Cicero’s Letters to his Friends, Book 13 (13.13, 47, 52 missing)

Translated by Evelyn Shuckburgh

CXCVIII (F XIII, I)

TO GAIUS MEMMIUS (IN EXILE AT MITYLENE)

ATHENS, JULY

THOUGH I had not quite made up my mind whether the prospect of seeing you at Athens was painful or pleasant-because your undeserved calamity ¹ would have caused me sorrow, yet the philosophic spirit with which you bear it delight--nevertheless, I should have preferred to have seen you. For I do not feel the pain much less when you are out of sight, while such pleasure as is possible would at any rate have been greater had I seen you. Therefore I shall not hesitate to endeavour to see you whenever I shall be conveniently able to do so. Meanwhile, such business as can be put before you by letter, and, as I think, can be brought to a conclusion, I will put before you now at once I will preface my request by asking you not to do anything for my sake against your own inclination; but if the matter is one which is important to me, and in no way of much importance to yourself, still only grant it in case of having first made up your mind to do so cheerfully. I am in thorough sympathy with Patron the Epicurean, except that I differ from him widely in philosophy. But not only at the very beginning in Rome, when he was paying attention to you as well as all your friends, did he also cultivate my acquaintance with special care, but recently also, after having gained all that he wanted in the way of personal profit and reward, he has continued to regard me as almost the first of his supporters and friends. Besides this, he was introduced [p. 28] and recommended to me by Phaedrus, ² who, when I was a boy and before I knew Philo, was highly valued by me as a philosopher, and afterwards as, at any rate, a good, agreeable, and kindly man. This Patron, therefore, having written to me at Rome, begging me to reconcile you to him, and to ask you to grant him some ruined house or other once belonging to Epicurus, I did not write to you on the subject, because I did not want any plan of building which you might have to be hampered by a recommendation of mine. On my arrival at Athens, however, having been asked by the same person to write to you on the subject, I have granted his request, because all your friends agreed in saying that you had given up that building idea. If this is so, and if it is now of no importance to you, I would ask you, if some little offence has been caused you by the wrong-headedness of certain persons--and I know the class of men--to take a lenient view of the matter, either from your own great natural kindness or, if you like, out of compliment to me. For my part, if you ask me what I think about it myself, I neither see why he is so anxious for it, nor why you make difficulties; I only feel that it is much less natural for you to trouble yourself without reason, than for him to do so. However, I am sure that Patron's line of argument and the merits of his case are known to you. He says that he has to maintain his own honour and duty, the sanctity of a will, the prestige of Epicurus, the solemn injunction of Phaedrus, the home, the dwelling-place, the footprints of famous men. We may ridicule the man's entire life and the system which he follows in philosophy, if we take upon ourselves to find fault with what he is now contending for. But, by Hercules, since I am not very unfriendly to him or to others who find pleasure in such things, I think we must be indulgent to him for being so very keen about it. For even if he is wrong in this, it is a fault of the head, not the heart. But to come to the point--for I must mention this sooner or later--I love Pomponius Atticus as a second brother. Nothing can be [p. 29] dearer or more delightful than he is to me. Atticus, then-not that he is of their sect (for he is cultivated to the highest degree in all liberal learning ³ ), but he is very fond of Patron, and was much attached to Phaedrus--presses this upon me as he has never done anything else, though he is the very reverse of self-seeking, the last person in the world to be troublesome in making requests; and he feels no doubt of my being able to obtain this favour from you on the slightest hint, even if you still had the intention of building. In the present circumstances, however, if he hears that you have laid aside your plan of building and that yet I have not obtained this favour from you, he will think, not, indeed, that you have been ungenerous towards me, but that I have been careless in what concerned himself. Wherefore I beg you to write word to your agents that the decree of the Areopagites, which they call a "minute," ⁴ may be canceled with your free consent. But I return to what I said at first. Before making up your mind to do this, I would have you be sure that you do it for my sake with a willing heart. At any rate have no doubt of this: if you do what I ask, I shall take it as a very great favour. Farewell. [p. 30]

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¹ Gaius Memmius Gemellus (to whom Lucretius dedicated his poem) was praetor in B.C. 58. Of his conduct when curule aedile we have heard before (vol. i., p. 51). He was condemned for ambitus in B.C. 54 (see vol. i., p. 304). He selected Athens as his place of exile, being deeply versed in Greek literature (Brut. 247), but spent part of his time at Mitylene.

² An Epicurean who taught at Athens and at Rome. Philo was an Academician, to which sect Cicero was in later years more drawn. Phaedrus came to Rome in B.C. 88, and immediately won the devotion of the young Cicero (Brut. 306).

³ Epicurus was noted for his barbarous style, and his followers, Greek and Latin, according to Cicero, generally had the same defect. See Brut. 131; Tuscul. 2.7: Epicurii Latini ipsi profitentur neque distincte, neque distribute, neque eleganter, neque ornate scribere.

⁴ hupomnêmatismon, "record," "memorial." This it appears from inscriptions was the technical word for a decree of the Areopagus, though other words are also found, such as dogma, eperôtêma (consultum), edoxe, etc. A series of inscriptions also shews that in the Roman period the Areopagus was an important executive body: thus we find it superintending the prosecutions of users of false weights and measures, and constantly joined with the council of 600 (or 500 later) in voting honours to benefactors. In one inscription (Add. 4315, n. C. I. G.) it is joined with the "Epicureans at Athens" and the theatrical guild in paying honour to a physician. The minute or record here to be canceled appears to be a grant or sale to Memmius of a building site in Athens, on which were the ruins of the house of Epicurus, which the Epicurean Patron wished to preserve.

CCLVIII (F XIII, 2)

TO GAIUS MEMMIUS (IN MITYLENE)

(LAODICEA, MAY?)

I¹ am very intimate with C. Avianius Evander, who is at present lodging in your treasure-chamber, ² as well as with his patron M. Aemilius. I ask you, therefore, with more than common earnestness, to give him any accommodation you can, without causing yourself inconvenience, as to his place of residence. For owing to his having many orders on hand for a number of people, it would hurry him very much if he were forced to quit your house on the 1st of July. My modesty will not allow me to use more words in preferring my request: yet I feel sure that, if it is not inconvenient, or not very much so, you will feel as I should have felt if you had asked a favour of me. I, at any rate, shall be extremely obliged to you.

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¹ See Letter CXCVIII.

² Sacrarium is not a temple or chapel, i.e., a place consecrated, but a place where sacred objects (sacra) are kept; and Memmius (in exile in Mitylene) has allowed the freedman C. Avianius Evander, who was a sculptor, to use the sacrarium of the Memmii as a studio and lodging, it may be, while he was doing work for him. Perhaps Memmius expected to be soon returning to Rome, as there was a talk of his recall (Letter CCLI), and had therefore written to Avianius giving him notice that he must quit by the 1st of July.

CCLIX (F XIII, 3)

TO GAIUS MEMMIUS (IN MITYLENE)

(LAODICEA, MAY?)

AULUS FUFIUS is an intimate friend of mine, and most attentive and attached to me. He is a good scholar, a very [p. 159] good-natured man, and in the highest degree worthy of your friendship. Pray treat him as you promised me personally you would. It will oblige me in the very highest degree possible. You will also bind him to you himself for ever by the strongest ties of affection and respect.

DCLXIX (F XIII, 4)

TO Q. VALERIUS ORCA (IN ETRURIA)

ROME (AUTUMN)

Marcus Cicero¹ greets Quintus Valerius, son of Quintus, legatus pro praetore. ² I have very close ties with the townsmen of Volaterrae. In fact, having received great kindness from me, they repaid me to the full: for they never failed me either in my prosperity or my adversity. And even if there were no special reason for our union, yet, having a very warm affection for you, and feeling that you have a high value for me, I should have warned and urged you to have a regard [p. 338] for their fortunes, especially as their case for the retention of civil rights is unusually strong: first, because by the blessing of heaven they contrived to elude the vindictive measures of the Sullan epoch; and secondly, because my defence of them in my consulship received the hearty approval of the Roman people. ³ For the tribunes having promulgated an exceedingly unfair law about their lands, I easily persuaded the senate and people of Rome to allow citizens, whom fortune had spared, to retain their rights. This policy of mine was confirmed by the agrarian law of Gaius Caesar in his first consulship, which freed the territory and town of Volaterrae from all danger for ever. This makes me feel sure that a man who seeks the support of new adherents will wish that old benefits conferred by him should be maintained. It is only therefore what your prudence would dictate, either to keep to the precedent set by the man to whose party and authority you have with so much personal honour adhered, or at least to reserve the whole case for his decision. There is one thing about which you can have no hesitation: you would wish to have a town of such sound and well-established credit and of so honourable a character for ever bound to you by a service of the highest utility on your part.

Thus far the purpose of my words is to exhort and persuade you. What remains will be of the nature of a personal request. For I don't wish you to think that I offer you advice for your own sake only, but that I am also preferring a request to you and asking for what is of consequence to myself. Well then, you will oblige me in the highest degree, if you decide that the Volaterrani are to be left intact in [p. 339] every respect and in full possession of their rights. Their homes and houses, their property and fortunes--which have already been preserved by the immortal gods, as well as by the most eminent citizens of our Republic with the warmest approval of the Roman people--I commend to your honour, justice, and liberality. If circumstances had granted me the power, proportionate to my old influence, of defending the Volaterrani in the same way as I was accustomed to protect my friends, there is no service, no struggle in fact calculated to be of use to them, that I would have omitted. But since I feel sure that with you I have no less influence than I ever had with all the world, I beg you in the name of close ties and of the mutual and equal goodwill existing between us, to serve the people of Volaterrae in such a way as to make them think that you have been set over that business by a special interposition of providence, as the one man with whom I, their undeviating supporter, was able to exert the greatest influence.

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¹ There is really nothing to decide the exact date of these two letters to Orca. The land commission referred to was established in the previous year (B.C. 46), and the letters may possibly belong to that year.

² This was Orca's title as head of the land commission; he was "legate (i.e., of Caesar) with rank of praetor." For Caesar's use of public land for his veterans at this time, see Suet. Iul. 38.

³ The circumstances were these. Volaterrae had taken the side of Marius against Sulla, and offered a refuge to many of the defeated party. Owing to the advantages of its position, it had held out against a two years' siege by Sulla (B.C. 81-80, Strabo, 5, 2, 6; Livy, Ep. 89; Cic. pro Sext. Am. § 20). Sulla therefore carried a law disfranchising it and declaring its lands forfeited (pro Caec. § 18, 104); but for some reason the lands thus made "public" were never divided among new owners (vol. i., p.54; Att. 1.19). Attempts were, however, made by various land reformers to deal with the territory as public land. Cicero here says that he successfully resisted one of these in B.C. 63, and that in Caesar's lex agraria of B.C. 59 it was specially exempted, and the full citizenship of the Volaterrani acknowledged.

DCLXX (F XIII, 5)

TO Q. VALERIUS ORCA (IN ETRURIA)

ROME (AUTUMN)

CICERO greets Q. Valerius, legatus pro praetore. I am not sorry that my friendship for you is known as widely as possible. Not, however, that I wish on that plea--as you may well believe--to prevent your carrying out the business you have undertaken with good faith and activity, to the satisfaction of Caesar, who has intrusted to you a matter of great importance and difficulty. For though I am besieged with petitions from men who are assured of your kindness to me, I am always careful not to embarrass you in the performance of your duty by any self-seeking on my part.

I have been very intimate with Gaius Curtius from our earliest days. I was grieved at the most undeserved calamity which befell him and the others in the Sullan epoch: and [p. 340] when it appeared that those who had suffered a similar wrong, though they lost all their property, were yet allowed by universal consent to return to their native country, I supported the removal of his disability. This man has a holding ¹ in the territory of Volaterrae, having betaken himself to it as a kind of salvage from shipwreck. Recently also Caesar has selected him for a seat in the senate--a rank which he can scarcely maintain if he loses this holding. ² Now it is a great hardship that, having been raised in rank, he should occupy an inferior position in regard to wealth, and it is not at all consistent that a man who is a senator by Caesar's favour should be dispossessed of land which is being divided by Caesar's order. But I don't so much care to write at length on the legal merits of the case, lest I should be thought to have had influence with you owing to its strength rather than from your personal feeling for me. Wherefore I beg you with more than common earnestness to look upon Gaius Curtius's affair as mine; and whatever you do for my sake, I beg you to consider, though you have done it for Gaius Curtius, that I have from your hand what he has obtained through my influence. I reiterate this request with warmth.

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¹ Possessio, a term properly applied to the holding of ager publicus; it was short of dominium, "absolute ownership."

² That is, with proper social distinction. It seems certain that at this time there was no legal qualification as to property necessary for a senator.

