Ostia with the things you wished sent to you from home. On that same day
Memmius[641] gave Gabinius such a splendid warning in public meeting
that Calidius couldn't say a word for him. To-morrow (which is strictly
the day after to-morrow, for I am writing before daybreak) there is a
trial before Cato for the selection of his prosecutor between Memmius,
Tiberius Nero, and Gaius and Lucius, sons of M. Antonius. I think the
result will be in favour of Memmius, though a strong case is being made
out for Nero. In short, he is in a fairly tight fix, unless our friend
Pompey, to the disgust of gods and men, upsets the whole concern. Let me
give you a specimen of the fellow's impudence, and extract _something_
amusing from the public disasters. Gabinius having given out wherever he
came that he was demanding a triumph, and having suddenly, the
excellent general! invaded the city of his enemies by night,[642] did
not venture to enter the senate. Meanwhile, exactly on the tenth day, on
which he was bound to report the number of the enemy and of his own
soldiers who had been killed, he slunk into the house, which was very
thinly attended. When he made as if to go out, he was stopped by the
consuls. The _publicani_ were introduced. The fellow was assailed on
every side, and my words stinging him more than all, he lost patience,
and in a voice quivering with anger called me "Exile."
Thereupon--Heavens! I never had such a compliment paid me in all my
life!--the senate rose up to a man with a loud shout and made a menacing
movement in his direction: the _publicani_ made an equal noise and a
similar movement. In fine, they all behaved exactly as you would have
done. It is the leading topic of conversation out of the house. However,
I refrain from prosecuting, with difficulty, by Hercules! yet refrain I
do: either because I don't want to quarrel with Pompey--the impending
question of Milo is enough in that direction--or because we have no
jurors worthy of the name. I fear a fiasco: besides, there is the
ill-will of certain persons to me, and I am afraid my conducting the
prosecution might give him some advantage: besides, I do not despair of
the thing being done both without me and yet partly through my
assistance. All the candidates for the consulships have had prosecutions
for bribery lodged against them: Domitius Calvinus by Memmius (the
tribune), Memmius (the candidate) by Q. Acutius, an excellent young man
and a good lawyer, Messalla by Q. Pompeius, Scaurus by Triarius. The
affair causes great commotion, because it is a plain alternative between
shipwreck for the men concerned or for the laws. Pressure is being
applied to prevent the trials taking place. It looks like an
_interregnum_ again. The consuls desire to hold the _comitia_: the
accused don't wish it, and especially Memmius, because he hopes that
Cæsar's approach[643] may secure him the consulship. But he is at a
very low ebb. Domitius, with Messalla as his colleague, I think is a
certainty. Scaurus has lost his chance. Appius declares that he will
relieve Lentulus even without a curiate law,[644] and, indeed, he
distinguished himself amazingly that day (I almost forgot to mention it)
in an attack upon Gabinius. He accused him of _lèse majesté_, and gave
the names of his witnesses without Gabinius answering a word. That is
all the public news. At home all is well: your house itself is being
proceeded with by the contractors with fair expedition.
[Footnote 641: C. Memmius, a tribune of this year, not the same as the
C. Memmius Gemellus of the last letter.]
[Footnote 642: Referring to the fact that Gabinius, on his arrival
outside Rome, without the usual procession of friends which met a
returning proconsul, skulked about till nightfall, not venturing to
enter Rome (the city of his enemies!) in daylight. By entering Rome he
gave up his _imperium_ and could no longer ask a triumph.]
[Footnote 643: Cæsar was accustomed to come to North Italy (Gallia
Cisalpina) for the winter to Ravenna or Luca, and there he could be
communicated with and exercise great influence.]
[Footnote 644: That is, he would go to his province of Cilicia on the
strength of his nomination or allotment by the senate. There was some
doubt as to the question whether such allotment did not give _imperium_
even without a _lex curiata_. Besides, the consul had already
_imperium_, and he might consider it to be uninterrupted if he left Rome
immediately. However, as there was always an interval between the end of
the consulship and the quitting Rome _paludatus_, the _lex curiata_ had
generally been considered necessary (Cæs. _B. C._ i. 6). After B.C. 52
the _lex Pompeia_ enacted a five years' interval, when, of course, a law
would be necessary.]
