Asia from the tribute exacted by the ædiles a measure which cost me some
violent controversies! For if one of our nobles complains openly that
by your edict, "No moneys shall be voted for the games," you have robbed
him of 200 sestertia, what a vast sum of money would have been paid, had
a grant been made to the credit of every magistrate who held games, as
had become the regular custom! However, I stopped these complaints by
taking up this position--what they think of it in Asia I don't know, in
Rome it meets with no little approval and praise--I refused to accept a
sum of money which the states had decreed for a temple and monument in
our honour, though they had done so with the greatest enthusiasm in view
both of my services and of your most valuable benefactions; and though
the law contained a special and distinct exception in these words, "that
it was lawful to receive for temple or monument"; and though again the
money was not going to be thrown away, but would be employed on
decorating a temple, and would thus appear to have been given to the
Roman people and the immortal Gods rather than to myself--yet, in spite
of its having desert, law, and the wishes of those who offered the gift
in its favour, I determined that I must not accept it, for this reason
among others, namely, to prevent those, to whom such an honour was
neither due nor legal, from being jealous. Wherefore adhere with all
your heart and soul to the policy which you have hitherto adopted--that
of being devoted to those whom the senate and people of Rome have
committed and intrusted to your honour and authority, of doing your best
to protect them, and of desiring their greatest happiness. Even if the
lot had made you governor of Africans, or Spaniards, or
Gauls--uncivilized and barbarous nations--it would still have been your
duty as a man of feeling to consult for their interests and advantage,
and to have contributed to their safety. But when we rule over a race of
men in which civilization not only exists, but from which it is believed
to have spread to others, we are bound to repay them, above all things,
what we received from them. For I shall not be ashamed to go so
far--especially as my life and achievements have been such as to exclude
any suspicion of sloth or frivolity--as to confess that, whatever I have
accomplished, I have accomplished by means of those studies and
principles which have been transmitted to us in Greek literature and
schools of thought. Wherefore, over and above the general good faith
which is due to all men, I think we are in a special sense under an
obligation to that nation, to put in practice what it has taught us
among the very men by whose maxims we have been brought out of
barbarism.
X. And indeed Plato, the fountain-head of genius and learning, thought
that states would only be happy when scholars and philosophers began
being their rulers, or when those who were their rulers had devoted all
their attention to learning and philosophy. It was plainly this union of
power and philosophy that in his opinion might prove the salvation of
states. And this perhaps has at length fallen to the fortune of the
whole empire: certainly it has in the present instance to your province,
to have a man in supreme power in it, who has from boyhood spent the
chief part of his zeal and time in imbibing the principles of
philosophy, virtue, and humanity. Wherefore be careful that this third
year, which has been added to your labour, may be thought a prolongation
of prosperity to Asia. And since Asia was more fortunate in retaining
you than I was in my endeavour to bring you back, see that my regret is
softened by the exultation of the province. For if you have displayed
the very greatest activity in earning honours such as, I think, have
never been paid to anyone else, much greater ought your activity to be
in preserving these honours. What I for my part think of honours of that
kind I have told you in previous letters. I have always regarded them,
if given indiscriminately, as of little value, if paid from interested
motives, as worthless: if, however, as in this case, they are tributes
to solid services on your part, I hold you bound to take much pains in
preserving them. Since, then, you are exercising supreme power and
official authority in cities, in which you have before your eyes the
consecration and apotheosis of your virtues, in all decisions, decrees,
and official acts consider what you owe to those warm opinions
entertained of you, to those verdicts on your character, to those
honours which have been rendered you. And what you owe will be to
consult for the interests of all, to remedy men's misfortunes, to
provide for their safety, to resolve that you will be both called and
believed to be the "father of Asia."
