CDXLIX (F
XIII. 10)
I will shew you, then, that I am bound to act thus.
From his first entrance into public life M. Terentius attached himself to me.
Presently, when he had established his position, two additional reasons
appeared to increase my warm feelings towards him: one was the fact that he was
engaged in the same pursuit as myself, that which still forms my greatest
delight, displaying, as you are aware, both genius and no lack of industry; the
second was that he early embarked on the companies of publicani -unfortunately,
as it turned out, for he suffered very heavy losses: still, the interests of an
order to which I was very closely bound being thus shared by us both made our
friendship all the stronger.
Once more, after an honourable and creditable career
on both benches,1
just before the recent revolution he became a candidate for office, and looked
upon that as the most honourable fruit of his toil.
Again, in the late crisis he went from my house at
Brundisium with a message and letter for Caesar: in which affair I had clear
proof of his affection in undertaking the business, and of his good faith in
carrying it through and bring mg me back an answer. I had intended to speak
separately as to his uprightness and high character, but it seems to me that in
thus beginning with a statement of the reason for my loving him, I have in that
statement already said enough about his uprightness. Nevertheless, I do promise
as a separate thing, and pledge my word, that he will be at once delightful and
useful to you. For you will find him a steady, sensible man, as far removed as
possible from any self-seeking, and, moreover, a man of the most laborious and
industrious character.
Now it is no business of mine to promise what you must
form your own judgment upon, when you have become well acquainted with him:
yet, after all, in forming new connexions the first approach is always of
consequence, and by what kind of introduction the door of friendship, so to
speak, is opened. This is what I wished to effect by the present letter: though
the tie between a quaestor and his chief ought in itself to have effected it.
Yet it will not, after all, be any the weaker by this addition. Be careful,
therefore, if you value me as highly as Varro thinks, and I feel that you do,
to let me know as soon as possible that my recommendation has done him as much
service as he himself hoped, and I had no doubt, that it would.2
1] That is, I think, as accusing or defending men on their trial. The counsel for the prosecution and defence occupied different benches (see vol. ii. pro Flacc. §22; in Verr. 2, § 73). I do not think it can be explained as "advocate and juryman," for the use of subsellia for the seats of the jury is doubtful, and for the praetor (in a civil suit) it would be "tribunal."
2] The person here recommended is M. Terentius Varro Gibba.
1] Marcus Brutus had not only been pardoned by Caesar for his part in the Civil War, but made governor of Cisalpine Gaul, i.e.,
2] Confirmed by an inscription, C. I. L. 1.1178.In this inscription the name of Fufidius occurs among the three aediles, shewing that the Fufidii were a family of Arpinum. From one of them Quintus Cicero bought a property.
CDLIV (F IX. I)
CICERO TO M. TERENTIUS VARRO –
ROME (?) 46 B.C.1] Varro, the "most learned of the Romans," and author, it is said, of 490 books (two only of which remain even partially), had been one of Pompey's legates in
CDLV (F
XIII. 29)
ROME (?) 46 B.C.1
I imagine you must be waiting to see to what this
elaborate prelude is tending. To begin with, let me assure
you that this resume' of facts has not been made by me without good and
sufficient reason. I am exceedingly intimate with C. Ateius Capito. You know
what the ups and downs of my fortunes have been. In every position of honour or
of difficulty of mine, Capito's courage, active assistance, influence, and even
money were ever at my service, supplied my occasions, and were ready for every
crisis. He had a relation named Titus Antistius. While this man was serving in Macedonia Macedonia Bithynia Rome Corcyra
ill, and there died. By a will which he had made at Rome
1] Plancus had been Caesar's legatus in Gaul, and was with him in
2] That is, he was staying over his year because the allotment of provinces at the end of B.C. 50 had been vetoed.
3] B.C. 50.
4] About £240.
CDLVII (A
XII. 2)
1] L. Statius Murcus had been Caesar's legatus in B.C. 48, and seems still to be with him in Africa; he was praetor in B.C. 45 and proconsul of
2] C. Asinius Pollio, the celebrated orator, poet, and historian
3] Gnaeus Pompeius, the elder son of Pompeius Magnus.
