Ad Familiares 15.4
Ad Familiares 15.4
Headnote
Cicero to M. Porcius Cato, written from his proconsular province late in 51 BC (the manuscript dateline: Scr. Tarsi vel ex. a. 703 (51) vel in. 704 (50)). The letter is the formal proconsular dispatch in which Cicero reports the military campaign of his single year of office in Cilicia: the season’s movements, the false alarm of a Parthian invasion of Syria, the relief of Ariobarzanes of Cappadocia, the operation on Mount Amanus, the fifty-seven-day siege of the hill-town of Pindenissus, and the eventual quartering of the army for the winter. It is, in its first half, the most extended piece of military narrative in the correspondence: a Roman public-record register, with dates by the Roman calendar, named legates, and the running list of pacified places. Cicero is not campaigning in any first-rate sense — Pindenissus is a hill-fort, not Pharsalus — but he is on a real military footing, the Parthian danger is real, and the operations earned his men’s salutation of him as imperator.
The whole apparatus of narration, however, is preliminary to the second half of the letter, which is the political point: Cicero is asking Cato for his vote in the forthcoming senatorial motions on a public thanksgiving (supplicatio) and the implicit later motion for a triumph. The request is made with elaborate, slightly anxious care — Cato is famously parsimonious with such honours, has refused them to others Cicero does not name, and is the one senator whose endorsement would settle the matter. Cicero therefore lays out three arguments in turn: that he has governed with equity and self-restraint (Cato’s own test), that the military achievement, modest in absolute terms, is comparable to operations for which others have received the highest honours, and — the third argument, made with characteristic candour — that he who once let a triumph pass after his consulship now wants one, to heal the wound of his exile in 58 BC and the public recognition it took from him.
The closing move, philosophy summoned in to plead for him, has often been read as ornament; it is not. It is Cicero’s most precise statement of where he and Cato stood together in the politics of the late 50s: as the two senators who tried to make the inherited Greek philosophical tradition do real work in the running of the commonwealth. “Almost alone of men, we took that true and ancient philosophy, which to some appears a thing of leisure and idleness, down into the forum and the commonwealth and almost into the line of battle itself.” Cato did, in the event, vote against the supplicatio; the historical reading is that he did so on principle, not from any cooling of the friendship, and Cicero’s surviving reply (Fam. 15.6) takes exactly that view. The triumph itself never came: the Civil War overtook the question.
Your supreme authority, and the unbroken estimate I have always held of your singular virtue, made me think it of great moment that what I have done should be known to you, and that you should not be in the dark as to the equity and self-restraint with which I have protected our allies and administered the province. With these matters known to you, I judged it would be easier for me to win your approval of what I wish to win it for.
summa tua auctoritas fecit meumque perpetuum de tua singulari virtute iudicium ut magni mea interesse putarem et res eas quas gessissem tibi notas esse et non ignorari a te qua aequitate et continentia tuerer socios provinciamque administrarem. Iis enim a te cognitis arbitrabar facilius me tibi quae vellem probaturum.
On entering the province on the last day of July, and seeing that, on account of the season, I must march to the army at once, I spent two days at Laodicea, then four at Apamea, three at Synnada, the same number at Philomelium. In those towns large assizes were held, and I freed many communities from cripplingly bitter taxes, ruinous rates of interest, and debt fraudulently inflated. The army, before my arrival, had been broken up by a kind of mutiny: five cohorts had settled at Philomelium without a legate, without a tribune of the soldiers, indeed without so much as a centurion, while the rest of the army was in Lycaonia. I ordered the legate M. Anneius to lead those five cohorts to the rest of the army, and, having concentrated the whole force in one place, to make camp in Lycaonia near Iconium.
Cum in provinciam pr. K. Sext. venissem et propter anni tempus ad exercitum mihi confestim esse eundum viderem, biduum Laudiceae fui, deinde Apameae quadriduum, triduum Synnadis, totidem dies Philomeli. quibus in oppidis cum magni conventus fuissent, multas civitates acerbissimis tributis et gravissimis usuris et falso aere alieno liberavi. Cumque ante adventum meum seditione quadam exercitus esset dissipatus, quinque cohortes sine legato, sine tribuno militum, denique etiam sine centurione ullo apud Philo melium consedissent, reliquus exercitus esset in Lycaonia, M. Anneio legato imperavi ut eas quinque cohortis ad reliquum exercitum duceret coactoque in unum locum a exercitu castra in Lycaonia apud Iconium faceret.
