unsatisfactory and foreboding change. For I have no doubt you have been
told that our friends, the equites, are all but alienated from the
senate. Their first grievance was the promulgation of a bill on the
authority of the senate for the trial of such as had taken bribes for
giving a verdict. I happened not to be in the house when that decree was
passed, but when I found that the equestrian order was indignant at it,
and yet refrained from openly saying so, I remonstrated with the
senate, as I thought, in very impressive language, and was very weighty
and eloquent considering the unsatisfactory nature of my cause. But here
is another piece of almost intolerable coolness on the part of the
equites, which I have not only submitted to, but have even put in as
good a light as possible! The companies which had contracted with the
censors for Asia complained that in the heat of the competition they had
taken the contract at an excessive price; they demanded that the
contract should be annulled. I led in their support, or rather, I was
second, for it was Crassus who induced them to venture on this demand.
The case is scandalous, the demand a disgraceful one, and a confession
of rash speculation. Yet there was a very great risk that, if they got
no concession, they would be completely alienated from the senate. Here
again I came to the rescue more than anyone else, and secured them a
full and very friendly house, in which I, on the 1st and 2nd of
December, delivered long speeches on the dignity and harmony of the two
orders. The business is not yet settled, but the favourable feeling of
the senate has been made manifest: for no one had spoken against it
except the consul-designate, Metellus; while our hero Cato had still to
speak, the shortness of the day having prevented his turn being reached.
Thus I, in the maintenance of my steady policy, preserve to the best of
my ability that harmony of the orders which was originally my joiner's
work; but since it all now seems in such a crazy condition, I am
constructing what I may call a road towards the maintenance of our
power, a safe one I hope, which I cannot fully describe to you in a
letter, but of which I will nevertheless give you a hint. _I cultivate
close intimacy with Pompey_. I foresee what you will say. I will use all
necessary precautions, and I will write another time at greater length
about my schemes for managing the Republic. You must know that Lucceius
has it in his mind to stand for the consulship at once; for there are
said to be only two candidates in prospect. Cæsar is thinking of coming
to terms with him by the agency of Arrius, and Bibulus also thinks he
may effect a coalition with him by means of C. Piso.[114] You smile?
This is no laughing matter, believe me. What else shall I write to you?
What? I have plenty to say, but must put it off to another time. If you
mean to wait till you hear, let me know. For the moment I am satisfied
with a modest request, though it is what I desire above everything--that
you should come to Rome as soon as possible.
5 December.
[Footnote 112: Cicero is evidently very anxious as to the
misunderstanding between Quintus and his brother-in-law Atticus, caused,
as he hints, or at any rate not allayed, by Pomponia. The letter is very
carefully written, without the familiar tone and mixture of jest and
earnest common to most of the letters to Atticus.]
[Footnote 113: At the end of the _via Egnatia_, which started from
Dyrrachium.]
[Footnote 114: The election in question is that to be held in B.C. 60
for the consulship of B.C. 59. Cæsar and Bibulus were elected, and
apparently were the only two candidates declared as yet. They were, of
course, extremists, and Lucceius seems to reckon on getting in by
forming a coalition with either one or the other, and so getting the
support of one of the extreme parties, with the moderates, for himself.
The bargain eventually made was between Lucceius and Cæsar, the former
finding the money. But the Optimates found more, and carried Bibulus.
Arrius is Q. Arrius the orator (see Index). C. Piso is the consul of
B.C. 67.]
XXIII (A I, 18)
[Sidenote: B.C. 60. Coss., Q. Cæcilius Metellus Celer, L. Afranius.]
This was the year in which Cæsar, returning from his proprætorship
in Spain, found Pompey in difficulties with the senate (1) as to
the confirmation _en bloc_ of his _acta_ in the East, (2) as to the
assignation of lands to his veterans; and being met with opposition
himself as to the triumph that he claimed, and his candidatureship
for the consulship, he formed with Pompey and Crassus the agreement
known as the first triumvirate. Cicero saw his favourite political
object, the _concordia ordinum_, threatened by any opposition to
the triumvirate, which he yet distrusted as dangerous to the
constitution. We shall find him, therefore, vacillating between
giving his support to its policy or standing by the extreme
Optimates. P. Clodius is taking measures to be adopted into a
plebeian gens, in order to stand for the tribuneship. Quintus is
still in Asia. Pompey's triumph had taken place in the previous
September.
