Ad Familiares 13.29
Ad Familiares 13.29
Headnote
Cicero to Lucius Munatius Plancus, written from Rome late in 47 BC or at the beginning of 46 BC (the manuscript dateline: Scr. Romae vel ex. a. 707 (47) vel in. a. 708 (46)). Plancus, son of Cicero’s old friend Lucius Munatius Plancus the elder, was at this date a partisan of Caesar’s — he would shortly be governor of one of the Gauls — though the suppleness of allegiance that defines his later career is already visible in the way Cicero approaches him here: as a younger man with influence at Caesar’s ear, and one whose patronage Cicero is prepared to draw on.
This is no formulaic commendaticia but a sustained letter of recommendation, framed by an unusually long personal preamble about the inherited tie between the two families and their shared literary interests. The beneficiary is Gaius Ateius Capito, a close friend who stood by Cicero through the political reversals of the 50s and the civil war, and what Cicero is asking for is substantive: that Plancus, using Caesar’s favour, secure for Capito the inheritance of his kinsman Titus Antistius. The body of the letter is a careful exoneration of Antistius’s conduct in Macedonia — caught by Pompey’s arrival as quaestor, he had no real choice; he kept aloof from the camp, hid himself in the interior, was treated mildly by Caesar after Pharsalus, and died of illness on his way back to Rome. Sect.~7 contains Cicero’s own discreet but pointed self-defence about his conduct during the war: that he behaved more moderately on Pompey’s side than anyone else thanks largely to Capito’s counsel, a remark that also serves the recommendation. The closing tier-marker — “in such terms as I could press no other claim with greater care or greater earnestness” — is among the warmest formulae of the genre.
I do not doubt that you know that of all those friends who were bequeathed to you by your father, I am as closely bound to you as any — and that not only by the sort of ties which present an outward appearance of close connection, but by those held together by intimacy and habitual exchange, which, as you know, were of the warmest and most agreeable kind between me and your father. From those beginnings my affection for you sprang and grew upon the connection inherited from him, and the more so because, from the first moment you were old enough to form a judgement of what each man was worth to you, I saw that you began, before all others, to mark me out for attention, for cultivation, for affection. There was, besides, no slight bond in our shared interests — a thing weighty in itself, and weightier still when the interests in question, and the disciplines they involve, are of the kind that of themselves bind those who share the same inclinations also in close personal friendship.
non dubito quin scias in iis necessariis, qui tibi a patre relicti sunt, me tibi esse vel coniunctissimum non iis modo causis, quae speciem habent magnae coniunctionis, sed iis etiam, quae familiaritate et consuetudine tenentur, quam scis mihi iucundissimam cum patre tuo et summam fuisse. ab his initiis noster in te amor profectus auxit paternam necessitudinem, et eo magis, quod intellexi, ut primum per aetatem iudicium facere potueris quanti quisque tibi faciendus esset, me a te in primis coeptum esse observari, coli, diligi. accedebat non mediocre vinculum cum studio. rum, quod ipsum est per se grave, tum eorum studiorum earumque artium, quae per se ipsae eos qui voluntate eadem sunt etiam familiaritate devinciunt.
I imagine you are waiting to see where so long a preamble is tending. Take this as your first point, then: that this rehearsal of mine has not been undertaken without grave and just cause. I am on the most familiar terms with Gaius Ateius Capito. The vicissitudes of my own fortunes are well known to you. Through every sort of office and trial I have undergone, the resolve and the labours and the standing and the goodwill of Gaius Capito — and his very means as well — were at hand, and answered to the demands of my circumstances and my fortune.
exspectare te arbitror haec tam longe repetita principia quo spectent. id primum ergo habeto, non sine magna iustaque causa hanc a me commemorationem esse factam. C. Ateio Capitone utor familiarissime. notae tibi sunt varietates meorum temporum. in omni genere et honorum et laborum meorum et animus et opera et auctoritas et gratia, etiam res familiaris C. Capitonis praesto fuit et paruit et temporibus et fortunae meae.
A relative of his was Titus Antistius. He, while holding Macedonia by lot as quaestor, and not yet superseded, was overtaken by the arrival of Pompey with his army in the province. Antistius could do nothing; for if he could have done, nothing would have been dearer to him than to return to Capito, whom he loved as a father, especially since he was aware how much Capito valued Caesar, and had always valued him. But, caught in the situation, he took only such part in the business as he could not refuse.
huius propinquus fuit T. Antistius. qui cum sorte quaestor Macedoniam obtineret neque ei successum esset, Pompeius in eam provinciam cum exercitu venit. facere Antistius nihil potuit; nam si potuisset, nihil ei fuisset antiquius quam ad Capitonem, quem ut parentem diligebat, reverti, praesertim cum sciret quanti is Caesarem faceret semperque fecisset. sed oppressus tantum attigit negoti quantum recusare non potuit.
