The capture of his Parthian Majesty and the storming of Seleuceia itself
had not been enough to compensate for missing the sight of our doings
here. Your eyes would never have ached again if you had only seen the
face of Domitius when he was not elected! The election was important,
and it was quite clear that party feeling determined the side which
people took: only a few could be brought to acknowledge the claims of
friendship. Consequently Domitius is so furious with me that he scarcely
hates any of his most intimate friends as much as he does me; and all
the more because he thinks that it was to do him wrong that his hopes of
being in the College of Augurs are snatched away, and that I am
responsible for it. He is savage now to see everybody so delighted at
his mortification, and myself more active than anybody, with one
exception, on behalf of Antonius.
As to political prospects, I have often mentioned to you that I do not
see any chance of peace lasting a year; and the nearer that struggle
which must infallibly take place, is drawing to us, the more manifest
does its danger become. The point at issue about which our lords and
masters are going to fight is this: Pompeius has absolutely determined
not to allow Caesar to be elected consul on any terms except a previous
resignation of his army and his government, while Caesar is convinced
that he must inevitably fall if he separates himself from his army. He
offers however this compromise, that they should both of them resign
their armies. So you see their great affection for one another and their
much-abused alliance has not even dwindled down into suppressed
jealousy, but has broken out into open war. Nor can I discover what is
the wisest course to take in my own interests: a question which I make
no doubt will give much trouble to you also. For while I have both
interest and connections among those who are on one side, on the other
too it is the cause and not the men themselves I dislike. You are not, I
feel sure, blind to the fact that where parties are divided within a
country, we are bound, so long as the struggle is carried on with none
but constitutional weapons, to support the more honorable cause, but
when we come to blows and to open war, then the safer one; and to count
that cause the better which is the less likely to be dangerous. In the
present division of feeling I see that Pompeius will have the Senate and
all judicially minded people on his side; those who have everything to
dread and little to hope for will flock to Caesar: the army is not to be
compared. On the whole, we have plenty of time for balancing the
strength of parties and making our decision.
I had all but forgotten my principal reason for writing. Have you heard
of the wonderful doings of our censor Appius----how he is rigorously
inquiring into our statues and pictures, our amount of land, and our
debts? He has persuaded himself that his censorship is a moral soap or
toilet powder. He is wrong, I take it; for while he only wants to wash
off the dirt, he is really laying bare his veins and his flesh. Heaven
and earth! you must run, and come to laugh at the things here----Appius
questioning about pictures and statues. You must make haste, I assure
you.
Our friend Curio is thought to have acted wisely in giving way about the
pay of Pompeius's troops. If I must sum up my opinion, as you ask, about
what will happen----unless one or other of them consents to go and fight
the Parthians, I see a great split impending, which will be settled by
the sword and by force; each is well inclined for this and well
equipped. If it could only be without danger to yourself, you would find
this a great and most attractive drama which Fortune is rehearsing.