and banished B.C. 100 for refusing the oath to the agrarian law of
Saturninus, but recalled in the following year. Cicero is fond of
comparing himself with him. See Letter CXLVII.]
[Footnote 660: M. Æmilius Scaurus, consul B.C. 115 and 108, censor 109,
and long _princeps senatus_. Cicero comments elsewhere on his
_severitas_ (_de Off._ § 108).]
[Footnote 661: Plato, _Crit._ xii.]
[Footnote 662: Like the character in the play (Terence, _Eun._ 440), if
the nobles annoyed Cicero by their attentions to P. Clodius, he would
annoy them by his compliments to Publius Vatinius.]
CLIII (A IV, 18)
TO ATTICUS (IN ASIA)
ROME, OCTOBER
[Sidenote: B.C. 54, ÆT. 52]
... As it is,[663] to tell you my opinion of affairs, we must put up
with it. You ask me how I have behaved. With firmness and dignity. "What
about Pompey," you will say, "how did he take it?" With great
consideration, and with the conviction that he must have some regard for
my position, until a satisfactory atonement had been made to me. "How,
then," you will say, "was the acquittal secured?" It was a case of mere
dummies,[664] and incredible incompetence on the part of the
accusers--that is to say, of L. Lentulus, son of Lucius, who, according
to the universal murmur, acted collusively. In the next place, Pompey
was extraordinarily urgent; and the jurors were a mean set of fellows.
Yet, in spite of everything, there were thirty-two votes for conviction,
thirty-eight for acquittal. There are the other prosecutions hanging
over his head: he is by no means entirely free yet. You will say, "Well,
then, how do _you_ bear it?" With the best air possible, by heaven! and
I really do plume myself on my behaviour. We have lost, my dear
Pomponius, not only all the healthy sap and blood of our old
constitution, but even its colour and outward show. There is no Republic
to give a moment's pleasure or a feeling of security. "And is that,
then," you will say, "a satisfaction to you?" Precisely that. For I
recall what a fair course the state had for a short time, while I was at
the helm, and what a return has been made me! It does not give me a pang
that one man absorbs all power. The men to burst with envy are those who
were indignant at my having had some power. There are many things which
console me, without my departing an inch from my regular position; and I
am returning to the life best suited to my natural disposition--to
letters and the studies that I love. My labour in pleading I console by
my delight in oratory. I find delight in my town house and my country
residences. I do not recall the height from which I have fallen, but the
humble position from which I have risen. As long as I have my brother
and you with me, let those fellows be hanged, drawn, and quartered for
all I care: I can play the philosopher with you. That part of my soul,
in which in old times irritability had its home, has grown completely
callous. I find no pleasure in anything that is not private and
domestic. You will find me in a state of magnificent repose, to which
nothing contributes more than the prospect of your return. For there is
no one in the wide world whose feelings are so much in sympathy with my
own. But now let me tell you the rest. Matters are drifting on to an
_interregnum_; and there is a dictatorship in the air, in fact a good
deal of talk about it, which did Gabinius also some service with timid
jurors. All the candidates for the consulship are charged with bribery.
You may add to them Gabinius, on whom L. Sulla had served notice,
feeling certain that he was in a hopeless position--Torquatus having,
without success, demanded to have the prosecution. But they will all be
acquitted, and henceforth no one will be condemned for anything except
homicide. This last charge is warmly pressed, and accordingly informers
are busy. M. Fulvius Nobilior has been convicted. Many others have had
the wit to abstain from even putting in an appearance. Is there any more
news? Yes! After Gabinius's acquittal another panel of jurors, in a fit
of irritation, an hour later condemned Antiochus Gabinius, some fellow
from the studio of Sopolis, a freedman and orderly officer of Gabinius,
under the _lex Papia_. Consequently he at once remarked, "So the
Republic will not acquit me under the law of treason as it did
you!"[665]
Pomptinus wants to celebrate a triumph on the 2nd of November. He is
openly opposed by the prætors Cato and Servilius and the tribune Q.
Mucius. For they say that no law for his _imperium_ was ever
carried:[666] and this one too was carried, by heaven, in a stupid way.
But Pomptinus will have the consul Appius on his side.[667] Cato,
however, declares that he shall never triumph so long as he is alive. I
think this affair, like many of the same sort, will come to nothing.
