Cicero’s Letters to his Friends, Book 15 (15.12 missing)

Translated by Evelyn Shuckburgh

CCXX (F XV, 1)

TO THE MAGISTRATES AND SENATE

CILICIA, 22 SEPTEMBER

M. Tullius Cicero, son of Marcus, proconsul, greets the consuls, praetors, tribunes, and senate. If you are well, I am glad. I and the army are well.

Although I had undoubted assurance that the Parthians had crossed the Euphrates with nearly all their forces, yet, believing that more definite information could be sent you on these points by the proconsul M. Bibulus, I concluded that it was not incumbent on me to mention in a public despatch reports reaching me concerning the province of another. Having since then, however, received information on the most unquestionable authority-from legates, messengers, and despatches--whether I considered the importance of the matter itself, or the fact of not having yet heard of Bibulus's arrival [p. 66] in Syria, or that the conduct of this war was almost as much my business as that of Bibulus, I came to the conclusion that it was my duty to write you word of what had reached my ears. The legates of king Antiochus of Commagene were the first to inform me that large bodies of Parthians had begun to cross the Euphrates. On the receipt of this report, as there were certain persons who thought that full credit could not be given to that sovereign, I made up my mind that I must wait for more trustworthy information. On the 18th of September, whilst marching into Cilicia at the head of my army, on the frontier between Lycaonia and Cappadocia, a despatch was handed to me from Tarcondimotus, who is considered to be the most faithful ally and the most devoted friend of the Roman people beyond Mount Taurus, announcing that Pacorus, son of Orodes, the king of the Parthians, had crossed the Euphrates with a very large body of Parthian cavalry, and had pitched his camp at Tyba, and that consequently a very serious commotion had been caused in the province of Syria. On the same day a despatch on the same subject reached me from Iamblichus, phylarch of the Arabians, ¹ who is generally considered to be well-disposed and friendly to our Republic. Though I was fully aware that, on receipt of this information, our allies were unsettled in their feelings and wavering from the expectation of political change, I yet hoped that those whom I had already visited, and who had seen the mildness and purity of my administration, had been made more devoted to the Roman people, and that Cilicia, too, would become more certainly loyal when it had once felt the advantage of my equitable rule. Acting at once from this motive, and also with a view to put down those of the Cilicians who are in arms, and to show the enemy in Syria that the army of the Roman people, so far from retiring on receipt of that news, was actually approaching nearer, I determined to lead it right up to Mount Taurus. But if my authority has any weight with you--especially in matters which you only know by report, but which are all [p. 67] but passing under my eyes--I strongly urge and advise you to take measures for the defence of these provinces: it is over-late already, but better late than never. For myself, you are well aware how slenderly supplied and how imperfectly furnished with troops, in view of the expected gravity of this war, you have despatched me. And it was not from the blindness of vanity, but from a modest scruple as to refusing, that I did not decline this business. For I have never considered any danger so formidable, as to make me wish to avoid it in preference to obeying your will. But at this moment the matter is of such a nature, that unless you promptly despatch into these provinces an army on the same scale as you are wont to employ for the most important war, there is the most imminent danger of our having to give up all those provinces, on which the revenues of the Roman people depend. Again, there is this reason for your not resting any hopes on a levy in the province--that men are not numerous, and that such as there are fly in every direction at the first alarm. Again, what this class of soldier is worth in his opinion has been shown by that gallant officer, M. Bibulus: for, though you had granted him leave to hold a levy in Asia, he has declined to do so. ² For auxiliaries raised from the allies, owing to the harshness and injustice of our rule, are either so weak that they can do us little service, or so disaffected to us that it seems improper to expect anything from them or trust anything to them. Both the loyalty and the forces, whatever their amount, of king Deiotarus I reckon as being at our service. Cappadocia has nothing to give. Other kings and despots are not to be relied upon either in regard to their resources or their loyalty. For myself, in spite of this short supply of soldiers, I shall certainly show no lack of courage, nor, I hope, of prudence either. What will happen is uncertain. I pray that I may be able to secure my safety! I will certainly secure my honour. [p. 68]

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¹ Of these petty princes, Antiochus had been established in Commagene in B.C. 63-62 by Pompey, as also probably Tarcondimotus in part of Cilicia. Iamblichus, the Bedouin chief, was put to death by Antony in B.C. 31, but his son was restored by Augustus. He had also no doubt owed his establishment or restoration to Pompey in B.C. 63.

² A governor of one province could not hold levies in another without special grant of the senate. An exception had been proposed for Pompey in B.C. 57, when he was appointed praefectus annonae, and apparently was made in and after his consulships of B.C. 55 and 52.

CCXVIII (F XV, 2)

TO THE MAGISTRATES AND SENATE

CYBISTRA (SEPTEMBER)

M. Tullius Cicero, son of Marcus, greets the consuls, praetors, tribunes, and senate. If you are well, I am glad. I and the army are well.

Having entered the province on the last day of July, not having been able to arrive earlier owing to the difficulty of the journey both by land and sea, I thought the thing most suitable to my office, and most conducive to the public welfare, was to provide everything affecting the army and its active service. These arrangements having been made by me with more care and energy than means or sufficient supplies, and messages and letters reaching me nearly every day concerning an invasion of the province of Syria by the Parthians, I thought that I ought to direct my march through Lycaonia, the Isaurians, and Cappadocia. For there was very strong reason to conjecture that, should the Parthians endeavour to quit Syria and invade my province, they would march through Cappadocia, as being most completely open to them. Accordingly, I marched with the army through that part of Cappadocia which borders on Cilicia, and pitched my camp at Cybistra, which is a town at the foot of Mount Taurus, in order that Artavasdes, the Armenian king, whatever his disposition, might know that an army of the Roman people was not far from his frontier ; and that I might have in as close contact as possible king Deiotarus, a sovereign who is most loyal and devoted to our Republic, since his advice and material support might be of assistance to the public interests. Having my camp in this place, and having sent the cavalry into Cilicia--in order that my arrival, having been notified to the communities in that region, might confirm the loyal dispositions of all, and at the same time that I might get early information of what was going on in Syria-- [p. 62] I thought I ought to give the three days of my stay in that camp to a high and necessary duty. For, seeing that a formal resolution of yours had imposed upon me the duty of protecting king Ariobarzanes (surnamed Eusebes and Philorhomaeus), of defending the personal safety of that sovereign and the integrity of his dominions, and of being the guardian of king and kingdom alike: and seeing that you had appended a declaration that the safety of that sovereign was a matter of great concern to the people and senate--a decree such as had never been passed by our house concerning any king before--I thought myself bound to report the expression of your opinion to the king, and to promise him my protection and a faithful and energetic support, in order that, as his personal safety and the integrity of his dominions had been commended to my care, he might communicate to me anything he wished to be done. Having, in the presence of my council, communicated these things to the king, he began his reply by the proper expression of his warmest thanks to you: and then went on to thank me also, saying that he looked upon it as a very great and honourable distinction that his personal safety should be a matter of concern to the senate and people of Rome, and that I should exhibit such energy as to put beyond doubt my own good faith and the weight of your recommendation. And, indeed, at this first interview, he also assured me of what I was very delighted to hear, that he neither knew nor had a suspicion of any plots either against his own life or against his kingdom. After I had congratulated him and said that I rejoiced to hear it, and yet had advised him as a young man to remember the disaster of his father's death, to protect himself with vigilance, and, in accordance with the injunction of the senate, to take measures for his safety, he then left me and returned to the town of Cybistra. However, next day he came to visit me in the camp, accompanied by his brother Ariarathes and some elder men, who had been his father's friends. In a state of agitation and with tears in his eyes--his brother and friends showing the same signs of distress--he began appealing to my good faith and the charge imposed on me by you. On my asking with surprise what had occurred, he said that "information of an undoubted conspiracy had been communicated to him, [p. 63] which had been withheld from him before my arrival, because those who might have denounced it to him had kept silence through fear, but that now, relying upon my protection several persons had boldly informed him of what they knew: that among these his most devoted brother had told him" (a story which the latter repeated in my hearing) "that he had been solicited to aim at becoming king: that so long as his brother was alive he could not accept that suggestion ; but that from fear of the danger he had never revealed the circumstance." After this speech I advised the king that he should take every precaution to preserve his life ; and I exhorted the friends, who had enjoyed the confidence of his father and grandfather, to guard the life of their sovereign with all care and vigilance, warned by his father's most lamentable murder. Upon the king asking me for some cavalry and cohorts from my army, though I was fully aware that in view of your senatorial decree I was not only authorized, but even bound to comply, yet, since the public interests demanded, owing to the news daily arriving from Syria, that I should lead the army as soon as possible to the frontiers of Cilicia--and since the king, now that the plot had been denounced, seemed not to be in need of an army of the Roman people, but to be capable of defending himself by his own resources, I urged him to learn his first lesson in the art of ruling by taking measures to preserve his life: that upon those by whom he had discovered that a plot was being laid against him he should exercise his sovereign rights: punish those who must be punished, relieve the rest from fear: use the protection of my army rather to inspire fear in the guilty than to keep up a state of civil war: the result would be no doubt that all, having been made acquainted with the decree of the senate, would understand that in accordance with your resolution I should protect the king if necessary.

