in sympathy than with the Epicurean ethics, but apparently only partly
so. The leading doctrine was the denial of the possibility of knowledge,
and, applied to ethics, this might destroy all virtue.]
[Footnote 701: All these jesting objections to a lawyer being an
Epicurean are founded on the Epicurean doctrine that individual feeling
is the standard of morals, and the _summum bonum_ is the good of the
individual. The logical deduction that a man should therefore hold aloof
from politics and social life, as involving social obligations and
standards, was, of course, evaded in practice.]
[Footnote 702: For the Epicureans believed the gods to exist, but not to
trouble themselves with the affairs of men. In taking an oath by
_Iupiter lapis_ the swearer took a stone in his hand and said, "If I
abide by this oath may he bless me: but if I do otherwise in thought or
deed, may all others be kept safe, each in his own country, under his
own laws, in enjoyment of his own goods, household gods, and tombs--may
I alone be cast out, even as this stone is now." Then he throws down the
stone. This passage from Polybius (iii. 25) refers to treaties, but the
same form seems to have been used in suits about land.]
[Footnote 703: Ulubræ--like other _municipia_--had a _patronus_ at Rome
to look after its interests. If Trebatius (who was its _patronus_) would
take no part in politics, he would be of no use to the Ulubrani.
πολιτεύεσθαι, "to act as a citizen," "to act as a member of a political
body."]
CLXX (F VII, 13)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
ROME, 4 MARCH
[Sidenote: B.C. 53, ÆT. 53]
Did you suppose me to be so unjust as to be angry with you from the idea
that you were not sufficiently persevering and were too eager to return,
and do you think that that is the reason of my long silence? I was
certainly annoyed by the uneasiness of your spirits, which your first
letters conveyed to me; but there was absolutely no other reason for the
interruption of my own, except my complete ignorance of your address.
Are you still, at this time of day, finding fault with me, and do you
refuse to accept my apology? Just listen to me, my dear Testa! Is it
money that is making you prouder, or the fact that your
commander-in-chief consults you? May I die if I don't believe that such
is your vanity that you would rather be consulted by Cæsar than
gilded[704] by him! But if both reasons are true, who will be able to
put up with you except myself, who can put up with anything? But to
return to our subject--I am exceedingly glad that you are content to be
where you are, and as your former state of mind was vexatious, so your
present is gratifying, to me. I am only afraid that your special
profession may be of little advantage to you: for, as I am told, in your
present abode
"They lay no claim by joining lawful hands,
But challenge right with steel."[705]
But you are not wont[706] to be called in to assist at a "forcible
entry." Nor have you any reason to be afraid of the usual proviso in the
injunction, "into which you have not previously made entry by force and
armed men," for I am well assured that you are not a man of violence.
But to give you some hint as to what you lawyers call "securities," I
opine that you should avoid the Treviri; I hear they are real _tresviri
capitales_--deadly customers: I should have preferred their being
_tresviri_ of the mint![707] But a truce to jesting for the present.
Pray write to me in the fullest detail of all that concerns you.
4 March.
[Footnote 704:
"I will make fast the doors and _gild_ myself
With some more ducats."--SHAKESPEARE..
]
[Footnote 705: Ennius, _Ann._ 275. The phrase _manum consertum_ in legal
language meant to make a joint claim by the symbolical act of each
claimant laying a hand on the property (or some representation of it) in
court. But it also meant "to join hands in war." Hence its equivocal use
in this passage. _Consertum_ is a supine, and some such word as _eunt_
must be understood before it.]
[Footnote 706: Reading _at tu non soles_. I cannot explain Prof.
Tyrrell's reading _et tu soles_ in connexion with what follows.]
[Footnote 707: This elaborate joke is founded on a pun upon the name of
the Gallic _Treviri_ and the commissioners in Rome: (1) the _III viri
capitales_, who had charge of prisons, executions, etc.; (2) the _III
viri auro argento æri flando feriundo_, "the commissioners for coining
gold, silver, and bronze." Also there is a reference to the meaning of
_capitalis_, "deadly," "affecting the life or citizenship."]
