frequent public speeches, are alleviated by your kind services to me;
and as they are of little weight as coming from a man of that character,
they are regarded by me with contempt, and I am quite pleased by an
interchange of persons to regard you in the light of a cousin.[502] Him
I don't wish even to remember, though I have twice saved his life in his
own despite. Not to be too troublesome to you about my affairs, I have
written to Lollius as to what I want done about my provincial accounts,
with a view to his informing and reminding you. If you can, I hope you
will preserve your old goodwill to me.
[Footnote 502: _Fratris_. The mother of Clodius, Cæcilia, was a daughter
of Q. Cæcilius Metellus Balearicus (consul B.C. 123), father of the
writer of this letter.]
CXIII (F I, 7)
TO P. LENTULUS SPINTHER (IN CILICIA)
ROME (OCTOBER)
[Sidenote: B.C. 56, ÆT. 50]
I have read your letter in which you say that you are obliged for the
frequent information I give you about all current events, and for the
clear proof you have of my kindness to yourself. The latter--the
regarding you with warm affection--it is my duty to do, if I wish to
maintain the character which you desired for me; the former it is a
pleasure to do, namely, separated as we are by length of space and time,
to converse with you as frequently as possible by means of letters. But
if this shall occur less frequently than you expect, the reason will be
that my letters are of such a kind that I dare not trust them to
everybody promiscuously. As often as I get hold of trustworthy persons
to whom I may safely deliver them, I will not omit to do so. As to your
question about each particular person's loyalty and friendly feelings
towards you, it is difficult to speak in regard to individuals. I can
venture on this one assertion, which I often hinted to you before, and
now write from close observation and knowledge--that certain persons,
and those, above all others, who were most bound and most able to help
you, have been exceedingly jealous of your claims: and that, though the
point in question is different, your present position is exceedingly
like what mine was some time ago in this, that those whom you had
attacked on public grounds now openly assail you, while those whose
authority, rank, and policy you had defended, are not so much mindful of
your kindness as enemies to your reputation. In these circumstances, as
I wrote you word before, I perceive that Hortensius is very warmly your
friend, Lucullus anxious to serve you: while of the magistrates L.
Racilius shews special loyalty and affection. For my taking up the
cudgels for you, and advocating your claims, would seem in the eyes of
most people to be the measure of my obligation to you rather than of my
deliberate opinion. Besides these I am, in fact, not able to bear
witness to any one of the consulars shewing zeal or kindness or friendly
feeling towards you. For you are aware that Pompey, who is very
frequently accustomed, not on my instigation but of his own accord, to
confide in me about you, did not often attend the senate during these
discussions. It is true your last letter, as I could easily conceive,
was very gratifying to him. To me, indeed, your reasonableness, or
rather your extreme wisdom, seemed not only charming, but simply
admirable. For by that letter you retained your hold on a man of lofty
character, who was bound to you by the signal generosity of your conduct
towards him, but who was entertaining some suspicions that, owing to
the impression prevailing among certain persons as to his own ambitious
desires, you were alienated from him. I always thought that he wished to
support your reputation, even in that very dubious episode of Caninius's
proposal;[503] but when he had read your letter, I could plainly see
that he was thinking with his whole soul of you, your honours, and your
interests. Wherefore look upon what I am going to write as written after
frequent discussions with him, in accordance with his opinion, and with
the weight of his authority. It is this: "That, since no senatorial
decree exists taking the restoration of the Alexandrine king out of your
hands, and since the resolution written out upon that restoration
(which, as you are aware, was vetoed) to the effect that no one was to
restore the king at all,[504] has rather the weight of a measure adopted
by men in anger than of a deliberate decision of the senate--you can
yourself see, since you are in possession of Cilicia and Cyprus,[505]
what it is within your power to effect and secure; and that, if
circumstances seem to make it possible for you to occupy Alexandria and
Egypt, it is for your own dignity and that of the empire that, after
having first placed the king at Ptolemais or some neighbouring place,
you should proceed with fleet and army to Alexandria, in order that,
when you have secured it by restoring peace and placing a garrison in
it, Ptolemy may go back to his kingdom: thus it will be brought about
that he is restored at once by your agency, as the senate originally
voted, and without a 'host,' as those who are scrupulous about religion
said was the order of the Sibyl."
