Cicero’s Letters to Atticus, Book 6

Translated by Evelyn Shuckburgh

CCLI (A VI, I)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS) LAODICEA, 22 FEBRUARY

I received your letter on the fifth day before the Terminalia (19th of February) at Laodicea. I was delighted to read it, for it teemed with affection, kindness, and an active and obliging temper. I will, therefore, answer it sentence by sentence ¹ —for such is your request—and I will not introduce an arrangement of my own, but will follow your order.

You say that the last letter you had of mine was from Cybistra, dated 21st September, and you want to know which of yours I have received. Nearly all you mention, except the one that you say that you delivered to Lentulus's messengers at Equotuticus and Brundisium. Wherefore your industry has not been thrown away, as you fear, but has been exceedingly well laid out, if, that is to say, your object was to give me pleasure. For I have never been more delighted with anything. I am exceedingly glad that you approve of my self-restraint in the case of Appius, and of my independence even in the case of Brutus: and I had thought that it might be somewhat otherwise. For Appius, in the course of his journey, had sent me two or three rather querulous letters, because I rescinded some of his decisions. It is exactly as if a doctor, upon a patient having been placed under another doctor, should choose to be angry with the latter if he changed some of his prescriptions. Thus Appius, having treated the province on the system of depletion, bleeding, and removing everything he could, and having handed it over to me in the last state of exhaustion, he cannot bear seeing it treated by me on the nutritive system. Yet he is sometimes angry with me, at other times thanks me; for nothing I ever do is accompanied with any reflexion upon him. It is only the dissimilarity of my system that annoys him. For what could be a more striking difference—under his rule a province drained by charges for maintenance and by losses, under mine, not a penny exacted either from private persons or public bodies? Why speak of his praefecti, staff, and legates? Or even of acts Of plunder, licentiousness, and insult? While as things actually are, no private house, by Hercules, is governed with so much system, or on such strict principles, nor is so well disciplined, as is my whole province. Some of Appius's friends put a ridiculous construction on this, holding that I wish for a good reputation. to set Off his bad one, and act rightly, not for the sake of my own credit, but in order to cast a reflexion upon him. But if Appius, as Brutus's letter forwarded by you indicated, expresses gratitude to me, I am satisfied. Nevertheless, this very day on which I write this, before dawn, I am thinking of rescinding many of his inequitable appointments and decisions.

I now come to Brutus, whose friendship I embraced with all possible earnestness on your advice. I had even begun to feel genuine affection for him—but here I pull myself up short, lest I should offend you: for don't imagine that there is anything I wish more than to fulfil his commissions, or that there is anything about which I have taken more trouble. Now he gave me a volume of commissions, and you had already spoken with me about the same matters. I have pushed them on with the greatest energy. To begin with, I put such pressure on Ariobarzanes, that he paid him the talents which he promised me. As long as the king was with me, the business was in excellent train: later on be began to be pressed by countless agents of Pompey. Now Pompey has by himself more influence than all the rest put together for many reasons, and especially because there is an idea that he is. coming to undertake the Parthian war. However, even he has to put up with the following scale of payment: on every thirtieth day thirty-three Attic talents ([sterling]7,920), and that raised by special taxes: nor is it sufficient for the monthly interest. But our friend Gnaeus is an easy creditor: he stands out of his capital, is content with the interest, and even that not in full. The king neither pays anyone else, nor is capable of doing so: for he has no treasury, no regular income. He levies taxes after the method of Appius. They scarcely produce enough to satisfy Pompey's interest. The king has two or three very rich friends, but they stick to their own as energetically as you or I. For my part, nevertheless, I do not cease sending letters asking, urging, chiding the king. Deiotarus also has informed me that he has sent emissaries to him on Brutus's business: that they have brought him back word that he has not got the money. And, by Hercules, I believe it is the case; nothing can be stripped cleaner than his kingdom, or be more needy than the king. Accordingly, I am thinking either of renouncing my guardianship, or, as Scaevola did on behalf of Glabrio, of stopping payment altogether—principal and interest alike. However, I have conferred the prefectures which I promised Brutus through you on M. Scaptius and L. Gavius, who were acting as Brutus's agents in the kingdom: for they were not carrying on business in my own province. You will remember that I made that condition, that he might have as many prefectures as he pleased, so long as it was not for a man in business. Accordingly, I have given him two others besides: but the men for whom he asked them had left the province. Now for the case of the Salaminians, which I see came upon you also as a novelty, as it did upon me. For Brutus never told me that the money was his own. Nay, I have his own document containing the words, "The Salaminians owe my friends M. Scaptius and P. Matinius a sum of money." He recommends them to me: he even adds, as though by way of a spur to me, that he had gone surety for them to a large amount. I had succeeded in arranging that they should pay with interest for six years at the rate of twelve per cent., and added yearly to the capital sum. ² But Scaptius demanded forty-eight per cent. I was afraid, if he got that, you yourself would cease to have any affection for me. For I should have receded from my own edict, and should have utterly ruined a state which was under the protection not only of Cato, but also of Brutus himself, and had been the recipient of favours from myself. When lo and behold! at this very juncture Scaptius comes down upon me with a letter from Brutus, stating that his own property is being imperilled—a fact that Brutus had never told either me or you. He also begged that I would confer a prefecture on Scaptius. That was the very reservation that I had made to you—" not to a man in business": and if to anyone, to such a man as that—no! For he has been a praefectus to Appius, and had, in fact, had some squadrons of cavalry, with which he had kept the senate under so close a siege in their own council chamber at Salamis, that five senators died of starvation. Accordingly, the first day of my entering my province, Cyprian legates having already visited me at Ephesus, I sent orders for the cavalry to quit the island at once. For these reasons I believe Scaptius has written some unfavourable remarks about me to Brutus. However, my feeling is this: if Brutus holds that I ought to have decided in favour of forty-eight per cent., though throughout my province I have only recognized twelve per cent., and had laid down that rule in my edict with the assent even of the most grasping money-lenders; if he complains of my refusal of a prefecture to a man in business, which I refused to our friend Torquatus in the case of your protégé Laenius, and to Pompey himself in the case of Sext. Statius, without offending either of them; if, finally, he is annoyed at my recall of the cavalry, I shall indeed feel some distress at his being angry with me, but much greater distress at finding him not to be the man that I had thought him. Thus much Scaptius will own-that he had the opportunity in my court of taking away with him the whole sum allowed by my edict. I will add a fact which I fear you may not approve. The interest ought to have ceased to run (I mean the interest allowed by my edict), but I induced the Salaminians to say nothing about that. ³ They gave in to me, it is true, but what will become of them if Paullus comes here? ⁴ However, I have granted all this in favour of Brutus, who writes very kind letters to you about me, but to me my-self, even when he has a favour to ask, writes usually in a tone of hauteur, arrogance, and offensive superiority. You, however, I hope will write to him on this business, in order that I may know how he takes what I have done. For you will tell me. I have, it is true, written you a full and careful account in a former letter, but I wished you clearly to understand that I had not forgotten what you had said to me in one of your letters: that if I brought home from this province nothing else except his goodwill, I should have done enough. By all means, since you will have it so: but I assume my dealings with him to be without breach of duty on my part. Well, then, by my decree the payment of the money to Statius is good at law: whether that is just you must judge for yourself—I will not appeal even to Cato. But don't think that I have cast your exhortations to the winds: they have sunk deeply into my mind. With tears in your eyes you urged me to be careful of my reputation. Have I ever got a letter from you without the same subject being mentioned? So, then, let who will be angry, I will endure it: "for the right is on my side," ⁵ especially as I have given six books as bail, so to speak, for my good conduct. I am very glad you like them, though in one point-about Cn. Flavius, son of Annius—you question my history. He, it is true, did not live before the decemvirs, for he was curule aedile, an office created many years after the decemvirs. What good did he do, then, by publishing the Fasti? It is supposed that the tablet containing them had been kept concealed up to a certain date, in order that information as to days for doing business might have to be sought from a small coterie. And indeed several of our authorities relate that a scribe named Cn. Flavius published the Fasti and composed forms of pleading—so don't imagine that I, or rather Africanus (for he is the spokesman), invented the fact. So you noticed the remark about the "action of an actor," did you? You suspect a malicious meaning : ⁶ I wrote in all simplicity.

