Ad M. Brutum 1.10
Ad M. Brutum 1.10
Headnote
Cicero to M. Brutus, from Rome, mid-July 43 BC — Perseus dateline Scr. Romae med. m. Quint. a. 711 (43). One of the longest and most clear-sighted of Cicero’s late letters: a survey of the political collapse already in motion. Antony has been defeated at Mutina in April; both consuls (Hirtius, Pansa) are dead; the Senate’s victory has slipped (“so many faults of Brutus’s followed that in a way the victory slipped out of our hands”); Lepidus has joined the remnant of Antony’s forces and reopened the war; the young Caesar (Octavian), guided so far by Cicero, has been worked on by Caesarian agents and now publicly intends to claim the consulship. Section 3 is the most precise contemporary statement of where the danger is coming from: “power is now lodged in violence and arms,” and “each man demands for himself as much power in the commonwealth as he has strength.”
The structural argument of the letter is the brief Cicero has been making since spring. He himself, having tried to escape Italy in the months after Caesar’s assassination, was called back by Brutus’s edicts and by Brutus’s exhortation in person at Velia. He shook Antony with no guard at his side. He strengthened the guard Octavian’s force offered. Now the guard is at risk of failing: “if the counsels of the impious shall prove stronger than mine, or if the weakness of his age cannot bear the weight of these affairs, every hope is in you.” The closing lines of section 5 are the personal note ordinarily kept off the page: the standing-ground of hope is on Brutus’s parade- ground, not in Rome; and if it should turn out otherwise, “I shall grieve on behalf of the commonwealth, which ought to have been immortal; for myself — how little is left to me?” Within four months the answer to that question would be no time at all.
I have had no letter from you so far, nor even a report to indicate that, on learning the Senate’s resolution, you are bringing your army into Italy — which the commonwealth was urgently asking that you do, and that you do quickly. For the inward malady grows worse by the day, and we are no more harassed by foreign enemies than by domestic ones, who were there from the start of the war but were easier to break. The Senate was firmer in posture, roused not only by my motions but also by my exhortations. In the Senate Pansa was vehement and keen enough, both against the rest of this stamp and most of all against his father-in-law — a consul to whom from the start spirit was not lacking, nor at the end fidelity.
nullas adhuc a te litteras habebamus, ne famam quidem quae declararet te cognita senatus auctoritate in Italiam adducere exercitum; quod ut faceres idque maturares magno opere desiderabat res publica. ingravescit enim in dies intestinum malum, nec extemis hostibus magis quam domesticis laboramus, qui erant omnino ab initio belli sed facilius frangebantur. erectior senatus erat non sententiis solum nostris sed etiam cohortationibus excitatus. erat in senatu satis vehemens et acer Pansa cum in ceteros huius generis tum maxime in socerum, cui consuli non animus ab initio, non fides ad extremum defuit.
The war was being waged at Mutina, in such a way that you could fault nothing in Caesar and something here and there in Hirtius. The fortune of this war was unsteady, as in prosperity it tends to be, but good as in adversity it tends to be. The commonwealth was victorious, Antony’s forces cut down, Antony himself driven out. Then so many faults of Brutus’s followed that in a way the victory slipped out of our hands. Our generals did not pursue men who were terrified, unarmed, wounded; and time was given to Lepidus in which to make us try out, in graver troubles, the levity of his we had so often seen through. The armies of Brutus and Plancus are sound, but raw; the Gallic auxiliaries are most loyal and very large in number;
bellum ad Mutinam gerebatur, nihil ut in Caesare reprehenderes, non nulla in Hirtio. huius belli fortuna ut in secundis flu/xa, ut in adversi/s bona. erat victrix res publica caesis Antoni copiis, ipso expulso. Bruti deinde ita multa peccata ut quodam modo victoria excideret e manibus. perterritos, inermis, saucios non sunt nostri duces persecuti, datumque Lepido tempus est in quo levitatem eius saepe perspectam maioribus in malis experiremur. sunt exercitus boni sed rudes Bruti et Planci, sunt fidelissima et maxima auxilia Gallorum;
but Caesar, who up to now had been guided by my counsels — a young man of brilliant native endowment and admirable steadiness — has been pushed, by certain persons through villainous letters and through deceitful go-betweens and messengers, into a most settled hope of the consulship. The moment I sensed it, I did not cease either to warn him at a distance by letter or to call to account, in person, those of his intimates who were seen to be backing his ambition, nor did I hesitate to lay open in the Senate the springs of the most criminal designs. And on no matter, in fact, do I recall a better Senate or better magistrates; for never, in the matter of an extraordinary honour for a powerful man — or rather for the most powerful (since power is now lodged in violence and arms) — has it happened that no tribune of the plebs, no other magistrate, no private citizen took the lead. But amid this firmness and courage the state was nevertheless uneasy. For we are being mocked, Brutus, now by the soldiers’ caprices, now by the imperator’s effrontery. Each man demands for himself as much power in the commonwealth as he has strength; reason has no force, nor measure, nor law, nor custom, nor duty, nor judgement, nor the esteem of one’s fellow citizens, nor reverence for posterity.