But though both he and I agreed in this decision, we yet thought that
men would judge of your policy by its result: if it turns out as we wish
and desire, everybody will say that you acted wisely and courageously;
if any hitch occurs, those same men will say that you acted ambitiously
and rashly. Wherefore what you really can do it is not so easy for us to
judge as for you, who have Egypt almost within sight. For us, our view
is this: if you are certain that you can get possession of that
kingdom, you should not delay: if it is doubtful, you should not make
the attempt. I can guarantee you this, that, if you succeed, you will be
applauded by many while abroad, by all when you return. I see great
danger in any failure, on account of the senatorial resolution and the
religious scruple that have been introduced into the question. But for
me, as I exhort you to snatch at what is certain to bring you credit, so
I warn you against running any risks, and I return to what I said at the
beginning of my letter--that men will judge all you do, not so much from
the policy which prompted it as from its result. But if this method of
procedure appears to you to be dangerous, our opinion is that, if the
king fulfils his obligations to those of your friends, who throughout
your province and sphere of government have lent him money, you should
assist him both with troops and supplies: such is the nature and
convenient situation of your province, that you either secure his
restoration by giving him aid, or hinder it by neglecting to do so. In
carrying out this policy you will perceive better and more easily than
anyone else what the actual state of affairs, the nature of the case,
and the circumstances of the hour admit: what our opinion was I thought
that I was the person, above all others, to tell you.
As to your congratulations to myself on my present position, on my
intimacy with Milo, on the frivolity and impotency of Clodius--I am not
at all surprised that, like a first-rate artist, you take pleasure in
the brilliant works of your own hands. However, people's
wrong-headedness--I don't like to use a harsher word--surpasses belief;
they might have secured me by their sympathy in a cause in which they
were all equally interested, yet they have alienated me by their
jealousy: for by their carping and most malicious criticisms I must tell
you that I have been all but driven from that old political standpoint
of mine, so long maintained, not, it is true, so far as to forget my
position, but far enough to admit at length some consideration for my
personal safety also. Both might have been amply secured if there had
been any good faith, any solidity in our consulars: but such is the
frivolity of most of them, that they do not so much take pleasure in my
political consistency, as offence at my brilliant position. I am the
more outspoken in writing this to you, because you lent your support,
not only to my present position, which I obtained through you, but also
long ago to my reputation and political eminence, when they were, so to
speak, but just coming into existence; and at the same time because I
see that it was not, as I used formerly to think, my want of curule
pedigree that excited prejudice: for I have noticed in your case, one of
the noblest of the land, a similar exhibition of base jealousy, and
though they did not object to class you among the _noblesse_, they were
unwilling that you should take any higher flight. I rejoice that your
fortune has been unlike mine: for there is a great difference between
having one's reputation lowered and one's personal safety abandoned to
the enemy. In my case it was your noble conduct that prevented me from
being too much disgusted with my own; for you secured that men should
consider more to have been added to my future glory than had been taken
from my present fortune. As for you--instigated both by your kindness to
myself and my affection for you, I urge you to use all your care and
industry to obtain the full glory, for which you have burned with such
generous ardour from boyhood, and never, under anyone's injurious
conduct, to bend that high spirit of yours, which I have always admired
and always loved. Men have a high opinion of you; they loudly praise
your liberality; they vividly remember your consulship. You must surely
perceive how much more marked, and how much more prominent these
sentiments will be, if backed up by some considerable repute from your
province and your government. However, in every administrative act which
you have to perform by means of your army and in virtue of your
_imperium_, I would have you reflect on these objects long before you
act, prepare yourself with a view to them, turn them over in your mind,
train yourself to obtain them, and convince yourself that you can with
the greatest ease maintain the highest and most exalted position in the
state. This you have always looked for, and I am sure you understand
that you have attained it. And that you may not think this exhortation
of mine meaningless or adopted without reason, I should explain that the
consideration which has moved me to make it was the conviction that you
required to be warned by the incidents, which our careers have had in
common, to be careful for the rest of your life as to whom to trust and
against whom to be on your guard.
