Cicero’s Letters to his Friends, Book 8

Translated by Evelyn Shuckburgh

CXCI (F VIII, 1)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (ON HIS JOURNEY TO CILICIA)

ROME, 24 MAY-1 JUNE

As I promised you¹ on the eve of your departure ² to write a full and careful account of all that went on in the city, I have taken pains to secure a man to describe everything so fully, that I fear his industry in this respect may appear to you somewhat overdone. Although you know your own curiosity, and how men abroad delight in being informed of even the most insignificant things that are going on at home, still in this point I must ask you for a favourable construction--that you should not hold me guilty of giving myself airs in thus performing the duty, because I have delegated this task to another. Not at all because it was not the most delightful thing possible to me--busy as I am and, as you know, the laziest man in the world at writing letters--to keep my memory of you fresh : but the size of the packet itself, which I am sending you, will, in my opinion, easily plead my excuse. It would have required considerable leisure not only to copy out all these details, but even to take notice of [p. 16] them : for the packet Contains all the decrees of the senate, edicts, gossip, and reports. If this specimen does not meet your wishes, let me know, that I may not spend money only to bore you. If anything of unusual importance occurs in public business, which these clerks cannot easily get at, I will myself carefully write you an account of how it was done, what was thought of it, and what is expected to be its result. For the present there is nothing which causes much anticipation. For those rumours as to the admission of the Transpadani to the comitia died out after reaching Cumae : ³ when I got to Rome I didn't find that there was the slightest whisper about it. Besides, Marcellus has not as yet brought before the senate the subject of a successor to the Gallic provinces, ⁴ and has (as he told me himself) postponed that motion to the 1st of June. He has gone far to bring up again the talk about him which was prevalent when we were in Rome. ⁵ But pray if; as you wished to do, you have found Pompey at home, ⁶ write me a full account of what you thought of him, what he said to you, and what wishes he professed to entertain--for he is accustomed to think one thing and say another, and yet is not clever enough to conceal his real aims. As to Caesar, there are frequent and rather ugly reports--at any rate, people keep arriving with mysterious whispers : one says that he has lost his cavalry, which, in my opinion, is without doubt an invention : another says that the seventh legion has had a drubbing, that he himself is besieged among the Bellovaci, ⁷ and cut off from [p. 17] his main army. But neither is there anything known for certain as yet, nor are even these uncertain rumours publicly bruited abroad after all--they are mentioned as open secrets among the small clique with which you are acquainted; but Domitius, with his finger on his lips, hints at them. On the 24th of May, the quidnuncs of the rostra, Confound them! spread a loud report that you had been assassinated on your journey by Q. Pompeius. ⁸ Since I happened to know that Q. Pompeius was dieting himself ⁹ at Bauli, and was fasting to such an extent that I was sorry for him, I was not agitated, and I only wished that we might compound by this lie for all dangers that might be threatening you. Your friend Plancus, for his part, is at Ravenna, and though he has been presented with a large douceur by Caesar, he is neither wealthy nor well set up. Your books on the Republic are in universal vogue. ¹⁰

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¹ Cicero's correspondent while in Cilicia, M. Caelius Rufus, was a young man still, and had been rendered notorious by his long intrigue with Clodia, who, when she quarrelled with him, accused him of attempting to poison her. He was brought to trial de vi, in B.C. 56, by L. Sempronius Atratinus, whose father he had himself accused of bribery; and among the counts against him was his connexion with Clodia and his attempt on her life. An interesting essay on this brilliant, though dissolute person, will be found in Boissier's Cicéron et ses Amis. He ended his life disastrously : adhering to Caesar in the Civil War, he was praetor in B.C. 48, but in Caesar's absence in Egypt he attempted to secure popularity by opposing his law for relieving financial distress, and after many conflicts with Antony, fled from Rome to join Milo, who was attempting to force his own recall, and was killed. Cicero's defence of him on the accusation of Atratinus is extant.

² Not " on leaving town," for Caelius evidently accompanied Cicero to Campania or met him there.

³ See Letter CLXXXIV, p. 6.

⁴ Caesar's ten years' government of this province would be over in March, B.C. 48; but if he was to stand for the consulship for that year in the usual way, he must come home in July, B.C. 49. Caesar maintained that by the clause in Pompey's law he was authorized to stay in his province and be elected in his absence, and so would only return to Rome at the end of B.C. 49 to take up his consulship. Thus he complains that a resolution of the senate compelling him to come home in July, B.C. 49, would deprive him " of a six months' imperium bestowed on him by the people,' (Caes. B.C. 1.9).

⁵ That Marcellus was weak and irresolute. Expressit is not the word Cicero would have used. It is a slang use of the word which means (I) to squeeze out, (2) to describe, to exhibit.

⁶ See Letters CLXXXVIII, CLXXXIX, pp. 12, 13.

⁷ Caesar's serious struggle with the Bellovaci (round Beauvais, in Normandy) is described in Hirtius's continuation of Caesar's commentaries, B. G. viii. 6-22. A slight cavalry disaster, which may have given rise to the reported loss of the cavalry, is described in ch. 12. Caesar invaded the Bellovaci with the 7th, 8th, and 9th legions, but at one time he was at any rate in a sufficiently difficult position to make it necessary for him to send for another legion, the 13th (B. G. viii. 8-11.)

⁸ Q. Pompeius Rufus, tribune in B.C. 52, afterwards condemned for his promotion of the riots connected with the burning of Clodius's body and the destruction of the Curia.

⁹ Reading peinêtikên facere.

¹⁰ The de Republica was begun in B.C. 54, and probably published before Cicero left Rome in B.C. 51.

CXCV (F VIII, 2)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (ON HIS JOURNEY)

ROME, JUNE

It¹ is certainly true, I tell you, that he has been acquitted--I was in court when the verdict was announced--and that, too, by all three orders, and by a unanimous vote in each [p. 22] order. "Well, that is entirely their concern," ² say you. No, by Hercules ! For nothing ever happened so unexpected, or so scandalous in the eyes of everybody. Nay, even I, though I countenanced him with all my might for friendship's sake, and had prepared myself to condole with him, was thunderstruck when it occurred, and thought I must be under some hallucination. What do you suppose, then, was the feeling of others? Why, they attacked the jurors with a storm of disapproving shouts, and made it quite plain that this was more than they could stand. Accordingly, now that he is left to the mercies of the Licinian law, he seems to be in greater danger than ever. ³ Besides this, on the day after the acquittal, Hortensius came into Curio's theatre ⁴ --I suppose that we might share in his rejoicing ! Whereupon you had

Tumult sore, Wild uproar, Thunder bellowing in the clouds, Tempest hissing through the shrouds.

This was the more noticed from the fact that Hortensius had reached old age without ever having been hissed, but on this occasion 'got it heartily enough to serve anyone for the whole of his life, and to make him sorry he had won his case. Of politics I have nothing to tell you. The active proceedings of Marcellus have died away, not from lack of energy, as it seems to me, but from policy. As to the consular elections, public opinion is quite at a loss. For myself, I have chanced upon one competitor who is noble [p. 23] and one who acts the noble : for M. Octavius, son of Gnaeus, and C. Hirrus are standing with me. I tell you this because I know that it was on account of Hirrus that you were anxiously waiting for news of my election. However, as soon as you learn of my having been returned, I beg you to be taking measures as to the panthers. ⁵ I recommend Sittius's bond to your attention. I gave the first batch of notes on the events in the city to L. Castrinius Pietus, the second to the bearer of this letter.