You say that Philotimus told you about my having been saluted imperator. But I feel sure that, as you are now in Epirus, you have received my two letters on the whole subject, one from Pindenissus after its capture, another from Laodicea, both delivered to your own messengers. On these events, for fear of accidents at sea, I sent a public despatch to Rome in duplicate by two different letter-carriers.

As to my Tullia, I agree with you, and I have written to her and to Terentia giving my consent. For you have already said in a previous letter to me, "and I could wish that you had returned to your old set." There was no occasion to alter the letter you sent by Memnius: for I much prefer to accept this man from Pontidia, than the other from Servilia. ⁷ Wherefore take our friend Saufeius into council. He was always fond of me, and now I suppose all the more so as he is bound to have accepted Appius's affection for me with the rest of the property he has inherited. Appius often shewed how much he valued me, and especially in the trial of Bursa. Indeed you will have relieved me of a serious anxiety.

I don't like Furnius's proviso. For, in fact, there is no state of things that alarms me except just that of which he makes the only exception. ⁸ But I should have written at great length to you on this subject if you had been at Rome. I don't wonder that you rest all your hope of peace on Pompey: I believe that is the truth, and in my opinion you must strike out your word "insincerity." If my arrangement of topics is somewhat random, blame yourself: for I am following your own haphazard order.

My son and nephew are very fond of each other. They take their lessons and their exercise together; but as Isocrates said of Ephorus and Theopompus, the one wants the rein, the other the spur. I intend giving Quintus the toga virilis on the Liberalia. ⁹ For his father commissioned me to do so. And I shall observe the day without taking intercalation into account. I am very fond of Dionysius: the boys, however, say that he gets into mad passions. But after all there could not be a man of greater learning, purer character, or more attached to you and me. The praises you hear of Thermus and Silius are thoroughly deserved : ¹⁰ they conduct themselves in the most honourable manner. You may say the same of M. Nonius, Bibulus, and myself, if you like. I only wish Scrofa had had an opportunity to do the same: for he is an excellent fellow. The rest don't do much honour to Cato's policy. Many thanks for commending my case to Hortensius. As for Amianus, Dionysius thinks there is no hope. I haven't found a trace of Terentius. Moeragenes has certainly been killed. I made a progress through his district, in which there was not a single living thing left. I didn't know about this, when I spoke to your man Democritus. ¹¹ I have ordered the service of Rhosian ware. ¹² But, hallo! what are you thinking of? You generally serve us up a dinner of herbs on fern-pattern plates, and the most sparkling of baskets: what am I to expect you to give on porcelain ? ¹³ have ordered a horn for Phemius: one will be sure to turn up; I only hope he may play something worthy of it.

There is a threat of a Parthian war. Cassius's despatch was empty brag: that of Bibulus had not arrived: when that is read I think the senate will at length be roused. I am myself in serious anxiety. If, as I hope, my government is not prolonged, I have only June and July to fear. May it be so! Bibulus will keep them in check for two months. What will happen to the man I leave in charge, especially if it is my brother? Or, again, what will happen to me, if I don't leave my province so soon? It is a great nuisance. However, I have agreed with Deiotarus that he should join my camp in full force. He has thirty cohorts of four hundred men apiece, armed in the Roman fashion, and two thousand cavalry. That will be sufficient to hold out till the arrival of Pompey, who in a letter he writes to me indicates that the business will be put in his hands. The Parthians are wintering in a Roman province. Orodes is expected in person. In short, it is a serious matter. As to Bibulus's edict there is nothing new, except the proviso of which you said in your letter, "that it reflected with excessive severity on our order." I, however, have a proviso in my own edict of equivalent force, but less openly expressed (derived from the Asiatic edict of Q. Mucius, ¹⁴ son of Publius)—" provided that the agreement made is not such as cannot hold good in equity." ¹⁵ I have followed Scaevola in many points, among others in this—which the Greeks regard as a charta of liberty—that Greeks are to decide controversies between each other according to their own laws. But my edict was shortened by my method of making a division, as I thought it well to publish it under two heads: the first, exclusively applicable to a province, concerned borough accounts, debt, rate of interest, contracts, all regulations also referring to the publicani: the second, including what cannot conveniently be transacted without an edict, related to inheritances, ownership and sale, appointment of receivers, ¹⁶ all which are by custom brought into court and settled in accordance with the edict: a third division, embracing the remaining departments of judicial business, I left unwritten. I gave out that in regard to that class of business I should accommodate my decisions to those made at Rome: I accordingly do so, and give general satisfaction. The Greeks, indeed, are jubilant because they have non-Roman jurors. "Yes," you will say, "a very poor kind." What does that matter? They, at any rate, imagine themselves to have obtained "autonomy." You at Rome, I suppose, have men of high character in that capacity—Turpio the shoemaker and Vettius the broker! You seem to wish to know how I treat the publicani. I pet, indulge, compliment, and honour them: I contrive, however, that they oppress no one. The most surprising thing is that even Servilius ¹⁷ maintained the rates of usury entered on their contracts. My line is this: I name a day fairly distant, before which, if they have paid, I give out that I shall recognize only twelve per cent.: if they have not paid, the rate shall be according to the contract. The result is that the Greeks pay at a reasonable rate of interest, and the publicani are thoroughly satisfied by receiving in full measure what I mentioned-complimentary speeches and frequent invitations. Need I say more? They are all on such terms with me that each thinks himself my most intimate friend. However, µ?d?? a?t???—you know the rest. ¹⁸

As to the statue of Africanus—what a mass of confusion! But that was just what interested me in your letter. Do you really mean it? Does the present Metellus Scipio not know that his great-grandfather ¹⁹ was never censor? Why, the statue placed at a high elevation in the temple of Ops had no inscription except CENS, while on the statue near the Hercules of Polycles there is also the inscription CENS, and that this is the statue of the same man is proved by attitude, dress, ring, and the likeness itself. ²⁰ But, by Hercules, when I observed in the group of gilded equestrian statues, placed by the present Metellus on the Capitol, a statue of Africanus with the name of Serapio inscribed under it, I thought it a mistake of the workman. I now see that it is an error of Metellus's. What a shocking historical blunder! For that about Flavius and the Fasti, if it is a blunder, is one shared in by all, and you were quite right to raise the question. I followed the opinion which runs through nearly all historians, as is often the case with Greek writers. For example, do they not all say that Eupolis, the poet of the old comedy, was thrown into the sea by Alcibiades on his voyage to Sicily? Eratosthenes disproves it: for he produces some plays exhibited by him after that date. Is that careful historian, Duris of Samos, laughed out of court because he, in common with many others, made this mistake? ²¹ Has not, again, every writer affirmed that Zaleucus drew up a constitution for the Locrians? Are we on that account to regard Theophrastus as utterly discredited, because your favourite Timaeus attacked his statement? ²² But not to know that one's own great-grandfather was never censor is discreditable, especially as since his consulship no Cornelius was censor in his lifetime.

