Ad Familiares 6.6
Ad Familiares 6.6
Headnote
Cicero to Aulus Caecina, written at Rome around the kalends of October 46 BC (Perseus: Romae circ. K. Oct. a. 708 (46)). Caecina, son of the Caecina whom Cicero had defended in 69 BC (the Pro Caecina), was a man of the Etruscan nobility whose family had long preserved the disciplina Etrusca of haruspicy; he was himself a learned antiquarian. In the late fifties and early forties he had circulated an anti-Caesarian pamphlet — the Querelae (“Complaints”) — and after Pharsalus he remained in exile, more dangerous to Caesar than the other Pompeians for that pamphlet’s sake. He was now in Sicily, waiting on Cicero’s mediation. The letter is the substantive piece of the small Caecina cluster (Fam. 6.5–8), longer and politically more candid than its companions, and the closest register-cousin in this group to Fam. 6.14 to Ligarius of late November.
The body is built as a public augury. Cicero, the official augur, takes up Caecina’s own Etruscan disciplina and answers it with his own: since Caecina’s haruspical reading once divined Cicero’s restoration from exile correctly, Cicero will now divine Caecina’s. The augury proper occupies §§ 7–11. It runs along two paths, in the regular augural manner: one drawn from Caesar’s character (mild, clement, drawn to talent, swayed by united constituencies — and Etruria will move united for Caecina), the other from the nature of the times (Caesar has restored Cassius, Brutus, Sulpicius, and even Marcellus with whom he had been angriest; the logic of the present settlement will not permit men of clean record to remain shut out while men condemned of nameless crimes have already returned). The praise of Caesar in §§ 9–10 is the most candid piece of public-private overlap on Caesar’s likely course that Cicero allows himself in the autumn of 46 — not flattery, but the policy reading on which the petition for Caecina rests.
Two passages bear special weight. In § 6 Cicero quotes the tragic Amphiaraus on himself — prudens et sciens ad pestem ante oculos positam — to describe his own going out to the Pompeian war: knowing the outcome, foreseeing the ruin, and going anyway, defeated not by hope but by shame at the prospect of failing Pompey. In § 8 the praise of Caecina’s Querelae as expressing Caesar’s own mitis clemensque natura is a delicate piece of misdirection: the pamphlet had attacked Caesar, but Cicero recasts it as a portrait of the very clemency Caesar should now show its author. The closing promise (§ 13) that Cicero’s standing with Caesar grows daily, and that whatever weight he has with him will be spent on Caecina, is the substantive offer behind the augury.
I fear you may feel I have failed you in my office of friendship — an office which, given the bond between us, the many services you have done me, and our shared pursuits, I have no right to leave unperformed; and in particular I fear you may have missed the office of a letter from me. I would have sent you one both long since and often, had I not preferred, day by day expecting better news, to embrace in a letter your congratulation rather than the strengthening of your spirit.
vereor ne desideres officium meum, quod tibi pro nostra et meritorum multorum et studiorum parium coniunctione deesse non debet; sed tamen vereor ne litterarum a me officium requiras. quas tibi et iam pridem et saepe misissem, nisi cotidie melius exspectans gratulationem quam confirmationem animi tui complecti litteris maluissem.
Now, as I hope, we shall be congratulating before long; so that subject for a letter I am putting off to another time. With this present letter I think your spirit — which I both hear and trust is anything but weak — ought nonetheless to be strengthened again and again by the authority of a man who is not the wisest, perhaps, but is the most attached of friends; and that not in such terms as one would use to console a man cast down and stripped of every hope of safety, but in such terms as one would use toward someone whose preservation I doubt no more than I remember your doubting of mine. For when I had been driven from the commonwealth by those who supposed it could not fall while I still stood, I remember hearing, from many a guest who came to me from Asia, where you were, that you firmly predicted my glorious and swift return.
nunc, ut spero, brevi gratulabimur; itaque in aliud tempus id argumentum epistulae differo. his autem litteris animum tuum, quem minime imbecillum esse et audio et spero, etsi non sapientissimi, at amicissimi hominis auctoritate confirmandum etiam atque etiam puto, nec iis quidem verbis, quibus te consoler ut adflictum et iam omni spe salutis orbatum, sed ut eum, de cuius incolumitate non plus dubitem quam te memini dubitare de mea. nam, cum me ex re p. expulissent ii qui illam cadere posse stante me non putarunt, memini me ex multis hospitibus, qui ad me ex Asia, in qua tu eras, venerant, audire te de glorioso et celeri reditu meo confirmare.