CXIV (F XIII, 6 a)

TO Q. VALERIUS ORCA (PROCONSUL IN AFRICA)

ROME (MAY)

If you are well I shall be glad. I am quite well. I presume that you will remember that, when escorting you on the commencement of your official journey, ¹ I mentioned to you in the presence of Publius Cuspius, and also afterwards urged you privately at some length, that whomsoever I might recommend to you as connexions of his, you should regard as among connexions of my own. You, as was to be expected from your extreme regard and uninterrupted attentions to me, undertook to do this for me with the utmost liberality and kindness. Cuspius, who is most careful in his duties towards all connected with him, takes a surprising interest in the well-being of certain persons of your province, because he has been twice in Africa when presiding over the very large concerns of his revenue-company. Accordingly, this patronage of his, which he exercises on their behalf, I am accustomed as far as I can to back up by such means and influence as I possess. Wherefore I thought it necessary to explain to you in this letter why I give letters of introduction to all the friends of Cuspius. In future letters I will merely append the mark ² agreed upon between you and me, and at the same time indicate that he is one of Cuspius's friends. But the recommendation which I have resolved to subscribe to in this present letter, let me tell you, is more serious than any of them. For P. Cuspius has pressed me with particular earnestness to recommend Lucius Iulius to you as warmly as possible. I appear to be barely able to satisfy his eagerness by using the words which I generally use when most in earnest. He asks for something [p. 242] out of the common way from me, and thinks I have a special knack in that style of writing. I have promised him to produce a masterpiece of commendation--a specimen of my choicest work. Since I cannot reach that standard, however, I would beg you to make him think that some astonishing effect has been produced by the style of my letter. You will secure that, if you treat him with all the liberality which your kindness can suggest and your official power make feasible--I don't mean merely in the way of material assistance, but also in words and even in looks: and what influence such things have in a province I could have wished that you had already learnt by experience, though I have an idea that you soon will do so. This man himself, whom I am recommending to you, I believe to be thoroughly worthy of your friendship, not only because Cuspius says so (though that should be enough), but because I know the keenness of his judgment of men and in the selection of his friends. I shall soon be able to judge what has been the effect of this letter, and shall, I feel certain, have reason to thank you. For myself, I shall with zeal and care see to all that I think to be your wish or to concern your interests. Take care of your health.

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¹ Paludatum, lit. dressed in the paludamentum, the military dress in which provincial governors left Rome with imperium.

² Notam, some cipher, which he had agreed upon with Valerius to indicate that the commendation was not to be looked upon as a mere matter of course.

DCLXXI (F XIII, 7)

TO GAIUS CLUVIUS (IN CISALPINE GAUL)

ROME (AUTUMN)

WHEN on your departure for Gaul you called at my house, as was natural from our close connexion and the great courtesy you have always shewn to me, I spoke to you about the land in Gaul which paid rent to the municipal town of Atella; and I indicated to you how warmly interested I was [p. 341] in the welfare of that town. Since your departure, however; as a question has arisen as to a matter of great importance to this most respectable town-very closely connected with me--and as to the performance of a duty on my part, I thought I ought to write to you in more explicit terms. I am quite aware, however, of the nature of the circumstances' and the limits of your power, and clearly understand that what Caesar has assigned to you is the transaction of a certain business, not the exercise of judicial powers. ¹ Therefore I only ask of you as much as I think that you have both the power and the will to do for my sake. And to begin with I would have you consider--what is the fact--that the whole wealth of the town consists of that rent, while in the present state of affairs it is hard-pressed by very serious burdens, and is labouring under the greatest difficulties. Although this seems to be a misfortune common to many others, I assure you that certain special calamities have befallen this particular municipality, which I don't specify for fear that, while bewailing the miseries of my own connexions. I should seem to be casting a reflexion upon certain persons upon whom I have no wish to do so. Accordingly, if I had' not had a strong hope of our being able to secure the approval of Gaius Caesar for the plea of this town, there would have been no reason for my making an effort at this time to secure any favour from you. But because I feel sure that he will take into consideration both the respectability of the town and the justice of its case, and also its good disposition towards himself, I have not hesitated to urge upon you to reserve this cause for his decision. This request I should nevertheless have made to you if I had never heard of your having done anything of the sort; yet I did conceive a stronger hope of gaining my request when I was told that the people of Regium had obtained the same favour from you. Although these latter have a certain connexion with you, yet your affection for me compels me to hope that the indulgence you extend to your own friends you will also extend to mine: especially as these are the only ones for whom I prefer the request, whereas I have a considerable [p. 342] number of connexions who are in a similarly hard case. Though I think you believe that I am not doing this without good reason, and am not influenced by a frivolous and selfish motive in preferring this request, yet I would have you believe my definite assertion, that I owe a very great deal to this municipality, and that there has been no time either of my prosperity or adversity in which its zeal for my service has not been displayed in a remarkable manner. Wherefore again and again, in the name of our close union and of your unbroken and eminent affection for me, I ask and implore this of you with no common earnestness. Since you understand that the fortunes of a town are involved, which is very closely connected with me by ties of relationship, interchange of services and affection, do, if we obtain from Caesar what we hope, allow us to consider that we have obtained it by your kindness. But if we do not,. instead of that allow us to consider that at least you have done your best to enable us to obtain it. By doing this you will not only have greatly obliged me, but by a signal service you will have bound to yourself and your family men of the highest character, a number of the most honourable as well as the most grateful people, eminently worthy of being connected with you.

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¹ That is, Caesar has commissioned him to divide certain lands, not to decide which are to be divided.

DCLXXII (F XIII, 8)

TO MARCUS RUTILIUS (IN ETRURIA)

ROME (AUTUMN)

As I was conscious of how much I valued you, and had had practical proof of your kind feeling towards me, I did not hesitate to make a request to you which it was incumbent upon me to make. How much I value P. Sestius I know in my own heart; how much I am bound to value him is known both to you and all the world. Having learnt from others that you were very much attached to me, he asked me to write in very explicit terms to you about the affair of [p. 343] Gaius Albinius, a member of the senate, whose daughter is the mother of L. Sestius, a young man of very high character, the son of P. Sestius. My reason for writing this letter is to inform you that not only am I anxious on behalf of P. Sestius, but that Sestius is so also on behalf of Albinius. The case is this: Gaius Albinius received some properties from M. Laberius on a valuation, properties which Laberius had bought from Caesar forming part of the property of Plotius. If I should say that it was not in the interests of the state that those properties should be divided, I should appear to be trying to enlighten you rather than to be asking a favour of you. Nevertheless, since it is Caesar's will that the sales and assignments of land effected by Sulla should hold good, in order to give the impression of greater security to his own, pray what security can Caesar's own sales have, if properties are divided which he himself caused to be sold? However, that is a difficulty for your own wisdom to consider. My plain request to you--and I could not make it with greater earnestness or in a juster cause or more from the bottom of my heart--is that you should spare Albinius and not lay a finger on the properties of Laberius. You will not only cause me great delight, but will in a certain sense raise my reputation also, if I am the cause of Publius Sestius satisfying the claims of a man very closely connected with me, since I owe him more than anyone else in the world. I warmly and repeatedly beg you to do so. You cannot do me a greater favour: you shall have reason to know that I am exceedingly obliged by it.

CCXXXVI (F XIII, 9)

TO P. FURIUS CRASSIPES (QUAESTOR OF BITHYNIA)

CILICIA

Although¹ in a personal interview I recommended as earnestly as I could to you the publicani of Bithynia, and though I gathered that by your own inclination, no less than from my recommendation, you were anxious to promote the advantage of that company in every way within your power, yet, since those interested thought it of great importance to them that I should inform you by letter what my feeling towards them was, I have not hesitated to write you this. For I wish you to believe that, while I have ever had the [p. 100] greatest pleasure in doing as much as possible for the order of publicani generally, yet this particular company of Bithynia has my special good wishes. The company, owing to the rank and birth of its members, constitutes a very important section of the state ² for it is made up of members of the other companies; and it so happens that a very large number of this company are on extremely intimate terms with me, and especially the man who is at the present time at the head of the business, P. Rupilius, son of Publius, of the tribe Menenia, the master of that company. Such being the case, I beg you with more than common earnestness to protect Cn. Pupius, who is an employee of this company, by every sort of kindness and liberality within your power; and to secure, as you easily may, that his services shall be as satisfactory as possible to the company, while at the same time determining that the property and interests of the partners--as to which I am well aware how much power a quaestor possesses--should be secured and promoted. While you will in this be doing me a very great favour, I can at the same time from personal experience give you my promise, and pledge my word for it, that you will find the partners of the Bithynia company mindful of and grateful for any service you have rendered them.

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¹ For Crassipes, who was betrothed, if not married, to Tullia as her Second husband, see Letter CVII. The breaking off the betrothal (discidium) or the divorce (divortium), we don't know which, had evidently not left him at enmity with Cicero.

² Or, leaving out pars, "is the most important in the city."

CDXLIX (F XIII, 10)

TO M. IUNIUS BRUTUS (IN CISALPINE GAUL)

ROME (?JANUARY)

As Marcus Varro was starting to join you as your quaestor, I did not think that he stood in need of any recommendation: for I thought him sufficiently recommended to you by the custom of our ancestors, which ordained--as you are doubtless aware--that this connexion of a quaestor with his chief should be as nearly as possible that of sons to their father. But as he has convinced himself that a letter from me, carefully expressed in regard to him, would be likely to have great weight with you, and as he pressed me warmly to write as fully as possible, I preferred to do what an intimate friend thought to be of so much importance to himself.

I will shew you, then, that I am bound to act thus. From his first entrance into public life M. Terentius attached himself to me. Presently, when he had established his position, two additional reasons appeared to increase my warm feelings towards him: one was the fact that he was engaged in the same pursuit as myself, that which still forms my greatest delight, displaying, as you are aware, both genius and no lack of industry; the second was that he early embarked on the companies of publicani-unfortunately, as it turned out, for he suffered very heavy losses: still, the interests of an order to which I was very closely bound being thus shared by us both made our friendship all the stronger.

Once more, after an honourable and creditable career on both benches, ¹ just before the recent revolution he became [p. 61] a candidate for office, and looked upon that as the most honourable fruit of his toil.

Again, in the late crisis he went from my house at Brundisium with a message and letter for Caesar: in which affair I had clear proof of his affection in undertaking the business, and of his good faith in carrying it through and bring mg me back an answer. I had intended to speak separately as to his uprightness and high character, but it seems to me that in thus beginning with a statement of the reason for my loving him, I have in that statement already said enough about his uprightness. Nevertheless, I do promise as a separate thing, and pledge my word, that he will be at once delightful and useful to you. For you will find him a steady, sensible man, as far removed as possible from any self-seeking, and, moreover, a man of the most laborious and industrious character.

Now it is no business of mine to promise what you must form your own judgment upon, when you have become well acquainted with him: yet, after all, in forming new connexions the first approach is always of consequence, and by what kind of introduction the door of friendship, so to speak, is opened. This is what I wished to effect by the present letter: though the tie between a quaestor and his chief ought in itself to have effected it. Vet it will not, after all, be any the weaker by this addition. Be careful, therefore, if you value me as highly as Varro thinks, and I feel that you do, to let me know as soon as possible that my recommendation has done him as much service as he himself hoped, and I had no doubt, that it would. ² [p. 62]

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¹ That is, I think, as accusing or defending men on their trial. The counsel for the prosecution and defence occupied different benches (see vol. ii., p. 219; pro Flacc. §22; in Verr. 2, § 73). I do not think it can be explained as "advocate and juryman," for the use of subsellia for the seats of the jury is doubtful, and for the praetor (in a civil suit) it would be "tribunal."

² The person here recommended is M. Terentius Varro Gibba.

CDL (F XIII, 11)

TO M. IUNIUS BRUTUS (IN CISALPINE GAUL)

ROME (?)

I have observed¹ that you take great pains to allow nothing which concerns me to be unknown to you; I therefore feel no doubt that you know not only to what municipium I belong, but also how careful I am to defend the interests of my fellow townsmen of Arpinum. Now their entire income and resources, which enable them to keep their temples and other public buildings in repair, depend upon the rents which they own in the province of Gallia. To visit these estates, to collect the moneys owed by the tenants, and generally to investigate and provide for the management of the whole property, we are sending a commission of Roman knights, Quintus Fufidius, son of Quintus, Marcus Faucius, son of Marcus, Quintus Mamercius, son of Quintus. be explained as "advocate and juryman," for the use of subsellia for the seats of the jury is doubtful, and for the praetor (in a civil suit) it would be "tribunal." I beg you with more than common earnestness, in the name of our friendship, that you would have an eye to this affair, and take pains that as far as you are concerned the business of the municipium may be transacted with as little difficulty, and finished as promptly, as possible; and that you would treat the persons themselves, whose names I have given, with all the honour and kindness which characterize you. By doing so you will have attached men of honour to your person, and have put a most grateful municipium under an obligation to you for your kind service. For myself, you will have done me a more than common favour, because, while it has been my invariable custom to protect my fellow townsmen's interests, this particular year has a special claim upon my attention and service to them. For this year I [p. 63] have, for the sake of settling the affairs of the municipium, consented that my son, and nephew, and M. Caesius--a very intimate friend of mine-should be aediles; for that and no other is the magistrate customarily elected in our municipium. ² You will have contributed to the reputation of these last, if the public business of the municipium should, thanks to your kindness and attention, turn out to have been well managed. I beg you warmly and repeatedly to do this.