Having thus encouraged him, I broke up my camp there, and began my march into Cilicia, leaving behind me on my departure from Cappadocia an impression that by your policy my arrival, owing to a strange and almost providential accident, had relieved from an actual plot a sovereign to whom you had given unsolicited that title in most complimentary terms, whom you had entrusted to my honour, [p. 64] and whose safety you had declared in a decree to be a matter of great concern to you. I thought it was not improper that my despatch should inform you of this circumstance, in order that you might learn from what almost happened that you had long before taken the precautions necessary to prevent it: and I have been all the more ready to give you the information, because in king Ariobarzanes I think I have detected such signs of virtue and ability, as well as of good faith and loyalty to you, that you appear to have had good reason for all the care and energy you have devoted to his protection.

CCXI (F XV, 3)

TO M. PORCIUS CATO (AT ROME)

ICONIUM, 28 AUGUST

Ambassadors sent to me by Antiochus of Commagene having arrived at the camp at Iconium on the 28th of August, [p. 52] and having announced to me that the son of the king of the Parthians, whose wife was the sister of the king of the Armenians, had arrived on the Euphrates with a very large force of Parthians, and a great host of other nations besides, and had actually begun the passage of the Euphrates, and that it was reported that the Armenian king was about to make a raid upon Cappadocia--I thought that, considering our close friendship, I ought to write and tell you this news. I have sent no public despatch for two reasons: first, because the ambassadors said that the Commagenian himself had at once sent messengers and a despatch to the senate; and, secondly, because I believed that M. Bibulus, proconsul of Syria, who started thither by sea from Ephesus about the 13th of August, seeing that he had had the wind in his favour, had by this time arrived in his own province, and I thought that the senate was sure to get more definite information on all points in a despatch from him. For myself, considering the circumstances and the gravity of the war, my chief anxiety is to retain by my own leniency and purity, and the loyalty of our allies, what I can scarcely hope to retain by the amount of my forces and material resources. I would beg you, on your part, to continue your habitual affection for me and the defence of me in my absence. ¹

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¹ The object of this letter addressed to the head of the Optimate party, as far as it had a head, seems to be to induce Cato to propose a reinforcement for Cicero, or to prepare Cato to defend him in case of failure. Cato was not in any office at this time; but as an ex-praetor he would have a fairly early opportunity of delivering a sententia in the senate.

CCXXXVII (F XV, 4)

TO M. PORCIUS CATO (AT ROME)

CILICIA (JANUARY)

Your own immense prestige and my unvarying belief in your consummate virtue have convinced me of the great importance it is to me that you should be acquainted with what I have accomplished, and that you should not be ignorant of the equity and disinterestedness with which I protected our allies and governed my province. For if you knew these facts, I thought I should with greater ease secure your approval of my wishes.

Having entered my province on the last day of July, and seeing that the time of year made it necessary for me to make all haste to the army, I spent but two days at Laodicea, four at Apamea, three at Synnada, and the same at Philomelium. ¹ Having held largely attended assizes in these towns, I freed a great number of cities from very vexatious tributes, excessive interest, and fraudulent debt. Again, the army having before my arrival been broken up by something like a mutiny, ² and five cohorts--without a legate or a--military tribune, and, in fact, actually without a single centurion-having taken up its quarters at Philomelium, while the rest of the army was in Lycaonia, I ordered my legate M. Anneius to bring those five cohorts to join the main army; and, having thus got the whole army together into one place, to pitch a camp at Iconium in Lycaonia This order having been energetically executed by him, I arrived at the camp myself on the 24th of August, having meanwhile, in accordance with the decree of the senate, collected in the intervening days a strong body of reserve men, a very [p. 102] adequate force of cavalry, and a contingent of volunteers from the free peoples and allied sovereigns. While this was going on, and when, after reviewing the army, I had on the 28th of August begun my march to Cilicia, some legates sent to me by the sovereign of Commagene announced, with every sign of panic, yet not without some foundation, that the Parthians had entered Syria. On hearing this I was rendered very anxious both for Syria and my own province, and, in fact, for all the rest of Asia. Accordingly, I made up my mind that I must lead the army through the district of Cappadocia, which adjoins Cilicia. For if I had gone straight down into Cilicia, I could easily indeed have held Cilicia itself, owing to the natural strength of Mount Amanus--for there are only two defiles opening into Cilicia from Syria, both of which are capable of being closed by insignificant garrisons owing to their narrowness, nor can anything be imagined better fortified than is Cilicia on the Syrian side--but I was disturbed for Cappadocia, which is quite open on the Syrian side, and is surrounded by kings, who, even if they are our friends in secret, nevertheless do not venture to be openly hostile to the Parthians. Accordingly, I pitched my camp in the extreme south of Cappadocia at the town of Cybistra, not far from Mount Taurus, with the object at once of covering Cilicia, and of thwarting the designs of the neighbouring tribes by holding Cappadocia. Meanwhile, in the midst of this serious commotion and anxious expectation of a very formidable war, king Deiotarus, who has with good reason been always highly honoured in your judgment and my own, as well as that of the senate--a man distinguished for his goodwill and loyalty to the Roman people, as well as for his eminent courage and wisdom--sent legates to tell me that he was on his way to my camp in full force. Much affected by his zeal and kindness, I sent him a letter of thanks, and urged him to hasten. However, being detained at Cybistra five days while maturing my plan of campaign, I rescued king Ariobarzanes, whose safety had been entrusted to me by the senate on your motion, from a plot that, to his surprise, had been formed against him: and I not only saved his life, but I took pains also to secure that his royal authority should be respected Metras and Athenaeus (the latter strongly commended [p. 103] to me by yourself), who had been exiled owing to the persistent enmity of queen Athenais, I restored to a position of the highest influence and favour with the king. Then, as there was danger of serious hostilities arising in Cappadocia in case the priest, ³ as it was thought likely that he would do, defended himself with arms--for he was a young man, well furnished with horse and foot and money, and relying on ⁴ those all who desired political change of any sort --I contrived that he should leave the kingdom: and that the king, without civil war or an appeal to arms, with the full authority of the court thoroughly secured, should hold the kingdom with proper dignity. Meanwhile, I was informed by despatches and messengers from many sides, that the Parthians and Arabs had approached the town of Antioch in great force, and that a large body of their horsemen, which had crossed into Cilicia, had been cut to pieces by some squadrons of my cavalry and the praetorian cohort then on garrison duty at Epiphanea. Wherefore, seeing that the forces of the Parthians had turned their backs upon Cappadocia, and were not far from the frontiers of Cilicia, I led my army to Amanus with the longest forced marches I could. Arrived there, I learnt that the enemy had retired from Antioch, and that Bibulus was at Antioch. I thereupon informed Deiotarus, who was hurrying to join me with a large and strong body of horse and foot, and with all the forces he could muster, that I saw no reason for his leaving his own dominions, and that in case of any new event, I would immediately write and send to him. And as my intention in coming had been to relieve both provinces, should occasion arise, so now I proceeded to do what I had all along made up my mind was greatly to the interest of both provinces, namely, to reduce Amanus, and to remove from that mountain an eternal enemy. So I made a feint of retiring from the mountain and making for other parts of Cilicia: and having gone a day's march from Amanus and pitched a camp, on the 12th of October, towards evening, [p. 104] at Epiphanea, with my army in light marching order I effected such a night march, that by dawn on the 13th I was already ascending Amanus. Having formed the cohorts and auxiliaries into several columns of attack--I and my legate Quintus (my brother) commanding one, my legate C. Pomptinus another, and my legates M. Anneius and L. Tullius the rest--we surprised most of the inhabitants, who, being cut off from all retreat, were killed or taken prisoners. But Erana, which was more like a town than a village, and was the capital of Amanus, as also Sepyra and Commoris, which offered a determined and protracted resistance from before daybreak till four in the afternoon Pomptinus being in command in that part of Amanus--we took, after killing a great number of the enemy, and stormed and set fire to several fortresses. After these operations we lay encamped for four days on the spurs of Amanus, near the Arae Alexandri, ⁵ and all that time we devoted to the destruction of the remaining inhabitants of Amanus, and devastating their lands on that side of the mountain which belongs to my province. Having accomplished this, I led the army away to Pindenissus, a town of the Eleutherocilices. And since this town was situated on a very lofty and strongly fortified spot, and was inhabited by men who have never submitted even to the kings, and since they were offering harbourage to deserters, and were eagerly expecting the arrival of the Parthians, I thought it of importance to the prestige of the empire to suppress their audacity, in order that there might be less difficulty in breaking the spirits of all such as were anywhere disaffected to our rule. I encircled them with a stockade and trench: I beleaguered them with six forts and huge camps: I assaulted them by the aid of earthworks, pent-houses, and towers : ⁶ and having employed numerous catapults and bowmen, with great personal labour, and without troubling the allies or costing them anything, I reduced them to such extremities that, after every region of their town had been battered down or fired, they surrendered to me on the fifty-seventh day. Their next neighbours were the people of Tebara, no less [p. 105] predatory and audacious: from them after the capture of Pindenissus I received hostages. I then dismissed the army to winter quarters; and I put my brother in command, with orders to station the men in villages that had either been captured or were disaffected.