4] L. Iunius (or according to some Vibius) Paciaecus appears to be in Baetica, as he was in the following year.
5] Aulus Hirtius, destined to fall at Mutina in his consulship, B.C. 43, had been Caesar's legatus, and was probably the author of the eighth book of the Gallic war. He was presently employed to write a pamphlet against Cato.
6] As though it didn't matter which party won at
7] Fructum; but the word is probably corrupt. The sentiment is repeated in a letter to Paetus (Letter CCCCLXXVIII, p.104), when speaking of the danger of his property at
8 The learned freedman who arranged
See A XII. 9.
CDLXII (F
VII. 3)
Despairing of victory when I saw these things, I first
began advising a peace, which had always been my policy; next, finding Pompey
vehemently opposed to that idea, I
proceeded to advise him to protract the war. Of this he at times expressed
approval, and seemed likely to adopt the suggestion; and he perhaps would have
done so, had it not been that as a result of a certain engagement2 he began to feel
confidence in his soldiers. From that day forth that eminent man ceased to be
anything of a general. He accepted battle against the most highly seasoned
legions with an army of raw recruits and hastily collected men. Having been
shamefully beaten, with the loss also of his camp, he fled alone.
This I regarded as the end of the war, as far as I was
concerned, nor did I imagine that, having been found unequal to the struggle
while still unbeaten, we should have the upper hand after a crushing defeat. I
abandoned a war in which the alternatives were to fall on the field of battle,
or to fall into some ambush, or to come into the conqueror's hands, or to take
refuge with Iuba, or to select some place of residence as practically an exile,
or to die by one's own hand. At least there was no other alternative, if you
had neither the will nor the courage to trust yourself to the victor. Now, of
all these alternatives I have mentioned, none is more endurable than exile,
especially to a man with clean hands, when no dishonour attaches to it: and I
may also add, when you lose a city, in which there is nothing that you can look
at without pain. For my part, I preferred to remain with my own family - if a
man may nowadays call anything his own - and also on my own property. What
actually happened I foretold in every particular. I came home, not because that
offered the best condition of life, but that after all, if some form of a
constitution remained, I might be there as though in my own country, and if
not, as though in exile. For
inflicting death on myself there seemed no adequate reason: many reasons why I
should wish for it. For it is an old saying, "When you cease to be what
once you were, there is no reason why you should wish to live." But after
all it is a great consolation to be free of blame, especially as I have two
things upon which to rely for support - acquaintance with the noblest kind of
learning and the glory of the most brilliant achievements: of which the former
will never be torn from me while I live, the latter not even after my death.
I have written these things to you somewhat fully, and
have bored you with them, because I knew you to be most devoted both to myself
and to the Republic. I
wished you to be acquainted with my entire views, that in the first place you
might know that it was never a wish of mine that any one individual should have
more power than the Republic as a whole; but that, when by some one's fault a
particular person did become so powerful as to make resistance to him
impossible, I was for peace: that when the army was lost, as well as the leader
in whom alone our hopes had been fixed, I wished to put an end to the war for
the rest of the party also: and, when that proved impossible, that I did so for
myself. But that now, if our state exists, I am a citizen of it; if it does
not, that I am an exile in a place quite as suited for the position, as if I
had betaken myself to Rhodes or Mytilene.
I should have preferred to discuss this with you
personally, but as the possibility of that was somewhat remote, I determined to
make the same statement by letter, that you might have something to say, if you
ever fell in with any of my critics. For there are men who, though my death
would have been utterly useless to the state, regard it as a crime that I am
still alive, and who I am certain think that those who perished were not
numerous enough. Though, if these persons had listened to me, they would now,
however unfair the terms of peace, have been living in honour; for while
inferior in arms they would have been superior in the merits of their cause.
Here's a letter somewhat more wordy than perhaps you would have wished; and
that I shall hold to be your opinion, unless you send me a still longer one in
reply. If I can get through with some business which I wish to settle, I shall,
I hope, see you before long.
