The Letters of Cicero Part 16

XLI (A II, 15)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIae, APRIL

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

As you say, things are as s.h.i.+fting (I see) in public affairs as in your letter; still, that very variety of talk and opinion has a charm for me.

For I seem to be at Rome when I am reading your letter, and, as is the regular thing in questions of such importance, to hear something first on one side and then on the other. But what I can't make out is this--what he can possibly hit upon to settle the land question without encountering opposition. Again, as to Bibulus's firmness in putting off the _comitia_, it only conveys the expression of his own views, without really offering any remedy for the state of the Republic. Upon my word, my only hope is in Publius! Let him become, let him become a tribune by all means, if for no other reason, yet that you may be brought back from Epirus! For I don't see how you can possibly afford to miss him, especially if he shall elect to have a wrangle with me! But, seriously, if anything of the sort occurs, you would, I am certain, hurry back. But even supposing this not to be the case, yet whether he runs amuck or helps to raise the state, I promise myself a fine spectacle, if only I may enjoy it with you sitting by my side.[234] Just as I was writing these words, enter Sebosus! I had scarcely got out a sigh when "Good day," says Arrius. This is what you call going out of town! I shall really be off to

"My native mountains and my childhood's haunts."[235]

In fine, if I can't be alone I would rather be with downright countryfolk than with such ultra-c.o.c.kneys. However, I shall, since you don't say anything for certain, wait for you up to the 5th of May.

Terentia is much pleased with the attention and care you have bestowed on her controversy with Mulvius. She is not aware that you are supporting the common cause of all holders of public land. Yet, after all, _you_ do pay something to the _publicani_; she declines to pay even that,[236] and, accordingly, she and Cicero--most conservative of boys--send their kind regards.

[Footnote 234: The spectacle Cicero hopes for is Clodius's contests with the triumvirs.]

[Footnote 235: To Arpinum (see last letter). The verse is not known, and may be a quotation from his own poem on Marius. He often quotes himself.]

[Footnote 236: This is not mentioned elsewhere. The explanation seems to be that for the _ager publicus_ allotted under the Semp.r.o.nian laws a small rent had been exacted, which was abolished by a law of B.C. 111 (the name of the law being uncertain). But some _ager publicus_ still paid rent, and the _publica.n.u.s_ Mulvius seems to have claimed it from some land held by Terentia, perhaps on the ground that it was land (such as the _ager Campa.n.u.s_) not affected by the law of Gracchus, and therefore not by the subsequent law abolis.h.i.+ng rent.]

XLII (A II, 16)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIae, 29 APRIL

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

On the day before the Kalends of May, when I had dined and was just going to sleep, the letter was delivered to me containing your news about the Campanian land. You needn't ask: at first it gave me such a shock that there was no more sleep for me, though that was the result of thought rather than pain. On reflexion, however, the following ideas occurred to me. In the first place, from what you had said in your previous letter--"that you had heard from a friend of his[237] that a proposal was going to be made which would satisfy everybody"--I had feared some very sweeping measure, but I don't think this is anything of the sort. In the next place, by way of consolation, I persuaded myself that the hope of a distribution of land is now all centred on the Campanian territory.[238] That land cannot support more than 5,000, so as to give ten _iugera_ apiece:[239] the rest of the crowd of expectants must necessarily be alienated from them. Besides, if there is anything that more than another could inflame the feeling of the aristocrats, who are, I notice, already irritated, it is this; and all the more that with port-dues in Italy abolished,[240] and the Campanian land divided, what home revenue is there except the five per cent. on manumissions? And even that, I think, it will only take a single trumpery harangue, cheered by our lackeys, to throw away also. What our friend Gnaeus can be thinking of I can't imagine--

"For still he blows, and with no slender pipe, But furious blasts by no mouth-band restrained"--

to be induced to countenance such a measure as that. For hitherto he has fenced with these questions: "he approved Caesar's laws, but Caesar must be responsible for his proceedings in carrying them"; "he himself was satisfied with the agrarian law "; "whether it could be vetoed by a tribune or no was nothing to do with him"; "he thought the time had come for the business of the Alexandrine king to be settled"; "it was no business of his to inquire whether Bibulus had been watching the sky on that occasion or no"; "as to the _publicani_, he had been willing to oblige that order"; "what was going to happen if Bibulus came down to the forum at that time he could not have guessed."[241] But now, my Sampsiceramus, what will you say to this? That you have secured us a revenue from the Antiliba.n.u.s and removed that from the Campanian land?

Well, how do you mean to vindicate that? "I shall coerce you," says he, "by means of Caesar's army." You won't coerce me, by Hercules, by your army so much as by the ingrat.i.tude of the so-called _boni_, who have never made me any return, even in words, to say nothing of substantial rewards. But if I had put out my strength against that coterie, I should certainly have found some way of holding my own against them. As things are, in view of the controversy between your friend Dicaearchus and my friend Theophrastus--the former recommending the life of action, the latter the life of contemplation--I think I have already obeyed both.

For as to Dicaearchus, I think I have satisfied his requirements; at present my eyes are fixed on the school which not only allows of my abstaining from business, but blames me for not having always done so.

Wherefore let me throw myself, my dear t.i.tus, into those n.o.ble studies, and let me at length return to what I ought never to have left.

