The Letters of Cicero Part 7

[Sidenote: B.C. 61, aeT. 45]

Though I had resolved to write you nothing but formal letters of introduction (not because I felt that they had much weight with you, but to avoid giving those who asked me for them an idea that there had been any diminution in our friends.h.i.+p), yet since t.i.tus Pomponius is starting for your province, who knows better than anyone else all that I feel and have done for you, who desires your friends.h.i.+p and is most devotedly attached to me, I thought I must write something, especially as I had no other way of satisfying Pomponius himself. Were I to ask from you services of the greatest moment, it ought not to seem surprising to anyone: for you have not wanted from me any that concerned your interests, honour, or position. That no return has been made by you for these you are the best witness: that something even of a contrary nature has proceeded from you I have been told by many. I say "told," for I do not venture to say "discovered,"[72] lest I should chance to use the word which people tell me is often falsely attributed to me by you. But the story which has reached my ears I would prefer your learning from Pomponius (who was equally hurt by it) rather than from my letter. How singularly loyal my feelings have been to you the senate and Roman people are both witnesses. How far you have been grateful to me you may yourself estimate: how much you owe me the rest of the world estimates.

I was induced to do what I did for you at first by affection, and afterwards by consistency. Your future, believe me, stands in need of much greater zeal on my part, greater firmness and greater labour.[73]

These labours, unless it shall appear that I am throwing away and wasting my pains, I shall support with all the strength I have; but if I see that they are not appreciated, I shall not allow you--the very person benefited[74]--to think me a fool for my pains. What the meaning of all this is you will be able to learn from Pomponius. In commending Pomponius to you, although I am sure you will do anything in your power for his own sake, yet I do beg that if you have any affection for me left, you will display it all in Pomponius's business. You can do me no greater favour than that.

[Footnote 72: The word (_comperisse_) used by Cicero in regard to the Catilinarian conspiracy; it had apparently become a subject of rather malignant chaff.]

[Footnote 73: Cicero is hinting at the danger of prosecution hanging over the head of Antonius.]

[Footnote 74: Reading _tibi ipsi_ (not _ipse_), with Tyrrell.]

XVIII (A 1, 13)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME, 27 JANUARY

[Sidenote: B.C. 61, aeT. 45]

I have now received three letters from you--one by the hands of M.

Cornelius, which you gave him, I think, at Three Taverns; a second which your host at Ca.n.u.sium delivered to me; a third dated, according to you, from on board your pinnace, when the cable was already slipped.[75] They were all three, to use a phrase from the schools of rhetoric flavoured with the salt of learning, and illumined with the marks of affection. In these letters, indeed, I am urgently pressed by you to send answers, but what renders me rather dilatory in this respect is the difficulty of finding a trustworthy carrier. How few of these gentry are able to convey a letter rather weightier than usual without lightening it by skimming its contents! Besides, I do not always care to send[76]

whenever anyone is starting for Epirus: for I suppose that, having offered victims before your Amaltheia,[77] you at once started for the siege of Sicyon. And yet I am not even certain when you start to visit Antonius or how much time you are devoting to Epirus. Accordingly, I don't venture to trust either Achaeans or Epirotes with a letter somewhat more outspoken than usual. Now some events _have_ occurred since you left me worth my writing to you, but they must not be trusted to the risk of a letter being lost, opened, or intercepted.