1] B.C. 49. This apology for his conduct is somewhat like that addressed to Lentulus.
2] When Pompey pierced Caesar's lines and defeated him.
CDLXIII
(F VI. 22)
1] There is no certain means of dating this letter; but as the death of Cato is perhaps referred to, it must be not earlier than May. The pression as to the finis of the duty of those engaged in the Civil War seems to put it near in time to the preceding letter to Marius, as
2] His father, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, killed in the cavalry pursuit after Pharsalia (2 Phil. §§ 27, 71; Caes. B.C. 3.99), and his uncle Cato, who had committed suicide at
3] Porcia, sister of Cato.
CDLXVI (A XII. 3)
I regard you as the one man who is
less of a flatterer than myself, and if we both are sometimes such towards some
one else, we are never so to each other. So listen to what I say in all
plainness and sincerity. May I perish, my dear Atticus, if, I don't say my
Tusculan villa - where in other respects I am very happy - but even "the
islands of the blest" are in my eyes worth an absence of so many days from
you. Wherefore let us harden ourselves to endure these three days-assuming you
to be in the same state of feeling as myself, which is surely the case. But I
should like to know whether you are coming today immediately after the auction,
or on what day. Meanwhile I am busy with my books, and am much inconvenienced
by not having Vennonius's history.1
However, not to omit business altogether, that debt
which Caesar assigned to me admits of being recovered in three ways: first,
purchase at the auction - but I would rather lose it, although, let alone the
disgrace, that is as good as losing it. Secondly, a bond payable a year hence
from the purchaser - but who is there I can trust, and when will that
"year of Meton" come? Thirdly, accepting half down on the proposal of
Vettienus.2 Look into the matter therefore. And indeed I am afraid
Caesar may now not have the auction at all, but when the games are over3 will hurry off to
the aid of (Q. Pedius),4
lest such a great man should be treated with neglect But I will see to it. Pray
take good care of Attica , and give her and
Pilia, as well as Tullia, the kindest messages from me.
1] A writer on early Roman history, see de Leg. I, 2.
2] Apparently the property of some Pompeian who owed
3] Apparently the great games given by Caesar at the dedication of the
4] The MSS. have clypo, for which Boot - as does Mueller - reads ἀτύπῳ and explains it to refer to Balbus "the stammerer." But there seems no reason to suppose that Caesar should bestir himself just now about Balbus. It seems to me that the reference needed is to the coming campaign in
CDLXVII (A XII. 4)
What a welcome and delightful
letter! Need I say more? It is a red-letter day with me after all. For I was
made anxious by Tiro's telling me that you seemed to him somewhat flushed. I
will therefore add one day to my stay here, in accordance with your wish. But
that about Cato is a problem requiring an Archimedes. I cannot succeed in
writing what your guests1
can possibly read, I don't say with pleasure, but even without irritation. Nay,
even if I keep clear of his senatorial speeches, and of every wish and purpose
which he entertained in politics, and chose in merely general terms to eulogise
his firmness and consistency, even this in itself would be no pleasant hearing
for your friends. But that great man cannot be praised as he really deserves
unless the following topics are dilated upon: his having seen that the present
state of things was to occur, his having exerted himself to prevent them, and
his having quitted life to avoid seeing what has actually happened. What point
is there in these on which I could possibly secure the approval of Aledius?2 But, I beseech you, be
careful about your health and bring the prudence, which you apply to all
matters, to bear before everything else on getting well.
1] The Caesarians, with whom Atticus was intimate, such as Hirtius, Balbus, Oppius, and the like.
2] Some friend of Caesar and Atticus, several times mentioned, but unknown to us.
CDLXIX (A
XII. 5, §§ I, 2)
"Quintus the elder for the
fourth time"1
(or rather for the thousandth time) - is a fool, for being rejoiced at his
son's appointment as a Lupercus,2
and at Statius3 - that he may see his family overwhelmed with
a double dishonour! I may add a third in the person of Philotimus. What
unparalleled folly, unless indeed mine can beat it! But what impudence to ask a
subscription from you for such a purpose!4
Granted that he did not come to a "fount athirst," but a
"Peirene" and a "holy well-spring of Alphaeus "5 - to drain you as
though you were a fountain, as you say, and that, too, at a time when you are
so seriously embarrassed!6
Where will such conduct end? But that's his affair. I am much pleased with my
Cato:7 but so is
Lucilius Bassus with his compositions.