If that wonderful science of the Etruscan discipline, which you had from your father, a man of the highest nobility and excellence, did not fail you in my case, our own divination will not fail us in yours — a divination we have arrived at not only through the monuments and precepts of the wisest men, and through that great devotion to learning of which you know, but also through the long practice of managing the commonwealth and through the great variety of our times;
si te ratio quaedam mira Tuscae disciplinae, quam a patre, nobilissimo atque optimo viro, acceperas, non fefellit, ne nos quidem nostra divinatio fallet, quam cum sapientissimorum virorum monumentis atque praeceptis plurimoque, ut tu scis, doctrinae studio tum magno etiam usu tractandae rei p. magnaque nostrorum temporum varietate consecuti sumus;
and in this divination I have the more confidence because in matters as dark and tangled as these it has never deceived us at any point. I would set out what I predicted before the event, did I not fear it should look like I was inventing them after the fact. But there are many witnesses all the same to my warning Pompey first not to join himself with Caesar, and afterwards not to break with him: by their union the strength of the Senate would be broken, by their division civil war would be kindled — this I saw. And I was on the closest terms with Caesar, and I valued Pompey at the highest; but my counsel was at once loyal to Pompey and salutary to them both.
cui quidem divinationi hoc plus confidimus, quod ea nos nihil in his tam obscuris rebus tamque perturbatis umquam omnino fefellit. dicerem, quae ante futura dixissem, ni vererer ne ex eventis fingere viderer. sed tamen plurimi sunt testes me et initio, ne coniungeret se cum Caesare, monuisse Pompeium et postea, ne seiungeret. coniunctione frangi senatus opes, diiunctione civile bellum excitari videbam. atque utebar familiarissime Caesare, Pompeium faciebam plurimi, sed erat meum consilium cum fidele Pompeio tum salutare utrique.
What else I foresaw I pass over; I do not want this man, who has deserved the best of me, to think I gave Pompey counsel which, had he obeyed, would have left this one no doubt distinguished in civil life and first man in Rome, but not in possession of the immense power he has now. I held that he ought to go into Spain. Had he done so, there would have been no civil war at all. That his candidacy be heard while he was absent — I did not so much fight for the legal right of it as for the holding to it, since the people, by act of the consul on the floor, had so ordered. The cause of the war arose. What did I leave unsaid, of warning or of complaint, when I was for setting even the most unjust peace ahead of the most just war?
quae praeterea providerim praetereo; nolo enim hunc de me optime meritum existimare ea me suasisse Pompeio, quibus ille si paruisset, esset hic quidem clarus in toga et princeps, sed tantas opes, quantas nunc habet, non haberet. eundum in Hispaniam censui. quod si fecisset, civile bellum nullum omnino fuisset. rationem haberi absentis non tam pugnavi ut liceret, quam ut, quoniam ipso consule pugnante populus iusserat, haberetur. causa orta belli est. quid ego praetermisi aut monitorum aut querelarum, cum vel iniquissimam pacem iustissimo bello anteferrem?
My authority was defeated, not so much by Pompey — for he was moved by it — as by those who, trusting in Pompey as their leader, supposed the victory in that war would fall conveniently on both their household business and their private appetites. The war was taken up while I held back; it was driven out of Italy while I held my ground, as long as I could; but in the end my shame had more weight with me than my fear. I was ashamed to fail Pompey’s safety when he had not, in his day, failed mine. And so, vanquished by duty, or by the reputation of the good men, or by shame, I set out, as Amphiaraus in the plays sets out, “knowing and aware, to the destruction set before my eyes.” In which war nothing went badly that I had not predicted.
