The Letters of Cicero Part 5

ROME, JULY

[Sidenote: B.C. 65, aeT. 41]

The state of things in regard to my candidature, in which I know that you are supremely interested, is this, as far as can be as yet conjectured. The only person actually canva.s.sing is P. Sulpicius Galba.[42] He meets with a good old-fas.h.i.+oned refusal without reserve or disguise. In the general opinion this premature canva.s.s of his is not unfavourable to my interests; for the voters generally give as a reason for their refusal that they are under obligations to me. So I hope my prospects are to a certain degree improved by the report getting about that my friends are found to be numerous. My intention was to begin my own canva.s.s just at the very time that Cincius[43] tells me that your servant starts with this letter, namely, in the _campus_ at the time of the tribunician elections on the 17th of July. My fellow candidates, to mention only those who seem certain, are Galba and Antonius and Q.

Cornificius.[44] At this I imagine you smiling or sighing. Well, to make you positively smite your forehead, there _are_ people who actually think that Caesonius[45] will stand. I don't think Aquilius will, for he openly disclaims it and has alleged as an excuse his health and his leading position at the bar. Catiline will certainly be a candidate, if you can imagine a jury finding that the sun does not s.h.i.+ne at noon. As for Aufidius and Palica.n.u.s,[46] I don't think you will expect to hear from me about them. Of the candidates for this year's election Caesar is considered certain. Thermus is looked upon as the rival of Sila.n.u.s.[47]

These latter are so weak both in friends and reputation that it seems _pas impossible_ to bring in Curius over their heads. But no one else thinks so. What seems most to my interests is that Thermus should get in with Caesar. For there is none of those at present canva.s.sing who, if left over to my year, seems likely to be a stronger candidate, from the fact that he is commissioner of the _via Flaminia_, and when that has been finished, I shall be greatly relieved to have seen him elected consul this election.[48] Such in outline is the position of affairs in regard to candidates up to date. For myself I shall take the greatest pains to carry out all the duties of a candidate, and perhaps, as Gaul seems to have a considerable voting power, as soon as business at Rome has come to a standstill I shall obtain a _libera legatio_ and make an excursion in the course of September to visit Piso,[49] but so as not to be back later than January. When I have ascertained the feelings of the n.o.bility I will write you word. Everything else I hope will go smoothly, at any rate while my compet.i.tors are such as are now in town. You must undertake to secure for me the _entourage_ of our friend Pompey, since you are nearer than I. Tell him I shall not be annoyed if he doesn't come to my election.[50] So much for that business. But there is a matter for which I am very anxious that you should forgive me. Your uncle Caecilius having been defrauded of a large sum of money by P.

Varius, began an action against his cousin A. Caninius Satyrus for the property which (as he alleged) the latter had received from Varius by a collusive sale. He was joined in this action by the other creditors, among whom were Lucullus and P. Scipio, and the man whom they thought would be official receiver if the property was put up for sale, Lucius Pontius; though it is ridiculous to be talking about a receiver at this stage in the proceedings. Caecilius asked me to appear for him against Satyrus. Now, scarcely a day pa.s.ses that Satyrus does not call at my house. The chief object of his attentions is L. Domitius,[51] but I am next in his regard. He has been of great service both to myself and to my brother Quintus in our elections. I was very much embarra.s.sed by my intimacy with Satyrus as well as that with Domitius, on whom the success of my election depends more than on anyone else. I pointed out these facts to Caecilius; at the same time I a.s.sured him that if the case had been one exclusively between himself and Satyrus, I would have done what he wished. As the matter actually stood, all the creditors being concerned--and that too men of the highest rank, who, without the aid of anyone specially retained by Caecilius, would have no difficulty in maintaining their common cause--it was only fair that he should have consideration both for my private friends.h.i.+p and my present situation.

He seemed to take this somewhat less courteously than I could have wished, or than is usual among gentlemen; and from that time forth he has entirely withdrawn from the intimacy with me, which was only of a few day's standing.[52] Pray forgive me, and believe that I was prevented by nothing but natural kindness from a.s.sailing the reputation of a friend in so vital a point at a time of such very great distress, considering that he had shewn me every sort of kindness and attention.

But if you incline to the harsher view of my conduct, take it that the interests of my canva.s.s prevented me. Yet, even granting that to be so, I think you should pardon me, "since not for sacred beast or oxhide s.h.i.+eld."[53] You see in fact the position I am in, and how necessary I regard it, not only to retain but even to acquire all possible sources of popularity. I hope I have justified myself in your eyes, I am at any rate anxious to have done so. The Hermathena you sent I am delighted with: it has been placed with such charming effect that the whole gymnasium seems arranged specially for it.[54] I am exceedingly obliged to you.

