Terentia since. I suppose I must have recourse to Considius, Axius, and
Selicius:[67] for his nearest relations can't get a penny out of
Cæcilius[68] under twelve per cent. But to return to my first remark: I
never saw anything more shameless, artful, and dilatory. "I am on the
point of sending my freedman," "I have commissioned Titus"--excuses and
delays at every turn! But perhaps it is a case of _l'homme propose_,[69]
for Pompey's advance couriers tell me that he means to move in the
senate that a successor to Antonius ought to be named, and the prætor
intends to bring the proposal before the people at the same time. The
facts are such that I cannot defend him in view of the opinion either
of the aristocrats or the people, and, what is more than anything else,
that I have no wish to do so. For a thing has happened into the truth of
which I charge you to look thoroughly. I have a freedman, who is a
worthless fellow enough; I mean Hilarus, an accountant and a client of
your own. The interpreter Valerius gives me this information about him,
and Thyillus writes me word that he has been told the same story: that
the fellow is with Antonius, and that Antonius, in exacting money
payments, frequently remarks that a part is being collected for me, and
that I have sent a freedman to look after our common interests. I felt
exceedingly disturbed, and yet could not believe it; but at any rate
there has been some gossip of the sort. Pray look into the whole matter,
learn the truth, find out the author, and get the empty-headed idiot out
of the country, if you possibly can. Valerius mentions Cn. Plancius as
the origin of this gossip. I trust you thoroughly to investigate and
find out what is at the bottom of it. I have good reason to believe that
Pompey is most kindly disposed to me. His divorce of Mucia is strongly
approved.[70] I suppose you have heard that P. Clodius, son of Appius,
was caught in woman's clothes at Gaius Cæsar's house, while the state
function was going on, and that he was saved and got out by means of a
maid-servant; and that the affair is causing immense scandal. I feel
sure you will be sorry for it.[71] I have nothing else to tell you. And,
indeed, at the moment of writing, I am in considerable distress: for a
delightful youth, my reader Sosthenes, has just died, and his death has
affected me more than that of a slave should, I think, do. Pray write
often. If you have no news, write just what comes uppermost.
1 January, in the consulship of M. Messalla and M. Piso.
[Footnote 66: From expressions in the following letters it seems certain
that this refers to money expected from Gaius Antonius; but we have no
means of deciding whether or no Teucris is a pseudonym for some agent.
Cicero had undertaken to be the advocate and supporter of Antonius, and
though as an actual _patronus_ in court he could not take money, he may
have felt justified in receiving supplies from him. Still, he knew the
character of Antonius, and how such wealth was likely to be got, and it
is not a pleasant affair.]
[Footnote 67: Money-lenders.]
[Footnote 68: The rich and cross-grained uncle of Atticus. See Letter
X.]
[Footnote 69: Cicero quotes half a Greek verse of Menander's, ταὐτόματον
ἡμῶν, leaving Atticus to fill up the other two words, καλλίω βουλεύεται,
"Chance designs better than we ourselves."]
[Footnote 70: Mucia was suspected of intriguing with Iulius Cæsar.]
[Footnote 71: The chief festival of the Bona Dea (Tellus) was in May.
The celebration referred to here took place on the night between the 3rd
and 4th of December. It was a state function (_pro populo_), and was
celebrated in the presence of the Vestals and the wife of the consul or
prætor urbanus, _in ea domo quæ est in imperio_. As Cæsar was Pontifex
Maximus, as well as prætor urbanus, it took place in the _Regia_, the
Pontiff's official house (Plutarch, _Cic._ 19; Dio, xxxvii. 35).]
XVII (F V, 5)
TO C. ANTONIUS (IN MACEDONIA)
ROME, JANUARY
_M. Cicero wishes health to Gaius Antonius, son of Marcus, Imperator._
[Sidenote: B.C. 61, ÆT. 45]
Though I had resolved to write you nothing but formal letters of
introduction (not because I felt that they had much weight with you, but
to avoid giving those who asked me for them an idea that there had been
any diminution in our friendship), yet since Titus Pomponius is starting
for your province, who knows better than anyone else all that I feel and
have done for you, who desires your friendship and is most devotedly
attached to me, I thought I must write something, especially as I had no
other way of satisfying Pomponius himself. Were I to ask from you
services of the greatest moment, it ought not to seem surprising to
anyone: for you have not wanted from me any that concerned your
interests, honour, or position. That no return has been made by you for
these you are the best witness: that something even of a contrary nature
has proceeded from you I have been told by many. I say "told," for I do
not venture to say "discovered,"[72] lest I should chance to use the
word which people tell me is often falsely attributed to me by you. But
the story which has reached my ears I would prefer your learning from
Pomponius (who was equally hurt by it) rather than from my letter. How
singularly loyal my feelings have been to you the senate and Roman
people are both witnesses. How far you have been grateful to me you may
yourself estimate: how much you owe me the rest of the world estimates.
