The Letters of Cicero Part 50

[Sidenote: B.C. 53, aeT. 53]

Chrysippus Vettius, a freedman of the architect Cyrus, made me think that you had not quite forgotten me; for he has brought me a greeting in your words. You have grown a mighty fine gentleman, that you can't take the trouble of writing a letter to me--a man, I might almost say, of your own family! But if you have forgotten how to write, all the fewer clients will lose their causes by having you as their advocate! If you have forgotten me, I will take the trouble of paying you a visit where you are, before I have quite faded out of your mind. If it is a terror of the summer camp that is disheartening you, think of some excuse to get off, as you did in the case of Britain. I was glad to hear one thing from that same Chrysippus, that you were on friendly terms with Caesar.

But, by Hercules, I should have preferred, as I might fairly have expected, to be informed of your fortunes as frequently as possible from your own letters. And this would certainly have been the case, if you had been more forward to learn the laws of friends.h.i.+p than of suits in court. But this is all jest in your own vein, and to some degree in mine also. I love you very dearly, and I both wish to be loved by you and feel certain that I am.

CLXXII (F VII, 18)

TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)

A VILLA IN THE AGER POMPTINUS, 8 APRIL

[Sidenote: B.C. 53, aeT. 53]

I have received several letters from you at the same time, written at various times, in which everything else gave me great pleasure; for they shewed that you were now sustaining your military service with a brave spirit, and were a gallant and resolute man. These are qualities which for a short time I felt to be lacking in you, though I attributed your uneasiness not so much to any weakness of your own spirit, as to your feeling your absence from us. Therefore go on as you have begun: endure your service with a stout heart: believe me, the advantages you will gain are many; for I will reiterate my recommendation of you, though I shall wait for the right moment of doing so. Be a.s.sured that you are not more anxious that your separation from me should be as profitable as possible to yourself than I am. Accordingly, as your "securities" are somewhat weak, I have sent you one in my poor Greek, written by my own hand.[708] For your part, I should wish you to keep me informed of the course of the war in Gaul: for the less warlike my informant, the more inclined I am to believe him.

But to return to your letters. Everything else (as I said) is prettily written, but I do wonder at this: who in the world sends several identical letters, when he writes them with his own hand? For your writing on paper that has been used before, I commend your economy: but I can't help wondering what it was that you preferred to rub out of this bit of paper rather than not write such poor stuff as this--unless it were, perhaps, some of your legal formulas. For I don't suppose you rub out my letters to replace them with your own. Can it mean that there is no business going on, that you are out of work, that you haven't even a supply of paper? Well, that is entirely your own fault, for taking your modesty abroad with you instead of leaving it behind here with us. I will commend you to Balbus, when he starts to join you, in the good old Roman style. Don't be astonished if there is a somewhat longer interval than usual between my letters: for I intend being out of town in April.

I write this letter in the Pomptine district, having put up at the villa of M. aemilius Philemo, from which I could hear the noise of my clients, I mean those you confided to me! For at Ulubrae it is certain that an enormous ma.s.s of frogs have bestirred themselves to do me honour. Take care of your health.[709]

8 April, from the Ager Pomptinus.

P.S.--Your letter which I received from L. Arruntius I have torn up, though it didn't deserve it; for it had nothing in it which might not have been safely read in a public meeting. But not only did Arruntius say that such were your orders, but you had appended a similar injunction to your letter. Well, be it so! I am surprised at your not having written anything to me since, especially as you are in the midst of such stirring events.[710]

[Footnote 708: _Graeculam tibi misi cautionem chirographi mei._ Various interpretations have been given to this: (1) "a truly Greek security,"

_i.e._, "not to be depended on"; (2) referring to a poem in Greek, perhaps the one in praise of Caesar's achievements, mentioned before (p.

338), in which some compliment to Trebatius was introduced; (3) Prof.

Tyrrell would make it refer to this letter itself, which he supposes to have been written in Greek, and afterwards translated by Tiro. But this letter does not read like a translation, and, after all, is not of a nature to shew as a "commendation." It is conceived in too jocular a vein. I have taken it to refer to some inclosure written in Greek which he might use in this way, and the mention of his "own handwriting" to refer to the fact that he would naturally have employed a Greek secretary to write Greek. The diminutive _Graeculam_ I take to be apologetic for the Greek. But it is not at all certain.]