1] The beginning of a line of Ennius, Quintu' pater quartumconsul. The phrase nihil sapere is a common euphemism; it means "to be a fool" (Phil. 2.8).
2] The Lupercalia had apparently more or less fallen into desuetude, and Caesar had restored them and endowed the Luperci with funds, of which the senate deprived them after his death (Phil. 13.31). Augustus revived the festival again (Suet. Aug. 31 ; Monum. Ancyr. 4), and it continued till nearly the end of the fifth century A.D. But it seems to have been thought undignified in Republican times.
3] What had happened about Quintus's favourite freedman and secretary Statius, or about Philotimus, Terentia's freedman of doubtful honesty, we do not know.
4] Apparently for his nephew's expenses as Lupercus.
5] Words of Pindar (N. i. I) describingthe place at
6] There is, I think, some irony intended. Atticus was always rich, and
7] His panegyric on Cato (lost), which was answered by Caesar's Anticato.
CDLXXI (F
IX. 18)
Being quite at leisure in my
Tusculan villa, because I had sent my pupils1 to meet him,2 that they might at the same time present me in
as favourable a light as possible to their friend, I received your most
delightful letter, from which I learnt that you approved my idea of having
begun - now that legal proceedings are abolished and my old supremacy in the
forum is lost - to keep a kind of school, just as Dionysius, when expelled from
Syracuse, is said to have opened a school at Corinth.3 In short, I too am delighted with the idea, for
I secure many advantages. First and foremost, I am strengthening my position in
view of the present crisis, and that is of primary importance at this time. How
much that amounts to I don't know: I only see that as at present advised I
prefer no one's policy to this, unless, of course, it had been better to have
died. In one's own bed, I confess it might have been, but that did not occur:
and as to the field of battle, I was not there. The rest indeed - Pompey, your
friend Lentulus, Afranius - perished ingloriously.4 But, it may be said, Cato died a noble death.
Well, that at any rate is in our power when we will: let us only do our best to
prevent its being as necessary to us as it was to him. That is what I am doing.
So that is the first thing I had to say. The next is this: I am improving, in
the first place in health, which I had lost from giving up all exercise of my
lungs. In the second place, my oratorical faculty, such as it was, would have
completely dried up, had I not gone back to these exercises. The last thing I
have to say, which I rather think you will consider most important of all, is
this: I have now demolished more peacocks than you have young pigeons) You
there revel in Haterian5
law-sauce, I here in Hirtian hot-sauce.6
Come then, if you are half a man, and learn from me the maxims which you seek:
yet it is a case of" a pig teaching Minerva."7 But it will be my business to see to that: as
for you, if you can't find purchasers for your foreclosures8 and so fill your pot with denarii back you must
come to Rome
1] Dolabella and Hirtius.
2] Caesar, on his return from his victory in
3]
4] Pompey was assassinated in
5] Haterius, probably a lawyer with whom Paetus was in some way engaged. There is doubtless a play on the double meaning of jus, "sauce" and "law." A similar metaphor was used on a celebrated occasion in recent years, when certain politicians were recommended to "stew in their Parnellite juice."
6] Of Hirtius,
7] From a Greek proverb, ὗς Ἀθηνᾶν. See Theocr. 5.53; Acad. 1, § 18.
8] aestimationes, properties taken over for debts at a valuation under Caesar's law.
9] The other Caesarians at
10] I.e., sold it to buy necessaries. We don't know what grumbling about money losses from Paetus drew out all this chaff.
