Cicero’s Letters to Atticus, Book 9

Translated by Evelyn Shuckburgh

CCCLII (A IX, 1)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIAE, 6 MARCH

Although by the time you read this I think I shall know what has happened at Brundisium--for Gnaeus left Canusium on the 21st of February, and I write on the 6th of March, the fourteenth day after his removing from Canusium--yet I am kept in painful suspense as to what each hour may bring, and am wondering that nothing even by way of rumour has reached me. There is a surprising silence. But perhaps all this is mere idle curiosity¹ about what, after all, must soon be known. One thing worries me, that I cannot at present make out where our friend P. Lentulus and Domitius are. Now I want to know, in order the easier to find out their intentions, whether they are going to Pompey, and if so, by what route and when. The city, indeed, I am told, is now crammed full of Optimates. I hear that Sosius and Lupus are sitting in court,² whom our friend Gnaeus thought would arrive at Brundisium before himself. From these parts there is a general exodus. Even Manius Lepidus, with whom I am used to spend the day, is thinking of starting tomorrow. For myself, I am stopping on at Formiae in order to get quicker intelligence. Then I am for Arpinum. Thence, by whatever road there is least chance of meetings, to the Upper Sea, leaving behind or altogether giving up my lictors. For I am told that by some loyalists, who are now and have often been before a protection to the commonwealth, my staying in Italy is disapproved, and that at their entertainments (beginning pretty early in the day too) many severe reflexions are being made upon me! Evidently, then, the thing to do is to leave the country, to wage war on Italy by land and sea, to rouse the hatred of the disloyal against us once more, which had become extinct, and to follow the [p. 312] advice of a Lucceius and Theophanes! For others have some reason for going: Scipio, for instance, starts for Syria, the province allotted to him, or is accompanying his son-in-law, in either case with an honourable pretext, or, if you like, is avoiding the wrath of Caesar. The Marcelli, for their part, had they not feared the sword of Caesar, would have remained: Appius has the same reason for fear, and that, too, in connexion with a recent quarrel. Except him and Q. Cassius, the rest are legates, Faustus is a proquaestor: I am the only one who might take either one course or the other. Added to this, there is my brother, whom it is not fair to involve in this adventure, considering that Caesar would be still more angry with him. But I cannot induce him to stay behind. This concession I shall make to Pompey, as in duty bound: for as far as I am concerned no one else influences me-- nor the talk of the loyalists, who do not really exist, nor the cause which has been Conducted with timidity and will be conducted with crime. To one man, one alone, I make this concession, and that, too, without any request from him, and though--as he says--he is not defending his own cause, but that of the state. I should like much to know what you are thinking of doing as to crossing into Epirus.

________________________________________

¹ kenospouda.

² C. Sosius and P. Rubilius Rufus, praetors.

CCCLIV (A IX, 2)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIAE, 7 MARCH

THOUGH on the 7th of March (the day, I think, for your fever fit) I am expecting a longer letter from you, yet I think I ought to answer even the short one which you wrote on the 4th, just before your attack. You say that you are glad that I have stayed in Italy, and that you are of the same opinion as before. But in a former letter you seemed to me to have no doubt about my going, always provided that Gnaeus embarked with an adequate following, and that the consuls crossed also. Have you forgotten this, or did I misunderstand you, or have you changed your opinion? But I shall either ascertain your opinion from the letter I am now expecting, or I shall draw another letter from you. No news as yet from Brundisium.

CCCLV (A IX, 2 a)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIAE, 8 MARCH

WHAT a difficult, what a hopeless thing! You pass over no point in giving your advice, and yet how completely you fail to reveal what your real opinion is! You are glad that I am not with Pompey, and yet you suggest how dibcreditable it would be for me to be in the House when [p. 315] any attack is made on him; yet shocking to approve his conduct. Certainly. To speak against him, then? "God forbid !" say you. What, then, is to be done, if the one course is criminal, the other exposed to punishment? "You will obtain permission," say you, "from Caesar to absent yourself and live in retirement." Am I to implore this permission, then? How humiliating! What if I fail to get it? Again, you say, "The question of your triumph will be unprejudiced." What if this very thing is used to put pressure upon me? Should I accept it? What a disgrace! Should I decline it? Caesar will think that I am repudiating his whole policy, as formerly in the case of the land commission.¹ Why, in excusing himself, he always throws the whole blame for what then happened on me, saying that I was so bitterly opposed to him, that I would not accept even an honour at his hands. With how much greater irritation will he take a similar proceeding from me now? It will, of course, be greater in proportion as this honour is greater than the former, and he is himself in a stronger position.

But you say that you have no doubt I am in very bad odour with Pompey by this time: I don't see why that should be the case, particularly at this time. Shall a man who never told me anything about his plan, till after he had lost Corfinium, complain of my not having come to Brundisium, when Caesar lay between me and Brundisium? In the next place, complaint on his side he must know to be barred. He considers that I was clearer sighted than he about the weakness of the municipal towns, the levies, the maintenance of peace, the city, money, and the need of occupying Picenum. If, on the other hand, I don't go when it is in my power, he will have some right to be angry with me: and I shrink from that, not for fear of his hurting me---for what could he do? And Who is a slave who does not fear to die?² But because I have a horror of ingratitude. I feel confident, [p. 316] therefore, that my arrival in his camp, whenever it takes place, will, as you say, be welcome enough.³ For as to what you say, "If Caesar acts with more moderation you will reconsider your advice to me "- how can he help behaving ruthlessly? Character, previous career, the very nature of his present undertaking, his associates, the strength of the loyalists, or even their firmness, all forbid it.

I had scarcely read your letter, when Curtius Postumus called on me as he was hurrying to join Caesar, talking of nothing but fleets and armies--"Caesar was going to seize the Spains,⁴ occupy Asia, Sicily, Africa, Sardinia, and was promptly pursuing Pompey into Greece." I must start, therefore, with the view of sharing not so much in a war as in a stampede. For I shall never be able to stand the gossip of your folk at Rome, whatever they are, for loyalists they are not, in spite of their name. Nevertheless, it is precisely that which I want to know-- what they say; and I earnestly entreat you to make inquiries and inform me. As yet I am entirely ignorant of what has happened at Brundisium: when I know, I shall shape my plans in the light of facts and circumstances, but I shall consult you.

________________________________________

¹ The commission of twenty (vigintiviri) for the distribution of the Campanian land under Caesar's law of B.C. 59, on which Cicero had declined to serve. See vol. i., p. 113.

² A line of Euripides, but from what play is unknown.

³ asmeniston, quoted apparently from the letter of Atticus. It is a word of late Greek.

⁴ Spain was now held by Pompey's three legates, L. Afranius, M. Petreius, and M. Terentius Varro.

CCCLVII (A IX, 3)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIAE, 9 MARCH

THE son of Domitius passed through Formiae on the 8th of March, hurrying to his mother at Naples,¹ and on my slave Dionysius putting some earnest questions to him about his father, he bade him tell me that he was outside the city. I, however, had been told that he had gone either to join Pompey or into Spain. What the truth of the matter is I should like very much to know: for it affects the question on which I am now deliberating, that, if Domitius, at any rate, has failed to find an exit from Italy, Gnaeus should understand that my own departure from Italy is not easy, occupied as it now is throughout with arms and garrisons, especially in the winter season. For if it had been a more c6nvenient season of the year, I might have sailed even on the Lower Sea. As it is, a passage is impossible except by the Upper Sea, to which my road is closed. Be good enough to inquire, therefore, about both Domitius and Lentulus. No rumour has come as yet from Brundisium, and today is the 9th, on which (or on the day before) I [p. 318] imagine that Caesar has reached Brundisium. For he halted at Arpi on the 1st. But if you choose to believe Postumus, he was intending to pursue Gnaeus. For by a calculation of the state of the weather and days he concluded that the latter had already crossed. I said I didn't think Caesar would have crews: Postumus felt confident on that point, and all the more, because Caesar's liberality had been heard of by shipowners. But it cannot now be long before I learn the entire state of affairs at Brundisium.

________________________________________

¹ Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who afterwards was counted by some among the assassins of Iulius, and played a considerable part in events that followed it. His mother was Porcia, sister of Cato Uticensis.

CCCLX (A IX, 4)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME) FORMIAE 12 MARCH

Although any feeling of repose is for me confined to the time I spend in writing to you or reading a letter from you, yet I am myself at a loss for a subject for my letters, and I feel certain that the same is the case with you. For the topics usually filling familiar letters, written with an easy mind, are excluded by the critical nature of these times; while those connected with the crisis we have already worn threadbare. Nevertheless, not to surrender myself wholly to sorrowful reflexions, I have selected certain theses, so to speak, which have at once a general bearing on a citizen's duty, and a particular relation to the present crisis:

“Ought one to remain in one's country when under a tyrant? If one's country is under a tyrant ought one to labour at all hazards for the abolition of the tyranny, even at the risk of the total destruction of the city? Or ought we to be on our guard against the man attempting the abolition, lest he should rise too high himself?

Ought one to assist one's country when under a tyrant by seizing opportunities and by argument rather than by war?

Is it acting like a good citizen to quit one's country when under a tyrant for any other land, and there to remain quiet, or ought one to face any and every danger for liberty's sake?

Ought one to wage war upon and besiege one's native town, if it is under a tyrant?

Even if one does not approve an abolition of a tyranny by war, ought one still to enroll oneself in the ranks of the loyalists?

Ought one in politics to share the dangers of one's benefactors and friends, even though one does not think their general policy to be wise?

Should a man who has done conspicuous services to his country, and on that very accounnt has been shamefully treated and exposed to envy, voluntarily place himself in danger for his country, or may he be permitted at length to take thought for himself and those nearest and dearest to him, giving up all political struggles against the stronger party?¹”

By keeping myself at work on questions such as these, and discussing both sides both in Greek and Latin, I at once distract my mind for a time from its anxieties, and at the same time attempt the solution of a problem now very much to the point. But I fear you may find me unseasonable; for if the bearer of this keeps up the proper pace, it will reach you exactly on your ague day.