CLXXI (F VII, 14)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
ROME (? MARCH)
[Sidenote: B.C. 53, ÆT. 53]
Chrysippus Vettius, a freedman of the architect Cyrus, made me think
that you had not quite forgotten me; for he has brought me a greeting in
your words. You have grown a mighty fine gentleman, that you can't take
the trouble of writing a letter to me--a man, I might almost say, of
your own family! But if you have forgotten how to write, all the fewer
clients will lose their causes by having you as their advocate! If you
have forgotten me, I will take the trouble of paying you a visit where
you are, before I have quite faded out of your mind. If it is a terror
of the summer camp that is disheartening you, think of some excuse to
get off, as you did in the case of Britain. I was glad to hear one thing
from that same Chrysippus, that you were on friendly terms with Cæsar.
But, by Hercules, I should have preferred, as I might fairly have
expected, to be informed of your fortunes as frequently as possible from
your own letters. And this would certainly have been the case, if you
had been more forward to learn the laws of friendship than of suits in
court. But this is all jest in your own vein, and to some degree in mine
also. I love you very dearly, and I both wish to be loved by you and
feel certain that I am.
CLXXII (F VII, 18)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
A VILLA IN THE AGER POMPTINUS, 8 APRIL
[Sidenote: B.C. 53, ÆT. 53]
I have received several letters from you at the same time, written at
various times, in which everything else gave me great pleasure; for they
shewed that you were now sustaining your military service with a brave
spirit, and were a gallant and resolute man. These are qualities which
for a short time I felt to be lacking in you, though I attributed your
uneasiness not so much to any weakness of your own spirit, as to your
feeling your absence from us. Therefore go on as you have begun: endure
your service with a stout heart: believe me, the advantages you will
gain are many; for I will reiterate my recommendation of you, though I
shall wait for the right moment of doing so. Be assured that you are not
more anxious that your separation from me should be as profitable as
possible to yourself than I am. Accordingly, as your "securities" are
somewhat weak, I have sent you one in my poor Greek, written by my own
hand.[708] For your part, I should wish you to keep me informed of the
course of the war in Gaul: for the less warlike my informant, the more
inclined I am to believe him.
But to return to your letters. Everything else (as I said) is prettily
written, but I do wonder at this: who in the world sends several
identical letters, when he writes them with his own hand? For your
writing on paper that has been used before, I commend your economy: but
I can't help wondering what it was that you preferred to rub out of this
bit of paper rather than not write such poor stuff as this--unless it
were, perhaps, some of your legal formulas. For I don't suppose you rub
out my letters to replace them with your own. Can it mean that there is
no business going on, that you are out of work, that you haven't even a
supply of paper? Well, that is entirely your own fault, for taking your
modesty abroad with you instead of leaving it behind here with us. I
will commend you to Balbus, when he starts to join you, in the good old
Roman style. Don't be astonished if there is a somewhat longer interval
than usual between my letters: for I intend being out of town in April.
I write this letter in the Pomptine district, having put up at the villa
of M. Æmilius Philemo, from which I could hear the noise of my clients,
I mean those you confided to me! For at Ulubræ it is certain that an
enormous mass of frogs have bestirred themselves to do me honour. Take
care of your health.[709]
8 April, from the Ager Pomptinus.
P.S.--Your letter which I received from L. Arruntius I have torn up,
though it didn't deserve it; for it had nothing in it which might not
have been safely read in a public meeting. But not only did Arruntius
say that such were your orders, but you had appended a similar
injunction to your letter. Well, be it so! I am surprised at your not
having written anything to me since, especially as you are in the midst
of such stirring events.[710]
[Footnote 708: _Græculam tibi misi cautionem chirographi mei._ Various
interpretations have been given to this: (1) "a truly Greek security,"
_i.e._, "not to be depended on"; (2) referring to a poem in Greek,
perhaps the one in praise of Cæsar's achievements, mentioned before (p.