I have just lain down to dinner at
three o'clock, when I scribble a copy of this note to you in my pocket-book.1 You will say,
"where?" With Volumnius Eutrapelus. One place above me is Atticus,
one below Verrius, both friends of yours. Do you wonder that our slavery is
made so gay? Well, what am I to do? I ask your advice as the pupil of a
philosopher.2 Am I
to be miserable, to torment myself? What should I get by that? And, moreover,
how long? "Live with your books," say you. Well, do you suppose that
I do anything else? Or could I have kept alive, had I not lived with my books?
But even to them there is, I don't say a surfeit, but a certain limit. When I
have left them, though I care very little about my dinner - the one problem
which you put before the philosopher Dion - still, what better to do with my
time before taking myself off to bed I cannot discover.
Now listen to the rest. Below Eutrapelus lay Cytheris.3 At such a party as
that, say you, was the famous Cicero
Well then, my course of life is this. Every day
something read or written: then, not to be quite churlish to my friends, I dine
with them, not only without exceeding the law, but even within it, and that by
a good deal.6 So
you have no reason to be terrified at the idea of my arrival. You will receive
a guest of moderate appetite, but of infinite jest.
1] No doubt for his amanuensis to copy. Writing letters at the dinner table seems to have been no unusual thing with busy men. It was Caesar's constant habit (Plut. Caes. 63). And we have already heard of letters being delivered both to host and guest at dinner.
2] Dion, a Stoic (Acad. ii. 4, § 12).
3] Of whom we have heard as accompanying
4] ἔχω οὐκἔχομαι (Diogen. Laert. Vita Aristippi, 74). Anecdotes of the famous Corinthian meretrix will be found in the 13th book of Athenaeus.
5] I have translated this as a retort which
6] Caesar's sumptuary law. Suetonius says that he carried it out so strictly, that he set inspectors in the provision market to seize forbidden dainties, and even sent lictors to remove them from the table if they had been procured. Of course, however, it failed (Suet. Iul. 43; cp. Dio, 43, 25).
CDLXXVIII (F IX. 17)
Aren't you a ridiculous fellow for
asking me what I think will be done about those municipal towns and lands, when
our friend Balbus1
has been staying with you? As
though I were likely to know what he doesn't, and as though, when I do know
anything, it is not from him that I always learn it. Nay rather, if you love
me, tell me what is going to be done about us: for you have had in your power
one from whom you could have learnt it either sober or at any rate drunk. But
for myself, I do not ask you for such information: in the first place, because
I put it down as so much gain that I have been left alive for the last four
years, if gain it is to be called, and if it is life to survive the Republic;
and, in the second place, because I think that I myself know what is going to
happen. For whatever the stronger chooses will be done, and the stronger will
always be the sword. We ought, accordingly, to be content with any concession
made to us, whatever it is; the man who was unable to endure this ought to have
died.
They are measuring the territory of Veii
But I am going too far. I forgot that I am writing to
you. However, let me assure you of this, that not only I, who am not in his
confidence, but even the leader himself is unable to say what is going to
happen. For, while we are his slaves, he is a slave to circumstances: and so
neither can he possibly be sure of what circumstances will demand, nor we of
what he is designing. The reason that I did not send you this answer before was
not because I am usually idle, especially in the matter of writing, but
because, as I had no certainty about anything, I did not choose to cause you
either anxiety from the hesitation, or hope from the confidence of my words.
However, I will add this, which is the most absolute truth, that during the
present crisis I have not heard a word about the danger you mention.3 In any case you
will be bound, like the man of sense that you are, to hope for the best,
prepare yourself for the worst, and bear whatever happens.
1] Who, as Caesar's friend and agent, would know his intentions.
2] That is, for allotments of land to veterans.
3] That is, of confiscations in
Why, then - you may ask - have these things as yet had
no effect? Why, because he thinks if he grants you yours, he cannot resist the
applications of numerous petitioners with whom to all appearance he has juster
grounds for anger. "What hope, then," you will say, "from an
angry man?" Why, he knows very well that he will draw deep draughts of
praise from the same fountain, from which he has been already - though
sparingly - bespattered.6
Lastly, he is a man very acute and farseeing: he knows very well that a man
like you - far and away the greatest noble in an important district of Italy,
and in the state at large the equal of any one of your generation, however
eminent, whether in ability or popularity or reputation among the Roman people -
cannot much longer be debarred from taking part in public affairs.7 He will be
unwilling that you should, as you would sooner or later, have time to thank for
this rather than his favour.
