What, too, will history say of me six hundred years hence? I am much
more afraid of that than of the petty gossip of the men of to-day. But,
I think, I had better lie low and wait. For if it is really offered to
me, I shall be to a certain extent in a position of advantage, and then
will be the time to weigh the matter. There is, upon my word, a certain
credit even in refusing. Wherefore, if Theophanes[195] by chance has
consulted you on the matter, do not absolutely decline. What I am
expecting to hear from you is, what Arrius says, and how he endures
being left in the lurch,[196] and who are intended to be consuls--is it
Pompey and Crassus, or, as I am told in a letter, Servius Sulpicius with
Gabinius?--and whether there are any new laws or anything new at all;
and, since Nepos[197] is leaving Rome, who is to have the augurship--the
one bait by which those personages could catch me! You see what a high
price I put on myself! Why do I talk about such things, which I am eager
to throw aside, and to devote myself heart and soul to philosophy. That,
I tell you, is my intention. I could wish I had done so from the first.
Now, however, that I have found by experience the hollowness of what I
thought so splendid, I am thinking of doing business exclusively with
the Muses. In spite of that, please give me in your next some more
definite information about Curtius and who is intended to fill his
place, and what is doing about P. Clodius, and, in fact, take your time
and tell me everything as you promise; and pray write me word what day
you think of leaving Rome, in order that I may tell you where I am
likely to be: and send me a letter at once on the subjects of which I
have written to you. I look forward much to hearing from you.
[Footnote 193: The triumvirs. The mission to Egypt was in the affairs of
Ptolemy Auletes (father of Cleopatra), who was this year declared a
"friend and ally." He soon got expelled by his subjects.]
[Footnote 194: _Il._ vi. 442; xxii. 100. Cicero's frequent expression
for popular opinion, or the opinion of those he respects--his Mrs.
Grundy.]
[Footnote 195: Theophanes, a philosopher of Mitylene, a close friend of
Pompey's, in whose house he frequently resided. He took charge of
Pompey's wife and children in B.C. 48-47.]
[Footnote 196: Q. Arrius, an orator and friend of Cæsar's, by whose help
he had hoped for the consulship. See p. 49.]
[Footnote 197: Q. Cæcilius Metellus Nepos (consul B.C. 57). His brother,
the consul of B.C. 60, had just died and made a vacancy in the college
of augurs.]
XXXII (A II, 6)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
ANTIUM (APRIL)
[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]
As to my promise to you in a former letter that there should be some
product of this country excursion, I cannot confirm it to any great
extent: for I have become so attached to idleness that I cannot be torn
from its arms. Accordingly, I either enjoy myself with books, of which I
have a delightful stock at Antium, or I just count the waves--for the
rough weather prevents my shrimping! From writing my mind positively
recoils. For the geographical treatise, upon which I had settled, is a
serious undertaking: so severely is Eratosthenes, whom I had proposed as
my model, criticised by Serapio and Hipparchus: what think you will be
the case if Tyrannio[198] is added to the critics? And, by Hercules, the
subject is difficult of explanation and monotonous, and does not seem to
admit of as much embellishment as I thought, and, in short--which is the
chief point--any excuse for being idle seems to me a good one: for I am
even hesitating as to settling at Antium and spending the rest of my
life there, where, indeed, I would rather have been a duovir[199] than
at Rome. You, indeed, have done more wisely in having made yourself a
home at Buthrotum. But, believe me, next to that free town of yours
comes the borough of the Antiates. Could you have believed that there
could be a town so near Rome, where there are many who have never seen
Vatinius? Where there is no one besides myself who cares whether one of
the twenty commissioners[200] is alive and well? Where no one intrudes
upon me, and yet all are fond of me? This, this is the place to play the
statesman in! For yonder, not only am I not allowed to do so, but I am
sick of it besides. Accordingly, I will compose a book of secret memoirs
for your ear alone in the style of Theopompus, or a more acrid one
still.[201] Nor have I now any politics except to hate the disloyal, and
even that without any bitterness, but rather with a certain enjoyment in
writing. But to return to business: I have written to the city quæstors
about my brother's affair. See what they say to it, whether there is any
hope of the cash in _denarii_, or whether we are to be palmed off with
Pompeian _cistophori_.[202] Farthermore, settle what is to be done about
the wall. Is there anything else? Yes! Let me know when you are thinking
of starting.
[Footnote 198: A captive brought by Lucullus, who became a friend of
Cicero and tutor to his son and nephew.]
