the games, I put it down to fortune rather than your own wisdom: but if
you have made up your mind that these things which the rest of the world
admires are only worthy of contempt, and, though your health would have
allowed of it, you yet were unwilling to come, then I rejoice at both
facts--that you were free from bodily pain, and that you had the sound
sense to disdain what others causelessly admire. Only I hope that some
fruit of your leisure may be forthcoming, a leisure, indeed, which you
had a splendid opportunity of enjoying to the full, seeing that you were
left almost alone in your lovely country. For I doubt not that in that
study of yours, from which you have opened a window into the Stabian
waters of the bay, and obtained a view of Misenum, you have spent the
morning hours of those days in light reading, while those who left you
there were watching the ordinary farces[561] half asleep. The remaining
parts of the day, too, you spent in the pleasures which you had yourself
arranged to suit your own taste, while we had to endure whatever had met
with the approval of Spurius Mæcius.[562] On the whole, if you care to
know, the games were most splendid, but not to your taste. I judge from
my own. For, to begin with, as a special honour to the occasion, those
actors had come back to the stage who, I thought, had left it for their
own. Indeed, your favourite, my friend Æsop, was in such a state that no
one could say a word against his retiring from the profession. On the
beginning to recite the oath his voice failed him at the words "If I
knowingly deceive." Why should I go on with the story? You know all
about the rest of the games, which hadn't even that amount of charm
which games on a moderate scale generally have: for the spectacle was so
elaborate as to leave no room for cheerful enjoyment, and I think you
need feel no regret at having missed it. For what is the pleasure of a
train of six hundred mules in the "Clytemnestra," or three thousand
bowls in the "Trojan Horse," or gay-coloured armour of infantry and
cavalry in some battle? These things roused the admiration of the
vulgar; to you they would have brought no delight. But if during those
days you listened to your reader Protogenes, so long at least as he read
anything rather than my speeches, surely you had far greater pleasure
than any one of us. For I don't suppose you wanted to see Greek or Oscan
plays, especially as you can see Oscan farces in your senate-house over
there, while you are so far from liking Greeks, that you generally won't
even go along the Greek road to your villa. Why, again, should I suppose
you to care about missing the athletes, since you disdained the
gladiators? in which even Pompey himself confesses that he lost his
trouble and his pains. There remain the two wild-beast hunts, lasting
five days, magnificent--nobody denies it--and yet, what pleasure can it
be to a man of refinement, when either a weak man is torn by an
extremely powerful animal, or a splendid animal is transfixed by a
hunting spear? Things which, after all, if worth seeing, you have often
seen before; nor did I, who was present at the games, see anything the
least new. The last day was that of the elephants, on which there was a
great deal of astonishment on the part of the vulgar crowd, but no
pleasure whatever. Nay, there was even a certain feeling of compassion
aroused by it, and a kind of belief created that that animal has
something in common with mankind.[563] However, for my part, during this
day, while the theatrical exhibitions were on, lest by chance you should
think me too blessed, I almost split my lungs in defending your friend
Caninius Gallus.[564] But if the people were as indulgent to me as they
were to Æsop, I would, by heaven, have been glad to abandon my
profession and live with you and others like us. The fact is I was tired
of it before, even when both age and ambition stirred me on, and when I
could also decline any defence that I didn't like; but now, with things
in the state that they are, there is no life worth having. For, on the
one hand, I expect no profit of my labour; and, on the other, I am
sometimes forced to defend men who have been no friends to me, at the
request of those to whom I am under obligations. Accordingly, I am on
the look-out for every excuse for at last managing my life according to
my own taste, and I loudly applaud and vehemently approve both you and
your retired plan of life: and as to your infrequent appearances among
us, I am the more resigned to that because, were you in Rome, I should
be prevented from enjoying the charm of your society, and so would you
of mine, if I have any, by the overpowering nature of my engagements;
from which, if I get any relief--for entire release I don't expect--I
will give even you, who have been studying nothing else for many years,
some hints as to what it is to live a life of cultivated enjoyment. Only
be careful to nurse your weak health and to continue your present care
of it, so that you may be able to visit my country houses and make
excursions with me in my litter. I have written you a longer letter than
usual, from superabundance, not of leisure, but of affection, because,
if you remember, you asked me in one of your letters to write you
something to prevent you feeling sorry at having missed the games. And
if I have succeeded in that, I am glad: if not, I yet console myself
with this reflexion, that in future you will both come to the games and
come to see me, and will not leave your hope of enjoyment dependent on
my letters.[565]
[Footnote 561: _Communis_, which is not satisfactory. But neither is the
emendation proposed, _cominus_. For _communis_, "common," "vulgar," see
_de Off._ ii. § 45.]