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¹ I have followed Messrs. Tyrrell and Purser in placing this letter in June instead of July, principally because it appears to have been written a considerable time before the elections.

² Reading viderint modo. This is very likely not the true reading, but nothing can be made of vide modo of the MSS. Another suggestion is ride modo, "well, pass it over with a smile." The acquittal referred to is that of M. Valerius Messalla (consul B.C. 53), on a charge of bribery (ambitus).

³ Having been acquitted on the charge of ambitus, the only thing to be done with Messalla was to accuse him of having used his political club (sodalitas) for corrupt purposes. The lex Licinia de sodalitus (B.C. 55) was a harsher law than others de ambitu in regard to the composition of the jury pro Planc. 36). Caelius therefore thinks that Messalla will have less chance under it.

⁴ Two wooden theatres that swung round, with spectators sitting in them, to form an amphitheatre for gladiators. Curio had therefore determined on giving the funeral games against which Cicero advised him. See Letter CLXVIIL

⁵ The office Caelius was seeking was that of curule aedile; as aedile he and his colleague had charge of the ludi Romani and Megalensia, as well as in some degree other games. It was the fashion to endeavour, in some way, to make their office notable by something fresh or costly; and one of the most popular features of such games was the venatio, a killing of wild animals. Caelius wants these panthers to exhibit in this way.

CXCVI (F VIII, 3)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (ON HIS WAY TO CILICIA)

ROME, JUNE

Is it so? Have I won? And do I send you frequent letters, which, as you were leaving, you said I should never take the trouble to do for you? It is even so, that is to say, if the letters I send reach you. And, indeed, I am all the more energetic about this because, being at leisure, I have nowhere to spend my little holiday with any pleasure. When you were at Rome I had an unfailing and most delightful resource for an idle day--to spend the holiday with you. I miss this exceedingly, so that not only do I feel myself to be all alone, but now you are gone a desert seems to have been created at Rome; and I who in my carelessness omitted paying you a visit on many days, when you were here, am now daily tortured to think that I have not got you to run to. But, above all, my rival ¹ Hirrus takes care that I should look for you day and night. [p. 24] You can imagine how vexed that rival of yours for the augurship is, and how he tries to conceal the fact that I am a surer candidate than himself. That you should receive the news about him which you wish at the earliest possible moment, I desire, on my honour, more for your sake than my own. For as to myself, if I am elected, I shall perhaps be so with a colleague richer than myself: ² but even this is so delightful, that, if it really does happen to me, I can never all my life long lack something to smile at. Is it really worth while? Yes! by Hercules. M. Octavius is unable to do much to soften the hostile feelings--and they are many--which spoil Hirrus's chances. As to the services of your freedman Philotimus and the property of Milo, I have taken care that Philotimus should satisfy Milo in his absence, as well as his family, by the most absolutely straightforward conduct, and that your character should not suffer as far as his good faith and activity are concerned. ³ What I now have to ask of you is that, if (as I hope) you get any leisure, you would compose some treatise dedicated to me, to shew me that you care for me. "How did that come into your head," say you, "a modest man like you?" I desire that out of your numerous writings there should be something extant handing down to posterity also the record of our friendship. "What sort of thing do you want?" I suppose you will ask. You, who are acquainted with every school of thought, will hit upon the suitable thing sooner than I. Only let it be of a kind that has some appropriateness to me, and let it contain practical instruction, that it may be widely used. [p. 25]

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¹ As candidate for the curule aedileship.

² The reading and the interpretation of this clause are both very doubtful.

³ See p. 18.

CCV (F VIII, 4)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (IN CILICIA)

ROME, 1 AUGUST

I envy you: such a budget of startling news is conveyed every day to you over there! First, the acquittal of Messalla, then his condemnation: the election of C. Marcellus to the consulship: M. Calidius, after losing his election, impeached by the two Gallii: P. Dolabella made one of the quindecimviri. There is only one thing I don't envy you for--that you have lost a most interesting spectacle, and did not see the expression on the face of Lentulus Crus when he lost. But what a come down for him! He had been so confident, had made so sure of it! Dolabella himself had been so doubtful! And, by Hercules, if our friends the equites had not been too sharp-eyed, he would have won almost by the retirement of his opponent. The next item I don't think will surprise you, that Servaeus, after becoming tribune-designate, has been condemned. C. Curio is [p. 41] candidate for the vacancy thus made by him. ¹ It is remarkable how much alarm he inspires in many people, who don't know him and his easy-going character ; but, as I hope and desire, and to judge from his present attitude, he will prefer to side with the loyalist party and the senate. In his present frame of mind he is bubbling over with this intention. The root and origin of this feeling is that Caesar, who generally spares no expense in attaching to himself the friendship of the lowest characters, has treated him with very marked neglect. And in this there does seem to me to be a touch of humour--which has been noticed also to a great extent by the rest--that Curio, who never acts on any fixed plan, should be thought to be following a deliberate policy and a deep design in evading the counsels of those who had exerted themselves to oppose his election to the tribuneship --I mean the Laelii and Antonii and powerful men of that stamp.

There has been a somewhat longer interval than usual between this and my last letter, because the successive postponements of the elections kept me more than usually busy, and forced me to wait day after day for their result, that I might give you the information when all was over. I have waited to the 1st of August. There have been some hitches in the praetorian elections. Moreover, what will be the result of my own election I do not know: that of the plebeian Aediles' election indeed has, as far as Hirrus is concerned, amounted to a strong expression of opinion in my favour. For that foolish proposition of his (which we laughed at of old), and the promulgation of a law for the [p. 42] appointment of a dictator, brought M. Caelius Vinicianus suddenly to the ground, and caused him to be loudly hooted when down. This was followed by a general demand that, after that, Hirrus should not be elected curule aedile. ² I hope that you will speedily hear about me the news you have hoped for, and about him what you have scarcely ventured to hope.

As to politics, I had by this time ceased to hope for any new development ; but at a meeting of the senate in the temple of Apollo on the 22nd of July, upon a motion being brought before it in reference to the pay of Pompey's soldiers, mention was made of the legion with which Pompey had furnished C. Caesar--in what division was it reckoned, for what purpose was it required? Pompey having answered that "it was in Gaul," he was compelled to say that "he would withdraw the legion." He didn't say this at once, but only on the subject being brought forward and under a fire of invective from his detractors. ³ He was then asked about the appointment of a successor to C. Caesar; ⁴ and on this point a resolution was passed that "Cn. Pompeius should return to the city as soon as possible, in order that the question of the succession to the provinces might be debated while he was in the house." For Pompey was on [p. 43] the point of starting for Ariminum to join the army ; and in fact did go at once. I think that business will come on on the 13th of August. Some conclusion will be come to for certain, or a scandalous exercise of the veto will hinder it. For in the course of the debate Pompey let fall the expression, "Everybody ought to be obedient to the senate." For my part, however, there is nothing I look forward to so much as to hearing Paullus delivering his vote first as consul-elect. ⁵

I remind you often about Sittius's bond, ⁶ for I am anxious that you should understand that it is of great importance to me: so also about the panthers, that you should send for some natives of Cibyra, ⁷ and see that they are shipped to me. Besides this, we have been told, and it is now regarded as certain, that the king of Egypt is dead. Take care to write to me what policy you recommend to me, what the condition of that kingdom is, and who has charge of it. ⁸

1 August.

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¹ Messalla, convicted (after his acquittal for ambitus) under the Licinian law de sodalitiis (see Letter CXCV). M. Calidius, praetor B.C. 57, accused now of ambitus had himself formerly accused Q. Gallius on the same charge. P. Cornelius Dolabella, afterwards son-in-law of Cicero, but a partisan of Caesar in the Civil War, is now elected as one of the quindecimviri sacris faciendis. L. Cornelius Lentulus Crus consul in B.C. 49, had been praetor B.C. 58, a strong Optimate. Of Servaeus nothing is known ; he is prosecuted for ambitus between his election and the day of entering office, and being condemned, is ipso facto incapable of taking it up. C. Curio, of whom we have heard so often, the pupil and friend of Cicero, of whom he hoped such high things, had ruined himself by his extravagant funeral games, and during his year of office was won over to Caesar's side by being relieved by him from his enormous debts.