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¹ Marcus Brutus had not only been pardoned by Caesar for his part in the Civil War, but made governor of Cisalpine Gaul, i.e., North Italy, which was still treated as a province, though its inhabitants were full citizens, and continued to be so treated till the time of Augustus. An analogy in some respects would be the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

² Confirmed by an inscription, C. I. L. 1.1178.In this inscription the name of Fufidius occurs among the three aediles, shewing that the Fufidii were a family of Arpinum. From one of them Quintus Cicero bought a property. See vol. i., p.292.

CDLI (F XIII, 12)

TO M. IUNIUS BRUTUS (IN CISALPINE GAUL)

ROME (?)

IN another letter I have commended our commissioners from Arpinum in a body as earnestly as I could. In this with still greater earnestness I commend Q. Fufidius to you separately-with whom I have ties of all kinds-not to detract at all from the former commendation, but to put in this one in addition. He has two special claims on me: he is a stepson of M. Caesius, who is a very intimate friend and close connexion of mine; and he served under me in Cilicia as a military tribune, in which office he conducted himself in such a way as to make me feel that I had received a kindness from him, rather than conferred one. He is besides--which is of very great weight with you--by no means without taste for our favourite studies. Wherefore I would have you admit him to your society without the least reserve, and take pains to make his labour on this commission--which he has undertaken to his own inconvenience and at my instigation--as complete a success as possible. For he wishes, as the best men naturally do, to earn the utmost possible credit both [p. 64] from me, who urged him to undertake it, and from the municipium. This he will succeed in doing, if by this recommendation of mine he secures your good services.

CDLIII (F XIII, 14)

TO M. IUNIUS BRUTUS (IN CISALPINE GAUL)

ROME (?)

I am very intimate with L. Titius Strabo, one of the most honourable and accomplished of the Roman knights. Services of every sort which belong to the closest intimacy have been interchanged between myself and him. P. Cornelius in your province owes him a sum of money. That case has been referred by Volcatius, the praetor urbanus, for trial in Gaul. I beg you more earnestly than if it were business of mine--in proportion as it is more honourable to take trouble about one's friends' money than one's Own--to [p. 65] see to the matter being concluded. Take it in hand personally, settle it, and do your best--so far as it shall appear to you to be fair and right--that Strabo's freedman, who has been sent to represent him, may bring the matter to a conclusion on the most favourable terms possible and get at the money. You will thus be doing me a very great favour, and at the same time will yourself have reason to know that L. Titius is in the highest degree worthy of your friendship. That you may bestow attention upon this, as you usually do on everything which you know me to wish, I warmly and repeatedly entreat you. ¹

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¹ We have seen before how these private letters were sent to provincial governors on matters upon which they had to act judicially (see Vol. ii., pp.121, 122). They would be thought highly improper now. But we must remember that Cicero did not expect such formal letters to be very much attended to. See vol. i., pp.208, 241.

There is no means of dating these letters of introduction to Brutus.

DLXX (F XIII, 15)

TO C. IULIUS CAESAR (IN SPAIN)

ASTURA (MARCH)

Cicero to Caesar, imperator.¹ I recommend Precilius to your special favour, the son of a connexion of your own, a very intimate friend of mine, and a most excellent man. For the young man himself I have an extraordinary affection on account of his rectitude, culture, and the spirit and affection he has displayed to myself: but of his father also I have had practical reason to know and thoroughly learn what a warm friend he has ever been to me. Now see!--this is the man that more than anyone else has been used to ridicule and chide me for not attaching myself to you, especially when invited to do so by you in the most Complimentary manner: But in my breast my heart he ne'er could move. For I heard our nobles shouting:

Be staunch, and unborn men shall speak thee fair. He spake, and on him fell black clouds of woe.

However, these same men give me consolation also: they wish even now--though once singed--to inflame me with the fire of glory, and speak thus: "Nay, not a coward's death nor shorn of fame, But after some high deed to live for aye." ² But they move me less than of yore, as you see. [p. 229] Accordingly from the high style of Homer I transfer myself to the true maxims of Euripides: Out on the sage that cannot guide himself! This is a verse that the elder Precilius praises to the skies, and says that a man may be able to see both "before and behind," and yet Still may excel and rise above the crowd. But to return to what I began with: you will greatly oblige me, if you give this young man the benefit of the kindness which so distinguishes you, and will add to what I think you would do for the sake of the Precilii themselves as much as my recommendation may be worth. I have adopted a new style of letter to you, that you might understand that my recommendation is no common one. ³

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¹ I leave this letter in the position it occupies in Tyrrell and Purser's work with great doubt. On the one hand, it seems very unlikely to have been written after Tullia's death; on the other, Cicero--who is careful in such matters-gives Caesar the title of imperator, with which his soldiers greeted him on the 19th of February. Mueller puts it close to Letter CXLII.

² Il 22.304, quoted more than once before. See vol. ii., p.357.

³ Cicero may well have apologized for the style of letter. The accumulation of not very apt tags from Homer, the rather flippant allusion to his own conduct to Caesar, the familiar En, hic ille est, etc., all go to make up a letter very unlike even the most off-hand of Cicero's letters, though full of his usual phrases. It is not the sort of letter which one would expect to be written to the head of the state, and I should not be surprised if it was never sent.

The quotations from Homer are from Hom. 0d. 7.258; Hom. Od. 1.302; Hom. Od. 24.315; Hom. 51.22.304-5; Hom. 51.1.343; Hom. 51.11784.The line of Euripides is a fragment of some play not known.

DXLIII (F XIII, 16)

CICERO TO CAESAR (IN SPAIN)

ROME (FEBRUARY)

OF all our men of rank there is no one of whom I have been fonder than of Publius Crassus the younger; and though I have had very great hopes of him from his earliest years, I began at once to entertain brilliant ideas of his abilities when I was informed of your high opinion of him. His freedman Apollonius I always valued and thought well of even when Crassus was alive: for he was very attentive to Crassus and extremely well suited to promote his best tastes: and, accordingly, was much liked by him. But after the death of Crassus he seemed the more worthy of admission to my confidence and friendship, because he regarded it as [p. 198] his duty to be attentive and polite to those whom the late Crassus had loved and by whom he had been beloved. Accordingly, he came to stay with me in Cilicia, and in many particulars his fidelity and good sense were of great use to me; and, as I think, he rendered you all the service in the Alexandrine war that was within the range of ability and fidelity. Hoping that you would think the same, he has started to join you in Spain--chiefly indeed on his own initiative, but also on my advice. I did not promise him a letter of recommendation, not because I doubted its weight with you, but because he did not seem to want any, for he had been on active service in your army, and had been put on your staff from respect to the memory of Crassus. And if he did choose to avail himself of introductions, I saw that he could accomplish that by means of others. It is a testimony to my opinion of him, which he values highly and which I also have found to have weight with you, that I hereby give him with pleasure. Well, then, I have found him to be well instructed and devoted to the highest pursuits, and that from a boy. For he lived much at my house from his boyhood along with the Stoic Diodotus, a man in my opinion of the most profound learning. At present, fired with admiration of your achievements, he desires to write a history of them in Greek. I think he is capable of doing it. He has great genius: great experience: for a long time past he has been engaged in that branch of study and literature: he is wonderfully eager to do justice to the immortal fame of your glorious achievements. You have here the record of my opinion, but your supreme wisdom will enable you to decide with much greater ease upon this point. Yet, after all, though I said I would not do so, I recommend him to you. Whatever favour you shew him will be more than ordinarily gratifying to me.

[The death of Cicero's daughter Tullia, after confinement, occurred, it seems, in the last days of February, either at Rome (p. 181) or Tusculum. His grief seems to have been very acute, though not very lasting. He was minded to purchase and throw open some gardens near Rome, containing a shrine dedicated to her to commemorate her name, but [p. 199] this scheme, like that of building a porticus for the Academy at Athens, went gradually off, probably from considerations as to means: for the necessity of repaying Terentia's dowry made him seriously embarrassed at this time.]

DX (F XIII, 17)

TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ACHAIA)

ROME

Manius Curius, ¹ who has a bank at Patrae has given me many weighty reasons for being attached to him. My friendship with him is of very old standing, dating from his first entrance into public life: and at Patrae on many previous occasions, and particularly during the late unhappy war, his house was put entirely at my disposal, and if there had been any occasion, I should have used it as my own. But my strongest tie to him is of what I may call a more sacred, obligation- is that he is a very close friend of my friend Atticus, and distinguishes him above everybody by his attentions and affection. If you are by any chance already acquainted with him, I think that I am too late in doing what I am now doing. For he is so cultivated and polite a [p. 154] man, that I should regard him as already sufficiently recommended to you by his own Character. Yet, if this is so, I beg you earnestly that any inclination, which you have already conceived for him before getting my letter, may be enhanced to the highest possible degree by my recommendation. But if; owing to his retiring character, he has not put himself in your way or you have not yet become sufficiently acquainted with him, or if there is any reason of any sort for his wanting a warmer recommendation, I hereby recommend him to you, with a zeal as great and for reasons as sound as I could have for recommending anyone in the world. And I shall be acting in this as those are bound to act who recommend conscientiously and disinterestedly: for I shall be pledging my word to you, or rather I do hereby pledge my word and take upon me to promise, that the character of Manius Curius, and his culture no less than his honesty, are of such a nature that, if once he becomes known to you, you will think him deserving of your friendship and of such an earnest recommendation. I, at any rate, shall be exceedingly gratified, if I find that this letter has had the weight with you which, as I write, I feel confident that it will have.

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¹ For this man's services to Tiro in his illness at Patrie, see vol. ii. pp. 210-222.

DXI (F XIII, 18)

TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ACHAIA)

ROME

I WILL not allow that your most kind and courteous letter to Atticus--whom I see to be transported with delight-was more gratifying to him than to myself. For, though it was almost equally pleasing to us both, yet I was the more struck with admiration of the two. You would, of course, have made a courteous answer to Atticus if asked, or at least reminded: but (as for my part I never doubted that you would do) you spontaneously wrote to him, and, without his expecting it, offered him so warm an expression [p. 155] of goodwill. ¹ On this subject not only ought I not to ask you to be more zealous in that respect for my sake also--for nothing could go beyond your promises--but I should be wrong even to thank you, since you have acted for his own sake and on your own initiative. However, I will say this, that I am exceedingly gratified at what you have done. For such appreciation on your part of a man who has a place apart in my affections cannot fail to be supremely delightful to me: and, that being so, it of course excites my gratitude. But all the same, since considering our intimacy a faux pas in writing to you is allowable to me, I will do both the things that I said that I ought not to do. In the first place, to what you have shewn that you will do for the sake of Atticus I would have you make as large an addition as our mutual affection can suggest: in the second place, though I said just now that I feared to thank you, I now do so outright: and I would wish you to believe that, under whatever obligations you place Atticus, whether in regard to his affairs in Epirus or elsewhere, I shall consider myself to be equally bound to you by them.

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¹ We know that Atticus had many transactions with towns in the Peloponnese, and he probably required the countenance of Sulpicius, as governor of Achaia, to get his interest on capital paid (vol. i., pp.57, 60, 66).

DXII (F XIII, 19)

TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ACHAIA)

ROME

WITH Lyso of Patrae ¹ I have indeed a long-standing tie ot hospitality--a tie which, I think, ought to be conscientiously maintained. That is a position shared by many others: but I never was so intimate with any other foreigner, and that intimacy has been so much enhanced both by many services [p. 156] on his part and by an almost daily intercourse, that nothing could now be closer than ours is. He stayed a year at Rome almost living in my house, and though we were in great hopes that, in consequence of my letter and recommendation, you would take great pains in doing what you have actually done, namely, protect his property and fortune in his absence; yet, as everything was in the power of one man, and as Lyso had been engaged on our side and was under our protection, we were in daily dread of something happening. However, his own brilliant character, and the zeal of myself and others of his hosts, have secured all that we wished from Caesar, as you will learn from Caesar's despatch to you.