CL (Q FR III, 3)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)
ROME (OCTOBER)
[Sidenote: B.C. 54, ÆT. 52]
The writing of an amanuensis must shew you the amount of my engagements.
I assure you that no day passes without my appearing for the defence of
some one. Accordingly, all composition or reflexion I reserve for the
hour of my walk. So stands my business: matters at home, however, are
everything I could wish. Our boys are well, diligent in their studies,
and affectionate to me and each other. The decoration of both of our
houses is still in hand: but your rural works at Arcanum and Laterium
are now completed. For the rest, as to the water and the road, I went
into the case thoroughly, in a certain letter of mine, without omitting
anything. But, in truth, the anxiety which is now giving me great
uneasiness and pain is that for a period of fifty days I have heard
nothing from you or from Cæsar--nothing has found its way from those
parts, either in the shape of a letter, or even of a rumour. Moreover,
both the sea and land out there make me uneasy, and I never cease
imagining, as one does when one's affections are deeply involved, all
that I least desire. Wherefore I do not, indeed, for the present ask you
to write me an account of yourself and your doings, for that you never
omit doing when possible, but I wish you to know this--that I have
scarcely ever been so anxious for anything as at the moment of writing I
am for a letter from you. Now for what is going on in politics. One day
after another for the _comitia_ is struck out by notices of bad omens,
to the great satisfaction of all the loyalists: so great is the scandal
in which the consuls are involved, owing to the suspicion of their
having bargained for a bribe from the candidates. The four candidates
for the consulship are all arraigned: their cases are difficult of
defence, but I shall do my best to secure the safety of our friend
Messalla--and that is inseparable from the acquittal of the others.
Publius Sulla has accused Gabinius of bribery--his stepson Memmius, his
cousin Cæcilius, and his son Sulla backing the indictment. L. Torquatus
put in his claim to the conduct of the prosecution, and, to everybody's
satisfaction, failed to establish it. You ask, "What will become of
Gabinius?" We shall know in three days' time about the charge of _lèse
majesté_. In that case he is at a disadvantage from the hatred
entertained by all classes for him; witnesses against him as damaging as
can be: accusers in the highest degree inefficient: the panel of jurors
of varied character: the president a man of weight and decision--Alfius:
Pompey active in soliciting the jurors on his behalf. What the result
will be I don't know; I don't see, however, how he can maintain a
position in the state. I shew no rancour in promoting his destruction,
and await the result with the utmost good temper. That is nearly all the
news. I will add this one item: your boy (who is mine also) is
exceedingly devoted to his rhetoric master Pæonius, a man, I think, of
great experience in his profession, and of very good character. But you
are aware that my method of instruction aims at a somewhat more
scholarly and philosophical style.[645] Accordingly I, for my part, am
unwilling that his course of training should be interrupted, and the boy
himself seems to be more drawn to that declamatory style, and to like it
better; and as that was the style in which I was myself initiated, let
us allow him to follow in my path, for I feel sure it will eventually
bring him to the same point; nevertheless, if I take him with me
somewhere in the country, I shall guide him to the adoption of my system
and practice. For you have held out before me a great reward, which it
certainly shall not be my fault if I fail to fully obtain. I hope you
will write and tell me most carefully in what district you are going to
pass the winter, and what your prospects are.
[Footnote 645: θετικώτερον. From θέσις, a philosophical proposition or
thesis. In _Paradox. præf._ he uses θετικά of subjects suited to such
theses.]