² For Hirrus, too, had proposed that Pompey should he made dictator. The old dictatorship was forgotten ; what people remembered was Sulla's unconstitutional dictatorship and the proscriptions.

³ Pompey, though proconsul of Spain, was retained on the plea of the public service outside the city (ad urbem), as proconsul with imperium. As such he commanded all troops in Italy (for the consuls, while in the city, had no military command). He also, by the special terms of his appointment as praefectus annonae, had the right for five years from B.C. to enlist soldiers in any province. In B.C. 55 he had enlisted a legion in Cisalpine Gaul ; but in B.C. 53, in view of a threatened rebellion throughout Transalpine Gaul, Caesar had asked' him to order this legion to join him, and Pompey had done so. We shall see that its withdrawal at the end of this year, under pretext of a Parthian war, was one of Caesar's alleged grievances (Caes. B.C. 6.1; B.C. i. 4, 11). Of the troops Pompey retained in Italy the main part were at Ariminum, the frontier town of Italy proper and Gaul. Hence, when Caesar crossed the Rubicon in B.C. 49, he found most of the towns on the eastern coast garrisoned by cohorts under Pompey's officers.

⁴ As to whether Caesar was to stay in Gaul over the elections of B.C. 49, or come home before the full term of his governorship granted him by the law had expired.

⁵ L. Aemilius Paullus, who had now been or would be elected before the next meeting of the senate, was a strong Optimate. The consuls-designate were always called on first for their sententia in the senate.

⁶ Letter CXCV.

⁷ The district of Pisidia included in the province of Cilicia.

⁸ Ptolemy, father of Cleopatra, of whose restoration (B.C. 55) we have heard so much, left a young son who, as king, ordered Pompey's murder in B.C. 48, and himself perished in the course of the Alexandrine war of B.C. 48.47.

CCIX (F VIII, 5)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (IN CILICIA)

ROME (AUGUST)

How far you are anxious about the peaceful state of your province and the neighbouring regions I don't know: for myself, I am in great suspense. For if we could only arrange matters in such a fashion, that the war should just be of a magnitude to correspond with your forces, and that we should gain just enough success for a triumph, without encountering the serious contest awaiting you, then nothing could be so much to be wished. As it is, if the Parthian stirs at all, I know that the struggle will not be a slight one. Moreover, your army is scarcely large enough to hold a single pass. No one, however, takes that into account; but everything is expected from a man at the head of a public department, as though he had been refused nothing which was required to put him in the most absolute state of preparation. Added to this, I don't see any chance of a successor being named for you, owing to the controversy about the Gauls. Although on this point I think you have settled in your own mind what to do, nevertheless, to enable you to settle it the earlier, I thought, as I now foresee that contingency, that I ought to keep you informed. For you know the way things commonly go: a settlement of the Gauls will be passed ; some one' will be found to veto it ; then up will get some one else to veto the other provinces, unless the senate is allowed to pass a vote about them all without interference. This is the sort of game that will be kept up briskly and long, and so long that more than two years will be wasted in these intrigues. If I had any news in politics to tell you, I would have followed my usual habit of carefully retailing in my letter not only what had happened, but also what I expected to be the result of it. In point of fact, everything seems to have stuck, so to speak, in the ditch. Marcellus is trying to push that same motion about the provinces, but has [p. 49] not as yet succeeded in getting a quorum. ¹ If, after this year is over, Curio as tribune, and the same motion about the provinces come upon the stage, you cannot fail to see how easy it will be to stop all business, and how much Caesar, and those who care nothing for the Republic when their own interests are involved, hope that it may be so.

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¹ See Letter CCV. The motion of Marcellus about the provinces was to come on the 13th of August. According to Willem's Le Sénat (ii. pp. 167, 589) the lex Pompeia de provinciis enacted a minimum number senators for the passing of a decree as to the provinces.

CCXLI (F VIII, 6)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (IN CILICIA)

ROME, FEBRUARY

I HAVE no doubt the news has reached you of Appius being impeached by Dolabella. But there is by no means the feeling against him which I had expected. For the truth is, Appius acted with a good deal of sense. No sooner did Dolabella appear at the tribunal, than he entered the city and gave up his demand for a triumph. By thus acting he at once took the edge off popular talk, and shewed himself also to be better prepared than his accuser had expected. [p. 114] His chief hope is now in you. I know you don't dislike him. It is now in your power to attach him to you as strongly as you choose. If you had never had a quarrel with him, you would now have had a freer hand in the whole business: as it is, if you push legality to the proverbial extreme, ¹ you must be on your guard against being thought not to have been quite candid and sincere in renouncing your hostility. In this respect you will certainly be on safe ground in doing him a favour, if so minded; for no one will say that you have been debarred from doing a duty by the influence of intimacy and friendship. ² It occurs to my mind that, between the application to the praetor and the formal notice of impeachment, Dolabella's wife has divorced him. 'I remember the commission you gave me as you were leaving: ³ I think you have not forgotten what I wrote to you. It is not as yet the time for entering into farther details. I can only give you this hint: if you like the suggestion, do not, nevertheless, at the present moment betray your sentiments, but wait to see how he comes out of this case. Take care that it does not bring discredit on you if it leaks out: assuredly, if any expression of your feeling were to crop up now, it would gain a greater notoriety than is either decent or expedient. Nor will he be able to hold his tongue on a circumstance which chimed in so pat with his hopes, and which will reflect so much additional lustre upon him in conducting the prosecution: especially as he is the sort of man to be scarcely able to refrain, even though he knew it was ruinous to himself to mention the fact. Pompey is said to be very anxious on Appius's behalf, so much so that it is even thought that he means to send one or other of his sons to you. ⁴ [p. 115] Here we are all for his acquittal, and, by Hercules, every disclosure that could reflect disgrace or dishonour on him has been carefully barred. Our consuls are indeed energetic: they haven't been able to get a single decree through the senate, except the one for the Latin festival! Our friend Curio's tribuneship is deadly dull--as cold as ice. In short, I can hardly express to you the flatness of everything at Rome. If it had not been for a good fight I am having with the shopkeepers and water companies, ⁵ a lethargy would have settled upon the state. If the Parthians don't make it warm for you, we here are stiff with cold. However, Bibulus has done his best: without the help of the Parthians he has managed to lose a poor cohort or two in Amanus. So it is reported here.

I said just now that Curio was much in the cold: well, he is now getting warm I for he is being pulled to pieces with a hot fire of criticism. ⁶ For, just because he did not get his way about intercalation, ⁷ he has with the most outrageous levity ratted to the popular party, and begun speaking up for Caesar, and has made a great parade of a road law, ⁸ not much unlike Rullus's agrarian law, and another about the sale of provisions, which enacts that the aediles should measure goods. He had not done this when I wrote the first part of my letter. Pray, if you render any assistance to Appius, let me have some of the credit. I advise you not to commit yourself in regard to Dolabella: that is the course most [p. 116] conducive at once to the proposal to which I am referring, to your own position, and to your reputation for fairness-It will be a disgrace to you if I have no Greek panthers.