[Footnote 42: One of the judices rejected by Verres on his trial, a pontifex and augur.]

[Footnote 43: Agent of Atticus.]

[Footnote 44: C. Antonius (uncle of M. Antonius) was elected with Cicero. Q. Cornificius had been tr. pl. in B.C. 69. See Letter XVIII.]

[Footnote 45: M. Caesonius, Cicero's colleague in the aediles.h.i.+p. He had lost credit as one of the _Iunianum concilium_ in the trial of Oppianicus.]

[Footnote 46: Aufidius Lurco, tr. pl. B.C. 61. M. Lollius Palica.n.u.s, tr.

pl. some years previously.]

[Footnote 47: L. Iulius Caesar, actually consul in B.C. 64, brother-in-law of Lentulus the Catilinarian conspirator, was afterwards _legatus_ to his distant kinsman, Iulius Caesar, in Gaul. A. Minucius Thermus, defended by Cicero in B.C. 59, but the identification is not certain. D. Iunius Sila.n.u.s got the consuls.h.i.+p in the year after Cicero (B.C. 62), and as consul-designate spoke in favour of executing the Catilinarian conspirators.]

[Footnote 48: The text is corrupt in all MSS. I have a.s.sumed a reading, something of this sort, _quae c.u.m erit absoluta, sane facile ac libenter eum nunc fieri consulem viderim_. This at any rate gives nearly the required sense, which is that Cicero regards the influence which Thermus will gain by managing the repair of the _Flaminia_ as likely to make him a formidable candidate, and therefore he would be glad to see him elected in the present year 65 (_nunc_) rather than wait for the next, his own year.]

[Footnote 49: C. Calpurnis Piso, consul in B.C. 67, then proconsul of Gallia Transalpina (Narbonensis). He was charged with embezzlement in his province and defended by Cicero in B.C. 63. There were no votes in Transalpine Gaul, but Cicero means in going and coming to canva.s.s the Cispadane cities.]

[Footnote 50: Pompey was this year on his way to take over the Mithridatic War. But Cicero may have thought it likely that he or some of his staff would pa.s.s through Athens and meet Atticus.]

[Footnote 51: L. Domitius Ahen.o.barbus, praetor in B.C. 58, and consul B.C. 54, fell at Pharsalia, fighting against Caesar.]

[Footnote 52: Q. Caecilius, a rich uncle of Atticus, so cross-grained that no one but Atticus could get on with him, to whom he accordingly left his large fortune (Nep. _Att._ 5).]

[Footnote 53: Hom. _Il._ xxii. 159, Achilles pursuing Hector:

"Since not for sacred beast or oxhide s.h.i.+eld They strove,--man's guerdon for the fleet of foot: Their stake was Hector's soul, the swift steed's lord."

[Footnote 54: Reading _eius_ ?????a, and taking the latter word in the common sense of "ornament": the Hermathena is so placed that the whole gymnasium is as it were an ornament to it, designed to set it off, instead of its being a mere ornament to the gymnasium. Professor Tyrrell, however, will not admit that the words can have this or any meaning, and reads, ????? ??aa, "sun light"--"the whole gymnasium seems as bright as the sun"--a curious effect, after all, for one statue to have.]

XI (A I, 2)

TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

ROME, JULY

[Sidenote: B.C. 65, aeT. 41]

I have to inform you that on the day of the election of L. Iulius Caesar and C. Marcius Figulus to the consuls.h.i.+p, I had an addition to my family in the shape of a baby boy. Terentia doing well.

Why such a time without a letter from you? I have already written to you fully about my circ.u.mstances. At this present time I am considering whether to undertake the defence of my fellow candidate, Catiline.[55]

We have a jury to our minds with full consent of the prosecutor. I hope that if he is acquitted he will be more closely united with me in the conduct of our canva.s.s; but if the result be otherwise I shall bear it with resignation. Your early return is of great importance to me, for there is a very strong idea prevailing that some intimate friends of yours, persons of high rank, will be opposed to my election. To win me their favour I see that I shall want you very much. Wherefore be sure to be in Rome in January, as you have agreed to be.

[Sidenote: B.C. 62. Coss., D. Iunius Sila.n.u.s, L. Licinius Murena.]