[Footnote 199: One of the two yearly officers of a colony--they answer
to the consuls at Rome. Therefore Cicero means, "I wish I had been a
consul in a small colony rather than a consul at Rome."]
[Footnote 200: For distribution of land under Cæsar's law. P. Vatinius
was a tribune this year, and worked in Cæsar's interests.]
[Footnote 201: Theopompus of Chios, the historian (_Att._ vi. 1, § 12).
Born about B.C. 378. His bitterness censured by Polybius, viii. 11-13.]
[Footnote 202: The money due from the treasury to Q. Cicero in Asia. He
wants it to be paid in Roman currency (_denarii_), not in Asiatic coins
(_cistophori_), a vast amount of which Pompey had brought home and
deposited in the treasury. So an Indian official might like sovereigns
instead of rupees if he could get them.]
XXXIII (A II, 7)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
ANTIUM (APRIL)
[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]
About the geography I will think again and again. But you ask for two of
my speeches, one of which I did not care to write out because I had
ended it abruptly, the other because I did not want to praise the man I
did not like. But that, too, I will see about. At all events, something
shall be forthcoming to prevent your thinking that I have been
absolutely idle. I am quite delighted to hear what you tell me about
Publius; pray ferret out the whole story, and bring it to me when you
come, and meanwhile write anything you may make out or suspect, and
especially as to what he is going to do about the legation. For my part,
before reading your letter, I was anxious that the fellow should go,
not, by heaven, in order to avoid his impeachment--for I am wonderfully
keen to try issues with him--but it seemed to me that, if he had secured
any popularity by becoming a plebeian, he would thereby lose it. "Well,
why did you transfer yourself to the Plebs? Was it to make a call on
Tigranes? Tell me: do the kings of Armenia refuse to receive
patricians?" In a word, I had polished up my weapons to tear this
embassy of his to pieces. But if he rejects it, and thus moves the anger
of those proposers and augurs of the _lex curiata_,[203] it will be a
fine sight! By Hercules, to speak the truth, our friend Publius is being
treated a little contemptuously! In the first place, though he was once
the only man at Cæsar's house, he is not now allowed to be one in
twenty:[204] in the next place, one legation had been promised him and
another has been given. The former fine fat one[205] for the levying of
money is reserved, I presume, for Drusus of Pisaurum or for the gourmand
Vatinius: this latter miserable business, which might be very well done
by a courier, is given to him, and his tribuneship deferred till it
suits them. Irritate the fellow, I beg you, as much as you can. The one
hope of safety is their mutual disagreement, the beginning of which I
have got scent of from Curio. Moreover, Arrius is fuming at being
cheated out of the consulship. Megabocchus and our blood-thirsty young
men are most violently hostile. May there be added to this, I pray, may
there be added, this quarrel about the augurate! I hope I shall often
have some fine letters to send you on these subjects. But I want to know
the meaning of your dark hint that some even of the _quinqueviri_[206]
are speaking out. What can it be? If there is anything in it, there is
more hope than I had thought. And I would not have you believe that I
ask you these questions "with any view to action,"[207] because my heart
is yearning to take part in practical politics. I was long ago getting
tired of being at the helm, even when it was in my power. And now that I
am forced to quit the ship, and have not cast aside the tiller, but have
had it wrenched out of my hands, my only wish is to watch their
shipwreck from the shore: I desire, in the words of your favourite
Sophocles,
"And safe beneath the roof
To hear with drowsy ear the plash of rain."
As to the wall, see to what is necessary. I will correct the mistake of
Castricius, and yet Quintus had made it in his letter to me 15,000,
while now to your sister he makes it 30,000.[208] Terentia sends you her
regards: my boy Cicero commissions you to give Aristodemus the same
answer for him as you gave for his cousin, your sister's son.[209] I
will not neglect your reminder about your Amaltheia.[210] Take care of
your health.
[Footnote 203: As he was a man _sui iuris_, Clodius's adoption into a
new gens (_adrogatio_) would have to take place before the _comitia
curiata_ (now represented by thirty lictors), which still retained this
formal business. The ceremony required the presence of an augur and a
pontifex to hold it. Cicero supposes Pompey and Cæsar as intending to
act in that capacity. Pompey, it seems, did eventually attend.]
[Footnote 204: One of the twenty commissioners under Cæsar's agrarian
law. Cicero was offered and declined a place among them. The "only man,"
of course, refers to the intrusion on the mysteries.]
[Footnote 205: To Egypt.]