Appius thinks of going to Cilicia without a law, and at his own
expense.[668] I received a letter on the 24th of October from my brother
and from Cæsar, dated from the nearest coasts of Britain on the 26th of
September. Britain done with ... hostages taken ... no booty ... a
tribute, however, imposed; they were on the point of bringing back the
army. Q. Pilius has just set out to join Cæsar. If you have any love for
me or your family, or any truth in you, or even if you have any taste
left, and any idea of enjoying all your blessings, it is really time for
you to be on your way home, and, in fact, almost here. I vow I cannot
get on without you. And what wonder that I can't get on without _you_,
when I miss Dionysius so much? The latter, in fact, as soon as the day
comes, both I and my young Cicero will demand of you. The last letter I
had from you was dated Ephesus, 9th of August.
[Footnote 663: The beginning of the letter is lost, referring to the
acquittal of Gabinius on a charge of _maiestas_.]
[Footnote 664: γοργεῖα γυμνά, "mere bugbears."]
[Footnote 665: Antiochus Gabinius was tried, not for treason
(_maiestas_), but under the _lex Papia_, for having, though a
_peregrinus_, acted as a citizen; but he says "will not acquit me of
_treason_," because he means to infer that his condemnation was really
in place of Gabinius, whose acquittal had irritated his jury; therefore
he was practically convicted of _maiestas_ instead of his patron
Gabinius. I have, accordingly, ventured to elicit the end of a hexameter
from the Greek letters of the MS., of which no satisfactory account has
been given, and to read _Itaque dixit statim "respublica lege
maiestatis_ οὐ σοί κεν ἄρ' ἶσα μ' ἀφείη (or ἀφιῇ)." The quotation is not
known. Antiochus Gabinius was doubtless of Greek origin and naturally
quoted Greek poetry. Sopolis was a Greek painter living at Rome (Pliny,
_N. H._ xxxv. §§ 40, 43).]
[Footnote 666: Pomptinus had been waiting outside Rome for some years to
get his triumph (see p. 309). The _negant latum de imperio_ must refer
to a _lex curiata_ originally conferring his _imperium_, which his
opponents alleged had not been passed. The _insulse latum_ refers to the
law now passed granting him the triumph in spite of this. This latter
was passed by the old trick of the prætor appearing in the _campus_
before daybreak to prevent _obnuntiatio_. The result was that the
tribunes interrupted the procession, which led to fighting and bloodshed
(Dio, 39, 65).]
[Footnote 667: Because he wanted to go to his province himself in spite
of having failed to get a _lex curiata_ (p. 324).]
[Footnote 668: _I.e._, without waiting for the senate to vote the usual
outfit (_ornare provinciam_).]
CLIV (Q FR III, 5-6)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)
TUSCULUM (OCTOBER)
[Sidenote: B.C. 54, ÆT. 52]
You ask me what I have done about the books which I begun to write when
in my Cuman villa: I have not been idle and am not being idle now; but I
have frequently changed the whole plan and arrangement of the work. I
had already completed two books, in which I represented a conversation
taking place on the Novendialia held in the consulship of Tuditanus and
Aquilius,[669] between Africanus, shortly before his death, and Lælius,
Philus, Manilius, P. Rutilius, Q. Tubero, and Lælius's sons-in-law,
Fannius and Scævola; a conversation which was extended to nine days and
the same number of books "On the best Constitution of the State" and "On
the best Citizen." The work was excellently composed, and the rank of
the speakers added considerable weight to the style. But when these
books were read to me in the presence of Sallustius at Tusculum, it was
suggested to me by him that a discourse on such subjects would come with
much greater force if I were myself the speaker on the Republic,
especially as I was a no mere Heraclides Ponticus,[670] but an
ex-consul, and one who had been engaged in the most important affairs in
the state: that when I put them in the mouth of men of such ancient date
they would have an air of unreality: that I had shewn good taste in my
books about the science of rhetoric in keeping the dialogue of the
orators apart from myself, and yet had attributed it to men whom I had
personally seen: and, finally, that Aristotle delivers in the first
person his essays "On the Republic" and "On the Eminent Man." I was
influenced the more by this from the fact that I was unable to touch on
the most important commotions in our state, because they were subsequent
to the age of the speakers. Moreover, my express object then was not to
offend anyone by launching into the events of my own time: as it is, I
shall avoid that and at the same time be the speaker with you.