Well, then, to begin with: I was not called upon to speak first, and the pacifier of the Allobroges[78] was preferred to me, and though this met with some murmurs of disapprobation from the senate, I was not sorry it was done. For I am thereby freed from any obligation to shew respect to an ill-conditioned man, and am at liberty to support my position in the Republic in spite of him. Besides, the second place has a dignity almost equal to that of _princeps senatus_, and does not put one under too much of an obligation to the consul. The third called on was Catulus; the fourth, if you want to go still farther, Hortensius. The consul himself[79] is a man of a small and ill-regulated mind, a mere buffoon of that splenetic kind which raises a laugh even in the absence of wit: it is his face rather than his facetiousness[80] that causes merriment: he takes practically no part in public business, and is quite alienated from the Optimates. You need expect no service to the state from him, for he has not the will to do any, nor fear any damage, for he hasn't the courage to inflict it. His colleague, however, treats me with great distinction, and is also a zealous supporter of the loyalist party. For the present their disagreement has not come to much; but I fear that this taint may spread farther. For I suppose you have heard that when the state function was being performed in Caesar's house a man in woman's dress got in,[81] and that the Vestals having performed the rite again, mention was made of the matter in the senate by Q. Cornificius--he was the first, so don't think that it was one of us consulars--and that on the matter being referred by a decree of the senate to the [Virgins and]

pontifices, they decided that a sacrilege had been committed: that then, on a farther decree of the senate, the consuls published a bill: and that Caesar divorced his wife. On this question Piso, from friends.h.i.+p for P. Clodius, is doing his best to get the bill promulgated by himself (though in accordance with a decree of the senate and on a point of religion) rejected. Messalla as yet is strongly for severe measures. The loyalists hold aloof owing to the entreaties of Clodius: bands of ruffians are being got together: I myself, at first a stern Lycurgus, am becoming daily less and less keen about it: Cato is hot and eager. In short, I fear that between the indifference of the loyalists and the support of the disloyal it may be the cause of great evils to the Republic. However, your great friend[82]--do you know whom I mean?--of whom you said in your letter that, "not venturing to blame me, he was beginning to be complimentary," is now to all appearance exceedingly fond of me, embraces me, loves and praises me in public, while in secret (though unable to disguise it) he is jealous of me. No good-breeding, no straightforwardness, no political morality, no distinction, no courage, no liberality! But on these points I will write to you more minutely at another time; for in the first place I am not yet quite sure about them, and in the next place I dare not intrust a letter on such weighty matters to such a casual n.o.body's son as this messenger.

The praetors have not yet drawn their lots for the provinces. The matter remains just where you left it. The description of the scenery of Misenum and Puteoli which you ask for I will include in my speech.[83] I had already noticed the mistake in the date, 3rd of December. The points in my speeches which you praise, believe me, I liked very much myself, but did not venture to say so before. Now, however, as they have received your approval, I think them much more "Attic" than ever. To the speech in answer to Metellus[84] I have made some additions. The book shall be sent you, since affection for me gives you a taste for rhetoric. What news have I for you? Let me see. Oh, yes! The consul Messalla has bought Antonius's house for 3,400 sestertia (about 27,200). What is that to me? you will say. Why, thus much. The price has convinced people that I made no bad bargain, and they begin to understand that in making a purchase a man may properly use his friends'

means to get what suits his position. The Teucris affair drags on, yet I have hopes. Pray settle the business you have in hand. You shall have a more outspoken letter soon.

27 January, in the consuls.h.i.+p of M. Messalla and M. Piso.

[Footnote 75: _Ora soluta._ Or, if _ancora sublata_ be read, "when the anchor was already weighed." In either case it means "just as you were starting." Atticus wrote on board, and gave the letter to a carrier to take on sh.o.r.e.]

[Footnote 76: A word lost in the text.]

[Footnote 77: See end of Letter XXI. Cicero playfully supposes that Atticus only stayed in his villa in Epirus to offer sacrifices to the nymph in his gymnasium, and then hurried off to Sicyon, where people owed him money which he wanted to get. He goes to Antonius first to get his authority for putting pressure on Sicyon, and perhaps even some military force.]

[Footnote 78: C. Calpurnius Piso (consul B.C. 67), brother of the consul of the year, had been governor of Gallia Narbonensis (B.C. 66-65), and had suppressed a rising of the Allobroges, the most troublesome tribe in the province, who were, in fact, again in rebellion.]

[Footnote 79: M. Pupius Piso.]

[Footnote 80: "By the expression of his face rather than the force of his expressions" (Tyrrell).]

[Footnote 81: See p. 27, note 2.]