I was induced to do what I did for you at first by affection, and
afterwards by consistency. Your future, believe me, stands in need of
much greater zeal on my part, greater firmness and greater labour.[73]
These labours, unless it shall appear that I am throwing away and
wasting my pains, I shall support with all the strength I have; but if I
see that they are not appreciated, I shall not allow you--the very
person benefited[74]--to think me a fool for my pains. What the meaning
of all this is you will be able to learn from Pomponius. In commending
Pomponius to you, although I am sure you will do anything in your power
for his own sake, yet I do beg that if you have any affection for me
left, you will display it all in Pomponius's business. You can do me no
greater favour than that.
[Footnote 72: The word (_comperisse_) used by Cicero in regard to the
Catilinarian conspiracy; it had apparently become a subject of rather
malignant chaff.]
[Footnote 73: Cicero is hinting at the danger of prosecution hanging
over the head of Antonius.]
[Footnote 74: Reading _tibi ipsi_ (not _ipse_), with Tyrrell.]
XVIII (A 1, 13)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
ROME, 27 JANUARY
[Sidenote: B.C. 61, ÆT. 45]
I have now received three letters from you--one by the hands of M.
Cornelius, which you gave him, I think, at Three Taverns; a second which
your host at Canusium delivered to me; a third dated, according to you,
from on board your pinnace, when the cable was already slipped.[75] They
were all three, to use a phrase from the schools of rhetoric flavoured
with the salt of learning, and illumined with the marks of affection. In
these letters, indeed, I am urgently pressed by you to send answers, but
what renders me rather dilatory in this respect is the difficulty of
finding a trustworthy carrier. How few of these gentry are able to
convey a letter rather weightier than usual without lightening it by
skimming its contents! Besides, I do not always care to send[76]
whenever anyone is starting for Epirus: for I suppose that, having
offered victims before your Amaltheia,[77] you at once started for the
siege of Sicyon. And yet I am not even certain when you start to visit
Antonius or how much time you are devoting to Epirus. Accordingly, I
don't venture to trust either Achæans or Epirotes with a letter somewhat
more outspoken than usual. Now some events _have_ occurred since you
left me worth my writing to you, but they must not be trusted to the
risk of a letter being lost, opened, or intercepted.
Well, then, to begin with: I was not called upon to speak first, and the
pacifier of the Allobroges[78] was preferred to me, and though this met
with some murmurs of disapprobation from the senate, I was not sorry it
was done. For I am thereby freed from any obligation to shew respect to
an ill-conditioned man, and am at liberty to support my position in the
Republic in spite of him. Besides, the second place has a dignity almost
equal to that of _princeps senatus_, and does not put one under too much
of an obligation to the consul. The third called on was Catulus; the
fourth, if you want to go still farther, Hortensius. The consul
himself[79] is a man of a small and ill-regulated mind, a mere buffoon
of that splenetic kind which raises a laugh even in the absence of wit:
it is his face rather than his facetiousness[80] that causes merriment:
he takes practically no part in public business, and is quite alienated
from the Optimates. You need expect no service to the state from him,
for he has not the will to do any, nor fear any damage, for he hasn't
the courage to inflict it. His colleague, however, treats me with great
distinction, and is also a zealous supporter of the loyalist party. For
the present their disagreement has not come to much; but I fear that
this taint may spread farther. For I suppose you have heard that when
the state function was being performed in Cæsar's house a man in woman's
dress got in,[81] and that the Vestals having performed the rite again,
mention was made of the matter in the senate by Q. Cornificius--he was
the first, so don't think that it was one of us consulars--and that on
the matter being referred by a decree of the senate to the [Virgins and]
pontifices, they decided that a sacrilege had been committed: that then,
on a farther decree of the senate, the consuls published a bill: and
that Cæsar divorced his wife. On this question Piso, from friendship for
P. Clodius, is doing his best to get the bill promulgated by himself
(though in accordance with a decree of the senate and on a point of
religion) rejected. Messalla as yet is strongly for severe measures. The
loyalists hold aloof owing to the entreaties of Clodius: bands of
ruffians are being got together: I myself, at first a stern Lycurgus, am
becoming daily less and less keen about it: Cato is hot and eager. In
short, I fear that between the indifference of the loyalists and the
support of the disloyal it may be the cause of great evils to the
Republic. However, your great friend[82]--do you know whom I mean?--of
whom you said in your letter that, "not venturing to blame me, he was
beginning to be complimentary," is now to all appearance exceedingly
fond of me, embraces me, loves and praises me in public, while in secret
(though unable to disguise it) he is jealous of me. No good-breeding, no
straightforwardness, no political morality, no distinction, no courage,
no liberality! But on these points I will write to you more minutely at
another time; for in the first place I am not yet quite sure about them,
and in the next place I dare not intrust a letter on such weighty
matters to such a casual nobody's son as this messenger.