As to your question about the state of public affairs--there is the most
profound difference of opinion, but the energy is all on one side. For
those who are strong in wealth, arms, and material power, appear to me
to have scored so great a success from the stupidity and fickleness of
their opponents, that they are now the stronger in moral weight as well.
Accordingly, with very few to oppose them, they have got everything
through the senate, which they never expected to get even by the popular
vote without a riot: for a grant for military pay and ten legates have
been given to Cæsar by decree,[506] and no difficulty has been made of
deferring the nomination of his successor, as required by the Sempronian
law.[507] I say the less to you on this point, because this position of
public affairs is no pleasure to me: I mention it, however, in order to
urge you to learn, while you can do so without suffering for it, the
lesson which I myself, though devoted from boyhood to every kind of
reading, yet learnt rather from bitter experience than from study, that
we must neither consider our personal safety to the exclusion of our
dignity, nor our dignity to the exclusion of our safety.
In your congratulations as to my daughter and Crassipes I am obliged to
you for your kindness, and do indeed expect and hope that this connexion
may be a source of pleasure to us. Our dear Lentulus, a young man who
gives such splendid promise of the highest qualities, be sure you
instruct both in those accomplishments which you have yourself ever been
forward in pursuing, and also, above all, in the imitation of yourself:
he can study in no better school than that. He holds a very high place
in my regard and affection, as well because he is yours, as because he
is worthy of such a father, and because he is devoted to me, and has
always been so.
[Footnote 503: See Letter XCV.]
[Footnote 504: See Letter CII.]
[Footnote 505: Joined to the province of Cilicia by Cato in B.C. 58-57.
What Cicero is recommending is a clear evasion. Lentulus is not to
_take_ Ptolemy back, but to go to Egypt and make it ready for him.]
[Footnote 506: Cicero says elsewhere that he supported this (_pro
Balbo_, §61; _de Prov. Cons._ §28; cp. Dio, xxxix. 25).]
[Footnote 507: The law of Gaius Gracchus (B.C. 123) enacting that the
senate should name before the elections the provinces to be held by the
next consuls.]
CXIV (F XIII, 6 a)
Q. VALERIUS ORCA (PROCONSUL IN AFRICA)
ROME (MAY)
[Sidenote: B.C. 56, ÆT. 50]
If you are well I shall be glad. I am quite well. I presume that you
will remember that, when escorting you on the commencement of your
official journey,[508] I mentioned to you in the presence of Publius
Cuspius, and also afterwards urged you privately at some length, that
whomsoever I might recommend to you as connexions of his, you should
regard as among connexions of my own. You, as was to be expected from
your extreme regard and uninterrupted attentions to me, undertook to do
this for me with the utmost liberality and kindness. Cuspius, who is
most careful in his duties towards all connected with him, takes a
surprising interest in the well-being of certain persons of your
province, because he has been twice in Africa when presiding over the
very large concerns of his revenue-company. Accordingly, this patronage
of his, which he exercises on their behalf, I am accustomed as far as I
can to back up by such means and influence as I possess. Wherefore I
thought it necessary to explain to you in this letter why I give letters
of introduction to all the friends of Cuspius. In future letters I will
merely append the mark[509] agreed upon between you and me, and at the
same time indicate that he is one of Cuspius's friends. But the
recommendation which I have resolved to subscribe to in this present
letter, let me tell you, is more serious than any of them. For P.
