The Letters of Cicero Part 47

CLVIII (Q FR III, 8)

TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)

ROME (NOVEMBER)

[Sidenote: B.C. 54, aeT. 52]

The earlier of your two letters is full of irritability and complainings, and you say you gave another of the same sort the day before to Labienus, who has not yet arrived--but I have nothing to say in answer to it, for your more recent letter has obliterated all trace of vexation from my mind. I will only give you this hint and make this request, that in the midst of your vexations and labours you should recall what our notion was as to your going to Caesar. For our object was not the acquisition of certain small and unimportant gains. For what was there of that kind which we should have thought worth the price of our separation? What we sought was the strongest possible security for the maintenance of our entire political position by the countenance of a man of the highest character and most commanding influence. Our interest is not so much in the acquisition of sums of money, as in the realization of this hope: all else that you get is to be regarded only as a security against actual loss.[678] Wherefore, if you will frequently turn your thoughts back upon what we originally proposed to ourselves and hoped to do, you will bear with less impatience the labours of military service of which you speak and the other things which annoy you, and, nevertheless, will resign them whenever you choose. But the right moment for that step is not yet come, though it is now not far off.

Farthermore, I give you this hint--don't commit anything at all to writing, the publication of which would be annoying to us. There are many things that I would rather not know than learn at some risk. I shall write at greater length to you with a mind less preoccupied, when my boy Cicero is, as I hope he will be, in a good state of health. Pray be careful to let me know to whom I should give the letter which I shall then send you--to Caesar's letter-carriers, for him to forward them direct to you, or to those of Labienus? For where your Nervii dwell, and how far off, I have no idea.[679] I derived great pleasure from your letter describing the courage and dignity displayed (as you say) by Caesar in his extreme sorrow. You bid me finish the poem in his honour which I had begun; and although I have been diverted from it by business, and still more by my feelings, yet, since Caesar knows that I did begin something, I will return to my design, and will complete in these leisure days of the "supplications,"[680] during which I greatly rejoice that our friend Messalla and the rest are at last relieved from worry. In reckoning on him as certain to be consul with Domitius, you are quite in agreement with my own opinion. I will guarantee Messalla to Caesar: but Memmius cherishes a hope, founded on Caesar's return to Italy, in which I think he is under a mistake. He is, indeed, quite out of it here. Scaurus, again, has been long ago thrown over by Pompey. The business has been put off: the _comitia_ postponed and postponed, till we may expect an _interregnum_. The rumour of a dictator is not pleasing to the aristocrats; for myself, I like still less what they say. But the proposal, as a whole, is looked upon with alarm, and grows unpopular.

Pompey says outright that he doesn't wish it: to me previously he used not personally to deny the wish. Hirrus seems likely to be the proposer.

Ye G.o.ds! what folly! How in love with himself and without--a rival! He has commissioned me to choke off Caelius Vinicia.n.u.s, a man much attached to me. Whether Pompey wishes it or not, it is difficult to be sure.

However, if it is Hirrus who makes the proposal, he will not convince people that he does not wish it. There is nothing else being talked about in politics just now; at any rate, nothing else is being done. The funeral of the son of Serra.n.u.s Domesticus took place in very melancholy circ.u.mstances on the 23rd of November. His father delivered the funeral oration which I composed for him. Now about Milo. Pompey gives him no support, and is all for Gutta, saying also that he will secure Caesar on his side. Milo is alarmed at this, and no wonder, and almost gives up hope if Pompey is created dictator. If he a.s.sists anyone who vetoes the dictators.h.i.+p by his troop and bodyguard,[681] he fears he may excite Pompey's enmity: if he doesn't do so, he fears the proposal may be carried by force. He is preparing games on a most magnificent scale, at a cost, I a.s.sure you, that no one has ever exceeded. It is foolish, on two or even three accounts, to give games that were not demanded--he has already given a magnificent show of gladiators: he cannot afford it: he is only an executor, and might have reflected that he is now an executor, not an aedile. That is about all I had to write. Take care of yourself, dearest brother.

[Footnote 678: Cicero means, "the substantial gain to be got from your serving under Caesar in Gaul is the securing of his protection in the future: all other gains, such as money etc., are merely to be regarded as securing you from immediate loss in thus going to Gaul: they don't add anything fresh to our position and prospects."]

[Footnote 679: Quintus had his winter quarters among the Nervii, in a town near the modern Charleroi. In this winter he was in great danger from a sudden rising of the Nervii and other tribes (Caes. _B. G._ v.