The prætors have not yet drawn their lots for the provinces. The matter
remains just where you left it. The description of the scenery of
Misenum and Puteoli which you ask for I will include in my speech.[83] I
had already noticed the mistake in the date, 3rd of December. The points
in my speeches which you praise, believe me, I liked very much myself,
but did not venture to say so before. Now, however, as they have
received your approval, I think them much more "Attic" than ever. To the
speech in answer to Metellus[84] I have made some additions. The book
shall be sent you, since affection for me gives you a taste for
rhetoric. What news have I for you? Let me see. Oh, yes! The consul
Messalla has bought Antonius's house for 3,400 sestertia (about
£27,200). What is that to me? you will say. Why, thus much. The price
has convinced people that I made no bad bargain, and they begin to
understand that in making a purchase a man may properly use his friends'
means to get what suits his position. The Teucris affair drags on, yet I
have hopes. Pray settle the business you have in hand. You shall have a
more outspoken letter soon.
27 January, in the consulship of M. Messalla and M. Piso.
[Footnote 75: _Ora soluta._ Or, if _ancora sublata_ be read, "when the
anchor was already weighed." In either case it means "just as you were
starting." Atticus wrote on board, and gave the letter to a carrier to
take on shore.]
[Footnote 76: A word lost in the text.]
[Footnote 77: See end of Letter XXI. Cicero playfully supposes that
Atticus only stayed in his villa in Epirus to offer sacrifices to the
nymph in his gymnasium, and then hurried off to Sicyon, where people
owed him money which he wanted to get. He goes to Antonius first to get
his authority for putting pressure on Sicyon, and perhaps even some
military force.]
[Footnote 78: C. Calpurnius Piso (consul B.C. 67), brother of the consul
of the year, had been governor of Gallia Narbonensis (B.C. 66-65), and
had suppressed a rising of the Allobroges, the most troublesome tribe in
the province, who were, in fact, again in rebellion.]
[Footnote 79: M. Pupius Piso.]
[Footnote 80: "By the expression of his face rather than the force of
his expressions" (Tyrrell).]
[Footnote 81: See p. 27, note 2.]
[Footnote 82: Pompey.]
[Footnote 83: Or, "inclose with my speech"; in both cases the dative
_orationi meæ_ is peculiar. No speech exists containing such a
description, but we have only two of the previous year extant (_pro
Flacco_ and _pro Archia Poeta_). Cicero was probably sending it,
whichever it was, to Atticus to be copied by his _librarii_, and
published. Atticus had apparently some other works of Cicero's in hand,
for which he had sent him some "queries."]
[Footnote 84: Apparently the speech in the senate referred to in Letter
XIV, p. 23, spoken on 1st January, B.C. 62. Metellus had prevented his
_contio_ the day before.]