Well now, I would have you feel convinced that, should a motion be brought before the senate on these matters, I shall consider that the highest possible compliment has been paid me, if you give your vote in favour of a mark of honour ⁷ being bestowed upon me. And as to this, though I am aware that in such matters men of the most respectable character are accustomed to ask and to be asked, yet I think in your case that it is rather a reminder than a request which is called for from me. For it is you who have on very many occasions complimented me in votes which you delivered, who have praised me to the skies in conversation, in panegyric, in the most laudatory speeches in senate and public meeting: you are the man to whose words I ever attached such weight as to hold myself in possession of my utmost ambition, if your lips joined the chorus of my praise. It was you finally, as I recollect, who said, when voting against a supplicatio in honour of a certain illustrious and noble person, ⁸ that you would have voted for it, if the motion had related to what he had done in the city as consul. It was you, too, who voted for granting me a supplicatio, though only a civilian, ⁹ not as had been done in many instances, "for good services to the state," but, as I remember, "for having saved the state." ¹⁰ I pass over your having shared the hatred I excited, [p. 106] the dangers I ran, all the storms that I have encountered, and your having been entirely ready to have shared them much more fully if I had allowed it; and finally your having regarded my enemy as your own; of whose death even-thus shewing me clearly how much you valued me--you manifested your approval by supporting the cause of Milo in the senate. On the other hand, I have borne a testimony to you, which I do not regard as constituting any claim on your gratitude, but as a frank expression of genuine opinion: for I did not confine myself to a silent admiration of your eminent virtues--who does not admire them? But in all forms of speech, whether in the senate or at the bar; in all kinds of writing, Greek or Latin; in fine, in all the various branches of my literary activity, I proclaimed your superiority not only to contemporaries, but also to those of whom we have heard in history.

You will ask, perhaps, why I place such value on this or that modicum of congratulation or compliment from the senate. I will be frank with you, as our common tastes and mutual good services, our close friendship, nay, the intimacy of our fathers demand. If there ever was anyone by natural inclination, and still more, I think, by reason and reflexion, averse from the empty praise and comments of the vulgar, I am certainly the man. Witness my consulship, in which, as in the rest of my life, I confess that I eagerly pursued the objects capable of producing true glory: mere glory for its own sake I never thought a subject for ambition. Accordingly, I not only passed over a province after the votes for its outfit had been taken, but also with it an almost certain hope of a triumph ¹¹ and finally the priesthood, though, as I think you will agree with me, I could have obtained it without much difficulty, I did not try to get. Yet after my unjust disgrace--always stigmatized by you as a disaster to the Republic, and rather an honour than a disaster to myself--I was anxious that some very signal marks of the approbation of the senate and Roman people should be put on record. [p. 107] Accordingly, in the first place, I did subsequently wish for the augurship, ¹² about which I had not troubled myself before; and the compliment usually paid by the senate in the case of success in war, though passed over by me in old times, I now think an object to be desired. That you should approve and support this wish of mine, in which you may trace a strong desire to heal the wounds inflicted upon me by my disgrace, though I a little while ago declared that I would not ask it, I now do earnestly ask of you: but only on condition that you shall not think my humble services paltry and insignificant, but of such a nature and importance, that many for far less signal successes have obtained the highest honours from the senate. I have, too, I think, noticed this--for you know how attentively I ever listen to you--that in granting or withholding honours you are accustomed to look not so much to the particular achievements as to the character, the principles and conduct of commanders. Well, if you apply this test to my case, you will find that, with a weak army, my strongest support against the threat of a very formidable war has been my equity and purity of conduct. With these as my aids I accomplished what I never could have accomplished by any amount of legions: among the allies I have created the warmest devotion in place of the most extreme alienation; the most complete loyalty in place of the most dangerous disaffection; and their spirits fluttered by the prospect of change I have brought back to feelings of affection for the old rule.

But I have said too much of myself, especially to you, in whom singly the grievances of all our allies alike find a listener. You will learn the truth from those who think themselves restored to life by my administration. And while all with nearly one consent will praise me in your hearing as I most desire to be praised, so will your two chief client states--the island of Cyprus and the kingdom of Cappadocia ¹³ [p. 108] --have something to say to you about me also. So, too, I think, will Deiotarus, who is attached to you with special warmth. Now, if these things are above the common run, and if in all ages it has been rarer to find men capable of conquering their own desires than capable of conquering an enemy's army, it is quite in harmony with your principles, when you find these rarer and more difficult virtues combined with success in war, to regard that success itself as more complete and glorious.