CLI (Q FR III, 4)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)
ROME, 24 OCTOBER
[Sidenote: B.C. 54, ÆT. 52]
Gabinius has been acquitted. Nothing could be more absolutely futile
than his accuser, Lentulus, and the backers of the indictment, or more
corrupt than the jury. Yet, after all, had it not been for incredible
exertions and entreaties on Pompey's part, and even an alarming rumour
of a dictatorship, he would not have been able to answer even Lentulus;
for even as it was, with such an accuser and such a jury, he had
thirty-two votes out of seventy recorded against him. This trial is
altogether so scandalous, that he seems certain to be convicted in the
other suits, especially in that for extortion. But you must see that the
Republic, the senate, the law courts are mere cyphers, and that not one
of us has any constitutional position at all. What else should I tell
you about the jurors? Two men of prætorian rank were on the
panel--Domitius Calvinus, who voted for acquittal so openly that
everybody could see; and Cato, who, as soon as the voting tablets had
been counted, withdrew from the ring of people, and was the first to
tell Pompey the news. Some people--for instance, Sallust--say that I
ought to have been the prosecuting counsel. Was I to have exposed myself
to such a jury as this? What would have been my position, if he had
escaped when I conducted the case? But there were other considerations
which influenced me. Pompey would have looked upon it as a contest with
me, not for that man's safety, but for his own position: he would have
entered the city;[646] it would have become a downright quarrel; I
should have seemed like a Pacideianus matched with the Samnite
Æserninus[647]--he would, perhaps, have bitten off my ear,[648] and at
least he would have become reconciled to Clodius. For my part,
especially if you do not disapprove of it, I strongly approve my own
policy. That great man, though his advancement had been promoted by
unparalleled exertions on my part, and though I owed him nothing, while
he owed me all, yet could not endure that I should differ from him in
politics--to put it mildly--and, when in a less powerful position,
shewed me what he could do against me when in my zenith. At this time of
day, when I don't even care to be influential, and the Republic
certainly has no power to do anything, while he is supreme in
everything, was I to enter upon a contest with him? For that is what I
should have had to have done. I do not think that you hold me bound to
have undertaken it. "Then, as an alternative," says the grave Sallust,
"you should have defended him, and have made that concession to Pompey's
earnest wish, for he begged you very hard to do so." An ingenious friend
is Sallust, to give me the alternative of a dangerous quarrel or undying
infamy! I, however, am quite pleased with the middle course which I have
steered; and another gratifying circumstance is that, when I had given
my evidence with the utmost solemnity, in accordance with my honour and
oath, the defendant said that, if he retained his right to remain in the
city, he would repay me, and did not attempt to cross-question me.
As to the verses which you wish me to compose, it is true that I am
deficient in industry in regard to them, which requires not only time,
but also a mind free from all anxiety, but I am also wanting in
inspiration. For I am not altogether without anxiety as to the coming
year, though without fear. At the same time, and, upon my word, I speak
without irony, I consider you a greater master of that style of writing
than myself. As to filling up your Greek library, effecting interchanges
of books, and purchasing Latin books, I should be very glad that your
wishes should be carried out, especially as they would be very useful to
me. But I have no one to employ for myself in such a business: for such
books as are really worth getting are not for sale, and purchases cannot
be effected except by an agent who is both well-informed and active.
However, I will give orders to Chrysippus and speak to Tyrannio. I will
inquire what Scipio has done about the treasury. I will see that what
seems to be the right thing is done. As to Ascanio, do what you like: I
shall not interfere. As to a suburban property, I commend your not being
in a hurry, but I advise your having one. I write this on the 24th of
October, the day of the opening of the games, on the point of starting
for my Tusculan villa, and taking my dear young Cicero with me as though
to school (a school not for sport, but for learning), since I did not
wish to be at any greater distance from town, because I purposed
supporting Pomptinus's[649] claim of a triumph on the 3rd of November.
For there will be, in fact, some little difficulty; as the prætors, Cato
and Servilius,[650] threaten to forbid it, though I don't know what they
can do. For he will have on his side Appius the consul, some prætors and
tribunes. Still, they do threaten--and among the foremost Q. Scævola,
"breathing war."[651] Most delightful and dearest of brothers, take good
care of your health.
[Footnote 646: Pompey was outside the _pomœrium_ (_ad Romam_) as
having _imperium_.]
[Footnote 647: Two gladiators, one incomparably superior to the other.]
[Footnote 648: A proverbial expression, cp. "snapped my nose off."]
[Footnote 649: C. Pomptinus, prætor in B.C. 63 (when he had supported
Cicero), was afterwards employed against the Allobroges as proprætor of
Narbonensis (B.C. 61). He had been, ever since leaving his province (?