________________________________________

¹ These Greek theses are merely the doubts entertained by Cicero as to his own particular position, and have been already expressed again and again in every variety of language. Like most people, he imagines that what affects himself has a general application.

CCCLVIII (A IX, 5)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIAE, 10 MARCH

ON your birthday¹ you wrote me a letter full of advice, and not only shewing the greatest kindness to me, but also the most admirable wisdom. Philotimus delivered it to me the day after receiving it from you. The points you put are indeed of extreme difficulty--the journey to the Upper Sea, a voyage by the Lower, a departure to Arpinum, lest I should seem to have avoided Caesar, a continuance at Formiae, lest I should seem to have put myself forward to congratulate him-- but nothing is more distressing than the sight of those things, which, I tell you, must before long be seen. Curtius Postumus has been with me: I told you how oppressive he was. Q. Fufius also has been to see me. What a triumphant look! What assurance! Post haste for Brundisium: denouncing the crime of Pompey, the recklessness and folly of the senate. If I can't stand such things in my own villa, shall I be able to put up with Curtius in the senate-house? But suppose me to endure this with good temper, what will be the sequel of the usual [p. 319] "Speak, Marcus Tullius" ?² To say nothing of the Republican cause, which I look upon as lost, both from the wounds inflicted on it and the cures prepared for them, what am I to do about Pompey? With whom--for why should I deny it ?-I am downright angry. For I am always more affected by the causes of events than by the events themselves. Therefore, turning over these disastrous events in my mind--and what could be more disastrous!-or rather, coming to the conclusion that they are his doing and his fault, I feel more hostile to him than to Caesar himself: just as our ancestors decided that the day of the battle of the Allia was more fatal than that of the capture of the city, because the latter evil was the result of the former; and accordingly the one day is even now regarded as accursed, while the other is generally unknown--so I, remembering the errors of ten years, among which was also that year which ruined me, without his defending me (not to put it more strongly), and being fully aware of the rashness, incompetence, and carelessness of the present management, felt my anger growing. But that is all forgotten now. It is of his kindness that I think, and also of my own position. I understand-later, indeed, than I could have wished, thanks to the letters and conversations of Balbus--I see plainly, I repeat, that the one object now, nay, the one object from the beginning, was the death of Pompey. As for me, therefore, since Homer's hero, when his goddess mother said to him, "For next to Hector's death thy doom is fixed," answered his mother:

Death, then! since fate allowed me not to save The friend I loved.

³ What should I do for one who was not merely a "friend," but a "benefactor" also? One, too, of such a great character, and engaged in such a great cause? Why, in truth, I regard such duties as worth the loss of life. In your Optimates, however, I have no sort of confidence, and henceforth do not devote myself either to their service. I see how they are surrendering themselves to Caesar, and will continue to do so in the future. Do you suppose that those decrees of [p. 320] the municipalities as to Pompey's illness⁴ are to be compared with these congratulations now offered to Caesar on his victory? "All terror," you will say. Yes, but they themselves assert that they were alarmed on the former occasion. However, let us wait to see what has happened at Brundisium, Perhaps from that may come a change of plan and in the tone of my letters.

________________________________________

¹ Natali die tuo. Several editors wish to omit natali, in which case the words will mean "on the day of your ague fit," as in previous letters.

² See p. 204.

³ Homer, Il. 18.96

⁴ See ante, pp. 168, 310.

CCCLIX (A IX, 6)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIAE, 11 MARCH

NOTHING as yet from Brundisium. Balbus has written from Rome that he thinks that the consul Lentulus has by this time crossed, and that the younger Balbus did not succeed in getting an interview with him; because the young man heard this news at Canusium, and had written to him from that town. He says, too, that the six cohorts which were at Alba had joined Curius by the Minucian road :¹ that Caesar had written to tell him that, and he would himself be shortly at the city. Therefore I shall follow your advice, and shall not go into hiding at Arpinum at the present time, although, as I wished to give my son his toga virilis² at Arpinum, I contemplated leaving this excuse for Caesar. But perhaps that very thing would offend him--"Why not at Rome rather?" And after all, if meet him I must, I would rather it were here than anywhere. Then I shall consider the rest, that is, whither and by what road and when I am [p. 321] to go. Domitius, I hear, is at Cosa, ready, too, I am told, to set sail: if to Spain I don't approve, if to join Gnaeus I commend him: he had better go anywhere than have to see Curtius,³ of whom, though his patron, I cannot stand the sight. What, then, am I to say of the rest? But, I suppose, we had better keep quiet, lest we prove our own error, who, while loving the city, that is, our country, and while thinking that the matter would be patched up, have so managed matters as to be completely intercepted and made prisoners.

I had written thus far when a letter arrived from Capua, as follows: Pompey has crossed the sea with all the men he had with him. The total is 30,000; besides the consuls, two tribunes of the plebs, and the senators who were with him, all with wives and children. He is said to have embarked on the 4th of March. Since that day the north wind has prevailed. They say that he disabled or burnt all such ships as he did not use.

On this subject a letter has been received at Capua by L. Metellus, the tribune, from his mother-in-law Clodia, who has herself crossed. I was anxious and full of pain before, as, of course, the bare facts of the case compelled, when I found myself unable to unravel the mystery by any consideration; but now, when Pompey and the consuls have left Italy, I am not merely pained, I am burning with indignation:

Reason deserts her throne, And I am torn with grief.

⁴

Believe me, I really am beside myself to think of the dishonour I have brought upon myself. That I, in the first place, should not be with Pompey, whatever plan he has followed, nor, in the second place, with the loyalists, however imprudently managed their cause! Especially, too, when those very persons, for whose sake I was somewhat timid in trusting myself to fortune-wife, daughter, son, and [p. 322] nephew-prefered that I should follow that design, and thought that my present plan was discreditable and unworthy of me. For, as to my brother Quintus, whatever I determined upon he said that he considered right, and he accepted it with the most absolute acquiescence.

I am reading over your letters from the beginning of the business. They somewhat relieve me. The earliest ones warn and entreat me not to be precipitate. The next indicate that you are glad that I stayed. Whilst reading themI feel less base, but only while I read them. Presently grief and the "vision of shame" rises again. Wherefore, my dear Titus, pray pluck out this sorrow from my mind, or at least mitigate it by consoling words or advice, or by anything you can. But what could you or any human being do? It is now almost beyond the power of God.

For my part, my object now, as you advise and think possible, is to obtain leave from Caesar to absent myself when any motion is being made against Pompey in the senate. But I fear I may not obtain the concession. Furnius has arrived from Caesar. To shew you the sort of men we are following, he tells me that the son of Q. Titinius is with Caesar, but that the latter thanks me even more than I could wish. What, however, it is that he asks of me, expressed indeed, for his part, in few words, but still en grand seigneur, you may learn from his own letter. How distressed I am at your ill-health: if we had only been together, you would at least not have wanted advice. For "two heads," you know.⁵ But don't let us cry over spilt milk :⁶ let us do better for the future. Up to this time I have been mistaken in two particulars: at the beginning I hoped for [p. 323] peace, and, if that were once gained, was prepared to be content with the life of a private citizen, and an old age freed from anxiety: and later, I found that a bloody and destructive war was being undertaken by Pompey. Upon my honour, I thought it shewed a better man and a better citizen to suffer any punishment whatever rather than, I don't say to lead, but even to take part in such bloody work. I think it would have been better even to die than to be with such men. I shall bear any result with greater courage than such a pain.

________________________________________

¹ The via Minucia is spoken of by Horace (Ep. 1.18, 20) as an alternative route to the Appia leading to Brundisium. It seems to have been by this road that the Martia and fourth legion came to Alba Fucentia in 44 B.C., instead of proceeding up the coast road from Brundisium to Gaul, as Antony had directed them. According to Caesar, B.C. 1.24, the six cohorts from Alba Fucentia joined Vibius Curius on the march to Brundisium.

² Usually given at the Liberalia (17th March).

³ M. Curtius Postumus (see p. 316). Cicero had formerly promoted his interests with Caesar (vol. i., p. 277). He may refer to that in calling himself his patronus, or he may have defended him in some lawsuit.

⁴ Hom. Il. 10.91.

⁵

Two comrades on the road: two beads in council: Each sees for each and finds the better way But he whose council is his single breast Is scant of skill and slower to divine.

--Hom. 51.10.224-226.

⁶ Acta ne agamus, "let us not do what has been done," a proverb answering to "shutting the stable door when the horse is stolen," or "whipping a dead horse," or as in the text. See de Am. 85, where Cicero calls it an ancient proverb.

CCCLVI (A IX, 6 a)

IULIUS CAESAR TO CICERO (AT FORMIAE)

NEAR BRUNDISIUM, 7 MARCH

HAVING merely seen our friend Furnius, and not having been able conveniently either to speak or to listen to him, as I was in haste and on the march, after sending my legions in advance, I yet could not omit writing to you, and sending him to thank you: though this last I have often done, and [p. 317] think I shall have occasion to do so still oftener--so great are your services to me. Above all, I beg of you, as I feel sure that I shall be coming to the city walls¹ before long, that I may see you there to enable me to avail myself of your advice, influence, position, and support of every kind. I will return to what I said at first: be kind enough to pardon my haste and the brevity of my letter. You will learn every-thing else from Furnius.

________________________________________

¹ Caesar is careful to use the phrase ad urbem (not in), for, as having imperium, he could not constitutionally pass the pomaerium.