In view of this, I not only do not in any way abate the earnestness of my recommendation to you, on the ground of having now got everything we wanted, but I rather urge all the more strongly that you should admit him to your confidence and intimacy. When his position was less secure I pressed you on the point with rather less boldness, being afraid that something might happen to him of a nature beyond even your power to remedy. Now that his pardon is secured, I ask you with the greatest earnestness and anxiety to do all you can. Not to go into details, I commend his whole establishment to you, and among them his young son, whom. my client Cn. Maenius Gemellus, having been during his exile made a citizen of Patrae, adopted according to the laws of the town. Pray therefore support his legal claim to the inheritance. The main point is that you should admit Lyso, whom I have found to be a most excellent and grateful man, to your society and friendship. If you do so, I do not doubt that, in shewing him affection and in afterwards recommending him to other people, you will come to the same conclusion about him and entertain the same feeling towards him that I do. I am very eager that you should do this, but I am also afraid lest, if you shall appear to have done less than the very best for him in some particular, he should think that I have not written earnestly enough, rather than that you have forgotten me. How much you value me he has had the opportunity of learning both from our everyday conversations and from your letters. [p. 157]

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¹ The doctor at Patrae who attended Tiro. See vol. ii., p.209.

DXIII (F XIII, 20)

TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ACHAIA)

ROME

I am intimate with the physician Asciapo of Patrae. ¹ I found his society very agreeable, as well as his medical skill, which I have had experience of in the illnesses of my household. He gave me every satisfaction both by his knowledge of his profession and by his kindness. I therefore commend him to you, and beg you to see that he understands that I have written cordially about him, and that my recommendation has been of great service to him. It will be doing me a great favour.

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¹ Another of the doctors who attended Tiro (vol. ii., p.212).

DXIV (F XIII, 21)

TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ACHAIA)

ROME

M. Aemilius Avianius has always from his earliest manhood shewn me attention and affection. He is both a good and cultivated man, and worthy of your favour in every kind of employment. If I had thought that he was at Sicyon, and had I not been told that he was still staying where I left him at Cibyra, there had been no necessity for my writing at any greater length to you about him. For he would of himself have secured your affection by his own character and culture without anyone's recommendation, in as great a degree as he enjoys mine and that of all his other friends. But as I suppose him to be away, I commend with more [p. 158] than common earnestness his family at Sicyon and his property, especially his freedman C. Avianius Hammonius, whom indeed I commend to you on his own account also. For, while he has earned my esteem by his remarkable loyalty and fidelity to his patron, he has also done me personally some valuable services, and stood by me in the time of my greatest distress with a fidelity and affection as great as though I had myself liberated him. Accordingly, I beg you to support Hammonius for himself; as well as in his patron's business, and to go so far as to like and reckon among your friends both his agent, whom I am commending to you, and Avianius himself. You will find him modest and serviceable, and worthy of your affection. Good-bye.

DXV (F XIII, 22)

TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ACHAIA)

ROME

I am very fond of T. Manlius, a banker at Thespiae; for he always paid me respect, and was most constant in his attentions, and has besides some taste for our branch of learning. I may add that Varro Murena ¹ is very desirous that everything should be done for him; who yet thought that, though he felt confidence in a letter of his own in which he had commended Manlius to you, some additional advantage would be gained by a recommendation from me. For myself; both my intimacy with Manlius and Varro s eagerness have induced me to write to you as seriously as [p. 159] I could. You will therefore do me a very great favour, if you will regard this recommendation as one calling for your utmost consideration, that is, if you will assist and honour Titus Manlius in the highest degree in every way consistent with your honour and character. Finally, from his exceedingly grateful and cultivated character, I undertake that you will reap all the benefit you are accustomed to expect from good men's services.

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¹ A. Licinius Murena was adopted by Terentius Varro, and was thus called A. Terentius Varro Murena. His sister Terentia was wife of Maecenas, and his brother was Proculeius, celebrated for his liberality by Horace (Odes, 2.2). His augurship is honoured by another ode of Horace (iii. 19), who also gave him a hint as to the rashness which seems to have led to his ruin in B.C. 22, the year after his consulship, when he was implicated with Fannius Caepio in a plot against Augustus (Horace, Od. 2.10; Suet. Aug. 19; Tib. 8; Dio, 54, 3).

DXVI (F XIII, 23)

TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ACHAIA)

ROME

I am very intimate with L. Cossinius, your friend and fellow tribesman. For not only is there a long-standing acquaintance between us personally, but my friend Atticus has caused my relations with Cossinius to become still closer. Accordingly, the whole family of Cossinius is attached to me, and especially his freedman L. Cossinius Anchialus, a man who possesses the high esteem both of his patron and his patron's friends, of whom I am one. I recommend him to you as I would a freedman of my own, and as though he held the same position with me as he does with his patron. If he did I could not recommend him with greater warmth. Wherefore you will do me a very great favour, if you will admit him to your friendship and assist him in anything in which he may need your help, as far as you can do so without inconvenience. That will be both very gratifying to me and hereafter a source of pleasure to yourself: for you will find that he is eminently honest, cultivated, and attentive. [p. 160]

DXVII (F XIII, 24)

TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ACHAIA)

ROME

As it gave me great pleasure before to find that you had remembered my earnest recommendation of Lyso, my host and friend, so also, when I found from his letter that he had been the object of your undeserved suspicion, I was exceedingly rejoiced that I had been so earnest in recommending him. For he writes me word that my recommendation has been of the greatest assistance to him, as he says that a report had been brought you of his being in the habit of speaking disrespectfully of you at Rome. And though he writes word that your good nature and kindness of heart have enabled him to clear himself on that point, yet, first of all, as in duty bound, I thank you warmly that my letter has had such influence with you as to cause you on its perusal to lay aside all that irritating suspicion which you had entertained of Lyso. In the next place, I would have you believe me, when I assert that I write this not more in the name of Lyso than of everybody else--that no one has ever mentioned you except in the terms of the highest respect. As for Lyso, indeed, while he was with me every day and almost lived with me, not only because he thought that I liked hearing it, but also because it gave him still more pleasure to say it himself; he used to speak to me in praise of everything you did and said. Wherefore, though he is now being treated by you in a way that makes a recommendation from me unnecessary, and makes him think that he has got all he wants by means of one letter from me, yet I do beg of you with no common earnestness to continue to receive him with kindness and liberality. I would have written a description of his character, as I did in my previous letter, had I not thought that by this time he was sufficiently well known to you by his own merits. [p. 161]

DXVIII (F XIII, 25)

TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ACHAIA)

ROME

Hegesaretus ¹ of Larisa, who was honoured by signal favours from me in my consulship, was not unmindful or ungrateful, and treated me afterwards with very great respect. I recommend him to you with great earnestness as my guest-friend, as my intimate acquaintance, as a grateful person, as a man of high character, as holding the chief position in his own state, and, lastly, as being worthy in the highest degree of your intimacy. I shall be very grateful if you take the trouble to make him understand that this recommendation of mine has had great weight with you.

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¹ Hegesaretus had taken the Pompeian side in the Civil War, and therefore, no doubt, needed some protection. He was at the head of one of the two factions which divided Thessaly, but we do not know what Cicero had done for him in B.C. 63 (Caes. B.C. 3.35). That Sulpicius should be asked to protect a man in Thessaly, as before he was asked to protect Atticus's interests in Epirus (p.155), shews that his authority was not confined to Achaia. Indeed, Cicero (p.123) says that he was governor of "Greece"--a much wider term.

DXIX (F XIII, 26)

TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ACHAIA)

ROME

My connexion with L. Mescinius is that which arises from the fact that he was my quaestor. But this tie--which I, in accordance with the usage of antiquity, have ever regarded as a strong one--he has rendered more complete by his personal excellence and kindness. Accordingly, nothing could more intimate and more pleasant to myself than my [p. 162] intercourse with him. Now, although he seemed to feel certain that you would be pleased to do all you honourably could for him for his own sake, he yet hoped that a letter from me would also have great weight with you. He judged that to be the case for himself; but as he was very intimate with me he had also often heard me say how delightful and close our union was. I ask you, therefore, with all the earnestness with which you understand that I ought to ask on behalf of a man so near and dear to me, to facilitate and settle the business matters which he has in Achaia arising from the fact 'of his being the heir of his cousin M. Mindius, late a banker at Elis, not only by your legal prerogative and authority, but also by your influence and advice. For I have directed ,those to whom I have intrusted my business, that in all 'points which give rise to dispute, they were to appeal to you as arbitrator and--so far as was consistent with your convenience--as final judge. That you should in compliment to me undertake that business, I earnestly and repeatedly beg of you. There is one other point in which you will particularly oblige me, if you don't think it inconsistent with your position; it is that, as the controversy is with a senator, you should refer to Rome such of the parties as prove too stubborn to allow the business to be settled without an issue being tried. ¹ That you might be able to do that with the less hesitation, I have secured a despatch to you from the consul M. Lepidus, not conveying any order--for that I did not think consonant with your position--but to a certain extent and in a manner commendatory. I would have mentioned how well invested such a favour is sure to be in the case of Mescinius, had I not, in the first place, felt certain that you knew, and had I not also been asking for myself: for I would have you believe that I am quite as anxious about his interests as he is himself. But while I am eager that he should come by his own without difficulty, I am also anxious that he should think that he owes his success in no small degree to my recommendation. [p. 163]

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¹ See vol. ii., p.93 (Fam. 13.56) for the ecdici sent to Rome on such appeal business. The system of thus removing the venue of such cases was, of course, open to abuse; but it must often have been more satisfactory than trusting to the local courts, especially when the governor was corrupt or tyrannically disposed.

DXX (F XIII, 27)

TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ACHAIA)

ROME

I FREQUENTLY send you letters of this kind, which are replicas of each other, in thanking you for paying such prompt attention to my letters of introduction. I have done so in the cases of others and shall often, as I see, have occasion to do so again. Nevertheless I will not spare labour, and, as you jurisconsults are in the habit of doing in your formulae, I will in my letters "state the same case in a different manner." Well then, C. Avianius Hammonius has written to me with profuse thanks in his own name and in .that of his patron Aemilius Avianius, saying that neither he him self; who was on the spot, nor the property of his absent patron, could have been treated with greater liberality or consideration. That was gratifying to me for the sake of those whom I had recommended to you, induced thereto by our very close friendship and union--for M. Aemilius is one of my most intimate and closest friends, a man eminently attached and bound to me by great services on my part, and about the most grateful of all those who appear to be under some obligation to me. But it is much more gratifying that you should be so disposed towards me as to do more for my friends than I perhaps could have done if I had been on the spot, I presume, because I should have been more doubtful what to do for their sake, than you are what to do for mine. But this I do not doubt--that you feel that you have obliged me. I only ask you to believe that those persons also are grateful: I pledge you my word and solemnly assert that it is so. Wherefore pray do your best that, whatever business they have on hand, they may get it settled whilst you still governing Achaia. I am living on the pleasantest and most harmonious terms with your son Servius, and derive great pleasure from his natural abilities and signal industry, as well as from his virtuous and straightforward character. [p. 164]

DXXI (F XIII, 28)

TO SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ACHAIA)

ROME

THOUGH I take pleasure in asking you for anything that any one of my friends requires, yet I take much greater in thanking you, when you have done something on my recommendation, as you are always doing. For it is beyond belief what thanks I get from all, even from those who have been recommended by me to you with only moderate warmth. Every instance gives me gratification, but none 30 much as that of L. Mescinius. For he told me that directly you had read my letter you promised his agents all they wanted, and have in fact been much better than your word. In that matter therefore--for I think I ought to say it again and again--I would have you believe that I am excessively obliged to you. I am, indeed, all the more delighted at this, because I see clearly that you will get the highest pleasure from Mescinius himself. For he is not only a man of virtue and uprightness, very serviceable and exceedingly attentive, but he has also the same literary pursuits as ourselves, which in old times were our recreation, but now are life itself. For the future I would have you supplement your kindnesses to him in all things consonant with your character. There are two things which I ask of you specifically: first, that if any undertaking has to be given "against farther claims on that head," you would see to its being given on my security: and, in the second place, seeing that his inheritance consists almost entirely of the property appropriated by Oppia, who was once Mindius's wife, that you should give your assistance and concert measures for bringing her over to Rome. If she thinks that is going to be done, in my opinion, we shall settle the business. I beg you again and again to enable us to do that. What I said above I now solemnly confirm and take upon myself to guarantee--that you will [p. 165] find what you have done in the past and are going to do in the future for the sake of Mescinius so well invested, as to convince you that you have bestowed your kindness on the most grateful, the most delightful man in the world. For this is the addition which I desire to what you have done for my sake.