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¹ Illam. Referring to the proverb, summum ius summa iniuria (de Off. 1.33).

² The point is this: in old times Cicero was at enmity with Appius (as supporting his brother Clodius). If that had never been the case he might have taken the purely legal view of the matter; but if he does so now, people will say his reconciliation with Appius was all pretence, whereas, if he supports him, nobody can say that he does so from any special feeling of friendship. Cicero is said to have the power of helping Appius because, being governor of the province, in connexion with which Appius's conduct is impugned, he would doubtless facilitate or make difficult the sending of witnesses against him.

³ To think of a suitable husband for Tullia

⁴ Gnaeus or Sextus Pompeius.

⁵ As aedile, in which office he had the superintendence of the water supply, state of the streets, fire preventives, etc. The point was that the shopkeepers had been drawing off public water by private pipes. A speech of Caelius de Aquis was once extant on the subject (Frontinus, de Aquaeuct. 75, 76).

⁶ The metaphor is mixed, but so is Caelius's.

⁷ The intercalation of a month of twenty-one or twenty-three days (between the 23rd and 24th of February every other year). The decision as to the proper time for doing this was in the hands of the College of pontifices, of which Curio was a member. He apparently tried to induce the pontifices to intercalate this year, which was not the rght year. His object was presumed to be to further postpone the decision as to Caesar's province, which was to come on in the senate on the 1st of March (Dio, 40, 61).

⁸ For a wholesale repair of the great roads, which would require commissioners with a lengthened term of office, of which he would be one.

CCXLII (F VIII, 7)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (IN CILICIA)

ROME (FEBRUARY)

How soon you want to quit your province I don't know; for myself, the greater your success up to now, the more shall I be tormented by the danger of a Parthian war, as long as you remain where you are, for fear some alarm should dissipate the laughter in which I usually indulge. This letter is shorter than usual, but the letter-carrier of the publicani was in a hurry, and I was suddenly called upon for it. I had already delivered a longer one to your freedman. Moreover, absolutely nothing new has happened, unless you would like my letter to be filled with such anecdotes as the following (and I am sure you would): The younger Cornificius has betrothed himself to Orestilla's daughter Paulla Valeria, sister of Triarius, has divorced her husband without cause alleged, on the very day he was to arrive from his province. She is going to marry D. Brutus. She has yet given no notice to the pontifices. ¹ Servius Ocella would never have convinced anybody that he was an adulterer, if he had not been twice caught in three days. You will ask where? In the last place, by Hercules, I should have wished! I leave you something to find out from others. And I rather like the idea of an imperator questioning one person after another with what woman so-and--so has been caught. [p. 117]

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¹ Nondum rettulerat. The meaning of these words is uncertain. Some would read mundum rettulerat, "she has sent back her dress and ornaments." In case of a divorce by the woman without cause, the husband retained the dos, or a large part of it; but there is no authority for the practice of the wife giving up her wardrobe.

CCXXII (F VIII, 8)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (IN CILICIA)

ROME (OCTOBER)

Though I have some political news for you, yet I don't think I have anything to tell you that you will be more glad to hear than this: I have to inform you that C. Sempronius Rufus--Rufus, your pet darling --has been convicted of vexatious prosecution with universal applause. You ask, in what case? Well, he indicted M. Tuccius (who had formerly prosecuted him) after the Roman games for illegal violence under the lex Plotia. His object was this: he saw that, unless some defendant were put on the list for trial whose case could take priority, he would have to stand his own trial this year. Moreover, he had no doubt what would happen to him. ¹ This prosecution was a small favour he preferred to do to his accuser more than anyone else! Accordingly, without anyone backing his indictment, he came down into the forum and indicted Tuccius. As soon as I heard of it, I hurried without waiting for a summons to the defendant's bench. I rose, and without saying a word on the merits of [p. 74] the case, I showed up his whole character and career, even bringing in the matter of Vestorius, and telling the story of his having surrendered to you as a favour "whatever Vestorius held contrary to his own legal rights." ²

The following hotly contested case is also at present taking up the attention of the forum. ³ M. Servilius had, as was to be expected from his previous conduct, become utterly bankrupt, and had nothing left which he was not prepared to sell to anybody, and when he became my client had already exposed himself to the most violent scandal. But when Pausanias initiated proceedings against him for "fraudulent possession of the money" (I acting as counsel for the defence), the praetor Laterensis declined to allow the action. Then Q. Pilius, the connexion of our friend Atticus, initiated proceedings against him for extortion. Much talk at once arose about the case, and strong remarks began to be made about a conviction. Moved by this storm of popular feeling, Appius the younger laid an information as to a sum of money having been transferred from his father's estate to Servilius, and stated that 81 sestertia (about £648) had been deposited to enable him to secure the collusive failure of the prosecution. ⁴ You are surprised at this [p. 75] folly; nay, what would you have said if you had heard him conducting the case, and the admissions which he made, foolish in the extreme as far as he was himself concerned, and positively shameful as regards his father? ⁵ The jury called upon to consider their verdict was the same as that which had assessed the damages in the former case. The votes having turned out to be equal, Laterensis, from imperfect acquaintance with the laws, announced the verdict of each of the decuriae separately, and finally, according to the custom of the praetors, gave the decision "for the defendant." ⁶ After leaving the court, Servilius being thenceforth regarded as acquitted, Laterensis read the 101st clause of the law, which contains the words "The verdict of the majority of the jurors shall be good and decisive." He thereupon did not enter him on the records as acquitted, but only entered a statement of the verdict of the several decuriae. ⁷ Upon Appius, however, applying for a new trial, he said that he had consulted L. Lollius ⁸ and would record the facts. So that now, being neither acquitted nor condemned, Servilius will be at the disposal of Pilius for an action for extortion, with a reputation already damaged. For Appius, though he had already sworn that there was no collusion, did not venture to dispute the right to prosecute ⁹ with Pilius, and has himself had proceedings begun against him for extortion by the Servilii, besides having been indicted for violence by a creature of his own, Sextius Tettius. ¹⁰ They are a worthy pair!

As for political business, for many days past nothing at [p. 76] all has been done, owing to the suspense as to the arrangements to be made about the Gauls. At last, however, after frequent postponements and serious debates, and when Pompey's wishes had been clearly seen to incline in the direction of passing a decree for Caesar quitting his province after the 1st of March next, a decree of the senate was passed, which I hereby send you, and some resolutions which were reduced to writing.

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¹ A prosecution de vi took precedence of one de ambitu. Therefore, if he prosecuted Tuccius for vis, Tuccius would have to wait before he could bring his accusation de ambitu. As there was no case in the accusation de vi, Sempronius was accused of bringing a vexatious action, i.e., an action not sincerely meant to be what it pretended, but begun merely for obstructive purposes. Roman games, 4th-19th September.

² Reading and interpretation are doubtful. Apparently Cicero, as arbitrator between Sempronius and Vestorius, had decided in favour of the latter; but Sempronius, while refusing to submit, pretended to yield as a favour what (as he alleged) Vestorius was wrongfully withholding from him, the point being that he himself is in the wrong all the time.