[Footnote 562: Whom Pompey employed to select the plays to be exhibited
in his new theatre.]
[Footnote 563: Pliny (_N. H._ viii. § 21) says that the people were so
moved that they loudly cursed Pompey.]
[Footnote 564: L. Caninius Gallus (see p. 210). What he was accused of
does not appear.]
[Footnote 565: I do not like to think this letter a mere rhetorical
exercise, as has been suggested, rather than a true account of Cicero's
feelings as to the theatre and amphitheatre. He often expresses his want
of interest in the latter. The vulgar display in the theatre, unlike the
severe simplicity of Greek art, was an old evil (see Polyb. xxx. 14).]
CXXVII (F XIII, 74)
TO Q. PHILIPPUS (PROCONSUL IN ASIA)
ROME
[Sidenote: B.C. 55, ÆT. 51]
Though, considering your attention to me and our close ties, I have no
doubt of your remembering my recommendation, yet I again and again
recommend to you the same L. Oppius, my intimate friend who is now in
Rome, and the business of L. Egnatius, my very intimate friend who is
now abroad. With the latter my connexion and intimacy are so strong,
that I could not be more anxious if the business were my own. Wherefore
I shall be highly gratified if you take the trouble too make him feel
that I have as high a place in your affections as I think I have. You
cannot oblige me more than by doing so: and I beg you warmly to do it.
CXXVIII (F XIII, 40)
TO Q. ANCHARIUS (PROCONSUL IN MACEDONIA)
ROME
[Sidenote: B.C. 55, ÆT. 51]
Lucius and Gaius, sons of Lucius Aurelius, with whom, as with their
excellent father, I am most intimately acquainted, I recommend to you
with more than usual earnestness, as young men endowed with the best
qualities, as being very closely allied to myself, and as being in the
highest degree worthy of your friendship. If any recommendations of mine
have ever had influence with you, as I know that many have had much, I
beg you to let this one have it. If you treat them with honour and
kindness, you will not only have attached to yourself two very grateful
and excellent young men, but you will also have done me the very
greatest favour.
CXXIX (A IV, 13)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TUSCULUM, 15 NOVEMBER
[Sidenote: B.C. 55, ÆT. 51]
I see that you know of my arrival at Tusculum on the 14th of November. I
found Dionysius there. I wish to be at Rome on the 17th. Why do I say
"wish"? Rather I am forced to be so. Milo's wedding. There is some idea
of an election. Even supposing that to be confirmed,[566] I am glad to
have been absent from the wrangling debates which I am told have taken
place in the senate. For I should either have defended him, which would
have been against my opinion, or have deserted him whom I was bound to
defend. But, by Hercules, describe to me to the utmost of your power
those events, and the present state of politics, and how the consuls
stand this bother. I am very ravenous for news, and, to tell you the
truth, I feel no confidence in anything. Our friend Crassus indeed,
people say, started in his official robes with less dignity than in the
old times did L. Paullus,[567] at the same time of life as he is, and,
like him, in his second consulship. What a sorry fellow! About my
oratorical books, I have been working hard. They have been long in hand
and much revised: you can get them copied.[568] I again beg of you an
outline sketch of the present situation, that I may not arrive in Rome
quite a stranger.
[Footnote 566: _Ego, ut sit rata_, Schutz's reading, which seems the
best for the unintelligible _ergo et si irata_ of the MSS. It would
mean, "though I regret not having been back for Domitius's election (if
it has taken place), I am glad to have been away from the previous
wrangling in the senate."]
[Footnote 567: Crassus starts for Syria; he compares him to L. Æmilius
Paullus starting for the war with Perses (B.C. 168). Paullus was, like
Crassus, sixty years old, and in his second consulship. Paullus set out
with good omens, Crassus with a curse, denounced by the tribune C.
Ateius Capito (_de Div._ i. § 29; Plutarch, _Crass._ 16).]
[Footnote 568: By his _librarii_. Atticus was again acting as his
publisher.]
CXXX (F V, 8)
[Sidenote: B.C. 54. Coss., L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, Ap. Claudius
Pulcher.]
