Ad M. Brutum 1.16
Ad M. Brutum 1.16
Headnote
M. Brutus to Cicero himself — the salutation reads Brutus Ciceroni salutem — written from the East, where Brutus held his eastern command, at the beginning of May 43 BC. The Perseus dateline reads Scr. Athenis in. Maio a. 711 (43), “written at Athens, at the beginning of May,” 43. The meta entry’s year-precision placeholder is here corrected to early May 43; the letter belongs to the spring of that year, months before the autumn proscriptions, and the place-note “at Athens” is the conventional ascription rather than a fixed fact.
The occasion is a letter Cicero had written to the young Caesar — Octavian, Caesar’s heir — a fragment of which Atticus had forwarded to Brutus. In it Cicero, thanking Octavian for his services to the state, had commended Brutus’s own safety to the boy’s care, in terms Brutus found suppliant and abject. The whole of this letter is Brutus’s answer, and it is among the most severe documents in the corpus. Its argument is single and relentless: that to beg the safety of the liberators of the world from one man is to confess that the despotism has not been abolished but only its master changed (non sublatam dominationem sed dominum commutatum esse); that Cicero’s words, looked at honestly, are the prayers of a slave addressed to a king (servientis adversus regem preces); and that safety bought at the price of dignity and liberty is a death worse than death. Brutus refuses it for himself — he will hold Rome to be wherever a man may be free — and warns Cicero that the courage shown against Antony will curdle into a reputation for cowardice if it is now bent toward courting Octavian as a more agreeable master.
The letter is the companion to Ad M. Brutum 1.17, Brutus’s contemporary letter to Atticus, which makes the same case in private and at greater heat; the two survived together in the same archive and were transmitted as a pair. The text carries an unresolved crux among the corrupt loci of the central sections, here translated through by sense without brackets. Within a year and a half Brutus’s prediction came true: Cicero fell under the proscriptions of the master he had helped to make.
I have read a fragment of that little letter of yours to Octavius, the one Atticus sent on to me. Your concern and your care for my safety gave me no new pleasure: it is not only usual but a daily thing to hear of something you have said or done loyally and with honour for our standing. But that same part of the letter, the part written to Octavius about us, struck me with as much grief as my mind is able to hold. For you thank him for the state in terms so suppliant, so abject — what am I to write? I am ashamed of our condition and our fortune, but it must be written all the same: you commend our safety to him. What death could be more ruinous than such safety? You make it plain, in so many words, that the despotism has not been abolished, only the master changed. Look back over your own words, and dare to deny that these are the prayers of a slave addressed to a king. There is one thing, you say, that is asked and looked for from him: that he should be willing to keep safe those citizens of whom good men and the Roman people think well. And what if he is not willing? Shall we then cease to exist? Yet it is better not to exist than to exist by his leave.
particulam litterularum tuarum, quas misisti Octavio, legi missam ab Attico mihi. studium tuum curaque de salute mea nulla me nova voluptate adfecit. non solum enim usitatum sed etiam cotidianum est aliquid audire de te, quod pro nostra dignitate fideliter atque honorifice dixeris aut feceris. at dolore quantum maximum capere animo possum eadem illa pars epistulae scripta ad Octavium de nobis adfecit. sic enim illi gratias agis de re publica, tam suppliciter ac demisse—quid scribam? pudet condicionis ac fortunae sed tamen scribendum est: commendas nostram salutem illi, quae morte qua non perniciosior? ut prorsus prae te feras non sublatam dominationem sed dominum commutatum esse. verba tua recognosce et aude negare servientis adversus regem istas esse preces. Vnum ais esse quod ab eo postuletur et exspectetur, ut eos civis de quibus viri boni populusque Romanus bene existimet salvos velit. quid si nolit? non erimus? atqui non esse quam esse per illum praestat.