³ The story is difficult to follow. C. Claudius Pulcher, after his praetorship of Asia (B.C. 56-53), was in B.C. 51 condemned for extortion. He either died or left Rome, and his property was not sufficient to pay the damages. Pausanias (unknown to us) asked leave to prosecute his legatus (or other official), M. Servilius, for wrongful possession of money (quo ea pecunia peroenisset), but the praetor Laterensis decided that there was no case to go into court. Then Pilius began a prosecution of him de repetundis, but this was anticipated by another by Appius (son of C. Claudius), who prosecuted him for wrongful possession, being able to make out a better prima facie case. The votes in this trial were equal, but Servilius was left in a questionable position by an irregularity of the praetor in recording the verdict. Caelius says that he is now going to be prosecuted by Pilius on the criminal charge of extortion. The young Appius had made a mess of it, had exposed his own and his father's malpractices, and was himself now being prosecuted by members of Servilius's family.

⁴ Praevaricatio, where the professed prosecuters voluntarily, and for corrupt motives, allow the case to go against them.

⁵ Because they confessed to his father having tried to get off by collusion with the prosecution, thereby acknowledging his guilt.

⁶ Non redigam, lit. "I will not exact the money," i.e., the money alleged to have been fraudulently received.

⁷ Such a record would not, on the face of it, prove acquittal, because a man might be acquitted by a small majority in two decuriae and yet be condemned by so large a majority in the third as not to have a majority of the whole jury in his favour as required by law.

⁸ Apparently a jurisconsult, but he is unknown.

⁹ Divinatio, a technical name for the trial between two or more rival claimants for the conduct of a prosecution.

¹⁰ These actions, meant to tie the hands of Appius and prevent his farther attacks on Servilius, were also probably grounded on his own revelations. He had, we may suppose, been with his father in Asia on his staff, and therefore, under the Julian law, was open to prosecution de repetundis. See Pliny, Ep. 3.9.

CCX (F VIII, 9)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (IN CILICIA)

ROME, 2 SEPTEMBER

"Is that the way you have treated Hirrus?" quoth you. Nay, if you only knew how easy it was, what an absence of even the shadow of a struggle, you would be ashamed that he ever ventured to come forward as a rival candidate with you. ¹ However, after his defeat, he keeps a smiling face, plays the honest citizen, and delivers his votes against Caesar ; blames the delay; attacks Curio, too, with considerable violence has quite changed his habits since his defeat. Besides, he who has hitherto never shown his face in the forum, and has had little to do with the law courts, now pleads cases of slaves claiming freedom, ² though seldom after midday. I told you in one of my letters that the business of the provinces was to be settled on the 13th of August: well, the trial of Marcellus, consul-designate, interfered with [p. 50] that. The matter was postponed till the 1st of September. They haven't even been able to make a house. I send this letter on the 2nd of September, up to which date nothing has been decided any more than before. As far as I can see this question will be transferred to next year unsettled, and, as well as I can guess, you will have to leave some one behind you to take charge of the province. ³ For the appointment of a successor is not freed from difficulties, now that it is sought to put the Gauls, the assignment of which is vetoed, under the same category as the rest of the provinces. ⁴ I have no doubt of this being the case: and it has made me the more determined to write to you, that you might prepare yourself for this eventuality.

In nearly every letter I have mentioned the subject of the panthers to you. It will be a disgrace to you that Patiscus has sent ten panthers to Curio, and that you should not send many times more. And these very beasts, as well as ten more from Africa, Curio has presented to me, lest you should think that he does not know how to make any presents except landed estates. If you will only not forget, and send for some men of Cibyra, and also transmit a letter to Pamphylia--for it is there that they are said to be mostly captured--you will effect what you choose. I am all the more earnest about this now, because I think I shall have to furnish the exhibition entirely apart from my colleague. Pray lay this injunction upon yourself. It is your way to take much trouble willingly, as it is mine for the most part to take none. In this business you have nothing to do but speak--that is, to give an order and a commission. For as soon as the beasts have been captured, you have men to feed and transport them in those whom I have sent over on the affair of Sittius's bond. I think also that, if you give me any hope in your letters, I shall send some more men across. [p. 51]

I recommend to you M. Feridius, a Roman knight, a son of a friend of mine, a good and active young man, who is about to arrive in your province on business of his own, and I beg you to count him among the number of your friends. He wishes that certain lands, from which their townships draw revenue, should by your favour (which you can easily and honourably grant) be relieved from this burden: you will have obliged men who are both grateful and honest.

I would not have you think that Favonius ⁵ owed his defeat to the men of the pavement ; all the most respectable men abstained from voting for him. Your friend Pompey plainly objects to Caesar keeping a province with an army, and being at the same time consul. However, the motion he himself made in the senate was that no decree ought to be passed at this time. Scipio's ⁶ was, that the question of Gallic provinces should be brought before the house on 1st March, and no other question combined with it. ⁷ This motion made Cornelius Balbus ⁸ pull a long face, and I know that he remonstrated with Scipio. Calidius, in conducting his defence, was very eloquent ; in bringing his accusation, rather ineffective. ⁹

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¹ I.e., for the augurship.

² Liberales causas. This phrase does not occur in Cicero, though it does in Terence and in Quintilian. Some of the editors, therefore, have doubted as to its genuineness or its meaning here. The point seems to be that Hirrus, to gain popularity, now took up the cases of the humblest clients, but yet did not exert himself to come to the courts in the afternoons. Law business would generally end between twelve and one, but sometimes cases were renewed after the midday rest and meal.

³ Cicero, as a fact, did leave his quaestor in charge of the province. At the end of a year a provincial governor could do this, though he remained responsible through his nominee.

⁴ Up to this time the government of the Gauls had been arranged for till the end of B.C. 49 by a lex. The proposal to have a successor allotted for them in the ordinary way raised the entire question of Caesar's rights, and the resolution in the senate to go on with allotting the provinces usual would be vetoed ab initio in order to cover the case of the Gauls.

⁵ M. Favonius, the admirer and imitator of Cato, was a good aristocrat, but made enemies by his bitter tongue. He was rejected for the praetorship this year, but apparently obtained it in the following year (though there is some uncertainty on that point).

⁶ Q Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio, Pompey's father-in-law and Colleague in B.C. 52.

⁷ I.e., not the other provinces.

⁸ Caesar's friend and agent. See Letter CXCVIII.

⁹ Calidius, accused by the Gallii (Letter CCV), in his turn accused C. Claudius Marcellus, the consul.designate.

CCXXV (F VIII, 10)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (IN CILICIA)