Nevertheless, when I come to Rome I will send you the dialogues as they
originally stood. For I fancy that those books will convince you that
they have not been abandoned by me without some chagrin.
I am extremely gratified by Cæsar's affection of which you write to me.
The offers which he holds out I do not much reckon on, nor have I any
thirst for honours or longing for glory; and I look forward more to the
continuation of his kindness than to the fulfilment of his promises.
Still, I live a life so prominent and laborious that I might seem to be
expecting the very thing that I deprecate. As to your request that I
should compose some verses, you could hardly believe, my dear brother,
how short of time I am: nor do I feel much moved in spirit to write
poetry on the subject you mention. Do you really come to me for
disquisitions on things that I can scarcely conceive even in
imagination--you who have distanced everybody in that style of vivid and
descriptive writing? Yet I would have done it if I could, but, as you
will assuredly not fail to notice, for writing poetry there is need of a
certain freshness of mind of which my occupations entirely deprive me. I
withdraw myself, it is true, from all political anxiety and devote
myself to literature; still, I will hint to you what, by heaven, I
specially wished to have concealed from you. It cuts me to the heart, my
dearest brother, to the heart, to think that there is no Republic, no
law courts, and that my present time of life, which ought to have been
in the full bloom of senatorial dignity, is distracted with the labours
of the forum or eked out by private studies, and that the object on
which from boyhood I had set my heart,
"Far to excel, and tower above the crowd,"[671]
is entirely gone: that my opponents have in some cases been left
unattacked by me, in others even defended: that not only my sympathies,
but my very dislikes, are not free: and that Cæsar is the one man in the
world who has been found to love me to my heart's content, or even, as
others think, the only one who was inclined to do so. However, there is
none of all these vexations of such a kind as to be beyond the reach of
many daily consolations; but the greatest of consolations will be our
being together. As it is, to those other sources of vexation there is
added my very deep regret for your absence. If I had defended Gabinius,
which Pansa thought I ought to have done, I should have been quite
ruined: those who hate him--and that is entire orders--would have begun
to hate me for the sake of their hatred for him. I confined myself, as I
think with great dignity, to doing only that which all the world saw me
do. And to sum up the whole case, I am, as you advise, devoting all my
efforts to tranquillity and peace. As to the books: Tyrannio is a
slow-coach: I will speak to Chrysippus, but it is a laborious business
and requires a man of the utmost industry. I find it in my own case,
for, though I am as diligent as possible, I get nothing done. As to the
Latin books, I don't know which way to turn--they are copied and exposed
for sale with such a quantity of errors! However, whatever can possibly
be done I will not neglect to do. Gaius Rebilus, as I wrote to you
before, is at Rome. He solemnly affirms his great obligations to you,
and reports well of your health.[672] I think the question of the
treasury was settled in my absence. When you speak of having finished
four tragedies in sixteen days, I presume you are borrowing from some
one else? And do _you_ deign to be indebted to others after writing the
_Electra_, and the _Troades_? Don't be idle; and don't think the
proverbial γνῶθι σεαυτόν was only meant to discourage vanity: it means
also that we should be aware of our own qualities. But pray send me
these tragedies as well as the _Erigona_. I have now answered your last
two letters.
[Footnote 669: B.C. 129. The _Novendialia_ was a nine days' festival on
the occasion of some special evil omens or prodigies; for an instance
(in B.C. 202), see Livy, 30, 38. The book referred to is that "On the
Republic."]
[Footnote 670: _I.e._, a mere theorist like Heraclides Ponticus, a pupil
of Plato's, whose work "On Constitutions" still exists.]
[Footnote 671: Hom. _Il._ vi. 208.]
[Footnote 672: Reading _qui omnia adiurat debere tibi et te valere
renuntiat_. The text, however, is corrupt.]
CLV (Q FR III, 7)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)
TUSCULUM (NOVEMBER)
[Sidenote: B.C. 54, ÆT. 52]
At Rome, and especially on the Appian road as far as the temple of Mars,
there is a remarkable flood. The promenade of Crassipes has been washed
away, pleasure grounds, a great number of shops. There is a great sheet
of water right up to the public fish-pond. That doctrine of Homer's is
in full play:
"The days in autumn when in violent flood
Zeus pours his waters, wroth at sinful men"--
for it falls in with the acquittal of Gabinius--
"Who wrench the law to suit their crooked ends
And drive out justice, recking naught of Gods."[673]
But I have made up my mind not to care about such things. When I get
back to Rome I will write and tell you my observations, and especially
about the dictatorship, and I will also send a letter to Labienus and
one to Ligurius. I write this before daybreak by the carved wood
lamp-stand, in which I take great delight, because they tell me that you
had it made when you were at Samos. Good-bye, dearest and best of
brothers.