During this year politics were comparatively uneventful. Crassus
was gone to Syria. Pompey should have gone to Spain, but at the
request of the senate he stayed near Rome, and in the autumn his
wife Iulia died, thus breaking one strong tie between him and
Cæsar. Quintus Cicero went as _legatus_ to Cæsar and accompanied
him to Britain. Cicero himself kept up a correspondence with Cæsar,
and seems to nurse his friendship with him with an almost feverish
eagerness, which, however, lacks spontaneity. He was engaged this
year in composing his treatise on the Republic.
TO M. LICINIUS CRASSUS (ON HIS WAY TO SYRIA)
ROME (JANUARY)
[Sidenote: B.C. 54, ÆT. 52]
I have no doubt all your friends have written to tell you what zeal I
displayed on the ----[569] in the defence, or you might call it the
promotion, of your official position. For it was neither half-hearted
nor inconspicuous, nor of a sort that could be passed over in silence.
In fact, I maintained a controversy against both the consuls and many
consulars with a vehemence such as I have never shewn in any cause
before, and I took upon myself the standing defence of all your honours,
and paid the duty I owed to our friendship--long in arrear, but
interrupted by the great complexity of events--to the very utmost. Not,
believe me, that the will to shew you attention and honour was ever
wanting to me; but certain pestilent persons--vexed at another's
fame--did at times alienate you from me, and sometimes changed my
feelings towards you. But I have got the opportunity, for which I had
rather wished than hoped, of shewing you in the very height of your
prosperity that I remember our mutual kindness and am faithful to our
friendship. For I have secured not only that your whole family, but that
the entire city should know that you have no warmer friend than myself.
Accordingly, that most noble of women, your wife, as well as your two
most affectionate, virtuous, and popular sons, place full confidence in
my counsel, advice, zeal, and public actions; and the senate and Roman
people understand that in your absence there is nothing upon which you
can so absolutely count and depend as upon my exertions, care,
attention, and influence in all matters which affect your interests.
What has been done and is being done in the senate I imagine that you
are informed in the letters from members of your family. For myself, I
am very anxious that you should think and believe that I did not stumble
upon the task of supporting your dignity from some sudden whim or by
chance, but that from the first moment of my entering on public life I
have always looked out to see how I might be most closely united to you.
And, indeed, from that hour I never remember either my respect for you,
or your very great kindness and liberality to me, to have failed. If
certain interruptions of friendship have occurred, based rather on
suspicion than fact, let them, as groundless and imaginary, be uprooted
from our entire memory and life. For such is your character, and such I
desire mine to be, that, fate having brought us face to face with the
same condition of public affairs, I would fain hope that our union and
friendship will turn out to be for the credit of us both. Wherefore how
much consideration should in your judgment be shewn to me, you will
yourself decide, and that decision, I hope, will be in accordance with
my position in the state. I, for my part, promise and guarantee a
special and unequalled zeal in every service which may tend to your
honour and reputation. And even if in this I shall have many rivals, I
shall yet easily surpass them all in the judgment of the rest of the
world as well as that of your sons, for both of whom I have a particular
affection; but while equally well-disposed to Marcus, I am more entirely
devoted to Publius for this reason, that, though he always did so from
boyhood, he is at this particular time treating me with the respect and
affection of a second father.
I would have you believe that this letter will have the force of a
treaty, not of a mere epistle; and that I will most sacredly observe and
most carefully perform what I hereby promise and undertake. The defence
of your political position which I have taken up in your absence I will
abide by, not only for the sake of our friendship, but also for the sake
of my own character for consistency. Therefore I thought it sufficient
at this time to tell you this--that if there was anything which I
understood to be your wish or for your advantage or for your honour, I
should do it without waiting to be asked; but that if I received a hint
from yourself or your family on any point, I should take care to
convince you that no letter of your own or any request from any of your
family has been in vain. Wherefore I would wish you to write to me on
all matters, great, small, or indifferent, as to a most cordial friend;
and to bid your family so to make use of my activity, advice, authority,
and influence in all business matters--public or private, forensic or
domestic, whether your own or those of your friends, guests, or
clients--that, as far as such a thing is possible, the loss of your
presence may be lessened by my labour.
[Footnote 569: The date has been lost.]
CXXXI (Q FR II, 9)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN THE COUNTRY)
ROME (FEBRUARY)
[Sidenote: B.C. 54, ÆT. 52]
Your note by its strong language has drawn out this letter. For as to
what actually occurred on the day of your start, it supplied me with
absolutely no subject for writing. But as when we are together we are
never at a loss for something to say, so ought our letters at times to
digress into loose chat. Well then, to begin, the liberty of the
Tenedians has received short shrift,[570] no one speaking for them
except myself, Bibulus, Calidius, and Favonius. A complimentary
reference to you was made by the legates from Magnesia and Sipylum, they
saying that you were the man who alone had resisted the demand of L.