I have only one last resource--philosophy: and to make her plead for me, as though I doubted the efficacy of a mere request: philosophy, the best friend I have ever had in ail my life, the greatest gift which has been bestowed by the gods upon mankind. Yes! this common sympathy in tastes and studies --our inseparable devotion and attachment to which from boyhood have caused us to become almost unique examples of men bringing that true and ancient philosophy (which some regard as only the employment of leisure and idleness) down to the forum, the council chamber, and the very camp itself ¹⁴ --pleads the cause of my glory with you: and I do not think a Cato can, with a good conscience, say her nay. Wherefore I would have you convince yourself that, if my despatch is made the ground of paying me this compliment ¹⁵ with your concurrence, I shall consider that the dearest wish of my heart has been fulfilled owing at once to your influence and to your friendship. [p. 109]

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¹ These times do not exactly agree with those given in Letters CCVII and CCXXVII, but the differences are unimportant and might easily be accounted for by lapse of memory.

² Seditione quadam. He qualifies seditione, as he doesn't wish to say that there was a downright mutiny; quadam might be translated "so to speak." He had heard of these difficulties in the army, but hoped that they had been put right by Appius Claudius.

³ The priest of the temple of Bellona at Comana, who had command over a large body of slaves of the temple and its dependencies. It was a position of quasi-royal power. Pompey had confirmed or restored a certain Archelaus in this position.

⁴ I venture to read et fretus iis, for Tyrrell's ego tuto iis, "with safety to those," which is a very doubtful construction.

⁵ Some columns put up near the field of the battle of Issus by Alexander, or to mark the line of his march.

⁶ That is, movable towers pushed up on rollers to the wall.

⁷ What Cicero wants is a supplicatio of as many days as the senate will grant, i.e., days of solemn thanksgiving such as had been voted in honour of Caesar's Gallic victories and on many other occasions.

⁸ Probably P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, consul B.C. 57, who did much to secure Cicero's recall. He asked in vain for a supplicatio, or perhaps even a triumph, for his achievements in Cilicia B.C. 56-54. See Letter CXXV.

⁹ Togato. The consul in Rome, though he had imperium, was a civilian, and wore the toga, not the paludamentum. The difference has been expressed by distinguishing the imperium domi and imperium militiae, which latter he had if he commanded an army, and which a proconsul had when in a province. Thus, in his poem on his own times, Cicero had a line which he was fond of quoting: Cedant arma togae, concedat laurea laudi.

¹⁰ See vol. i., p. 64, and 2 Phil. 2. In 2 Phil. 13, he says the motion for a supplicatio after the execution of the conspirators in December, B.C. 63, was made by L. Aurelius Cotta and passed unanimously.

¹¹ The province of Gallia Cisalpina, to which Metellus Celer went in his place and won some victories over the Salassi. See vol. i., pp. 21, 62.

¹² A vacancy was made in the college of augurs in B.C. 59 by the death of Metellus Celer, which Cicero would have liked to fill (see vol. i., P.90). But he was not nominated as one of the two candidates, as was necessary. He filled the vacancy caused by the death of P. Crassus B.C. 53.

¹³ Cato, to get him out of Rome, had been sent in B.C. 58 on the motion of Clodius to take over Cyprus; he therefore (as usual) became its patron. It is not known why he was specially connected with Cappadocia and Deiotarus, but client kings generally selected some prominent Roman to represent their interests. It has been suggested that Ariobarzanes' indebtedness to Cato's nephew Brutus had something to do with it. But we cannot be sure. Brutus, it may be observed, was also a friend of Deiotarus, and defended him before Caesar in B.C. 47, when charged with attempting to poison Caesar.

¹⁴ Cicero applies to himself and Cato what he elsewhere repeated from Greek sources of Socrates--that he "brought down philosophy from the sky to the earth and to common life" (Acad. 1.15; Tusc. 5.10). His appeal to their common love of philosophy should be compared with his chaff of Cato's impracticable Stoicism twelve years before in the pro Mur. § 61 seq., which Cato must have well remembered. The contemptuous view of philosophy taken by many serious persons at Rome, and Cicero's early passion for it, are commented upon at greater length in the de Off 2.2.

¹⁵ Ex literis meis, i.e., Cicero's public despatch to magistrates and senate. Ex literis was the regular phrase on these occasions. See Caes. B. G. 2.35; 4.38.

CCLXV (F XV, 5)

M. PORCIUS CATO TO CICERO (IN CILICIA)

ROME (JUNE)

I gladly obey the call of the state and of our friendship, in rejoicing that your virtue, integrity, and energy, already known at home in a most important crisis, when you were a civilian, should be maintained abroad with the same painstaking care now that you have military command. Therefore what I could conscientiously do in setting forth in laudatory terms that the province had been defended by your wisdom; that the kingdom of Ariobarzanes, as well as the king himself, had been preserved; and that the feelings of the allies had been won back to loyalty to our empire--that I have done by speech and vote. That a thanksgiving was decreed I am glad, if you prefer our thanking the gods rather than giving you the credit for a success which has been in no respect left to chance, but has been secured for the Republic by your own eminent prudence and self-control. But if you think a thanksgiving to be a presumption in favour of a triumph, and therefore prefer fortune having the credit rather than yourself, let me remind you that a triumph does not always follow a thanksgiving; and that it is an honour much more brilliant than a triumph for the senate to declare its opinion, that a province has been retained rather by the uprightness and mildness of its governor, than by the strength of an army or the favour of heaven: and that is [p. 175] what I meant to express by my vote. And I write this to you at greater length than I usually do write, because I wish above all things that you should think of me as taking pains to convince you, both that I have wished for you what I believed to be for your highest honour, and am glad that you have got what you preferred to it. Farewell: continue to love me; and by the way you conduct your home-journey, secure to the allies and the Republic the advantages of your integrity and energy.

CCLXXVII (F XV, 6)

TO M. PORCIUS CATO (AT ROME)

(ASIA, SEPTEMBER)

RIGHT glad am I to be praised"--says Hector, I think, in Naevius--"by thee, reverend senior, who hast thyself been praised." For certainly praise is sweet that comes from those who themselves have lived in high repute. For myself, there is nothing I should not consider myself to have attained either by the congratulation contained in your letter, or the testimony borne to me in your senatorial speech: and it was at once the highest compliment and the greatest gratification to me, that you willingly conceded to friendship, what you transparently conceded to truth. And if, I don't say all, but if many were Catos in our state--in which it is a matter of wonder that there is even one--what triumphal chariot or laurel should I have compared with praise from you? For in regard to my feelings, and in view of the ideal honesty and subtilty of your judgment, nothing can be more complimentary than the speech of yours, which has been copied for me by my friends. But the reason of my wish, for I will not call it desire, I have explained "to you in a 'former letter. And even if it does not appear to you to be entirely sufficient, it at any rate leads to this conclusion not that the honour is one to excite excessive desire, but yet is one which, if offered by the senate, ought certainly not to be rejected. Now I hope that that [p. 194] House, considering the labours I have undergone on behalf of the state, will not think me undeserving of an honour, especially one that has become a matter of usage. And if this turns out to be so, all I ask of you is that--to use your own most friendly words--since you have paid me what in your judgment is the highest compliment, you will still "be glad" if I have the good fortune to get what I myself have preferred. ¹ For I perceive that you have acted, felt, and written in this sense: and the facts themselves shew that the compliment paid me of a supplicatio was agreeable to you, since your name appears on the decree: for decrees of the senate of this nature are, I am aware, usually drawn out by the warmest friends of the man concerned in the honour. I shall, I hope, soon see you, and may it be in a better state of political affairs than my fears forbode!

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¹ Cato had voted against the supplicatio, and Cicero has to tax his skill to appear not to be vexed (as he was), and to assume that Cato's complimentary speech was as good as if he voted fbr it. He is answering Cato's letter. See Letter CCLXV.