[Footnote 82: Pompey.]

[Footnote 83: Or, "inclose with my speech"; in both cases the dative _orationi meae_ is peculiar. No speech exists containing such a description, but we have only two of the previous year extant (_pro Flacco_ and _pro Archia Poeta_). Cicero was probably sending it, whichever it was, to Atticus to be copied by his _librarii_, and published. Atticus had apparently some other works of Cicero's in hand, for which he had sent him some "queries."]

[Footnote 84: Apparently the speech in the senate referred to in Letter XIV, p. 23, spoken on 1st January, B.C. 62. Metellus had prevented his _contio_ the day before.]

XIX (A I, 14)

TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)

ROME, 13 FEBRUARY

[Sidenote: B.C. 61, aeT. 45]

I fear it may seem affectation to tell you how occupied I have been; but I am so distracted with business that I have only just found time for this short letter, and that has been stolen from the most urgent engagements. I have already described to you Pompey's first public speech--it did not please the poor, nor satisfy the disloyal, nor find favour with the wealthy, nor appear sound to the loyalists; accordingly, he is down in the world.[85] Presently, on the instigation of the consul Piso, that most insignificant of tribunes, Fufius, brought Pompey on to the platform. The meeting was in the _circus Flaminius_, and there was in the same place that day a crowd of market people--a kind of _tiers etat_.[86] He asked him to say whether he approved of the jurymen being selected by the praetor, to form a panel for the praetor himself to employ. That was the regulation made by the senate in the matter of Clodius's sacrilege. Thereupon Pompey made a highly "aristocratic"

speech, and replied (and at great length) that in all matters the authority of the senate was of the greatest weight in his eyes and had always been so. Later on the consul Messalla in the senate asked Pompey his opinion as to the sacrilege and the bill that had been published.

His speech in the senate amounted to a general commendation of all decrees of the house, and when he sat down he said to me, "I think my answer covers your case also."[87] When Cra.s.sus observed that Pompey had got a cheer from the idea in men's minds that he approved my consuls.h.i.+p, he rose also to his feet and delivered a speech in the most complimentary terms on my consuls.h.i.+p, going so far as to say that he owed it to me that he was still a senator, a citizen, nay, a free man; and that he never beheld wife, home, or country without beholding the fruits of my conduct. In short: that whole topic, which I am wont to paint in various colours in my speeches (of which you are the Aristarchus), the fire, the sword--you know my paint-pots--he elaborated to the highest pitch. I was sitting next to Pompey. I noticed that he was agitated, either at Cra.s.sus earning the grat.i.tude which he had himself neglected, or to think that my achievements were, after all, of such magnitude that the senate was so glad to hear them praised, especially by a man who was the less under an obligation to praise me, because in everything I ever wrote[88] my praise of Pompey was practically a reflexion on him. This day has brought me very close to Cra.s.sus, and yet in spite of all I accepted with pleasure any compliment--open or covert--from Pompey. But as for my own speech, good heavens! how I did "put it on" for the benefit of my new auditor Pompey!

If I ever did bring every art into play, I did then--period, transition, enthymeme, deduction--everything. In short, I was cheered to the echo.

For the subject of my speech was the dignity of the senate, its harmony with the equites, the unanimity of Italy, the dying embers of the conspiracy, the fall in prices, the establishment of peace. You know my thunder when these are my themes. It was so loud, in fact, that I may cut short my description, as I think you must have heard it even in Epirus. The state of things at Rome is this: the senate is a perfect Areopagus. You cannot conceive anything firmer, more grave, or more high-spirited. For when the day came for proposing the bill in accordance with the vote of the senate, a crowd of our dandies with their chin-tufts a.s.sembled, all the Catiline set, with Curio's girlish son at their head, and implored the people to reject it. Moreover, Piso the consul, who formally introduced the bill, spoke against it.