XIX (A I, 14)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
ROME, 13 FEBRUARY
[Sidenote: B.C. 61, ÆT. 45]
I fear it may seem affectation to tell you how occupied I have been; but
I am so distracted with business that I have only just found time for
this short letter, and that has been stolen from the most urgent
engagements. I have already described to you Pompey's first public
speech--it did not please the poor, nor satisfy the disloyal, nor find
favour with the wealthy, nor appear sound to the loyalists; accordingly,
he is down in the world.[85] Presently, on the instigation of the consul
Piso, that most insignificant of tribunes, Fufius, brought Pompey on to
the platform. The meeting was in the _circus Flaminius_, and there was
in the same place that day a crowd of market people--a kind of _tiers
état_.[86] He asked him to say whether he approved of the jurymen being
selected by the prætor, to form a panel for the prætor himself to
employ. That was the regulation made by the senate in the matter of
Clodius's sacrilege. Thereupon Pompey made a highly "aristocratic"
speech, and replied (and at great length) that in all matters the
authority of the senate was of the greatest weight in his eyes and had
always been so. Later on the consul Messalla in the senate asked Pompey
his opinion as to the sacrilege and the bill that had been published.
His speech in the senate amounted to a general commendation of all
decrees of the house, and when he sat down he said to me, "I think my
answer covers your case also."[87] When Crassus observed that Pompey had
got a cheer from the idea in men's minds that he approved my consulship,
he rose also to his feet and delivered a speech in the most
complimentary terms on my consulship, going so far as to say that he
owed it to me that he was still a senator, a citizen, nay, a free man;
and that he never beheld wife, home, or country without beholding the
fruits of my conduct. In short: that whole topic, which I am wont to
paint in various colours in my speeches (of which you are the
Aristarchus), the fire, the sword--you know my paint-pots--he elaborated
to the highest pitch. I was sitting next to Pompey. I noticed that he
was agitated, either at Crassus earning the gratitude which he had
himself neglected, or to think that my achievements were, after all, of
such magnitude that the senate was so glad to hear them praised,
especially by a man who was the less under an obligation to praise me,
because in everything I ever wrote[88] my praise of Pompey was
practically a reflexion on him. This day has brought me very close to
Crassus, and yet in spite of all I accepted with pleasure any
compliment--open or covert--from Pompey. But as for my own speech, good
heavens! how I did "put it on" for the benefit of my new auditor Pompey!
If I ever did bring every art into play, I did then--period, transition,
enthymeme, deduction--everything. In short, I was cheered to the echo.
For the subject of my speech was the dignity of the senate, its harmony
with the equites, the unanimity of Italy, the dying embers of the
conspiracy, the fall in prices, the establishment of peace. You know my
thunder when these are my themes. It was so loud, in fact, that I may
cut short my description, as I think you must have heard it even in
Epirus. The state of things at Rome is this: the senate is a perfect
Areopagus. You cannot conceive anything firmer, more grave, or more
high-spirited. For when the day came for proposing the bill in
accordance with the vote of the senate, a crowd of our dandies with
their chin-tufts assembled, all the Catiline set, with Curio's girlish
son at their head, and implored the people to reject it. Moreover, Piso
the consul, who formally introduced the bill, spoke against it.
Clodius's hired ruffians had filled up the entrances to the voting
boxes. The voting tickets were so manipulated that no "ayes" were
distributed. Hereupon imagine Cato hurrying to the rostra, delivering an
admirable invective against the consul, if we can call that an
"invective" which was really a speech of the utmost weight and
authority, and in fact containing the most salutary advice. He is
followed to the same effect by your friend Hortensius, and many
loyalists besides, among whom, however, the contribution of Favonius was
conspicuous. By this rally of the Optimates the _comitia_ is dissolved,
the senate summoned. On the question being put in a full house--in spite
of the opposition of Piso, and in spite of Clodius throwing himself at
the feet of the senators one after the other--that the consuls should
exhort the people to pass the bill, about fifteen voted with Curio, who
was against any decree being passed; on the other side there were fully
four hundred. So the vote passed. The tribune Fufius then gave in.[89]
Clodius delivered some wretched speeches to the people, in which he
bestowed some injurious epithets on Lucullus, Hortensius, C. Piso, and
the consul Messalla; me he only charged with having "discovered"
everything.[90] In regard to the assignation of provinces to the
prætors, the hearing legations, and other business, the senate voted
that nothing should be brought before it till the bill had been brought
before the people. There's the state of things at Rome for you. Yet pray
listen to this one thing more which has surpassed my hopes. Messalla is
a superlatively good consul, courageous, firm, painstaking; he praises,
shows attachment to, and imitates me. That other one (Piso) is the less
mischievous because of one vice--he is lazy, sleepy, unbusiness-like, an
utter _fainéant_, but in intention he is so disaffected that he has
begun to loathe Pompey since he made the speech in which some praise was
bestowed on the senate. Accordingly, he has alienated all the loyalists
to a remarkable degree. And his action is not dictated by love for
Clodius more than by a taste for a profligate policy and a profligate
party. But he has nobody among the magistrates like himself, with the
single exception of the tribune Fufius. The tribunes are excellent, and
in Cornutus we have a quasi-Cato. Can I say more?
