The Letters of Cicero Part 15

x.x.xVI (A II, 12)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

TRES TABERNae, 12 APRIL

[Sidenote: B.C. 59, aeT. 47]

Are they going to deny that Publius has been made a plebeian? This is indeed playing the king, and is utterly intolerable. Let Publius send some men to witness and seal my affidavit: I will take an oath that my friend Gnaeus, the colleague of Balbus, told me at Antium that he had been present as augur to take the auspices. Two delightful letters from you delivered at the same time! For which I do not know what I am to pay you by way of reward for good news. That I owe you for them I candidly confess. But observe the coincidence. I had just made my way from Antium on to the _via Appia_ at Three Taverns,[226] on the very day of the Cerealia (18th April), when my friend Curio meets me on his way from Rome. At the same place and the same moment comes a slave from you with letters. The former asked me whether I hadn't heard the news? I said, "No." "Publius," says he, "is a candidate for the tribunes.h.i.+p." "You don't mean it?" "Yes, I do," says he, "and at daggers drawn with Caesar.

His object is to rescind his acts." "What says Caesar?" said I. "He denies having proposed any _lex_ for his adoption." Then he poured forth about his own hatred, and that of Memmius and Metellus Nepos. I embraced the youth and said good-bye to him, hastening to your letters. A fig for those who talk about a "living voice"! What a much clearer view I got of what was going on from your letters than from his talk! About the current rumours of the day, about the designs of Publius, about "Iuno's"

trumpet calls, about Athenio who leads his roughs, about his letter to Gnaeus, about the conversation of Theophanes and Memmius. Besides, how eager you have made me to hear about the "fast" dinner party which you mention! I am greedy in curiosity, yet I do not feel at all hurt at your not writing me a description of the symposium: I would rather hear it by word of mouth. As to your urging me to write something, my material indeed is growing, as you say, but the whole is still in a state of fermentation--"new wine in the autumn." When the liquor has settled down and become clarified, I shall know better what to write. And even if you cannot get it from me at once, you shall be the first to have it: only for some time you must keep it to yourself. You are quite right to like Dicaearchus; he is an excellent writer, and a much better citizen than these rulers of ours who reverse his name.[227] I write this letter at four o'clock in the afternoon of the Cerealia (12th April), immediately after reading yours, but I shall despatch it, I think, to-morrow, by anyone I may chance to meet on the road. Terentia is delighted with your letter, _et Ciceron le philosophe salue t.i.tus l'homme d'etat_.

[Footnote 226: Where the road from Antium joins the Appia. Cicero seems to be on his way to Formiae, where he had intended to arrive on the 21st.

He must be going very leisurely.]

[Footnote 227: ???a?a???? and ?d??a?a????, a pun on a name not reproducible in English: "just-rulers" and "unjust-rulers."]

x.x.xVII (A II, 10)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

APPII FORUM,[228] APRIL

[Sidenote: B.C. 59, aeT. 47]

Please admire my consistency. I am determined not to be at the games at Antium: for it is somewhat of a solecism to wish to avoid all suspicion of frivolity, and yet suddenly to be shewn up as travelling for mere amus.e.m.e.nt, and that of a foolish kind. Wherefore I shall wait for you till the 7th of May at Formiae. So now let me know what day we shall see you. From Appii Forum, ten o'clock. I sent another a short time ago from Three Taverns.

[Footnote 228: On the _via Appia_. Cicero halts at Appii Forum and at once despatches a short note, probably by some one he finds there going to Rome, to announce a change of plan. He had meant to get back to Antium on 6th May, because Tullia wanted to see the games. See Letter x.x.xIV, p. 96.]

x.x.xVIII (A II, 11)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIae, APRIL

[Sidenote: B.C. 59, aeT. 47]

I tell you what it is: I feel myself a downright exile since arriving at Formiae. For at Antium there was never a day that I didn't know what was going on at Rome better than those who were there. For your letters used to shew me not only what was doing at Rome, but the actual political situation also--and not only that, but also what was likely to happen. Now, unless I s.n.a.t.c.h a bit of news from some pa.s.sing traveller, I can learn nothing at all. Wherefore, though I am expecting you in person, yet pray give this boy, whom I have ordered to hurry back to me at once, a bulky letter, crammed not only with all occurrences, but with what you think about them; and be careful to let me know the day you are going to leave Rome. I intend staying at Formiae till the 6th of May. If you don't come there by that day, I shall perhaps see you at Rome. For why should I invite you to Arpinum?

