HermitshCicero by Claude

Letter · March 47 BC · Brundisi

Ad Atticum 11.13

Ad Atticum 11.13

Headnote

Cicero to Atticus, written from Brundisium about the middle of March 47 BC (the manuscript dateline: Scr.\ Brundisi circ.\ med.\ m.\ Mart.\ a.\ 707 (47); month precision). Publius Siser has at last delivered an answer from Atticus; Murena’s freedman, who was expected to bring one, has so far brought nothing. Cicero corrects a piece of false news (that Quintus has come to Syria) and asks his usual question about the disposition of the men reaching Brundisium from overseas — so far, he reports, none of those who have arrived has shown himself hostile, though he knows what weight Atticus will put on the qualification. The keynote of the section is a Stoic-tinged self-recrimination: sola utilia mihi esse videantur quae semper nolui — “only those things appear useful to me which I have always refused to want.” The closing news of Publius Lentulus at Rhodes, his son at Alexandria, and Gaius Cassius’s move from Rhodes to Alexandria are positional reports on the diaspora of the Pompeian leadership.

Section 2 is the heaviest. Brother Quintus has sent an apology that is sharper in tone than his earlier accusations: he is sorry to have offended Atticus, but maintains that he was within his rights, and sets out the grounds for his hatred “in the foulest fashion.” Cicero reads the whole performance as evidence that Quintus has only opened up his hatred because he sees Cicero broken on every side. The following sections handle estate business: the co-heirs in the Fufidian inheritance ask only what is fair and Atticus is to settle it as he sees best; about the redemption of the Frusinate farm, Cicero is still of the mind he was when matters stood better, but asks Atticus to think about where the cash will come from, since whatever liquid resources he had were given over to Pompey when that still looked like prudent loyalty — a costly point of evidence against brother Quintus’s complaint that Cicero gave him nothing, when Quintus neither asked nor saw the money. The letter ends, as Book 11’s letters increasingly do, on the bare admission that grief keeps him from writing more.

From Murena’s freedman I had had no letter as yet. Publius Siser delivered the one I am answering. As for what you write about a letter from old Servius, and what you say about there being people who report that Quintus has come to Syria — that too is untrue. As for your wanting me to give you a more definite account of the disposition that each of those who came over here had, or has had, towards me: of those who have arrived I have understood none of them to be hostile. But how much that matters to me, I am sure you can judge. Everything is unbearable to my grief, and most of all the fact that I see I have come to such a pass that only those things appear useful to me which I have always refused to want. Publius Lentulus the father is said to be at Rhodes, his son at Alexandria; and that Gaius Cassius set out from Rhodes for Alexandria is well established.
a Murenae liberto nihil adhuc acceperam litterarum. P. Siser reddiderat eas quibus rescribo. de Servi patris litteris quod scribis, item Quintum in Syriam venisse quod ais esse qui nuntient, ne id quidem verum est. quod certiorem te vis fieri quo quisque in me animo sit aut fuerit eorum qui huc venerunt, neminem alieno intellexi. sed quantum id mea intersit existimare te posse certo scio. mihi cum omnia sint intolerabilia ad dolorem, tum maxime quod in eam causam venisse me video ut sola utilia mihi esse videantur quae semper nolui. P. Lentulum patrem Rhodi esse aiunt, Alexandreae filium, Rhodoque Alexandream C. Cassium profectum esse constat.
Quintus by letter makes his apologies to me, in much sharper terms than when he was levelling the gravest accusations. He says that he understands from your letters that you do not approve of his having written rather harshly about me to many people, and accordingly that he is sorry he has offended you; but that he himself has acted within his rights. Then he sets out at length, in the foulest fashion, the reasons for which he did so. But neither at this time nor before would he have laid bare his hatred for me if he had not seen that I was overwhelmed at every turn. Would that even by night-marches, as you had written, I had come closer to you! As things stand I cannot so much as guess where or when I shall see you.
Quintus mihi per litteras satis facit multo asperioribus verbis quam cum gravissime accusabat. ait enim se ex litteris tuis intellegere tibi non placere quod ad multos de me asperius scripserit, itaque se paenitere quod animum tuum offenderit; sed se iure fecisse. deinde perscribit spurcissime quas ob causas fecerit. sed neque hoc tempore nec antea patefecisset odium suum in me, nisi omnibus rebus me esse oppressum videret. atque utinam vel nocturnis, quem ad modum tu scripseras, itineribus propius te accessissem! nunc nec ubi nec quando te sim visurus possum suspicari.
About the co-heirs in the Fufidian estate there was no need to write to me; their demand is fair, and whatever you have done I should reckon rightly done.
de coheredibus Fufidianis nihil fuit quod ad me scriberes; nam et aequum postulant et quicquid egisses recte esse actum putarem.
About buying back the farm at Frusino, you have long understood my wish. Although our affairs then stood in a better place, and there did not seem to be any prospect of such ruin for me, even so I am of the same mind. How it is to be managed you will see. And I should like you, as far as you can, to consider where the necessary expenses can be supplied from. What resources we had, we made over to Pompey at the time when we thought we were acting wisely. Accordingly at that time we drew on your steward and borrowed from elsewhere, even as Quintus complains in his letters that we gave him nothing — when we were neither asked by him nor laid eyes on the money ourselves. Even so, I should like you to see what can be done, and to give me advice on every part of it; you know the situation.
de fundo Frusinati redimendo iam pridem intellexisti voluntatem meam. etsi tum meliore loco res erant nostrae neque tam mihi desperatum iri videbatur, tamen in eadem sum voluntate. id quem ad modum fiat tu videbis. et velim, quod poteris, consideres ut sit unde nobis suppeditentur sumptus necessarii. si quas habuimus facultates, eas Pompeio tum cum id videbamur sapienter facere detulimus. itaque tum et a tuo vilico sumpsimus et aliunde mutuati sumus cum Quintus queritur per litteras sibi nos nihil dedisse, qui neque ab illo rogati sumus neque ipsi eam pecuniam aspeximus. sed velim videas quid sit quod confici possit quidque mihi de omnibus des consili; et causam nosti.
Grief keeps me from writing more. If there is anyone you think should be written to in my name, I should like you to do as you usually do; and as often as there is someone to whom you can give a letter to me, I would have you not let the chance pass. Farewell.
plura ne scribam dolore impedior. si quid erit quod ad quos scribendum meo nomine putes, velim ut soles facias, quotiensque habebis quoi des ad me litteras nolim praetermittas. vale.

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Ad Atticum 11.13

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