CCCLXI (A IX, 7)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIAE, 13 MARCH

I wrote you a letter on the 12th of March, but the messenger to whom I intended to give it did not start on that day. But there did arrive that very day that "swiftfoot" mentioned by Salvius. He brought me your full and very interesting letter, which did, so to speak, put just a [p. 325] drop of life into me: for wholly restored I can't say that I am. But you have clearly done the main thing. Yes, believe me, a prosperous issue for me is not now my aim at all: for I see plainly that we can never have our constitution, either while these two men are both alive, or with this one remaining. Accordingly, I no longer entertain any hope of repose for myself, nor refuse to contemplate any amount of sorrow. The one thing I do positively dread is doing, or, I should say, having done anything dishonourable. So be assured that your letter was wholesome for me, and I don't only mean this longer one-the most explicit and complete possible--but also the shorter one, in which what gave me the most intense pleasure was the statement that my policy and action had the approval of Sextus. I am exceedingly obliged to you, of whose affection to myself and keen sense of what is right I am well aware.²

Your longer letter, indeed, relieved not only myself, but all my party from painful feelings. So I will follow your advice and remain at Formiae: I shall thus avoid the scandal of a meeting with him outside the city, or, if I see him neither here nor there, giving him the impression of his having been intentionally avoided by me. As to your advice to ask him to allow me to shew the same consideration for Pompey, as I have shewn to himself--that you will see from the letters of Balbus and Oppius, of which I sent you copies, I have been doing all the time. I send you also Caesar's letter to them, written in quite a sane frame of mind, considering the insanity of the whole business. If, on the other hand, Caesar will not make this concession to me, I see your opinion is that my rôle should be that of the peacemaker. In this it is not the danger that I fear--for with so many hanging over my head, why not settle the matter by choosing the most honourable ?-but what I do fear is embarrassing Pompey; and that he should turn upon me The monster Gorgon's petrifying glare.³ For our friend Pompey has set his heart to a surprising [p. 326] degree on imitating Sulla's reign. I am not speaking without book, I assure you. He never made less of a secret of anything. "With such a man," you will say, "do you wish to be associated?" I follow personal obligation, not the cause: as I did in the case of Milo, and in--but there is no need to go into that. "Is not the cause, then, a good one?" Nay, the best: but it will be conducted, remember, in the most criminal way. The first plan is to choke off the city and Italy by starving them; the next, to devastate the country with sword and fire, and not to keep their hands off the money of the wealthy. But seeing that I fear the same from Caesar's side, without any good to be got on Pompey's, I think my better course is to stay at home, and there await whatever comes. Yet I hold myself to be under so great an obligation to him, that I do not venture to incur the charge of ingratitude. However, you have yourself fully stated what is to he said in defence of that course.

As to the triumph, I quite agree with you: it will not cost me a moment's hesitation or a pang to throw it utterly aside. I much like your idea that, while I am moving about the country, "the moment for sailing "⁴ may suddenly present itself. " If only," say you, "Pompey shews a resolute front enough." He is even more resolute than I thought. You may pin your faith on him. I promise you that, if he wins, he will not leave a tile on any roof in Italy! "You his ally, then?" Yes, by Hercules, against my own judgment, and against the warnings of all history; and--not so much to help his side, as to avoid seeing what is going on here--I am anxious to quit the country. For pray don't imagine that the mad proceedings of the party in Italy will be endurable or all of one kind. I need hardly, however, point out to you, that when laws, jurors, law courts, and senate are abolished, neither the fortunes of individuals nor the revenues of the state will suffice for the licentious desires, the shameless demands, the extravagances, and the necessities of so many men in the lowest depths of poverty. Let me depart, therefore, never mind by what kind of voyage-that, indeed, shall be as you please--but anyhow [p. 327] let me depart. For I, at least, shall be able to satisfy your curiosity on one point, as to what has been done at Brundisium. I am very glad-if one can be glad of anything now--to hear that my conduct up to this has the approval of the loyalists, and that they are aware of my not having started. As to Lentulus, I will make more careful inquiry: I have given orders about it to Philotimus, a man of courage and even too strong an Optimate. The last thing I have to say is this: supposing you are now at a loss for something to write about--for any other subject is out of the question, and what more can be found to say on this ?-yet, as there is no lack of ability (I mean it, by Heaven!) or affection on your part, which latter also adds a spur to my own intellect, pray maintain your practice of writing all you possibly can. I am a little vexed at your not inviting me to Epirus; I shouldn't give much trouble as a guest! But good-bye; for as you must have your walk and anointing, so I must have some sleep. In fact, your letter has made sleep possible for me.

________________________________________

¹ These Greek theses are merely the doubts entertained by Cicero as to his own particular position, and have been already expressed again and again in every variety of language. Like most people, he imagines that what affects himself has a general application.

² These words, as the text stands, must apply to Atticus. It seems, however, much more natural that they should refer to Sext. Peducaeus. Accordingly, editors have endeavoured to fill up the lacuna in various ways.

³ Hom. Od. 11.633.

⁴ ho ploos hôraios. See Letter CCCLXXV, p. 354.

CCCL (A IX, 7 a)

L. CORNELIUS BALBUS AND GAIUS OPPIUS

TO CICERO (AT FORMIAE)

ROME, 3 MARCH To say nothing of humble people like ourselves, even in the case of the most important persons designs are generally judged by the majority of mankind by their result, and not their intention: yet, relying on your goodness of heart, we will offer you, on the point as to which you have written to us, the advice which seems to us to be the soundest; and if it is not sensible advice, yet it will at least proceed from absolute good faith and good feeling. If we knew from his own lips that Caesar--as in our judgment we think he should do-- would try directly he arrived in Rome to effect a reconciliation between himself and Pompey, we should urge you to resolve upon taking part in the negotiation, in order to facilitate and add an air of dignity to the business through the ties which bind you to both parties. Or if, on the contrary, we thought that Caesar would not do so, and if we knew that he wished to go to war with Pompey, we would never persuade you to bear arms against a man who had done you very great services, just as we have ever begged you not to engage in a war against Caesar. But since, [p. 309] even now, what Caesar intends doing is for us a matter of opinion rather than of knowledge, all we can say is this: we do not think it consistent with your position or your universally acknowledged good faith to bear arms against either one or the other, considering your intimate connexions with both; and we have no doubt that Caesar with his usual kindness, will very warmly approve this course. However, if you wish it, we will write to Caesar, and ask to be informed what he means to do in the circumstances. On receiving an answer from him, we will at once write and tell you what our sentiments are, and will convince you that we give you the advice which seems to us to conduce most to your own position, not to Caesar's policy. And this we feel certain that Caesar, with his usual liberality in making allowance for his friend, will approve.

CCCLIII (A IX, 7b)

C. CORNELIUS BALBUS TO CICERO (AT FORMIAE)

ROME, 6 MARCH

IF you are well, I am glad. After sending you the letter written in conjunction with Oppius, I have received one from Caesar, of which I am sending you a copy. From this you will be able to see how desirous he is for a reconciliation between himself and Pompey, and how averse from every thought of cruelty. That such are his sentiments I [p. 313] am, as in duty bound, greatly rejoiced. As to yourself, you? good faith, and your piety, I entertain the same opinion as you do yourself, my dear Cicero--that your reputation and duty cannot admit of your bearing arms against a man from whom you avow having received so much kindness. I have full assurance that Caesar, as might be expected from his extraordinary kindness, will approve of this course, and I know for certain that you will satisfy him to the full by undertaking no command in the war against him, and by not associating yourself with his adversaries. And it is not only in the case of a man of such a high position and character as yourself that he will accept this as sufficient, but even in my own case he has volunteered the concession, that I should not serve in any camp that shall, in the future, be opposed to either Lentulus or Pompey, to whom I am under very great obligations; and he has told me that he will be satisfied with my performing civil functions for him, which I am at liberty to perform for them also if I choose. Accordingly, I am now at Rome acting for Lentulus generally, taking his business upon me, and doing for them all that duty, honour, and piety demand. But, by heaven, the hope of their coming to terms, which I had given up, I now think not entirely desperate, since Caesar is minded as we are bound to wish him to be. In the circumstances my opinion is, if you think well, that you should write to him and ask him for protection, as, with my full approbation, you asked it from Pompey at the Milonian crisis.¹ I will engage, if I am right in my judgment of Caesar, that he will take more thought for your dignity than for his own advantage. I am no certain judge of the wisdom of the advice I am now giving you, but at least I am sure that whatever I write to you I write from an uncommon affection and friendly disposition; because upon my life--which I would forfeit to save Caesar--I value you so highly, that I regard few as equally dear as yourself. When you have come to some conclusion on this [p. 314] matter, let me hear from you. For I am uncommonly anxious that you may find it possible to make good your kindly intentions to both sides; which, by heaven, I feel sure you will do. Take care of your health.

________________________________________

¹ The admirers of Clodius raised such a tumult on the first day of the trial of Milo, that Pompey, being appealed to, promised to be present the next day with an armed guard. According to Asconius, it was M. Marcellus, one of Milo's advocates, and L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who as praetor was presiding at the trial, that asked for the guard, not Cicero (Ascon. 41). But Cicero may very well have joined in the request.

CCCXLVI (A IX, 7 C)

CAESAR TO C. OPPIUS AND CORNELIUS BALBUS (AT ROME)

ARPI, 1 MARCH

I am very glad that your letter expresses such strong approval of what happened at Corfinium. I shall be glad to follow your advice, and all the more so, that I had spontaneously resolved to display the greatest clemency and to do my best to reconcile Pompey. Let us try in this way if we can recover the affections of all parties, and enjoy a lasting victory; for others, owing to their cruelty, have been unable to avoid rousing hatred, or to maintain their victory for any length of time, with the one exception of Lucius Sulla, whom I have no intention of imitating. Let this be our new method of conquering-to fortify ourselves by mercy and generosity. As to how that may be secured, certain ideas suggest themselves to my mind, and many more may be hit upon. I beg you to take these matters into consideration. I have taken Pompey's prefect Numerius Magius. Of course I kept to my policy, and caused him at once to be set at liberty. I have now had two of Pompey's prefects of engineers in my hands, and have set them both at liberty.¹ If they wish to be grateful, they will be bound to advise Pompey to prefer my friendship to that of the men who have ever been most bitterly hostile both to him and myself, by whose intrigues the Republic has been reduced to its present position.² [p. 304]

________________________________________

¹ L. Vibullius Rufus and Numerius Magius. The latter Caesar employed to negotiate with Pompey at Brundisium (Caes. B.C. 1.15, 24, 26).

