HermitshCicero by Claude

Letter · 4 April 50 BC · Laudiceae

Ad Familiares 2.11

Ad Familiares 2.11

Headnote

Cicero to M. Caelius Rufus, curule aedile, written from Laodicea on the day before the Nones of April 50 BC (Perseus dateline: Scr. Laudiceae prid. Non. Apr. a. 704 (50)), the day of the Megalesia — the festival at which the aedile presides over the games, and which Cicero notes catches him in the act of writing. Cicero is finishing his assizes in Cilicia and feeling the weight of the province; he writes with one eye on the decree at Rome that will (he hopes) let him leave on the day appointed.

Two themes: the longing to be done with Cilicia — the reputation has been gained and now only fortune can spoil it, the work is below his strength, the Parthian war is hovering — and the running joke of Caelius’s perpetual demand for panthers for the aedilician games. The panthers, Cicero reports, are scarce, and the ones still alive in the province complain that no one in Cilicia is being trapped except themselves; they are now reportedly emigrating to Caria. Patiscus is the most diligent of the hunters. The letter closes with the standing request for as full a report of the state of the commonwealth as Caelius can manage: from no one else does Cicero trust the news.

Would you ever have thought it could happen that I should run short of words — not only of that oratorical kind that is your line, but even of this trivial homespun sort that is mine? They fail me for this reason: that I am marvellously anxious as to what is going to be decreed about the provinces. A strange longing for the city possesses me, an incredible longing for my own people and you above all, and a weariness of the province — whether because we seem to have attained a reputation in which not so much further increase is to be sought as fortune is to be feared; or because the whole business is not worthy of our strength, who both am able and am wont to sustain greater burdens in the commonwealth; or because the fear of a great war hangs over us, which we look to escape if we depart on the day appointed.
putaresne umquam accidere posse, ut mihi verba dessent, neque solum ista vestra oratoria, sed haec etiam levia nostratia? desunt autem propter hanc causam, quod mirifice sum sollicitus, quidnam de provinciis decernatur. mirum me desiderium tenet urbis, incredibile meorum atque in primis tui, satietas autem provinciae, vel quia videmur eam famam consecuti ut non tam accessio quaerenda quam fortuna metuenda sit, vel quia totum negotium non est dignum viribus nostris, qui maiora onera in re publica sustinere et possim et soleam, vel quia belli magni timor impendet, quod videmur effugere, si ad constitutam diem decedemus.
As for the panthers, the matter is being carefully attended to, on my instructions, by the men who do the hunting; but there is a marvellous scarcity of them, and the ones there are, they say, complain bitterly that no traps are set for anything in my province except themselves. So they are reported to have resolved to leave our province for Caria. But the business is being diligently pursued all the same, and above all by Patiscus. Whatever there is shall be yours; but plainly we know nothing of what it amounts to. Your aedileship, by Hercules, is a great care to me; the very day reminded me of it, for I am writing this on the day of the Megalesia itself. Please write to me as carefully as you can about the whole state of the commonwealth; for I shall reckon those things most certain which I have learned from you.
de pantheris per eos, qui venari solent, agitur mandatu meo diligenter; sed mira paucitas est, et eas, quae sunt, valde aiunt queri, quod nihil cuiquam insidiarum in mea provincia nisi sibi fiat. itaque constituisse dicuntur in Cariam ex nostra provincia decedere. sed tamen sedulo fit et in primis a Patisco. quicquid erit, tibi erit, sed quid esset plane nesciebamus. mihi me hercule magnae curae est aedilitas tua; ipse dies me admonebat; scripsi enim haec ipsis Megalensibus. tu velim ad me de omni rei publicae statu quam diligentissime perscribas; ea enim certissima putabo, quae ex te cognoro.

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Ad Familiares 2.11

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