CCXIII (F XV, 7)

TO GAIUS CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS (CONSUL DESIGNATE)

(LYCAONIA, SEPTEMBER)

I was exceedingly rejoiced to hear of your election as consul¹ , and pray that the gods may bless your office to you, and that it may be administered by you in a manner worthy of your own and your father's position. For I have always loved and regarded you, as well as having had reason to know your exceeding affection for myself in all the course of my chequered fortunes. Moreover, having by numerous acts of kindness from your father been both defended in [p. 56] times of adversity and honoured in times of prosperity, I not only am, but am bound to be, devoted to your family, especially as from your most revered and excellent mother I have been fully aware of having received greater services in support of my safety and position than were to be expected from a lady. Wherefore I beg you with more than common earnestness to continue to regard and support me in my absence.

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¹ Gaius Claudius Marcellus, consul B.C. 50, and cousin of C. Claudius Marcellus, consul B.C. 49. He is son of C. Claudius Marcellus (augur), to whom the next letter is addressed.

CCXIV (F XV, 8)

TO GAIUS CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS (AUGUR)

(LYCAONIA, SEPTEMBER)

That your son Marcellus has been elected consul, and that you have experienced the joy which you above all things desired, give me extraordinary pleasure, and that both for his own sake, and because in my opinion you richly deserve every success of the best sort: for I have had reason to know your unexampled goodness to me both in weal and woe ; in fact, I have experienced the greatest kindness and the most eager support from your whole family, whether it were a question of my civil existence or official advancement. Wherefore I shall be much obliged if you will congratulate for me that most revered and excellent lady, your wife Iunia. From yourself I ask your habitual regard and support in my absence.

CCXV (F XV, 9)

TO M. CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS (CONSUL)

(LYCAONIA, SEPTEMBER)

I am exceedingly glad that by the election of Gaius Marcellus to the consulate you have reaped the reward of your [p. 57] loyalty to your friends, your patriotic spirit, and your own most brilliant and excellent consulship. I have no doubt about the feelings of those at home: for myself, indeed, distant as I am and sent by your own action to the other end of the earth, I am praising you, by Hercules, up to the skies with the most sincere and well-deserved compliments. For as I have had from boyhood a singular affection for you, while you have ever wished and judged me to be a man of the widest influence, so by this achievement, whether due to yourself or the favourable judgment of the Roman people concerning you, my affection for you has become warmer and stronger, and I feel the greatest delight when I am told by people of the greatest wisdom and men of the highest character, that in word and deed, in tastes and principles, I am like you or you are like me. If you will add one thing to the eminent achievements of your consulship-the securing of some one to succeed me at the earliest possible opportunity, or the prevention of any addition being made to the time which you defined in virtue both of a senatorial decree and of the law ¹ --I shall consider that I shall owe you everything. Take care of your health and let me have your regard and support in my absence. The news that has reached me about the Parthians, as I do not think it necessary at present to send an official despatch about them, I have resolved not to communicate to you as my intimate friend, for, as I was addressing a consul, it might be considered that I was writing officially.

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¹ The senatorial decree assigning Cilicia to Cicero would mention the term of one year, but so would the lex, which it was necessary to pass in order to give him imperium ; it is to this lex, and not to the lex Pompeia of B.C. 52, that he seems here to refer. See Willem, Le Sénat, Vol. ii., p. 590; cp. ib. p. 167.

CCXXXVIII (F XV, 10)

TO L. CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS (CONSUL)

CILICIA (JANUARY)

Since the dearest wish of my heart has come to pass, that of all the Marcelli and even the Marcellini--for the good feeling of your whole family and name towards me has ever been extraordinary--since, I say, it has come to pass that your possession of the consulship enables you to satisfy the views of all your family, that consulship in which it also happens that my public services and the glory and distinction accompanying them have fallen, I ask you a favour which it is very easy for you to grant, since the senate, I believe, is not averse, namely, to see to a senatorial decree being passed in as complimentary terms as possible when my despatch is read. ¹ Had the ties between you and me been less than those between me and all the members of your family, I would have made those my spokesmen to you, by whom you know well that I am regarded with special affection. The kindnesses done me by your father are very eminent, nor could anyone have been a warmer friend to my personal safety or my political position. As for your brother, I don't think that there is anyone who does not know how much he values and has ever valued me. In fact, your whole house has always honoured me with the most important services of every kind. Nor, indeed, have you yielded to any of your family in affection for me. Wherefore I ask you, with more than common earnestness, to determine that, as far as you are concerned, I shall receive the highest possible compliment, and to consider that in voting a supplicatio and in all other matters you have sufficient motive for defending my reputation. [p. 110]

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¹ The public despatch referred to in this and the previous and subsequent letters has not been preserved; but no doubt its substance was the same as the letter to Cato.

CCLXXIII (F XV, 11)

TO C. CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS (CONSUL)

(ASIA, AUGUST)

How much trouble you have taken as to the honour to be bestowed on me, and how far your conduct as consul in complimenting me and promoting my dignity has been exactly the same as--in common with your ancestors and your whole family--it had always been before, though facts spoke for themselves, I have nevertheless been informed by letters from all my friends. Accordingly, there is no service so great that I am not bound and fully purposed zealously and gladly to do in your interests. For it makes a great difference who the man is to whom one is under an obligation: but there is no one to whom I preferred to be under an obligation before yourself, to whom, while common interests and kindnesses received both from your father and yourself had already closely united me, there is now added what in my opinion is the strongest bond of all, the fact that your present and past administration of the Republic (the thing dearest to me in the world) is of such a nature, that I cannot disown an obligation to you in my single [p. 188] person as great as that which all loyalists put together owe you. Wherefore I wish you the success which you deserve, and which I feel confident you will have. Unless my voyage, which falls in precisely with the Etesian winds, delays me, I hope to see you shortly.

CCXXXIX (F XV, 13)

TO L. AEMILIUS PAULLUS (CONSUL)

CILICIA, JANUARY

IT has been one of the strongest wishes of my heart to be in Rome with you on many accounts, but especially that you might have clearly before your eyes, both during your canvass and your actual administration, how eager I was to fulfil my obligation to you. And, indeed, as far as your canvass was concerned, it always seemed to me to be plain sailing, yet I nevertheless wished to give some actual aid. In your consulship truly I am anxious that you should have still less difficulty, yet I am vexed to think that I, as consul, had a full view of your zealous kindness when you were a young man, whilst you cannot have one of mine now that I am so far advanced in life. But there has been, I think, a kind of fatality ordaining that you should always have the opportunity of advancing my honour, while I never had anything-except the wish--enabling me to repay you. My consulship and my restoration alike you honoured by your support. It has happened that the occasion for my performing active public service has fallen in your consulship. Accordingly, though your brilliant position and high rank, as well as my own great office and high reputation, would seem to demand that I should urge you, and beg you at some length, to see to a decree of the senate being passed on the subject of my services in as complimentary terms as possible, yet I do not venture to put it strongly to you, lest I should appear to have forgotten your habitual kindness to me, or should admit the thought of your having forgotten. Accordingly, I will do as I think you would wish, and confine my petition to a few words, when it is made to a man that all the world knows has done me eminent service. If others had been consuls, you are the man of all others, Paullus, to whom I should have sent asking you to secure for me their warmest support. As it is, the chief power and greatest influence being in your hands, and our close connexion being known to everybody, I do beg you [p. 111] warmly, that you should see to a decree being passed in regard to my services in as complimentary terms and as speedily as possible. That these services deserve honour and congratulation you will learn from the despatch which I have addressed officially to you, your colleague, and the senate. I would further beg you to undertake the support of my other interests of every kind, and above all of my reputation. And let it be among your first concerns, as I asked you in a previous letter also, to prevent any extension of time in my tenure of office. I am eager to see you while you are still consul, and to gain all I hope for in your consulship, whether here or at home. Farewell.