B.C. 58), urging his claim to a triumph. He obtained it now by the
contrivance of the prætor Serv. Sulpicius Galba, who got a vote passed
by the _comitia_ before daybreak, which was unconstitutional (Dio, 39,
65).]
[Footnote 650: P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus (consul B.C. 48) was an
admirer of Cato. See p. 112.]
[Footnote 651: Ἄρη πνέων.]
CLII (F I, 9)
TO P. LENTULUS SPINTHER (IN CILICIA)
ROME (OCTOBER)
[Sidenote: B.C. 54, ÆT. 52]
M. Cicero desires his warmest regards to P. Lentulus, _imperator_.[652]
Your letter was very gratifying to me, from which I gathered that you
fully appreciated my devotion to you: for why use the word kindness,
when even the word "devotion" itself, with all its solemn and holy
associations, seems too weak to express my obligations to you? As for
your saying that my services to you are gratefully accepted, it is you
who in your overflowing affection make things, which cannot be omitted
without criminal negligence, appear deserving of even gratitude.
However, my feelings towards you would have been much more fully known
and conspicuous, if, during all this time that we have been separated,
we had been together, and together at Rome. For precisely in what you
declare your intention of doing--what no one is more capable of doing,
and what I confidently look forward to from you--that is to say, in
speaking in the senate, and in every department of public life and
political activity, we should together have been in a very strong
position (what my feelings and position are in regard to politics I will
explain shortly, and will answer the questions you ask), and at any rate
I should have found in you a supporter, at once most warmly attached and
endowed with supreme wisdom, while in me you would have found an
adviser, perhaps not the most unskilful in the world, and at least both
faithful and devoted to your interests. However, for your own sake, of
course, I rejoice, as I am bound to do, that you have been greeted with
the title of _imperator_, and are holding your province and victorious
army after a successful campaign. But certainly, if you had been here,
you would have enjoyed to a fuller extent and more directly the benefit
of the services which I am bound to render you. Moreover, in taking
vengeance on those whom you know in some cases to be your enemies,
because you championed the cause of my recall, in others to be jealous
of the splendid position and renown which that measure brought you, I
should have done you yeoman's service as your associate. However, that
perpetual enemy of his own friends, who, in spite of having been
honoured with the highest compliments on your part, has selected you of
all people for the object of his impotent and enfeebled violence, has
saved me the trouble by punishing himself. For he has made attempts, the
disclosure of which has left him without a shred, not only of political
position, but even of freedom of action.[653] And though I should have
preferred that you should have gained your experience in my case alone,
rather than in your own also, yet in the midst of my regret I am glad
that you have learnt what the fidelity of mankind is worth, at no great
cost to yourself, which I learnt at the price of excessive pain. And I
think that I have now an opportunity presented me, while answering the
questions you have addressed to me, of also explaining my entire
position and view. You say in your letter that you have been informed
that I have become reconciled to Cæsar and Appius, and you add that you
have no fault to find with that. But you express a wish to know what
induced me to defend and compliment Vatinius. In order to make my
explanation plainer I must go a little farther back in the statement of
my policy and its grounds.
