Ad Atticum 2.9
Ad Atticum 2.9
Headnote
Cicero to Atticus, written at Antium in mid-April 59 BC, in haste at the news that the quaestor Caecilius is sending a courier to Rome. The letter is dominated by the new political alignment. Clodius (the “Hierosolymarius transferer-to-the-plebs,” a triple sneer that recalls Pompey’s ineffective march on Jerusalem in 63 BC, the lex of his transfer, and the contempt for Pompey himself) is in question. Cicero hopes for a quarrel between Clodius and the triumvirs; if it comes, “it will be absurd to inveigh against us.” If not, his reduced circumstances will at least leave him beyond envy.
The famous Homeric tag of §3 — “I declare to ward off any man, when one first does me harm” (Iliad 24.369) — announces the new sophistic mode of self-defence Cicero will adopt. The “ox-eyed lady” (b\=oopis) mentioned in §1 is Clodia (the Homeric epithet of Hera, used mock-honorifically); Solonium is one of her country places. The closing note: “little Cicero greets Titus the Athenian” (in Greek), the small son’s signature in the running domestic margin of the corpus.
When the quaestor Caecilius had suddenly told me that he was sending a slave to Rome, I have written this in haste, that I might draw out from you those wonderful dialogues with Publius — both those of which you write, and that one which you hide and say it would be too long to write out the things you replied to him — and especially that one which has not yet taken place, which the ox-eyed lady boōpis, when she has come back from Solonium, will report to you. Of this know: that nothing can be more pleasing to me than this. But if the things settled about me are not being kept, I am in heaven; that this our Hierosolymarius transferer-to-the-plebs may know what gratitude he has returned for my most rotten speeches! Of which expect a divine recantation palinōdian. For, as far as we can guess by conjecture, if that scoundrel of his is in favour with these dynasts, he will be able to boast neither of the cynic ex-consul nor of those Tritons of fish-ponds. For we shall not be subject to any envy, stripped of our resources and that senatorial power. But if he disagrees with them, it will be absurd to inveigh against us. Nevertheless let him inveigh. Festively, believe me, and with less noise than I had supposed, this orb of the commonwealth has been turned — swifter altogether than it could have been [text uncertain]. The fault is Cato’s, but again the wickedness of those men, who have neglected the auspices, the Aelian law, the Junian and Licinian, the Caecilian and Didian, who have poured out all the remedies of the commonwealth, who have given kingdoms and lands to tetrarchs, and monstrous sums of money to a few.
subito cum mihi dixisset Caecilius quaestor puerum se Romam mittere, haec scripsi raptim, ut tuos elicerem mirificos cum Publio dialogos, cum eos de quibus scribis, tum illum quem abdis et ais longum esse quae ad ea responderis perscribere; illum vero qui nondum habitus est, quem illa βοῶπισ, cum e Solonio redierit, ad te est relatura, sic velim putes, nihil hoc posse mihi esse iucundius. si vero quae de me pacta sunt ea non servantur, in caelo sum, ut sciat hic noster Hierosolymarius traductor ad plebem quam bonam meis putissimis orationibus gratiam rettulerit. quarum exspecta divinam παλινῳδίαν. etenim quantum coniectura auguramur, si erit nebulo iste cum his dynastis in gratia, non modo de cynico consulari sed ne de istis quidem piscinarum Tritonibus poterit se iactare. non enim poterimus ulla esse invidia spoliati opibus et illa senatoria potentia. sin autem ab iis dissentiet, erit absurdum in nos invehi. verum tamen invehatur. festive, mihi crede, et minore sonitu quam putaram, orbis hic in re publica est conversus citius omnino quam potuit; †id culpa Catonis, sed rursus improbitate istorum qui auspicia, qui Aeliam legem, qui Iuniam et Liciniam, qui Caeciliam et Didiam neglexerunt, qui omnia remedia rei publicae effuderunt, qui regna qui praedia tetrarchis, qui immanis pecunias paucis dederunt.
I see now where the envy passes, and where it is going to dwell. You will reckon that I have learned nothing either by experience or from Theophrastus, if you do not see in a brief time a longing for those times of mine. For if there was envy of senatorial power when it was reduced not to the people but to three immoderate men, what do you suppose will be? Wherefore those men may make whom they will consuls, tribunes of the plebs, even dress Vatinius’s tumour in a double-dyed dibaphōi priestly robe; you will see in a brief time how great are not only those who did not waver but even that very man who erred — Cato.
video iam quo invidia transeat et ubi sit habitatura. nihil me existimaris neque usu neque a Theophrasto didicisse, nisi brevi tempore desiderari nostra illa tempora videris. etenim si fuit invidiosa senatus potentia, cum ea non ad populum sed ad tris homines immoderatos redacta sit, quid iam censes fore? proinde isti licet faciant quos volent consules, tribunos pl., denique etiam Vatini strumam sacerdoti διβάφῳ vestiant, videbis brevi tempore magnos non modo eos qui nihil titubarunt sed etiam illum ipsum qui peccavit Catonem.
For us, if it shall be permitted by your fellow-clansman Publius, we are thinking of playing the sophist sophisteuein, and only — if he thinks of so much — defending ourselves; and what is proper to this art: “I declare to ward off any man, when one first does me harm” epangellomai andr’ apamynesthai hote tis proteros chalepēnēi. May my country be propitious. She has from us, even if not more than was owed, certainly more than was demanded. I had rather be carried badly with another at the helm than steer well with such ungrateful passengers. But these things face to face will go better.
nam nos quidem, si per istum tuum a sodalem Publium licebit, σοφιστεύειν cogitamus, si ille †cogitat tantum†, dumtaxat nos defendere, et, quod est proprium artis huius, ἐπαγγέλλομαι ἄνδρ’ ἀπαμύνεσθαι ὅτε τισ πρότεροσ χαλεπήνῃ patria propitia sit. habet a nobis, etiam si non plus quam debitum est, plus certe quam postulatum est. male vehi malo alio gubernante quam tam ingratis vectoribus bene gubernare. sed haec coram commodius.
Now hear what you ask. I think to take myself from the Formian villa to Antium on the fifth day before the Nones of May; from Antium I wish to set out for the Tusculan villa on the Nones of May. But when I have come back from the Formian villa (where I wish to be up to the day before the Kalends of May), I shall at once let you know. Terentia greets you; “and little Cicero greets Titus the Athenian.”
nunc audi quod quaeris. Antium me ex Formiano recipere cogito a. d. v Nonas Maias; Antio volo Nonis Maiis proficisci in Tusculanum. sed cum e Formiano rediero (ibi esse usque ad pr. K. Maias volo), faciam statim te certiorem. Terentia tibi salutem, καὶ Κικέρων ὁ μικρὸς ἀσπάζεται Τίτον τὸν Ἀθηναῖον.