sed Caesarem meis consiliis adhuc gubernatum, praeclara ipsum indole admirabilique constantia, improbissimis litteris quidam fallacibusque interpretibus ac nuntiis impulerunt in spem certissimam consulatus. quod simul atque sensi, neque ego illum absentem litteris monere destiti nec accusare praesentis eius necessarios qui eius cupiditati suffragari videbantur, nec in senatu sceleratissimorum consiliorum fontis aperire dubitavi. nec vero ulla in re memini aut senatum meliorem aut magistratus; numquam enim in honore extraordinario potentis hominis vel potentissimi potius (quando quidem potentia iam in vi posita est et armis) accidit ut nemo tribunus plebis, nemo alio magistratu, nemo privatus auctor exsisteret. sed in hac constantia atque virtute erat tamen sollicita civitas. inludimur enim, Brute, tum militum deliciis, tum imperatoris insolentia. tantum quisque se in re publica posse postulat quantum habet virium; non ratio, non modus, non lex, non mos, non officium valet, non iudicium non existimatio civium, non posteritatis verecundia.
I foresaw all this far in advance, and was running away from Italy at the time when the report of your edicts called me back; you in person spurred me on, Brutus, at Velia. For although I was distressed at going into the city you were fleeing, you who had freed it — a thing that had once happened to me too, in a like danger, with a sadder outcome — I nonetheless pressed on and reached Rome and, with no guard at my side, shook Antony, and against his unspeakable arms I made firm the guard that was offered, on Caesar’s counsel and authority. If he stands by his word and obeys me, we shall, it seems, have guard enough; but if the counsels of the impious shall prove stronger than mine, or if the weakness of his age cannot bear the weight of these affairs, every hope is in you. Therefore fly here, I beg you, and bring final deliverance, by your exit, to that commonwealth which by your courage and greatness of spirit you have freed more truly than by the outcome of events. To you the whole rush of all men will be. Urge Cassius to the same by letter.
haec ego multo ante prospiciens fugiebam ex Italia tum, cum me vestrorum edictorum fama revocavit; incitavisti vero tu me, Brute, Veliae. quamquam enim dolebiwn in eam me urbem ire quam tu fugeres qui eam liberavisses, quod mihi quoque quondam acciderat periculo simili, casu tristiore, perrexi tamen Romamque perveni nulloque praesidio quatefeci Antonium contraque eius arma nefanda praesidia quae oblata sunt Caesaris consilio et auctoritate firmavi. qui si steterit fide mihique paruerit, satis videmur habituri praesidi; sin autem impiorum consilia plus valuerint quam nostra aut imbecillitas aetatis non potuerit gravitatem rerum sustinere, spes omnis est in te. quam ob rem advola obsecro, atque eam rem publicam, quam virtute atque animi magnitudine magis quam eventis rerum liberavisti, exitu libera. omnis omnium concursus ad te futurus est. hortare idem per litteras Cassium.
The hope of liberty has its standing-ground nowhere but on the parade-ground of your camp. We have, in fact, firm generals and firm armies from the West. As for this guard provided by the young man, I am confident, so far, that it is firm; but so many are working to loosen it that I am at times in dread that it may be moved. You have the whole condition of the commonwealth — as, indeed, it stood at the moment I was sending off this letter. I should wish what comes next to be better. But if it shall turn out otherwise (which heaven avert!), I shall grieve on behalf of the commonwealth, which ought to have been immortal; for myself — how little is left to me?
spes libertatis nusquam nisi in vestrorum castrorum principiis est. firmos omnino et duces habemus ab occidente et exercitus. hoc adulescentis praesidium equidem adhuc firmum esse confido, sed ita multi labefactant ut ne moveatur interdum extimescam. habes totum rei publicae statum, qui quidem tum erat, cum has litteras dabam. velim deinceps meliora sint. sin aliter fuerit, (quod di omen avertant!) rei publicae vicem dolebo quae immortalis esse debebat; mihi quidem quantulum reliqui est?