As to what you say about Philotimus and the payment of the 20,600 sestertia, I hear that Philotimus arrived in the Chersonese about the 1st of January: but as yet I have not had a word from him. The balance due to me Camillus writes me word that he has received; I don't know how much it is, and I am anxious to know. However, we will talk of this later on, and with greater advantage, perhaps, when we meet ? ²³

But, my dear Atticus, that sentence almost at the end of your letter gave me great uneasiness. For you say, "What else is there to say?" and then you go on to entreat me in most affectionate terms not to forget my vigilance, and to keep my eyes on what is going on. Have you heard anything about anyone? I am sure nothing of the sort has taken place. No, no, it can't be! It would never have eluded my notice, nor will it. Yet that reminder of yours, so carefully worded, seems to suggest something.

As to M. Octavius, I hereby again repeat that your answer was excellent: I could have wished it a little more positive still. For Caelius has sent me a freedman and a carefully written letter about some panthers and also a grant from the states. ²⁴ I have written back to say that, as to the latter, I am much vexed if my course of conduct is still obscure, and if it is not known at Rome that not a penny has been exacted from my province except for the payment of debt ; and I have explained to him that it is improper both for me to solicit the money and for him to receive it; and I have advised him (for I am really attached to him) that, after prosecuting others, he should be extra-careful as to his own conduct. As to the former request, I have said that it is inconsistent with my character that the people of Cibyra should hunt at the public expense while I am governor.

Lepta ²⁵ jumps for joy at your letter. It is indeed prettily written, and has placed me in a very agreeable light in his eyes. I am much obliged to your little daughter for so earnestly bidding you send me her love. It is very kind of Pilia also; but your daughter's kindness is the greater, because she sends the message to one she has never seen. Therefore pray give my love to both in return. The day on which your letter was dated, the last day of December, reminded me pleasantly of that glorious oath of mine, which I have not forgotten. ²⁶ I was a civilian Magnus on that day.

There's your letter completely answered! Not as you were good enough to ask, with "gold for bronze," ²⁷ but tit for tat. Oh, but here is another little note, which I will not leave unanswered. Lucceius, on my word, could get a good price for his Tusculan property, unless, perchance, his flute-player is a fixture (for that's his way), and I should like to know in what condition it is. ²⁸ Our friend Lentulus, I hear, has advertised everything for sale except his Tusculan property. I should like to see these men cleared of their embarrassments, Cestius also, and you may add Caelius, to all of whom the line applies, "Ashamed to shrink and yet afraid to take." ²⁹ I suppose you have heard of Curio's plan for recalling Memmius. Of the debt due from Egnatius of Sidicinum I am not without some hope, though it is a feeble one. Pinarius, whom you recommended to me, is seriously ill, and is being very carefully looked after by Deiotarus. So there's the answer to your note also.

Pray talk to me on paper as frequently as possible while I am at Laodicea, where I shall be up to the 15th of May: and when you reach Athens at any rate send me letter-carriers, for by that time we shall know about the business in the city and the arrangements as to the provinces, the settlement of all which has been fixed for March.

But look here! Have you yet wrung out of Caesar by the agency of Herodes the fifty Attic talents? In that matter you have, I hear, roused great wrath on the part of Pompey. For he thinks that you have snapped up money rightly his, and that Caesar will be no less lavish in his building at the Nemus Dianie. ³⁰

I was told all this by P. Vedius, a hare-brained fellow enough, but yet an intimate friend of Pompey's. This Vedius came to meet me with two chariots, and a carriage and horses, and a sedan, and a large suite of servants, for which last, if Curio has carried his law, he will have to pay a toll of a hundred sestertii apiece. ³¹ There was also in a chariot a dog-headed baboon, as well as some wild asses. I never saw a more extravagant fool. But the cream of the whole is this. He stayed at Laodicea with Pompeius Vindullus. There he deposited his properties when coming to see me. Meanwhile Vindullus dies, and his property is supposed to revert to Pompeius Magnus. ³² Gaius Vennonius comes to Vindullus's house: when, while putting a seal on all goods, he comes across the baggage of Vedius. In this are found five small portrait busts of married ladies, among which is one of the wife of your friend—" brute," indeed, to be intimate with such a fellow! and of the wife of Lepidus—as easy-going as his name to take this so calmly! I wanted you to know these historiettes by the way; for we have both a pretty taste in gossip. There is one other thing I should like you to turn over in your mind. I am told that Appius is building a propylaeum at Eleusis. Should I be foolishly vain if I also built one at the Academy? "I think so," you will say. Well, then, write and tell me that that is your opinion. For myself, I am deeply attached to Athens itself, I would like some memorial of myself to exist. I loathe sham inscriptions on statues really representing other people. But settle it as you please, and be kind enough to inform me on what day the Roman mysteries fall, and how you have passed the winter. Take care of your health. Dated the 765th day since the battle of Leuctra! ³³

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¹ Some words are missing in the text. Boot fills up the gap by ?at? µ?t??. It gives the sense required, and is perhaps better than the words introduced by Wesenberg from the latter part of the letter (??? ???s?a ?a??e???), which come in rather awkwardly here.

² That is, compound interest for six years at twelve per cent. See p. 129.

³ The interest would cease to run if the money were deposited in a temple. See p. 94.

⁴ L. Aemilius Paullus, consul this year. His brother M. Aemilius Lepidus (the future triumvir) was married to Iunia, half-sister of Brutus. Cicero assumes that family interest will influence his decision on the debt to Brutus.

⁵ t? ??? e? µet? ?µ?? (Arist. Acharn. 659). The "six books" are those on the Republic.

⁶ As though a hit at the mannerism of Hortensius.

⁷ Cicero did not like Servilia (mother of Brutus), who apparently wished Ser. Sulpicius Rufus to marry Tullia. See p. 8.

⁸ Furnius, a tribune, seems to have proposed in the senate or in the comitia that the governors of Syria and Cilicia might quit their provinces at the end of their year, provided that the Parthians were not making any movement.

⁹ The festival of Liber (Bacchus), 17 March. It was generally selected for the bestowal of the liberior toga, from the good omen conveyed by its name.

¹⁰ Thermus was governing Asia, Silius Bithynia and Pontus. Cn. Tremellius Scrofa, a friend of Cicero and Atticus (Verr. 1.30), had apparently failed to obtain office and consequently a province.

¹¹ He seems to refer to various debtors of Atticus. Moeragenes was a robber chief in the district of the Taurus. See Letter CCVII.

¹² Porcelain from Rhosus on the gulf of Issus.

¹³ Atticus was economical, and Cicero laughs at him for his "simple dinner" and affectation of poverty before. See vol. i., p. 234.

¹⁴ Q Mucius Scaevola, consul B.C. 86, , proconsul of Asia.

¹⁵ Some clause in Bibulus's customary provincial edict which excepted from debts recoverable in the propraetorial court those that were usurious or inequitable. The publicani and negotiatores being equites, Atticus thinks it a reflexion on that order.

¹⁶ Magistri, "sale-masters," who presided over sales of the property of insolvents. See vol. i., p. 15.

¹⁷ P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus, who conquered and organized Cilicia B.C. 78-74, .

¹⁸ Unfortunately we do not know the rest. Some word or words are to be supplied that convey the idea of not yielding anything material in spite of politeness.