² Caesar dwells on this point, that Pompey was now joined with those who bad been enemies to them both, in the B.C. i. 4, declaring that much of their enmity, as far as he was concerned, had been actually incurred by his union with Pompey.

CCCLXII (A IX, 8)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIAE, 14 MARCH

As we were at dinner on the 14th, and after nightfall indeed, Statius arrived with a short letter from you. You ask about L. Torquatus: not only Lucius, but Aulus also, has left the country, the latter a good many days ago. You mention the sale of prisoners at Reate: I am sorry that the seeds of a proscription should be sown in the Sabine district. I too had been informed that there were numerous senators at Rome. Can you give any reason why they ever left town? In these parts there is a notion-founded on conjecture rather than on message or despatch--that Caesar will be at Formiae on the 22nd of March. I could wish I [p. 328] had Homer's Minerva here disguised as Mentor, to say to her: "How shall I go then, O Mentor, and how shall I bear me before him?"¹ I never had a harder problem to solve. Still I am trying to solve it, and I shall not be unprepared as far as is possible in a bad business. But look after your health, for I reckon that yesterday was your ague day.

________________________________________

¹ Hom. Odyss. 3.22.Athene has taken the shape of Mentor.

CCCLXIII (A IX, 9)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIAE, 17 MARCH

I RECEIVED three letters from you on the 16th of March. They were dated on the 12th, 13th, and 14th. So I will answer each in its order of time. I quite agree with you in thinking Formiae the best of all places for me to stay. I also agree with you about the Upper Sea, and I am very desirous, as I told you in a previous letter, to discover how I may without annoying Caesar avoid taking any part whatever in the conduct of public affairs. You praise me for saying that I put away the memory of my friend's past and his shortcomings. I really do so: nay, I even forget those very injuries inflicted by him upon myself which you mention. So much more influence do I choose gratitude for kindness to have with me, than resentment for injury. Let me act, then, according to your opinion, and summon up all my energies. The fact is, I am philosophizing all the time I am riding about the country, and in the course of my expeditions I never cease meditating on my theses. But some of them are very difficult of solution. As to the Optiinates, be it as you will: but you know the proverb, [p. 329] "Dionysius at Corinth."¹ The son of Titinius is with Caesar.² You seem to have a kind of fear that I do not like your counsels: the fact, however, is that nothing else gives me any pleasure except your advice and your letters. Pray, therefore, keep to your word: do not cease writing to me whatever occurs to you: you can do me no greater favour.

I now come to your second. You are quite right to be incredulous about the number of Pompey's men. Clodia just doubled them in her letter.³ It was all a lie also about disabling the ships. You praise the consuls: so do I as far as their spirit is concerned, but I blame their policy. For by their departure the negotiation for peace was rendered impossible, which I for one was meditating. Accordingly, after this I sent you back Demetrius's book "On Concord," and gave it to Philotimus. Nor have I any doubt left of a murderous war impending, which will begin with a famine. And yet I am vexed that I am not taking part in such a war! A war in which wickedness is certain to attain such dimensions, that, whereas it is a crime not to support one's parents, our leaders will think themselves entitled to starve to death the supreme and holiest of parents-their country! And this fear is not with me a matter of conjecture: I have heard their actual words. The whole object of collecting this fleet from Alexandria, Colchis, Tyre, Sidon, Aradus, Cyprus, Pamphylia, Lycia, Rhodes, Chios, Byzantium, [p. 330] Lesbos, Zmyrna, Miletus, Cos,⁴ is to intercept the supplies of Italy and blockade the Corn--growing provinces. Then, again, in what a state of anger will Pompey come! and especially with the very men most anxious for his safety, as though he had been abandoned by those whom he, in fact, abandoned himself. Accordingly, in my state of doubt as to what it is right for me to do, my feeling of obligation to Pompey becomes a very weighty motive: if that feeling were away, it were better in my eyes to perish in my country, than to ruin it in the attempt to save it. About the north wind it is clearly as you say: I am afraid Epirus may be harassed. But what part of Greece do you suppose will not be plundered? For Pompey gives out openly, and demonstrates to his soldiers, that he will outdo Caesar even in his liberality. It is an excellent suggestion of yours that, when I do see Caesar, I should not speak with too much tolerance, but rather with a grave severity. I clearly ought to do so. I am thinking of Arpinum, but not till I have had my meeting with him; thus avoiding being absent when he arrives, or having to hurry backwards and forwards along a detestably bad road. I am told, as you say in your letter, that Bibulus has arrived and started back again on the I4th.⁵ You were expecting Philotimus, you say in your third letter. But he only left me on the 15th. That was why you got my letter in reply to yours rather late, though I wrote the answer at once. I agree with what you say about Domitius--he is at Cosa, and no one knows what his design is. Yes, that basest, meanest fellow in the world, who says that a consular election can be held by a praetor, is the same as he always was in constitutional matters.⁶ So of course that was [p. 331] what Caesar meant by saying in the letter, of which I sent you a copy,⁷ "that he wished to avail himself of my advice , (well, well! that is a mere generality), "of my popularity" (that's empty flattery-- but I suppose he adopts that tone with a view to my influencing certain senatorial votes), "of my position" (perhaps he means my vote as a consular). He finishes up by saying "of my help in every particular." I had already begun to suspect from your letter that this was the real meaning of it, or something very like it. For it is of great importance to him that there should not be an interregnum: and that he secures, if the consuls are "created" by the praetor. However, it is on record in our augural books that, so far from consuls being legally capable of being created by a praetor, the praetors themselves cannot be so created, and that there is no precedent for it: that it is illegal in case of the consuls, because it is not legal for the greater imperium to be proposed to the people by the less; in case of the praetors, because their names are submitted to the people as colleagues of the consuls, to whom belongs the greater imperium. Before long he will be demanding that my vote in the college should be given, and he won't be content with Galba, Scaevola, Cassius, and Antonius: Then let the wide earth gape and swallow me⁸ But you see what a storm is impending. Which of the senators have crossed the sea I will tell you when I know for certain. About the corn-supply you are quite right, it cannot possibly be managed without a revenue: and you have good reason for fearing the clamorous demands of Pompey's entourage, and an unnatural war. I should much like to see my friend Trebatius, though, as you say, he is in despair about everything. Pray urge him to make haste and come: for it will be a great convenience to see him before [p. 332] Caesar's arrival.⁹ As to the property at Lanuvium, as soon as I heard of Phamea's death, I conceived the wish-provided the constitution was to survive--that some one of my friends should buy it, yet I never thought of you, the greatest of my friends. For I knew that you usually wanted to know how many years' purchase it was worth, and what was the value of the fixtures, and I had seen your digamma¹⁰ not only at Rome, but also at Delos. After all, however, I value it, pretty as it is, at less price than it was valued in the consulship of Marcellinus,¹¹ when I thought-owing to the house I possessed at that time at Antium--that those little pleasure-grounds would suit me better, and be less expensive, than repairing my Tusculan house. I was then willing to give 500 sestertia (about £4,000) for them. I made an offer through a third person, which he refused, when he was putting it up for sale at Antium. But in these days I presume all such properties are gone down in value, owing to the dearness of money. It will suit me exactly, or rather us, if you buy it. But don't be put off by the late owner's follies: it is really a lovely place. However, all such properties appear to me to be now doomed to desolation. I have answered your three letters, but am expecting others. For up to this time it is letters from you that have kept me going.

The Liberalia (17th March). [p. 333]

________________________________________

¹ This is generally interpreted by a reference to the story told in Tusc. 3.27, of Dionysius the younger, after being expelled from Syracuse, keeping a school at Corinth because he could not live without some absolute power; so the Optimates will not rest, Cicero is supposed to argue, till they get power, and then they will persecute me. Tyrrell and Purser think it sufficient to explain it as an example of the ups and downs of life. This hardly seems sufficiently in point here. I am inclined to dismiss the school-keeping altogether. Plutarch (in his life of Timoleon), giving a pretty full account of Dionysius's exile, says nothing about it; but does say that he adopted a life of dissipation and frivolity in Corinth to avert suspicion of intending to recover his power. Cicero may mean, "The Optimates may be moderate enough men now, as you say; but wait and see what they will do if they gain power, either by Pompey's success, or by joining Caesar."

² Cicero seems to think that the presence of the younger Titinius in Caesar's company especially disgraceful or dangerous to himself (see pp. 260, 322). His father was on the other side.

³ See Letter CCCLIX, p. 321.

⁴ The fleet which Pompey was collecting from the East, where his name was still of the greatest weight.

⁵ I.e., has come home from Syria, and gone back to join Pompey. Bibulus had the command of Pompey's fleet.

⁶ M. Aemilius Lepidus, praetor this year, consul B.C. 45, master of the horse to Caesar as dictator, Pontifex Maximus B.C. 44, triumvir B.C. 43-36. Cicero elsewhere describes him as the "greatest weathercock in the world" (homo ventosissimus): and his feebleness was afterwards only too clearly manifested. He was expelled from the triumvirate by Augustus in B.C. 36, and lived on in obscurity (though still nominally Pontifex Maximus) till B.C. 14. The constitutional point Cicero now attacks him on was the doctrine that a praetor could "create" a consul --both consuls being away, Caesar would otherwise be unable to be elected--whereas, the true doctrine Cicero holds to be that the less magistrate cannot "create" the greater. See Letter CCCLXXII, p. 349.

⁷ Letter CCCLVI.

⁸ Hom. Il. 4.182.

⁹ I.e., to consult him on the legal question, and so strengthen his hands in answering Caesar.

¹⁰ No one knows what this digamma means. It may be some mark used by Atticus in the ledgers containing an account of properties on which he had lent money; or it may be that the word is a mistake for diagramma, "a schedule," as was long ago conjectured.

¹¹ B.C. 56.