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
ROME, 20 JANUARY
[Sidenote: B.C. 60, ÆT. 46]
Believe me there is nothing at this moment of which I stand so much in
need as a man with whom to share all that causes me anxiety: a man to
love me; a man of sense to whom I can speak without affectation,
reserve, or concealment. For my brother is away--that most open-hearted
and affectionate of men. Metellus is not a human being, but
"Mere sound and air, a howling wilderness."
While you, who have so often lightened my anxiety and my anguish of soul
by your conversation and advice, who are ever my ally in public affairs,
my confidant in all private business, the sharer in all my conversations
and projects--where are you? So entirely am I abandoned by all, that the
only moments of repose left me are those which are spent with my wife,
pet daughter, and sweet little Cicero. For as to those friendships with
the great, and their artificial attractions, they have indeed a certain
glitter in the outside world, but they bring no private satisfaction.
And so, after a crowded morning _levée_, as I go down to the forum
surrounded by troops of friends, I can find no one out of all that crowd
with whom to jest freely, or into whose ear I can breathe a familiar
sigh. Therefore I wait for you, I long for you, I even urge on you to
come; for I have many anxieties, many pressing cares, of which I think,
if I once had your ears to listen to me, I could unburden myself in the
conversation of a single walk. And of my private anxieties, indeed, I
shall conceal all the stings and vexations, and not trust them to this
letter and an unknown letter-carrier. These, however--for I don't want
you to be made too anxious--are not very painful: yet they are
persistent and worrying, and are not put to rest by the advice or
conversation of any friend. But in regard to the Republic I have still
the same courage and purpose, though it has again and again of its own
act eluded treatment.[115] For should I put briefly what has occurred
since you left, you would certainly exclaim that the Roman empire cannot
be maintained much longer. Well, after your departure our first scene,
I think, was the appearance of the Clodian scandal, in which having, as
I thought, got an opportunity of pruning licentiousness and keeping our
young men within bounds, I exerted myself to the utmost, and lavished
all the resources of my intellect and genius, not from dislike to an
individual, but from the hope of not merely correcting, but of
completely curing the state. The Republic received a crushing blow when
this jury was won over by money and the opportunity of debauchery. See
what has followed! We have had a consul inflicted upon us, whom none
except us philosophers can look at without a sigh. What a blow that is!
Though a decree of the senate has been passed about bribery and the
corruption of juries, no law has been carried; the senate has been
harassed to death, the Roman knights alienated. So that one year has
undermined two buttresses of the Republic, which owed their existence to
me, and me alone; for it has at once destroyed the prestige of the
senate and broken up the harmony of the orders. And now enter this
precious year! It was inaugurated by the suspension of the annual rites
of Iuventas;[116] for Memmius initiated M. Lucullus's wife in some rites
of his own! Our Menelaus, being annoyed at that, divorced his wife. Yet
the old Idæan shepherd had only injured Menelaus; our Roman Paris
thought Agamemnon as proper an object of injury as Menelaus.[117] Next
there is a certain tribune named C. Herennius, whom you, perhaps, do not
even know--and yet you may know him, for he is of your tribe, and his
father Sextus used to distribute money to your tribesmen--this person is
trying to transfer P. Clodius to the plebs, and is actually proposing a
law to authorize the whole people to vote in Clodius's affair in the
_campus_.[118] I have given him a characteristic reception in the
senate, but he is the thickest-skinned fellow in the world. Metellus is
an excellent consul, and much attached to me, but he has lowered his
influence by promulgating (though only for form's sake) an identical
bill about Clodius. But the son of Aulus,[119] God in heaven! What a
cowardly and spiritless fellow for a soldier! How well he deserves to be
exposed, as he is, day after day to the abuse of Palicanus![120]
Farther, an agrarian law has been promulgated by Flavius, a poor
production enough, almost identical with that of Plotius. But meanwhile
a genuine statesman is not to be found, even "in a dream." The man who
could be one, my friend Pompey--for such he is, as I would have you
know--defends his twopenny embroidered toga[121] by saying nothing.