Victa est auctoritas mea non tam a Pompeio (nam is movebatur) quam ab iis, qui duce Pompeio freti peropportunam et rebus domesticis et cupiditatibus suis illius belli victoriam fore putabant. susceptum bellum est quiescente me, depulsum ex Italia manente me, quoad potui; sed valuit apud me plus pudor meus quam timor; veritus sum deesse Pompei saluti, cum ille aliquando non defuisset meae. itaque vel officio vel fama bonorum vel pudore victus, ut in fabulis Amphiaraus, sic ego ’prudens et sciens ad pestem ante oculos positam’ sum profectus. quo in bello nihil adversi accidit non praedicente me.
Therefore, since (as augurs and astrologers are wont) I too, a public augur, have on the strength of my earlier predictions set up before you the authority of my own augury and divination, our present prediction ought to be believed. I divine for you, then, not from the flight of a bird, nor from the sinister note of the singing-bird (as is our discipline’s way), nor from the most full-footed beat or sound of the sacred chickens, but I have other signs to observe; and though they are not more certain than those, they have less of obscurity or of error in them.
qua re, quoniam, ut augures et astrologi solent, ego quoque augur publicus ex meis superioribus praedictis constitui apud te auctoritatem auguri et divinationis meae, debebit habere fidem nostra praedictio. non igitur ex alitis involatu nec e cantu sinistro oscinis, ut in nostra disciplina est, nec ex tripudiis solistimis aut soniviis tibi auguror, sed habeo alia signa, quae ob servem; quae etsi non sunt certiora illis, minus tamen habent vel obscuritatis vel erroris.
For my divining I note signs along two paths: the one I draw from Caesar himself, the other from the nature and tendency of our civil times. In Caesar these are the signs: a mild and merciful nature, of the kind your famous book of Querelae expresses. Add to this that he is wonderfully delighted by men of outstanding talent, of which yours is one. Add too that he yields to the just wishes of many men, born of duty, not to empty or self-seeking ones;
notantur autem mihi ad divinandum signa duplici quadam via; quarum alteram duco e Caesare ipso, alteram e temporum civilium natura atque ratione. in Caesare haec sunt: mitis clemensque natura, qualis exprimitur praeclaro illo libro ’ querelarum ’ tuarum. accedit quod mirifice ingeniis excellentibus, quale est tuum, delectatur. praeterea cedit multorum iustis et officio incensis, non inanibus aut ambitiosis voluntatibus;
and in this Etruria, united, will move him strongly. “Why then have these things availed so little up to now?” — Because he does not think he can sustain the cases of many men, if he yields to you, against whom he holds he has the juster claim to be angry. “Then what hope is there from an angry man?” you will say. He will come to understand that he is drawing his praises from the same fountain by which he has been lightly splashed. And in any case the man is exceedingly shrewd and has long sight: he understands that you, the man easily the noblest of all in a part of Italy not at all to be slighted, the equal in talent or favour or fame with the Roman people of any of the foremost men of your generation in the commonwealth at large, cannot be kept out of public life any longer. He will not want this hereafter to be a gift of the moment rather than now to be his own.
in quo vehementer eum consentiens Etruria movebit. ’ cur haec igitur adhuc parum profecerunt?’ quia non putat se sustinere causas posse multorum, si tibi, cui iustius videtur irasci posse, concesserit. ’ quae est igitur’ inquies ’spes ab irato?’ eodem fonte se hausturum intelleget laudes suas, e quo sit leviter aspersus. postremo homo valde est acutus et multum providens; intellegit te, hominem in parte Italiae minime contemnenda facile omnium nobilissimum et in communi re p. cuivis summorum tuae aetatis vel ingenio vel gratia vel fama populi R. parem non posse prohiberi re publica diutius. nolet hoc temporis potius esse aliquando beneficium quam iam suum.
So much for Caesar; now I shall speak of the nature of the times and the state of things. There is no man so hostile to the cause which Pompey took up — with better heart than preparation — who would dare call us bad citizens or wicked men. On which point I tend to wonder at Caesar’s seriousness, justice, and wisdom: he never speaks of Pompey but in the most honourable terms. “But in the person of Pompey he did many harsher acts.” Those are the acts of arms and of victory, not of Caesar; and as for us, see how he has embraced us: Cassius he has made his legate, Brutus he has set over Gaul, Sulpicius over Greece, Marcellus — the man with whom he was angriest — he has restored with the fullest honour to his standing.
dixi de Caesare; nunc dicam de temporum rerumque natura. nemo est tam inimicus ei causae, quam Pompeius animatus melius quam paratus susceperat, qui nos malos civis dicere aut homines improbos audeat. in quo admirari soleo gravitatem et iustitiam et sapientiam Caesaris. numquam nisi honorificentissime Pompeium appellat. at in eius persona multa fecit asperius. armorum ista et victoriae sunt facta, non Caesaris; at nos quem ad modum est complexus! Cassium sibi legavit, Brutum Galliae praefecit, Sulpicium Graeciae, Marcellum, cui maxime suscensebat, cum summa illius dignitate restituit.