[Footnote 206: This seems also to refer to the twenty agrarian
commissioners, who, according to Mommsen, were divided into committees
of five, and were, therefore, spoken of indifferently as _quinqueviri_
and _vigintiviri_. But it is somewhat uncertain.]
[Footnote 207: κατὰ τὸ πρακτικόν.]
[Footnote 208: Castricius seems to have been a _negotiator_ or banker in
Asia. We don't know what mistake is referred to; probably as to some
money transmitted to Pomponia.]
[Footnote 209: It is suggested that Aristodemus is some teacher of the
two young Ciceros, to whom the young Marcus wishes to apologize for his
absence or to promise some study.]
[Footnote 210: Perhaps some inscription or other ornament for Atticus's
gymnasium in his villa at Buthrotum.]
XXXIV (A II, 8)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
ANTIUM, APRIL
[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]
When I had been eagerly expecting a letter from you as usual till
evening, lo and behold a message that slaves have come from Rome. I
summon them: I ask if they have any letters. "No," say they. "What do
you say," said I, "nothing from Pomponius?" Frightened to death by my
voice and look, they confessed that they had received one, and that it
had been lost on the journey. Need I say more? I was intensely annoyed.
For no letter has come from you for the last few days without something
in it important and entertaining. In these circumstances, if there was
anything in the letter, dated 15th April, worth telling, pray write at
once, that I may not be left in ignorance; but if there was nothing but
banter, repeat even that for my benefit. And let me inform you that
young Curio has been to call on me. What he said about Publius agreed
exactly with your letter. He himself, moreover, wonderfully "holds our
proud kings in hate."[211] He told me that the young men generally were
equally incensed, and could not put up with the present state of things.
If there is hope in them, we are in a good way. My opinion is that we
should leave things to take their course. I am devoting myself to my
memoir. However, though you may think me a Saufeius,[212] I am really
the laziest fellow in the world. But get into your head my several
journeys, that you may settle where you intend to come and see me. I
intend to arrive at my Formian house on the Parilia (21st April). Next,
since you think that at this time I ought to leave out luxurious
Crater,[213] on the 1st of May I leave Formiæ, intending to reach Antium
on the 3rd of May. For there are games at Antium from the 4th to the 6th
of May, and Tullia wants to see them. Thence I think of going to
Tusculum, thence to Arpinum, and be at Rome on the 1st of June. Be sure
that we see you at Formiæ or Antium, or at Tusculum. Rewrite your
previous letter for me, and add something new.
[Footnote 211: A verse from Lucilius. "Young Curio" is the future
tribune of B.C. 50, who was bribed by Cæsar, joined him at Ravenna at
the end of that year, was sent by him in B.C. 49 to Sicily and Africa,
and fell in battle with the Pompeians and King Iuba.]
[Footnote 212: L. Saufeius, the Epicurean friend of Atticus (see Letter
II). He seems to mean, "as indefatigable as Saufeius." But Prof. Tyrrell
points out that it might mean, "at the risk of your thinking me as
Epicurean and self-indulgent as Saufeius, I say," etc.]
[Footnote 213: The bay of Misenum, near which was Cicero's Pompeianum.]
XXXV (A II, 9)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
ANTIUM, MAY
[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]
Cæcilius[214] the quæstor having suddenly informed me that he was
sending a slave to Rome, I write these hurried lines in order to get out
of you the wonderful conversations with Publius, both those of which you
write, and that one which you keep dark, and assert that it would be too
long to write your answer to him; and, still farther, the one that has
not yet been held, which that Iuno of a woman[215] is to report to you
when she gets back from Solonium. I wish you to believe that there can
be nothing I should like more. If, however, the compact made about me is
not kept, I am in a seventh heaven to think that our friend the
Jerusalemitish plebeian-maker[216] will learn what a fine return he has
made to my brilliant speeches, of which you may expect a splendid
recantation. For, as well as I can guess, if that profligate is in
favour with our tyrants, he will be able to crow not only over the
"cynic consular,"[217] but over your Tritons of the fish-ponds
also.[218] For I shall not possibly be an object of anybody's jealousy
when robbed of power and of my influence in the senate. If, on the other
hand, he should quarrel with them, it will not suit his purpose to
attack me. However, let him attack. Charmingly, believe me, and with
less noise than I had thought, has the wheel of the Republic revolved:
more rapidly, anyhow, than it should have done owing to Cato's error,
but still more owing to the unconstitutional conduct of those who have
neglected the auspices, the Ælian law, the Iunian, the Licinian, the
Cæcilian and Didian,[219] who have squandered all the safeguards of the
constitution, who have handed over kingdoms as though they were private
estates to tetrachs,[220] and immense sums of money to a small coterie.