24-49).]

[Footnote 680: Twenty days of _supplicatio_ had been decreed in honour of Caesar's campaigns of B.C. 55 (Caes. _B. G._ iv. 38).]

[Footnote 681: His gladiators, which he kept in training for the games he was going to give in honour of a deceased friend.]

CLIX (Q FR III, 9)

TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)

ROME (NOVEMBER OR DECEMBER)

[Sidenote: B.C. 54, aeT. 52]

In regard to Gabinius, I had not to carry out any of the measures which you suggested with such affectionate solicitude. "May the earth swallow me rather, etc.!"[682] I acted with very great dignity and also with the greatest consideration. I neither bore hardly on him nor helped him. I gave strong evidence, in other respects I did not stir. The disgraceful and mischievous result of the trial I bore with the utmost serenity. And this is the advantage which, after all that has happened, has accrued to me--that I am not even affected in the least by those evils in the state and the licentious conduct of the shameless, which used formerly to make me burst with indignation: for anything more abandoned than the men and the times in which we are living there cannot be. Accordingly, as no pleasure can possibly be got from politics, I don't know why I should lose my temper. Literature and my favourite studies, along with the retirement of my country houses, and above all our two boys, furnish my enjoyments. The one man who vexes me is Milo. But I hope an end will be put to my anxieties by his getting the consuls.h.i.+p: and to obtain this for him I shall struggle as hard as I did for my own, and you, I am sure, will continue to give a.s.sistance from over there. In his case other things are all secure, unless it is s.n.a.t.c.hed from his grasp by downright violence: it is about his means that I am frightened:

"For he is now beyond all bearing mad,"[683]

to spend 1,000,000 sesterces (about 8,000) on his games. His want of prudence in this one particular I shall put up with as well as I can, and you should be strong-minded enough to do the same. In mentioning the changes to be expected next year, I didn't mean you to understand me to refer to domestic alarms: the reference was wholly to the state of the Republic, in which, though not charged with any actual duty, I can scarcely discharge myself from all anxiety. Yet how cautious I would have you be in writing you may guess from the fact that I do not mention in my letters to you even open acts of disorder in the state, lest my letter should be intercepted and give offence to the feelings of anyone.

Wherefore, as far as domestic affairs are concerned, I would have you be quite easy: in politics I know how anxious you always are. I can see that our friend Messalla will be consul, if by means of an _interrex_, without any prosecution, if by that of a dictator, without danger of conviction. He is not disliked by anyone. Hortensius's warm support will stand him in good stead. Gabinius's acquittal is looked upon as a general act of indemnity. _En pa.s.sant_: nothing has, after all, been done as yet about a dictators.h.i.+p. Pompey is out of town; Appius is intriguing darkly; Hirrus is paving the way: there are many tribunes calculated on to veto it: the people are indifferent: the leading men disinclined to it: I don't stir a finger. I am exceedingly obliged for your promises as to slaves, and I am indeed, as you say, short-handed both at Rome and on my estates. But pray do nothing for my convenience unless it entirely suits your own, and your means. About the letter of Vatinius I laughed heartily. But though I know I am being watched by him, I can swallow his hatred and digest it too. You urge me to "finish": well, I have finished what, in my own opinion at least, is a very pretty "epic" on Caesar, but I am in search of a trustworthy letter-carrier, lest it should share the fate of your _Erigona_[684]--the only personage who has missed a safe journey from Gaul during Caesar's governors.h.i.+p.

What? because I had no good stone was I to pull down the whole building?--a building which I like better every day of my life: the lower court especially and the chambers attached to it are admirable. As to Arcanum, it is a building worthy of Caesar, or, by heaven, of some one even more tasteful still. For your statues, _palaestra_, fish-pond, and conduit are worthy of many Philotimuses, and quite above your Diphiluses. But I will visit them personally, as well as sending men to look after them and giving orders about them. As to the will of Felix, you will complain more when you know all. For the doc.u.ment which he believed himself to have sealed, in which your name was most certainly entered as heir to a twelfth, this, by a mistake of his own and of his slave Sicura, he did not seal: while the one which he did not intend to seal he did seal. But let it go hang, so long as we keep well! I am as devoted to your son Cicero as you can wish, and as he deserves, and as I am bound to be. However, I am letting him leave me, both to avoid keeping him from his teachers, and because his mother is leaving, without whom I am very much alarmed as to the boy's large appet.i.te. Yet, after all, we see a great deal of each other. I have now answered all your letters. Dearest and best of brothers, good-bye.