When that had been carried out by him with care, I myself reached the camp on the 24th of August, having meanwhile, over the previous days, gathered, in accordance with a decree of the Senate, a stout body of recalled veterans, a thoroughly serviceable cavalry, and the volunteer auxiliaries of the free peoples and the allied kings. Then, after the army had been reviewed, on the 30th of August I began my march toward Cilicia. While I was on the road, envoys sent to me from the king of Commagene reported, with great alarm but not without truth, that the Parthians had crossed into Syria.
quod cum ab illo diligenter esset factum, ego in castra a. d. vii K. Sept. veni, cum interea superioribus diebus ex. s. c. et evocatorum firmam manum et equitatum sane idoneum et populorum liberorum regumque sociorum auxilia voluntaria comparavissem. interim cum exercitu lustrato iter in Ciliciam facere coepissem iii K. Sept. legati a rege Commageno ad me missi pertumultuose neque tamen non vere Parthos in Syriam transisse nuntiaverunt;
On this news I was deeply shaken — for Syria, for my own province, indeed for the rest of Asia. I therefore judged that I must lead the army through that part of Cappadocia which adjoins Cilicia. For if I had come down into Cilicia proper, Cilicia itself I would easily have held, thanks to the nature of Mount Amanus — there are two passes from Syria into Cilicia, each of which, on account of its narrowness, can be sealed with small garrisons, and nothing is more defensible against Syria than Cilicia — but Cappadocia worried me, which lies open from the side of Syria, and has on its borders kings who, though privately friendly to us, do not dare to declare themselves openly hostile to the Parthians. So in the far reach of Cappadocia, not far from the Taurus, I pitched camp by the town of Cybistra, that I might at once protect Cilicia and, by holding Cappadocia, check any new designs of the neighbouring powers.
quo audito vehementer sum commotus cum de Syria tum de mea provincia, de reliqua denique Asia. itaque exercitum mihi ducendum per Cappadociae regionem eam quae Ciliciam attingeret is putavi. nam si me in Ciliciam demisissem, Ciliciam quidem ipsam propter montis Amani naturam facile tenuissem (duo sunt enim aditus in Ciliciam ex Syria, quorum uterque parvis praesidiis propter angustias intercludi potest, nec est quicquam Cilicia contra Syriam munitius), sed me Cappadocia movebat, quae patet a Syria regesque habet finitimos, qui etiam si sunt clam amici nobis, tamen aperte Parthis inimici esse non audent. itaque in Cappadocia extrema non longe a Tauro apud oppidum Cybistra castra feci, ut et Ciliciam tuerer et Cappadociam tenens nova finitimorum consilia impedirem.
Meanwhile, in this great upheaval and the great expectation of a major war, King Deiotarus — to whom, not without cause, the highest weight has always been allowed, in my own estimate as in yours and the Senate’s, a man as exceptional in goodwill and loyalty toward the Roman people as he is preeminent in greatness of spirit and judgement — sent envoys to me to say that he would come with all his forces into my camp. Moved by his zeal and dutifulness, I sent him thanks in a letter and urged him to hasten.
interea in hoc tanto motu tantaque exspectatione maximi belli rex Deiotarus, cui non sine causa plurimum semper et meo et tuo et senatus iudicio tributum est, vir cum benevolentia et fide erga populum R. singulari tum praestanti magnitudine et animi et consili, legatos ad me misit se cum omnibus suis copiis in mea castra esse venturum. cuius ego studio officioque commotus egi ei per litteras gratias idque ut maturaret hortatus sum.
Then, having delayed five days at Cybistra on account of the strategy of the campaign, I freed King Ariobarzanes — whose safety I held under commendation from the Senate at your motion — from a plot that lay against him, of which he had no inkling; nor was I content with saving his life, but took care that he should reign with authority. Metras, and that Athenaeus whom you had so earnestly recommended to me, who had been punished with exile through the malice of Athenais, I established in the greatest standing and favour with the king; and when a great war was being kindled in Cappadocia, in the event that the priest [the chief priest of Comana] should defend himself by arms — as he was thought likely to do, being a young man supplied with cavalry, infantry, and money, and supported by all who wanted change — I so managed it that he withdrew from the kingdom, and the king, without disturbance and without arms, with the whole authority of the court secured, held his throne with dignity.