ROME, 15 NOVEMBER

I have been much disturbed by the despatches of C. Cassius and Deiotarus For Cassius has written to say that the forces of the Parthians are across the Euphrates: Deiotarus that they started for our province by way of Commagene. For my part, my chief alarm has been on your account, knowing as I do what your state of preparation in the way of an army is, lest this inroad should in any way endanger your prestige. For I should have had some fear for your life, even if you had had a more adequate army: as it is, the slenderness of your forces made me forbode a retreat, not a battle, on your part. What view people would take of that, and how far what you were compelled to do would be likely to be considered satisfactory--about this I am still feeling anxious, and shall not cease to be alarmed till I hear of your having reached Italy. But the news of the passage of the Parthians has given rise to various suggestions. One man is for sending Pompey, another against Pompey's removal from the city, another for sending Caesar with his own army, another the consuls; no one, however, is for sending any who are in Rome without office by a senatorial [p. 83] decree. ¹ The consuls, moreover, for fear of this decree being passed for their leaving Rome in military uniform, or of the business being transferred to some one else, which would involve a slight upon themselves as having been passed over, are so unwilling to have any meeting of the senate at all, that they are getting a reputation for a want of energy in public business. But whether it is carelessness, or slackness, or the fear which I have suggested, behind this pretence of moderation there is concealed a disinclination to a province. No despatch has arrived from you, and had not that of Deiotarus followed his, it was beginning to be believed that Cassius, in order to represent devastation caused by himself as the work of the Parthians, invented 'the war, sent some Arabs into the province, and told the senate that they were Parthians. Wherefore I advise you to describe minutely and cautiously the state of things in your part of the world, whatever it is, that you may not be said either to have been filling some particular person's sails, or to have kept back what it was important to know. We have now come to the last period of the year: for I write this letter on the 15th of November. I see plainly that nothing can be done before the 1st of January. You know how slow and ineffective Marcellus is, and how dilatory Servius. What sort of men do you suppose they are, or how can they possibly do what is against their inclination, when things which they so wish they yet carry on so languidly as to give the impression of not wishing them? Again, when the new magistrates come into office, if there is a Parthian war, this question will take up their first months. But if; on the other hand, there turns out to be no war, or only one such as you or Your successors can manage with a small reinforcement, I Perceive that Curio will bestir himself with two objects: first, to take something away from Caesar; and, secondly, to bestow something on Pompey, however insignificant and valueless the contribution may be. Moreover, Paullus talks about the province with irrational violence. His intemperance will be resisted by our friend Furnius: about several others I cannot form an opinion. This is all I know: other possible events I cannot yet decipher. I know that time brings [p. 84] many developments and upsets many arrangements: but whatever is going to happen will be confined within these limits. I have this addition to make to the proceedings of Curio--his proposal as to the Campanian land: as to which they say that Caesar is indifferent, but that Pompey is much opposed, lest it should be unoccupied and at Caesar's disposal when he returns. As to your leaving your province, I cannot promise to take treasures to get a successor appointed: but I will at least pledge myself that your time is not prolonged. It is for you to consider whether, if the state of affairs, if the senate urge you to stay, if a refusal on our part cannot decently be made, you choose to persevere in your determination. My only business is to remember with what solemnity at your departure you laid the injunction on me not to allow of its happening.

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¹ Which was regarded as unconstitutional, and only to be justified by extreme circumstances. See Caesar, B.C. 1.6.5.

CCLXVI (F VIII, 11)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (IN CILICIA)

ROME, JUNE

Your "thanksgiving" has given us some sharp twinges, though they have not lasted long: for we came to a serious deadlock. The fact is, Curio, who is very fond of you, finding that every device was being employed to deprive him of comitial days, declared that nothing would induce him to allow the thanksgiving to pass the senate, lest he should appear to have thrown away by his own blundering the advantage he had obtained by the infatuation of Paullus, and should be regarded as having sold the cause of the Republic. Accordingly, we have had to adopt a compromise, and the consuls have pledged themselves not to hold the thanksgiving this year. Plainly you have reason to thank both consuls: Paullus certainly the rather of the two. For Marcellus answered him that he did not build much on those thanksgivings ; ¹ Paullus said that in any case [p. 176] he would not hold them this year. I was told that Hirrus meant to talk out the decree. I got hold of him: he not only did not do so, but when the vote for the victims was brought forward, ² and he could have put a spoke in our wheel, if he had called for a count, he held his tongue. He merely signified his agreement with Cato, who, while speaking of you in complimentary terms, voted against the thanksgiving. Favonius made a third with them. Wherefore you must thank everybody according to his peculiar idiosyncrasy and principles: these three, because they only shewed their wishes instead of making speeches, and because when they might have hindered they shewed no fight; and Curio, because he deviated from his own line of obstructive policy for your sake. For Furnius and Lentulus, as in duty bound, just as though they were personally affected, went round with me and took trouble in the matter. I can also speak in high terms of the exertions and earnestness of Cornelius Balbus. For he both spoke in strong terms to Curio, saying that, if he acted otherwise, he would be inflicting an injury on Caesar, and also managed to create a feeling of mistrust as to Curio's sincerity. Some voted for the decree who really wished for a decision un-favourable to you--such as the Domitii, the Scipios; and when they interposed in this matter with the design of provoking his veto, Curio made a very neat reply. "He was all the more happy," he said, "not to veto the decree, because he saw that certain persons who voted for it did not wish it carried."

As for politics, every controversy centres on one point--the provinces. In this matter Pompey as yet seems to have thrown all his weight on the side of the senate's wish that Caesar should leave his province on the 13th of November. when it was held, or whether it was held at all, and he would be influenced by the convenience of public business. [p. 177] Curio is resolved to submit to anything rather than allow this: he has given up all his other proposals. Our people, whom you know so well, do not venture to push matters to extremes. The situation turns entirely on this: Pompey, professing not to be attacking Caesar, but to be making an arrangement which he considers fair to him, says that Curio is deliberately seeking pretexts for strife. However, he is strongly against, and evidently alarmed at, the idea of Caesar becoming consul-designate before handing over his army and province. He is being attacked with some violence, and his whole second consulship is being roughly criticised by Curio. ³ Mark my words--if they push their suppression of Curio to extremes, Caesar will interpose in favour of the vetoing tribune; if, as it seems they will do, they shrink from this, Caesar will stay in his province as long as he chooses. The vote given by each is in the memorandum of city events ⁴ from which pick out what is worth reading: skip much, especially the hissing at the games and accounts of funerals and other unimportant gossip. It has a good deal worth knowing. The fact is, I prefer erring on the side of telling what you don't want, to passing over anything necessary. I am glad that you have interested yourself in the business of Sittius. But since you suspect the men I sent to you of being of doubtful fidelity, please act as my agent yourself.

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¹ I do not think that Marcellus said that "he had very little hope that the suppiications would pass," as Prof. Tyrrell interprets him: for there was no doubt about them if Curio withdrew his veto-and the remark would have no influence with him. What Marcellus said was that he was "not relying on the supplications in order to stop Curio from doing business with the comitia," while Paullus promised outright hat he would not so use them this year at all. The senate voted a supplicatio, but it depended on the executive magistrate, the consul,

² De hostiis, i.e., as to the kind and perhaps number of victims, as we find often in Livy. The change to de hostibus makes a considerable ambiguity, for it was on the claim of a triumph, not a supplicatio, that the general had to make a return of the numbers of the enemy that had fallen. Besides, if we read de hostibus, it would be better (with Schiitz) to read ut numerarentur, for the singular number refers to "counting out" the senate.

³ Because in it (B.C. 55) the legislation was passed which gave Caesar his present claims, i.e., the law of Trebonius giving him five more years in his province.

⁴ Not the public gazette (acta), but the private one which Caelius caused to be drawn up for Cicero's benefit.