CCXL (F XV, 14)

TO C. CASSIUS LONGINUS (PROQUAESTOR IN SYRIA)

CILICIA, JANUARY

M. CICERO, imperator, greets C. Cassius, ¹ proquaestor. You introduce M. Fadius to me as a friend, but I make no fresh acquisition in him; for it is now many years since he has been among my cherished possessions, and valued by me for his exceeding kindness and attentions. Nevertheless, the discovery of his attachment to you has made him still dearer to me. So, though your letter did some good, yet a still more powerful recommendation was my clear perception and recognition of his own warm feeling for you. However, I will take every pains to do for Fadius what you ask. It is yourself that I could wish for many reasons had been able to visit [p. 112] me: in the first place, that I might see you after so long a separation---a man whom I have long valued so highly; in the second place, that I might offer my personal congratulations, as I have already done by letter; thirdly, that we might consult together on whatever matters we wished, you on yours, I on mine; and lastly, that our friendship, which has been kept up by the interchange of signal services on both sides, but has had its continuity interrupted by periods of separation, might be greatly strengthened. Since this was not to be, we will avail ourselves of what letters can do for us, and shall, though separated, attain almost the same objects as we should have done if we had met face to face. One satisfaction, of course, that which arises from the actual sight of you, cannot be obtained by the help of letters: the other, the pleasure, I mean, of congratulating you, though more meagre than it would have been, if I could have seen your face while offering my congratulations, I have nevertheless already experienced and now give myself again: and I do indeed congratulate you both on the splendour of your services, and also for their opportuneness, in that at the moment of your departure from it you have been followed by the loudest praises and the liveliest gratitude of your province. My third point--that we might have consulted each other about our affairs--that let us do equally by letter. On every other account I am strongly of opinion that you ought to hasten your return to Rome. For things there, as I left them, shewed no signs of a storm as far as you are concerned, ² and owing to your recent very splendid victory I imagine that your arrival will be attended by greatéclat. But if the difficulties under which your relations are labouring ³ are no more than you can combat, hasten home: nothing could be nobler or more popular: but if they are more serious, take care that your return does not fall at a most inopportune moment. You are the sole judge on this point, for you alone know your powers. If you are strong enough to do it, you are sure of praise and popularity: if you are clearly not strong enough, it will be easier for you to support popular remark by staying away. For myself, however, the [p. 113] request I make to you in this letter is the same as that in my previous one--that you should exert yourself to the utter-most to prevent any extension of time being made to my provincial government, which both by decree of the senate and by the law was to be of one year's duration. I press this upon you with warmth, because I consider my entire fortunes to depend upon it. You have Paullus to support you--my friend, and a very warm one: you have Curio and Furnius. I beg you to exert yourself, with the assurance that it is every-thing in the world to me. My last point was the strengthening of our friendship. On that there is no need of more words. You sought my society in your boyhood: I for my part ever thought that you would be a credit to me. You were, moreover, a protection to me in the darkest hour of my fortunes. To these facts I may now add the very close intimacy which has sprung up since you left town between me and your relative Brutus. ⁴ Therefore, in the talents and high character which distinguish you both, I believe that I have a very great reserve of pleasure and honour in store. t beg you earnestly to ratify this expectation, and also to write to me at once, and as often as possible after your arrival at Rome.

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¹ C. Cassius Longinus, the future assassin of Caesar, had gone to Syria as quaestor with M. Licinius Crassus in B.C. 54. On the death of Crassus near Carrhae (B.C. 53) he had managed to lead off the main body of the Roman army to Antioch, and had remained in charge of the province as pro quaestore ever since (defeating a weak attack of the Parthians in B.C. 52), till the arrival of Bibulus in September, B.C. 51. Just before the arrival of Bibulus he had again defeated the attack of the Parthians near Antioch and handed over his province in a state of comparative safety. He is now on the point of returning to Italy.

² He is referring to a danger of prosecution for extortion in Syria.

³ His brother or cousin Quintus Cassius was being attacked for malversation as quaestor in Spain (B.C. 54-52). See Letter CCXXVII.

⁴ Cassius, who was some twenty years younger than Cicero, had married Tertia, half-sister to Brutus.

CDXLVI (F XV, 15)

TO GAIUS CASSIUS (IN ASIA?)

BRUNDISIUM (AUGUST OR EARLY SEPTEMBER)

ALTHOUGH both of us, from a hope of peace and a loathing for Civil bloodshed, desired to hold aloof from an obstinate prosecution of war, nevertheless, since I think I was the first to adopt that policy, I am perhaps more bound to give you satisfaction on that point, than to expect it from you. Although, as I am often wont to recall in my own mind, my intimate talk with you and yours with me led us both to the Conclusion that it was reasonable that, if not the cause as a whole, yet at least our judgment should be decided by the result of one battle. Nor does anyone ever sincerely criticise this opinion of ours, except those who think it better that the constitution should be utterly destroyed, rather than remain in a maimed and weakened state. I, on the Contrary, saw of course no personal hope from its destruction, much from its surviving fragments. But a state of things has followed which makes it more surprising that [p. 55] those events were possible, than that we did not foresee what was going to happen, and were unable with our merely human faculties to prophesy it. For my part, I confess that my view was that, when that battle had been fought, which seemed as it were to be the last word of fate, the conquerors would desire measures to be taken for the safety of the community at large, the conquered for their own. But both of these policies I regarded as depending on the promptness of the victor. If that promptness had been displayed, Africa would have experienced the same indulgence which Asia and Achaia too have witnessed, ¹ you yourself, as I think, acting as agent and intercessor. ² But the hours having been allowed to slip away-always most precious, and never more so than in civil wars--the year that intervened induced some to hope for victory, others to think lightly of the defeat itself. And the blame for all this mischief is on the shoulders of fortune. For who would have thought such a serious delay as that of the Alexandrian war was going to be added to the war already fought, or that a princeling like that Pharnaces of yours was going to cause a panic in Asia.

For ourselves, however, though our policy was the same, our fortune has been different. For you have adopted the rôle of taking an active part in his councils, and of thus keeping yourself in a position to foresee what was going to happen, which more than anything else relieves one's anxiety. ³ I, who was in a hurry to see Caesar in Italy--for that is what I thought would happen-and, when he returned after sparing many of the most honourable men, to "spur the willing horse" (as the phrase goes) in the direction of peace, am now most widely separated from him, and have been so all along. Moreover, I am living in the [p. 56] hearing of the groans of Italy and the most heartrending complaints in Rome: to which we might perhaps have contributed some alleviation, I in my way, you in yours, and everyone in his own, if only the chief man had been there. Wherefore I would have you, in view of your unbroken affection for me, write and tell me what you know, what you feel, and what you think I am to expect or ought to do. A letter from you will be of great value in my eyes, and would that I had obeyed that first one, which you sent me from Luceria! For I should then have retained my position without any of this distress. ⁴ [Between the date of the last letter to Terentia (1 September) and that of the next (1 October) Caesar had landed at Tarentum, and, meeting Cicero, who was coming to greet him, alighted from his carriage, embraced him, had a long conversation with him on the road, and gave him free leave to live where he chose. Cicero seems to have at once started for his favourite round of visits to his villas, and then gone to Rome. This is the end, then, of the episode in his life connected with the Civil War. Henceforth, till Caesar's assassination, he lives a comparatively retired and literary life, seldom appearing in the senate or as an advocate.]

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¹ That is, the members of the defeated party who had taken up their abode in Asia and Achaia, and the numerous adherents who had gathered in Africa.

² Cassius had joined Caesar early with his fleet. See p.31.

³ Cassius does not appear to have been in Egypt with Caesar, but to have remained at Rhodes or on the coast of Cilicia with his ships. When Caesar crossed from Alexandria to Cilicia in this year, Cassius met him at the mouth of the Cydnus, and, according to a later assertion of Cicero's (Phil. 2.26), contemplated turning against him and destroying him. This is not mentioned by anyone else.

⁴ We know nothing of this letter from Cassius. He seems to have advised Cicero not to leave Italy.