Cum autem ad Cybistra propter rationem belli quinque dies essem moratus, regem Ariobarzanem, cuius salutem a senatu te auctore commendatam habebam, praesentibus insidiis nec opinantem liberavi neque solum ei saluti fui sed etiam curavi ut cum auctoritate regnaret. Metram et eum quem tu mihi diligenter commendaras, Athenaeum, importunitate Athenaidis exsilio multatos in maxima apud regem auctoritate gratiaque constitui, cumque magnum bellum in Cappadocia concitaretur, si sacerdos armis se, quod facturus putabatur, defenderet, adulescens et equitatu et peditatu et pecunia paratus †et toto iis, qui novari aliquid volebant, perfeci ut e regno ille discederet rexque sine tumultu ac sine armis omni auctoritate aulae communita regnum cum dignitate obtineret.
Meanwhile I learned, from many letters and messengers, that large forces of Parthians and Arabs had advanced upon the town of Antioch, and that a considerable body of their cavalry, which had crossed into Cilicia, had been cut to pieces by my squadrons of horse and by a praetorian cohort which was on garrison duty at Epiphanea. Therefore, seeing that the Parthian forces, deflected from Cappadocia, were not far from the borders of Cilicia, I marched the army by the longest stages I could to Mount Amanus. On arriving there I found that the enemy had withdrawn from Antioch, and that Bibulus was at Antioch. Deiotarus, who was already on his way to me with a great and reliable force of cavalry and infantry and with all his troops, I informed at once that there seemed no reason for him to be absent from his kingdom, and that I would send him letters and messengers immediately if any new development should arise.
interea cognovi multorum litteris atque nuntiis Hagnas Parthorum copias et Arabum ad oppidum Antiocheam accessisse magnumque eorum equitatum, qui in Ciliciam transisset, ab equitum meorum turmis et a cohorte praetoria, quae erat Epiphaneae praesidi causa, occidione occisum. qua re cum viderem a Cappadocia Parthorum copias aversas non longe a finibus esse Ciliciae, quam potui maximis itineribus ad Amanum exercitum duxi. quo ut veni, hostem ab Antiochea recessisse, Bibulum Antiocheae esse cognovi. Deiotarum confestim iam ad me venientem cum magno et firmo equitatu et peditatu et cum omnibus suis copiis certiorem feci non videri esse causam cur abesset a regno meque ad eum, si quid novi forte accidisset, statim litteras nuntiosque missurum esse.
I had come prepared to relieve either province as the moment might demand; but then, as I had already determined was of great importance to both provinces, I pressed on with the plan of pacifying Amanus and removing from that mountain its perpetual enemy. I made a feint of moving away from the mountain and turning to other parts of Cilicia, and when I had got a day’s march from Amanus and had encamped near Epiphanea, on the 12th of October, as evening fell, I marched the army light by night, so that on the 13th of October, at first light, I climbed up onto Amanus. The cohorts and auxiliaries were divided into commands, some under my brother Quintus the legate at my side, others under the legate C. Pomptinus, the rest under the legates M. Anneius and L. Tullius. Most of the enemy we caught unawares; cut off from flight, they were killed or taken.
Cumque eo animo venissem ut utrique provinciae, si ita tempus ferret, subvenirem, tum id, quod iam ante statueram vehementer interesse utriusque provinciae, pacare Amanum et perpetuum hostem ex eo monte tollere, agere perrexi. Cumque me discedere ab eo monte simulassem et alias partis Ciliciae petere abessemque ab Amano iter unius diei et castra apud Epiphaneam fecissem, a. d. iiii Id. Oct., cum advesperasceret, expedito exercitu ita noctu iter feci, ut a. d. iii Id. Oct., cum lucisceret, in Amanum ascenderem distributisque cohortibus et auxiliis, cum aliis Quintus frater legatus mecum simul, aliis C. Pomptinus legatus, reliquis M. Anneius et L. Tullius legati praeessent, plerosque nec opinantis oppressimus, qui occisi captique sunt interclusi fuga,
Erana, which was not so much a village as a city — the capital of Amanus — and likewise Sepyra and Commoris, which Pomptinus, holding that part of Amanus, fought against bitterly and at length, we took, from before dawn until the tenth hour of the day, with a great slaughter of the enemy; and a number of strongholds we took by storm and burned. With this work accomplished we held our camp four days at the foot of Amanus, by the Altars of Alexander, and spent all the remaining time in destroying further parts of Amanus and laying waste the fields — those portions of the mountain that lie within my province.