[Footnote 673: Hom. _Il._ xvi. 385.]
CLVI (F VII, 16)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
ROME (NOVEMBER)
[Sidenote: B.C. 54, ÆT. 52]
In the "Trojan Horse," just at the end, you remember the words, "Too
late they learn wisdom."[674] You, however, old man, were wise in time.
Those first snappy letters of yours were foolish enough, and then----! I
don't at all blame you for not being over-curious in regard to Britain.
For the present, however, you seem to be in winter quarters somewhat
short of warm clothing, and therefore not caring to stir out:
"Not here and there, but everywhere,
Be wise and ware:
No sharper steel can warrior bear."
If I had been by way of dining out, I would not have failed your friend
Cn. Octavius; to whom, however, I did remark upon his repeated
invitations, "Pray, who are you?" But, by Hercules, joking apart, he is
a pretty fellow: I could have wished you had taken him with you! Let me
know for certain what you are doing and whether you intend coming to
Italy at all this winter. Balbus has assured me that you will be rich.
Whether he speaks after the simple Roman fashion, meaning that you will
be well supplied with money, or according to the Stoic dictum, that "all
are rich who can enjoy the sky and the earth," I shall know hereafter.
Those who come from your part accuse you of pride, because they say you
won't answer men who put questions to you. However, there is one thing
that will please you: they all agree in saying that there is no better
lawyer than you at Samarobriva![675]
[Footnote 674: By Livius Andronicus or Nævius. Tyrrell would write the
proverb _in extremo sero sapiunt_, "'tis too late to be wise at the
last." There was a proverb, _sero parsimonia in fundo_, something like
this, Sen. _Ep._ i. 5, from the Greek (Hes. _Op._ 369), δειλὴ δ' ἐν
πυθμένι φειδώ.]
[Footnote 675: In Gallia Belgica, mod. _Amiens._]
CLVII (A IV, 17)
TO ATTICUS (ON HIS WAY TO ROME)
ROME (NOVEMBER)
[Sidenote: B.C. 54, ÆT. 52]
At last the long-expected letter from you! Back to Italy, how
delightful! What wonderful fidelity to your promise! What a charming
voyage! About this last, by Hercules, I was very nervous, remembering
the fur wrappers of your former crossing. But, unless I am mistaken, I
shall see you sooner than you say in your letter. For I believe you
thought that your ladies were in Apulia, and when you find that not to
be the case, what can there be to detain you there? Are you bound to
give Vestorius some days, and must you go through the stale banquet of
his Latin Atticism again after an interval? Nay, fly hither and visit
(the remains) of that genuine Republic of ours!...[676] Observe my
strength of mind and my supreme indifference to the Felician[677]
one-twelfth legacy, and also, by heaven, my very gratifying connexion
with Cæsar--for this delights me as the one spar left me from the
present shipwreck--Cæsar, I say, who treats your and my Quintus,
heavens! with what honour, respect, and favours! It is exactly as if I
were the _imperator_. The choice was just lately offered him of
selecting any of the winter quarters, as he writes me word. Wouldn't you
be fond of such a man as that? Of which of your friends would you, if
not of him? But look you! did I write you word that I was _legatus_ to
Pompey, and should be outside the city from the 13th of January onwards?
This appeared to me to square with many things. But why say more? I
will, I think, reserve the rest till we meet, that you may, after all,
have something to look forward to. My very best regards to Dionysius,
for whom, indeed, I have not merely kept a place, but have even built
one. In fine, to the supreme joy of your return, a finishing stroke will
be added by his arrival. The day you arrive, you and your party will, I
entreat you, stay with me.
[Footnote 676: There are some words here too corrupt to be translated
with any confidence. They appear to convey a summary of news already
written in several letters as to the bribery at the elections, the
acquittal of Gabinius, and the rumour of a dictatorship.]
[Footnote 677: A legacy of a twelfth left by a certain Felix to Cicero
and Quintus had been rendered null by a mistake as to the will. See the
letter to Quintus, p. 338.]
