pains to disguise their envy of me, I thought that I had better look out for some stronger support and more secure protection.
7 So firstly I brought Pompey, the man who had held his peace too long about my achievements, into a frame of mind for attributing to me the salvation of the empire and the world not once only, but time after time and with emphasis in the senate. That was not so much for my own benefit - for my achievements were neither so obscure that they required evidence, nor so dubious that they required puffing up - but for the State's sake, for there were some ill-natured persons who thought that there was a certain amount of disagreement between Pompey and myself, owing to a difference of opinion about those matters. With him I have formed such an intimate connection that both of us are strengthened in our policy and surer in our political position through our coalition. 8 The dislike which had been aroused against me among our dissipated and dandified youths has been smoothed away by my affability, and now they pay me more attention than anyone. In short I avoid hurting anyone's feelings, though I do not court popularity by relaxing my principles ; indeed my whole conduct is regulated so, that, while I preserve my firmness in public life, in my private affairs the weakness of the loyal party, the prejudice of the disaffected and the hostility of the disloyal makes me move with some care and caution, and involved though I am in my new friendships, I frequently have the refrain of Epicharmus, that subtle Sicilian, ringing in my ears :
"Be sober of head, and mistrustful of friends ;
Hinges are these on which wisdom depends."
There you have, I think, an outline sketch of my rule of life.
9 You keep writing about that business of yours; but at present I have no remedy for it. The decree was passed by the enthusiasm of the junior members without any support from us consulars. For as to my signature which you find attached to it, you can see from the decree itself that it was quite a different matter which was brought forward, and this clause about the free peoples was added without rhyme or reason. It was the work of P. Servilius the younger, who was one of the last to speak : but it cannot be altered at the present time. So the meetings which at first were held about it have ceased long ago. If, however, you should manage to squeeze a few pence out of the Sicyonians, please let me know.
10 I have sent you a copy of my account of my consulship in Greek. If there is anything in it, which to your Attic taste seems bad Greek or unscholarly, I will not say what Lucullus said to you - at Panhormus, I think - about his history, that he had interspersed a few barbarisms and solecisms as a clear proof that it was the work of a Roman. If there is anything of the kind in my work, it is there without my knowledge and against my will. When I have finished the Latin version, I will send it to you. In the third place you may expect a poem, not to let slip any method of singing my own praises. Please don't quote "Who will praise his sire ?" ** For if there is any more fitting subject for eulogy, then I am willing to be blamed for not choosing some other subject. However my compositions are not panegyrics at all but histories.
11 My brother Quintus has written exculpating himself and declaring that he never said a word against you to anyone. But that is a point we have to discuss very carefully when we meet, if only you will come and see me some time. This Cossinius, to whom I have given the letter, seems to me a very good steady sort of fellow, and devoted to you, exactly as you described him in your letter.
March 15.
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
On my return from my villa at Pompeii on the 12th of May, our friend Cincius passed on to me your letter which was dated the 13th of February. That is the letter which I shall now answer. And first I must say how delighted I am that you fully understood my opinion of you : next how very glad I am that you showed such forbearance with regard to the slights and unkindness which in my opinion you had received from me and mine : and I count it a sign of affection more than ordinary and the highest sense and wisdom. Indeed your answer is so charmingly worded and with such consideration and kindliness that not only have I no further right to press you, but I can never expect to experience such courtesy and forbearance from you or any other man. So I think it would be best for me to say no more about the matter in my letters. If any point arises, we will discuss it together when we meet.
2 Your remarks about politics are couched in friendly and prudent terms, and your view does not differ from my own, for I must not withdraw from my dignified position, nor must I enter another's lines without any forces of my own, and the man you mention ** has no broad-mindedness and no high-mindedness, nothing in him that is not low and time-serving. Well, perhaps the course I took was not opposed to my own advantage and peace of life, but I swear it was far more to the advantage of the State than to mine that I should be the means of suppressing the attacks of the disloyal, and of strengthening the wavering policy of a man of the highest position, influence and popularity, and converting him from pandering to the disloyal to approval of my achievements. If I had had to make any sacrifice of principle in so doing, I should never have thought it justifiable : but I managed it so that he seemed to gain m principle by his approval of me, more than I lost in bowing to him.
3 I will take care that my actions now and in the future do not convey the impression that what I did in the past was done at haphazard. My honest comrades, at whom you hint, and the 'Spartan' lot ** which has fallen to me, as you say, I will never desert. Nay, even if I am deserted by it I will abide by my ancient principles. But I would have you please remember that, since the death of Catulus, I am holding the way for the optimates without a garrison and without a comrade. For, as Rhinton, I think it is, says :
Some are mere nothings, and nothing do the others care.
How our friends of the fish-ponds envy me, I will either tell you in another letter, or keep it till we meet. But from the Senate house nothing shall I tear me : either because that is the right course, or because it is most consistent with my position, or because I am by no means dissatisfied with the Senate's estimation of me.
4 As regards the Sicyonians, there is very little hope to be placed in the Senate, as I wrote you before: for there is no one now to raise a complaint. It would be tedious to wait for them to move. Fight the point in some other way, if you can. When the law was passed, nobody noticed to whom it applied, and the junior members plumped eagerly in its favour. The time has not yet come for rescinding the decree, because there is no one who complains about it, and some favour it, partly from spite and partly from an idea of its justness.
