Ad Familiares 9.14
Ad Familiares 9.14
Headnote
Cicero to P. Cornelius Dolabella, then suffect consul, written from the villa at Pompeii on 3 May 44 BC (Perseus: v Non. Mai.). The salutation gives the recipient explicitly: Cicero Dolabellae consuli suo. The letter celebrates Dolabella’s violent suppression of the spontaneous cult of Caesar that had grown up at the so-called pseudo-Marius’s altar in the Forum in the weeks after the assassination, an action carried out in late April. Dolabella had been Cicero’s son-in-law (the marriage to Tullia had ended before her death in early 45) and remained a warmly addressed correspondent; here the warmth is the warmer for the political opening Cicero sees in the consul’s stance.
The letter weaves together private affection and public exhortation. Cicero quotes the dying Lucius Caesar’s praise of Dolabella as “the one man whom, since your consulship, we can truly call a consul” — the older Caesarian moderate transferring to Caesar’s son-in-law the title he denies his own nephew Antony. The Homeric figure of Agamemnon and Nestor is offered as cover for the open vanity of the wish that Dolabella should pass as Cicero’s pupil. The political turn at the end — “the Republic has been placed in your hands,” and the urging to honor “those men through whom liberty’s beginning was made” (the assassins) — is among the most committed Republican statements of these volatile weeks before Cicero finally despaired of Dolabella. The final image, custodias (“guard yourself”), strikes the note that will preoccupy the correspondence of the coming months.
Although I was content, my Dolabella, with your glory, and from it was taking great joy and pleasure enough, still I cannot help confessing that I am crowned with the greatest delight, because the common opinion of mankind enrolls me as partner in your praises. I have not met a man (and I meet a great many every day — for there are many of the best sort here for their health, and besides them many of my friends from the country towns) who, after lifting you to the heavens with the highest praises, has not immediately followed up by giving me the warmest thanks; for they say they have no doubt that, obeying my teaching and counsel, you are showing yourself a most outstanding citizen and a consul without peer.
etsi contentus eram, mi Dolabella, tua gloria satisque ex ea magnam laetitiam voluptatemque capiebam, tamen non possum non confiteri cumulari me maximo gaudio, quod vulgo hominum opinio socium me adscribat tuis laudibus. neminem conveni (convenio autem cotidie plurimos; sunt enim permulti optimi viri, qui valetudinis causa in haec loca veniant, praeterea ex municipiis frequentes necessarii mei), quin omnes, cum te summis laudibus ad caelum extulerunt, mihi continuo maximas gratias agant; negant enim se dubitare quin tu meis praeceptis et consiliis obtemperans praestantissimum te civem et singularem consulem praebeas.
To these I might answer, with perfect truth, that what you do, you do by your own judgment and of your own accord, and need no one’s counsel; yet I neither quite agree — so as not to diminish your praise, if it should appear to have all proceeded from my counsels — nor do I emphatically deny; for I am even more greedy of glory than I ought to be. And after all, it is not foreign to your dignity — since it was an honor to Agamemnon himself, the king of kings — to have someone of the sort of Nestor among those whose counsel he takes; and to me it is glorious that you, a young man and consul, should flourish with praises as a kind of pupil of my school.
quibus ego quamquam verissime possum respondere te, quae facias, tuo iudicio et tua sponte facere nec cuiusquam egere consilio, tamen neque plane adsentior, ne imminuam tuam laudem, si omnis a meis consiliis profecta videatur, neque valde nego; sum enim avidior etiam quam satis est gloriae; et tamen non alienum est dignitate tua, quod ipsi Agamemnoni, regum regi, fuit honestum, habere aliquem in consiliis capiendis Nestorem, mihi vero gloriosum te iuvenem consulem florere laudibus quasi alumnum disciplinae meae.
Indeed Lucius Caesar, when I came to him in his illness at Naples — although he was overwhelmed by pain in his whole body — still, before he had even properly greeted me, said, “My dear Cicero, I congratulate you on having as much influence with Dolabella as, if I had with my sister’s son, we could already be safe. As for your Dolabella, I both congratulate him and thank him — the one man whom, since your consulship, we can truly call a consul.” Then he said much about your deed and your achievement: that nothing more magnificent, nothing more splendid had ever been done, nothing more salutary to the Republic. And this is everyone’s single voice.
L. quidem Caesar, cum ad eum aegrotum Neapolim venissem, quamquam erat oppressus totius corporis doloribus, tamen, ante quam me plane salutavit, ’O mi Cicero,’ inquit, ’gratulor tibi, cum tantum vales apud Dolabellam, quantum si ego apud sororis filium valerem, iam salvi esse possemus; Dolabellae vero tuo et gratulor et gratias ago, quem quidem post te consulem solum possumus vere consulem dicere.’ deinde multa de facto ac de re gesta tua: nihil magnificentius, nihil praeclarius actum umquam, nihil rei p. salutarius. atque haec una vox omnium est.