Crassus never risks his popularity by a word. The others you know
without my telling you. They are such fools that they seem to expect
that, though the Republic is lost, their fish-ponds will be safe. There
is one man who does take some trouble, but rather, as it seems to me,
with consistency and honesty, than with either prudence or
ability--Cato. He has been for the last three months worrying those
unhappy _publicani_, who were formerly devoted to him, and refuses to
allow of an answer being given them by the senate. And so we are forced
to suspend all decrees on other subjects until the _publicani_ have got
their answer. For the same reason I suppose even the business of the
foreign embassies will be postponed. You now understand in what stormy
water we are: and as from what I have written to you in such strong
terms you have a view also of what I have not written, come back to me,
for it is time you did. And though the state of affairs to which I
invite you is one to be avoided, yet let your value for me so far
prevail, as to induce you to come there even in these vexatious
circumstances. For the rest I will take care that due warning is given,
and a notice put up in all places, to prevent you being entered on the
census as absent; and to get put on the census just before the
lustration is the mark of your true man of business.[122] So let me see
you at the earliest possible moment. Farewell.
20 January in the Consulship of Q. Metellus and L. Afranius.
[Footnote 115: Reading (mainly with Schutz) _animus præsens et voluntas,
tamen etiam atque etiam ipsa medicinam refugit_. The verb _refugit_ is
very doubtful, but it gives nearly the sense required. Cicero is ready
to be as brave and active as before, but the state will not do its part.
It has, for instance, blundered in the matter of the law against
judicial corruption. The senate offended the equites by proposing it,
and yet did not carry the law. I think _animus_ and _voluntas_ must
refer to Cicero, not the state, to which in his present humour he would
not attribute them.]
[Footnote 116: The temple of Iuventas was vowed by M. Livius after the
battle of the Metaurus (B.C. 207), and dedicated in B.C. 191 by C.
Licinius Lucullus, games being established on the anniversary of its
dedication (Livy, xxi. 62; xxxvi. 36). It is suggested, therefore, that
some of the Luculli usually presided at these games, but on this
occasion refused, because of the injury done by C. Memmius, who was
curule ædile.]
[Footnote 117: By Agamemnon and Menelaus Cicero means Lucius and Marcus
Lucullus; the former Memmius had, as tribune in B.C. 66-65, opposed in
his demand for a triumph, the latter he has now injured in the person of
his wife.]
[Footnote 118: A man who was _sui iuris_ was properly adopted before the
_commitia curiata_, now represented by thirty lictors. What Herennius
proposed was that it should take place by a regular _lex_, passed by the
_comitia tributa_. The object apparently was to avoid the necessity of
the presence of a pontifex and augur, which was required at the _comitia
curiata_. The concurrent law by the consul would come before the
_comitia centuriata_. The adopter was P. Fonteius, a very young man.]
[Footnote 119: L. Afranius, the other consul.]
[Footnote 120: M. Lollius Palicanus, "a mere mob orator" (_Brutus_,
§223).]
[Footnote 121: The _toga picta_ of a triumphator, which Pompey, by
special law, was authorized to wear at the games. Cicero uses the
contemptuous diminutive, _togula_.]
[Footnote 122: To be absent from the census without excuse rendered a
man liable to penalties. Cicero will therefore put up notices in
Atticus's various places of business or residence of his intention to
appear in due course. To appear just at the end of the period was, it
seems, in the case of a man of business, advisable, that he might be
rated at the actual amount of his property, no more or less.]
XXIV (A I, 19)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
ROME, 15 MARCH
[Sidenote: B.C. 60, ÆT. 46]
It is not only if I had as much leisure as you, but also if I chose to
send letters as short as yours usually are, should I easily beat you and
be much the more regular in writing. But, in fact, it is only one more
item in an immense and inconceivable amount of business, that I allow no
letter to reach you from me without its containing some definite sketch
of events and the reflexions arising from it. And in writing to you, as
a lover of your country, my first subject will naturally be the state of
the Republic; next, as I am the nearest object of your affection, I will
also write about myself, and tell you what I think you will not be
indisposed to know. Well then, in public affairs for the moment the
chief subject of interest is the disturbance in Gaul. For the Ædui--"our
brethren"[123]--have recently fought a losing battle, and the Helvetii
are undoubtedly in arms and making raids upon our province.[124] The
senate has decreed that the two consuls should draw lots for the Gauls,
that a levy should be held, all exemptions from service be suspended,
and legates with full powers be sent to visit the states in Gaul, and
see that they do not join the Helvetii. The legates are Quintus Metellus
Creticus,[125] L. Flaccus,[126] and lastly--a case of "rich unguent on
lentils"--Lentulus, son of Clodianus.[127] And while on this subject I
cannot omit mentioning that when among the consulars my name was the
first to come up in the ballot, a full meeting of the senate declared
with one voice that I must be kept in the city. The same occurred to
Pompey after me; so that we two appeared to be kept at home as pledges
of the safety of the Republic. Why should I look for the "bravos" of
others when I get these compliments at home? Well, the state of affairs
in the city is as follows. The agrarian law is being vehemently pushed
by the tribune Flavius, with the support of Pompey, but it has nothing
popular about it except its supporter. From this law I, with the full
assent of a public meeting, proposed to omit all clauses which adversely
affected private rights. I proposed to except from its operation such
public land as had been so in the consulship of P. Mucius and L.
