Ad Atticum 2.21
Ad Atticum 2.21
Headnote
Cicero to Atticus, written at Rome shortly after 25 July 59 BC. The letter dates itself: §3 records the contio of a. d. viii Kal. Sextilis (25 July) at which Pompey, then at the height of public unpopularity, had to defend himself against Bibulus’s edicts. The piece is Cicero’s most extended portrait of Pompey’s collapse from glory: “unaccustomed to ill repute, lifelong frequenter of praise, swimming in glory, now disfigured in body, broken in spirit, knows not whither to take himself.”
§1–2 set the political picture: the triumvirate’s domination has shifted from a thing pleasing to the multitude into a thing universally hated. Cicero’s hope had been that the wheel had turned silently and the storm would pass without men acting; instead, after long secret sighing, the city has begun to groan, then to speak, then to shout. §3–4 give the famous portrait of Pompey disfigured. The simile is the painter’s: as Apelles would grieve to see his Venus smeared with mud, or Protogenes his Ialysus, so Cicero grieves to see Pompey, whom (as the consul who had carried the Manilian law) Cicero had painted and polished with all the colours of his art, suddenly disfigured. Bibulus’s edicts are described as “Archilochian” — that is, of the savagery of Archilochus’s iambics — so pleasing to the public that the crowd in front of the posting boards prevents passers-by from getting through. §5 records Caesar’s failed contio against Bibulus (he could not extort a sound from the crowd) and the elections postponed into October. §6 closes on the personal threat: Clodius is hostile, Pompey gives reassurances Cicero dares not believe, Cicero is preparing to resist; the resources he counts on are Varro and Pompey, and he ends with the now constant refrain — come, Atticus, come.
About the commonwealth, why should I write to you in detail? It has wholly perished, and is the more wretched than when you left it, because then the kind of domination that seemed to oppress the state was such as was pleasing to the multitude, and was so troublesome to the good men that yet it was so without ruin; now suddenly it is in such odium with all that we shudder at where it will burst out. For we have learnt by experience the irascibility and intemperance of those men, who, angered with Cato, ruined everything; but they used such gentle poisons that we seemed able to perish without pain. Now in truth, with the people’s hisses, the conversation of the honourable, the murmur of Italy — I fear they have caught fire.
de re publica quid ego tibi subtiliter? tota periit atque hoc est miserior quam reliquisti, quod tum videbatur eius modi dominatio civitatem oppressisse quae iucunda esset multitudini, bonis autem ita molesta ut tamen sine pernicie, nunc repente tanto in odio est omnibus ut quorsus eruptura sit horreamus. nam iracundiam atque intemperantiam illorum sumus experti qui Catoni irati omnia perdiderunt, sed ita lenibus uti videbantur venenis ut posse videremur sine dolore interire; nunc vero sibilis vulgi, sermonibus honestorum, fremitu Italiae vereor ne exarserint.
For my part I had been hoping — as I often used to say to you in conversation — that the wheel of the commonwealth had so turned that we could scarcely hear the sound, scarcely see the imprint of the rut; and so it would have been, if men could have waited for the storm to pass. But, after they had long sighed in secret, after that they began to groan; finally now they have all begun to speak and to shout.
equidem sperabam, ut saepe etiam loqui tecum solebam, sic orbem rei publicae esse conversum ut vix sonitum audire, vix impressam orbitam videre possemus; et fuisset ita, si homines transitum tempestatis exspectare potuissent. sed cum diu occulte suspirassent, postea iam gemere, ad extremum vero loqui omnes et clamare coeperunt.
And so that friend of ours, unaccustomed to ill repute, lifelong frequenter of praise, swimming in glory, now disfigured in body, broken in spirit, knows not whither to take himself; he sees a headlong advance, an inconstant retreat; he has good men as his enemies, the bad men themselves not as his friends. And see the softness of my mind: I could not hold back tears when I saw him on the eighth day before the Kalends of August speaking against Bibulus’s edicts. He who before had been wont to bear himself most magnificently in that spot, with the highest love of the people, all favouring him — how lowered he was then, how dejected, how displeasing even to himself, not to those alone who were present!
itaque ille noster amicus insolens infamiae, semper in laude versatus, circumfluens gloria, deformatus corpore, fractus animo, quo se conferat nescit; progressum praecipitem, inconstantem reditum videt; bonos inimicos habet, improbos ipsos non amicos. ac vide mollitiem animi. non tenui lacrimas cum illum a. d. viii Kal. Sextilis vidi de edictis Bibuli contionantem. qui antea solitus esset iactare se magnificentissime illo in loco summo cum amore populi, cunctis faventibus, ut ille tum humilis, ut demissus erat, ut ipse etiam sibi, non iis solum qui aderant, displicebat!