XI. However, to such a resolution and deliberate policy on your part the
great obstacle are the _publicani_: for, if we oppose them, we shall
alienate from ourselves and from the Republic an order which has done us
most excellent service, and which has been brought into sympathy with
the Republic by our means; if, on the other hand, we comply with them in
every case, we shall allow the complete ruin of those whose interests,
to say nothing of their preservation, we are bound to consult. This is
the one difficulty, if we look the thing fairly in the face, in your
whole government. For disinterested conduct on one's own part, the
suppression of all inordinate desires, the keeping a check upon one's
staff, courtesy in hearing causes, in listening to and admitting
suitors--all this is rather a question of credit than of difficulty: for
it does not depend on any special exertion, but rather on a mental
resolve and inclination. But how much bitterness of feeling is caused to
allies by that question of the _publicani_ we have had reason to know in
the case of citizens who, when recently urging the removal of the
port-dues in Italy, did not complain so much of the dues themselves, as
of certain extortionate conduct on the part of the collectors.
Wherefore, after hearing the grievances of citizens in Italy, I can
comprehend what happens to allies in distant lands. To conduct oneself
in this matter in such a way as to satisfy the _publicani_, especially
when contracts have been undertaken at a loss, and yet to preserve the
allies from ruin, seems to demand a virtue with something divine in it,
I mean a virtue like yours. To begin with, that they are subject to tax
at all, which is their greatest grievance, ought not to be thought so by
the Greeks, because they were so subject by their own laws without the
Roman government. Again, they cannot despise the word _publicanus_, for
they have been unable to pay the assessment according to Sulla's
poll-tax without the aid of the publican. But that Greek _publicani_ are
not more considerate in exacting the payment of taxes than our own may
be gathered from the fact that the Caunii, and all the islands assigned
to the Rhodians by Sulla, recently appealed to the protection of the
senate, and petitioned to be allowed to pay their tax to us rather than
to the Rhodians. Wherefore neither ought those to revolt at the name of
a _publicanus_ who have always been subject to tax, nor those to despise
it who have been unable to make up the tribute by themselves, nor those
to refuse his services who have asked for them. At the same time let
Asia reflect on this, that if she were not under our government, there
is no calamity of foreign war or internal strife from which she would be
free. And since that government cannot possibly be maintained without
taxes, she should be content to purchase perpetual peace and
tranquillity at the price of a certain proportion of her products.
XII. But if they will fairly reconcile themselves to the existence and
name of publican, all the rest may be made to appear to them in a less
offensive light by your skill and prudence. They may, in making their
bargains with the _publicani_, not have regard so much to the exact
conditions laid down by the censors as to the convenience of settling
the business and freeing themselves from farther trouble. You also may
do, what you have done splendidly and are still doing, namely, dwell on
the high position of the _publicani_, and on your obligations to that
order, in such a way as--putting out of the question all considerations
of your _imperium_ and the power of your official authority and
dignity--to reconcile the Greeks with the _publicani_, and to beg of
those, whom you have served eminently well, and who owe you everything,
to suffer you by their compliance to maintain and preserve the bonds
which unite us with the _publicani_. But why do I address these
exhortations to you, who are not only capable of carrying them out of
your own accord without anyone's instruction, but have already to a
great extent thoroughly done so? For the most respectable and important
companies do not cease offering me thanks daily, and this is all the
more gratifying to me because the Greeks do the same. Now it is an
achievement of great difficulty to unite in feeling things which are
opposite in interests, aims, and, I had almost said, in their very
nature. But I have not written all this to instruct you--for your wisdom
requires no man's instruction--but it has been a pleasure to me while
writing to set down your virtues, though I have run to greater length in
this letter than I could have wished, or than I thought I should.
XIII. There is one thing on which I shall not cease from giving you
advice, nor will I, as far as in me lies, allow your praise to be spoken
of with a reservation. For all who come from your province do make one
reservation in the extremely high praise which they bestow on your
virtue, integrity, and kindness--it is that of sharpness of temper. That
is a fault which, even in our private and everyday life, seems to
indicate want of solidity and strength of mind; but nothing, surely, can
be more improper than to combine harshness of temper with the exercise
of supreme power. Wherefore I will not undertake to lay before you now
what the greatest philosophers say about anger, for I should not wish to
be tedious, and you can easily ascertain it yourself from the writings
of many of them: but I don't think I ought to pass over what is the
essence of a letter, namely, that the recipient should be informed of
what he does not know. Well, what nearly everybody reports to me is
this: they usually say that, as long as you are not out of temper,
nothing can be pleasanter than you are, but that when some instance of
dishonesty or wrong-headedness has stirred you, your temper rises to
such a height that no one can discover any trace of your usual kindness.