CLVIII (Q FR III, 8)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)
ROME (NOVEMBER)
[Sidenote: B.C. 54, ÆT. 52]
The earlier of your two letters is full of irritability and
complainings, and you say you gave another of the same sort the day
before to Labienus, who has not yet arrived--but I have nothing to say
in answer to it, for your more recent letter has obliterated all trace
of vexation from my mind. I will only give you this hint and make this
request, that in the midst of your vexations and labours you should
recall what our notion was as to your going to Cæsar. For our object was
not the acquisition of certain small and unimportant gains. For what was
there of that kind which we should have thought worth the price of our
separation? What we sought was the strongest possible security for the
maintenance of our entire political position by the countenance of a man
of the highest character and most commanding influence. Our interest is
not so much in the acquisition of sums of money, as in the realization
of this hope: all else that you get is to be regarded only as a security
against actual loss.[678] Wherefore, if you will frequently turn your
thoughts back upon what we originally proposed to ourselves and hoped to
do, you will bear with less impatience the labours of military service
of which you speak and the other things which annoy you, and,
nevertheless, will resign them whenever you choose. But the right moment
for that step is not yet come, though it is now not far off.
Farthermore, I give you this hint--don't commit anything at all to
writing, the publication of which would be annoying to us. There are
many things that I would rather not know than learn at some risk. I
shall write at greater length to you with a mind less preoccupied, when
my boy Cicero is, as I hope he will be, in a good state of health. Pray
be careful to let me know to whom I should give the letter which I shall
then send you--to Cæsar's letter-carriers, for him to forward them
direct to you, or to those of Labienus? For where your Nervii dwell, and
how far off, I have no idea.[679] I derived great pleasure from your
letter describing the courage and dignity displayed (as you say) by
Cæsar in his extreme sorrow. You bid me finish the poem in his honour
which I had begun; and although I have been diverted from it by
business, and still more by my feelings, yet, since Cæsar knows that I
did begin something, I will return to my design, and will complete in
these leisure days of the "supplications,"[680] during which I greatly
rejoice that our friend Messalla and the rest are at last relieved from
worry. In reckoning on him as certain to be consul with Domitius, you
are quite in agreement with my own opinion. I will guarantee Messalla to
Cæsar: but Memmius cherishes a hope, founded on Cæsar's return to Italy,
in which I think he is under a mistake. He is, indeed, quite out of it
here. Scaurus, again, has been long ago thrown over by Pompey. The
business has been put off: the _comitia_ postponed and postponed, till
we may expect an _interregnum_. The rumour of a dictator is not pleasing
to the aristocrats; for myself, I like still less what they say. But the
proposal, as a whole, is looked upon with alarm, and grows unpopular.
Pompey says outright that he doesn't wish it: to me previously he used
not personally to deny the wish. Hirrus seems likely to be the proposer.
Ye gods! what folly! How in love with himself and without--a rival! He
has commissioned me to choke off Cælius Vinicianus, a man much attached
to me. Whether Pompey wishes it or not, it is difficult to be sure.
However, if it is Hirrus who makes the proposal, he will not convince
people that he does not wish it. There is nothing else being talked
about in politics just now; at any rate, nothing else is being done. The
funeral of the son of Serranus Domesticus took place in very melancholy
circumstances on the 23rd of November. His father delivered the funeral
oration which I composed for him. Now about Milo. Pompey gives him no
support, and is all for Gutta, saying also that he will secure Cæsar on
his side. Milo is alarmed at this, and no wonder, and almost gives up
hope if Pompey is created dictator. If he assists anyone who vetoes the
dictatorship by his troop and bodyguard,[681] he fears he may excite
Pompey's enmity: if he doesn't do so, he fears the proposal may be
carried by force. He is preparing games on a most magnificent scale, at
a cost, I assure you, that no one has ever exceeded. It is foolish, on
two or even three accounts, to give games that were not demanded--he has
already given a magnificent show of gladiators: he cannot afford it: he
is only an executor, and might have reflected that he is now an
executor, not an ædile. That is about all I had to write. Take care of
yourself, dearest brother.
[Footnote 678: Cicero means, "the substantial gain to be got from your
serving under Cæsar in Gaul is the securing of his protection in the
future: all other gains, such as money etc., are merely to be regarded
as securing you from immediate loss in thus going to Gaul: they don't
add anything fresh to our position and prospects."]