¹⁹ The great-grandfather of Metellus Scipio (father-in-law of Pompey and his colleague in B.C. 52, ) was P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio, who killed Tiberius Gracchus, and was descended from Gnaeus Scipio (uncle of Africanus), who fell with his brother in Spain B.C. 212, .

²⁰ Apparently Metellus had mistaken one of the two statues for that of his great-grandfather Nasica, and had had a replica made of it; whereas Cicero says that they are evidently both of the same man, and that man Africanus, not Nasica: so that Metellus has had a statue of Africanus reproduced as that of Nasica; yet he might have known from the word Cens that it could not be Nasica. Africanus (the younger) was censor B.C. 142, .

²¹ According to the account of Suidas, Eupolis perished at Cynossema (B.C. 411, ) or Aegospotami (B.C. 405, ), and it is just possible that in the former case Alcibiades may have had something to do with it. But there is no proof. The voyage of Alcibiades to Sicily was in B.C. 415, .

²² For Zaleucus at Locri, see Cic. de Leg. ii. 6; Aristotle, Politics, 2.12 Polybius, 12.16; and for a discussion as to whether there ever was such a person, see Bentley's Phalaris (ed. 1770), pp. 241 ff. The common account of him is derived from a quotation of Aristotle in the Scholiast to Pindar, Olymp. 10.10, where he is said to have been originally a shepherd or slave.

²³ There is nothing to shew to what money this refers, but Philotimus, a freedman of Terentia's, had had something to do with the sale of Milo's property, and therefore it is supposed that the allusion is to that (Letters CLXXXVII, CXCIII).

²⁴ We have often heard of the panthers before, but no extant letter of Caelius mentions his wish for a grant from the provinces for his games as aedile, for which custom see vol. i., p. 8o.

²⁵ Cicero's prafectus fabrum. See Letter CCIX.

²⁶ The oath taken on his laying down his consulship. See vol. i., p. 22.

²⁷ Hom. 51.6.235.

²⁸ It is perhaps hopeless to explain this passage. But, understanding vendere after potuit, we may perhaps say that Cicero, thinking that he would like to buy property in Tusculum, remarks that it will probably go at a good price unless Lucceius in some way makes it unattractive. Whether the tibicen was some musical slave with whom Lucceius bored his friends, and Cicero jestingly fears may go with the house (thus lowering its value, as the presence of bores, he says, would that of his own at Formiae, vol i., p. 103), or whether tibicen is to have the sense of a "prop" (as it has in Horace and Juvenal), indicating that the house is in bad repair, I must leave to my readers to determine. Lucceius seems to have sold; for in B.C. 55, Cicero refers to their being neighbours at Tusculum as a thing of the past (Fam. 5.15).

²⁹ Hom. Il. 7.93, describing the feelings of the Greeks in answer to Hector's challenge. But the exact application cannot be pressed. It merely describes irresolution. These bankrupt nobles cannot make up their minds either to retrench their expenses or to part with their property. Their pride won't let them do the one, or their inclination the other.

³⁰ Atticus had no doubt lent Caesar large sums of money, and with his usual good luck got paid. Pompey, we may suppose, had also lent Caesar money, which he did not see a good chance of getting back, if Caesar squandered his money on paying his debts to Atticus, and also on his new palace at Aricia, near the lago de Nemi. Whether this debt to Pompey had anything to do with the marriage to Iulia we don't know. I think we must read nec Caesarem, etc. Herodes is a freedman of Atticus.

³¹ We have heard of Curio's laws—a lex viaria and a lex alimentaria (Letter CCXLII), but neither of these would refer to a tax on slaves. Some have supposed that the reference is to the lex viaria, and that in virtue of it a heavy toll would be payable for the carriages, etc. But the singular pro qua can only refer to the familia. We must suppose, therefore, that some other law is referred to taxing domestic servants.

³² As his patronus, who succeeded in case of a failure of heirs. Vennonius comes to his house to make an inventory in Pompey's interest.

³³ The killing of Clodius, which he had before called the "battle of Bovillae" (Letter CCII). It took place 18 January, B.C. 52, . Allowing for an intercalated month of twenty-three days in one of these years, this dates the letter 22 February.

CCLV (A VI, 2)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

LAODICEA, MAY (BETWEEN I AND 7)

YOUR freedman Philogenes having come to call on me at Laodicea, and telling me that he was on the point of setting sail to join you, I intrust him with this letter, in answer to the one which I received by Brutus's letter-carrier. And first I will answer your last page, which gave me great uneasiness --that is, the account sent you by Cincius of his conversation with Statius, in which what annoyed me most was Statius saying that the plan had my approbation. ¹ Approbation, indeed! I need say no more than this: I wish the bonds uniting our close friendship to be as numerous as possible, though none can be so close as those of personal affection. So far am I from wishing that any one tie between us should be relaxed. He, ² however, I have often found by actual experience, is accustomed to speak with some asperity on the subjects you mention, and I have also often succeeded in pacifying his anger. That I think you know. In the course of our recent progress, or campaign, if I may call it so, I have often seen him fly into a rage, and often calm down again. What he has written to Statius I don't know. Whatever he meant to do in such a matter, he certainly ought not to have written to a freedman. I will take the greatest care to prevent anything occurring contrary to our wishes and to what is proper. And in a case of this kind it is not enough that each should answer for himself: for instance, the most important róle in the kindly work of this reconciliation is that of the boy, or young man, I should say, Quintus: and this I am in the habit of impressing upon him. He seems to me, indeed, to be strongly attached to his mother, as he ought to be, and wonderfully so to you. [p. 150] But the boy's character, though certainly a lofty one, has yet many complications, and gives me enough to do to guide it.

Having thus in my first answered your last page, I will now return to your first. That all the Peloponnesian states possessed a seaboard is a fact that I accepted on the authority of the maps of Dicaearchus, ³ a respectable writer, and one who has even received your approbation. In his account of Trophonius--put into the mouth of Chaeron--he criticises the Greeks on many accounts for their persistent clinging to the sea, and he does not except any place in the Peloponnesus. Though I thought well of him as an authority--for he was a most careful inquirer, ⁴ and had lived in Peloponnesus--I was yet surprised at the statement, and feeling scarcely convinced of its truth, consulted Dionysius. ⁵ He was at first taken aback; but presently, as he thought no less well of Dicaearchus, than you do of C. Vestorius, and I of M. Cluvius, ⁶ entertained no doubt that we should believe him. His conclusion was that Arcadia had a seaport called Lepreon; while Tenea, Aliphera, and Tritia he thought were more recent foundations; and that view he backed up by Homer's "Catalogue of the Ships," where there is no mention of them. Accordingly, I translated that passage from Dicaearchus word for word. I know the form usually employed is "Phliasii," and so take care to have it in your copies: that is the form I now have in mine. But at first I was deceived by the analogy of Opous Pountioi, Sipous Sipountioi (so Phlious Phliountioi Phliuntii), but I have at once corrected this.