When silver was being coined at Apollonia, I cannot say that he had charge of the operation, nor can I deny that he was present at it; but only for two or three months. After that he kept away from the camp; he fled every sort of office. I should like you to take this on my word, as a witness; for he saw the depth of my own grief in that war, and shared everything with me. So he buried himself in the most remote part of Macedonia, as far from the camp as he could go, not only that he might have no charge of any business but that he should not even be present at any. After the battle he took himself to a connection of his, Aulus Plautius, in Bithynia. There, when Caesar saw him, he said nothing sharp, nothing bitter, and ordered him to come to Rome. The man fell at once into an illness from which he never recovered; sick, he came as far as Corcyra, and there he died. By the will he had made at Rome in the consulship of Paulus and Marcellus, Capito is heir to a half and a third; in the remaining sixth are those whose share can stand as public property without any complaint from anyone — and that share amounts to thirty thousand sesterces. But on this point Caesar will see for himself.
Cum signaretur argentum Apolloniae, non possum dicere eum praefuisse neque possum negare adfuisse, sed non plus duobus aut tribus mensibus. deinde afuit a castris; fugit omne negotium. hoc mihi ut testi velim credas; meam enim ille maestitiam in illo bello videbat, mecum omnia communicabat. itaque abdidit se in intimam Macedoniam, quo potuit longissime a castris, non modo ut non praeesset ulli negotio sed etiam ut ne interesset quidem. is post proelium se ad hominem necessarium, A. Plautium, in Bithyniam contulit. ibi eum Caesar cum vidisset, nihil aspere, nihil acerbe dixit, Romam iussit venire. ille in morbum continuo incidit, ex quo non convaluit. aeger Corcyram venit ibi est mortuus. testamento, quod Romae Paulo et Marcello consulibus fecerat, heres ex parte dimidia et tertia est Capito; in sextante sunt ii quorum pars sine ulla cuiusquam querela publica potest esse ea est ad HS X_X_X_. sed de hoc Caesar viderit.
You, my dear Plancus, by the connection inherited from your father, by our mutual affection, by our shared pursuits and the close resemblance of the whole course of our lives, I ask, and ask of you in such terms as I could press no other claim with greater care or greater earnestness, to take this matter up, to count it as my own, to make every exertion, to strain every effort, to bring it about that by my recommendation, by your zeal, and by Caesar’s favour, Gaius Capito should obtain his relative’s inheritance. Whatever I could have asked of you, with all your standing and influence such as it is, if I had asked it, I shall reckon you have offered me unprompted, if I obtain this one thing.
te, mi Plance, pro paterna necessitudine, pro nostro amore, pro studiis et omni cursu nostro totius vitae simillimo rogo et a te ita peto, ut maiore cura, maiore studio nullam possim, ut hanc rem suscipias, meam putes esse, enitare, contendas, efficias ut mea commendatione, tuo studio, Caesaris beneficio hereditatem propinqui sui C. Capito obtineat. omnia quae potui in hac summa tua gratia ac potentia a te impetrare, si petissem, ultro te ad me detulisse putabo, si hanc rem impetravero.
One thing, I hope, will be of help to you, and Caesar himself can be its best judge: Capito has always cultivated and esteemed Caesar. But he himself is witness of the fact; I know how good his memory is for a man. So I instruct you in nothing; only assume on Capito’s behalf, in Caesar’s presence, as much weight as you find that Caesar himself remembers.
illud fore tibi adiumento spero, cuius ipse Caesar optimus esse iudex potest: semper Caesarem Capito coluit et dilexit. sed ipse huius rei testis est; novi hominis memoriam. itaque nihil te doceo; tantum tibi sumito pro Capitone apud Caesarem quantum ipsum meminisse senties.
For my own part, I shall lay before you what I have been able to learn by experience, in my own case; how much weight there is in it you will judge. Which side I defended in the republic, and on what men and what orders I rested, and by whom I was supported, you are not unaware. I should like you to take this on my word: that if I did anything in this present war which fell short of Caesar’s wishes (and I have understood that Caesar himself knows I did it most unwillingly), I did it on the counsel, the urging, the authority of others; that I was more moderate and more restrained than anyone on that side, was due above all to the authority of Capito — and if I had had the rest of my connections like him, I should perhaps have done some service to the republic, and certainly the greatest service to myself.
ego, quod in me ipso experiri potui, ad te deferam; in eo quantum sit ponderis tu videbis. quam partem in re p. causamque defenderim, per quos homines ordinesque steterim quibusque munitus fuerim non ignoras. hoc mihi velim credas, si quid fecerim hoc ipso in bello minus ex Caesaris voluntate (quod intellexi scire ipsum Caesarem me invitissimum fecisse), id fecisse aliorum consilio, hortatu, auctoritate; quod fuerim moderatior temperatiorque quam in ea parte. quisquam, id me fecisse maxime auctoritate Capitonis; cuius similis si reliquos necessarios habuissem, rei p. fortasse non nihil, mihi certe plurimum profuissem.
This thing, my dear Plancus, if you bring it to pass, you will have confirmed the hope I rest in your goodwill toward me, and you will have joined Capito himself — a man most grateful, most attentive, of the best character — to your own connection by the greatest of favours.
hanc rem, mi Plance, si effeceris, meam de tua erga me benevolentia spem confirmaveris, ipsum Capitonem, gratissimum, officiosissimum, optimum virum, ad tuam necessitudinem tuo summo beneficio adiunxeris.