Well, Lentulus! At first--after the success of your efforts for my
recall--I looked upon myself as having been restored not alone to my
friends, but to the Republic also; and seeing that I owed you an
affection almost surpassing belief, and every kind of service, however
great and rare, that could be bestowed on your person, I thought that to
the Republic, which had much assisted you in restoring me, I at least
was bound to entertain the feeling which I had in old times shewed
merely from the duty incumbent on all citizens alike, and not as an
obligation incurred by some special kindness to myself. That these were
my sentiments I declared to the senate when you were consul, and you had
yourself a full view of them in our conversations and discussions. Yet
from the very first my feelings were hurt by many circumstances, when,
on your mooting the question of the full restoration of my position, I
detected the covert hatred of some and the equivocal attachment of
others. For you received no support from them either in regard to my
monuments, or the illegal violence by which, in common with my brother,
I had been driven from my house; nor, by heaven, did they shew the
goodwill which I had expected in regard to those matters which, though
necessary to me owing to the shipwreck of my fortune, were yet regarded
by me as least valuable--I mean as to indemnifying me for my losses by
decree of the senate. And though I saw all this--for it was not
difficult to see--yet their present conduct did not affect me with so
much bitterness as what they had done for me did with gratitude. And
therefore, though according to your own assertion and testimony I was
under very great obligation to Pompey, and though I loved him not only
for his kindness, but also from my own feelings, and, so to speak, from
my unbroken admiration of him, nevertheless, without taking any account
of his wishes, I abode by all my old opinions in politics.[654] With
Pompey sitting in court,[655] upon his having entered the city to give
evidence in favour of Sestius, and when the witness Vatinius had
asserted that, moved by the good fortune and success of Cæsar, I had
begun to be his friend, I said that I preferred the fortune of Bibulus,
which he thought a humiliation, to the triumphs and victories of
everybody else; and I said during the examination of the same witness,
in another part of my speech, that the same men had prevented Bibulus
from leaving his house as had forced me from mine: my whole
cross-examination, indeed, was nothing but a denunciation of his
tribuneship;[656] and in it I spoke throughout with the greatest
freedom and spirit about violence, neglect of omens, grants of royal
titles. Nor, indeed, in the support of this view is it only of late that
I have spoken: I have done so consistently on several occasions in the
senate. Nay, even in the consulship of Marcellinus and Philippus,[657]
on the 5th of April the senate voted on my motion that the question of
the Campanian land should be referred to a full meeting of the senate on
the 15th of May. Could I more decidedly invade the stronghold of his
policy, or shew more clearly that I forgot my own present interests, and
remembered my former political career? On my delivery of this proposal a
great impression was made on the minds not only of those who were bound
to have been impressed, but also of those of whom I had never expected
it. For, after this decree had passed in accordance with my motion,
Pompey, without shewing the least sign of being offended with me,
started for Sardinia and Africa, and in the course of that journey
visited Cæsar at Luca. There Cæsar complained a great deal about my
motion, for he had already seen Crassus at Ravenna also, and had been
irritated by him against me. It was well known that Pompey was much
vexed at this, as I was told by others, but learnt most definitely from
my brother. For when Pompey met him in Sardinia, a few days after
leaving Luca, he said: "You are the very man I want to see; nothing
could have happened more conveniently. Unless you speak very strongly to
your brother Marcus, you will have to pay up what you guaranteed on his
behalf."[658] I need not go on. He grumbled a great deal: mentioned his
own services to me: recalled what he had again and again said to my
brother himself about the "acts" of Cæsar, and what my brother had
undertaken in regard to me; and called my brother himself to witness
that what he had done in regard to my recall he had done with the
consent of Cæsar: and asked him to commend to me the latter's policy and
claims, that I should not attack, even if I would not or could not
support them. My brother having conveyed these remarks to me, and
Pompey having, nevertheless, sent Vibullius to me with a message,
begging me not to commit myself on the question of the Campanian land
till his return, I reconsidered my position and begged the state itself,
as it were, to allow me, who had suffered and done so much for it, to
fulfil the duty which gratitude to my benefactors and the pledge which
my brother had given demanded, and to suffer one whom it had ever
regarded as an honest citizen to shew himself an honest man. Moreover,
in regard to all those motions and speeches of mine which appeared to be
giving offence to Pompey, the remarks of a particular set of men, whose
names you must surely guess, kept on being reported to me; who, while in
public affairs they were really in sympathy with my policy, and had
always been so, yet said that they were glad that Pompey was
dissatisfied with me, and that Cæsar would be very greatly exasperated
against me. This in itself was vexatious to me: but much more so was the
fact that they used, before my very eyes, so to embrace, fondle, make
much of, and kiss my enemy--mine do I say? rather the enemy of the laws,
of the law courts, of peace, of his country, of all loyal men!--that
they did not indeed rouse my bile, for I have utterly lost all that, but
imagined they did. In these circumstances, having, as far as is possible
for human prudence, thoroughly examined my whole position, and having
balanced the items of the account, I arrived at a final result of all my
reflexions, which, as well as I can, I will now briefly put before you.