[Footnote 682: _I.e._, rather than defend him. t?te ?? ????? (e??e?a ????), Hom. _Il._ iv. 182.]

[Footnote 683: ? d? a??eta? ??? ?t' ??e?t?? (Hom. _Il._ viii. 355). The numerals seem doubtful. According to some MSS. the amount would be 10,000,000, _i.e._, 80,000.]

[Footnote 684: The tragedy written by Quintus and lost in transit.]

CLX (F VII, 10)

TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)

ROME (NOVEMBER)

[Sidenote: B.C. 54, aeT. 52]

I have read your letter which informs me that our Caesar considers you a great lawyer. You must be glad to have found a country where you have the credit of knowing something. But if you had gone to Britain also, I feel sure that there would not have been in all that great island anyone more learned in the law than you. However--you won't mind my laughing, for you invited me to do so--I am becoming positively a little jealous of you! That you should have been actually sent for by a man whom other people--not because of his pride, but of his many engagements--cannot venture to approach!

But in that letter you told me nothing about your success, which, by heaven, is of no less concern to me than my own. I am very much afraid you may be frozen in your winter quarters: and therefore I think you ought to use a good stove. Mucius and Manilius "concur" in this opinion, especially on the ground of your being short of military cloaks.

However, I am told that you are having a sufficiently warm time of it where you are--news which made me much alarmed for you.[685] However, in military matters you are much more cautious than at the bar, seeing that you wouldn't take a swim in the ocean, fond of swimming as you are, and wouldn't take a look at the British charioteers, though in old time I could never cheat you even out of a blind-folded gladiator.[686] But enough of joking. You know how earnestly I have written to Caesar about you; I know how often. Yet, in truth, I have lately ceased doing so, lest I should appear to distrust the kindness of a man who has been most liberal and affectionate to me. However, in the very last letter I wrote I thought he ought to be reminded. I did so. Please tell me what effect it had, and at the same time tell me about your position in general and all your plans. For I am anxious to know what you are doing, what you are expecting, how long your separation from us you think is to last. I would wish you to believe that the one consolation, enabling me to bear your absence, is the knowledge that it is for your advantage. But if that is not so, nothing can be more foolish than both the one and the other of us: me for not inducing you to come back to Rome--you for not flying thither. By heavens, our conversation, whether serious or jesting, will be worth more not only than the enemy, but even than our "brothers" the Haedui.[687] Wherefore let me know about everything as soon as possible:

"I'll be some use by comfort, rede, or pelf."[688]

[Footnote 685: He seems to refer to the rising of the Nervii against the Roman winter quarters (Caes. _B. G._ v. 39 _seq_).]

[Footnote 686: _Andabatam_, a gladiator with a closed helmet covering the face, who thus fought without seeing his adversary.]

[Footnote 687: A t.i.tle granted to the Haedui by the senate (Caes. _B. G._ i. 33; Tac. _Ann._ xi. 25).]

[Footnote 688: Terence, _Heautont_. 86.]

CLXI (F I, 10)

TO L. VALERIUS (IN CILICIA)

ROME

[Sidenote: B.C. 54, aeT. 52]

M. Cicero wishes heath to L. Valerius, learned in the law. For why I should not pay you this compliment I don't know, especially considering that in these times one may employ impudence to supply the place of learning. I have written to our friend Lentulus, thanking him earnestly in your name. But I could wish that you would now cease using my letter of introduction and at last come back to us, and prefer a city where you are of some account, to a place where you appear to be the only man of legal learning. However, those who come from where you are either say you are proud because you give no "opinions," or insulting because you give bad ones.[689] But I am now longing to crack a joke with you face to face. So come as soon as ever you can, and don't go and visit your native Apulia, that we may have the joy of welcoming your safe return.

For if you go there, like another Ulysses, you will not recognize any of your friends.[690]

[Footnote 689: Cicero perhaps means that Valerius's "opinions" are too right to suit such a set as are to be found in the province. Valerius will not mind people there thinking him a bad lawyer. "At Rome you are considered a good lawyer, in Cilicia they don't think so!"]

[Footnote 690: _Cognosces tuorum neminem._. Others read _cognoscere tuorum nemini_, "you will not be recognized by any of your friends,"