I see that you rejoice at my equitable and disinterested administration: you would have done so still more, if you had been here. Why, in these very sessions which I have been holding at Laodicea from the 13th of February to the [p. 151] Ist of May for all the dioceses except that of Cilicia, I have effected astonishing results. A great number of states have been entirely released from debt, and many very sensibly relieved: all have enjoyed their own laws, and with this attainment of autonomy have quite revived. I have given them the opportunity of freeing themselves from debt, or lightening their burdens, in two ways: first, in the fact that no expense has been imposed upon them during my government--and when I say "no expense" I do not speak hyperbolically, but I mean none, not a farthing. It is almost incredible how this fact has helped them to escape from their difficulties. The other way is this. There was an astonishing amount of peculation in the states committed by the Greeks themselves--I mean their own magistrates. I personally questioned those who had been in office in the course of the last ten years. They openly confessed it: and accordingly, without being punished by any mark of disgrace, repaid the sums of money to the communities out of their own pockets. The consequence is that, whereas the communities had paid the publicani nothing for the present quinquennium, they have now, without any signs of distress, paid them the arrears of the last quinquennium also. So I am the apple of their eye to the publicani--" A grateful set," quoth you. Yes, I have found it so. The rest of my administration of justice has not been without skill, while its lenity has been enhanced by a marvellous courtesy. The ease with which I have admitted men to my presence is a new thing in the provinces. I don't employ a chamberlain. Before daybreak I walk up and down in my house, as I used to do in old times as a candidate. This is very popular and a great convenience, nor have I found it as yet fatiguing to me, being an old campaigner in that respect. On the 15th of May I am thinking of going to Cilicia: having spent the month of June there---pray heaven, in peace! for a serious war on the part of the Parthians is threatening--I mean to devote July to my return journey. For my year of service is finished on the 3oth of July: and I am in 'great hopes that there will be no extension of my time. I have the city gazette up to the 15 of March, from which I gather that, owing to the persistence of my friend Curio, every kind of business is coming on rather than that [p. 152] of assigning the provinces. ⁷ Therefore, as I hope, I shall see you before long.

I now come to your friend Brutus, or rather our friend, since you will have it so. Indeed, I have on my side done everything that I could accomplish in my province, or attempt in Cappadocia. Thus I have urged the king in every possible way, and continue to do so, that is to say, by letter--for I have only had him with me three or four days, and in the midst of political troubles, from which I relieved him. But, alike in our personal interviews, and afterwards by very frequent letters, I have never ceased begging and beseeching him for my sake, and advising him for his own. I have had considerable effect, but how much I do not, at this distance from him, know for certain. The Salaminians, however--for upon them I could put pressure --I have brought to consent to pay the entire debt to Scaptius, but with interest calculated at one per cent. per month, and not added to the capital each month, but only at the end of each year. The money was actually paid down: Scaptius would not take it. What do you mean, then, by saying that Brutus is willing to lose some-thing? He had forty-eight per cent. in his bond. It could not be paid, nor, if it could, could I have allowed it. I hear, after all, that Scaptius repents his refusal. For as to the decree of the senate which he quoted--" that the money should be recoverable on the bond "--its intention was to cover the case of the Salaminians having borrowed money contrary to the lex Gabinia. For Aulus's law forbade the recovery of money so borrowed. The senate accordingly decreed that it should be recoverable on that particular bond. Now this bond has exactly the same validity as all other bonds, not a bit more. ⁸ I think Brutus will acknowledge that my conduct has been quite regular and correct. I don't know about you, Cato certainly will.

But now I return to yourself. Do you really, Atticus, mean to say-- you, the panegyrist of my integrity and [p. 153] punctilious honour--"do you venture out of your own mouth" (to quote Ennius) to ask me to give Scaptius cavalry to help him to exact the money? Would you, if you were with me--and you say in your letter that you are sometimes sore at heart to think that you are not with me--would you have suffered me to do so, even if I had wished it? "Not more than fifty," you say. There were fewer than that with Spartacus at first. ⁹ What misery would they not have inflicted in so weak an island? "They would not have done it," do you say? Nay, what did they not do before my arrival? They kept the Salaminian senators shut up in their chamber for so many days, that some of them died of hunger. For Scaptius was a praefectus of Appius, and Appius allowed him some squadrons. Well, then, do you ask me-- you, whose face, by heaven! is ever before my eyes when I think of duty and honour--do you, I say, ask me to allow Scaptius to be praefectus of mine? To let alone the fact that I had resolved that no man in business should be one, and with Brutus's approval of the rule--is such a fellow as that to have squadrons? Why rather than cohorts of the legions? Oh, Scaptius is spending his money, and is now cutting a great figure! The chief men of Salamis, says he, wish it. I know all about that: for they came to see me even at Ephesus, and with tears in their eyes told me of the abominable conduct of the cavalry and of their own miseries. Accordingly, I at once sent a letter ordering the cavalry to quit Cyprus by a fixed day, and for that, among other reasons, the Salaminians have praised me to the skies in their decrees. But where was the need of cavalry? The Salaminians offer payment--unless, by heaven, we choose to use armed force to compel the payment of forty-eight per cent. interest! And shall I ever dare to read or even to touch those books again which you compliment so highly, ¹⁰ if I have committed such an act as that? You have indulged your affection for Brutus too far in this, too far I repeat, my dearest Atticus. Perhaps I have not done so enough: and so I have told Brutus that you have written in this sense to me. [p. 154]

Now for the rest. I do all I can here for Appius, yet only so far as my duty allows, though with a right good will. For I don't dislike him, while to Brutus I am warmly attached, and Pompey is surprisingly urgent, of whom, by heaven, I grow fonder and fonder every day. You have heard that C. Caelius is coming here as quaestor. I don't know what it is, but I don't like that business of Pammenes. ¹¹ I hope to be at Athens in September. I should much like to know the dates of your tours. I understood the silly conduct of C. Sempronius Rufus from your letter written in Corcyra. ¹² In short, I am jealous of the influence of Vestorius. I wanted to go on chatting, but the day is breaking; the crowd is coming in; Philogenes is in a hurry. So good-bye, and give my love to Pilia, when you write, and to our dear Caecilia, and accept the same from my son.

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¹ Philogenes is a freedman or agent of Atticus; Statius is the freedman of Quintus, of whose manumission we have heard already.

² Quintus. The reference is to a divorce from Pomponia.

³ See vol. i., p. 67. The reference here is to criticisms on Cicero's books de Republica.

⁴ historikôtatos.

⁵ A learned freedman and tutor of young Cicero. See vol. i., p. 282.

⁶ A friend of Cicero's from Puteoli. Vestorius was also a banker of Puteoli. it is pointed out that the name of Dicsearchus suggests these two men of business of Puteoli, the ancient name of which was Dicaearchia.

⁷ Curio resisted any measures as to assigning the provinces, in Caesar's interests, because it was proposed to nominate a successor to him among the rest, and not to Pompey.

⁸ And therefore only twelve per cent. can be recovered under it. See Letter CCXLIX

⁹ Spartacus, the leader of the revolted gladiators, B.C. 73-71.

¹⁰ His own treatise de Republica.

¹¹ See Letter CCXXVII, end.

¹² Letter CCXXII.