Wherefore, since no mere desire for glory, but circumstances and fortune
have brought us upon a path of life which makes it inevitable that men
will always talk about us, let us be on our guard, to the utmost of our
means and ability, that no glaring fault may be alleged to have existed
in us. And I am not now urging, what is perhaps difficult in human
nature generally, and at our time of life especially, that you should
change your disposition and suddenly pluck out a deeply-rooted habit,
but I give you this hint: if you cannot completely avoid this failing,
because your mind is surprised by anger before cool calculation has been
able to prevent it, deliberately prepare yourself beforehand, and daily
reflect on the duty of resisting anger, and that, when it moves your
heart most violently, it is just the time for being most careful to
restrain your tongue. And that sometimes seems to me to be a greater
virtue than not being angry at all. For the latter is not always a mark
of superiority to weakness, it is sometimes the result of dullness; but
to govern temper and speech, however angry you may be, or even to hold
your tongue and keep your indignant feelings and resentment under
control, although it may not be a proof of perfect wisdom, yet requires
no ordinary force of character. And, indeed, in this respect they tell
me that you are now much more gentle and less irritable. No violent
outbursts of indignation on your part, no abusive words, no insulting
language are reported to me: which, while quite alien to culture and
refinement, are specially unsuited to high power and place. For if your
anger is implacable, it amounts to extreme harshness; if easily
appeased, to extreme weakness. The latter, however, as a choice of
evils, is, after all, preferable to harshness.
XIV. But since your first year gave rise to most talk in regard to this
particular complaint--I believe because the wrong-doing, the
covetousness, and the arrogance of men came upon you as a surprise, and
seemed to you unbearable --while your second year was much milder,
because habit and reflexion, and, as I think, my letters also, rendered
you more tolerant and gentle, the third ought to be so completely
reformed, as not to give even the smallest ground for anyone to find
fault. And here I go on to urge upon you, not by way of exhortation or
admonition, but by brotherly entreaties, that you would set your whole
heart, care, and thought on the gaining of praise from everybody and
from every quarter. If, indeed, our achievements were only the subject
of a moderate amount of talk and commendation, nothing eminent, nothing
beyond the practice of others, would have been demanded of you. As it
is, however, owing to the brilliancy and magnitude of the affairs in
which we have been engaged, if we do not obtain the very highest
reputation from your province, it seems scarcely possible for us to
avoid the most violent abuse. Our position is such that all loyalists
support us, but demand also and expect from us every kind of activity
and virtue, while all the disloyal, seeing that we have entered upon a
lasting war with them, appear contented with the very smallest excuse
for attacking us. Wherefore, since fortune has allotted to you such a
theatre as Asia, completely packed with an audience, of immense size, of
the most refined judgment, and, moreover, naturally so capable of
conveying sound, that its expressions of opinion and its remarks reach
Rome, put out all your power, I beseech you, exert all your energies to
appear not only to have been worthy of the part we played here, but to
have surpassed everything done there by your high qualities.
XV. And since chance has assigned to me among the magistracies the
conduct of public business in the city, to you that in a province, if my
share is inferior to no one's, take care that yours surpasses others. At
the same time think of this: we are not now working for a future and
prospective glory, but are fighting in defence of what has been already
gained; which indeed it was not so much an object to gain as it is now
our duty to defend. And if anything in me could be apart from you, I
should desire nothing more than the position which I have already
gained. The actual fact, however, is that unless all your acts and deeds
in your province correspond to my achievements, I shall think that I
have gained nothing by those great labours and dangers, in all of which
you have shared. But if it was you who, above all others, assisted me to
gain a most splendid reputation, you will certainly also labour more
than others to enable me to retain it. You must not be guided by the
opinions and judgments of the present generation only, but of those to
come also: and yet the latter will be a more candid judgment, for it
will not be influenced by detraction and malice. Finally, you should
think of this--that you are not seeking glory for yourself alone (and
even if that were the case, you still ought not to be careless of it,
especially as you had determined to consecrate the memory of your name
by the most splendid monuments), but you have to share it with me, and
to hand it down to our children. In regard to which you must be on your
guard lest by any excess of carelessness you should seem not only to
have neglected your own interests, but to have begrudged those of your
family also.
