Ad Familiares 1.8
Ad Familiares 1.8
Headnote
Cicero to Publius Lentulus Spinther, proconsul of Cilicia, written at Rome in January 55 BC. The last of the long Lentulus Spinther sequence that began with the daily reports of January–February 56 (Fam. 1.1–1.5b) on the Egyptian commission, here written nearly a year later, after Luca, after the new consulships of Pompey and Crassus had been carried by force, and after the political landscape Lentulus had known had been remade. The bearer is Marcus Plaetorius (the same praetor of 64 BC who had been Cicero’s man on the Senate floor through the Egyptian struggle), who is going east with the dispatches and will narrate the rest viva voce.
The letter is the closest Cicero comes in the correspondence of these months to a written confession of political alignment. He is now Pompey’s man, openly (adfixus), and the alignment is not pretence: “so strong with me is the bent of my mind — and, by Hercules, my affection for Pompey — that whatever serves him and whatever he wills now seem to me both right and true.” The old hope of dignitas in sententiis dicendis, libertas in re publica capessenda is given up explicitly: “one must either assent without dignity along with the few, or dissent in vain.” Within that frame Cicero turns to the consolation: the time freed by political surrender for “my own studies of letters,” nostra studia litterarum — the self-prescription that would in a few months produce De Oratore. The closing pages return to Lentulus’s business: with Pompey now consul and a friend, what Lentulus asks Cicero will obtain.
On all matters that touch you — what has been done, what has been settled, what Pompey has taken in hand — you will best learn from Marcus Plaetorius, who has not only had a part in these matters but has been at their head, and has omitted no service that the most affectionate, the most prudent, the most attentive of men could render you. From the same man you will learn the whole condition of public affairs. What kind of condition that is, is not easy to write. Certainly they are now in the power of our friends, and so much so that no change in this generation seems possible.
de omnibus rebus, quae ad te pertinent, quid actum, quid constitutum sit, quid Pompeius susceperit, optime ex M. Plaetorio cognosces, qui non solum interfuit iis rebus, sed etiam praefuit neque ullum officium erga te hominis amantissimi, prudentissimi, diligentissimi praetermisit. ex eodem de toto statu rerum communium cognosces. quae quales sint, non facile est scribere. sunt quidem certe in amicorum nostrorum potestate, atque ita, ut nullam mutationem umquam hac hominum aetate habitura res esse videatur.
For my own part, as duty requires, as you yourself instructed me, and as obligation and interest compel me, I am attaching myself to the policy of one whom you yourself thought it useful to attach to your own policy. But you do not need to be told how hard it is to lay down a feeling about politics, especially one well grounded and confirmed. Yet I am bringing myself round to the will of the man from whom I cannot honourably differ; and I am not doing so, as some perhaps may think, in pretence: so strong with me is the bent of my mind — and, by Hercules, my affection for Pompey — that whatever serves him and whatever he wills now seem to me both right and true; nor, in my judgement, would even his opponents go astray, if, since they cannot match him, they would stop fighting.
ego quidem, ut debeo et ut tute mihi praecepisti et ut me pietas utilitasque cogit, me ad eius rationes adiungo, quem tu in meis rationibus tibi esse adiungendum putasti sed te non praeterit, quam sit difficile sensum in re publica, praesertim rectum et confirmatum, deponere. verum tamen ipse me conformo ad eius voluntatem, a quo honeste dissentire non possum, neque id facio, ut forsitan quibusdam videar, simulatione; tantum enim animi inductio et me hercule amor erga Pompeium apud me valet, ut, quae illi utilia sunt, et quae ille vult, ea mihi omnia iam et recta et vera videantur; neque, ut ego arbitror, errarent ne adversarii quidem eius, si, cum pares esse non possent, pugnare desisterent.