I myself, upon my word, do not believe that all the gods are so set against the safety of the Roman people that Octavius must be petitioned for the safety of any citizen at all — I will not say for the liberators of the whole world. It is a pleasure to speak in grand terms, and it is surely fitting to do so before men who do not know what is to be feared for each man and what is to be sought from each. Do you, Cicero, admit that Octavius has this power, and are you his friend? Or, if you hold me dear, do you wish to see me at Rome, when I had to be commended to that boy before I could so much as be there? Why do you thank him, if you think he must be entreated to be willing that we be safe, and to suffer it? Or is this to be reckoned a kindness, that he preferred to be the one of whom such things must be begged, rather than Antony? To the avenger of another’s despotism — not to its inheritor — does anyone make supplication that men who have deserved supremely well of the state be allowed to live?
ego medius fidius non existimo tam omnis deos aversos esse a salute populi Romani ut Octavius orandus sit pro salute cuiusquam civis, non dicam pro liberatoribus orbis terrarum; iuvat enim magnifice loqui et certe decet adversus ignorantis quid pro quoque timendum aut a quoque petendum sit. hoc tu, Cicero, posse fateris Octavium et illi amicus es? aut, si me carum habes, vis Romae videre, cum ut ibi esse possem commendandus puero illi fuerim? cui quid agis gratias, si ut nos salvos esse velit et patiatur rogandum putas? an hoc pro beneficio habendum est, quod se quam Antonium esse maluerit a quo ista petenda essent? Vindici quidem alienae dominationis, non vicario, ecquis supplicat ut optime meritis de re publica liceat esse salvis?
It is this very weakness and despair — the fault of which lies no more with you than with everyone else — that drove Caesar into his lust for kingship, that persuaded Antony, after Caesar’s death, to try to seize the place of the man who had been killed, and that now has lifted up this boy of yours, so that you should judge that the safety of such men must be won by prayers, and that we shall scarcely even now be safe through the mercy of one man — a man, barely — and by no other thing whatever. But if we had remembered that we are Romans, the basest of men would no more boldly long to be our masters than we would prevent it; nor would Antony have been so much inflamed by the desire for Caesar’s throne as he was deterred from it by Caesar’s death.
ista vero imbecillitas et desperatio, cuius culpa non magis in te residet quam in omnibus aliis, et Caesarem in cupiditatem regni impulit et Antonio post interitum illius persuasit ut interfecti locum occupare conaretur et nunc puerum istum extulit, ut tu iudicares precibus esse impetrandam salutem talibus viris misericordiaque unius vix etiam nunc viri tutos fore nos, haud ulla alia re. quod si Romanos nos esse meminissemus, non audacius dominari cuperent postremi homines quam id nos prohiberemus, neque magis inritatus esset Antonius regno Caesaris quam ob eiusdem mortem deterritus.
You yourself — a consular, the avenger of such great crimes, crimes which, now that they are crushed, I fear have been put off by you only for a short time — how can you look upon what you have achieved, and at the same time either approve these present doings or endure them so abjectly and so easily that you wear the look of one who approves? And what private quarrel have you with Antony? Surely it was this: that he demanded these very things — that safety be sought from him, that we should hold our security as a thing granted on sufferance from the very men from whom he himself had received his freedom, that the disposal of the state should be his to make. Was it for this that you thought arms must be sought, by which he might be prevented from being our master — so that, when he was prevented, we might beg the same of another, who would let himself be set up in his place? Or was it that the state might be its own, free and master of itself? Unless, perhaps, what we refused was not slavery but the terms of our slavery. And yet under a good master, Antony, we could not only have borne our fortune, but might even have enjoyed kindnesses and honours, sharing in them as fully as we pleased. For what would he refuse to men whose compliance he saw to be the greatest safeguard of his own despotism? But nothing was worth so much that we should sell our honour and our liberty for it.