338), in which some compliment to Trebatius was introduced; (3) Prof.
Tyrrell would make it refer to this letter itself, which he supposes to
have been written in Greek, and afterwards translated by Tiro. But this
letter does not read like a translation, and, after all, is not of a
nature to shew as a "commendation." It is conceived in too jocular a
vein. I have taken it to refer to some inclosure written in Greek which
he might use in this way, and the mention of his "own handwriting" to
refer to the fact that he would naturally have employed a Greek
secretary to write Greek. The diminutive _Græculam_ I take to be
apologetic for the Greek. But it is not at all certain.]
[Footnote 709: On his journey along the _via Appia_ to one of his
seaside villas Cicero has put up at a friend's house (a freedman of
Lepidus), near the Pomptine marshes, as was his wont (_Att._ vii. 5). It
was near Ulubræ, of which he was deputy _patronus_ in the absence of
Trebatius, and he jestingly pretends that the frogs which he hears
croaking in the marshes are frogs of Ulubræ turning out to do him
honour, as though they were the citizens of the town. Ulubræ was a very
dull and decaying town.]
[Footnote 710: The great rising in Gaul in B.C. S4-53, and the second
expedition across the Rhine.]
CLXXIII (F VII, 15)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
ROME
[Sidenote: B.C. 53, ÆT. 53]
How wayward people are who love may be gathered from this: I was
formerly annoyed that you were discontented at being where you are: now,
on the contrary, it stings me to the heart that you write that you are
quite happy there. For I did not like your not being pleased at my
recommendation, and now I am vexed that you can find anything pleasant
without me. But, after all, I prefer enduring your absence to your not
getting what I hope for you. However, I cannot say how pleased I am that
you have become intimate with that most delightful man and excellent
scholar, C. Matius.[711] Do your best to make him as fond of you as
possible. Believe me, you can bring nothing home from your province that
will give you greater pleasure. Take care of your health.
CLXXIV (F II, 4)
TO C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO (IN ASIA)
ROME (? MAY)
[Sidenote: B.C. 53, ÆT. 53]
You are aware that letters are of many kinds; but there is one kind
which is undeniable, for the sake of which, indeed, the thing was
invented, namely, to inform the absent of anything that is to the
interest of the writer or recipient that they should know. You, however,
certainly don't expect a letter of that kind from me. For of your
domestic concerns you have members of your family both to write and to
act as messengers. Besides, in my personal affairs there is really
nothing new. There are two other kinds of letters which give me great
pleasure: the familiar and sportive, and the grave and serious. Which of
these two I ought least to employ I do not understand. Am I to jest with
you by letter? Upon my word, I don't think the man a good citizen who
could laugh in times like these. Shall I write in a more serious style?
What could be written of seriously by Cicero to Curio except public
affairs? And yet, under this head, my position is such that I neither
dare write what I think, nor choose to write what I don't think.
Wherefore, since I have no subject left to write about, I will employ my
customary phrase, and exhort you to the pursuit of the noblest glory.
For you have a dangerous rival already in the field, and fully prepared,
in the extraordinary expectation formed of you; and this rival you will
vanquish with the greatest ease, only on one condition--that you make up
your mind to put out your full strength in the cultivation of those
qualities, by which the noble actions are accomplished, upon the glory
of which you have set your heart. In support of this sentiment I would
have written at greater length had not I felt certain that you were
sufficiently alive to it of your own accord; and I have touched upon it
even thus far, not in order to fire your ambition, but to testify my
affection.
[Footnote 711: The friendship between Trebatius and Matius remained as
long as we know anything about them. Cicero afterwards acknowledges
(_F._ ii. 27) the great services Matius had done him with Cæsar, to whom
Matius remained attached to the end.]