We have no letters to or from Cicero in the years B.C. 64 and 63,[56] partly, no doubt, because Atticus was in Rome a great deal during these years. We take up the correspondence, therefore, after an interval of two years, which in many respects were the most important in Cicero's life. In B.C. 64 he attained his chief ambition by being elected to the consuls.h.i.+p, but we have little trace of his public actions that year, only the fragments of one speech remaining, in defence of Q. Gallius on a charge of _ambitus_. The animus of the popular party, however, is shewn by the prosecution of some surviving partisans of Sulla on charges of homicide, among them Catiline, who by some means escaped conviction (Dio, x.x.xvii. 10). In the year of the consuls.h.i.+p (B.C. 63) some of Cicero's most important speeches were delivered. The three on the agrarian proposals of Rullus present him to us for the first time as discussing an important question of home politics, the disposal of the _ager publicus_, a question which had become again prominent owing to the great additions made to it by the confiscations of Sulla. He also defended C. Rabirius, prosecuted by Iulius Caesar for the murder of Saturninus as long ago as B.C. 100, and later in the year defended Murena on a charge of _ambitus_. Finally, the three Catilinarian speeches ill.u.s.trate the event which coloured the whole of Cicero's life. In B.C. 62 his brother Quintus was praetor and Cicero defended in his court P. Sulla, accused of complicity with Catiline. On the 29th of December (B.C. 63) the tribune Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos prevented Cicero from making a speech when laying down his consuls.h.i.+p, and went on to propose summoning Pompey to Rome, "to protect the lives of the citizens." This led to scenes of violence, and Metellus fled to Pompey, who reached Italy late in the year B.C. 62 from the East.

[Footnote 55: Asconius a.s.signs this to the accusation of embezzlement in Africa. But that seems to have been tried in the previous year, or earlier in this year. The new impeachment threatened seems to have been connected with his crimes in the proscriptions of Sulla (Dio, x.x.xvii, 10). Cicero may have thought of defending him on a charge relating to so distant a period, just as he did Rabirius on the charge of murdering Saturninus (B.C. 100), though he had regarded his guilt in the case of extortion in Africa as glaring.]

[Footnote 56: The essay on the duties of a candidate attributed to Quintus is hardly a letter, and there is some doubt as to its authenticity. I have therefore relegated it to an appendix.]

XII (F V, 7)

TO CN. POMPEIUS MAGNUS

ROME

_M. Tullius Cicero, son of Marcus, greets Cn. Pompeius, son of Cneius, Imperator._

[Sidenote: B.C. 62. aeT. 44]

If you and the army are well I shall be glad. From your official despatch I have, in common with everyone else, received the liveliest satisfaction; for you have given us that strong hope of peace, of which, in sole reliance on you, I was a.s.suring everyone. But I must inform you that your old enemies--now posing as your friends--have received a stunning blow by this despatch, and, being disappointed in the high hopes they were entertaining, are thoroughly depressed. Though your private letter to me contained a somewhat slight expression of your affection, yet I can a.s.sure you it gave me pleasure: for there is nothing in which I habitually find greater satisfaction than in the consciousness of serving my friends; and if on any occasion I do not meet with an adequate return, I am not at all sorry to have the balance of kindness in my favour. Of this I feel no doubt--even if my extraordinary zeal in your behalf has failed to unite you to me--that the interests of the state will certainly effect a mutual attachment and coalition between us. To let you know, however, what I missed in your letter I will write with the candour which my own disposition and our common friends.h.i.+p demand. I did expect _some_ congratulation in your letter on my achievements, for the sake at once of the ties between us and of the Republic. This I presume to have been omitted by you from a fear of hurting anyone's feelings. But let me tell you that what I did for the salvation of the country is approved by the judgment and testimony of the whole world. You are a much greater man than Africa.n.u.s, but I am not much inferior to Laelius either; and when you come home you will recognize that I have acted with such prudence and spirit, that you will not be ashamed of being coupled with me in politics as well as in private friends.h.i.+p.

XIII (F V, I)

Q. METELLUS CELER TO CICERO

CISALPINE GAUL

_Q. Metellus Celer, son of Quintus, proconsul, greets M. Tullius Cicero._[57]

[Sidenote: B.C. 62. aeT. 44]

If you are well I am glad. I had thought, considering our mutual regard and the reconciliation effected between us, that I was not likely to be held up to ridicule in my absence, nor my brother attacked by you in his civil existence and property for the sake of a mere word. If his own high character was not a sufficient protection to him, yet either the position of our family, or my own loyal conduct to you and the Republic, ought to have been sufficient to support him. As it is, I see that he has been ruined and I abandoned by the last people in the world who ought to have done so. I am accordingly in sorrow and wearing mourning dress, while actually in command of a province and army and conducting a war. And seeing that your conduct in this affair has neither been reasonable nor in accordance with the milder methods of old times, you must not be surprised if you live to repent it. I did not expect to find you so fickle towards me and mine. For myself, meanwhile, neither family sorrow nor ill-treatment by any individual shall withdraw me from the service of the state.