tu quidem consularis et tantorum scelerum vindex, quibus oppressis vereor ne in breve tempus dilata sit abs te pernicies, qui potes intueri quae gesseris, simul et ista vel probare vel ita demisse ac facile pati ut probantis speciem habeas? quod autem tibi cum Antonio privatim odium? nempe quia postulabat haec, salutem ab se peti, precariam nos incolumitatem habere a quibus ipse libertatem accepisset, esse arbitrium suum de re publica, quaerenda esse arma putasti quibus dominari prohiberetur, scilicet ut illo prohibito rogaremus alterum qui se in eius locum reponi pateretur, an ut esset sui iuris ac mancipi res publica? nisi forte non de servitute sed de condicione serviendi recusatum est a nobis. atqui non solum bono domino potuimus Antonio tolerare nostram fortunam sed etiam beneficiis atque honoribus ut participes frui quantis vellemus. quid enim negaret iis quorum patientiam videret maximum dominationis suae praesidium esse? sed nihil tanti fuit quo venderemus fidem nostram et libertatem.
This very boy, whom Caesar’s name seems to spur on against Caesar’s killers — how much would he give, if there were room for a bargain, to have as much power as he assuredly will have, with us to back him, since we are willing to live, to keep our money, and to be called consulars! But will it have been for nothing that the man perished at whose death we rejoiced — if, though he was dead, we were going to be slaves no less than before? Is no thought given to that? But may all the gods and goddesses sooner snatch everything from me than that resolve of mine, by which I would not grant even to the heir of the man I killed — much less to my own father, were he to come back to life — what I would not endure in the man himself: that, with my consent, he should have more power than the laws and the Senate. Or are you persuaded that the rest of us will be free under a man without whose consent there is no place for us in this state of ours? And how, besides, can what you ask be brought about, that you should obtain it? For you ask that he be willing that we be safe. Do we then seem to you about to receive safety, when we shall have received life? And how can we receive that life, unless we first lay down our dignity and our liberty?
hic ipse puer quem Caesaris nomen incitare videtur in Caesaris interfectores, quanti aestimet, si sit commercio locus, posse nobis auctoribus tantum quantum profecto potent, quoniam vivere et pecunias habere et dici consulares volumus! ceterum ne nequiquam perierit ille cuius interitu quid gavisi sumus, si mortuo nihilo minus servituri eramus, nulla cura adhibetur? sed mihi prius omnia di deaeque eripuerint quam illud iudicium, quo non modo heredi eius quem occidi non concesserim quod in illo non tuli, sed ne patri quidem meo, si revivescat, ut patiente me plus legibus ac senatu possit. an hoc tibi persuasum est, fore ceteros ab eo liberos quo invito nobis in ista civitate locus non sit? qui porro id quod petis fleri potest ut impetres? rogas enim velit nos salvos esse. videmur ergo tibi salutem accepturi cum vitam acceperimus? quam, nisi prius dimittimus dignitatem et libertatem, qui possumus accipere?
Or do you think that to live at Rome is to be safe? It is the thing, not the place, that must guarantee that to me. I was not safe while Caesar lived — not until I had carried out that deed; and nowhere can I be an exile, so long as I hate slavery and the endurance of insults worse than all other evils. Is this not to have fallen back into the same darkness: if from the man who has taken the name of tyrant to himself — when in the cities of the Greeks the children of tyrants, once the tyrants are overthrown, are visited with the very same punishment — it is begged that the avengers and overthrowers of despotism be kept safe? Could I wish to see such a state, or think any state worth the name, that cannot take back its liberty even when it is handed over and pressed upon it — that fears in a boy the name of the king who has been removed more than it trusts in itself, when it sees that very king, who held the greatest power, removed by the courage of a few? As for me, never again commend me to your Caesar — nor even yourself, if you will hear me. You set a very high price on the few years that your age admits of, if for their sake you are going to play the suppliant to that boy.