Cuspius has pressed me with particular earnestness to recommend Lucius
Iulius to you as warmly as possible. I appear to be barely able to
satisfy his eagerness by using the words which I generally use when most
in earnest. He asks for something out of the common way from me, and
thinks I have a special knack in that style of writing. I have promised
him to produce a masterpiece of commendation--a specimen of my choicest
work. Since I cannot reach that standard, however, I would beg you to
make him think that some astonishing effect has been produced by the
style of my letter. You will secure that, if you treat him with all the
liberality which your kindness can suggest and your official power make
feasible--I don't mean merely in the way of material assistance, but
also in words and even in looks: and what influence such things have in
a province I could have wished that you had already learnt by
experience, though I have an idea that you soon will do so. This man
himself, whom I am recommending to you, I believe to be thoroughly
worthy of your friendship, not only because Cuspius says so (though that
should be enough), but because I know the keenness of his judgment of
men and in the selection of his friends. I shall soon be able to judge
what has been the effect of this letter, and shall, I feel certain, have
reason to thank you. For myself, I shall with zeal and care see to all
that I think to be your wish or to concern your interests. Take care of
your health.
[Footnote 508: _Paludatum_, lit. dressed in the _paludamentum_, the
military dress in which provincial governors left Rome with _imperium_.]
[Footnote 509: _Notam_, some cipher, which he had agreed upon with
Valerius to indicate that the _commendatio_ was not to be looked upon as
a mere matter of course.]
CXV (F XIII, 6 b)
TO Q. VALERIUS ORCA (PROCONSUL IN AFRICA)
ROME (MAY)
[Sidenote: B.C. 56, ÆT. 50]
P. Cornelius, who delivers you this letter, has been recommended to me
by P. Cuspius, for whose sake you are thoroughly informed from me how
much I desire and am bound to do. I earnestly beg you that Cuspius may
have as great, early, and frequent occasion as possible to thank me for
this introduction.
CXVI (Q FR II, 6)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (RETURNING FROM SARDINIA)
ROME, MAY
[Sidenote: B.C. 56, ÆT. 50]
How delighted I was to get your letter! It had been expected by me at
first, it is true, only with longing, but recently with alarm also. And,
in fact, let me tell you that this is the only letter which has reached
me since the one brought me by your sailor and dated Olbia. But let
everything else, as you say, be reserved till we can talk it over
together. One thing, however, I cannot put off: on the 15th of May the
senate covered itself with glory by refusing Gabinius a _supplicatio_.
Procilius[510] vows that such a slight was never inflicted on anyone.
Out of doors there is much applause. To me, gratifying as it is on its
own account, it is even more so because it was done when I was not in
the house. For it was an unbiassed[511] judgment of the senate, without
any attack or exercise of influence on my part. The debate previously
arranged for the 15th and 16th, namely, the question of the Campanian
land, did not come on. In this matter I don't quite see way.[512] But I
have said more than I meant to say: for it is best reserved till we
meet. Goodbye, best and most longed-for of brothers! Fly to me. Our boys
both share my prayer: of course, you will dine with me the day of your
arrival.
[Footnote 510: One of the tribunes. He was convicted of _vis_ in B.C.,
54. Gabinius was governor of Syria B.C. 57-54. He had been engaged in
some warlike affairs in Iudæa, for which, or for some successes over the
Arabs, he claimed the _supplicatio_.]
[Footnote 511: εἰλικρινές, "pure," "clear."]
[Footnote 512: _Mihi aqua hæret_, "there's a stoppage in my water
course."]
CXVII (A IV, 8 b)
[Sidenote: B.C. 55. Coss., Cu. Pompeius Magnus, M. Licinius Crassus.]
