which you give me a word of caution about your sister. The facts
of the matter are these. On arriving at my place at Arpinum, my
brother came to see me, and our first subject of conversation was
yourself, and we discussed it at great length. After this I brought
the conversation round to what you and I had discussed at
Tusculum, on the subject of your sister. I never saw anything so
gentle and placable as my brother was on that occasion in regard to
your sister: so much so, indeed, that if there had been any cause of
quarrel on the score of expense, it was not apparent. So much for
that day. Next day we started from Arpinum. A country festival
caused Quintus to stop at Arcanum; I stopped at Aquinum; but we
lunched at Arcanum. You know his property there. When we got
there Quintus said, in the kindest manner, "Pomponia, do you ask
the ladies in, I will invite the men." Nothing, as I thought, could be
more courteous, and that, too, not only in the actual words, but
also in his intention and the expression of face. But she, in the
hearing of us all, exclaimed, "I am only a stranger here! " The
origin of that was, as I think, the fact that Statius had preceded us
to look after the luncheon. Thereupon Quintus said to me, "There,
that's what I have to put up with every day!" You will say, "Well,
what does that amount to?" A great deal, and, indeed, she had
irritated even me: her answer had been given with such
unnecessary acrimony, both of word and look. I concealed my
annoyance. We all took our places at table except her. However,
Ouintus sent her dishes from the table, which she declined. In
short, I thought I never saw anything better tempered than my
brother, or crosser than your sister: and there were many
particulars which I omit that raised my bile more than did that of
Quintus himself. I then went on to Aquinum; Quintus stopped at
Arcanum, and joined me early the next day at Aquinum. He told
me that she had refused to sleep with him, and when on the point
of leaving she behaved just as I had seen her. Need I say more?
You may tell her herself that in my judgment she shewed a marked
want of kindness on that day. I have told you this story at greater
length, perhaps, than was necessary, to convince you that you, too,
have something to do in the way of giving her instruction and
advice.
There only remains for me to beg you to complete all my
commissions before leaving town; to give Pomptinus a push, and
make him start; to let me know as soon as you have left town, and
to believe that, by heaven, there is nothing I love and find more
pleasure in than yourself. I said a most affectionate good-bye to
that best of men, A. Torquatus, at Minturnae, to whom I wish you
would remark, in the course of conversation, that I have mentioned
him in my letter.
XVIII
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. 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, 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
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 mats ring my plan of campaign, I
rescued king Ariobarzanes, whose safety had been intrusted 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 Athenus (the latter strongly commended 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, 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 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 prntorian 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 Anianus 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
do-minions, 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, 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 Commons, 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
Arce Alezandri, 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 earth-works, pent-houses, and towers:
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 Tebra, no less 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 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 supplicatlo in honour of a certain illustrious and
noble person, 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,
not as had been done in many instances, "for good services to the
state," but, as I remember, "for having saved the state." I pass over
your having shared the hatred I excited, 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.
Yon 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; 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. Accordingly, in the first
place, I did subsequently wish for the augurship, 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--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 all 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--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 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.
XIX
To ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
LAODTCEA, 22 FEBRUARY
I RECEIVED your letter on the fifth day before the Terminalia
(19th of February) at Laodicea. I was delighted to read it, for it
teemed with affection, kindness, and an active and obliging
temper. I will, therefore, answer it sentence by sentence--for such
is your request--and I will not introduce an arrangement of my
own, but will follow your order.
You say that the last letter you had of mine was from Cybistra,
dated 21st September, and you want to know which of yours I have
received. Nearly all you mention, except the one that you say that
you delivered to Lentulus's messengers at Equotuticus and
Brundisium. Wherefore your industry has not been thrown away,
as you fear, but has been exceedingly well laid out, if, that is to
say, your object was to give me pleasure. For I have never been
more delighted with anything. I am exceedingly glad that you
approve of my self-restraint in the case of Appius, and of my
independence even in the case of Brutus: and I had thought that it
might be somewhat otherwise. For Appius, in the course of his
journey, had sent me two or three rather querulous letters, because
I rescinded some of his decisions. It is exactly as if a doctor, upon
a patient having been placed under another doctor, should choose
to be angry with the latter if he changed some of his prescriptions.
Thus Appius, having treated the province on the system of
depletion, bleeding, and removing everything he could, and having
handed it over to me in the last state of exhaustion, he cannot bear
seeing it treated by me on the nutritive system. Yet he is
sometimes angry with me, at other times thanks me; for nothing I
ever do is accompanied with any reflexion upon him. It is only the
dissimilarity of my system that annoys him. For what could be a
more striking difference--under his rule a province drained by
charges for maintenance and by losses, under mine, not a penny
exacted either from private persons or public bodies? Why speak
of his praefecti, staff, and legates? Or even of acts of plunder,
licentiousness, and insult? While as things actually are, no private
house, by Hercules, is governed with so much system, or on such
strict principles, nor is so well disciplined, as is my whole
province. Some of Appius's friends put a ridiculous construction
on this, holding that I wish for a good reputation to set off his bad
one, and act rightly, not for the sake of my own credit, but in order
to cast reflexion upon him. But if Appius, as Brutus's letter
forwarded by you indicated, expresses gratitude to me, I am
satisfied. Nevertheless, this very day on which I write this, before
dawn, I am thinking of rescinding many of his inequitable
appointments and decisions.