DXXX (F XV, 16)

TO C. CASSIUS LONGINUS (AT BRUNDISIUM)

ROME (JANUARY)

I think you must be a little ashamed at this being the third letter inflicted on you before I have a page or a syllable from you. But I will not press you: I shall expect, or rather exact, a longer letter. For my part, if I had a messenger always at hand, I should write even three an hour. For somehow it makes you seem almost present when I write anything to you, and that not "by way of phantoms of images," as your new friends express it, ¹ who hold that "mental pictures" are caused by what Catius called "spectres"--for I must remind you that Catius Insuber the Epicurean, lately dead, calls "spectres" what the famous [p. 175] Gargettius, and before him Democritus, used to call "images." Well, even if my eyes were capable of being struck by these "spectres," because they spontaneously run in upon them at your will, I do not see how the mind can be struck. You will be obliged to explain it to me, when you return safe and sound, whether the "spectre" of you is at my command, so as to occur to me as soon as I have taken the fancy to think about you; and not only about you, who are in my heart's core, but supposing I begin thinking about the island of Britain--will its image fly at once into my mind? But of this later on. I am just sounding you now to see how you take it. For if you are angry and annoyed, I shall say more and demand that you be restored to the sect from which you have been ejected by "violence and armed force." ² In an injunction of this sort the words "within this year" are not usually added. Therefore, even if it is now two or three years since you divorced Virtue, ³ seduced by the charms of Pleasure, ⁴ it will still be open for me to do so. And yet to whom am I speaking? It is to you, the most gallant of men, who ever since you entered public life have done nothing that was not imbued to the utmost with the highest principle. In that very sect of yours I have a misgiving that there must be more stuff than I thought, if only because you accept it. "How did that come into your head?" you will say. Because I had nothing else to say. About politics I can write nothing: for I don't choose to write down my real opinions.

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¹ The Epicureans. The Greek terms which follow are those used by them-kat' eidôlôn phantasias, "according to the appearance of idols" or shapes"; dianoêtikas phantasias, "mental impressions." These refer to the doctrines of Democritus as to the formation of mental impressions by fine atoms thrown off the surface of things, which, retaining the same position and relation, and hurrying through the void, strike the senses, which convey these "atom-pictures" to the mind. Cicero hits the true objection, founded on the fact that we can recall these pictures at will.

² From the Stoic sect.

³ The summum bonum of the Stoics.

⁴ The summum bonum of the Epicureans.

DXL (F XV, 17)

TO C. CASSIUS LONGINUS (AT BRUNDISIUM)

ROME (JANUARY)

YOU have most unreasonable letter-carriers, though I am not personally angry with them. But, after all, when they are leaving me they demand a letter, when they come to me they bring none. And even as to the former, they would have consulted my convenience better if they had given me some interval for writing; but they come to me with their travelling caps on, declaring that their company is waiting for them at the city gate. Therefore you must pardon me: you shall have here another short note, but expect full details presently. Yet why should I apologize to you, when your men come to me with empty hands and return to you with letters. Here--for after all I will write something to you--we have the death of P. Sulla ¹ the elder: according to some from an attack of footpads, according to others from an attack of indigestion. The people don't trouble themselves, for they are assured that he is dead and burnt. Your philosophy will enable you to bear this; though we have lost a well-known "feature of the city." People think that Caesar will be vexed for fear of his auctions becoming flat. Mindius Marcellus ² and Attius the paintseller are delighted at having lost a rival bidder.

There is no news from Spain, and a very great anxiety for some: the rumours are rather gloomy, but are not authenticated. Our friend Pansa left town in military [p. 194] array ³ on the 29th of December. It is enough to convince anyone of what you have recently begun to doubt, that "the good is desirable for its own sake." ⁴ For because he has relieved many of their misfortunes, and has shewn humanity in these evil times, he was attended by an extraordinary display of affection on the part of good men. I very much approve of your having stayed on at Brundisium, and I am very glad you have done so, and, by Hercules, I think that you will act wisely if you don't trouble yourself about vain things. ⁵ Certainly I, who love you, shall be glad if it is so. And pray, next time you are sending a packet home, don't forget me. I will never allow anyone, if I know it, to go to you without a letter from me.

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¹ See p. 185.

² Madvig conjectures macellarius, "victualler,"to correspond with the trade of Attius. But it is not necessary.

³ As proconsul of Gallia Cisalpina. See p.201.

⁴ The Stoic doctrine, which Cassius had abandoned for Epicurism. See p. 175.

⁵ ataraxian, apparently a Stoic word.

DXXIX (F xv, 18)

TO C. CASSIUS LONGINUS (AT BRUNDISIUM)

ROME (JANUARY ?)

¹ MY letter would have been longer, had not the messenger come for it when he was just on the point of starting for you. It would have been longer also if it had any persiflage in it, for we cannot be serious with safety. "Can we laugh, then?" you will say. No, by Hercules, not very easily. Yet other means of distraction from our troubles we have none. "Where, then," you will say, "is your philosophy?" Yours indeed is in the kitchen, mine in the schools. ² For I [p. 174] am ashamed of being a slave. Accordingly, I pose as being busy about other things, to avoid the reproach of Plato. ³ We have no Certain intelligence from Spain as yet--in fact, no news at all. For my sake I am sorry that you are out of town, for your own I am glad. But your letter-carrier is getting clamorous. Good-bye then, and love me as you have done from boyhood.

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¹ I think this letter must belong to the early part of B.C. 45, not to December, B.C. 46, as Messrs. Tyrrell and Purser and Mueller place it. Caesar only left Rome for Spain on the 2nd of December, and Cicero could hardly have been expecting news so soon. Moreover, Cassius--who declined to accompany Caesar to Spain--seems to have gone on his tour in the early part of B.C. 45, and to be staying at Brundisium.

² Reading, in palaestra est. Mueller, however, retains the MS. reading, molesta est, "only gives me annoyance," as though it reminded him of what he should, without enabling him to do it--video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor.

³ Who said that men ought to "be free and fear slavery worse than death," Rep. 387B. To be "busy about other things" or "about something else " is a kind of proverbial way of saying that one is not attending to serious business.

DXLI (F XV, 19)

C. CASSIUS LONGINUS TO CICERO (AT ROME)

BRUNDISIUM (JANUARY)

If you are well, I am glad. There is nothing, by Hercules, that I more like doing on this tour of mine than writing to you: for I seem to be talking and joking with you in person. Nor does this Come to pass owing to Catius's "images" : ¹ for which expression I will in my next retort on you by quoting such a number of ill-educated Stoics, that you will acknowledge Catius to have been a true-born Athenian. That our friend Pansa left the city in military array with such expressions of goodwill from everybody, I rejoice both for his own sake and also, by Hercules, for the sake of all our party. For I hope that people will understand how odious cruelty is to everybody, and how attractive honesty [p. 195] and clemency: and that the objects which bad men seek and desire above everything come spontaneously to the good. For it is difficult to persuade men that "the good is desirable for its own sake": but that "pleasure" and "peace of mind" ² are obtained by virtue, justice, and "the good" is both true and convincing. In fact, Epicurus himself says-from whom all your Catiuses and Amafiniuses, those poor translators of his words, proceed--"to live pleasantly is impossible without living well and justly." So it is that Pansa, whose summum bonum is "pleasure," keeps his virtue; and those too who are called by you "pleasure-lovers" are "lovers of the good" and "lovers of the just," ³ and practise and maintain all the virtues. Accordingly Sulla, whose judgment we are bound to respect, seeing that philosophers disagreed, did not ask what was good, but bought up all goods indifferently: whose death, by Hercules, I have borne with some fortitude! Nor will Caesar, after all, allow us to feel his loss very long: for he has plenty of condemned persons to restore for us in his place, nor will he be without some one to bid at his auctions as long as Sulla's son is in his sight.