Where then is all this tending? The nature of things and of the civil times will not endure — nor will reason allow it, whether things stand or change — first, that in an equal cause the condition and fortune of all should not be the same; and second, that good men and good citizens, marked with no disgrace, should not return into that city into which so many men condemned of unspeakable crimes have already returned.
quo igitur haec spectant? rerum hoc natura et civilium temporum non patietur, nec manens nec mutata ratio feret, primum ut non in causa pari eadem sit et condicio et fortuna omnium, deinde ut in eam civitatem boni viri et boni cives nulla ignominia notati non revertantur, in quam tot nefariorum scelerum condemnati reverterunt.
There you have my augury; and if I had any doubt about it, I would have recourse rather to that consolation by which I could easily uphold so brave a man — namely, that if you had taken up arms for the commonwealth with victory assured (for so you thought at the time), there would not be too much to praise in it; whereas if you had supposed, given the uncertain issues and outcomes of wars, that we might be defeated, then, having been so well prepared for the favourable fortune, you have no business at all of being unable to bear the adverse one. I would argue, too, what great consolation your own conscience of what you did ought to be to you, what great delight your literary work in adversity; and I would call to mind, of the old days and even of these recent ones, the gravest reverses of leaders and of your own companions, and would name many distinguished foreign men besides; for it lightens grief, the recollection of what is, so to speak, the common law and the human condition;
habes augurium meum; quo, si quid addubitarem non potius uterer quam illa consolatione, qua facile fortem virum sustentarem, te, si explorata victoria arma sumpsisses pro re p. (ita enim tum putabas), non nimis esse laudandum, sin propter incertos exitus eventusque bellorum posse accidere ut vinceremur putasses, non debere te ad secundam fortunam bene paratum fuisse, adversam ferre nullo modo posse. disputarem etiam quanto solacio tibi conscientia tui facti, quantae delectationi in rebus adversis litterae esse deberent; commemorarem non solum veterum, sed horum etiam recentium vel ducum vel comitum tuorum gravissimos casus etiam externos multos claros viros nominarem; levat enim dolorem communis quasi legis et humanae condicionis recordatio;
I would set out, too, in what kind of world we are living here, in what a press and what a confusion of everything; for one must necessarily miss less, with the commonwealth ruined, what one no longer has than if it stood sound. But none of this is needed. Safe and whole I shall see you back, soon, as I hope — rather, as I clearly see. Meanwhile, to you in your absence, and to this one who is present, the image of your spirit and your body, your son, the most steadfast and excellent young man, I have long since both promised and rendered my zeal, my office, my effort, my labour — and now this in addition, that Caesar embraces me daily more warmly than the warmest of friends, and his familiars as no one else. With him whatever weight I shall have, by my authority or by his favour, I shall have on your behalf. As for you — see to it that you sustain yourself by firmness of spirit and by the best of hopes also.
exponerem etiam quem ad modum hic et quanta in turba quantaque in confusione rerum omnium viveremus; necesse est enim minore desiderio perdita re p. carere quam bona. sed hoc genere nihil opus est. incolumem te cito, ut spero, vel potius ut perspicio, videbimus. interea tibi absenti et huic, qui adest, imagini animi et corporis tui, constantissimo atque optimo filio tuo, studium, officium, operam, laborem meum iam pridem et pollicitus sum et detuli, nunc hoc amplius, quod me amicissime cotidie magis Caesar amplectitur, familiares quidem eius sicuti neminem. apud quem quicquid valebo vel auctoritate vel gratia, valebo tibi. tu cura ut cum firmitudine te animi tum etiam spe optima sustentes.