Clodius's hired ruffians had filled up the entrances to the voting boxes. The voting tickets were so manipulated that no "ayes" were distributed. Hereupon imagine Cato hurrying to the rostra, delivering an admirable invective against the consul, if we can call that an "invective" which was really a speech of the utmost weight and authority, and in fact containing the most salutary advice. He is followed to the same effect by your friend Hortensius, and many loyalists besides, among whom, however, the contribution of Favonius was conspicuous. By this rally of the Optimates the _comitia_ is dissolved, the senate summoned. On the question being put in a full house--in spite of the opposition of Piso, and in spite of Clodius throwing himself at the feet of the senators one after the other--that the consuls should exhort the people to pa.s.s the bill, about fifteen voted with Curio, who was against any decree being pa.s.sed; on the other side there were fully four hundred. So the vote pa.s.sed. The tribune Fufius then gave in.[89]

Clodius delivered some wretched speeches to the people, in which he bestowed some injurious epithets on Lucullus, Hortensius, C. Piso, and the consul Messalla; me he only charged with having "discovered"

everything.[90] In regard to the a.s.signation of provinces to the praetors, the hearing legations, and other business, the senate voted that nothing should be brought before it till the bill had been brought before the people. There's the state of things at Rome for you. Yet pray listen to this one thing more which has surpa.s.sed my hopes. Messalla is a superlatively good consul, courageous, firm, painstaking; he praises, shows attachment to, and imitates me. That other one (Piso) is the less mischievous because of one vice--he is lazy, sleepy, unbusiness-like, an utter _faineant_, but in intention he is so disaffected that he has begun to loathe Pompey since he made the speech in which some praise was bestowed on the senate. Accordingly, he has alienated all the loyalists to a remarkable degree. And his action is not dictated by love for Clodius more than by a taste for a profligate policy and a profligate party. But he has n.o.body among the magistrates like himself, with the single exception of the tribune Fufius. The tribunes are excellent, and in Cornutus we have a quasi-Cato. Can I say more?

Now to return to private matters. "Teucris" has fulfilled her promise.[91] Pray execute the commission you undertook. My brother Quintus, who purchased the remaining three-fourths of the house in the Argiletum for 725 sestertia (about 5,800), is now trying to sell his Tusculan property, in order to purchase, if he can, the town house of Pacilius. Make it up with Lucceius! I see that he is all agog to stand for the consuls.h.i.+p. I will do my best. Be careful to let me know exactly how you are, where you are, and how your business goes on.

13 February.

[Footnote 85: The letter giving this description is lost. I think _frigebat_ is epistolary imperfect--"_he_ is in the cold shade," not, "_it_ fell flat."]

[Footnote 86: pa???????. Cicero uses the word (an honourable one in Greek) contemptuously of the rabble brought together at a market.]

[Footnote 87: Pompey's general commendation of the decrees of the senate would include those regarding the Catiline conspirators, and he therefore claimed to have satisfied Cicero.]

[Footnote 88: _Meis omnibus litteris_, the MS. reading. Prof. Tyrrell's emendation, _orationibus meis, omnibus litteris_, "in my speeches, every letter of them," seems to me even harsher than the MS., a gross exaggeration, and doubtful Latin. _Meis litteris_ is well supported by _literae forenses et senatoriae_ of _de Off._ 2, -- 3, and though it is an unusual mode of referring to speeches, we must remember that they were now published and were "literature." The particular reference is to the speech _pro Imperio Pompeii_, in which, among other things, the whole credit of the reduction of Spartacus's gladiators is given to Pompey, whereas the brunt of the war had been borne by Cra.s.sus.]

[Footnote 89: Fufius, though Cicero does not say so, must have vetoed the decree, but in the face of such a majority withdrew his veto. The practice seems to have been, in case of tribunician veto, to take the vote, which remained as an _auctoritas senatus_, but was not a _senatus consultum_ unless the tribune was induced to withdraw.]

[Footnote 90: _Comperisse_. See Letter XVII, note 1, p. 28.]

[Footnote 91: See Letters XVI and XVIII, pp. 26, 32.]