CCLXXVIII (F VIII, 12)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (ON HIS JOURNEY HOME)

ROME, SEPTEMBER

I am ashamed to confess to you and to complain of the injuries done me by Appius--that most ungrateful of men, who begins to hate me because he is under great obligations to me; and since, in his avarice, he could not constrain himself to pay his debt, he has declared a secret war against me, yet not so secret either but that many people reported it to, me, and I myself observed without difficulty that he was harbouring evil thoughts of me. When, however, I discovered that he had been tampering with the college, ¹ then that he had been openly colloguing with certain persons, [p. 195] deliberating with L Domitius ² --at present my bitterest enemy--and expressing a wish to offer this trifling favour to 'Cn. Pompeius, I could not prevail on myself to upbraid him personally, or to beg one, whom I considered owed his life to me, to refrain from injuring me. What, then, could I do? However, I spoke to several of his friends, who were acquainted with my services to him. When I perceived that he did not think me even worth conciliating, I preferred putting myself under an obligation to his colleague ³ --a man very much out of sympathy with me, and not likely to be very well-disposed to me, owing to my friendship with you--rather than endure the sight of that ape. When he ascertained this, he flew into a rage and kept exclaiming that I was looking for an excuse for hostility, in order that, since he had not done what I wanted in regard to the money, I might cover my attack upon him by this show of a personal quarrel. Since then he has not ceased egging on Servius Pola to accuse me, and concerting measures with Domitius. And when they were not successful in securing anyone to accuse me under any law, they wanted me to be attacked under a law which gave them no ground for saying a word. Their impudence was so boundless, that they secured an information being laid against me under the Scantinian law ⁴ at the very height of the Circensian games, in which I was presiding. Scarcely had Pola got the words out of his mouth, when I laid an information under the same law against the censor Appius. I never saw a more successful stroke. For it has been approved by the people, and not all the lowest of them, to such an extent, that the scandal has given Appius greater pain than the legal proceedings. Besides this, I have started an action for recovering a shrine now within the wails of his house.

I am much disturbed by the detention of the slave who takes this letter to you. For since the receipt of your last he has been more than forty days in town. I don't know what to say to you. You know that Domitius dreads the day of election. ⁵ I am looking forward much to your return [p. 196] and desire to see you as soon as possible. I beg you to feel as much vexed at my wrongs, as you think I ever grieve at, and try to avenge yours.

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¹ Apparently the college of augurs, to which Caelius wished to be elected

² L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, consul B.C. 54 with Appius.

³ L. Piso, the other censor.

⁴ Against unnatural crimes.

⁵ To the augurship, which Antony got. See next letter.

CCLXX (F VIII, 13)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (IN CILICIA)

ROME (JUNE)

I CONGRATULATE YOU on a son-in-law who is, on my word, the best of men: for that is my opinion of him. Some other blemishes in his character, by which he has hitherto stood in his own light, are already shaken off by age; and, if any remain, I feel sure that they will be quickly removed by your society and influence, and by the modesty of Tullia. For he is not obstinate in vice, nor blunted beyond the power of understanding the higher life. Last, but not least, I am very fond of him.

You will be eager, my dear Cicero, to hear that our friend Curio had a fine conclusion to his veto of the decrees concerning the provinces. For on a motion in regard to the veto being brought before the house--a motion ordered by decree of the senate--and when M. Marcellus had proposed that the tribunes should be remonstrated with, a full senate voted a direct negative. The fact is that Pompey is now so out of sorts, ¹ that he can scarcely find anything to suit him. They have come round to this--that Caesar is to be allowed to stand for the consulship without giving up army or provinces. How Pompey is likely to endure this I will write you word as soon as I know. What is to happen to the Republic, if lie resists this in arms or ignores it, that will be the concern of you rich seniors. At the moment of my writing Hortensius is dying. [p. 183]

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¹ Stomacho ita languenti; referring by a double entendre to his illness. See p. 168.

CCLXXIX (F VIII, 14)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (ON HIS JOURNEY HOME)

ROME, SEPTEMBER

TAKING Arsaces prisoner and storming Seleucia was not worth your missing the spectacle of events which have been going on here. Your eyes would never have ached again, if you had only seen Domitius's look when he lost the election. ¹ It was a very full comitia, and the voting was evidently on party lines: a very few voted from motives of personal connexion or obligation. Accordingly, Domitius is most bitterly angry with me. He never hated any one even of his own friends so much as he does me: and all the more so that he thinks the augurship has been snatched from him unfairly, and that I am at the bottom of it. Now he is furious that people are so much rejoiced at his vexation, and that there was only one man more zealous for Antony than I was. For the young Cn. Domitius himself has given notice- of action against the young Cn. Saturninus--who is very unpopular owing to his past life. The trial is now imminent, with good hope, too, of an acquittal, after the acquittal of Sextus Peducaeus. As to high politics--I have often told you in my letters that I see no chance of peace lasting a year; and the nearer the struggle comes, which must come, the clearer does that danger appear. The point, on which the men in power are bound to fight, is this - Cn. Pompeius has made up his mind not to allow C. Caesar to become consul, except on condition of his first handing over his army and provinces: while Caesar is fully persuaded that he [p. 197] cannot be safe if he quits his army. He, however, proposes as a compromise that both should give up their armies. So that mighty love and unpopular union of theirs has not degenerated into mere secret bickering, but is breaking out into open war. Nor can I conceive what line to take in my own conduct--and I feel sure that this doubt will exercise you a good deal also--for between myself and these men there are ties of affection and close connexion, since it is the cause, not the men, that I dislike. I think you are alive to this rule, that men ought in a case of home differences, so long as the contest is carried on constitutionally without an appeal to arms, to follow the party most in the right: when it comes to war and the camp, the stronger party; ² and to make up one's mind that the safer course is the better. In this quarrel I perceive that Cn. Pompeius has on his side the senate and the iudices: that Caesar will be joined by all whose past life gives them reason to be afraid, or their future no reason to hope: that there is no comparison between their armies. On the whole, there is time enough to weigh the forces of both, and to choose sides.

I almost forgot what above everything else I was bound to write to you. Do you know that the censor Appius is doing marvels? Busying himself about statues, pictures, land-owning, and debt with the greatest vigour? He is persuaded that his censorship is a kind of soap or soda. I think he is wrong: while he is meaning to wash off stains, he is really exposing all his veins and vitals. Hurry home, in the name of gods and men! Come as quickly as you can to enjoy a laugh, that a trial under the Scantinian law should be before Drusus, and that Appius should be making regulations about statues and pictures. ³ Believe me, you ought to make haste. Our friend Curio is thought to have acted prudently in his concession as to Pompey's money for his troops. In a word, you want my opinion as to the future. Unless one or the other of these two goes to the Parthian war, I see that a violent quarrel is impending, which the sword and main force will decide. Both are prepared in resolution [p. 198] and forces. If it could only be transacted without extreme danger, fortune is preparing for you a great and enjoyable spectacle.

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¹ To the college of augurs (see preceding letter). L. Domitius was already a member of the college of sacerdotes.

² This is rather like Mr. Pickwick's rule as dealing with two election crowds, "to shout with the largest."

³ I.e., about the amount of such things which it was legal for a man to own.

CCCXLIII (F VIII, 15)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (AT FORMIAE)

NORTH ITALY, FEBRUARY (LATE)

DID you ever see a more futile person than your friend Pompey, for having stirred up all this dust, without any stuff in him, after all? And, on the other hand, did you ever read or hear of anyone prompter in action than our Caesar, and more moderate in victory? Why! Do you think that our soldiers, who in the most inclement and frozen [p. 299] districts, in the severest winter weather, have successfully finished a war at a walk, have been fed on the pick of the orchard? ¹ "What, then," say you, "is it all glory with you?" Nay, if you only knew how anxious I am, you would laugh at this glory of mine, which, after all, has nothing to do with me. I can't explain matters to you unless we meet, and I hope that will soon take place. For as soon as he has driven Pompey out of Italy, Caesar has resolved to summon me to Rome: and I look upon that as good as done, unless Pompey has preferred being besieged in Brundisium. Upon my life, the chief motive I have for hurrying there is my ardent desire to see you and impart all my thoughts. And what a lot I have! Goodness! I am afraid that, as usual, I shall forget them all when I do see you. But what have I done to be obliged to retrace my steps to the Alps? It is all because the Intemelli ² are in arms, and that on some trumpery excuse. Bellienus, a slave of Demetrius, who was commanding a garrison there, seized one Domitius--a man of rank and a friend of Caesar's--for a bribe, and strangled him. The tribe rushed to arms: and I have got to go there with my cohorts over the snow. All over the world, say you, the Domitii are coming to grief. I could have wished that our descendant of Venus had shewn as much resolution in the case of your Domitius, ³ as the son of Psecas ⁴ did in this one. Give my love to your son. [p. 300]

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¹ I.e., on dainties, lit. "round apples."