Calpurnius.[128] I proposed to confirm the titles of holders of those to
whom Sulla had actually assigned lands. I proposed to retain the men of
Volaterræ and Arretium--whose lands Sulla had declared forfeited but
had not allotted--in their holdings. There was only one section in the
bill that I did not propose to omit, namely, that land should be
purchased with this money from abroad, the proceeds of the new revenues
for the next five years.[129] But to this whole agrarian scheme the
senate was opposed, suspecting that some novel power for Pompey was
aimed at. Pompey, indeed, had set his heart on getting the law passed.
I, however, with the full approval of the applicants for land,
maintained the holdings of all private owners--for, as you know, the
landed gentry form the bulk of our party's forces--while I nevertheless
satisfied the people and Pompey (for I wanted to do that also) by the
purchase clause; for, if that was put on a sound footing, I thought that
two advantages would accrue--the dregs might be drawn from the city, and
the deserted portions of Italy be repeopled. But this whole business was
interrupted by the war, and has cooled off. Metellus is an exceedingly
good consul, and much attached to me. That other one is such a ninny
that he clearly doesn't know what to do with his purchase.[130] This is
all my public news, unless you regard as touching on public affairs the
fact that a certain Herennius, a tribune, and a fellow tribesman of
yours--a fellow as unprincipled as he is needy--has now begun making
frequent proposals for transferring P. Clodius to the plebs; he is
vetoed by many of his colleagues. That is really, I think, all the
public news.
For my part, ever since I won what I may call the splendid and immortal
glory of the famous fifth of December[131] (though it was accompanied by
the jealousy and hostility of many), I have never ceased to play my part
in the Republic in the same lofty spirit, and to maintain the position I
then inaugurated and took upon myself. But when, first, by the acquittal
of Clodius I clearly perceived the insecurity and rotten state of the
law courts; and, secondly, when I saw that it took so little to alienate
my friends the _publicani_ from the senate--though with me personally
they had no quarrel; and, thirdly, that the rich (I mean your friends
the fish-breeders) did not disguise their jealousy of me, I thought I
must look out for some greater security and stronger support. So, to
begin with, I have brought the man who had been too long silent on my
achievements, Pompey himself, to such a frame of mind as not once only
in the senate, but many times and in many words, to ascribe to me the
preservation of this empire and of the world. And this was not so
important to me--for those transactions are neither so obscure as to
need testimony, nor so dubious as to need commendation--as to the
Republic; for there were certain persons base enough to think that some
misunderstanding would arise between me and Pompey from a difference of
opinion on these measures. With him I have united myself in such close
intimacy that both of us can by this union be better fortified in his
own views, and more secure in his political position. However, the
dislike of the licentious dandies, which had been roused against me, has
been so far softened by a conciliatory manner on my part, that they all
combine to show me marked attention. In fine, while avoiding
churlishness to anyone, I do not curry favour with the populace or relax
any principle; but my whole course of conduct is so carefully regulated,
that, while exhibiting an example of firmness to the Republic, in my own
private concerns--in view of the instability of the loyalists, the
hostility of the disaffected, and the hatred of the disloyal towards
me--I employ a certain caution and circumspection, and do not allow
myself, after all, to be involved in these new friendships so far but
that the famous refrain of the cunning Sicilian frequently sounds in my
ears:[132]
"Keep sober and distrust: these wisdom's sinews!"
Of my course and way of life, therefore, you see, I think, what may be
called a sketch or outline. Of your own business, however, you
frequently write to me, but I cannot at the moment supply the remedy you
require. For that decree of the senate was passed with the greatest
unanimity on the part of the rank and file,[133] though without the
support of any of us consulars. For as to your seeing my name at the
foot of the decree, you can ascertain from the decree itself that the
subject put to the vote at the time was a different one, and that this
clause about "free peoples" was added without good reason. It was done
by P. Servilius the younger,[134] who delivered his vote among the last,
but it cannot be altered after such an interval of time. Accordingly,
the meetings, which at first were crowded, have long ceased to be held.