I see plainly now the direction popular jealousy is taking, and where it
will finally settle. Believe that I have learnt nothing from experience,
nothing from Theophrastus,[221] if you don't shortly see the time of our
government an object of regret. For if the power of the senate was
disliked, what do you think will be the case when it has passed, not to
the people, but to three unscrupulous men? So let them then make whom
they choose consuls, tribunes, and even finally clothe Vatinius's wen
with the double-dyed purple[222] of the priesthood, you will see before
long that the great men will be not only those who have made no false
step,[223] but even he who did make a mistake, Cato. For, as to myself,
if your comrade Publius will let me, I think of playing the sophist: if
he forces me, I shall at least defend myself, and, as is the trick of my
trade, I publicly promise to
"Strike back at him who first is wroth with me."[224]
May the country only be on my side: it has had from me, if not more than
its due, at least more than it ever demanded. I would rather have a bad
passage with another pilot than be a successful pilot to such ungrateful
passengers. But this will do better when we meet. For the present take
an answer to your questions. I think of returning to Antium from Formiæ
on the 3rd of May. From Antium I intend to start for Tusculum on the 7th
of May. But as soon as I have returned from Formiæ (I intend to be there
till the 29th of April) I will at once inform you. Terentia sends
compliments, and "Cicero the little greets Titus the Athenian."[225]
[Footnote 214: Q. Cæcilius Bassus, probably quæstor at Ostia. Antium
would be in his district.]
[Footnote 215: βοῶπις, _sc._ Clodia. She is to talk to her brother about
Cicero. She is "Iuno" perhaps as an enemy--as Bacon called the Duchess
of Burgundy Henry VII.'s Iuno--or perhaps for a less decent reason, as
_coniux sororque_ of Publius.]
[Footnote 216: Pompey, who was proud of having taken Jerusalem.
_Traductor ad plebem_, said of the magistrate presiding at the _comitia_
for adoption.]
[Footnote 217: Cicero himself. Clodius may have called him this from his
biting repartees. Prof. Tyrrell, "Tear 'em."]
[Footnote 218: The nobility, whom Cicero has before attacked as idle and
caring for nothing but their fish-ponds (_piscinarii_, cp. p. 59).]
[Footnote 219: The _lex Ælia_ (about B.C. 150) was a law regulating the
powers of magistrates to dissolve _comitia_ on religious grounds, such
as bad omens, _servata de cœlo, etc._ Cicero (who could have had very
little belief in the augural science) regards them as safeguards of the
state, because as the Optimates generally secured the places in the
augural college, it gave them a hold on elections and legislation.
Bibulus tried in vain to use these powers to thwart Cæsar this year. The
_lex Cæcilia Didia_ (.B.C. 98) enforced the _trinundinatio_, or three
weeks' notice of elections and laws, and forbade the proposal of a _lex
satura_, _i.e._, a law containing a number of miscellaneous enactments.
Perhaps its violation refers to the _acta_ of Pompey in the East, which
he wanted to have confirmed _en bloc_. The senate had made difficulties:
but one of the fruits of the triumvirate was a measure for doing it. The
_lex Iunia et Licinia_ (B.C. 62) confirmed the _Cæcilia Didia_, and
secured that the people knew what the proposed laws were.]
[Footnote 220: As Pompey did in Asia, _e.g._, to Deiotarus of Galatia,
and about ten others. It is curious that Cicero speaks of the _pauci_
just as his opponent Cæsar and Augustus after him. Each side looks on
the other as a coterie (Cæsar, _B. C._ i. 22; Monum. Ancyr. i. § 1)]
[Footnote 221: Theophrastus, successor of Aristotle at the Lyceum,
Athens (p. 70).]
[Footnote 222: The purple-bordered toga of the augur. Vatinius did not
get the augurship. He had some disfiguring swelling or wen.]
[Footnote 223: Himself.]
[Footnote 224: ἄνδρ' ἀπαμύνεσθαι, ὅτε τις πρότερος χαλεπήνῃ (Hom. _Il._
xxiv. 369).]
[Footnote 225: Written in Greek, perhaps by the boy himself.]