an tu Romae habitare, id putas incolumem esse? res non locus oportet praestet istuc mihi. neque incolumis Caesare vivo fui, nisi postea quam illud conscivi facinus, neque usquam exsul esse possum, dum servire et pati contumelias peius odero malis omnibus aliis. nonne hoc est in easdem tenebras recidisse, si ab eo qui tyranni nomen adscivit sibi, cum in Graecis civitatibus liberi tyrannorum oppressis illis eodem supplicio adficiantur, petitur ut vindices atque oppressores dominationis salvi sint? hanc ego civitatem videre velim aut putem ullam, quae ne traditam quidem atque inculcatam libertatem recipere possit plusque timeat in puero nomen sublati regis quam confidat sibi, cum illum ipsum qui maximas opes habuerit paucorum virtute sublatum videat? me vero posthac ne commendaveris Caesari tuo, ne te quidem ipsum, si me audies. valde care aestimas tot annos quot ista aetas recipit, si propter eam causam puero isti supplicaturus es.
And then, the very thing you did, and are still doing, so admirably in the case of Antony — take care that it does not turn from a credit to your greatness of spirit into a reputation for cowardice. For if Octavius pleases you, the man from whom our safety is to be sought, you will seem not to have fled a master, but to have looked for a more agreeable one. That you praise him for what he has done so far, I wholly approve; for those things are praiseworthy, provided he undertook those actions against another’s power and not on behalf of his own. But when you judge that so much not only may be allowed him, but must even be conferred on him by you yourself, that he must be begged not to refuse to let us be safe, you set the price too high (for you are bestowing on him the very thing the state was thought to hold through him); nor does it cross your mind that, if Octavius deserves any honours at all because he is waging war against Antony, the Roman people will never confer on those who have cut out the evil of which these are the remnants anything that could equal their desert, even if it heaped up all rewards at once.
deinde quod pulcherrime fecisti ac facis in Antonio vide ne convertatur a laude maximi animi ad opinionem formidinis. nam si Octavius tibi placet, a quo de nostra salute petendum sit, non dominum fugisse sed amiciorem dominum quaesisse videberis. quem quod laudas ob ea quae adhuc fecit plane probo; sunt enim laudanda, si modo contra alienam potentiam non pro sua suscepit eas actiones. Cum vero iudicas tantum illi non modo licere sed etiam a te ipso tribuendum esse ut rogandus sit ne nolit esse nos salvos, nimium magnam mercedem statuis (id enim ipsum illi largiris quod per illum habere videbatur res publica), neque hoc tibi in mentem venit, si Octavius ullis dignus sit honoribus quia cum Antonio bellum gerat, iis qui illud malum exciderint cuius istae reliquiae sunt nihil quo expleri possit eorum meritum tributurum umquam populum Romanum, si omnia simul congesserit.
And see how much more diligently men fear than they remember. Because Antony is alive and under arms, while in Caesar’s case what could and ought to have been done is finished and cannot now be restored to its first state — Octavius is the man whose judgement upon us the Roman people is to await; we are the men for whose safety one single man, it seems, must be entreated. I, for my part — to come back to that point — am the man who would not only refuse to play the suppliant, but would even hold in check those who demand to be supplicated. Either I shall keep far away from slaves, and shall judge that Rome is for me wherever it shall be permitted to be free; or I shall pity you, you for whom neither age nor honours nor another man’s courage has been able to lessen the sweetness of mere living.
ac vide quanto diligentius homines metuant quam meminerint, quia Antonius vivat atque in armis sit, de Caesare vero quod fieri potuit ac debuit transactum est neque iam revocari in integrum potest. Octavius is est qui quid de nobis iudicaturus sit exspectet populus Romanus; nos ii sumus de quorum salute unus homo rogandus videatur? ego vero, ut istoc revertar, is sum qui non modo non supplicem sed etiam coerceam postulantis ut sibi supplicetur. aut longe a servientibus abero mihique esse iudicabo Romam ubicumque liberum esse licebit, ac vestri miserebor quibus nec aetas neque honores nec virtus aliena dulcedinem vivendi minuere potuerit.