CCCLXIV (A IX, 10)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIAE, 18 MARCH

I have nothing to write about: for I have heard no news and I answered all your letters yesterday. But as uneasiness of mind not only deprives me of sleep, but prevents my even keeping awake without extreme pain, I have begun this letter to you--I can't tell what about, and I have no subject to hand--that I may in a manner have a talk with you, the one thing which gives me any repose. I think I have been a fool from the beginning, and the one thing that torments me is that I did not follow Pompey, like any private in the ranks, when, in every part of his policy, he was losing his footing, or rather rushing headlong to ruin. On the 17th of January I could see that he was thoroughly frightened. On that very day I detected his design. From that moment he forfeited my confidence, and never ceased committing one blunder after another. Meanwhile, never a line to me; no thought of anything but flight. Need I say more? As in love affairs men lose all fancy for women who are dirty, stupid, and indelicate, even so, the indecency of his flight and mismanagement put me off from my love for him. For in no respect was he acting in a way to make it proper for me to join his flight. Now love again rises: now my regret for him is more than I can bear: now I can get no good out of books, literature, or philosophy. So earnestly as I gaze across the sea, do I long, like Plato's bird, to fly away.¹ I am being punished, indeed I am, for my rashness. Yet what did that rashness amount to? What have I done without the most anxious consideration? If his only object had been flight, I could have fled with the utmost pleasure, but [p. 334] it was the nature of the war, beyond measure sanguinary and widespread, the future of which men do not yet realize, that I shrank from with horror. What threats to the towns, to individual loyalists personally, to everybody, in fact, who stayed in Rome! How often did I hear" Sulla could do it, why not I?" For myself I was haunted with the reflexions: it was unrighteous of Tarquinius to stir up Porsena and Octavius Mamilius against his country; impious in Coriolanus to seek aid from the Volsci; righteous in Themistocles to prefer death; Hippias, son of Pisistratus, who fell in the battle of Marathon bearing arms against his country, was Criminal. But it may be said that Sulla, Marius, and Cinna had right on their side: rather I should perhaps admit that they had a technical justification; yet what could be more cruel and bloody than their use of victory? It was the nature of the war that I shrank from, and the more so because I saw that even bloodier work was being imagined and prepared. I--whom some called the preserver of this city, some its parent--I to bring against it armies of the Getae, Armenians, and Colchians! I to inflict famine on my fellow citizens, devastation upon Italy! Caesar, to begin with, I reflected was mortal, and in the next place might also come to an end in many ways: but the City and our people I thought ought to be preserved, as far as in us lay, for ever: and, after all, I pleased myself by hoping that some accommodation would be reached rather than the one of these men commit such a crime, or the other such an abomination. The matter is now wholly changed, and so are my feelings. The sun, as you said in one of your letters, seems to me to have disappeared from the universe. As in the case of a sick man one says, "While there is life there is hope," so, as long as Pompey was in Italy, I did not cease to hope. It is the present situation, the present, I say, that has baffled my calculations. And to confess the truth, my age, now after my long day's labour sloping towards an evening of repose, has relaxed my energies by suggesting the charms of family life. But now, however dangerous the experiment of attempting to fly hence, that experiment shall at least be made. I ought, perhaps, to have done so before. But the considerations I have mentioned held me back, and above all things your influence. For when I got to this point in my letter, I [p. 335] unrolled the volume of your letters, which I keep under seal and preserve with the greatest care. Now there were in the letter dated by you the 21st of January the following expression: "But let us first see what Gnaeus is about, and in what direction his plans are drifting. Now, if he does abandon Italy, he will be acting certainly improperly, and, in my opinion, unwisely too. But it will be time enough, when he does that, to make a change in our policy." This you write on the fourth day after our quitting the city Next on the 23rd of January: "May our friend Gnaeus only not abandon Italy, as he has unwisely done Rome !" On the same day you write a second letter, in which you answer my application for advice in the plainest terms. This is what you say: "To come to the point on which you ask my opinion If Gnaeus quits Italy, I think you should return to the city: for what limit can there be to such a trip abroad as that?" This is what I could not get over: and I now see that attached to a most humiliating flight, which you euphemistically call a "trip abroad," is an unlimited war. Then follows your prophecy of the 25th of January: "If Pompey remains in Italy, and no terms are come to, I think there will be an unusually long war: but if he abandons Italy, I think that there awaits us in the future a really 'truceless' war." It is in such a war, then, that I am forced to be an abettor-one that is both truceless and with fellow citizens. Again, on the 7th of February, when you had heard more particulars of Pompey's designs, you end a certain letter thus; "For my part, if Pompey quits Italy, I should not advise your doing the same. For you will be running a very great risk and be doing no good to the Republic, to which you may be of some service hereafter if you remain." What patriot or statesman would not such advice, backed by the weight of wisdom and friendship, have moved? Next, on the 11th of February, you again answer my request for advice thus: "You ask me whether I advise flight, or defend delay, and consider it the better course: for the present, indeed, my opinion is that a sudden departure and hurried start would be, both for yourself and Gnaeus useless and dangerous, and I think it better that you should be separate and each on his own watchtower. But, on my honour, I think it disgraceful for us to be thinking of flight!" This [p. 336] "disgraceful" measure our friend Gnaeus had contemplated two years ago: for so long a time past has his mind been set on playing the Sulla and indulging in proscriptions. Then, as I think, after you had written to me again in somewhat more general terms, and I had taken certain expressions of yours as advising me to leave Italy, you warmly disavow any such meaning on the 19th of February. "I certainly have not indicated in any letter of mine that, if Gnaeus quits Italy, you should do so with him: or, if I did so express myself, I was, I don't say inconsistent, but mad." In another passage of the same letter you say: "Nothing is left for him but flight, in which I do not think, and never have thought, that you, should share." This whole question again you discuss in greater detail in a letter of the 22nd of February: "If M. Lepidus and L. Volcatius stay, I think you should stay also: with the understanding, however, that, if Pompey survives and makes a stand anywhere, you should leave this inferno, and be more content to be beaten in the contest along with him, than reign with Caesar in the sink of iniquity which will evidently prevail here." You adduce many arguments to support this opinion. Then at the end you say: "What if Lepidus and Volcatius depart? In that case I doubt. So I think you must acquiesce in whatever happens and whatever you have done." If you had felt doubt before, you have now, at any rate, no hesitation, since those two are still in Italy. Again, when the flight had become an accomplished fact, on the 25th of February: "Meanwhile, I feel no doubt you had better remain at Formiae. That will be the most suitable place for waiting to see what turns up." On the 1st of March, when Pompey had been four days at Brundisium: "We shall be able to deliberate then no longer, it is true, with quite free hands, but certainly less fatally committed than if you had taken the great plunge in his company." Then on the 4th of March, though writing briefly, because it was the eve of your attack of ague, you yet use this expression: "I will write at greater length tomorrow; however, speaking generally, I will say this--that I do not repent my advice as to your staying, and though with great anxiety, yet, because I think it involves less evil than your starting would do, I abide by my opinion and rejoice that you have stayed." Moreover, [p. 337] when I was now in great pain, and was fearing that I had been guilty of a base act, on the 5th of March you say: "After all, I am not sorry that you are not with Pompey. Hereafter, if it turns out to be necessary, there will be no difficulty: and at whatever time it takes place, it will be welcome to him. But I speak on the understanding that, if Caesar goes on as he has begun, and acts with sincerity, moderation, and wisdom, I shall have thoroughly to reconsider the position, and to look with greater care into what is for our advantage to do." On the 9th of March you say that our friend Peducaeus also approves of my having kept quiet; and his opinion has great weight with me. From these expressions in your letters I console myself with the belief that as yet I have done no wrong. Only pray justify your advice. There is no need to do so as far as I am concerned, but I want others to be in the same boat as myself. If I have done nothing wrong in the past, I will maintain the same blamelessness in the future. Only pray continue your exhortation that direction, and assist me by communicating your thoughts. Nothing has as yet been heard here about Caesar's return. For myself, I have got thus much good by writing this letter: I have read through all yours, and have found repose in that.

________________________________________

¹ Plato, Ep. 7.348A: kathaper ornis pothôn pothen anaptasthai. It is natural to think of the Psalmist's "O that I had the wings of a dove," etc.

CCCLXVI (A IX, 11)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIAE 20 MARCH

Do you know that our friend Lentulus is at Puteoli? Having been told this by a passer-by, who said that he had recognized him on the Appia upon his partly drawing the curtain of his sedan, though it was in itself probable, I yet sent some servants to Puteoli to inquire and take him a letter. He was discovered with some difficulty, as he was keeping himself concealed in his villa, and he sent me back an answer containing wonderful expressions of gratitude to Caesar; but as to his own plans he said that he had given C. Caecius a message for me. I am expecting him today, that is, the 20th of March. Matius¹ also came to see me on the Quinquatrus (19th of March), a man, by Hercules, as he seemed to me, of moderate and sensible views. Certainly he has always been regarded as a promoter of peace. How strongly he appealed to me to disapprove what, is going on in Italy! How fearful of that inferno, as you call it! In the course of a long conversation I shewed him Caesar's letter to me, the one of which I have sent you a copy before, and asked him to explain the sentence in it--"he wished to avail himself of my advice, influence, position, and help in all ways." He replied that he had no doubt that he wanted [p. 340] my help and my influence for effecting a pacification. I only wish I could effect and carry through some politic move in the present distressing circumstances of the state! For his part, Matius felt confident that that was Caesar's feeling, and promised that he would promote it. However, on the day previous Crassipes had been with me, who said that he had quitted Brundisium on the 6th of March and had left Pompey there: and the same news was brought also by those who quitted that place on the 8th. They one and all, even Crassipes--who is a sensible enough man to take note of what was going on--tell the same story of threatening speeches, alienation from the Optimates, hostility to the municipal towns, undisguised proscriptions--Sullas pure and simple. What things Lucceius says, and the whole posse of Greeks, and Theophanes at their head! And yet there is no hope of safety except in them: and I am keeping my mind on the watch, and passing sleepless nights, and yearning to be with men exactly the opposite of myself, in order to escape the abominations going on here! For there--what crime do you suppose Scipio, Faustus, Libo will stick at, whose creditors are said to be actually arranging to sell them up? What do you suppose they are likely to do to the citizens, if they turn out the winning side?² Moreover, what a poltroon our Gnaeus is! They tell me he is thinking of Egypt, Arabia Felix, and Mesopotamia, and has now quite abandoned Spain. The reports are outrageous, but they may possibly be untrue: yet at best all is lost here, and far from safe there. I am beginning to pine for a letter from you. Since our flight there has never been so long a break in them. I send you a copy of my letter to Caesar,³ by which I think I shall do some good. [p. 341]

________________________________________

¹ C. Matius, of whom we shall hear much more, was a friend of Trebatius, and a strong Caesarian. He survived the Civil War and became a friend of Octavian

² Q. Caecilius Scipio, Pompey's father-in-law, was deeply in debt, and Caesar declares that to have been his motive for wishing for a civil war (Caes. B.C. 1.4); L. Cornelius Sulla Faustus was the son of the dictator Sulla; and L. Scribonius Libo's daughter was married to Sext. Pompeius. Faustus had been a rich man, but had probably squandered his wealth. We hear of Libo afterwards as owing Cicero money but as likely to pay.