XXXVI (A II, 12)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TRES TABERNÆ, 12 APRIL
[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]
Are they going to deny that Publius has been made a plebeian? This is
indeed playing the king, and is utterly intolerable. Let Publius send
some men to witness and seal my affidavit: I will take an oath that my
friend Gnæus, the colleague of Balbus, told me at Antium that he had
been present as augur to take the auspices. Two delightful letters from
you delivered at the same time! For which I do not know what I am to pay
you by way of reward for good news. That I owe you for them I candidly
confess. But observe the coincidence. I had just made my way from Antium
on to the _via Appia_ at Three Taverns,[226] on the very day of the
Cerealia (18th April), when my friend Curio meets me on his way from
Rome. At the same place and the same moment comes a slave from you with
letters. The former asked me whether I hadn't heard the news? I said,
"No." "Publius," says he, "is a candidate for the tribuneship." "You
don't mean it?" "Yes, I do," says he, "and at daggers drawn with Cæsar.
His object is to rescind his acts." "What says Cæsar?" said I. "He
denies having proposed any _lex_ for his adoption." Then he poured forth
about his own hatred, and that of Memmius and Metellus Nepos. I embraced
the youth and said good-bye to him, hastening to your letters. A fig for
those who talk about a "living voice"! What a much clearer view I got of
what was going on from your letters than from his talk! About the
current rumours of the day, about the designs of Publius, about "Iuno's"
trumpet calls, about Athenio who leads his roughs, about his letter to
Gnæus, about the conversation of Theophanes and Memmius. Besides, how
eager you have made me to hear about the "fast" dinner party which you
mention! I am greedy in curiosity, yet I do not feel at all hurt at your
not writing me a description of the symposium: I would rather hear it by
word of mouth. As to your urging me to write something, my material
indeed is growing, as you say, but the whole is still in a state of
fermentation--"new wine in the autumn." When the liquor has settled down
and become clarified, I shall know better what to write. And even if you
cannot get it from me at once, you shall be the first to have it: only
for some time you must keep it to yourself. You are quite right to like
Dicæarchus; he is an excellent writer, and a much better citizen than
these rulers of ours who reverse his name.[227] I write this letter at
four o'clock in the afternoon of the Cerealia (12th April), immediately
after reading yours, but I shall despatch it, I think, to-morrow, by
anyone I may chance to meet on the road. Terentia is delighted with your
letter, _et Cicéron le philosophe salue Titus l'homme d'état_.
[Footnote 226: Where the road from Antium joins the Appia. Cicero seems
to be on his way to Formiæ, where he had intended to arrive on the 21st.
He must be going very leisurely.]
[Footnote 227: Δικαίαρχος and ἀδικαίαρχοι, a pun on a name not
reproducible in English: "just-rulers" and "unjust-rulers."]
XXXVII (A II, 10)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
APPII FORUM,[228] APRIL
[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]
Please admire my consistency. I am determined not to be at the games at
Antium: for it is somewhat of a solecism to wish to avoid all suspicion
of frivolity, and yet suddenly to be shewn up as travelling for mere
amusement, and that of a foolish kind. Wherefore I shall wait for you
till the 7th of May at Formiæ. So now let me know what day we shall see
you. From Appii Forum, ten o'clock. I sent another a short time ago from
Three Taverns.
[Footnote 228: On the _via Appia_. Cicero halts at Appii Forum and at
once despatches a short note, probably by some one he finds there going
to Rome, to announce a change of plan. He had meant to get back to
Antium on 6th May, because Tullia wanted to see the games. See Letter
XXXIV, p. 96.]
XXXVIII (A II, 11)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
FORMIÆ, APRIL
[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]
I tell you what it is: I feel myself a downright exile since arriving at
Formiæ. For at Antium there was never a day that I didn't know what was
going on at Rome better than those who were there. For your letters
used to shew me not only what was doing at Rome, but the actual
political situation also--and not only that, but also what was likely to
happen. Now, unless I snatch a bit of news from some passing traveller,
I can learn nothing at all. Wherefore, though I am expecting you in
person, yet pray give this boy, whom I have ordered to hurry back to me
at once, a bulky letter, crammed not only with all occurrences, but with
what you think about them; and be careful to let me know the day you are
going to leave Rome. I intend staying at Formiæ till the 6th of May. If
you don't come there by that day, I shall perhaps see you at Rome. For
why should I invite you to Arpinum?
"A rugged soil, yet nurse of hardy sons:
No dearer land can e'er my eyes behold."[229]
So much for this. Take care of your health.
[Footnote 229: Homer, _Odyss._ ix. 27.]
XXXIX (A II, 13)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
FORMIÆ, APRIL
[Sidenote: B.C. 59, ÆT. 47]