CDLV (F XIII, 29)

TO L. MUNATIUS PLANCUS (IN AFRICA)

ROME (?) ¹

I have no doubt of your knowing that, among the connexions bequeathed to you by your father, there was no one more closely united to you than myself, not only for the [p. 67] reasons which give an appearance of close attachment, but also for those which are kept in operation by actual intimacy and association, which you know to have existed between me and your father in the highest degree and with the greatest mutual gratification. Starting from that origin my personal affection enhanced the ancestral friendship, and the more so that I perceived, as soon as your time of life admitted of your forming an independent judgment as to the value you should attach to this or that person, that I at once began to receive from you marks of respect, regard, and affection. To this was added the bond--in itself no slight one--of common studies, and of such studies and accomplishments as, in their very nature, serve to bind together men who have the same tastes in close ties of intimacy also.

I imagine you must be waiting to see to what this elaborate prelude is tending. To begin with, let me assure you that this resume' of facts has not been made by me without good and sufficient reason. I am exceedingly intimate with C. Ateius Capito. You know what the ups and downs of my fortunes have been. In every position of honour or of difficulty of mine, Capito's courage, active assistance, influence, and even money were ever at my service, supplied my occasions, and were ready for every crisis. He had a relation named Titus Antistius. While this man was serving in Macedonia as quaestor, according to the lot, and had had no successor appointed, ² Pompey arrived in that province at the head of an army. Antistius could do nothing. For if he had had things his own way, there is nothing he would have preferred to going back to Capito, for whom he had a filial affection, especially as he knew how much he valued Caesar and had always done so. But, being taken by surprise, he only engaged in the business as far as he was unable to refuse. When money was being Coined at Apollonia, I cannot say that he presided at the mint, nor can I deny that he was engaged in it; but it was not for more than two or three months. After that he held aloof from the camp: he avoided official employment of [p. 68] every sort. I would have you believe me on this point as an eye-witness: for he used to see my melancholy during that campaign, he used to talk things over with me without reserve. Accordingly, he withdrew into hiding in central Macedonia at as great a distance as he could from the camp, so as to avoid not only taking command in any department, but even being on the spot. After the battle he retired to Bithynia to a friend's house named Aulus Plautius. When Caesar saw him there he did not say a single rough or angry word to him; and bade him come to Rome. Immediately after that he had an illness from which he never recovered. He arrived at Corcyra ill, and there died. By a will which he had made at Rome in the consulship of Paulus and Marcellus, ³ Capito was made his heir to five-sixths of his estate: as regards the other sixth, the heirs were men whose share may be confiscated without a word of complaint from anyone. That amounts to thirty sestertia. ⁴ This is a matter for Caesar to consider. But in the name of our ancestral friendship, in the name of our mutual affection, in the name of our common studies and the close identity in the whole current of our existence, I do ask and entreat you, my dear Plancus, with an anxiety and warmth beyond which I cannot go in any matter, to exert yourself, to put out your best energies, and to secure that by my recommendation, your own zeal, and Caesar's indulgence, Capito may obtain possession of his kinsman's legacy. Everything that I could possibly have got from you in this your hour of highest favour and influence, I shall regard you as having voluntarily bestowed upon me, if I obtain this object. There is a circumstance, of which Caesar has the best means of judging, which I hope will assist you-Capito always shewed respect and affection for Caesar. But Caesar can himself bear witness to this: I know the excellence of his memory: so I don't give you any instructions. Do not pledge yourself to Caesar on Capito's behalf, any farther than you shall perceive that he remembers. For my part, I will submit to you what I have been able to put to the test in my own case: you must judge of its importance for yourself. You are not ignorant of the side and the [p. 69] cause which I have supported in politics, by the aid of what individuals and orders I have maintained myself, and by whom I have been fortified. Believe me when I say this: if I have done anything in the late war itself which was not quite to Caesar's taste--though I am well aware that Caesar knows me to have done so quite against my will--I have done it by the advice, instigation, and influence of others. But in so far as I have been more moderate and reasonable than anyone else of that party, I have been so by the influence of Capito more than anyone else: and if my other connexions had been like him, I should perhaps have done the State some good, certainly I should have done a great deal to myself. If you accomplish this object, my dear Plancus, you will confirm my expectations as to your kind feeling towards myself, and you will by your eminent service have bound Capito himself to you as a friend--a man of the most grateful and obliging disposition, and of the most excellent character.

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¹ Plancus had been Caesar's legatus in Gaul, and was with him in Africa. He lived through the period of the Civil Wars, surviving Antony--whom he betrayed--and settling down to enjoy the wealth that his extortions had gained him, as a courtier in the train of Augustus. Velleius Paterculus gives the blackest account of him (ii. 83) as an ingrained traitor (morbo proditor) and profligate. Horace, however, seems to have regarded him with some affection (Od. 1.7). We shall hereafter see something of his shifty policy following the murder of Caesar.

² That is, he was staying over his year because the allotment of provinces at the end of B.C. 50 had been vetoed.

³ B.C. 50.

⁴ About £240.

DCLXXIX (F XIII, 30)

TO MANIUS ACILIUS GLABRIO (IN SICILY)

ROME

THERE is a certain L. Manlius Sosis. He is a native of Catina; but along with the rest of the people of Naples became a Roman citizen, and is a member of the council at Naples, as he had been enrolled as a citizen of that municipality before the citizenship was granted to the Italian allies. His brother has lately died at Catina. I don't think he is likely to have any dispute about the inheritance, and he is at this moment in possession of the property. But as he has besides some business of old standing in his native Sicily, I commend to you both this inheritance from his brother and all other of his concerns, and above all the man himself as being of the highest character and very intimate with myself, accomplished in those studies [p. 350] of literature and philosophy which form my chief delight. I beg you, therefore, to understand that, whether he has or has not come to Sicily, he is one of my most intimate and closely united friends, and to treat him in such a way as to make him understand that my recommendation has been of great service to him.

DCLXXX (F XIII, 31)

TO MANIUS ACILIUS GLABRIO (IN SICILY)

ROME

I am very intimate with Gaius Flavius, an honourable and accomplished Roman knight. For he was a great friend of my son-in-law Gaius Piso, and both he and his brother L. Flavius pay me very constant attention. Wherefore I would wish you, out of consideration for me, to treat Gaius Flavius with the utmost possible respect and liberality, in whatever ways you can do so with honour and due regard for your position. You cannot possibly oblige me more than by so doing. But besides that, I assure you--and I don't say this from any ulterior motive, but influenced by the truth no less than by friendship and personal connexion--that you will extract great pleasure from the services and assiduity of Gaius Flavius, as also from his brilliant position and popularity among his own friends. Good-bye.

DCLXXXI (F XIII, 32)

TO MANIUS ACILIUS GLABRIO (IN SICILY)

ROME

IN the town of Halesa, so well known for its wealth and high character, I have some friends very closely united to me by the ties of hospitality and intimacy named M. Clodius [p. 351] Archagethus and C. Clodius Philo. But I am afraid that, owing to the number of people I recommend to you, I may appear to be putting all my recommendations on the same footing from some ulterior motive. Still, I would have you believe that this family and these members of it are united to me by a long-standing friendship, by mutual services, and by goodwill. Therefore I beg you, with more than common earnestness, to oblige them in every way, as far as your honour and official position shall allow you. You will exceedingly oblige me by doing so.

DCLXXXII (F XIII, 33)

TO MANIUS ACILIUS GLABRIO (IN SICILY)

ROME

I am exceedingly intimate with Gnaeus Otacilius Naso, certainly as much so as with any man of his order. For in our daily intercourse I am greatly delighted with his kindness and honesty. You need not stop to see in what precise words I recommend a man to you, with whom I am as intimate as I have said. He has some business in your province, which is being managed by his freedmen Hilarus, Antigonus, and Demostratus. These men and all Naso's affairs I commend to you as though they were my own. I shall feel very grateful if I learn that this recommendation has had great weight with you. Good-bye.

DCLXXXIII (F XIII, 34)

TO MANIUS ACILIUS GLABRIO (IN SICILY)

ROME

I have ties of hospitality with Lyson, son of Lyson, of Lilybaeum, dating from the times of his grandfather. I [p. 352] continue to receive strong proofs of his regard, and have ascertained him to be worthy of his father and grandfather. Wherefore I recommend him to you with more than common earnestness, and warmly beg you to be at the trouble to make him feel that my recommendation has been of the utmost assistance to him and very greatly to his honour.

DCLXXXIV (F XIII, 35)

TO MANIUS ACILIUS GLABRIO (IN SICILY)

ROME

C. Avianius Philoxenus shewed me hospitality in old times, and beyond that is also an intimate friend, whom Caesar as a favour to me enrolled among the citizens of New Comum. He took the name of Avianius, because his most intimate friend was Flaccus Avianius, a man, as I think you know, who was a very dear friend of mine. I mention all these facts to shew you that this recommendation of mine is no ordinary one. I therefore beg you to oblige him in everything which you can do without inconvenience, to consider him as one of your friends, and to make him feel that this letter of mine has been of great service to him. You will oblige me in no common degree by so doing.

DCLXXXV (F XIII, 36)

TO MANIUS ACILIUS GLABRIO (IN SICILY)

ROME

WITH Demetrius Megas I have ancient ties of hospitality, and a friendship such as I had with no other Sicilian. Dolabella at my request procured him citizenship from [p. 353] Caesar, and I was present when it was bestowed. Accordingly his name is now P. Cornelius. And when, on account of certain infamous persons who used to sell grants from him, Caesar ordered the tablet containing the names of those who had received citizenship to be taken down, he told the same Dolabella in my hearing that he had nothing to fear as to Megas, and that his grant to him held good. I wished you to know this in order that you might reckon him as a Roman citizen; and in all other respects I commend him to you with an earnestness beyond which I have not gone with respect to anyone. You will do me the very greatest favour if you shew him by your treatment of him that my recommendation has been greatly to his honour.

DCLXXXVI (F XIII, 37)

TO MANIUS ACILIUS GLABRIO (IN SICILY)

ROME

I recommend Hippias, son of Philoxenus, of Calacta, to you with more than common earnestness. His property, as the matter has been reported to me, is held by the state for a debt which is not properly his, contrary to the laws of the Calactini. If that is so, even without any recommendation from me, the merits of the case itself ought to secure him your assistance. But however the matter stands, I beg you as a compliment to me to expedite his case, and both in this and in all other matters to oblige him as far as your honour and position will allow. It will be doing me a very great favour. [p. 354]

DCLXXXVII (F XIII, 38)

TO MANIUS ACILIUS GLABRIO (IN SICILY)

ROME

L. Bruttius a Roman knight, a young man of every sort of accomplishment, is among my most intimate friends, and shews me very constant attention. I have had a great friendship with his father from the time of my Sicilian quaestorship. In point of fact Bruttius is at this moment staying with me at Rome: still I recommend his house, his property, and his agents to you with an earnestness beyond which I cannot go in such a recommendation. You will exceedingly oblige me if you take the trouble to let Bruttius feel, as I have assured him will be the case, that my recommendation has been of great assistance to him.

DCLXXXVIII (F XIII, 39)

TO MANIUS ACILIUS GLABRIO (IN SICILY)

ROME

AN old connexion grew up between the Titurnian family and myself. Of this family the last survivor is M. Titurnius Rufus, whom I am bound to protect with every possible care and attention. It is then in your power to make him think that he has a sufficient protector in me. Wherefore I recommend him to you with more than common earnestness, and I beg you to make him feel that this recommendation has been of great assistance to him. You will very greatly oblige me by doing so. [p. 355]

CXXVIII (F XIII, 40)

TO Q. ANCHARIUS (PROCONSUL IN MACEDONIA)

ROME

Lucius and Gaius, sons of Lucius Aurelius, with whom, as with their excellent father, I am most intimately acquainted, I recommend to you with more than usual earnestness, as young men endowed with the best qualities, as being very closely allied to myself, and as being in the highest degree worthy of your friendship. If any recommendations of mine have ever had influence with you, as I know that many have had much, I beg you to let this one have it. If you treat them with honour and kindness, you will not only have attached to yourself two very grateful and excellent young men, but you will also have done me the very greatest favour. [p. 262]

LIV (F XIII, 41)

TO L. CULLEOLUS (IN ILLYRICUM)

ROME

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

LIII (F XIII, 42)

TO L. CULLEOLUS (IN ILLYRICUM)

ROME

¹ My friend L. Lucceius, ² the most delightful fellow in the world, has expressed in my presence amazingly warm thanks to you, saying that you have given most complete and liberal promises to his agents. Since your words have roused such gratitude in him, you may imagine how grateful he will be for [p. 135] the thing itself, when, as I hope, you will have performed your promise. In any case the people of Bullis have shown that they intend to do Lucceius right according to the award of Pompey. But we have very great need of the additional support of your wishes, influence, and praetorian authority. That you should give us these I beg you again and again. And this will be particularly gratifying to me, because Lucceius's agents know, and Lucceius himself gathered from your letter to him, that no one's influence has greater weight with you than mine. I ask you once more, and reiterate my request, that he may find that to be the case by practical experience.