CCLXIII (A VI, 3)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS) CILICIA, JUNE

THOUGH I know of nothing new having happened since I gave a letter for you to your freedman Philogenes, yet as I am sending Philotimus back to Rome, I felt obliged to write you something. And first on the subject which causes me most anxiety—not that you can help me at all, for the matter is actually in hand, and you are far away in another part of the world: “And in the gulf between Full many a wide sea's wave the south wind rolls. ” ¹

The time is creeping on, as you see—for I am bound to leave the province on the 3oth of July—and no successor is named. Whom shall I leave in command of the province? Sound policy and public opinion demand my brother. First, because it is regarded as an honour: next, because no one is fitter: thirdly, because he is the only ex-praetor I have. For Pomptinus, in accordance with an agreement and bargain— for he accompanied me on that condition—has already left me. No one thinks my quaestor fit for the post. ² For he is unsteady, loose, and has an itching palm. However, in regard to my brother, the first point is, that I do not think I could persuade him to do it: for he dislikes a province. And, by heaven, nothing can be more disagreeable and tiresome. Then again, suppose him not to like to say no to me, what about my own duty to him? Seeing that a serious war is believed to be actually going on in Syria, and is thought likely to spread into this province, while there is here no adequate protection, and the ordinary supplies for the year only have been voted, would it seem consistent with natural affection to leave my brother, or with proper prudence to leave some fainéant? You see, therefore, that I am in great anxiety, and much at a loss as to the course to take. In short, I never ought to have undertaken the business at all. What a much better "province" is yours! You will leave it whenever you choose, if indeed you have not already done so, and you can put anyone you choose in charge of Thesprotia and Chaonia! ³ However, I have not yet seen Quintus, so as to be quite sure, if I made up my mind to it, whether he could be induced; nor, if he could, am I certain what my real wishes are. That is how this matter stands. The rest is as yet all praise and thanks—worthy of the books you praise so highly. Communities have been put on a sound footing, the publicani have been thoroughly satisfied, no one has been insulted, some few have suffered by a judicial edict, at once just and strict, yet in no case does anyone venture to complain; there has been a campaign deserving of a triumph, but in this matter too I shall do nothing in a spirit of self-seeking, nothing at all indeed without your advice. The last word of the play—the handing over of my province—is the difficulty. But this some god will direct.

About events in the city you, of course, know more than I: your news are more frequent and more authentic. I am myself vexed not to get information by a letter from you. For reports of an unpleasant nature reach me here about Curio and about Paullus ⁴ —not that I see anything to fear as long as Pompey can stand or even sit: if he only recover his health ! ⁵ But, by heaven! I am vexed for Curio and Paullus, my own familiar friends! Please, therefore, send me, if you are in Rome or when you get there, a sketch-plan of the whole position of public affairs to meet me on my way, by which I may mould my conduct, and consider beforehand in what spirit to approach the city. For it is something that a man on his arrival should not be a foreigner and stranger.

And then—what I had almost forgotten to mention—about your friend Brutus. I have done everything I could for him, as I often mentioned to you in my letters. The Cyprians were ready to pay the money. But Scaptius was not content with twelve per cent. and compound interest reckoned yearly. Ariobarzanes was not more inclined to accommodate Pompey for his own sake, than Brutus for mine. But I cannot pledge myself for him, for he is a very poor sovereign, and I am at so great a distance from him, that my only weapons are letters, and with these I have not ceased to ply him. The upshot is this: Brutus, in proportion to the amount of the debt, has been treated more liberally than Pompey. For Brutus this year there has been secured about a hundred talents; Pompey has had two hundred promised in six months. Again, in the business of Appius I can scarcely express the extent of my concessions to Brutus. ⁶ Why should I trouble myself, then? His friends are men of straw—Matinius and Scaptius—the latter of whom, because he did not get some squadrons of cavalry from me wherewith to bully Cyprus, as he had done before my governorship, is perhaps angry with me; or because he is not a praefectus, an office which I bestowed on no one engaged in business, not even on C. Vennonius, who was my intimate friend, or on M. Laenius, who was yours. To this principle, which I communicated to you at Rome, I have stuck. But of what has a man to complain, who, when he might have taken the money, refused to do so? The other Scaptius (who is in Cappadocia) I think I have fully satisfied. Having received the office of military tribune from me, which I had offered him in consequence of a letter from Brutus, he afterwards wrote me word that he did not wish to avail himself of it. There is a certain Gavius, who, after my offering him a praefectura on the request of Brutus, said and did a good deal meant to reflect upon me—one of Publius Clodius's sleuthhounds! He neither paid me the compliment of joining my escort when I was quitting Apamea, nor on his subsequently visiting the camp and being about to leave it did he ask me "whether I had any commands," and made no secret of being, I don't know why, no friend to me. If I had regarded such a fellow as one of my praefecti, what would you have thought of me? Was I, who, as you know, never would put up with insolence from the most powerful of men, to endure it from this led-captain? Yet it is more than "putting up with" a man to bestow on him a place of profit and honour. So, then, this Gavius, when he saw me at Apamea, as he was starting for Rome, addressed me in a tone I should scarcely have ventured to adopt to Culleolus: "Will you be good enough to tell me," said he, "where I am to look for the allowances of a praefectus?" I answered more mildly than those present thought I should have done, that it was not my practice to give allowances to those whom I had not actually employed. He went off in a rage. If Brutus can be affected by the talk of such a windbag as this, you may love him all to yourself, you will have no rival in me. But I think he will behave as he ought. However, I wished you to be acquainted with the facts of the case, and I have told Brutus the story with the greatest minuteness. Generally speaking (between ourselves), Brutus has never written me a letter, not even the last one about Appius, in which there was not something haughty and distant. But you often have on your lips (from Lucilius): "Then Granius ⁷ too Thinks highly of himself and loathes proud kings." However, in that matter he usually stirs my laughter rather than my bile; but he evidently doesn't sufficiently consider what he is writing, and to whom. The young Quintus, I think, and indeed I am sure, read your letter addressed to his father. For he is accustomed, and that by my advice, to open his father's letters, in case there is anything that ought to be known. Now in that letter there was the same remark about your sister as in your letter to me. Imagine the boy's distress! He told me of his sorrow with tears in his eyes. In short, he shewed me clearly how dutiful, sweet-tempered, and kind he was, which makes me the more hope that nothing unbecoming will occur. So I wished you to know it. I will not omit the following either. Young Hortensius, at the time of the gladiatorial exhibition at Apamea, behaved in a scandalous and disgraceful manner. For his father's sake I asked him to dinner the day he arrived, and for his father's sake also went no farther. He remarked that he would wait for me at Athens, that we might leave the country together. "All right," said I: for what could I say? After all, I don't think he meant what he said. I hope not, indeed, lest I should offend his father, of whom, by heaven, I am exceedingly fond. But if he is to be in my suite, I will so manage him as to avoid giving offence where I least wish to do so. That is all: no, there is this— please send me the speech of Quintus Celer against M. Servilius. Send me a letter as soon as possible. If there is no news, let me know there is none at least by a letter-carrier of yours. Love to Pilia and your daughter. Take care of your health.

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¹ The author is unknown.

² Mescinius Rufus. See p. 178.

³ The country round Atticus's house in Epirus.

⁴ As to Curio, see p. 155. Paullus is L. Aemilius Paullus, the Consul who had been also bribed by Caesar.

⁵ Pompey's serious illness at Naples this year caused great excitement (see p. 182; Appian, B.C. 2.28; Plut. Pomp. 57).

⁶ See Letter CCLV, p. 153.

⁷ A praeco, or marshal, who gave himself airs.