So much for Caesar. Now I will speak of the nature of
the actual situation. There is no one so bitterly opposed to the cause, which
Pompey undertook with better intentions than provisions, as to venture to call
us bad citizens or dishonest men. On this head I am always struck
with astonishment at Caesar's sobriety, fairness, and wisdom. He never speaks
of Pompey except in the most respectful terms. "But," you will say,
"in regard to him as a public man his actions have often been bitter
enough." Those were acts of war and victory, not of Caesar. But see with
what open arms he has received us! Cassius he has made his legate;8 Brutus governor of Gaul ;9 Sulpicius of Greece;10 Marcellus,11 with whom he was
more angry than with anyone, he has restored with the utmost consideration for
his rank. To what, then, does all this tend? The nature of things and of the
political situation will not suffer, nor will any Constitutional theory - whether
it remain as it is or is changed - permit, first, that the civil and personal
position of all should not be alike when the merits of their cases are the
same; and, secondly, that good men and good citizens of unblemished character
should not return to a state, into which so many have returned after having
been condemned of atrocious crimes.
That is my prediction. If I had felt any doubt about
it I would not have employed it in preference to a consolation which would have
easily enabled me to support a man of spirit. It is this. If you had taken up
arms for the Republic - for so you then thought - with the full assurance of
victory, you would not deserve special commendation. But if; in view of the
uncertainty attaching to all wars, you had taken into consideration the
possibility of our being beaten, you ought not, while fully prepared to face
success, to be yet utterly unable to endure failure. I would have urged also
what a consolation the consciousness of your action, what a delightful distraction
in adversity, literature ought to be. I would have recalled to your mind the
signal disasters not only of men of old times, but of those of our own day
also, whether they were your leaders or your comrades. I would even have named
many cases of illustrious foreigners: for the recollection of what I may call a
common law and of the conditions of human existence softens grief. I would also
have explained the nature of our life here in Rome
1] By "our divination"
2] This prediction seems rather slender capital on which to set up business as a prophet. Pompey and Caesar combined for the express purpose of checkmating the senate, and if they quarrelled difficulties would be sure to follow. Besides, he puts quite a different complexion on it elsewhere (Phil. 2.24), representing the remark as an aspiration expressed to Pompey after the war had begun. But "I told you so " is a gratification that few can resist.
3] It seems almost impossible that
4] The author of the line is not known. Amphiaraus, husband of Eriphyle, sister of Adrastus, was enticed by his wife into joining the expedition of the Seven against
5] The Caecinae were a noble family of Volaterrae in
6] This is
7]
8] After surrendering his fleet to him on his voyage to
9] M. Brutus was made governor of
10] Ser. Sulpicius Rufus.
11] M. Claudius Marcellus, consul B.C. 51.
CDLXXXVIII (F VI. 12)
You know that hitherto it has been my habit to write
to you rather in the tone of one consoling a man of courage and wisdom, than as
holding out any sure hope of restoration beyond that which, in my opinion, was
to be expected from the Republic itself as soon as the present excitement died
down. Remember your writings, in which you always shewed me a spirit at once
great and firmly prepared to endure whatever might happen. Nor was I surprised
at that, since I remembered that you had been engaged in public affairs from
your earliest youth, and that your terms of office had coincided with the most
dangerous crises in the safety and fortunes of the community,2 and that you
entered on this very war not solely with the idea of being in prosperity if victorious,
but also, if it so happened, of bearing it philosophically if beaten. In the
next place, since you devote your time to recording the deeds of brave men,3 you ought to think
yourself bound to abstain from doing anything to prevent your shewing yourself
exactly like those whom you commend. But this is a style of talk better suited
to the position from which you have now escaped: for the present merely prepare
yourself to endure with us the state of things here. If I could find any remedy
for that, I would impart the same to you.. But our one refuge is philosophy and
literature, to which we have always been devoted. In the time of our prosperity
these seemed only to be an enjoyment, now they are our salvation also. But, to
return to what I said at first, I have no doubt of everything having been
accomplished in the matter of your restoration and return.