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

² L. Lucceius, whom we have heard of before as a candidate for the consulship with Caesar, and whom we shall hear of again as the author of a history of the social and civil wars (Sulla and Marius), and as being asked to write on Cicero's consulship. He was a close friend of Pompey, and took his side in B.C. 49 (Caes. B.C. 3.18). The people of Bullis owed Lucceius money, and Cicero asks for "mandatory letters " from Culleolus to get it.

II (F XIII, 43)

TO QUINTUS GALLUS (?IN ASIA)

ROME

THOUGH I hope that I shall have many occasions for observing, what after all I have long ago observed, that I am beloved by you, yet you have now before you a case in which you have a ready means of shewing your goodwill towards me. Lucius Oppius, son of Marcus Philomelius, is a banker, and my intimate friend. I commend him to you in a special manner, and all the more so, that while I like the man himself, he is also manager of the business of L. Egnatius Rufus, my most intimate friend among the Roman knights, and one most closely united to me both by daily association and by very numerous and very important services. I therefore beg you to shew affection for Oppius who is with you, and protect the interests of Egnatius who is not, as earnestly as if it were my own business. In order to aid your memory I should like you to give him some sort of writing to be returned to you in the province. Write it in such a way that whenever you read it you may easily recall the earnestness of this recommendation of mine. I beg you warmly and repeatedly to do this.

III (F XIII, 44)

TO Q. GALLUS (IN ASIA?)

ROME

Although from your letter and from that of my very intimate friend L. Oppius I am assured that you are mindful [p. 365] of my recommendation, and though, in view of your very great kindness to me and our intimacy I am not at all surprised at that, nevertheless I reiterate my recommendation of L. Oppius, who is with you, and of the' business affairs of my most intimate friend, L. Egnatius, who is not. He is so closely allied and so intimate with me, that I could not be more anxious if it were my own affair. Therefore you will very greatly oblige me if you take care that he understands that I am as much beloved by you as I think I am myself. You cannot possibly oblige me more, and I beg you warmly to do so.

IV (F XIII, 45)

TO APPULEIUS (PROQUAESTOR IN ASIA)

ROME

Lucius Egnatius is my most intimate friend among the Roman knights. I commend to you his slave Anchialus and his banking business in Asia as earnestly as if I were commending my own business. For I would have you believe that there is not only a close daily intercourse between us, but also important mutual services. Wherefore I reiterate my request that you will see that he understands that I have written to you with sufficient earnestness: for as to your goodwill towards me he had no doubt. I beg you again and again to do so. Good-bye.

V (F XIII, 46)

TO APPULEIUS (IN ASIA)

ROME

Lucius Nostius Zoilus is a co-heir with me, and besides that the heir of his patron. I state these two facts both to [p. 366] shew you that I have reason to be his friend, and to convince you that he must be an honest man to have received such a compliment from his patron. I therefore recommend him to you as though he were a member of my house-hold. I shall be very grateful if you will take pains to make him understand that my recommendation has been of great service to him with you.

VIII (F XIII, 48)

TO SEXTILIUS RUFUS (QUAESTOR IN CILICIA)

ROME ¹

I commend all the Cyprians to you, but more especially the Paphians. Anything you can do to oblige the latter will be regarded with great gratitude by me. I have the more pleasure in commending them to you because I think it will conduce to your reputation (of which I am ever a supporter), as you are the first to enter the island as a quaestor, if you establish precedents for others to follow. You will, I hope, secure this with greater ease if you decide to follow the law of your connexion Publius Lentulus, ² and the regulations made by myself. This course I feel sure will redound to your honour.

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¹ This letter must have been written between the end of Cicero's governorship of Cilicia (B.C 50) and B.C. 47, when Cyprus ceased to form part of the province.

² P. Cornelius Lentulus was governor of Cilicia (and therefore of Cyprus) in B.C; 54.

CLXII (F XIII, 49)

TO M. CURIUS (A PROCONSUL)

ROME

Q. Pompeius, son of Sextus, has become my intimate friend from many causes of long standing. As he has often in the past been accustomed to defend his material interests, as well as his reputation and influence, by my recommendations, so on the present occasion assuredly, with you as governor of the province, he ought to be able to feel that he has never had a warmer recommendation to anyone. Wherefore I beg you with more than ordinary earnestness that, as you ought in view of our close friendship to regard all my friends as your own, you would give the bearer so high a place in your regard, that he may feel that nothing could have been more to his interest and honour than my recommendation. Farewell. [p. 342]

DCXCII (F XIII, 50)

TO MANIUS ACILIUS GLABRIO (IN ACHAIA)

ROME (JANUARY)

I am presuming upon your regard for me, which you made me clearly perceive all the time we were at Brundisium, to write to you in a familiar style and as though I had a claim to do so, if there is any matter as to which I am specially anxious. Manius Curius, who is a banker at Patrae is an intimate friend of mine. No union could be closer than ours. He has done me many kindnesses, and I have done him many also. Above all, there is the strongest mutual affection between us. That being the case, if you have anything to hope from my friendship, if you wish to make the good offices and kindnesses which you bestowed on me at Brundisium still more a subject of gratitude to me (though I am already exceedingly grateful), if you perceive that I am beloved by all your family, pray extend and enlarge your favours to me so far as to keep Manius Curius safe and sound ¹ --as the phrase goes--unharmed and free from every sort of annoyance, loss, and molestation. I pledge you my word, and all your friends will be my guarantees for it, that you will reap very great advantage and very high satisfaction from my friendship and from your own kindness. [p. 360]

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¹ Sartum tectum, lit. repaired and roofed. A common phrase for keeping a house in good repair. See p.62.

VI (F XIII, 51)

TO P. CAESIUS

ROME

I commend P. Messienus to you, a Roman knight, a man adorned by every kind of accomplishment, and very intimate with me. This recommendation is meant to be of the most earnest kind possible; and in the name of our own friendship and that of our fathers, I beg you to receive him into your confidence and to protect his property and reputation. You will have secured a good man and one worthy of your friendship, and you will have greatly obliged me.

CCXXIX (F XIII, 53)

TO Q. MINUCIUS THERMUS (PROPRAETOR ASIA)

CILICIA

I have long¹ been very intimate with L. Genucilius Curvus, who is a very excellent man and of an exceedingly grateful disposition. I recommend him to you without reserve, and introduce him to you, in the first place, that you may give him facilities generally in all his affairs, so far as your honour and position will allow--and, indeed, that will be in everything, for he will never ask anything of you inconsistent with his own character, or, indeed, with yours. [p. 93] But in a special manner also I commend to your protection his business concerns in Hellespontus: first, to enable him to maintain the privilege in regard to land-holding, which the state of Parium gave him by decree, and which he has always maintained without dispute; and, in the second place, that you should, in case of his being involved in a suit with a Hellespontian, refer it to that diocese. ² However, I do not think that, having recommended him with the utmost earnestness to you in general, I need go into particular cases affecting him. The upshot is this : whatever attention, kindness, or mark of honour you bestow on Genucilius, I shall consider that you have bestowed on me and my interests.

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¹ Thermus was propraetor in Asia B.C. 52-50. He was a strong Optimate, and we find him in arms for Pompey in B.C. 49 (Caes. B.C. 1.12). Caesar calls him praetor in B.C. 49, but that is probably a loose expression for praetorius. This and the rest of the letters for this year are formal letters of introduction or recommendation. Their chief interest is the light they throw upon the financial position and dealings of a province. Cicero prided himself upon the composition of such letters, but it will be remembered that he warned his friends that they were not to be taken too seriously unless he gave special indications to that effect.

² dioikêsin, i.e., the administrative district of Hellespontus, the district along the Hellespont and Propontis (Dardanelles and Sea of Marmora). The chief town was Cyzicus. Parium was about sixty miles to the west of it, mod. Karnares.

CCLII (F XIII, 54)

TO Q. MINUCIUS THERMUS (PROPRAETOR OF ASIA)

LAODICEA (MARCH)

I am obliged to you for many instances of your attention to my recommendations, but above all for your very courteous treatment of M. Marcilius, son of my friend and interpreter. He has arrived at Laodicea, and in an interview with me has expressed great gratitude to you, and to myself on your account. I therefore ask you as a farther favour, that, as you find your kindness well laid out and meeting with gratitude from those persons, you would be still more ready to oblige them, and would endeavour, as far as your honour shall permit, to prevent the young man's mother-in-law from being prosecuted. I recommended Marcilius to you before with some earnestness: I do so now with still greater, because, in a long course of his service as apparitor, I have found his father Marcilius to be peculiarly and almost incredibly trustworthy, disinterested, and scrupulous. [p. 147]

CCXXXI (F XIII, 55)

TO Q. MINUCIUS THERMUS (IN ASIA)

CILICIA

Although, when I spoke to you at Ephesus of the business of my legate M. Anneius, I gathered that you were strongly inclined to do anything for his own sake, nevertheless, I value M. Anneius so highly, and think that you value me so highly, that I do not hesitate to allow my recommendation to be added as a finishing stroke to your existing [p. 95] willingness to serve him. For, though I have long been attached to M. Anneius--as I have practically shown by offering him a legation unasked, after having refused many who asked for it--yet, since he has been associated with me in war and the conduct of military affairs, I have come to know that his courage, good sense, honour, and loyalty to myself are so eminent, that I now value him as highly as anyone in the world. You know that he has a suit with the people of Sardis: I explained the merits of the case to you at Ephesus: but you will, nevertheless, inquire into it more easily and satisfactorily on the spot. As to the rest, by Hercules, I long hesitated what exactly to write to you. For your manner of deciding questions at law is justly celebrated, and known to your high credit. We, again, have no need of anything in this case, but that you should decide the question according to your usual principles. But yet, since I am fully aware how great the influence of a praetor is--especially a praetor whose character for honesty, firmness, and equity is acknowledged on all hands--I do ask of you, in the name of our very close intimacy and of the many mutual good services, which have benefited us both equally, by a display of cordiality, by an exercise Of influence, and by an exertion of zeal to convince M. Anneius, not only that you are his friend (this he does not doubt, for he has often remarked it to me), but that you have been made much more his friend by this letter of mine. Finally, I don't think you feel any hesitation as to how well you will be investing your kindness with a man of the most grateful disposition and most excellent principles.

CCXXX (F XIII, 56)

TO Q. MINUCIUS THERMUS (IN ASIA)

CILICIA

Cluvius ¹ of Puteoli is very attentive to and intimate with me. He believes that, having business in your province, unless, during your governorship, he has secured it by a letter of recommendation from me, he will have to put it down as lost and hopeless. Well, now, since so heavy a burden is laid on me by a very kind friend, I will also lay a burden on you, warranted by your eminent services to me; and yet in doing so I am unwilling to be troublesome to you. The people of Mylasa and Alabanda owe Cluvius money. Euthydemus told me, when I was at Ephesus, that he would see that ecdici ² were sent from Mylasa to Rome. [p. 94] That has not been done. I hear that legates have been sent; but I prefer ecdici, in order that some settlement may be made. Therefore I beg you to order them and the Alabandians to send ecdici to Rome. Besides this, Philocles of Alabanda has mortgaged some property to Cluvius. The time of the mortgage has expired. I would like you to see that he either gives up possession of the property mortgaged and surrenders it to Cluvius's agents, or pays the money; and farther, that the people of Heraclea and Bargylia, who are also in his debt, should either pay the money or give him a lien on their revenues. The people of Caunus also owe him money, but they allege that they have placed the money on deposit. I should like you to investigate that, and, if you ascertain that they have not deposited the money, either by edict or decree, to see that Cluvius's claim to interest is secured to him by your decision. ³ I am the more anxious on these points, because the interests of our friend Cn. Pompeius is involved also, and because he appears to me to be even more anxious about it than Cluvius himself. ⁴ I am very desirous that he should be satisfied with my exertions on his behalf. On these matters I earnestly and repeatedly ask your assistance.

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¹ M. Cluvius was a banker of Puteoli. He afterwards made Cicero heir to part of his property (Att. 13.46).

² Commissioners in a province authorized to settle a money or other claim, which could be heard at Rome, whereas legati could only petition the senate for some grant or order.

³ If the money was duly deposited at a bank or temple, interest would not be any longer payable.

⁴ Cluvius appears to he acting for Pompey, and some suppose that Pompey was the real creditor in all these cases.