³ The previous letter, p. 337.

CCCLXV (A IX, 11 a)

TO CAESAR (IN APULIA)

FORMIAE, 19-20 MARCH

ON reading your letter, handed to me by our friend Furnius, in which you ask me to come to the city walls, I was not so much surprised at your wishing "to avail yourself of my advice and position," but what you meant by speaking of my "influence and assistance" I did ask myself. My thoughts, however, were so far dominated by my hope, that I was induced to think that you wished to consult for the tranquillity, peace, and harmony of our fellow citizens: and [p. 338] for a policy of that kind I regarded both my natural disposition and my public character as sufficiently well adapted. If this is the case, and if you are at all anxious to preserve our common friend Pompey, and to reconcile him to yourself and the Republic, you will assuredly find no one better calculated than myself for supporting such measures. For, as soon as opportunity offered, I pleaded for peace both to him and the senate; nor since the commencement of hostilities have I taken any part whatever in the war; and I have held the opinion that by that war you are being wronged, in that men who were hostile to and jealous of you were striving to prevent your enjoying an office granted you by the favour of the Roman people.¹ But as at that period I was not only personally a supporter of your rights, but also advised everybody else to assist you, so at the present moment I am strongly moved by consideration for the position of Pompey. It is now a good number of years ago since I picked out you two as the special objects of my political devotion, and--as you still are of my warm personal affection. Wherefore I ask you, or rather entreat you, and appeal to you with every form of prayer, that in the midst of your very great preoccupations you would yet spare some part of your time to reflect how by your kindness I may be enabled to do what goodness and gratitude, and, in point of fact, natural affection demand, by remembering the extreme obligation under which I stand. If these considerations only affected myself, I should yet have hoped to secure your assent; but, in my opinion, it concerns both your own honour and the public interest that I-a friend to peace and to you both-should, as far as you are concerned, be maintained in a position best calculated to promote harmony between you and among our fellow citizens.

Though I have thanked you before in regard to Lentulus,² [p. 339] for saving the man who saved me, yet after reading a letter from him, in which he speaks with the utmost gratitude of your generous treatment and kindness to him, I felt that the safety you gave him was given to me also: and if you perceive my gratitude in his case, pray take means to allow me to shew the same in the case of Pompey.

________________________________________

¹ Cicero is using language which he had reason to know was such as Caesar had himself used to L. Caesar at Ariminum--doluisse se, quod P. R. beneficium per contumeliam ab inimicis extorqueretur (Caes. B. C. 1.9). It is rather a pitiflil attempt to "sit on the hedge," considering what his real sentiments were.

² P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, consul B.C. 57, to whom we have had many letters addressed while he was in Cilicia. He had fallen into the hands of Caesar at Corfinium, and had been dismissed unharmed.

CCCLXVII (A IX, 12)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIAE, 20 MARCH

I HAD just read your letter on the 20th, when a packet was brought me from Lepta saying that Pompey had been completely invested, that even the channels of the harbour were blocked up with vessels. Upon my honour, tears prevent my thinking of or writing the rest. I send you a copy. What wretches we have been! Why did we not follow his fortunes to the end? Oh, here's the same news from Matius and Trebatius,who have been met by Caesar's letter-bearers at Minturnae. I feel so wracked with misery that I long for an end like that of Mucius.¹ Yet how honourable, how clear is your advice, how thoroughly thought out, in regard to my journey by land as well as by sea, and my meeting and conversation with Caesar! There is honour and caution alike in every word. Your invitation to Epirus, too, how kindly, how courteous, how brotherly it is! I am surprised at Dionysius, who has been treated with greater honour in my family than Panaetius was in Scipio's: yet my unfortunate position has been regarded by him with the foulest contempt. I detest the fellow, and always shall. I only wish I could be even with him! But his own character will be his punishment. Yes, pray, now of all times turn over in your mind what I ought to do. An army of the Roman people is actually surrounding Gnaeus Pompeius: it has inclosed him with foss and palisade; it is preventing his escape. Are we alive? Is our city still intact? Are the praetors presiding in the courts, the aediles making preparations for their games, the Optimates entering their investments, I myself sitting quietly looking on? Am I to make an effort to reach Pompey like a madman? Am I to appeal to the loyalty of the [p. 342] municipal towns? The loyalists won't follow me, the careless will laugh me to scorn, the revolutionists-especially now that they are successful and fully armed-will use main force to me. What is your opinion, then? Have you any advice to give as to how to put an end to this most wretched state of existence? It is now that I feel the pang, the torture--now that some one is found to think me either wise or lucky for not having gone. My feeling is the reverse. For while I was never willing to be the partner of his victory, I should have preferred having been associated with his disaster. Why, then, should I now appeal to your letter, to your wisdom, or your kindness? It is all over. Nothing can help me now: for I have now nothing even to wish for, except to be set free by some merciful stroke of the enemy.

________________________________________

¹ Q Mucius Scaevola, murdered in B.C. 82 by the order of the younger Marius. bee p. 282

CCCLXVIII (A IX, 13)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME) FORMIAE, 23 MARCH

"'Tis no true tale "¹ —as I think—that about the ships.² For in that case what would have been the meaning of Dolabella's words in his letter, dated from Brundisium on the 13th of March, when he mentioned it as a success on the part of Caesar that Pompey was in full retreat, and was going to sail with the first favourable wind? This is quite inconsistent with those letters, of which I have already sent you copies. Here, indeed, they talk of nothing but disaster. But we have no more recent authority, and of this particular fact no better one, than Dolabella.

I have received your letter of the 22nd of March, in which you propose to postpone all plans till we know what has happened. Of course that is quite right: and meanwhile it is impossible not merely to settle but even to consider any plan. However, this letter of Dolabella's inclines me to recur to my original ideas. For on the day before the Quinquatrus (18th of March) the weather was splendid, and I suppose he has taken advantage of it. That précis of your advice was not made by me by way of reproach to you, but rather to console myself. For the evils of the time were not causing me so much vexation, as the idea of my having done wrong and acted rashly. I have now got rid of that idea, since my actions and plans coincide with your suggestions. You remark in your letter that it is rather my avowal of Pompey's services, than the actual amount of them, that makes me seem to be under an obligation to him. That is true: I have always magnified them, and the more so that I might prevent his thinking that I remembered his earlier conduct. However much I might remember this, I should yet be bound to follow the example he set at that time.³ He gave me no aid when he might have done so. True: but afterwards he was my friend, and a very warm one, I don't at all know why. Therefore I too will be his friend. Nay, more, there is this analogy in our two cases, that we have been betrayed by the same people. But oh, that it had been in my power to render him as important a service, as he was able to render me! After all, I am exceedingly grateful for what he did; yet, at the present moment, I neither know how to help him, nor, if I could, should I think I ought to assist him while preparing to engage on such an execrable war. Only I don't wish to hurt his feelings by remaining here. I should neither have the resolution, by Hercules! to watch the events, which you can even now foresee in imagination, nor to take part in those unhappy measures. But I was all the slower to depart, from the difficulty of imagining a voluntary departure when there is no hope of a return. For I see that Caesar is so well equipped with infantry, cavalry, fleets, and Gallic auxiliaries. About these last I suppose Matius was talking big, but he certainly said that 10,000 infantry and 6,ooo cavalry promised their services at their own expense for ten years. But grant this to be gasconnade. He certainly has great forces, and he will not merely have the revenue of Italy, but the property of the citizens. Add to this the man's own self-confidence and the weakness of the loyalists, who, in fact, because they think Pompey deservedly enraged with them, have, as you expressed it, become disgusted with the game. Yes, but I could have wished that you had indicated who these men were. The fact is that Caesar, because he has done much less than he threatened, is regarded with affection ;⁴ while in every direction those who loved Pompey now cease to do so. The municipal towns, in fact, and the Romans living in the country fear Pompey, and are still attached to Caesar. Accordingly, the latter is so well prepared that, even if he proves unable to win a victory, I yet cannot see how he can be beaten himself. For myself, I am not so much afraid of Caesar's sorcery, as of his power of compulsion. "For the requests of tyrants," as Plato says,"you know, partake of the nature of commands."⁵

I see you don't like a place of residence for me without a port. Neither do I: but the fact is I have there both a means of concealment and a trusty band of followers. If I could have had the same at Brundisium, I should have preferred it. But concealment is impossible there. However, as you say, when we know! I am not very careful to excuse myself to, the loyalists. For what dinners they are giving and attending, according to Sextus's letter to me! How splendid, how early!⁶ But let them be as loyalist as they please, they are not more so than we are. I should have cared more for their opinion, if they had shewn more courage.