If you have been able, notwithstanding, by your insinuating address to
get a trifle of money out of the Sicyonians, I wish you would let me
know.[135] I have sent you an account of my consulship written in Greek.
If there is anything in it which to a genuine Attic like yourself seems
to be un-Greek or unscholarly, I shall not say as Lucullus said to you
(at Panhormus, was it not?) about his own history, that he had
interspersed certain barbarisms and solecisms for the express purpose of
proving that it was the work of a Roman. No, if there is anything of
that sort in my book, it will be without my knowledge and against my
will. When I have finished the Latin version I will send it to you; and
thirdly, you may expect a poem on the subject, for I would not have any
method of celebrating my praise omitted by myself. In this regard pray
do not quote "Who will praise his sire?"[136] For if there is anything
in the world to be preferred to this, let it receive its due meed of
praise, and I mine of blame for not selecting another theme for my
praise. However, what I write is not panegyric but history. My brother
Quintus clears himself to me in a letter, and asserts that he has never
said a disparaging word of you to anyone. But this we must discuss face
to face with the greatest care and earnestness: only _do_ come to see me
again at last! This Cossinius, to whom I intrust my letter, seems to me
a very good fellow, steady, devoted to you, and exactly the sort of man
which your letter to me had described.
15 March.
[Footnote 123: A special title given to the Ædui on their application
for alliance. Cæsar, _B. G._ i. 33.]
[Footnote 124: The migration of the Helvetii did not actually begin till
B.C. 58. Cæsar tells us in the first book of his _Commentaries_ how he
stopped it.]
[Footnote 125: Consul B.C. 69, superseded in Crete by Pompey B.C. 65.
Triumphed B.C. 62.]
[Footnote 126: Prætor B.C. 63, defended by Cicero in an extant oration.]
[Footnote 127: Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus, consul in B.C. 72.
Cicero puns on the name Lentulus from _lens_ (pulse, φακή), and quotes a
Greek proverb for things incongruous. See Athenæus, 160 (from the
_Necuia_ of Sopater):
Ἴθακος Ὀδυσσεὺς, τὸ ἐκὶ τῇ φακῇ μύρον
πάρεστι· θάρσει, θυμέ.
]
[Footnote 128: B.C. 133, the year before the agrarian law of Tiberius
Gracchus. The law of Gracchus had not touched the public land in
Campania (the old territory of Capua). The object of this clause (which
appears repeatedly in those of B.C. 120 and 111, see Bruns, _Fontes
Iuris_, p. 72) is to confine the allotment of _ager publicus_ to such
land as had become so subsequently, _i.e._, to land made "public"
principally by the confiscations of Sulla.]
[Footnote 129: That is, he proposed to hypothecate the _vectigalia_ from
the new provinces formed by Pompey in the East for five years.]
[Footnote 130: The consulship. The bribery at Afranius's election is
asserted in Letter XXI.]
[Footnote 131: The day of the execution of the Catilinarian
conspirators.]
[Footnote 132: Epicharmus, twice quoted by Polybius, xviii. 40; xxxi.
21. νᾶφε καὶ μέμνας' ἀπιστεῖν, ἄρθρα ταῦτα τῶν φρενῶν.]
[Footnote 133: _Pedarii_ were probably those senators who had not held
curule office. They were not different from the other senators in point
of legal rights, but as ex-magistrates were asked for their _sententia_
first, they seldom had time to do anything but signify by word their
assent to one or other motion, or to cross over to the person whom they
intended to support.]
[Footnote 134: P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus, son of the conqueror of the
Isaurians. As he had not yet been a prætor, he would be called on after
the _consulares_ and _prætorii_. He then moved a new clause to the
decree, and carried it.]
[Footnote 135: The decree apparently prevented the recovery of debts
from a _libera civitas_ in the Roman courts. Atticus would therefore
have to trust to the regard of the Sicyonians for their credit.]
[Footnote 136: A son must be hard up for something to say for himself if
he is always harping on his father's reputation; and so must I, if I
have nothing but my consulship. That seems the only point in the
quotation. I do not feel that there is any reference to praise of his
father in Cicero's own poem. There are two versions of the proverb:
τίς πατέρ' αἰνήσει εἰ μὴ κακοδαίμονες υἱοί
and
τίς πατέρ' αἰνήσει εἰ μὴ εὐδαίμονες υἱοί.
]
XXV (A I, 20)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
ROME, 13 MAY
[Sidenote: B.C. 60, ÆT. 46]