As to what you say about Quintus's letter, when he wrote to me he was also "in front a lion and behind a ----."[242] I don't know what to say about it; for in the first lines of his letter he makes such a lamentation over his continuance in his province, that no one could help being affected: presently he calms down sufficiently to ask me to correct and edit his Annals. However, I would wish you to have an eye to what you mention, I mean the duty on goods transferred from port to port. He says that by the advice of his council he has referred the question to the senate. He evidently had not read my letter, in which after having considered and investigated the matter, I had sent him a written opinion that they were not payable.[243] If any Greeks have already arrived at Rome from Asia on that business, please look into it and, if you think it right, explain to them my opinion on the subject.

If, to save the good cause in the senate, I can retract, I will gratify the _publicani_: but if not, to be plain with you, I prefer in this matter the interests of all Asia and the merchants; for it affects the latter also very seriously. I think it is a matter of great importance to us. But you will settle it. Are the quaestors, pray, still hesitating on the _cistophorus_ question?[244] If nothing better is to be had, after trying everything in our power, I should be for not refusing even the lowest offer. I shall see you at Arpinum and offer you country entertainment, since you have despised this at the seaside.

[Footnote 237: Caesar.]

[Footnote 238: The old territory of Capua and the Stellatian Plain had been specially reserved from distribution under the laws of the Gracchi, and this reservation had not been repealed in subsequent laws: _ad subsidia reipublicae vectigalem relictum_ (Suet. _Caes._ 20; cp. Cic. 2 _Phil._ -- 101).]

[Footnote 239: According to Suetonius 20,000 citizens had allotments on the _ager publicus_ in Campania. But Dio says (x.x.xviii. 1) that the Campanian land was exempted by the _lex Iulia_ also. Its settlement was probably later, by colonies of Caesar's veterans. A _iugerum_ is five-eighths of an acre.]

[Footnote 240: See Letter XXIX, p. 82. They were abolished B.C. 60.]

[Footnote 241: This and the mention of Caesar's "army" (a bodyguard) is explained by Suet. _Caes._ 20: "Having promulgated his agrarian law, Caesar expelled his colleague, Bibulus, by force of arms from the Forum when trying to stop proceedings by announcing bad omens ... and finally reduced him to such despair that for the rest of his year of office he confined himself to his house and only announced his bad omens by means of edicts." Bibulus appears to have been hustled by the mob also.]

[Footnote 242: p??s?e ???? ?p??e? d? ----. Cicero leaves Atticus, as he often does, to fill up the rest of the line, d?????, ?ss? d? ??a??a (Hom. _Il._ vi. 181). He means, of course, that Quintus is inconsistent.]

[Footnote 243: The question seems to be as to goods brought to a port and paying duty, and then, not finding a sale, being transferred to another port in the same province. The _publicani_ at the second port demanded the payment of a duty again, which Cicero decides against them.]

[Footnote 244: Schutz takes this to mean, "Are the quaestors now doubting as to paying _even cistophori_?" _i.e._, are they, so far from paying in Roman _denarii_, even hesitating to pay in Asiatic? But if so, what is the _extremum_ which Cicero advises Quintus to accept? Prof. Tyrrell, besides, points out that the quaestors could hardly refuse to pay anything for provincial expenses. It is a question between _cistophori_ and _denarii_. See p. 92.]

XLIII (A II, 17)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

FORMIae, MAY

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

I quite agree with your letter. Sampsiceramus is getting up a disturbance. We have everything to fear. He is preparing a despotism and no mistake about it. For what else is the meaning of that sudden marriage union,[245] the Campanian land affair, the lavish expenditure of money? If these measures were final, even then the mischief had been very great; but the nature of the case makes finality impossible. For how could these measures possibly give them any pleasure in themselves?

They would never have gone so far as this unless they had been paving the way for other fatal steps. Immortal G.o.ds!--But, as you say, at Arpinum about the 10th of May we will not weep over these questions, lest the hard work and midnight oil I have spent over my studies shall turn out to have been wasted, but discuss them together calmly. For I am not so much consoled by a sanguine disposition as by philosophic "indifference,"[246] which I call to my aid in nothing so much as in our civil and political business. Nay, more, whatever vanity or sneaking love of reputation there is lurking in me--for it is well to know one's faults--is tickled by a certain pleasurable feeling. For it used to sting me to the heart to think that centuries hence the services of Sampsiceramus to the state would loom larger than my own. That anxiety, at least, is now put to rest. For he is so utterly fallen that, in comparison with him, Curius might seem to be standing erect after his fall.[247] But all this when we meet. Yet, as far as I can see, you will be at Rome when I come. I shall not be at all sorry for that, if you can conveniently manage it. But if you come to see me, as you say in your letter, I wish you would fish out of Theophanes how "Arabarches"[248] is disposed to me. You will, of course, inquire with your usual zeal, and bring me the result to serve as a kind of suggestion for the line of conduct I am to adopt. From his conversation we shall be able to get an inkling of the whole situation.

[Footnote 245: The marriage of Pompey with Caesar's daughter Iulia.]

[Footnote 246: ?d?af???a, a word taken from the Stoies, _huic_ [_Zenoni_] _summum bonum est in his rebus neutram in partem moveri, quae ?d?af???a ab ipso dicitur_ (_Acad._ ii. -- 130).]

[Footnote 247: C. Curius, one of the Catiline set, who had been ignominiously expelled from the senate.]

[Footnote 248: Another nickname of Pompey, from the t.i.tle of the head of the Thebais in Egypt. Like Sampsiceramus and the others, it is meant as a scornful allusion to Pompey's achievements in the East, and perhaps his known wish to have the direction of affairs in Egypt.]

XLIV (A II, 18)

TO ATTICUS (ON HIS WAY TO EPIRUS)

ROME