CLXXV (F II, 5)
TO C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO (ON HIS WAY FROM ASIA)
ROME (? JUNE)
[Sidenote: B.C. 53, ÆT. 53]
The state of business here I dare not tell even in a letter. And though,
wherever you are, as I have told you before, you are in the same boat,
yet I congratulate you on your absence, as well because you don't see
what we see, as because your reputation is placed on a lofty and
conspicuous pinnacle in the sight of multitudes both of citizens and
allies; and it is conveyed to us by neither obscure nor uncertain talk,
but by the loud and unanimous voice of all. There is one thing of which
I cannot feel certain--whether to congratulate you, or to be alarmed for
you on account of the surprising expectation entertained of your return;
not because I am at all afraid of your not satisfying the world's
opinion, but, by heaven, lest, when you do come, there may be nothing
for you to preserve: so universal is the decline and almost extinction
of all our institutions. But even thus much I am afraid I have been rash
to trust to a letter: wherefore you shall learn the rest from
others.[712] However, whether you have still some hope of the Republic,
or have given it up in despair, see that you have ready, rehearsed and
thought out in your mind, all that the citizen and the man should have
at his command who is destined to restore to its ancient dignity and
freedom a state crushed and overwhelmed by evil times and profligate
morals.
[Footnote 712: In these vague though ominous sentences Cicero is
referring to the constant and violent hindrances to the election of
magistrates, that is, to the orderly working of the constitution, which
were occurring. No consuls were elected till September.]
CLXXVI (F II, 6)
TO C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO (ARRIVED IN ITALY)
ROME (? JULY)
[Sidenote: B.C. 53, ÆT. 53]
News had not yet reached me of your arrival in Italy when I sent Sext.
Villius, an intimate of my friend Milo, with this letter to you. But
nevertheless, since your arrival was thought to be approaching, and it
was ascertained that you had already started from Asia Rome-wards, the
importance of my subject made me dismiss any fear of being premature in
sending you this letter, for I was exceedingly anxious that it should
reach you as soon as possible. If the obligations, Curio, had only been
on your side, and as great as they are usually proclaimed by you rather
than as valued by me, I should have been more shy of coming to you for
any request of importance which I might have to make. For it is very
disagreeable to a modest man to ask a great favour from one whom he
thinks under an obligation to himself, lest he should seem rather to
demand than to ask what he is seeking, and to regard it more in the
light of a debt than of a favour. But since your kindnesses to me were
known to the whole world, or rather I should say were made especially
prominent and valuable by the very novelty of my circumstances; and
since it is the mark of a generous heart to be willing, when much is
owed, to reckon the debt at its highest; I did not hesitate to prefer
to you by letter a petition for what was of the highest importance and
most vital consequence to me of anything in the world. For I was not
afraid of being unable to support your kindnesses to me, even though
they were beyond calculation: especially as I felt confident that there
was no amount of favour for which my heart was incapable of finding room
when receiving it, or for which in repayment it could not make a full
and brilliant return. I have concentrated and embarked all my zeal, all
my efforts, all the care and industry of which I am capable, my every
thought, in fact, my whole heart and soul, on securing Milo's
consulship; and I have made up my mind that in this matter I ought to
look not merely for the profit arising from an act of kindness, but also
for the credit of disinterested affection. Nor do I think that anyone
was ever so anxious about his own personal safety and his own fortunes
as I am for his election, on which I have made up my mind that all my
interests depend. To him I see clearly that, if you choose, you can
render such substantial help that we need ask for nothing else. We have
on our side all these advantages: the favour of the loyalists won since
his tribunate on account of his supporting me (as I hope you
understand); that of the common multitude on account of the splendour of
his gladiatorial exhibitions and the liberality of his disposition; the
favour of the young men and of those influential in securing votes, won
by his own eminent powers of captivation, shall I call it? or his
diligence in that department; lastly, my own electoral support, which,
if it is not very powerful, is at any rate regarded as only right, due
and proper, and on that account is perhaps influential also. What we
want is a leader, and what I may call a controller, or, so to speak, a
pilot of those winds which I have described: and if we had to select one
such out of the whole world, we should have no one to compare with you.