CCLXVII (A VI, 4)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

TARSUS, JUNE

I arrived at Tarsus on the 5th of June. There I was disturbed on many accounts--a serious war in Syria; serious [p. 178] cases of brigandage in Cilicia; difficulty in fixing on any definite scheme of administration, considering that only a few days remained of my year of office; and, greatest difficulty of all, the necessity, according to the decree of the senate, of leaving some one at the head of the province. No one could be less suitable than the quaestor Mescinius ¹ --for of Caelius I don't hear a word. Far the best course appears to be to leave my brother Quintus with imperium. But in doing that many disagreeable consequences are involved--our separation, the risk of a war, the ill-conduct of the soldiers, ² hundreds of others. What a nuisance the whole business is! But let fortune look to it, since any great exercise of reason is out of the question. As for you, since by this time, I hope, you are safe at Rome, you will as usual be good enough to look after everything which you may understand to affect my interests, especially in regard to my Tullia, about whose marriage I have written to Terentia my decision, since you were in Greece. In the next place, see to the honour to be decreed to me: for owing to your absence from Rome, I fear that the motion in the senate, in virtue of my despatch, was not sufficiently pressed. The following I will write to you in a more enigmatical style than usual-your sagacity will smell out the meaning: my wife's freedman --you know whom I mean--seemed to me, from a remark he casually let fall the other day, to have cooked his accounts as to the purchase of the property of the Crotonian tyrannicide. I really fear that you may kave noticed something. Pray on your sole responsibility, examine thoroughly into the matter and make the remainder completely secure. ³ [p. 179]

I cannot express the extent of my fear. Pray let a letter from you fly to meet me. I write this in haste, being on the march, and with the army. Love to Pilia, and the prettiest of maids, Caecilia.

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¹ See p. 167.

² He has lately heard of the murder of two of the sons of Bibulus in a mutiny of Gabinius's soldiers in Egypt. See next letter.

³ Written in Greek. The phrase dedoika dê mê ti noêsêis can only mean as above, "I fear you have noticed something," not as Tyrrell and others translate, "I fear there is something you have not noticed." Cicero has apparently been alarmed by some sentence in a letter of Atticus. We don't know what had happened, but in some way Philotimus, Terentia's freedman, had dealt with Milo's (the "Crotonian tyrannicide," in allusion to Milo, the runner of Croton) confiscated property. Now we are told by Asconius (§ 159) that, owing to his immense debts, Milo's property was transferred to the sector for a nominal sum (bona eius propter aeris alieni magnitudinem semuncia venierunt). When there is no balance, the agent will generally be suspected. Philotimus's connexion with the affair we have already heard of. See p. 142.

CCLXVIII (A VI, 5)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

TARSUS, 26 JUNE

By this time you must surely be in Rome; and I rejoice at your safe arrival there, if it is so. As long, in fact, as you were absent from town, you seemed to me farther removed from me than if you were at home, for my own affairs were less known to me, and so were those of the state. Wherefore, though I hope by the time you read this to be far advanced on my way home, pray send letters frequently, and as talkative as possible on every kind of subject, to meet me: above all, on the subject on which I wrote to you before: my wife's freedman, as in our meetings and conversations he continually stammered and seemed at a loss, appeared to me to have a little cooked the accounts of the Crotonian." Please run that to earth, as is your wont; but still more the following: When leaving the city of the seven hills he handed in an account of two debts of 24 and 48 minae due to Camillus: and entered himself as liable for 24 minae from the Crotonian's estate, and 48 from the property in the Chersonese. And having received in legacies two sums of 640 minae, of this he says that not a penny has been paid, though it was all due on the 1st of the 2nd month: but that Milo's freedman, the namesake of Conon's father (Timotheus), had entirely failed to provide for the payment of the money. In regard, then, to this money, if possible secure the whole amount, and if not, don't neglect the interest calculated from the above-mentioned day. I have felt much [p. 180] alarm about this all the days I had to endure him. For he visited me to survey the situation, and almost with a hope of something turning up. But when he gave up that hope he quitted me without reason assigned, and with the remark: "I yield, 'Twere shame to linger here. ¹ And he flung in my teeth the proverb, "Never refuse a good offer." ² See to the surplus, and do the best that can be done in the matter.

Although I am now almost at the end of my year's full term of office--for there are only thirty-three days left--I am yet overpowered with anxiety for the province to the highest possible degree. For as Syria is in a war fever, and Bibulus has the burden of an extreme anxiety as to the war in the midst of such bitter private sorrow, ³ and as his legates, quaestor, and friends write to me to come to his aid, though I have only a weak army (the auxiliaries are certainly good, Galatians, Pisidians, Lycians--for they are the flower of my force), yet I thought it my duty to keep my army as near as possible to the enemy, as long as the decree of the senate allowed me to remain governor of the province. But what pleases me most is that Bibulus is not importunate; he writes to me about everything rather than this, and the day of my departure is insensibly creeping on. When that arrives there is another "problem "--who to put in charge, unless my quaestor Caidus ⁴ shall have arrived, of whom as yet I have had no certain intelligence. I should like, by Hercules, to compose a longer letter, but I neither have anything to tell you, nor can I jest for anxiety. Good-bye, therefore, and give my love to the little maid "Atticula" and our Pilia. [p. 181]

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¹ In Greek. The quotation is from Hom. Il. 2.298.

² ta men didomena, sc. dechou or some such word.

³ The murder of his sons in Egypt.

⁴ See p. 164.

CCLXXV (A VI, 6)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

(SIDA, II AUGUST?)

WHILE employed in my province in doing everything for the honour of Appius, I suddenly became his accuser's father-in-law. "Heaven prosper it," you say. So say I, and I am sure you wish it. But believe me, it was the last thing I expected: in fact, I had even sent confidential messengers to my wife and daughter in regard to Tiberius Nero, who had made proposals to me; but they arrived at Rome after the betrothal had taken place. However, I hope this will be better. I understand that the ladies are much pleased with the young man's accommodating temper and courtesy. As for the rest, pick no holes!

But you now! Corn doles to Athens? Do you approve of this? However, my treatise ¹ at any rate did not forbid it: for that was not a largess to citizens, but a gift to hosts. Yet do you bid me think about the "propylon" for the Academy, though Appius has abandoned his idea about Eleusis? ² I am sure you grieve for Hortensius. ³ I am heart-broken myself: for I had resolved to live on very intimate terms with him. I have put Caelius in command of the province: a mere boy, you will say, and perhaps empty-headed, with neither solidity nor self-control. I agree: but nothing else was possible. The letter, indeed, which I received from you a good while ago, in which you said that you "hesitated" as to what I ought to do about leaving a substitute, gave me a twinge, for I saw your reasons [p. 191] for your "hesitation," ⁴ and I had the very same. Hand over my province to a mere boy? Well, to my brother, then? The latter was against my interest: for there was no one except my brother whom I could prefer to my quaestor without casting a slur on him, especially as he was of noble birth. Nevertheless, as long as the Parthians appeared to be threatening, I had resolved to leave my brother, or even to remain myself, contrary to the decree of the senate, for the sake of the Republic. But when by incredible good fortune they had dispersed, all my hesitation was at an end. I saw what people would say: "What, leave his brother! is this what he calls not holding his province more than a year? Did not the senate, again, intend that the governors of provinces should be those who had not had them before? Yet this man has held one for three years!" So here are my reasons for the public ear. What am I to give you privately? I should never have been without anxiety as to something happening from ill-temper, violent language, or carelessness, ⁵ as will happen in this world. Again, if his son did anything--a mere lad and a lad full of self-confidence? What a distress it would have been! His father was resolved not to part with him, and was annoyed with you for expressing an opinion that he should do so. But as to Caelius, as things are, I don't say that I don't care about his antecedents, but at any rate I care much less. Then there is this consideration: Pompey-- so strong a man and in so secure a position--selected Q. Cassius without regard to the lot; Caesar did the same in the case of Antony: was I to put such a slight on one regularly assigned me by lot, as to make him act as a spy on any man I left in command? No, the course I adopted was the better one, and for it there are many precedents, and certainly it is more suited to my advanced time of life. But, good heavens! what credit I have given you in his eyes! I read him the letter written, not by you, but by your amanuensis. My friends' letters summon me to a triumph--a thing [p. 192] which, in view of the resuscitation of my reputation, I do not think I ought to neglect. Wherefore, my dear Atticus, do begin to wish it too, that I may look somewhat less foolish.