Eranam autem, quae fuit non vici instar sed urbis, quod erat Amani caput, itemque Sepyram et Commorim, acriter et diu repugnantibus Pomptino illam partem Amani tenente, ex antelucano tempore usque ad horam diei x magna multitudine hostium occisa cepimus castellaque vi capta complura $(9) incendimus. his rebus ita gestis castra in radicibus Amani habuimus apud aras Alexandri quadriduum et in reliquus Amani delendis agrisque vastandis, quae pars eius montis meae provinciae est, id tempus omne consumpsimus.
These matters concluded, I marched the army to the town of Pindenissus, of the Free Cilicians. As it stood on a very high and very well-fortified site, and was inhabited by men who had never been subject even to their own kings, who were harbouring runaway slaves and were waiting in eager expectation of the Parthians’ coming, I judged it to bear upon the credit of our command that I should crush their boldness, that the spirits of the rest, too, who were estranged from our rule, might more easily be broken. I encircled the place with a rampart and a ditch, hedged it about with six redoubts and a great camp, attacked it with a siege-mound, with mantlets, with towers, and using many siege-engines and many archers, on the fifty-seventh day — with great toil to myself, and without any trouble or expense to the allies — I brought the business through: every quarter of the city was thrown down or set on fire, and the inhabitants were driven into my power. Their neighbours, equal in wickedness and audacity, were the Tebarani; from them, after the capture of Pindenissus, I took hostages. I dismissed the army into winter quarters, and put my brother Quintus in charge of the operation, so that the troops should be quartered in the villages, either captured or imperfectly pacified.
confectis his rebus ad oppidum Eleutherocilicum Pindenissum exercitum adduxi. quod cum esset altissimo et munitissimo loco ab iisque incoleretur qui ne regibus quidem umquam paruissent, cum et fugitivos reciperent et Parthorum adventum acerrime exspectarent, ad existimationem imperi pertinere arbitratus sum comprimere eorum audaciam, quo facilius etiam ceterorum animi, qui alieni essent ab imperio nostro, frangerentur. vallo et fossa circumdedi, sex castellis castrisque maximis saepsi, aggere, vinus, turribus oppugnavi ususque tormentis multis, multis sagittarus magno labore meo sine ulla molestia sumptuve sociorum septimo quinquagesimo die rem confeci, ut omnibus partibus urbis disturbatis aut incensis compulsi in potestatem meam pervenirent. his erant finitimi pari scelere et audacia Tebarani. ab iis Pindenisso capto obsides accepi; exercitum in hiberna dimisi; Quintum fratrem negotio praeposui ut in vicis aut captis aut male pacatis exercitus conlocaretur.
Now I should like you to be persuaded of this: if these matters are referred to the Senate, I shall reckon that the highest possible distinction has been conferred on me if you approve my honour by your vote. Though I know that great men customarily both make and receive requests in such matters, still I think you are rather to be reminded than asked by me. For you are the man who has so often graced me by your speeches in the house — who by your oratory, your public testimony, your fullest praise, in the Senate, in the public assemblies, has raised me to the skies; and I have always considered the weight of your words so great that, with a single word of yours linked to my praise, I judged I had attained everything. I remember, moreover, when you would not vote a thanksgiving to a certain most distinguished and excellent man, that you said you would vote one if the motion were referred for what he had done as consul within the city: and you yourself voted a thanksgiving to me when I had no armour about me — not, as to many, for the public business well managed, but, as to none, for the commonwealth saved.
nunc velim sic tibi persuadeas, si de iis rebus ad senatum, relatum sit me existimaturum summam mihi laudem tributam, si tu honorem meum sententia tua comprobaris, idque, etsi talibus de rebus gravissimos homines et rogare solere et rogari scio, tamen admonendum potius te a me quam rogandum puto. tu es enim is qui me tuis sententiis saepissime ornasti, qui oratione, qui praedicatione, qui summis laudibus in senatu, in contionibus ad caelum extulisti; cuius ego semper tanta esse verborum pondera putavi, ut uno verbo tuo cum mea laude coniuncto omnia adsequi me arbitrarer; te denique memini, cum cuidam clarissimo atque optimo viro supplicationem non decerneres, dicere te decreturum, si referretur ob eas res quas is consul in urbe gessisset; tu idem mihi supplicationem decrevisti togato non ut multis re p. bene gesta sed ut nemini re p. conservata.