Wherefore, if (as I am sure you can) you can regard me as a grateful, as
an honest man, from the mere fact that I am thus eagerly exerting myself
for Milo, if, in fine, you think me worthy of your kindness, I do ask
you this favour--that you come to the rescue of this anxiety of mine and
this crisis in my reputation, or, to put it with greater truth, that you
will devote your zeal to what is all but a question of life and death to
me. As to Titus Annius[713] himself, I promise you this much--that if
you resolve to embrace his cause, you will never have anyone of greater
spirit, solidity, firmness, or affection to yourself. While to me you
will have given so much additional honour and prestige, that I shall
have no difficulty in acknowledging you to have been as effective in
supporting my reputation as you were in securing my safety.
Did I not know that you must be fully aware, while writing this letter
to you, under what a weight of obligation I am labouring, how strongly I
am bound to work in this election for Milo, not only with every kind of
exertion, but even with downright fighting, I should have written at
greater length. As it is, I hand over and commit the business, the
cause, and myself wholly and entirely into your hands. Of one thing be
sure: if I obtain this help from you, I shall owe you almost more than I
owe Milo himself; for my personal safety, in which I have been
conspicuously aided by him, has not been as dear to me as the sacred
duty of returning the favour will be delightful. That object I feel
confident that your aid, and yours alone, will enable me to secure.
[Footnote 713: Milo. His full name is T. Annius Milo Papianus;
originally of the _gens Papia_, he had been adopted by his maternal
grandfather, T. Annius.]
CLXXVII (F XIII, 75)
TO TITUS TITIUS, A LEGATUS[714]
ROME
[Sidenote: B.C. 53, ÆT. 53]
Though I have no doubt that my first introduction retains its full value
in your eyes, I yet yield to the request of a man with whom I am very
intimate, C. Avianius Flaccus, for whose sake I not only desire, but am
in duty bound to secure every possible favour. In regard to him I both
spoke earnestly to you in a personal interview--on which occasion you
answered me with the greatest kindness--and have written with full
particulars to you on a previous occasion; but he thinks it to his
interest that I should write to you as often as possible. Wherefore I
would have you pardon me if, in compliance with his wishes, I shall
appear to be at all forgetful of the stability of your character. What I
beg of you is this--that you would accommodate Avianius as to the place
and time for landing his corn: for which he obtained by my influence a
three years' licence whilst Pompey was at the head of that business. The
chief thing is--and you can therein lay me under the greatest
obligation--that you should have convinced Avianius that I enjoy your
affection, since he thinks himself secure of mine. You will greatly
oblige me by doing this.
[Footnote 714: Pompey was _præfectus annonæ_ B.C. 57-52. As such he had
a number of _legati_, of whom this Titus Titius was one; but there is
nothing to shew in which of the corn-supplying countries he was
employed. Avianius is a corn merchant, and wants concessions as to the
importation of his cargoes.]
CLXXVIII (F V, 17)
[Sidenote: B.C. 52. Coss., from V. Kal, Mart., Cn. Pompeius Magnus
(alone); from 1st August, with Q. Metellus Scipio.]
This year again, owing to the riots in the previous year excited by
Clodius to prevent the election of Milo, began with a series of
_interregna_ lasting nearly three months, January, February, and
the intercalary month. On the 17th of January Clodius was killed
near Bovillæ by Milo's servants, and by his order. Riots followed
in Rome, the body was burnt in the Curia, which caught fire and was
destroyed. Cicero undertook Milo's defence under a new law _de vi_
brought in by Pompey, but broke down, and Milo was condemned
(April). Later in the year he successfully prosecuted T. Munatius
Plancus Bursa, who as tribune had promoted the riots after the
death of Clodius, and who had also supported the plan of making
Pompey dictator.
TO P. SITTIUS[715] (IN EXILE)
ROME
[Sidenote: B.C. 52, ÆT. 54]