[Footnote 709: On his journey along the _via Appia_ to one of his seaside villas Cicero has put up at a friend's house (a freedman of Lepidus), near the Pomptine marshes, as was his wont (_Att._ vii. 5). It was near Ulubrae, of which he was deputy _patronus_ in the absence of Trebatius, and he jestingly pretends that the frogs which he hears croaking in the marshes are frogs of Ulubrae turning out to do him honour, as though they were the citizens of the town. Ulubrae was a very dull and decaying town.]

[Footnote 710: The great rising in Gaul in B.C. S4-53, and the second expedition across the Rhine.]

CLXXIII (F VII, 15)

TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)

ROME

[Sidenote: B.C. 53, aeT. 53]

How wayward people are who love may be gathered from this: I was formerly annoyed that you were discontented at being where you are: now, on the contrary, it stings me to the heart that you write that you are quite happy there. For I did not like your not being pleased at my recommendation, and now I am vexed that you can find anything pleasant without me. But, after all, I prefer enduring your absence to your not getting what I hope for you. However, I cannot say how pleased I am that you have become intimate with that most delightful man and excellent scholar, C. Matius.[711] Do your best to make him as fond of you as possible. Believe me, you can bring nothing home from your province that will give you greater pleasure. Take care of your health.

CLXXIV (F II, 4)

TO C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO (IN ASIA)

ROME (? MAY)

[Sidenote: B.C. 53, aeT. 53]

You are aware that letters are of many kinds; but there is one kind which is undeniable, for the sake of which, indeed, the thing was invented, namely, to inform the absent of anything that is to the interest of the writer or recipient that they should know. You, however, certainly don't expect a letter of that kind from me. For of your domestic concerns you have members of your family both to write and to act as messengers. Besides, in my personal affairs there is really nothing new. There are two other kinds of letters which give me great pleasure: the familiar and sportive, and the grave and serious. Which of these two I ought least to employ I do not understand. Am I to jest with you by letter? Upon my word, I don't think the man a good citizen who could laugh in times like these. Shall I write in a more serious style?

What could be written of seriously by Cicero to Curio except public affairs? And yet, under this head, my position is such that I neither dare write what I think, nor choose to write what I don't think.

Wherefore, since I have no subject left to write about, I will employ my customary phrase, and exhort you to the pursuit of the n.o.blest glory.

For you have a dangerous rival already in the field, and fully prepared, in the extraordinary expectation formed of you; and this rival you will vanquish with the greatest ease, only on one condition--that you make up your mind to put out your full strength in the cultivation of those qualities, by which the n.o.ble actions are accomplished, upon the glory of which you have set your heart. In support of this sentiment I would have written at greater length had not I felt certain that you were sufficiently alive to it of your own accord; and I have touched upon it even thus far, not in order to fire your ambition, but to testify my affection.

[Footnote 711: The friends.h.i.+p between Trebatius and Matius remained as long as we know anything about them. Cicero afterwards acknowledges (_F._ ii. 27) the great services Matius had done him with Caesar, to whom Matius remained attached to the end.]

CLXXV (F II, 5)

TO C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO (ON HIS WAY FROM ASIA)

ROME (? JUNE)

[Sidenote: B.C. 53, aeT. 53]

The state of business here I dare not tell even in a letter. And though, wherever you are, as I have told you before, you are in the same boat, yet I congratulate you on your absence, as well because you don't see what we see, as because your reputation is placed on a lofty and conspicuous pinnacle in the sight of mult.i.tudes both of citizens and allies; and it is conveyed to us by neither obscure nor uncertain talk, but by the loud and unanimous voice of all. There is one thing of which I cannot feel certain--whether to congratulate you, or to be alarmed for you on account of the surprising expectation entertained of your return; not because I am at all afraid of your not satisfying the world's opinion, but, by heaven, lest, when you do come, there may be nothing for you to preserve: so universal is the decline and almost extinction of all our inst.i.tutions. But even thus much I am afraid I have been rash to trust to a letter: wherefore you shall learn the rest from others.[712] However, whether you have still some hope of the Republic, or have given it up in despair, see that you have ready, rehea.r.s.ed and thought out in your mind, all that the citizen and the man should have at his command who is destined to restore to its ancient dignity and freedom a state crushed and overwhelmed by evil times and profligate morals.

[Footnote 712: In these vague though ominous sentences Cicero is referring to the constant and violent hindrances to the election of magistrates, that is, to the orderly working of the const.i.tution, which were occurring. No consuls were elected till September.]

CLXXVI (F II, 6)

TO C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO (ARRIVED IN ITALY)

ROME (? JULY)

[Sidenote: B.C. 53, aeT. 53]

News had not yet reached me of your arrival in Italy when I sent s.e.xt.