Ad Familiares 13.4
Ad Familiares 13.4
Headnote
Cicero to Quintus Valerius Orca, legate with propraetorian power, written from Rome not before mid-October 45 BC (the manuscript dateline: Scr. Romae non ante med. m. Oct. a. 709 (45)). Orca had been sent out by Caesar to oversee the settlement of veterans on land in Etruria, and Cicero is writing on behalf of the people of Volaterrae, an Etruscan hill town whose territory was once more being eyed for confiscation and redistribution.
The case Cicero builds is unusually civic and political for the recommendation genre. He had defended the Volaterrans against the agrarian bills of the tribunes in his own consulship of 63 BC, and Caesar himself had then ratified that defence in his first consulship (59 BC) by exempting the town from the lex agraria. Cicero accordingly leans not on personal friendship but on Caesar’s own published will: to disturb Volaterrae now would be to undo what the dictator himself had once confirmed. The closing tricolon of section 3 (domicilia, sedes, rem, fortunas) and the final flourish in section 4 — that Orca seems to have been put in charge of this business by something like divine design, since he is the one man with whom the Volaterrans’ lifelong defender carries weight — are characteristic of Cicero’s warmest civic-commendation register.
With the townsmen of Volaterrae I am bound by the closest of ties. They received a great service at my hands and have repaid me in heaped measure; never, in my honours or in my hardships, have they failed me. Even if no such ground stood between them and me, still — because I love you most deeply and feel myself prized by you in equal measure — I would both urge and exhort you to take thought for their fortunes, the more so because they have what is virtually an unanswerable claim to be left in possession of their right: first, because by the kindness of the immortal gods they escaped the bitterness of the Sullan time, and second, because they were defended by me in my consulship with the keenest zeal of the Roman People.
Cum municipibus Volaterranis mihi summa necessitudo est; magno enim meo beneficio adfecti cumulatissime mihi gratiam rettulerunt nam nec in honoribus meis nec in laboribus umquam defuerunt Cum quibus si mihi nulla causa intercederet, tamen, quod te vehementissime diligo quodque me a te plurimi fieri sentio, et monerem te et hortarer ut eorum fortunis consuleres, praesertim cum prope praecipuam causam haberent ad ius obtinendum, primum quod Sullani temporis acerbitatem deorum immortalium benignitate subterfugerunt, deinde quod summo studio p. R. a me in consulatu meo defensi sunt
When the tribunes of the plebs had published a most iniquitous bill against their lands, I had no difficulty in persuading the Senate and the Roman People to will the preservation of those citizens whom Fortune had spared. C. Caesar in his first consulship ratified this act of mine by his Agrarian Law, and freed the territory and town of Volaterrae from every threat in perpetuity — so that I do not doubt that he, who is at this moment binding fresh ties to himself, would have his earlier acts of generosity preserved. It is for your good judgement, then, either to follow the lead of that man whose party and command you have followed to your own great honour, or at the very least to reserve the whole question intact for him. But of this you ought to have no doubt: that you would wish to bind to yourself in perpetuity, by an act of the highest generosity, a town so weighty, so steadfast, so honourable as this one.
Cum tribuni plebi legem iniquissimam de eorum agris promulgavissent, facile senatui populoque R. persuasi ut eos civis, quibus fortuna pepercisset, salvos esse vellent. hanc actionem meam C. Caesar primo suo consulatu lege agraria comprobavit agrumque Volaterranum et oppidum omni periculo in perpetuum liberavit, ut mihi dubium non sit quin is, qui novas necessitudines adiungat, vetera sua beneficia conservari velit. quam ob rem est tuae prudentiae aut sequi eius auctoritatem, cuius sectam atque imperium summa cum tua dignitate secutus es, aut certe illi integram omnem causam reservare; illud vero dubitare non debes quin tam grave, tam firmum, tam honestum municipium tibi tuo summo beneficio in perpetuum obligari velis.
But what stands written above is meant to urge and to persuade; what remains belongs to the business of asking. I would have you reckon that I am not only giving you advice in your own interest, but also seeking and requesting from you what I myself need. You will therefore have done me the most welcome thing if you choose that the Volaterrans should be left intact and unharmed in everything. Their dwellings, their homes, their property, their fortunes — preserved by the immortal gods and by the foremost citizens of our commonwealth with the keenest zeal of the Senate and the Roman People — I commend to your good faith, your justice, and your goodness.
sed haec quae supra scripta sunt eo spectant ut te horter et suadeam; reliqua sunt, quae pertinent ad rogandum, ut non solum tua causa tibi consilium me dare putes sed etiam, quod mihi opus sit, me a te petere et rogare. gratissimum igitur mihi feceris, si Volaterranos omnibus rebus integros incolumisque esse volueris. Eorum ego domicilia, sedes, rem, fortunas, quae et a dis immortalibus et a praestantissimis in nostra re p. civibus summo senatus populique R. studio conservatae sunt, tuae fidei, iustitiae bonitatique commendo.
If, with the resources I once had, circumstances at this present hour granted me the means to defend the Volaterrans in the way I have been accustomed to defend my own, I would let slip no service, no struggle, in which I could be of use to them. But since I trust that at this hour my weight with you is no less than my weight has always been with all men, I ask of you, by the perfect bond between us and our equal and mutual goodwill, to deserve so well of the Volaterrans that they may conclude it was by a kind of providential design that the man set in charge of this business is the one man with whom we, their lifelong defenders, have most influence.
si pro meis pristinis opibus facultatem mihi res hoc tempore daret ut ita defendere possem Volaterranos quem ad modum consuevi tueri meos, nullum officium, nullum denique certamen, in quo illis prodesse possem, praetermitterem; sed quoniam apud te nihilo minus hoc tempore valere me confido quam valuerim semper apud omnis, pro nostra summa necessitudine parique inter nos et mutua benevolentia abs te peto ut ita de Volaterranis mereare, ut existiment eum quasi divino consilio isti negotio praepositum esse, apud quem unum nos eorum perpetui defensores plurimum valere possemus.