XVI. And these observations are not made with the idea of any speech of
mine appearing to have roused you from your sleep, but to have rather
"added speed to the runner." For you will continue to compel all in the
future, as you have compelled them in the past, to praise your equity,
self-control, strictness, and honesty. But from my extreme affection I
am possessed with a certain insatiable greed for glory for you. However,
I am convinced that, as Asia should now be as well-known to you as each
man's own house is to himself, and since to your supreme good sense such
great experience has now been added, there is nothing that affects
reputation which you do not know as well as possible yourself, and
which does not daily occur to your mind without anybody's exhortation.
But I, who when I read your writing seem to hear your voice, and when I
write to you seem to be talking to you, am therefore always best pleased
with your longest letter, and in writing am often somewhat prolix
myself. My last prayer and advice to you is that, as good poets and
painstaking actors always do, so you should be most attentive in the
last scenes and conclusion of your function and business, so that this
third year of your government, like a third act in a play, may appear to
have been the most elaborated and most highly finished. You will do that
with more ease if you will think that I, whom you always wished to
please more than all the world besides, am always at your side, and am
taking part in everything you say and do. It remains only to beg you to
take the greatest care of your health, if you wish me and all your
friends to be well also.
Farewell.
[Footnote 182: A country festival and general holiday. It was a _feriæ
conceptivæ_, and therefore the exact day varied. But it was about the
end of the year or beginning of the new year (_in Pis._ § 4; Aul. Gell.
x. 24; Macrob. _Sat._ i. 4; _ad Att._ vii. 5; vii. 7, § 2).]
[Footnote 183: Of the persons mentioned, L. Ælius Tubero is elsewhere
praised as a man of learning (_pro Lig._ § 10); A. Allienus (prætor B.C.
49) was a friend and correspondent; M. Gratidius is mentioned in _pro
Flacco_, § 49, as acting in a judicial capacity, and was perhaps a
cousin of Cicero's.]
[Footnote 184: The class of Romans who have practically become
provincials.]
[Footnote 185: Rome and its society and interests.]
[Footnote 186: Father of Augustus, governor of Macedonia, B.C. 60-59.
But he seems to refer to his prætorship (B.C. 61) at Rome; at any rate,
as well as to his conduct in Macedonia.]
[Footnote 187: Reading _primum_; others _primus_, "his head lictor."]
XXX (A II, 4)
[Sidenote: B.C. 59. Coss., C. Iulius Cæsar, M. Calpurnius Bibulus.]
This year was a crucial one in the history of the Republic, and
also of Cicero particularly. It witnessed the working of the
agreement entered into in the previous year between Pompey, Cæsar,
and Crassus, to secure their several objects, commonly called the
First Triumvirate. The determined enmity of the consuls to each
other, the high-handed conduct of Cæsar in regard to the senate,
his ultimate appointment to the unusual period of five years'
government of the Gauls and Illyricum, were so many blows at the
old constitution; and scarcely less offensive to the Catonian
Optimates were the agrarian laws passed in favour of Pompey's
veterans, the forcing of his _acta_ through the senate, and the
arrangement whereby he too was eventually to have the consulship
again, and an extended period of provincial government. Cicero was
distracted by hesitation. He had pinned his faith on Pompey's
ultimate opposition to Cæsar, and yet did not wholly trust him, and
was fully aware of the unpracticable nature of Cato and the
weakness of the Optimates. The triumvirs had an instrument for
rendering him helpless in Clodius, but Cicero could not believe
that they would use it, or that his services to the state could be
so far forgotten as to make danger possible. We shall find him,
then, wholly absorbed in the question as to how far he is to give
into or oppose the triumvirs. It is not till the end of the year
that he begins to see the real danger ahead. We have one extant
oration of this year--_pro Flacco_--which was not much to his
credit, for Flaccus had evidently been guilty of extortion in Asia.