I was wrong about Phamea's estate at Lanuvium. I was dreaming of one near Troja.⁷ I wanted it for Quintus; but it is too dear. I should, however, have liked to buy that one, if I had seen any prospect of enjoying it. What, frightful news we are reading every day you will understand from the small roll inclosed in this packet. Our friend Lentulus is at Puteoli, distracted with doubt, he too, as Caecius tells me, as to what to do. He is in terror of a contretemps like that at Corfinium.⁸ He thinks that he had done his duty to Pompey, and is affected by Caesar's magnanimous treatment, but still more, after all, by the outlook in the future.



¹ ouk est’ etymos logos, the first words of the palinode of Stesichorus on Helen.

² Perhaps the blocking up of the harbour of Brundisium, which we know from Caesar (B.C. 1.26, 27) was not completed; or the news on p. 321.

³ In supporting Cicero's recall; though he had failed to prevent his exile.

⁴ Reading sed et iste-amatur. The alteration to sedet iste and its explanation by Boot as referring to Domitius appear to me to be very harsh. Domitius was not being by any means inactive at the time, and there is no special reason for referring to him here. It is true that amatur is not in the MSS., but its introduction (by Graevius) seems to me a simpler and better way of emending the text.

⁵ Plato, Ep. vii.

⁶ That is, beginning early in the afternoon, a sign of idleness and luxury (pro Mur. § 13). See p. 311.

⁷ Apparently the name of some property near Antium.

⁸ When Domitius and his army had had to surrender to Caesar; P. Lentulus Spinther was among the senators who were included in the surrender and were dismissed unharmed by Caesar (Caes. B.C. 1.23).

CCCLXX (A XI, 13.8)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIAE, 24 MARCH

Can you endure this? It is a lamentable business altogether, but nothing can be more lamentable than this: Pompey has sent N. Magius to negotiate a peace, and yet is being besieged. I could not have believed it, but I have a letter from Balbus, of which I inclose a copy. Read it, I beg of you, and especially the last clause of the excellent Balbus himself, to whom our Gnaeus presented a site for a suburban villa, and whom he often preferred, did he not? to everyone of us! Accordingly, the poor man is in a state of painful anxiety. But to save you the trouble of reading the same thing twice, I refer you to the letter itself. Hope of peace, however, I have none. Dolabella in his letter dated the 15th of March breathes nothing but war. Let us stick, then, to the same resolution, formed in sorrow and despair, since nothing can be more lamentable than this. [p. 347]

CCCLXIX (A IX, 13 a)

BALBUS TO CICERO (AT FORMIAE)

ROME, 20 MARCH

Caesar has sent me a very short note, of which I append a copy. From the shortness of the letter you will be able to gather that he is much occupied, or he would not have written so briefly on so important a subject. If I get any farther intelligence I will at once write you word.

CDXXVII (A XI, 14)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

BRUNDISIUM (APRIL)

The candour of your letter does not offend me, because you do not endeavour even tentatively to console me, as was your wont, under the weight of public and personal misfortunes, but acknowledge that that is now impossible. For things are not even as they were before, when, if nothing else, I thought that I had comrades and partners in my policy. For now all the petitioners in Achaia and in Asia also, who have received no pardon, and even those who have, are said to be about to sail into Africa.¹ So I have no one now except Laelius² to share my error: and even he is in a better position than I am in that he has been received back.³ But about myself I have no doubt Caesar has written to Balbus and to Oppius, by whom, if they had had anything pleasant to report, I should have been informed, and they would have spoken to you. Pray have some talk with them on this point, and write me word of their answer not that any security granted by Caesar is likely to have any certainty, still one will be able to consider things and make some provision for the future. Though I shun the sight of all, especially with such a son-in-law as mine,⁴ yet in such a state of misery I can't think of anything else to wish. [p. 34]

Quintus is going on in the old way,⁵ as both Pansa and Hirtius have written to tell me--and he is also said to be making for Africa with the rest.

I will write to Minucius at Tarentum and send him your letter: I will write and tell you if I come to any settlement. I should have been surprised at your being able to find thirty sestertia, had there not been a good surplus from the sale of the Fufidian estates. But my eager desire now is for yourself, to see whom, if it is in any way possible (and circumstances make it desirable), I am very anxious. The last act is being played: what its nature is it is easy to estimate at Rome, more difficult here.⁶

________________________________________

¹ To join Cato and the other Pompeians, from the belief that they were now in the ascendent.

² Decimus Laelius had blockaded Brundisium in B.C. 48, but had, with Cicero, been specifically excepted in Antony's edict forbidding Pompeians to come to Italy (see Letter CCCCXVIII, p. 19). He seems in some way to have kept on terms with the Pompeians (see p. 37). But he apparently played his cards well, and survived to be governor of Africa about B.C. 44 (Dio, 48, 21).

³ I.e., by the Pompeians.

⁴ Referring, as before, to Dolabella's proceedings as tribune. See p.27.

⁵ Abusing me. It does not seem likely that Quintus was contemplating rejoining the Pompeians in Africa.

⁶ The text is corrupt.

CDXXVIII (A XI, 15)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

BRUNDISIUM, 14 MAY

As you give me good and sufficient reasons why I cannot see you at this time, I beg you to tell me what I ought to do. For it seems to me that, though Caesar is holding Alexandria, he is ashamed even to send a despatch on the operations there. Whereas these men in Africa seem to be on the point of coming over here: so, too, the Achaean refugees¹ seem to intend returning from Asia to join them, or to stay in some neutral place. What therefore do you think I ought to do? I quite see that it is difficult to advise. For I am the only one (or with one other² ) for whom neither a return to the one party is possible, nor a gleam of hope visible from the other. But nevertheless I should like to [p. 35] know what your opinion is, and that was the reason among others why I wished to see you, if it could be managed.

I wrote before to tell you that Minucius had only paid twelve sestertia: please see that the balance is provided.

Quintus wrote to me not only without any strong appeal for pardon, but in the most bitter style, while his son did so with astonishing malignity. No sorrow can be imagined with which I am not crushed. Yet everything is more bearable than the pain caused by my error: that is supreme and abiding. If I were destined to have the partners in that error that I expected, it would nevertheless be but a poor consolation. But the case of all the rest admits of some escape, mine of none. Some because they were taken prisoners, others because their way was barred, avoid having their loyalty called in question, all the more so, of course, now that they have extricated themselves and joined forces again. Why, even the very men who of their own free will went to Fufius³ can merely be counted wanting in courage. Finally, there are many who will be taken back, in whatever way they return to that party. So you ought to be the less astonished that I cannot hold up against such violent grief. For I am the only one whose error cannot be repaired, except perhaps Laelius--but what alleviation is that to me?--for they say that even Gaius Cassius has changed his mind about going to Alexandria. I write this to you, not that you may be able to remove my anxiety, but to know whether you have any suggestion to make in regard to the distresses that are sapping my strength, to which are now added my son-in-law, and the rest that I am prevented by my tears from writing. Nay, even Aesop's son⁴ wrings my heart. There is absolutely nothing wanting to make me the most unhappy of men. But to return to my first question--what do you think I ought to do? Should I remove secretly [p. 36] to some place nearer Rome, or should I cross the sea? For remaining here much longer is out of the question.

Why could no settlement he come to about the property of Fufidius? For the arrangement was one about which there is not usually any dispute, when the portion which is thought of the less value can be made up by putting the property up to auction among the heirs. I have a motive for asking the question: for I suspect that my co-heirs think that my position is doubtful, and therefore prefer allowing the matter to remain unsettled.⁵ Good-bye.

15 May.

________________________________________

¹ The Pompeians, who, instead of keeping with the Pompeian fleet, had taken refuge in Patrae and Sicyon, and had then crossed to Asia in hopes of meeting Caesar and obtaining pardon. See p. 14.

² Decimus Laelius See pp.19, 33.

³ Q. Fufius Calenus, tribune in B.C. 61, and supporter of Clodius (vol. i., pp. 35, 109). One of Caesar's legates in Gaul, he stuck to him in the Civil War (vol. ii., p.318), and during B.C. 48 had been engaged in taking possession of Greek cities in Caesar's interest, among others Patrae, and remained there in command of troops (Caes. B.C. 3.56, 106; Dio. 42, 14). He was rewarded by the consulship for the last three months of B.C. 47. See supra, p.22.

⁴ The son of the famous actor, who was a great friend of Cicero's (vol. i., pp.132, 258). The son appears to have been dissolute.

⁵ Apparently he supposes that the other legatees thought it doubtful whether Cicero had not incurred confiscation of his property, and so, being disfranchised, would be unable to take his share: and therefore thought it better not to make a division. If that were once made they would have great difficulty in recovering the money.

(A IX, 15 a)

MATIUS AND TREBATIUS TO CICERO IMPERATOR.

After leaving Capua we heard, while on the road, that Pompey, with all the forces he had, started from Brundisium on the 15th of March: that Caesar next day entered the town, made a speech, hurried thence for Rome, intending to be at the city before the 1st of April and to remain there a few days, and then to start for Spain. We thought it the proper thing to do, since we were assured of Caesar's approach, to send your servants back to you, that you might be informed of it as early as possible. We do not forget your charges, and we will carry them out as circumstances shall demand. Trebatius is making great exertions to reach you before Caesar. After this letter had been written we received tidings that Caesar would stop at Beneventum on the 25th of March, at Capua on the 26th, at Sinuessa on the 27th. We think you may depend on this.

CDXXIX (A XI, 16)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

BRUNDISIUM, 3 JUNE

IT is by no fault of mine this time--for I did commit an error formerly--that the letter you forward brings me no consolation. For it is written in a grudging spirit, and gives rise to strong suspicions of not really being from Caesar, suspicions which I think have occurred to yourself. About going to meet him I will do as you advise. The fact is that there is no belief prevalent as to his coming, nor do those who arrive from Asia say that anything has been heard about a peace, the hope of which caused me to fall into this trap. I see no reason for entertaining hopes, especially in the present circumstances, when such disaster has been sustained in Asia, in Illyricum, in the Cassius affair, in Alexandria itself, in the city, in Italy.¹ In my opinion, even if he is [p. 37] going to return (he is said to be still engaged in war) the business will be all settled before his return.