For my part, I shall think myself happy enough, if only this resolve holds firm and unbroken, so that I may count the gratitude owed to my devotion as paid in full. For what is better than to be content with the memory of right deeds and with liberty, and to think nothing of human things? But I shall surely not give way to those who give way, nor be conquered by those who wish to be conquered; I shall make trial of everything and attempt everything, and I shall not cease to drag our state away from servitude. If the fortune that ought to follow does follow, we shall all rejoice; if not, I shall rejoice all the same. For with what deeds or thoughts could this life of mine better be spent than with those that have been directed to the freeing of my fellow citizens?
mihi quidem ita beatus esse videbor, si modo constanter ac perpetuo placebit hoc consilium ut relatam putem gratiam pietati meae. quid enim est melius quam memoria recte factorum et libertate contentum neglegere humana? sed certe non succumbam succumbentibus nec vincar ab iis qui se vinci volunt experiarque et temptabo omnia neque desistam abstrahere a servitio civitatem nostram. si secuta fuerit quae debet fortuna, gaudebimus omnes; si minus, ego tamen gaudebo. quibus enim potius haec vita factis aut cogitationibus traducatur quam iis quae pertinuerint ad liberandos civis meos?
You, Cicero, I beg and exhort: do not grow weary, do not despair, but always, in fending off present evils, look ahead to those to come as well, lest they steal in unless they are met beforehand. That brave and free spirit, with which both as consul and now as consular you have championed the state — believe that without steadiness and evenness it is nothing. For I confess that the condition of proven virtue is harder than that of virtue untried. Good deeds we exact as our due; and when they turn out otherwise, we reproach the men who have disappointed us with a hostile heart. And so, that Cicero resists Antony, though it is worthy of the highest praise, still wins no one’s wonder, since that consul is rightly seen to live up to this consular.
te, Cicero, rogo atque hortor ne defetigere neu diffidas, semper in praesentibus malis prohibendis futura quoque explores ne se, nisi ante sit occursum, insinuent. fortem et liberum animum, quo et consul et nunc consularis rem publicam vindicasti, sine constantia et aequabilitate nullum esse putaris. fateor enim duriorem esse condicionem spectatae virtutis quam incognitae. bene facta pro debitis exigimus, quae aliter eveniunt ut decepti ab iis infesto animo reprehendimus. itaque resistere Antonio Ciceronem, etsi maxima laude dignum est, tamen, quia ille consul hunc consularem merito praestare videtur, nemo admiratur;
But let this same Cicero turn against others the judgement that he has aimed, with such firmness and grandeur, at driving out Antony — and he will not only have robbed himself of the glory of the time to come, but will compel even what is past to fade away. For nothing is great in itself unless the reasoned judgement behind it stands plain. And indeed no one is more fitted to love the state and to be the defender of its liberty, whether by his genius, or by his deeds, or by the wish and the urgent demand of all men. Wherefore Octavius is not to be begged to be willing that we be safe; rather, rouse yourself, and believe that the state in which you have done your greatest deeds will be free and honourable, if only the people have leaders to resist the designs of wicked men.
idem Cicero, si flexerit adversus alios iudicium suum quod tanta firmitate ac magnitudine direxit in exturbando Antonio, non modo reliqui temporis gloriam eripuerit sibi sed etiam praeterita evanescere coget. nihil enim per se amplum est nisi in quo iudici ratio exstat. quin neminem magis decet rem publicam amare libertatisque defensorem esse vel ingenio vel rebus gestis vel studio atque efflagitatione omnium. qua re non Octavius est rogandus ut velit nos salvos esse, magis tute te exsuscita, ut eam civitatem in qua maxima gessisti liberam atque honestam fore putes, si modo sint populo duces ad resistendum improborum consiliis.