Sestius Pansa.[571] On the remaining days of this business in the
senate, if anything occurs which you ought to know, or even if there is
nothing, I will write you something every day. On the 12th I will not
fail you or Pomponius. The poems of Lucretius are as you say--with many
flashes of genius, yet very technical.[572] But when you return, ... if
you succeed in reading the _Empedoclea_ of Sallustius, I shall regard
you as a hero, yet scarcely human.
[Footnote 570: Lit. "has been beheaded with the axe of Tenes," mythical
founder and legislator of Tenedos, whose laws were of Draconian
severity. A _legatio_ from Tenedos, heard as usual in February, had
asked that Tenedos might be made a _libera civitas_.]
[Footnote 571: Some _publicanus_ who had made a charge on the Magnesians
which they considered excessive.]
[Footnote 572: Lucretius seems to have been now dead, according to
Donatus 15 October (B.C. 55), though the date is uncertain. I have
translated the reading _multæ tamen artis_, which has been changed by
some to _multæ etiam artis_. But the contrast in the criticism seems to
be between the fine poetical passages in the _de Rerum Natura_ and the
mass of technical exposition of philosophy which must have repelled the
"general reader" at all times. It suggests at once to Cicero to mention
another poem on a similar subject, the _Empedoclea_ of Sallustius, of
which and its writer we know nothing. It was not the historian.]
CXXXII (Q FR II, 10)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN THE COUNTRY)
ROME (FEBRUARY)
[Sidenote: B.C. 54, ÆT. 52]
I am glad you like my letter: however, I should not even now have had
anything to write about, if I had not received yours. For on the 12th,
when Appius had got together a thinly-attended meeting of the senate,
the cold was so great that he was compelled by the general clamour[573]
to dismiss us. As to the Commagenian, because I have blown that
proposition to the winds, Appius makes wonderful advances to me both
personally and through Pomponius; for he sees that if I adopt a similar
style of discussion in the other business, February will not bring him
anything in. And certainly I did chaff him pretty well, and not only
wrenched from his grasp that petty township of his--situated in the
territory of Zeugma on the Euphrates[574]--but also raised a loud laugh
by my satire on the man's purple-edged toga, which he had been granted
when Cæsar was consul.[575] "His wish," said I, "for a renewal of the
same honour, to save the yearly re-dying of his purple-edged toga, I do
not think calls for any decree of the house; but you, my lords, who
could not endure that the Bostrian[576] should wear the _toga prætexta_,
will you allow the Commagenian to do so?" You see the style of chaff,
and the line I took. I spoke at length against the petty princeling,
with the result that he was utterly laughed out of court. Alarmed by
this exhibition, as I said, Appius is making up to me. For nothing could
be easier than to explode the rest of his proposals. But I will not go
so far as to trip him up, lest he appeal to the god of hospitality, and
summon all his Greeks--it is they who make us friends again. I will do
what Theopompus wants. I had forgotten to write to you about Cæsar: for
I perceive what sort of letter you have been expecting. But the fact is,
he has written word to Balbus that the little packet of letters, in
which mine and Balbus's were packed, had been so drenched with rain that
he was not even aware that there was a letter from me. He had, however,
made out a few words of Balbus's letter, to which he answered as
follows: "I perceive that you have written something about Cicero, which
I have not fully made out: but, as far I could guess, it was of a kind
that I thought was more to be wished than hoped for." Accordingly, I
afterwards sent Cæsar a duplicate copy of the letter. Don't be put off
by that passage about his want of means. In answer to it I wrote back
saying that he must not stop payment from any reliance on my money
chest, and descanted playfully on that subject, in familiar terms and
yet without derogating from my dignity. His good feeling towards us,
however, according to all accounts, is marked. The letter, indeed, on
the point of which you expect to hear, will almost coincide with your
return:[577] the other business of each day I will write on condition of
your furnishing me with letter-carriers. However, such cold weather is
threatening,[578] that there is very great danger that Appius may find
his house frost-bitten and deserted![579]
[Footnote 573: Retaining _populi convicio_, and explaining _populus_ to
have the general meaning of the crowd, including senators and
spectators. Cicero uses _populus_ in this vague way elsewhere.]
[Footnote 574: Zeugma I take to mean the "territory of Zeugma," a town
on the Euphrates, part of the Roman province of Syria, and close to the
frontier of Commagene. Antiochus had asked that some stronghold should
be reckoned as his rather than as belonging to the province.]