Even this consoles me: that I am the man to whom all would most readily yield the right either to defend whatever Pompey wishes, or to be silent, or even — which I most prefer — to come back to my own studies of letters. And come back to them I shall, surely, if I can do so by his friendship. For the prospect that lay before me, when I had run through the highest offices and the greatest labours — standing in the giving of opinions, freedom in the conduct of the state — has been swept away entirely, and not for me more than for everyone else: for now one must either assent without dignity along with the few, or dissent in vain.
me quidem etiam illa res consolatur, quod ego is sum, cui vel maxime concedant omnes, ut vel ea defendam, quae Pompeius velit, vel taceam vel etiam, id quod mihi maxime libet, ad nostra me studia referam litterarum; quod profecto faciam, si mihi per eiusdem amicitiam licebit. quae enim proposita fuerat nobis, cum et honoribus amplissimis et laboribus maximis perfuncti essemus, dignitas in sententiis dicendis, libertas in re publica capessenda, ea sublata totast, nec mihi magis quam omnibus; nam aut adsentiendum est nulla cum gravitate paucis aut frustra dissentiendum.
I write this to you above all for this reason, that you may now think over your own policy too. The whole order of the Senate, of the courts, of the entire commonwealth, has been changed: peace is what we must wish for, which the men who hold the power seem ready to provide — if certain people will be able to bear their power more patiently. As for that consular dignity of the brave and constant senator, there is no thinking of it: that has been lost, by the fault of those who alienated from the Senate both an order most closely bound to it and a man of the highest distinction.
haec ego ad te ob eam causam maxime scribo, ut iam de tua quoque ratione meditere. commutata tota ratio est senatus, iudiciorum, rei totius publicae; otium nobis exoptandum est, quod ii, qui potiuntur rerum, praestaturi videntur, si quidam homines patientius eorum potentiam ferre potuerint; dignitatem quidem illam consularem fortis et constantis senatoris nihil est quod cogitemus; amissa culpa est eorum, qui a senatu et ordinem coniunctissimum et hominem clarissimum abalienarunt.
But to come back to what is more closely bound up with your own affairs: I have learned that Pompey is your warm friend; and with him as consul, so far as I can see, you will obtain everything you wish; in which matters he will have me fastened to him, nor will any matter touching you be neglected by me; for I shall not be afraid of being a burden to one who will be glad of it on his own account, when he sees that I am a grateful man.
sed ut ad ea, quae coniunctiora rebus tuis sunt, revertar, Pompeium tibi valde amicum esse cognovi, et eo tu consule, quantum ego perspicio, omnia, quae voles, obtinebis, quibus in rebus me sibi ille adfixum habebit, neque a me ulla res, quae ad te pertineat, neglegetur; neque enim verebor, ne sim ei molestus, cui iucundum erit etiam propter se ipsum, quom me esse gratum videbit.
I should like you to be assured that there is no matter, however small, touching you, that is not dearer to me than all my own affairs; and although in this conviction I can satisfy myself by my zeal, in the matter itself I cannot, for the reason that I cannot reach by repaying — nor even by holding in mind — any portion of your services to me.
tu velim tibi ita persuadeas, nullam rem esse minimam, quae ad te pertineat, quae mihi non carior sit quam meae res omnes; idque cum sentiam, sedulitate mihimet ipse satis facere possum, re quidem ipsa ideo mihi non satis facio, quod nullam partem tuorum meritorum non modo referenda, sed ne cogitanda quidem gratia consequi possum.
The rumour was that you have managed your affairs very well; your dispatches were being awaited, of which we had already spoken with Pompey. When they have arrived, our zeal will show itself in addressing the magistrates and the senators; and in the rest of what touches you, even when we shall have exerted ourselves more than we can, we shall still do less than we ought.
rem te valde bene gessisse rumor erat; exspectabantur litterae tuae, de quibus eramus iam cum Pompeio locuti. quae si erunt allatae, nostrum studium exstabit in conveniendis magistratibus et senatoribus, ceteraque, quae ad te pertinebunt cum etiam plus contenderimus quam possumus, minus tamen faciemus quam debemus.