From you, however, I ask that you suffer me to take possession of this seeming windfall, this inheritance of another’s glory, and that you let me come, in some part, into partnership in your praises. Although — my Dolabella (for what I have said so far has been said in jest) — I would more gladly pour all my praises, if I have any praises of my own, over to you than drain any portion off from yours. For just as I have always loved you as much as you could understand, so by these deeds of yours I am now so kindled that nothing in love has ever been more ardent. For there is nothing, believe me, more beautiful than virtue, nothing fairer, nothing more lovable.
A te autem peto ut me hanc quasi falsam hereditatem alienae gloriae sinas cernere meque aliqua ex parte in societatem tuarum laudum venire patiare. quamquam, mi Dolabella (haec enim iocatus sum) libentius omnis meas, si modo sunt aliquae meae laudes, ad te transfuderim quam aliquam partem exhauserim ex tuis. nam cum te semper tantum dilexerim, quantum tu intellegere potuisti, tum his tuis factis sic incensus sum, ut nihil umquam in amore fuerit ardentius. nihil est enim, mihi crede, virtute formosius, nihil pulchrius, nihil amabilius.
I have always loved Marcus Brutus, as you know, for his supreme talent, his sweetest character, his singular probity and constancy; yet on the Ides of March so much was added to my love that I marveled there had been any room for increase in something that already seemed to me piled high. Who would have thought that anything could be added to the love I had for you? Yet so much has been added that now at last I seem to myself to love you, and only to have liked you before.
semper amavi, ut scis, M. Brutum propter eius summum ingenium, suavissimos mores, singularem probitatem atque constantiam; tamen Idibus Martiis tantum accessit ad amorem ut mirarer locum fuisse augendi in eo, quod mihi iam pridem cumulatum etiam videbatur. quis erat qui putaret ad eum amorem, quem erga te habebam, pesse aliquid accedere? tantum accessit ut mihi nunc denique amare videar, antea dilexisse.
Why, then, should I urge you to be the servant of your dignity and glory? Should I set before you famous men, as those who urge are accustomed to do? I have no one more famous than yourself; you should imitate yourself, you should compete with yourself; nor is it any longer permitted you, after such great achievements, to be less than your own equal.
qua re quid est quod ego te horter ut dignitati et gloriae servias? proponam tibi claros viros, quod facere solent qui hortantur? neminem habeo clariorem quam te ipsum; te imitere oportet, tecum ipse certes; ne licet quidem tibi iam tantis rebus gestis non tui similem esse.
This being so, exhortation is unnecessary; congratulation is more in order. For you have had what has perhaps fallen to no one’s lot before: that the highest severity of punishment was not only free of odium but actually popular, and most welcome both to all good men and to the lowest of the people. Had this come to you by some stroke of fortune, I would congratulate your luck; but it has come to you by greatness, of spirit alike, and of talent, and of judgment. For I have read your speech to the assembly; nothing could be wiser; the way you advanced toward the case step by step and by degrees, and then withdrew, so that the affair itself, by everyone’s consent, gave you the ripe moment for punishment.
quod cum ita sit, hortatio non est necessaria, gratulatione magis utendum est; contigit enim tibi quod haud scio an nemini, ut’ summa severitas animadversionis non modo non invidiosa sed etiam popularis esset et cum bonis omnibus tum infimo cuique gratissima. hoc si tibi fortuna quadam contigisset, gratularer felicitati tuae; sed contigit magnitudine cum animi tum etiam ingeni atque consili. legi enim contionem tuam; nihil illa sapientius; ita pedetemptim et gradatim tum accessus a te ad causam facti, tum recessus, ut res ipsa maturitatem tibi animadvertendi omnium concessu daret.
You have therefore freed the city from danger and the citizen body from fear; nor have you brought the greatest benefit only for the moment, but also as a precedent. By that deed you should understand that the Republic has been placed in your hands, and that you must not only protect, but also exalt, those men through whom liberty’s beginning was made. But more of these matters in person, soon, I hope. As for you, since you are saving the Republic and us, see to it, my Dolabella, that you most carefully guard yourself.
liberasti igitur et urbem periculo et civitatem metu neque solum ad tempus maximam utilitatem attulisti sed etiam ad exemplum. quo facto intellegere debes in te positam esse rem p. tibique non modo tuendos, sed etiam ornandos esse illos viros, a quibus initium libertatis profectum est. sed his de rebus coram plura propediem, ut spero. tu quoniam rem p. nosque conservas, fac ut diligentissime te ipsum, mi Dolabella, custodias.