CCLIII (F XIII, 57)

TO Q. MINUCIUS THERMUS {PROPRAETOR IN ASIA)

LAODICEA, MARCH

The more I am assured every day by letters and messages that a serious war is on foot in Syria, the more earnest am I in my request to you, in the name of our close friendship, that you would send back my legate M. Anneius to me at the earliest possible moment. For by his activity, wisdom, and knowledge of military affairs I well know that both I and the state can receive the most important assistance. Indeed, had it not been of such urgent importance to him, he would never have been induced to quit me, nor I to let him go. I think of starting for Cilicia about the 1st of May. Before that day M. Anneius is bound to rejoin me. The request which I pressed upon you very earnestly, both in a personal interview and by letter, I now reiterate-- that you should take pains to enable him to settle the business he has with the Sardians as the justice of his case and the dignity of his character demand. I gathered from your remarks, when I conversed with you at Ephesus, that you were ready to do anything for the sake of M. Anneius himself. Yet I should wish you to think that you could not oblige me more than by letting me see that he has settled his business to his satisfaction owing to your support, and I beg you again and again to see that done at the earliest possible time. [p. 148]

CCXLVII (F XIII, 58)

TO C. TITUS RUFUS (PRAETOR URBANUS)

LAODICEA (FEBRUARY)

L. Custidius is my fellow tribesman, fellow townsman, and intimate friend. He has a suit at law, which he is about to bring before you. I limit my recommendation of him to you--as your honour and my modesty demand--to asking for him a ready access to you: that in all just demands he may be successful without any reluctance on your part, and may have reason to know that my friendship, though I am very far away, is of service to him, especially with you

CCXLVI (F XIII, 59)

TO C. CURTIUS PEDUCAEANUS (PRAETOR)

LAODICEA (FEBRUARY)

I am particularly attached to M. Fadius and see a very great deal of him, and my intimacy with him is of very old standing. In the suit in which he is engaged I don't ask for your decision--you will, as your honour and position demand, stand by your edict and the principles of administration you have established--but only that he may have as ready an approach to you as possible, may obtain his just rights without reluctance on your part, and may find by experience that my friendship, even though I am far away, is of use to him, especially with you. This much I do earnestly and repeatedly ask of you. [p. 122]

CLXIII (F XIII, 60)

TO C. MUNATIUS (IN A PROVINCE)

ROME

L. Livineius Trypho is to begin with a freedman of my most intimate friend L. Regulus (whose disaster makes me more than ever anxious to do him some service--for as far as feeling goes I could not be warmer): but I also am attached to his freedman on his own account, for he shewed me very great kindness at that time in my career, when I was best able to see men's real goodwill and fidelity. I recommend him to you with all the warmth that one who is grateful and not oblivious should use in recommending those who have done him good service. You will have greatly gratified me if he is made to feel that in confronting many dangers for my security, and often undertaking voyages in the depths of winter, he has also put you under an obligation in view of your kind feeling towards me.

CCXXXII (F XIII, 61)

TO P. SILIUS NERVA (PROPRAETOR OF BITHYNIA AND PONTUS)

CILICIA

I think you know that I was very intimate with T. Pinnius. This fact he testified by his will, for he appointed me both a [p. 96] guardian and an heir in the second degree. To his son, who is attached to me and is a man of learning and good character, the people of Nicaea owe a large sum of money, amounting to eight million sesterces (about £64,000), and, as I am informed, they are especially anxious to pay him. I shall be much obliged therefore--for not only the other guardians, who know how highly you value me, but the boy himself also are convinced that you will do anything for me--if you will take the trouble to see, as far as your honour and position will allow, that as large a part of the money as possible is paid to Pinnius on account of the people of Nicaea.

CCXXXIII (F XIII, 62)

TO P. SILIUS NERVA (IN BITHYNIA)

CILICIA

I was very much obliged to you in the business of Atilius--for though I was late in the field I managed by your kindness to save a respectable Roman knight--and, by Hercules, I always did believe that you were one on whom I could rely, owing to the attachment to and rare friendship with Lamia common to us both. Accordingly, first of all I offer you my thanks for having freed me from all annoyance; then I follow this up with a piece of impudence--but I will make up for it: for I will always pay you attention and stand up for you with the utmost energy. Pray, if you care for me, be sure you hold my brother Quintus in the same regard as you do me. By so doing you will crown your kindness and greatly enhance it. [p. 97]

CCL (F XIII, 63)

TO P. SILIUS NERVA (PROPRAETOR OF BITHYNIA AND PONTUS)

LAODICEA, FEBRUARY

I never thought that I could possibly be at a 1055 for words, but I certainly am so in writing a letter of commendation for M. Laenius. I will, therefore, state the case to you in a few words, yet enough to shew you my feelings. Both I and my dearest brother have a value for M. Laenius which passes belief. This arises, indeed, from his very numerous services to us, but also from his extreme honesty and the eminent correctness of his conduct. It is with the greatest reluctance that I am parting with him, as well on account of our close intimacy and the charm of his society, as because I am glad to have the advantage of his candid and sound advice. But I am afraid that you will be thinking that the words, for which I said that I was at a loss, are already more than enough. I commend him to you with all the warmth you perceive that I am bound to feel for one of whom I use such language as the above: and I ask you earnestly and repeatedly to facilitate his business in your province, and [p. 133] to give him personally any information you think you fairly can. You will find him most reasonable and gentlemanlike. Therefore I beg you to send him back to me as soon as possible, disembarrassed and free, with his business accomplished as far as it lies in your hands. You will very greatly oblige me and my brother by so doing.

CCXXXIV (F XIII, 64)

TO P. SILIUS NERVA (IN BITHYNIA)

CILICIA

My friend Nero ¹ thanks me in terms of quite astonishing and incredible warmth, saying that no mark of honour which could have been given him was omitted by you. You will be richly rewarded by him, for he is the most grateful young fellow in the world. But, by heaven, I too am exceedingly obliged to you: for of all our men of rank I value none more than him. And so, if you do what he wished me to ask of you, I shall be supremely obliged: first, in the matter of Pausanias of Alabanda, if you would keep the business back till Nero arrives--I have gathered that he is very interested in him, and so I put this request strongly--and next if you would regard as specially commended to your care the people of Nysa, ² whom Nero regards as his special friends and is most energetic in protecting and defending, so that this city may feel that its best protection consists in Nero being its patron. I have often recommended Servilius Strabo ³ to you: I now do so with the greater earnestness that Nero has taken up his case. I only ask you to push on the business, so as not to leave an innocent man a prey to the greed of some governor unlike yourself. This will be a favour to me; but I shall also consider it an instance of your natural kindness. The upshot of this letter is that you should advance Nero in all possible ways, as you have started doing [p. 98] and have done. Your province, unlike this of mine, offers a wide theatre ⁴ for displaying the glorious reputation of a young man of high birth, genius, and disinterested conduct. Wherefore, if he enjoys your support, as I am sure he will do and has done, he will be enabled to secure and bind to his interests most respectable bodies of clients which are a heritage from his ancestors. In this respect, if you give him your assistance, with the man himself you will have made a splendid investment of your kindness, but you will also have exceedingly obliged me.

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¹ T. Claudius Nero, the future husband of Livia. He seems to have visited Cicero with a view to marrying Tullia, but was too late, Terentia having already betrothed her to Dolabella. See Letter CCLXXV.

² Nysa, in Caria, was known at this time for several eminent philosophers and rhetoricians, and was therefore probably visited by Roman Youths, and had need of a patronus (Strabo, 14.2.43-48).

³ Nothing is known of this man, apparently. He seems to be a Carian Greek, a freedman of some Servilius. It is a curious coincidence that the geographer Strabo studied at Nysa, are probably not long after this time.

⁴ What Cicero means by calling Bithynia a "theatre" is explained by reference to vol. i., p. 85.

CCXXXV (F XIII, 65)

TO P. SILIUS NERVA (PROPRAETOR OF BITHYNIA AND PONTUS)

CILICIA

I am very intimate and in constant communication with P. Terentius Hispo, who is engaged in the collection of the pasture-dues as deputy-manager, ¹ and many important services, equally advantageous to us both, have been interchanged between us. It is of capital importance to his reputation to settle the contracts with the remaining states. I don't forget that we tried to do that at Ephesus, but were quite unable to get the assent of the Ephesians. But since, as is the general opinion, and, as I understand, you have secured as well by your singular uprightness, as by your kindness and gentleness, that the slightest expression of your wish meets with the readiest consent of the Greeks to any object you have in view, I beg you with more than common [p. 99] earnestness, for the sake of my credit, to determine that Hispo shall gain this distinction. ² I may add that I am closely connected with the partners in the pasture company, not only because that company as a body is my client, but also because I am very intimate with most of the individual partners. By acting thus you will not only have assisted my friend Hispo in consequence of a recommendation of mine, and given the company still greater confidence in me, but you will yourself also receive the most ample reward from the regard of this most gratefully disposed man, as well as the thanks of the partners, who are men of the highest position, and you will have done me personally a very great kindness. Pray be assured that in your whole province and the whole sphere of your government there is nothing that you can do that could gratify me more.

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¹ On the public pastures the inhabitants fed cattle, paying a fixed sum (scriptura) for the privilege. In Asia this scriptura was collected by companies of publicani, who payed a fixed sum to the treasury, and then covenanted with each state as to the amount payable. The head of such a company (consisting of equites) was called magister, the local agent pro magistro on the analogy of pro consule, pro praetore, etc,

² As agent for his company. The smoother things went, no doubt, the better for the agent, as in all businesses.

DIV (F XIII, 66)

TO P. SERVILIUS VATIA ISAURICUS (IN ASIA)

ROME

I SHOULD not have undertaken to recommend Aulus Caecina ¹ to you, who is a client of your family in a very special sense, as I was fully aware how loyal to your friends and how indulgent to men in exile you were ever wont to be, had not both the memory of his father, with whom I was [p. 149] exceedingly intimate, and his own misfortune affected me as that of a man most closely united to me by mutual interests and good services of every kind was bound to do. I ask with all my might as a favour from you--with an earnestness indeed and heartfelt anxiety beyond which I cannot go in asking anything--that you would allow a letter from me to add a finishing stroke to what, without anyone's recommendation, you would have spontaneously done for a man of such high and noble character, labouring under so heavy a calamity. Let it induce you to be even more zealous in assisting him in whatever ways you may have the power of doing so. If you had been at Rome, we should--as I think--have even secured Aulus Caecina's recall by your assistance. Of this, after all, I still have a strong hope, relying on the forgiving nature of your colleague. ² For the present, as in reliance on your sense of justice he has concluded your province to be his safest harbour of refuge, I beg and beseech you again and again to assist him in collecting the remnants of his old business, and to protect and watch over him in all other matters. You can do nothing that will oblige me more.

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¹ See ante, p.119.

² Caesar had been a colleague of Servilius's in the consulship of B.C. 49. They were also both members of the college of augurs. See ante, p 108.

DV (F XIII, 67)

TO P. SERVILIUS VATIA ISAURICUS (IN ASIA)

ROME

IN all my province of Cilicia, to which, as you know, were joined three Asiatic dioceses, ¹ I was not more intimate with anyone than with Andron, son of Artemon, of Laodicea, and in that city I regarded him both as a guest and as a man eminently adapted to my way of life and habits. I learnt, Indeed, to value him at a much higher rate, after I left the [p. 150] province, because I discovered by many instances that he was grateful and did not forget me. Accordingly, I was most delighted to see him at Rome. For it does not escape your observation, having done favours to a great number of people in that province, what proportion of them are found to shew gratitude. My object in writing, therefore, is both that you should understand that I do not take this trouble without good reason, and that you should yourself decide that he is worthy of being admitted to your society. You will therefore have done me a very great favour, if you make it clear to him how highly you value me, that is, if you accord him your patronage and assist him in whatever matter you can consistently with your own honour and convenience. This will be a very great gratification to me, and I ask you again and again to do so.

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¹ Cibyra, Apamea, Synnada. See vol. ii., p.70.

CDLXXX (F XIII, 68)

TO P. SERVILIUS ISAURICUS (IN ASIA)

ROME (SEPTEMBER)

I was exceedingly obliged by your letter giving me an account of your voyages. For you indicated your recollection [p. 108] of our friendship, than which nothing could be more grateful to my feelings. For the future you will oblige me still more if you will write to me in a friendly way about public affairs, that is, the state of your province, and the details of your administration. Although I shall be sure to hear of these things from many people, considering your distinguished position, nevertheless I should be extremely glad to learn them from a letter of your own. For my part, I shall not often write to you my sentiments on imperial politics owing to the risk of a letter of that kind; but of what is actually being done I will frequently inform you Still I seem to hope that our colleague ¹ Caesar will be careful to see that we have a constitution of some kind. It was of great importance that you should take part in his deliberations: but if it is more for your interests, that is, better for your reputation, that you should govern Asia and protect a part of the empire which has suffered from misgovernment, ² I also am bound to prefer that course which will best serve you and your glory. For my part, I will attend with the greatest zeal and activity to whatever I think likely to be of importance to your position; and first and foremost I will guard with every kind of respectful attention your most illustrious father, ³ as I am bound to do in view of our long standing friendship, of the kindnesses received by me from your family, and of his own noble character. [p. 109]

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¹ Caesar had become an augur, in virtue of a decree of B.C. 47 making him a member of all the sacred colleges (Dio, 42, 51). We do not know the date of the election of Isauricus--Caesar's colleague in the consulship of B.C. 48-but it was probably in B.C. 47, when there were two death vacancies (Q. Cassius and Appius Claudius). He was now proconsul of Asia. For Cicero's election in B.C. 53, see vol. ii., p.107 (note); cp. vol. i., p.90.