O spectacle pleasing to Crassus alone, but to the rest by no means so! For because he had fallen from the stars, he seemed to have slipped rather than to have advanced; and, as Apelles, if he had seen his Venus, or Protogenes his Ialysus, smeared with mud, would surely have taken great pain, so I, when I saw this man — whom I had painted and polished with all the colours of my art — suddenly disfigured, took it not without great pain. Although no one supposed, on account of the Clodian business, that I ought to be friendly to him, yet so great was my love that no injury could exhaust it. And so Bibulus’s Archilochian edicts against him are so pleasing to the people that we cannot pass the spot where they are posted up, for the throng of those reading them; to him so bitter that he is wasting away with grief; to me, by Hercules, troublesome too, both because they torture too much the man whom I have always loved, and because I fear, lest a man so vehement and so keen with the sword, and so unaccustomed to insult, may give in with all the impetus of his soul to grief and anger.
o spectaculum uni Crasso iucundum, ceteris non item! nam quia deciderat ex astris, lapsus potius quam progressus videbatur, et, ut Apelles si Venerem, aut Protogenes si Ialysum illum suum caeno oblitum videret, magnum, credo, acciperet dolorem, sic ego hunc omnibus a me pictum et politum artis coloribus subito deformatum non sine magno dolore vidi. quamquam nemo putabat propter Clodianum negotium me illi amicum esse debere, tamen tantus fuit amor ut exhauriri nulla posset iniuria. itaque Archilochia in illum edicta Bibuli populo ita sunt iucunda ut eum locum ubi proponuntur prae multitudine eorum qui legunt transire nequeamus, ipsi ita acerba ut tabescat dolore, mihi me hercule molesta, quod et eum quem semper dilexi nimis excruciant et timeo tam vehemens vir tamque acer in ferro et tam insuetus contumeliae ne omni animi impetu dolori et iracundiae pareat.
What Bibulus’s outcome is going to be I do not know. As things stand now, his glory is wonderful. When he had postponed the elections to October — a thing that usually offends the people’s will — Caesar thought he could in his speech force the assembly to go to Bibulus; though he spoke in the most seditious vein on many points, he could not extort a sound. Need I say more? They feel that they hold the goodwill of no party. The more we have to fear their violence.
Bibuli qui sit exitus futurus nescio. ut nunc res se habet, admirabili gloria est. qui cum comitia in mensem Octobrem distulisset, quod solet ea res populi voluntatem offendere, putarat Caesar oratione sua posse impelli contionem ut iret ad Bibulum; multa cum seditiosissime diceret, vocem exprimere non potuit. quid quaeris? sentiunt se nullam ullius partis voluntatem tenere. eo magis vis nobis est timenda.
Clodius is hostile to us. Pompeius assures me he will do nothing against me. For me it is dangerous to believe him; I am preparing to resist. I hope to have the highest enthusiasm of every order. As I miss you, so the moment itself calls you. Counsel, courage, finally protection too I shall gain in the largest measure if I see you in time. Varro satisfies me. Pompeius speaks divinely. I hope we shall come out either with the highest glory or at least without trouble. Take care to let me know what you are doing, how you are amusing yourself, what you have done with the Sicyonians.
Clodius inimicus est nobis. Pompeius confirmat eum nihil esse facturum contra me. mihi periculosum est credere, ad resistendum me paro. studia spero me summa habiturum omnium ordinum. te cum ego desidero, tum vero res ad tempus illud vocat. plurimum consili, animi, praesidi denique mihi, si te ad tempus videro, accesserit. Varro mihi satis facit. Pompeius loquitur divinitus. spero nos aut cum summa gloria aut certe sine molestia discessuros. tu quid agas, quem ad modum te oblectes, quid cum Sicyoniis egeris ut sciam cura.