You say that a certain feeling of exultation on the part of the loyalists was roused on hearing of the receipt of this letter: you of course omit nothing in which you think that there is any consolation; but I cannot be induced to believe that any loyalist could think that any salvation has been of such value in my eyes, as to make me ask it of Caesar--much less should I be likely to do so now that I have not a single partner even in this policy.² Those in Asia are waiting to see how things turn out. Those in Achaia also keep dangling before Fufius the hope that they will petition for pardon. These men had at first the same reason for fear as I had, and the same policy. The check at Alexandria has improved their position, it has ruined mine.³ Wherefore I now make the same request to you as in my previous letter, that, if you can see in the midst of this desperate state of things what you think I ought to do, you would tell me of it. Supposing me to be received back by this party,⁴ which you see is not the case, yet, as long as [p. 38] there is war, I cannot think what to do or where to stay: still less, if I am rejected by them. Accordingly, I am anxious for a letter from you, and beg you to write to me without hesitation.

You advise me to write to Quintus about this letter of Caesar's: I would have done so, if it had been in any way one agreeable to me; although I have received a letter from a certain person in these words: "Considering the evil state of things, I am pretty comfortable at Patrae: I should be still more so, if your brother spoke of you in terms suited to my feelings." You say that Quintus writes you word that I never answer his letters. I have only had one from him; to that I gave an answer to Cephalio, who, however, was kept back several months by bad weather. I have already told you that the young Quintus has written to me in the most offensive terms.

The last thing I have to say is to beg you, if you think it a right thing to do and what you can undertake, to communicate with Camillus and make a joint representation to Terentia about making a will. The state of the times is a warning to her to take measures for satisfying all just claims upon her. Philotimus tells me that she is acting in an unprincipled way.⁵ I can scarcely believe it, but at any rate, if there is anything that can be done, measures should be taken in time. Pray write to me on every sort of subject, and especially what you think about her, in regard to whom I need your advice, even though you fail to hit upon any plan: I shall take that to mean that the case is desperate.

3 June. [p. 39]

________________________________________

¹ The various points are here enumerated in which things had gone against Caesar's interests, and therefore in favour of the ultimate triumph of the Pompeian party in Africa. They are: (I) the defeat of Domitius Calvinus by Pharnaces in Asia; (2) the failure of Aulus Gabinius in Illyricum (App. Illyr. § 12); (3) the insurrection in Baetica which had forced Q. Cassius to quit the province (he was drowned on the voyage home); (4) the difficulties Caesar himself had met with at Alexandria; (5) the troubles in the city caused by the contest between the tribunes Trebellius and Dolabella; (6) the mutinous conduct of the legions in Italy. What Cicero did not know was the completeness with which Caesar had overcome his difficulties in Egypt; nor could he foresee the rapidity with which he was to put down the war in Asia, for which he was on the point of starting. The troubles in Italy and Rome disappeared at once on his arrival, and in the next year (B.C. 46) the victory of Thapsus finally crushed the hopes of the Pompeians in Africa. The trouble in Baetica hung on for another year, and indeed lasted long after his death.

² Decimus Laelius appears to have returned in some way to his old Pompeian friends.

³ Because neither those in Asia nor those in Achaia had as yet taken the final step of reconciling themselves to Caesar, and yet would be able to do so, if necessary, as not having crossed to the Pompeians in Africa; whereas Cicero, by coming to Italy, had definitely separated himself from the Pompeians, and, if Caesar failed, would suffer their vengeance. The others were safe in either event; he in neither, as he could not trust Caesar, and yet was lost if Caesar failed.

⁴ All the commentators explain this to mean the Caesarians, but I think it more likely that Cicero means the Pompeians, who just now are in high hopes. "Even suppose they would admit me as one of themselves again--which they don't-yet (being resolved against active war) where am I to go? I can't go to Africa, where there will be war, or stay here if they come in arms." He has used the same word (recipere) in the previous letters of the taking back by the Pompeians of those who deserted the fleet and went to Achaia or Asia.

⁵ Philotimus was the freedman of Terentia, whose transactions in regard to Milo's property Cicero thought so suspicious. That he should now be listening to tales against his wife from this man shews how much the alienation had already grown. Cicero is anxious that she should make proper provision for her children.

CDXXX (A XI, 17)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

BRUNDISIUM, 14 JUNE

I am giving this letter to another man's letter-carriers, who are in a hurry to start; that, and the fact that I am about to send my own, accounts for its brevity. My daughter Tullia reached me on the 12th of June, and expatiated at great length on your attention and kindness to her, and gave me three letters. I, however, have not got the pleasure from her own virtue, gentleness, and affection which I ought to get from a matchless daughter, but have even been overwhelmed with extraordinary sorrow, to think that a character like hers should be involved in circumstances of such distress,¹ and that that should occur from no fault of hers, but from my own consummate folly. Accordingly, I am not expecting from you now either consolation, which I see you desire to offer, or advice, which is impossible of adoption; and I understand on many occasions from your previous, as well as from your last letters, that you have tried everything practicable.

I am thinking of sending my son with Sallustius² to Caesar. As for Tullia, I see no motive for keeping her with me any longer in such a sad state of mutual sorrow. Accordingly, I am going to send her back to her mother as Soon as she will herself consent to go. In return for the letter which you wrote in the consolatory style, pray consider that I have made the only answer which you will [p. 40] yourself understand to have been possible.³ You say that Oppius has had some talk with you: what he said does not at all disagree with my suspicion about it. But I have no doubt that it would be impossible to persuade that party⁴ that their proceedings could have my approval, whatever language I were to hold. However, I will be as moderate as I can. Although what it should matter to me that I incur their odium I don't understand. I perceive that you are prevented by a good reason from coming to see us, and that is a matter of great regret to me. There is no news of Caesar having left Alexandria; but all agree that no one has come from there either since the 15th of March, and that he has written no letters since the 13th of December. This shews you that there was nothing genuine about that letter of the 9th of February⁵ --which would have been quite unimportant, even if it had been genuine. I am informed that L. Terentius has left Africa and come to Paestum. What his mission is, or how he got out of the country, or what is going on in Africa, I should like to know. For he is said to have been passed out by means of Nasidius. What it all means pray write me word if you discover it. I will do as you say about the ten sestertia. Good-bye.

14 June.

________________________________________

¹ According to Plutarch (Cic. 41) Terentia had allowed Tullia to undertake this journey without proper provision or escort. See also p.41.

² Whose arrival at Brundisium we heard of, p. 28 Mueller begins a fresh letter with this sentence. It seems likely that he is right. Yet it is practically a continuation of the former hasty note.

³ Mueller quite alters the complexion of this sentence, reading Paeto for pro ea, and quem ad modum consulenti for quam ad modum consolanti. But there seems no point in a reference to Paetus.

⁴ The Caesarians in Rome.

⁵ See p. 36. Illud de litteris, lit. "the assertion about the letter": it is almost a periphrasis for litteras.

CCCLXXVI (A IX, 19)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

ARPINUM, 1 APRIL

BEING debarred from Rome, I gave my son his toga virilis at Arpinum in preference to any other place, and my fellow townsmen were gratified at the compliment: though I observed everywhere that both they and others whom I passed in my journey were in low spirits and much dejected. So melancholy and shocking is the contemplation of this tremendous disaster. Levies are being held, the men are being drafted into winter quarters. These are measures which, even when taken by loyal citizens at a time of regular war and with due consideration, are yet in themselves a source of annoyance--how unpopular do you suppose they are in the present instance, when they are being carried out by men of reckless character, in an abominable civil war, and in the most offensive manner? Don't imagine that there is a single scoundrel in Italy who is not to be found among them. I saw them en masse at Formiae. I never, by Hercules! believed them to be human beings, and I knew them all: but I had never seen them collected in one place. Let us go, then, whither we have resolved to go, and leave all that is ours behind us. Let us start to join him, to whom our arrival will give greater satisfaction than if we had been together from the first. For at that time we were in the highest hopes, now I, at any rate, have none; nor has anyone except myself left Italy, unless he regarded Caesar as his personal enemy. Nor, by Hercules! do I do this for the sake of the Republic, which I regard as completely abolished: but to prevent anyone thinking me ungrateful to the man, who relieved me from the miseries which he had himself inflicted upon me: and at the same time because I cannot endure the sight of what is happening, or of what is certain to happen. Why, I believe that by this time some decrees of the senate have [p. 356] been passed, I hope they may be in the sense of Volcatius's proposal.¹ But what does it matter? Everyone's opinion is the same. But Servius will be the most implacable of all, for he has sent his son with Pontius Titinianus² to crush, or at any rate to capture, Gnaeus Pompeius. Yet the latter acts from a motive of fear: but the former? But let us cease shewing temper, and let us at last thoroughly realize that we have nothing left, except what I could least have wished-life. As for us, since the Upper Sea is beset, we will sail by the Lower, and if it turns out to be difficult to start from Puteoli, we will make for Croton or Thurii, and like good citizens, devoted to our country, we will play the pirate. I don't see any other way of carrying on this war. We will go to Egypt and ensconce ourselves there. We cannot possibly be his match on land: of peace there is no assurance. But enough of these lamentations. Pray give a letter to Cephalio on everything that has been done, and even about what men say, unless they have become entirely tongue-tied. I have followed your advice, and especially in the fact that, in my interview with him, I both maintained my proper dignity and stuck to my refusal to go to Rome. As to the rest, pray write to me with the most particular care--for by this time the worst has come to the worst--what course you approve, and what your opinion is. There can, of course, be now no hesitation: still, if anything does occur to you, or rather whatever occurs to you, pray write me word. [p. 357]

________________________________________

¹ Perhaps in favour of sending commissioners to treat with Pompey. Such a proposal was made in the senate. Caesar tells us that he spoke in favour of it himself, but he does not mention the proposer (Caes. B.C. 1.32, 33).

² Adopted son of Q. Titinius. Servius is Ser. Sulpicius Rufus. See last letter, p. 354.