5 Your friend Metellus is an excellent consul: I have only one fault to find with him, he is not at all pleased with the news of peace from Gaul. I take it he wants a triumph. I wish he would moderate that desire : in every other way he is excellent. The behaviour of Aulus's son makes his consulship not a consulship, but a 'black eye' for our friend Pompey.
6 I have sent you one of my works, a history of my consulship in Greek. I have given it to L. Cossinius. I fancy you like my Latin work, but, being a Greek, envy this Greek one. If others write about it, I will send you copies ; but I assure you, as soon as they read mine, they somehow or other don't hurry themselves about it.
7 Now to return to business. L. Papirius Paetus, my good friend and admirer, has offered me the books left to him by Ser. Claudius : and, as your friend Cincius said I could take them without breaking the Cincian Law, I said I would very willingly accept, if he brought them here. Now, as you love me, as you know I love you, stir up all your friends, clients, guests, freedmen, nay even your slaves, to see that not a leaf is lost. For I have urgent necessity for the Greek works, which I suspect, and the Latin books, which I am sure, he left. Every day I seek my recreation, in such time as is left me from my legal labours, more and more in such studies. You will do me the greatest of favours, if you will show the same zeal in this as you generally do in matters about which you think I am really keen. Paetus' own affairs I recommend to your notice too, and he expresses his deepest gratitude. And I do more than ask you, I urge you, to pay me a visit soon.
Book 2 →
1. He was a candidate to be consul in 63 B.C.
2. Catiline was facing trial for extortion in Africa. He was acquitted.
3. As candidates to be consul in 64 B.C.
4. C. Calpurnius Piso was governor of Transalpine and Cisalpine Gaul.
5. Lit. "Since it was not for a victim for sacrifice nor for an oxhide shield (they strove)." Homer, Iliad 22.159
6. anathēma is generally used of an offering at a shrine, and Cicero seems to speak here of the Hermathena as the goddess to whom the whole room was dedicated. But the reading is uncertain.
7. i.e. the prosecutor (Cicero's future enemy, P. Clodius) was in collusion with the defence.
8. Elections for plebeian aediles.
9. C. Licinius Macer had been on trial for extortion. Cicero as praetor was president of the court.
10. A herm with the head of Athena (Minerva).
11. L. Lucceius
12. Atticus had recently bought an estate at Buthrotum.
13. This refers to the Eleusinian mysteries. Evidently Atticus already knew what was required.
14. L. Lucceius.
15. Cicero was standing as a candidate to be praetor in 66 B.C.
16. Probably a pseudonym for some agent of Gaius Antonius, though some suggest that it stands for Antonius himself.
17. A quotation from Menander.
18. The festival of the Bona Dea.
19. i.e. to visit C. Antonius and ask him to put pressure on the town of Sicyon, which owed Atticus money.
20. C. Calpurnius Piso, consul in 67 B.C. and governor of Gallia Narbonensis in 66-65 B.C. He had temporarily pacified the Allobroges, but they were already in revolt again.
21. Pompeia, with whom Clodius was supposed to be having an affaiir.
22. Pompey.
23. Cicero had contented himself at the time he unmasked Catiline with declaring that he had "discovered" full details without making them public. Hence the phrase was frequently cast in his teeth.
24. Cicero hoped that Atticus would take a position on the staff of Quintus in the province.
25. Homer, Iliad 22.268
26. Or keeping the ordinary sense of "aerarii": "cashiered rather than rich in cash." But the sense both of "aerati" and of "aerarii" here is very doubtful.
27. Crassus; but why "ex Nanneianis" is uncertain.
28. i.e. the jury.
29. Homer, Iliad 16.112
30. Alluding to how Clodius infiltrated the festival of the Bona Dea.
31. C. Scribonius Curio the elder, who bought the villa of Marius at Baiae in the Sullan proscription.
32. Q. Marcius Rex, brother-in-law to Clodius. He was recently deceased, but Clodius did not benefit under his will.
33. L. Afranius.
34. Lurco's proposal was irregular because it was made between the notice of the elections and the elections themselves, which was forbidden by the leges Aelia et Fufia (153 B.C.).
35. In Seneca's Apocolocyntosis 9 a similar phrase appears: "olim" inquit "magna res erat deum fieri: iam famam mimum fecisti" ; whence it has been suggested that Faba or Fama was the name of some well-known farce.
36. i.e. a poem in praise of a member of the Caecilius Metellus family.
37. Knights (unlike senators) had immunity from prosecution for judicial corruption.
38. Probably a quotation from Accius.
39. L. Afranius.
40. L. Lucullus, brother of M. Lucullus, whose claim to a triumph Memmius opposed as tribune in 66–65 B.C. The two brothers are compared to Menelaus and Agamemnon.
41. Foreign embassies were received in February.
42. Both Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul.
43. 133 B.C., the year of the agrarian law of Tiberius Gracchus.
44. 5th of December in 63 B.C., the day on which the Catilinarian conspirators were executed.
45. Cicero's term for aristocrats like Hortensius and Lucullus, who were proud of the rare fish they kept in their ponds.
46. The whole proverb is found at the beginning of Plutarch's Life of Aratus.
47. Pompey.
48. Referring to a Greek proverb, "you have received Sparta as your portion"; quoted in full in Att. IV, 6, 2.
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