² The sort of injuries inflicted on Asia may be gathered from vol. i., p.73; cp. de imper Pomp. § 64.

³ P. Servilius Vatia, consul B.C. 79, who has received the cognomen of Isauricus from his victory over the Isaurian robber tribes (B.C. 78), for which he celebrated a triumph in B.C. 74. He died in B.C. 44.

DVI (F XIII, 69)

TO P. SERVILIUS VATIA ISAURICUS (IN ASIA)

ROME

C. Curtius Mithres is in fact, as you know, a freedman of my very intimate friend Postumus, but he pays me as much attention and respect as he does his own patron himself. At Ephesus, as often as I was in that town, his house was as open to me as my own, and many things occurred which gave me occasion to learn his affection and fidelity to myself. Accordingly, if either I or any of my friends had occasion for anything in Asia, it has been my habit to write to him, and to use his services and fidelity as well as his house and means as though they were my own. I tell you this at the greater length, to make you understand that I am not writing conventionally or for unworthy motives, but as I should do for a man with whom I am intimate and have very close ties. My request to you, therefore, is that in the lawsuit in which he is engaged with a certain Colophonian as to the possession of an estate, you should in compliment to me afford [p. 151] him every assistance in your power, as far as your honour and convenience will allow: though my knowledge of his reasonable character assures me that he will never be an embarrassment to you. If by means of my recommendation and his own uprightness he secures your good opinion, he will think that he has gained all he desires. I therefore earnestly beg you again and again to accord him your patronage and put him on the list of your friends. On my side, whatever I think that you wish or is to your interest, I will see to with zeal and activity.

DVII (F XIII, 70)

TO P. SERVILIUS VATIA ISAURICUS (IN ASIA)

ROME

YOUR affection for me is so notorious that many seek to be recommended to you by my means. Now I grant that favour at times indiscriminately, but generally only to close friends, as in the present instance: for I am very intimate and very closely connected with T. Ampius Balbus. His freedman T. Ampius Menander, a man of strict morals, good conduct, and highly thought of both by his patron and myself, I commend to you with no common warmth. You will do me a very great favour, if you will oblige him in any matters consistent with your own convenience. I earnestly ask you again and again to do so. [p. 152]

DVIII (F XIII, 71)

TO P. SERVILIUS VATIA ISAURICUS (IN ASIA)

ROME

IT is inevitable that I should recommend many persons to you, for everyone knows our intimacy and your kindly feeling towards me. Nevertheless, though I am bound to wish well to all whom I recommend, yet I have not the same reason to do so in the case of all. Titus Agusius was by my side during the most miserable time of my life, and was the companion of all my journeys, voyages, labours, and dangers: nor would he now have left my side, had I not granted him permission. Therefore I recommend him to you as one of my own household and of those most closely united to me. You will very much oblige me if you make him feel by your treatment of him that this recommendation has been of great service and assistance to him.

DIX (F XIII, 72)

TO P. SERVILIUS VATIA ISAURICUS (IN ASIA)

ROME

IN an interview with you in your suburban villa I commended to you the property, investments, and estates in Asia of my friend Caerellia ¹ as earnestly as I could, and you promised me with the greatest liberality to do everything possible in a manner consonant with your unbroken and [p. 153] eminent services to me. I hope you remember the fact: I know that it is your habit to do so. Nevertheless, Caerellia's agents have written to me to say that, Owing to the wide extent of your province and the multiplicity of your engagements, you need to be frequently reminded. I ask you, therefore, to remember that you promised me in the amplest terms that you would do everything your honour would allow. In my opinion--but it is a matter for yourself to consider and decide-you have now an excellent Opportunity of obliging Caerellia in accordance with the decree of the senate passed in regard to the heirs of C. Vennonius. That decree you. will interpret in the light of your own wisdom. For I know that the authority of that order has always been great in your eyes. For the rest, please believe that in whatever particulars you may have done kindnesses to Caerellia, you will be very greatly obliging me.

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¹ Cicero seems to have owed money to this rich lady (Att. 12.51). She posed as a philosopher and authoress, but seems to have not been very scrupulous as to where she got materials for her books (Att. 42.21, 22).

CLXIV (F XIII, 73)

TO Q. PHILIPPUS (PROCONSUL OF ASIA)

ROME

I congratulate you on your safe return to your family from your province, without loss to your reputation or to the state. But if I had seen you at Rome I should also have thanked you for having looked after L. Egnatius, my most intimate friend, who is still absent, and L. Oppius, who is here. With Antipater of Derbe I have become not merely on visiting terms, but really very intimate. I have been told that you are exceedingly angry with him, and I was very sorry to hear it. I have no means of judging the merits of the case, only I am persuaded that a man of your character has done [p. 343] nothing without good reason. However, I do beg of you again and again that, in consideration of our old friendship, you will, for my sake if for anyone's, grant his sons, who are in your power, their liberty, unless you consider that in doing so your reputation may be injured. If I had thought that, I would never have made the request, for your fame is of more importance in my eyes than any friendship with him. But I persuade myself--though I may possibly be mistaken--that this measure will bring you honour rather than abuse. What can be done in the matter, and what you can do for my sake (for as to your willingness I feel no doubt), I should be obliged by your informing me, if it is not too much trouble to you.

CXXVII (F XIII, 74)

TO Q. PHILIPPUS (PROCONSUL IN ASIA)

ROME

Though, considering your attention to me and our close ties, I have no doubt of your remembering my recommendation, yet I again and again recommend to you the same L. Oppius, my intimate friend who is now in Rome, and the business of L. Egnatius, my very intimate friend who is now abroad. With the latter my connexion and intimacy are so strong, that I could not be more anxious if the business were my own. Wherefore I shall be highly gratified if you take the trouble to make him feel that I have as high a place in your affections as I think I have. You cannot oblige me more than by doing so: and I beg you warmly to do it.

CLXXVII (F XIII, 75)

TO TITUS TITIUS, A LEGATUS

ROME

Though I have no doubt that my first introduction retains its full value in your eyes,¹ I yet yield to the request of a man with whom I am very intimate, C. Avianius Flaccus, for whose sake I not only desire, but am in duty bound to [p. 359] secure every possible favour. In regard to him I both spoke earnestly to you in a personal interview--on which occasion you answered me with the greatest kindness--and have written with full particulars to you on a previous occasion; but he thinks it to his interest that I should write to you as often as possible. Wherefore I would have you pardon me if in compliance with his wishes, I shall appear to be at all forgetful of the stability of your character. What I beg of you is this--that you would accommodate Avianius as to the place and time for landing his corn: for which he obtained by my influence a three years' licence whilst Pompey was at the head of that business. The chief thing is--and you can therein lay me under the greatest obligation--that you should have convinced Avianius that I enjoy your affection, since he thinks himself secure of mine. You will greatly oblige me by doing this.

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¹ Pompey was prafectus annonae B.C. 57-52. As such he had a number of legati, of whom this Titus Titius was one; but there is nothing to shew in which of the corn-supplying countries he was employed. Avianius is a corn merchant, and wants concessions as to the importation of his cargoes.

I (F XIII, 76)

TO THE QUATTUORVIRI AND DECURIONES OF [?FABRATERIA]

ROME ¹

I have so many reasons for being intimate with Quintus Hippius, that nothing can be more closely united than we are with each other. If that were not so, I should have maintained my usual resolution of not being troublesome to you in any matter. For in fact you are my best witnesses that, though I was convinced that there was nothing I might not obtain at your hands, I have never wished to be burdensome to you. I therefore beg you again and again with warmth that you would for my sake treat Gaius Valgius Hippianus ² as liberally as possible, and come to such a settlement, that he may be able to hold without obligation or charge the estate in the territory of Fregellae which he [p. 364] purchased from you. If I obtain that favour from you I shall consider that I have received a very signal kindness at your hands.

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¹ Though Fregellae was destroyed in B.C. 124, the name of the territory seems to have remained--the ager Fregellanus, and there was a station on the Latin road which was still called Fregellanum. It is possible that the town alluded to is Fabrateria in this district, which was made a Roman colony in B.C. 124, but it is not at all certain.

² Apparently a son of Q. Hippius mentioned above, who had been adopted by a Valgius.

DXXVIII (F XIII, 77)

TO P. SULPICIUS RUFUS (IN ILLYRICUM)

ROME (AUTUMN)

Marcus Cicero sends warmest greeting to Publius Sulpicius¹ , imperator. Though in these times it is not my [p. 172] custom to appear often in the senate, yet, when I read your letter, I made up my mind that I could not omit supporting the honour proposed for you, with due regard to the claims of our old friendship and of the many acts of kindness that have passed between us. Accordingly, I attended and had great pleasure in voting for the supplicatio in your honour, nor in the future will I at any time fail to support your interests, character, or public position. So, that your family may be aware of this feeling of mine towards you, pray write and tell them that in anything you need they should not hesitate to inform me of it as a matter of right.

I strongly commend Marcus Bolanus to you as an excellent and gallant man, highly accomplished in every way, and an old friend of my own. You will much oblige me if you will take care to make him understand that this introduction has been of great service to him. He will himself convince you of his excellent character and grateful disposition: and I promise you that you will reap great pleasure from his friendship.

Once more I beg you with more than common earnestness, in the name of our friendship and your unbroken zeal in my service, to bestow some pains on the following matter also. Dionysius, a slave of mine who had the care of my library, worth a large sum of money, having purloined a large number of books, and thinking that he could not escape punishment, absconded. He is in your province: my friend Marcus Bolanus and many others saw him at Narona; but they believed his assertion that I had given him his freedom. If you would take the trouble to restore this man to me, I can't tell you how much obliged I shall be to you. It is a small matter in itself; yet my vexation is serious. Bolanus will inform you where he is and what can be done. If I recover the man by your means, I shall consider myself to have received a great kindness at your hands.

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¹ From [Caes.] B. Afr. 10, it appears that Vatinius and Sulpicius had been in joint command of Caesar's fleet before B.C. 46, but had then ceased to be so. Vatinius had been engaged in B.C. 48-47 in Illyricum against Octavius, and in B.C. 45 was again in command in the same country, which, though not a regular province-being generally attached either to Macedonia or (as in Caesar's case) to Gaul--was during this period made subject to a separate command. It is probable, therefore, that Sulpicius was in command in Illyricum in the intervening year, B.C. 46. It is not, however, known from any other source, and some of the old editors addressed this letter toVatinius in B.C. 45, against all MSS.

DXXIII (F XIII, 78)

TO AULUS ALLIENUS (IN SICILY)

ROME

DEMOCRITUS of Sicyon is not only my guest-firend, but also very intimate with me, as is not often the case with such men, ¹ especially if they are Greeks. For his honesty and virtue are of the highest kind, and he is exceedingly liberal and attentive to his guest-friends, and distinguishes me above the rest by his respect, attentions, and affection. You must regard him as the leading man not only of his fellow citizens, but almost of all Achaia. For such a man I do no more than open the door and pave the way to an acquaintance with you: when you once know him, your natural disposition is such that you will decide him to be worthy of your friendship and society. What I ask of you, then, is that on reading this letter you should accord him your patronage, and promise to do everything for him for my sake. For the rest, if; as I feel sure will be the case, you ascertain him to be deserving of your friendship and society, I ask you to receive him with open arms, to love him, and to regard him as one of your own family. That will be a more than common favour to me. Good-bye.

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¹ I. e., hospites, foreigners with whom a Roman had some agreement as to mutual entertainment, not necessarily implying intimacy. For Cicero's view as to intimacy with Greeks, see vol. 1., p.127.

DXXIV (F XIII, 79)

TO AULUS ALLIENUS (IN SICILY)

ROME

I THINK, in the first place, that you know the value I have for C. Avianius Flaccus, and, in the next place, I have heard from himself--a most excellent and grateful man-with what [p. 167] liberality he has been treated by you. His sons-quite worthy of their father and close friends of my own, occupying a special place in my affection--I recommend to you with an earnestness beyond which I cannot go in recommending anyone. Gaius Avianius is in Sicily; Marcus is with us. I beg you to promote the social standing of the former, who is with you, and to defend the property of both. You cannot oblige me more by anything you do in your province. I beg you warmly and repeatedly to do so.