"A rugged soil, yet nurse of hardy sons: No dearer land can e'er my eyes behold."[229]

So much for this. Take care of your health.

[Footnote 229: Homer, _Odyss._ ix. 27.]

x.x.xIX (A II, 13)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIae, APRIL

[Sidenote: B.C. 59, aeT. 47]

What an abominable thing! No one gave you my letter written on the spot at Three Taverns in answer to your delightful letters! But the fact is that the packet into which I had put it arrived at my town house on the same day as I wrote it, and has been brought back to me to Formiae.

Accordingly, I have directed the letter meant for you to be taken back again, to shew you how pleased I was with yours. So you say that the talk has died out at Rome! I thought so: but, by Hercules, it hasn't died out in the country, and it has come to this, that the very country can't stand the despotism you have got at Rome. When you come to "Laestrygonia of the distant gates"[230]--I mean Formiae--what loud murmurs! what angry souls! what unpopularity for our friend Magnus! His surname is getting as much out of fas.h.i.+on as the "Dives" of Cra.s.sus.

Believe me, I have met no one here to take the present state of things as quietly as I do. Wherefore, credit me, let us stick to philosophy. I am ready to take my oath that there is nothing to beat it. If you have a despatch to send to the Sicyonians,[231] make haste to Formiae, whence I think of going on the 6th of May.

[Footnote 230: t???p???? ?a?st????????, whose king Lamus (_Odyss._ x.

81) was supposed to have founded Formiae (Horace, _Od._ iii. 17).]

[Footnote 231: A despatch from senate or consuls. See Letter XXIV, p.

60.]

XL (A II, 14)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIae, APRIL

[Sidenote: B.C. 59, aeT. 47.]

How you rouse my curiosity as to what Bibulus says, as to your conversation with "Iuno," and even as to your "fast" dinner party!

Therefore make haste to come, for my ears are thirsty for news. However, there is nothing which I think is now more to be dreaded by me than that our dear Sampsiceramus, finding himself belaboured by the tongues of all, and seeing these proceedings easy to upset, should begin striking out. For myself, I have so completely lost all nerve, that I prefer a despotism, with the existing peace, to a state of war with the best hopes in the world. As to literary composition, to which you frequently urge me, it is impossible! My house is a basilica rather than a villa, owing to the crowds of visitors from Formiae. But (you'll say) do I really compare the aemilian tribe to the crowd in a basilica?[232] Well, I say nothing about the common ruck--the rest of them don't bother me after ten o'clock: but C. Arrius is my next door neighbour, or rather, he almost lives in my house, and even declares that the reason for his not going to Rome is that he may spend whole days with me here philosophizing! And then, lo and behold, on my other side is Sebosus, that friend of Catulus! Which way am I to turn? By heaven, I would start at once for Arpinum, only that I see that the most convenient place to await your visit is Formiae: but only up to the 6th of May! For you see with what bores my ears are pestered. What a splendid opportunity, with such fellows in the house, if anyone wanted to buy my Formian property![233] And in spite of all this am I to make good my words, "Let us attempt something great, and requiring much thought and leisure"?

However, I _will_ do something for you, and not spare my labour.

[Footnote 232: _At comparem_ for _at quam partem_. _At_ has its usual force of introducing a supposed objection. I can't, say you, compare the aemilian tribe, the Formiani, to a crowd in a court-house! They are not so bad as that, not so wasteful of time! I take _basilica_ to mean the saunterers in a basilica, as we might say "the park" for the company in it, "the exchange" for the brokers in it. I feel certain that Prof.

Tyrrell is wrong in ascribing the words _sed--sunt_ to a quotation from Atticus's letter. What is wanted is to remove the full stop after _sunt_. The contrast Cicero is drawing is between the interruption to literary work of a crowd of visitors and of one or two individuals always turning up. The second is the worse--and here I think all workers will agree with him: the crowd of visitors (_vulgus_) go at the regular hour, but individuals come in at all hours.]

[Footnote 233: Because he would be inclined to sell it cheap in his disgust.]