[Footnote 575: Appius, he insinuates, hoped to make money by granting
the request of Antiochus, left king of Commagene by Pompey, for some
special privileges, among which was the right of wearing the _toga
prætexta_, which symbolized some position with a shadow of Roman
_imperium_, while at the same time conveying a compliment to the Roman
suzernainty. See Polyb. lib. xxvi.; xxx. 26; Suet. _Aug._ 60.]
[Footnote 576: Some petty prince of Bostra (_Bozra_), in Arabia, of whom
we know nothing.]
[Footnote 577: Quintus was expecting, what he got, the offer of serving
under Cæsar as _legatus_. Cæsar was preparing for his second invasion of
Britain.]
[Footnote 578: Which will prevent meetings of the senate, and so give me
no news to send you.]
[Footnote 579: There is a _double entendre_. Cold weather will prevent
the meetings of the senate actually, but metaphorically politics will be
also cold and dull, and that dullness will probably be nowhere so
evident as in the deserted state of the consul Appius's house, which in
all probability will miss its usual bevy of callers. This
explanation--put forward by Prof. Tyrrell--is not wholly satisfactory,
yet it is the best that has been given.]
CXXXIII (F VII, 5)
TO CÆSAR (IN GAUL)
ROME (FEBRUARY)
[Sidenote: B.C. 54, ÆT. 52]
Cicero greets Cæsar, _imperator_. Observe how far I have convinced
myself that you are my second self, not only in matters which concern me
personally, but even in those which concern my friends. It had been my
intention to take Gaius Trebatius with me for whatever destination I
should be leaving town, in order to bring him home again honoured as
much as my zeal and favour could make him. But when Pompey remained at
home longer than I expected, and a certain hesitation on my part (with
which you are not unacquainted) appeared to hinder, or at any rate to
retard, my departure,[580] I presumed upon what I will now explain to
you. I begin to wish that Trebatius should look to you for what he had
hoped from me, and, in fact, I have been no more sparing of my promises
of goodwill on your part than I had been wont to be of my own. Moreover,
an extraordinary coincidence has occurred which seems to support my
opinion and to guarantee your kindness. For just as I was speaking to
our friend Balbus[581] about this very Trebatius at my house, with more
than usual earnestness, a letter from you was handed to me, at the end
of which you say: "Miscinius Rufus,[582] whom you recommend to me, I
will make king of Gaul, or, if you choose, put him under the care of
Lepta. Send me some one else to promote." I and Balbus both lifted our
hands in surprise: it came so exactly in the nick of time, that it
appeared to be less the result of mere chance than something
providential. I therefore send you Trebatius, and on two grounds, first
that it was my spontaneous idea to send him, and secondly because you
have invited me to do so. I would beg you, dear Cæsar, to receive him
with such a display of kindness as to concentrate on his single person
all that you can be possibly induced to bestow for my sake upon my
friends. As for him I guarantee--not in the sense of that hackneyed
expression of mine, at which, when I used it in writing to you about
Milo, you very properly jested, but in good Roman language such as sober
men use--that no honester, better, or more modest man exists. Added to
this, he is at the top of his profession as a jurisconsult, possesses an
unequalled memory, and the most profound learning. For such a man I ask
neither a tribuneship, prefecture, nor any definite office, I ask only
your goodwill and liberality: and yet I do not wish to prevent your
complimenting him, if it so please you, with even these marks of
distinction. In fact, I transfer him entirely from my hand, so to speak,
to yours, which is as sure a pledge of good faith as of victory. Excuse
my being somewhat importunate, though with a man like you there can
hardly be any pretext for it--however, I feel that it will be allowed to
pass. Be careful of your health and continue to love me as ever.
[Footnote 580: Pompey had two functions at this time: he was governor of
Spain and _præfectus annonæ_. The latter office, as being extraordinary,
might be, perhaps, held with the other without an actual breach of law,
but it was certainly against the spirit of the constitution. Cicero
knows that Pompey's staying in Italy and governing his province by
_legati_ will not be acceptable to Cæsar, and he alludes to it in
carefully guarded terms. He had been named his _legatus_ when Pompey
first undertook the care of the corn-supply, but it does not seem as if
he ever seriously contemplated going on actual service.]
[Footnote 581: L. Cornelius Balbus, whom Cicero defended, and who acted
as Cæsar's agent.]
[Footnote 582: The name of the person jocosely referred to by Cæsar is
uncertain, from corruption of the text. Q. Lepta is Cæsar's _præfectus
fabrum_.]