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¹ De Republica. Atticus's present of corn to Athens did not stand on the same ground as the regular distribution of cheap corn at Rome, which Cicero had denounced in his book.

² See p. 146. Cicero never carried out his idea of erecting a propylon for the Academy, and indeed he never had money to spare for such things, being one of those men who handle large sums and yet are perpetually in difficulties. Appius appears to have built his.

³ See Letter CLXXI. Hortensius died in June.

⁴ epechein, epochê, "suspense of judgment," technical terms of the academic Agnostics.

⁵ The sharp temper of Quintus is often referred to. See vol. i, pp. 183-185.

CCLXIX (A VI, 7)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

TARSUS, JUNE (AFTER THE 26TH)

QUINTUS the younger has managed to reconcile his father to your sister. He shewed real filial feeling in the matter; and though it is true that I earnestly exhorted him to do so, yet my persuasion fell on willing ears Your letter moved us both very strongly. Well! I feel confident that things are as we wish. I have written to you twice about money matters in Greek, and enigmatically--if the letters have but reached you. Of course no active step is to be taken. Yet, by putting plain questions to him ¹ about Milo's debts, and by urging him to fulfil his obligations to me, you will do some good. I have ordered my quaestor Mescinius to await me at Laodicea, that I may be able, in accordance with the Julian law, to leave two copies of my accounts complete in two cities. I then intend to go to Rhodes for the sake of the boys, thence as soon as possible to Athens, though the Etesian winds are strong against me. But I wish to get home while the present magistrates are in office, whose good disposition to myself I have experienced in the matter of the supplication. Nevertheless, be sure you send a letter to meet me, to tell me whether in your opinion there is any reason on the score of politics for my delaying my return. Tiro would have written to you, only I left him seriously ill at Issus. But I have news that he is better. Nevertheless I am distressed. For nothing can exceed that young man's purity of conduct and attention to business. [p. 182]

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¹ Philotimus. See the two previous 1etters.

CCLXXX (A VI, 8)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

EPHESUS, I OCTOBER

JUST as I had resolved to write to you and had actually taken up my pen, Batonius came to me straight from his ship to my house at Ephesus, and gave me your letter on the 29th of September. I am delighted with the pleasant nature of your voyage, with Pilia's opportune appearance, and also, by Hercules, with her remarks about Tullia's marriage.

Batonius, however, brought news about Caesar that is really terrifying, and he enlarged still more on the subject in Conversation with Lepta. I hope what he said was false, but it is certainly alarming: that he would on no account dismiss his army; that Of the magistrates-elect the praetors, Cassius the tribune, Lentulus the consul, side with him; that Pompey is thinking of leaving the city. But look here! are you very sorry for the man ¹ that is wont to think himself more than a match for the uncle of your sister's son? But what men to be beaten by ! ² However, to business. The Etesian winds have much retarded me. Exactly twenty days, too, were swallowed up by the Rhodian open ship. On the 1st of October, as I am embarking to leave Ephesus, I give this letter to L. Tarquitius, who is leaving the harbour at the same time, but is sailing faster than I am. I am forced to wait for fair weather owing to the open ships and other war vessels of the Rhodians; nevertheless, nothing [p. 199] can exceed the hurry I am in. As to the payment to the Puteolanian, many thanks. Now please look into affairs at Rome, and see what steps you think I ought to take as to the triumph, to which my friends invite me. If it had not been that Bibulus, who, as long as there was a single enemy in Syria, never set foot out of doors any more than he did out of his house at Rome, ³ was exerting himself to get a triumph, I should have been quite indifferent on the matter. Now, however, "'twere base to say no word." ⁴ But look into the whole matter, that we may be able to decide on our course the day we meet. This is long enough, considering my haste, and that I am giving the letter to a man who will arrive with me, or only a little before me. My son sends his kindest regards to you. Pray give the same from us both to Pilia and your daughter.

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¹ Probably M. Calidius, who had failed in the consular elections. He seems to have criticised Cicero as an orator.

² The successful candidates, C. Claudius Marcellus and L. Cornelius Lentulus Crus, consuls for B.C. 49.

³ I.e., during his consulship, B.C. 59, when Caesar ignored his obnuntiatio.

⁴ Eurip. Fr.

CCLXXXI (A VI, 9)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

ATHENS, 15 OCTOBER

IMMEDIATELY on my landing in the Piraeus, on the 14th of October, I received your letter from the hand of my slave Acastus. Having been long looking forward to it, I was surprised, as soon as I looked at the letter before breaking the seal, at its brevity; when I opened it I was again surprised at the cramped handwriting, for your letters are generally supremely well-written and clear, and, to make a long story short, I understood from the fact of your writing like that, that you had arrived at Rome on the 19th of September in a fit of fever. Much disturbed--but not more than I was bound to be--I at once questioned Acastus. He said that both you and he thought, and his impression was confirmed by what your people at Rome told [p. 200] him, that it could not be anything serious. This appeared to be supported by an expression used by you at the end of your letter, that you wrote while suffering from a" slight touch of fever." Yet it roused my gratitude, as well as my surprise, that you should, in spite of it, have written to me with your own hand. So enough about this. For I hope, considering your prudence and temperate life, and, by heaven, I feel confident--as Acastus bids me--that by this time you are as well as I could wish.

I am glad you have got my letter from Turranius. Keep an eye, an you love me, and a very keen one, upon the ambition of that cooker of accounts. ¹ This legacy again--which I swear is a source of great grief to me, for I loved the man-this legacy of Precius don't let him lay a single finger upon. You will say that I shall want some ready money for the expenses of the triumph, which, as you advise, you shall find me neither weakly vain in seeking, nor over-modest in declining. I gather from your letter that Turranius told you that I had handed over my province to my brother. Do you think I so entirely failed to grasp the wise caution of your letter? You said your judgment was in "suspense." What could have called for your hesitation, if there had been any reason whatever for deciding that a brother should be left in command, and such a brother? I took your meaning to be "dogmatic rejection," ² not "suspension of judgment." You urged in regard to the young Quintus, that I should not leave him in any case. "You tell me my own dream." ³ The same points occurred to us both, just as though we had talked it over together. It was the only thing to be done, and your "long suspension of judgment" relieved me of all doubt. But I fancy you have already a letter on this subject written in more detail. I intend to send off letter-carriers tomorrow, who I think will arrive sooner than our friend Saufeius. But it was scarcely decent that he should arrive without a letter from me to [p. 201] you. In your turn, pray fulfil your promise of writing fully to me of my Tulliola, that is, of Dolabella, of politics--which I foresee will be in a very dangerous situation--of the censors, and especially what is taking place about the statues and pictures, whether the matter will be brought before the Senate. I write this on the 15th of October, on which day, you tell me, Caesar is going to bring four legions to Placentia. ⁴ Pray, what is to become of us? My post on the Acropolis of Athens seems to me at present the best one.

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¹ Philotimus, a freedman of Terentia's, whom Cicero suspected of dishonesty. We shall hear more of him. The sentence, like those in previous letters referring to him, is in Greek, with a pun on the name of Philotim4s.

² athetêsis, For epochê. See p. 191.

³ toumon oneiron emoi, "you but repeat my own thoughts."

⁴ This rumour, referred to again, caused great alarm at Rome, but was false (Appian, B.C. 2.31). It was in consequence of it, however, that the consul Marcellus deputed Pompey to raise troops in Italy.