In this year Cicero devoted much of his time and energy to the
composition of the _de Oratore_. He was glad to be away from Rome,
for though he had resolved to give up his opposition to the
triumvirs, he was never really happy in supporting or even
witnessing their policy, and the first letter betrays his
sentiments as to the way in which the consuls had secured their
election. His fear of an autocracy, however, seems now to be
directed rather to Pompey than Cæsar; nor was he at all charmed by
the splendour of the games given at the opening of Pompey's new
theatre. The only extant speech is that against L. Calpurnius Piso
(consul B.C. 58) who had been recalled from Macedonia.
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TUSCULUM[513] (JANUARY)
[Sidenote: B.C. 55, ÆT. 51]
Apenas had scarcely left me, when your letter came. Really? Do you
suppose he won't propose his law?[514] Pray speak a little louder: I
seem scarcely to have caught what you said. But let me know it at once,
if it is all the same to you, that is! Well, since an additional day has
been assigned to the games, I am all the more content to spend that day
with Dionysius. About Trebonius I cordially agree with you. About
Domitius,[515]
"I swear by Ceres that no single fig
Was e'er so like another,"
as his case to mine, either in the sameness of persons, the
unexpectedness of it, or the futility of the loyalists. There is one
difference--he has brought it upon himself. For as to the misfortune
itself, I rather think mine is the less grievous. For what could be more
mortifying than that a man, who has been consul-designate, so to speak,
ever since he was born, should fail in securing his election? Especially
when he is the only (plebeian) candidate, or at most had but one
opponent. If it is also the fact, which I rather think it is, that
_he_[516] has in the register of his pocket-book some equally long pages
of future, no less than of past consuls, what more humiliating position
than our friend's, except that of the Republic? My first information
about Natta[517] was from your letter: I couldn't bear the man. As to
your question about my poem: what if it is all agog to escape from my
hands? Well? Would you permit it? About Fabius Luscus--I was just going
to speak of him: the man was always very cordial to me, and I never had
any cause to dislike him; for he is intelligent, very well-behaved, and
serviceable enough. As I was seeing nothing of him, I supposed him to be
out of town: but was told by this fellow Gavius of Firmum, that he was
at Rome, and had never been away. It made a disagreeable impression on
me. "Such a trifle as that?" you will say. Well, he had told me a good
deal of which there could be no doubt as to these brothers of Firmum.
What it is that has made him hold aloof from me, if he has done so, I
have no idea.
As to your advice to me to act "diplomatically" and keep to the "outside
course"--I will obey you. But I want still more worldly wisdom, for
which, as usual, I shall come to you. Pry small things out from
Fabius,[518] if you can get at him, and pick the brains of your guest,
and write me word on these points and all others every day. When there
is nothing for you to write, write and say so. Take care of your health.
[Footnote 513: The letter appears to be from Tusculum, because Cicero
asks for a letter every day, which he could hardly expect if he were
farther off. This year Cicero was much away from Rome, and yet his
correspondence is meagre compared with other years. So far as this is
not due to accident in the preservation of his letters, it may be
accounted for by the fact that he was working at his _de Oratore_--so
hard, that even his brother Quintus had scruples in breaking in upon
him.]
[Footnote 514: This may refer to the laws of Trebonius, giving Pompey
and Crassus Spain and Syria respectively, and Cæsar an additional five
years in Gaul, or to some of Pompey's own legislation.]
[Footnote 515: L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, a candidate for the consulship
of B.C. 55, but whose election had never come off. By various
contrivances the _comitia_ were prevented, so that the new year opened
with an _interregnum_; and Pompey and Crassus were elected under the
presidency of an _interrex_ (Dio, xxxix. 31).]
[Footnote 516: Pompey.]
[Footnote 517: L. Natta, a brother-in-law of Clodius, a pontifex who had
presided at the _consecratio_ of Cicero's house. He seems to have just
died.]
[Footnote 518: A friend of Pompey's. I think "your guest" must be Pompey
himself, whom Atticus is about to entertain at dinner.]
CXVIII (F I, 8)
TO P. LENTULUS SPINTHER (IN CILICIA)
ROME (JANUARY)
[Sidenote: B.C. 55, ÆT. 51]