1] The wife and daughter of T. Ampius.
2] T. Ampius Balbus was a tribune in B.C. 63, and praetor in B.C. 59 the first the Catilinarian year, the second the year of Caesar's consulship, which
3] This work is quoted apparently by Suetonius, Iul. 77.
CDXCIV (F IV. II)
MARCUS MARCELLUS TO
MITYLENE (OCTOBER) 46 B.C.
CDXCV (F
IX. 21)
You don't say so! You think
yourself a madman for imitating the thunder of my eloquence, as you call it?1 You certainly would
have been beside yourself if you had failed to do so: but since you even beat
me at it, you ought to jeer at me rather than at yourself. So you had no need
of that quotation from Trabea,2
rather the fiasco was mine. But, after all, what do you think of my style in
letters? Don't I talk with you in the vulgar tongue? Why, of course one doesn't
write always in the same style. For what analogy has a letter with a speech in
court or at a public meeting? Nay, even as to speeches in court, it is not my
practice to handle all in the same style. Private causes and such as are of
slight importance we plead in simpler language; those that affect a man's civil
existence or reputation, of course, in a more ornate style: but letters it is
our custom to compose in the language of everyday life. Well, but letting that
pass, how did it come into your head, my dear Paetus, to say that there never
was a Papirius who was not a plebeian? For, in fact, there were patrician
Papirii, of the lesser houses, of whom the first was L. Papirius Mugillanus,
censor with L. Sempronius Atratinus - having already been his colleague in the
consulship - in the 312th year of the city. But in those days they were called
Papisii. After him thirteen sat in the curule chair before L. Papirius Crassus,
who was the first to drop the form Papisius. This man was named dictator, with
L. Papirius Cursor as Master of the Horse, in the 415th year of the city, and
four years afterwards was consul with Kaeso Duilius. Cursor came next to him, a
man who held a very large number of offices3
then comes L. Masso, who rose to the aedileship; then a number of Massones. The
busts of these I would have you keep - all patricians. Then follow the Carbones
and Turdi. These latter were plebeians, whom I opine that you may disregard.
For, except the Gaius Carbo who was assassinated by Damasippus, there has not
been one of the Carbones who was a good and useful citizen. We knew Gnaeus
Carbo and his brother the wit: were there ever greater scoundrels? About the
one who is a friend of mine, the son of Rubrius, I say nothing. There have been
those three brothers Carbo - Gaius, Gnaeus, Marcus. Of these, Marcus, a great
thief, was condemned for malversation in Sicily on the accusation of Publius
Flaccus: Gaius, when accused by Lucius Crassus, is said to have poisoned
himself with cantharides; he behaved in a factious manner as tribune, and was
also thought to have assassinated Publius Africanus.4 As to the other,5 who was put to death by my friend Pompey at
Lilybaeum, there was never, in my opinion, a greater scoundrel. Even his
father, on being accused by M. Antonius, is thought to have escaped
condemnation by a dose of shoemaker's vitriol. Wherefore my opinion is that you
should revert to the patrician Papirii: you see what a bad lot the plebeians
were.
1] Paetus had apparently compared his presumption to that of Salmoneus: "Demens, qui nimboset non imitabile fulmen Aere et cornipedum pulsu simularetequorum" (Verg. Aen. 6.590).
2] Quintus Trabea, a writer of comedies, who flourished about B.C. 120.
3] The hero of the second Samnite war was consul six times, dictator three times.
4] C. Papirius Carbo, a friend and supporter of Tib. Gracchus, and one of the commissioners (after the death of Tiberius) for carrying out his land law. He was tribune in B.C. 131.
5] Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, consul in B.C. 85, 84, and 82, the partisan of Marius. For his death at the hands of Pompey, see vol. ii., p.347.