I pass over the hatred, the dangers, all my storms, which you have not only borne with me, but, had it been in my power, would have been most ready to bear in still ampler measure — and that you have reckoned my enemy your own enemy, whose ruin, when I could readily see how much you were according to me, you approved in the Senate by defending Milo’s cause. From me, on my side, what has gone out is what I would put not in the column of favours, but of true testimony and judgement: not silently to admire your preeminent virtues — who does not do that? — but in every speech, in every motion delivered, in every cause pleaded, in all my writings, Greek and Latin, in the whole range of my literary work, to set you ahead not only of those whom we have seen, but of all of whom we have heard.
Mitto quod invidiam, quod pericula, quod omnis meas tempestates et subieris et multo etiam magis, si per me licuisset, subire paratissimus fueris, quod denique inimicum meum tuum inimicum putaris, cuius etiam interitum, cum facile intellegerem mihi quantum tribueres, Milonis causa in senatu defendenda approbaris. A me autem haec sunt profecta, quae non ego in benefici loco pono sed in veri testimoni atque iudici, ut praestantissimas tuas virtutes non tacitus admirarer (quis enim te id non facit?), sed in omnibus orationibus, sententiis dicendis, causis agendis omnibus scriptis Graecis, Latinis, omni denique varietate litterarum mearum te non modo iis quos vidissemus sed iis de quibus audissemus omnibus anteferrem.
You will ask, perhaps, why I make so much of this somewhat-or-other of congratulation and honour from the Senate. I shall now deal with you familiarly, as is fitting between us, with our common studies and our reciprocal services and our high friendship and the bond of family even from our fathers’ time. If ever a man has, by his nature, and still more, as I think I am conscious, by reflection and learning, been removed from empty praise and the chatter of the crowd, that man, surely, is I. My consulship is my witness, in which, as in the rest of my life, I confess I have pursued earnestly those things from which true glory could spring — but glory itself, for its own sake, I have never thought worth the seeking. And so I let pass a rich province and a sure hope of a triumph; and the priesthood, finally, which, as I take it you judge, I could have obtained without great difficulty, I did not seek. The same man, after the injury I sustained — which you always call a calamity of the commonwealth — a calamity of my own I do not call it, but rather a glory — now wanted the verdicts of the Senate and the Roman people upon me to be as splendid as possible. And so I afterwards desired to become augur, which earlier I had let pass; and that honour which the Senate is accustomed to bestow for things done in war, which I once neglected, I now think I should seek.
quaeres fortasse quid sit quod ego hoc nescio quid gratulationis et honoris a senatu tanti aestimem. agam iam tecum familiariter, ut est et studiis et officiis nostris mutuis et summa amicitia dignum et necessitudine etiam paterna. si quisquam fuit umquam remotus et natura et magis etiam, ut mihi quidem sentire videor, ratione atque doctrina ab inani laude et sermonibus vulgi, ego profecto is sum. Testis est consulatus meus, in quo sicut in reliqua vita fateor ea me studiose secutum ex quibus vera gloria is nasci posset, ipsam quidem gloriam per se numquam putavi expetendam. itaque et provinciam ornatam et spem non dubiam triumphi neglexi, sacerdotium denique, cum, quem ad modum te existimare arbitror, non difficillime consequi possem, non appetivi; idem post iniuriam acceptam, quam tu rei p. calamitatem semper appellas, meam non modo non calamitatem sed etiam gloriam, studui quam ornatissima senatus populique R de me iudicia intercedere. itaque et augur postea fieri volui, quod antea neglexeram, et eum honorem, qui a senatu tribui rebus bellicis solet, neglectum a me olim nunc mihi expetendum puto.