He also defended the equally guilty C. Antonius in a speech which
brought upon him the vengeance of the triumvirs, but it is happily
lost.
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TUSCULUM (APRIL)
[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]
I am exceedingly obliged to you for sending me Serapio's book, of which
indeed, between you and me, I scarcely understood a thousandth part. I
have ordered the money for it to be paid you at once, that you may not
put it down to the cost of presentation copies. But as I have mentioned
the subject of money, I will beg you to try to come to a settlement with
Titinius in any way you can. If he doesn't stand by his own proposal,
what I should like best is that what he bought at too dear a rate should
be returned, if that can be done with Pomponia's consent: if that too is
impossible, let the money be paid rather than have any difficulty. I
should be very glad if you would settle this before you leave Rome, with
your usual kindness and exactness.
So Clodius, you say, is for Tigranes? I only wish he would go--on the
same terms as the Skepsian![188] But I don't grudge him the job; for a
more convenient time for my taking a "free legation" is when my brother
Quintus shall have settled down again, as I hope, into private life, and
I shall have made certain how that "priest of the Bona Dea"[189] intends
to behave. Meanwhile I shall find my pleasure in the Muses with a mind
undisturbed, or rather glad and cheerful; for it will never occur to me
to envy Crassus or to regret that I have not been false to myself. As to
geography, I will try to satisfy you, but I promise nothing for
certain.[190] It is a difficult business, but nevertheless, as you bid
me, I will take care that this country excursion produces something for
you. Mind you let me know any news you have ferreted out, and especially
who you think will be the next consuls. However, I am not very curious;
for I have determined not to think about politics. I have examined
Terentia's woodlands. What need I say? If there was only a Dodonean oak
in them, I should imagine myself to be in possession of Epirus. About
the 1st of the month I shall be either at Formiæ or Pompeii.[191] If I
am not at Formiæ, pray, an you love me, come to Pompeii. It will be a
great pleasure to me and not much out of the way for you. About the
wall, I have given Philotimus orders not to put any difficulty in the
way of your doing whatever you please. I think, however, you had better
call in Vettius.[192] In these bad times, when the life of all the best
men hangs on a thread, I value one summer's enjoyment of my Palatine
_palæstra_ rather highly; but, of course, the last thing I should wish
would be that Pomponia and her boy should live in fear of a falling
wall.
[Footnote 188: That is, if it ends in his death, for Meliodorus of
Skepsis was sent by Mithridates to Tigranes to urge him to go to war
with Rome, but privately advised him not to do so, and, in consequence,
was put to death by Mithridates (Plut. _Luc._ 22). The word _Scepsii_
(Σκηψίου) was introduced by Gronovius for the unintelligible word
_Syrpie_ found in the MSS., which so often blunder in Greek names.]
[Footnote 189: Clodius, alluding to his intrusion into the mysteries.]
[Footnote 190: Atticus has asked Cicero for a Latin treatise on
geography--probably as a publisher, Cicero being the prince of
book-makers--and to that end has sent him the Greek geography of
Serapio.]
[Footnote 191: In his Formianum or Pompeianum, his villas at Formiæ and
Pompeii.]
[Footnote 192: An architect, a freedman of Cyrus, of whom we have heard
before.]
XXXI (A II, 5)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
ANTIUM (APRIL)
[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]
I wish very much, and have long wished, to visit Alexandria, and at the
same time to get away from here, where people are tired of me, and
return when they have begun to feel my loss--but at such a time and at
the bidding of such statesmen![193]
"I fear to face the men of Troy
And Trojan matrons with their trailing robes."[194]
For what would my friends the Optimates say--if there are such persons
left? That I had accepted a bribe to change my views?
"Polydamas the first would lay the charge."