Now for public affairs. Write and tell me what is going on in Spain. Upon my life I feel anxious, and prefer to have our old and merciful master rather than a new and bloodthirsty one. You know what a fool Gnaeus is: you know how he thinks cruelty is courage: you know how he always thinks that we laugh at him. I am afraid he will want to retort the joke in rustic fashion with a blow of the sword. If you love me, write and say what is happening. Dear, dear, how I wish I knew whether you read this with an anxious or a quiet mind! For then I should at the same time know what it becomes me to do. Not to be too wearisome, I will say good-bye. Love me as ever. If Caesar has conquered, expect me with all speed. [p. 196]

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¹ See p.175; vol. i., p. 68.

² ataraxian, a Stoic term. Cassius retorts on the Stoics that this ataraxia which they advocate is best obtained by the Epicurean doctrines.

³ Cassius uses Greek words for these philosophical terms philêdonoi, philokaloi, philodikaioi. For Sulla, see p.185.

DCXCIX (F XV, 20)

TO GAIUS TREBONIUS (ON HIS WAY TO ASIA)

(ROME OR TUSCULUM (?), APRIL)

My orator--for that is the title I have given it--I have handed to your Sabine servant. His nationality made me think that he was a proper person to whom to give it: unless he too has availed himself of the licence of candidates and has suddenly adopted this surname. However, the modesty of his look and the gravity of his conversation seemed to me to smack somewhat of Cures. ¹ But enough about Sabinus.

Since at your departure, my dear Trebonius, while wishing to aid me to bear with greater patience my warm regret for your absence, you only poured a good deal of oil on the fire of my love for you, pray bombard me with frequent letters on the understanding that I will do the same to you. There are, however, two reasons why you should be more regular in performing that service than myself: First, that in old days those remaining at Rome were accustomed to write on public affairs to their friends in the provinces; whereas you are now bound to write to us: for the Republic is there. Secondly, because I have the opportunity of serving you during your absence in other ways, while I do not see how you can do that for me except by letters. But you must write on other matters to me afterwards; at present the first thing I desire to know is what sort of journey you are having; where you have seen our friend Brutus, how long you have been together. Presently, when you have got farther on your way, you must write to me about military affairs, and the whole business, that I may know how we [p. 5] stand. ² I shall not look upon any information as certain except what I get from your letters. Take care of your health, and preserve your old supreme affection for me.

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¹ Cicero is referring to the primitive manners and morals of the Sabines--often celebrated by Horace. The reference to the possible assumption of a name after the manner of candidates is believed to refer to Ventidius Bassus having done so in his canvass this year for the praetor. ship.

² Recent editors--except Tyrrell and Purser--place this letter at the end of B.C. 46 or the beginning of B.C. 45. It is no doubt strange that, writing to one of the assassins, Cicero should not refer to Caesar's death or the change it had made. But there are reasons against thinking that the journey referred to was that which Trebonius took to Narbo, for that was in B.C. 45, about the time of the battle of Munda (Phil. 2.34), and Cicero would hardly have said that he relied entirely on Trebonius for authentic information as to the Spanish campaign; whereas he went to Asia with a full understanding with the Anti-Caesarians that he was to organize a force in Asia to aid Brutus and Cassius. The Orator was no doubt now a year and a half old; but Trebonius may have asked for a copy on his joumey, for he was in Spain when it first appeared.

CDXLVIII (F XV, 21)

TO GAIUS TREBONIUS (IN SPAIN)

ROME (DECEMBER?)

I found pleasure in reading your letter, and a very great one in reading your book: yet in the midst of that pleasure I experienced this sorrow, that, after having inflamed my desire of increasing the closeness of our intercourse--for as far as affection goes no addition was possible-you at once quit us, and inspire me with such deep regret, as to leave me but one consolation, namely, that our mutual regret for each other's absence may be softened by long and frequent letters. ¹ This I can guarantee not only from myself to you, but also from you to me. For you left no doubt in my mind as to how much you were attached to me. I will pass over what you did in the sight of the whole state, when you took upon you a share of my quarrels, when you [p. 58] defended me in your public speeches, when as quaestor you stood by the consuls in what was at once my cause and that of the constitution, when as quaestor again you refused to submit to the tribune, ² and that though your colleague was for obeying him. Yet, to forget your recent services (which I shall always remember), what anxiety for me did you shew during the war, what joy at my return, what anxiety, what pain, when my anxieties and sorrows were reported to you! Lastly, the fact that you had meant to come to Brundisium to see me had you not been suddenly sent to Spain--to omit, I say, all this, which in my eyes must be as precious as my own life and safety, what a strong profession of affection does the book which you have sent me convey I First, because you think any utterance of mine to be witty, though others perhaps do not: and, secondly, because those mots, whether witty or the reverse, become extraordinarily attractive as you tell them. In fact, even before they come to me, your readers have all but exhausted their power of laughter. But if in making this compilation there was no more compliment than the inevitable fact of your having thought for so long a time exclusively about me, I should be hard-hearted indeed if I did not love you. Seeing, however, that what you have taken the trouble to write you could never have planned without a very strong affection, I cannot deem that anyone is dearer to himself than I am to you: to which affection would that I could respond in other ways! I will at least do so in affection on my part: with which, after all, I feel certain you will be fully satisfied.

Now I come to your letter, which, though written in full and gratifying terms, there is no reason why I should answer at great length. For, in the first place, I did not send that letter to Calvus, ³ any more than the one you are now reading, with an idea of its getting abroad. For I write in one [p. 59] style what I expect that the persons addressed only, in another what I expect that many, will read. In the next place, I praised his genius in higher terms than you think could have been done with sincerity. To begin with, it was because that was my real opinion. He had a subtle and active mind: he adhered to a certain definite style, in which, though his judgment was at fault-generally his strong point--he yet attained his aim. He had great and uncommon learning: force he had not. It was in that direction, therefore, that I tried to rouse his energies. Now, in stimulating and whetting a man's intellect nothing is more efficacious than to mingle praise with exhortation. That is my judgment on Calvus, and the motive of my letter: motive, in that I praised in order to stimulate him; judgment, in that I thought very highly of his ability.

It only remains to follow your journey with affectionate interest, to look forward to your return with hope, to cherish you while absent in memory, and to alleviate our regret by an interchange of letters. I should wish you often to recall your kindnesses and good services to me; for while you may, and I may not, forget them without positive crime, you will have reason, not only to think me an honest man, but also to believe that you are deeply loved by me.

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¹ Gaius Trebonius had been all along a strong Caesarian. In his tribuneship (Dec. B.C. 56-Dec. B.C. 55) he proposed the law for the extension of Caesar's governorship. From B.C. 54 he was his legatus in Gaul. He helped to conduct the siege of Marseilles B.C. 49. He was praetor urbanus in the year B.C. 48, and maintained Caesar's financial enactments against Caelius. Some time in B.C. 47 he was sent to southern Spain as proconsul in place of Cassius. He seems to have been an admirer of Cicero, in spite of politics, and to have made s collection of his bons mots. He did not succeed in Baetica, and though afterwards nominated by Caesar to the province of Asia, he was one of his assassins. Of his own miserable death we shall hear later on. He had some tincture of letters, and wrote verses on the model of Lucilius.

² As quaestor, B.C. 60, Trebonius had opposed the passing of the law allowing Clodius's adoption into a plebeian gens.

³ Trebonius seems to have remonstrated on some laudatory expressions in a letter to Calvus, which he had seen. C. Licinius Calvus, son of the annalist Licinius Macer, was born B.C. 82. He was a poet and orator. In the latter capacity Cicero elsewhere (Brut. § 283) speaks of him as being learned and accurate, but too much enslaved to the model of the Attic style, which he had set himself to imitate. That is the "certain definite style" of which he here speaks.