CDXCVII
(A XII. 6)
Now I come to Tyrannio. Do you really mean it? Was
this fair? Without me? Why, how often, though quite at leisure, did I yet
refuse without you? How will you excuse yourself for this? The only way of
course is to send me the book; and I beg you earnestly to do so. And yet the
book itself will not give me more pleasure than your admiration of it has
already done. For I love everyone who "loves learning," and I rejoice
at your feeling such a great admiration for that essay on a minute point.
However, you are that sort of man in everything. You want to know, and that is
the only food of the intellect. But pray what did you get that contributed to
your summum bonum from that acute and grave essay? 158 However, I am talking too much, and you have
been occupied in some business which is perhaps mine: and in return for that
dry basking of yours in the sun, of which you took such full advantage on my
lawn, I shall ask of you in return some sunshine and a good dinner. But I return to what I was saying. The
book, if you love me, send me the book! It is certainly yours to give, since
indeed it was dedicated to you. "What, Chremes, Have you such leisure from
your own affairs "3
as even to read my "Orator"? Well done! I am pleased to hear it, and
shall be still more obliged if, not only in your own copy, but also in those
meant for others, you will make your scribes alter "Eupolis" to
"Aristophanes.4
Caesar again seemed to me to smile at your word
quaeso, as being somewhat "fanciful" and cockneyfied. But he bade you
to have no anxiety in such a cordial manner, that he relieved me of all feeling
of doubt.5 I am
sorry that Attica 's ague is so lingering, but
since she has now got rid of shivering fits, I hope all is well.
1] For Tyrannio and his book which
2] Cicero playfully alludes to Atticus as taking part in his dialogue Brutus, which was represented as taking place as they were sitting "on a lawn near Plato's statue" (in pratulo propter Platonis statuam); and, as Atticus had been thus basking in sun on Cicero's imaginary lawn, he says that he shall ask to bask also on Atticus's real lawn, only with more creature comforts, such as a dinner. But it is obscurely expressed.
3] Terence, Haut. 75. Mueller begins a separate letter with these words.
4] Orat. § 29, where Aristophanes (Ach. 530) is quoted as saying that Pericles "blazed, thundered, and threw all
5] Caesar was thinking of planting a colony at Buthrotum, and Atticus was trying to avoid confiscation of lands, either his own or those of the townsmen, near his villa. We shall hear much more of it.
CDXCVIII
(A XII. 7)
1] With Caesar to fight against the sons of Pompey
CDXCIX (A XII. 8)
As to my son, my plan meets with
wide approval. I have got a suitable travelling companion for him.1 But let us first
see about getting the first instalment.2
For the day is fast approaching, and Dolabella is hurrying away. Write and tell
me, pray, what Celer reports Caesar to have settled about the candidates. Does
the great man think of going to the plain of the Fennel or to the plain of
Mars?3 And,
finally, I should very much like to know whether there is any positive
necessity for my being at Rome for the comitia: for I must do what Pilia
wishes, and anyhow what Attica does.
1] See Letter DXCVI.
2] Of the dowry to be repaid by Dolabella after his divorce from Tullia.
3] Is Caesar going to
D (A XII.
II)
P.S. After I had sealed my packet I received your
letter. I am glad to hear that Attica is so
cheerful; I am sorry for the slight attack.
1] The divorce of Terentia has taken place, and there seems to be a question of choosing a new wife.
DI (F
VII. 4)
1] That is, of the second intercalary month of twenty-eight days in this last year of confusion, answering to 16th of November in the correct calendar.
2] L. Scribonius Libo, whose daughter was married to Sext. Pompeius.
3] Marius's villa looked out on the
DIII (A XII. I)
Just as I was folding up this letter, your courier
arrived late at night with a letter from you. I have read it: I am, of course,
very sorry to hear of Attica 's feverish
attack. Everything else that I wanted to know I learn from your letter. As to
your saying that "a little fire in the morning is an old man's
luxury" - it is still more an old man's way to be a trifle forgetful! I
had appointed the 26th for Axius, the 27th for you, and the 28th (the day of my
reaching Rome
[The rest of the letters of this year are, with one or two exceptions, formal letters of introduction or recommendation. They do not admit of being dated, as to month or day.]
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