² The people who have left their name in Ventimiglia.

³ L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who surrendered to Caesar at Corfinium, but was allowed to depart unharmed.

⁴ Apparently a slave, mother of Bellienus.

CCCLXXXII (F VIII, 16)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (AT FORMIAE)

ON THE ROAD TO SPAIN,

¹ (16) APRIL Being mortally alarmed by your letter, in which you shewed that your mind was filled with gloomy ideas, without saying outright what they were, and yet betraying the kind of action which you were contemplating, I write this letter to you on the spot. In the name of your fortunes and your children, my dear Cicero, I beg and beseech you not rashly to imperil your safety and security. I protest in the name of gods and men, and of our friendship, that I told you beforehand, and that my warning was not given inconsiderately, but that after meeting Caesar, and ascertaining what his view would be, if he gained the victory, I informed you of it. If you think that Caesar will maintain the same policy in letting his adversaries go and offering terms, you are mistaken. His thoughts, and even his words, forebode nothing but severity and cruelty. He left town incensed with the senate: he was thoroughly roused by the recent tribunician intercessions: ² there will be no place, by heaven, [p. 368] for mediation. Wherefore, if you love yourself, if you love your only son, if your family and your remaining hopes are dear to you: if I, or that excellent man your son-in-law, have any influence with you--and you surely ought not to wish to ruin us, in order to force us to choose between loathing and abandoning the cause, on the triumph of which our safety depends, or harbouring an unnatural wish against your safety. Finally consider this: whatever offence your hesitation has caused Pompey you have already incurred; it would be a piece of most consummate folly to act against Caesar now that he is victorious, when you refused to attack him while his fortunes were doubtful--to join the men after they have been driven into flight, whom you refused to follow when they were holding their ground. Take care lest, while feeling ashamed of not being a good enough Optimate, you fail to select the best course for yourself. But if I can't persuade you to take my advice in toto, at least wait till it is known how we get on in the Spanish provinces, which I have to tell you will be ours as soon as Caesar arrives. What hope your people have when the Spains are lost I don't know. Of what, then, you can be thinking to join men in so desperate a position, on my honour, I cannot imagine. What you told me, though not in so many words, Caesar had already heard, and he had scarcely said "good morning!" to me when he mentioned what he had heard about you. I said I did not know anything about it, but yet begged him to write you a letter as the best method of inducing you to stay in the country. He is taking me into Spain with him. For if he were not doing so, before going to Rome, I should have hastened to visit you, wherever you were, and should have pressed this upon you personally, and tried with might and main to keep you from going. Pray, my dear Cicero, reflect again and again, and do not utterly ruin yourself and all your family, nor knowingly, and with your eyes open, put yourself into a situation from which you can see no possible retreat. But if, on the one hand, you are shaken by the remarks of the Optimates, or, on the other, are unable to endure the intemperance and offensive behaviour of certain persons, I think you should select some town not affected by the war, while this controversy is being [p. 369] fought out, which will be settled almost directly. If you do this, you will, in my opinion have acted wisely, and will not offend Caesar.

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¹ Probably near Marseilles, where Caesar stopped on his way to Spain for some weeks to organize its siege.

² The intercessions of Metelius. See previous letter, p. 364

CDVI (F VIII, 17)

M. CAELIUS RUFUS TO CICERO (IN EPIRUS)

ROME (FEBRUARY OR MARCH)

To think that I was in Spain rather than at Formiae when you started to join Pompey I Oh that Appius Claudius had been on our side, or Gaius Curio on yours ! ¹ It was my friendship for the latter that gradually edged me on to this infernal party--for I feel that my good sense was destroyed between anger and affection. You too-when, being on the point of starting for Ariminum, ² I came at night to visit you--in the midst of your giving me messages for Caesar about peace, and playing your rôle of fine citizen, you quite [p. 5] forgot your duty as a friend and took no thought of my interests. And I am not saying this because I have lost confidence in this cause, but, believe me, I'd rather die than see these fellows here. ³ Why, if people were not afraid of your men being bloodthirsty, we should long ago have been driven out of Rome. For here, with the exception of a few moneylenders, there is not a man or a class that is not Pompeian. Personally, I have brought it about that the masses above all, and--what was formerly ours--the main body of citizens should be now on your side. ⁴ "Why did I do so?" quoth you. Nay, wait for what is to come: I'll make you conquer in spite of yourselves. You shall see me play the part of a second Cato. ⁵ You are asleep, and do not appear to me as yet to understand where we are open to attack, and what our weak point is. And I shall act thus from no hope of reward, but, what is ever the strongest motive with me, from indignation and a feeling of having been wronged. What are you doing over there? Are you Waiting for a battle? That's Caesar's strongest point. I don't know about your forces; ours have become thoroughly accustomed to fighting battles and making light of cold and hunger. ⁶ [p. 6]

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¹ For Caelius's quarrel with Appius, see vol. ii., pp.194, 195. He thinks that if Appius had been a Caesarian that would have made him turn Pompeian. But the reading is doubtful.

² Reading Ariminum with Mueller. The MSS. have Arimino; Tyrrell and Purser read Arpino. But Caelius evidently refers to his going to join Caesar, and though we do not know otherwise of his having done so at Ariminum, this best accounts for his having been early employed by Caesar, as we know he was, vol. ii., p.298. His visit to Cicero would then be in the first week of January, and he would probably start for Ariminum before the news had come of the crossing of the Rubicon.

³ Trebonius and other Caesarians.

⁴ Caelius contrasts plebs and populus. Of course these terms no longer have the old political meaning; but plebs had come to be used as we use the "masses" for the lower orders generally; whereas populus was the whole body of the citizens as possessed of political power; and when contrasted with plebs may be taken to mean the whole body politic which formed the majority at the comitia--the mass of voters. Caelius tried to gain the latter by opposing the exaction of debts under arbitration, as arranged by Caesar, and by proposing a suspension of house rents.

⁵ The reading is very doubtful. The reference, perhaps, is to Gaius Cato, the turbulent tribune of B.C. 56.

⁶ Caelius seems to insinuate that Pompey's wisest course would be to avoid an engagement and to make again for Italy, where the Caesarians were weak. This is the last appearance of Caelius in the correspondence. The discontent with his position here indicated-founded on the fact that though he had been appointed praetor by Caesar's influence, Trebonius was praetor urbanus and in a superior position to himself-presently led him to take up a position of violent opposition, especially regard to Caesar's financial arrangements, the result of which was that he was forcibly suspended from his functions by the consul Servilius Isauricus. Finally, under pretence of going to Caesar at Alexandria, he attempted to join Milo in Apulia, who was trying to secure by force his own restoration, which had not been included in the revocation of other exiles. Milo, however, had already fallen; and when Caelius proceeded to raise forces on his own account, before he could do anything material, he was killed near Thurii by some foreign auxiliary soldiers, whom he attempted to win over. (Caes. B.C. 3.20-22; Dio Cass. 42.21.)