I ask you most urgently that you give your support and aid to this wish of mine — in which there is some force of longing, to heal the wound of that injury — though a little while ago I had said I would not ask: but ask in such a way that, if this somewhat-or-other I have done shall seem to you not a thin and contemptible business but such and so great that many, on grounds by no means equal, have obtained the highest honours from the Senate, you will give your aid. For my part, I think I have noticed this too — you know how attentively I am in the habit of listening to you — that you tend to look not so much at the deeds done as at the character, the principles, and the life of commanders, in granting or withholding such honours. If you will consider these things in my case, you will find that, with a weak army against the threat of a very great war, I have had as my surest defence equity and self-restraint. With these reserves I have achieved what I could not have achieved with any number of legions: that allies most estranged should be turned into most friendly, that allies most faithless should be turned into most steadfast, and that spirits which were trembling in expectation of revolution should be brought back to goodwill toward the old empire.
huic meae voluntati, in qua inest aliqua vis desideri ad sanandum vulnus iniuriae, ut faveas adiutorque sis, quod paulo ante me negaram rogaturum, vehementer te rogo, sed ita, si non ieiunum hoc nescio quid, quod ego gessi, et contemnendum videbitur sed tale atque tantum, ut multi nequaquam paribus rebus honores summos a senatu consecuti sint. equidem etiam illud mihi animum advertisse videor (scis enim quam attente te audire soleam), te non tam res gestas quam mores instituta atque vitam imperatorum spectare solere in habendis aut non habendis honoribus. quod si in mea causa considerabis, reperies me exercitu imbecillo contra metum maximi belli firmissimum praesidium habuisse aequitatem et continentiam. his ego subsidiis ea sum consecutus, quae nullis legionibus consequi potuissem, ut ex alienissimis sociis amicissimos, ex infidelissimis firmissimos redderem animosque novarum rerum exspectatione suspensos ad veteris imperi benevolentiam traducerem.
But all this about myself is too much, especially to you — to whom alone, of all men, the complaints of our allies are addressed. You will learn from those who think themselves restored by my institutions; and when nearly all of them, with one voice, declare in your hearing those very things which are most desired by me, then your two greatest clients in particular — the island of Cyprus and the kingdom of Cappadocia — will speak to you of me, and I believe King Deiotarus also, who is closer to you than anyone. And if these things are even greater — and through all ages fewer men have been found who have conquered their own desires than have conquered the enemy’s forces — then surely it is for you, having added to military matters those rarer and more difficult kinds of virtue, to think those same military deeds themselves the more just and the greater.
sed nimis haec multa de me, praesertim ad te, a quo uno omnium sociorum querelae audiuntur. cognosces ex iis, qui meis institutis se recreatos putant; cumque omnes uno is prope consensu de me apud te ea quae mihi optatissima sunt praedicabunt, tum duae maxime clientelae tuae, Cyprus insula et Cappadociae regnum, tecum de me loquentur, puto etiam regem Deiotarum, qui uni tibi est maxime necessarius. quae si etiam maiora sunt et in omnibus saeculis pauciores viri reperti sunt qui suas cupiditates quam qui hostium copias vincerent, est profecto tuum, cum ad res bellicas haec quae rariora et difficiliora sunt genera virtutis adiunxeris, ipsas etiam illas res gestas iustiores esse et maiores putare.
One last thing: as though I distrusted my request, I bring philosophy in to plead for me — than which nothing has ever been dearer to me in life, nor has any greater gift been given by the gods to the race of men. This therefore — the partnership in our studies and our arts which I share with you, to which from boyhood we have given and bound ourselves, almost alone of men taking that true and ancient philosophy, which to some appears a thing of leisure and idleness, down into the forum and the commonwealth and almost into the line of battle itself — this partnership pleads with you for my honour, to which I do not think it right that Cato should say no. Wherefore I should like you to be persuaded of this: if the honour shall be assigned me at your motion, on the strength of my letter, I shall reckon that what I most desired has fallen to me both from your authority and from your goodwill toward me.
extremum illud est, ut quasi diffidens rogationi meae philosophiam ad te adlegem, qua nec mihi carior ulla umquam res in vita fuit nec hominum generi maius a deis munus ullum est datum. haec igitur, quae mihi tecum communis est, societas studiorum atque artium nostrarum, quibus a pueritia dediti ac devincti soli prope modum nos philosophiam veram illam et antiquam, quae quibusdam oti esse ac desidiae videtur, in forum atque in rem p. atque in ipsam aciem paene deduximus, tecum agit de mea laude; cui negari a Catone fas esse non puto. quam ob rem tibi sic persuadeas velim, si mihi tua sententia tributus honos ex meis litteris fuerit, me sic existimaturum, cum auctoritate & tua tum benevolentia erga me mihi quod maxime cupierim contigisse.