Now to return to private matters. "Teucris" has fulfilled her
promise.[91] Pray execute the commission you undertook. My brother
Quintus, who purchased the remaining three-fourths of the house in the
Argiletum for 725 sestertia (about £5,800), is now trying to sell his
Tusculan property, in order to purchase, if he can, the town house of
Pacilius. Make it up with Lucceius! I see that he is all agog to stand
for the consulship. I will do my best. Be careful to let me know exactly
how you are, where you are, and how your business goes on.
13 February.
[Footnote 85: The letter giving this description is lost. I think
_frigebat_ is epistolary imperfect--"_he_ is in the cold shade," not,
"_it_ fell flat."]
[Footnote 86: πανήγυρις. Cicero uses the word (an honourable one in
Greek) contemptuously of the rabble brought together at a market.]
[Footnote 87: Pompey's general commendation of the decrees of the senate
would include those regarding the Catiline conspirators, and he
therefore claimed to have satisfied Cicero.]
[Footnote 88: _Meis omnibus litteris_, the MS. reading. Prof. Tyrrell's
emendation, _orationibus meis, omnibus litteris_, "in my speeches, every
letter of them," seems to me even harsher than the MS., a gross
exaggeration, and doubtful Latin. _Meis litteris_ is well supported by
_literæ forenses et senatoriæ_ of _de Off._ 2, § 3, and though it is an
unusual mode of referring to speeches, we must remember that they were
now published and were "literature." The particular reference is to the
speech _pro Imperio Pompeii_, in which, among other things, the whole
credit of the reduction of Spartacus's gladiators is given to Pompey,
whereas the brunt of the war had been borne by Crassus.]
[Footnote 89: Fufius, though Cicero does not say so, must have vetoed
the decree, but in the face of such a majority withdrew his veto. The
practice seems to have been, in case of tribunician veto, to take the
vote, which remained as an _auctoritas senatus_, but was not a _senatus
consultum_ unless the tribune was induced to withdraw.]
[Footnote 90: _Comperisse_. See Letter XVII, note 1, p. 28.]
[Footnote 91: See Letters XVI and XVIII, pp. 26, 32.]
XX (A I, 15)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
ROME, 15 MARCH
[Sidenote: B.C. 61, ÆT. 45]
You have heard that my dearest brother Quintus has got Asia; for I do
not doubt that rumour has conveyed the news to you quicker than a letter
from any of us. Now then, considering how desirous of a good reputation
he and I have ever been, and how unusually Philhellenic we are and have
the reputation of being, and considering how many there are whose enmity
we have incurred for the sake of the Republic, "call to mind all your
valour,"[92] to secure us the praise and affection of all concerned. I
will write at greater length to you on these points in the letter which
I shall give to Quintus himself.[93] Please let me know what you have
done about the business I confided to you, and also in your own affair;
for I have had no letter from you since you left Brundisium. I am very
anxious to hear how you are.
15 March.
[Footnote 92: παντοίης ἀρέτης μιμνήσκεο (Hom. _Il._ xxii. 8)]
[Footnote 93: The allotment of provinces had been put off (see last
letter) till the affair of Clodius's trial was settled; consequently
Quintus would not have much time for preparation, and would soon set
out. He would cross to Dyrrachium, and proceed along the _via Egnatia_
to Thessalonica. He might meet Atticus at Dyrrachium, or go out of his
way to call on him at Buthrotum.]
XXI (A I, 16)
TO ATTICUS
ROME (MAY)
[Sidenote: B.C. 61, ÆT. 45]