Ad Quintum Fratrem 3.1
Ad Quintum Fratrem 3.1
Headnote
Cicero to Quintus, written largely from Arpinum and Rome over the course of mid-September 54 BC. The letter is substantial — twenty-five sections — and was put together in stages over several days, with the couriers held up at Rome (§23: “as I have had the letter on hand for several days on account of the couriers’ delay, on that account many things have been gathered, one at one time, another at another”). Quintus is in Caesar’s Gallic command as a legate, and through the summer had been with Caesar in Britain (the second British expedition); he is now back on the Continent.
The letter falls into two parts. The first six sections are a tour of Quintus’s country properties: Arcanum, the Manilian villa with Diphilus the dilatory architect, the new Fufidian estate (101,000 sesterces) with its summer shade and water in plenty, the Lateran property with its public-work road, the Bovillan estate, and Nicephorus the overseer’s account of the philosopher-woman villa that “scolds the madness of the others.” §5’s topiary — “the cloaked Greeks themselves seem to be doing topiary and to be selling ivy” — and the cool mossy dressing-room close the estate-tour. The mode is the late-Republican landed gentleman’s correspondence on works in progress, intimate and competent.
From §7 the letter turns to Roman public business, organised as point-by-point replies to four letters of Quintus’s that arrived at staggered times. The chief material: the absent boy Cicero (whose education Cicero is overseeing, with the rhetor Paeonius?); Caesar’s growing “love” for Quintus, the running theme of the year; the tribunate sought for Curtius (granted by name, with Caesar’s gentle reproof of Cicero’s modesty in asking for so little); the Pro Scauro and Pro Plancio finished, the poem to Caesar abandoned for now; the resigned “but when shall we live?” (§12) under Quintus’s repeated urgings to canvassing. The Erigona of §13 is Quintus’s verse tragedy, sent for criticism. Two political reports are the heaviest material: Gabinius’s homecoming after the Syrian governorship, with three factions prosecuting him on maiestas and the universal hatred of the people nearly laying him low at the praetor’s tribunal (§§15, 24); and the consular elections of 53 BC, with the bribery-coalition Cicero refused to join (§16). Pompey’s pressure for a reconciliation between Cicero and Clodius is rebuffed: “so long as I shall hold any part of my freedom” (§15).
The most poignant thing in the letter is the news of Caesar’s grief. Julia, Caesar’s daughter and Pompey’s wife, had died in late August or early September of complications in childbirth (the infant son also died within days). The news reaches Cicero through Caesar’s own letter on 21 September (the moment is preserved at §17: “how distressed I am! How much I grieved at Caesar’s most charming letter; but the more charming it was, the more grief did that misfortune of his bring”). Cicero does not write back even by way of congratulation on the British campaign, because of Caesar’s bereavement. The political consequences would be enormous: the family bond between Caesar and Pompey, the only private hinge of the triumvirate after Crassus’s departure for Syria, was broken. Carrhae would follow within seven months.
The final flourish, at §24, is the planned embolium (mythological digression) in the second book of De Temporibus Suis, Cicero’s now-lost autobiographical poem in three books: Apollo in the council of the gods will speak of the homecoming of two imperators, “of whom the one had lost his army, the other had sold his” — Gabinius (Syria, who had let Crassus’s expedition begin in disrepair) and Piso (Macedonia, the war-imperium converted to plunder). The poem itself does not survive; this passage is the principal testimony for what its second book contained.
I, after the great heats (we cannot remember greater ones), refreshed myself at Arpinum in the highest pleasantness of the river during the days of the Roman Games, while Philotimus had been commended to my fellow tribesmen. I was at Arcanum on the fourth day before the Ides of September [10 September]. There I saw Mescidius with Philoxenus, and the water which they were leading not far from the villa, flowing very prettily indeed, especially in this great drought; and they said they would gather it considerably more abundant. At the master’s everything was in order. At the Manilian estate I came upon Diphilus more dilatory than Diphilus; but still nothing was left to him except the bath-rooms, the walking-gallery, and the aviary. The villa pleased me very much, because the paved colonnade has the highest dignity — which has now at last revealed itself to me, since both it lies all open and the columns have been polished. The whole point in it, which I shall make my care, is that the stuccowork be neat. The pavements seemed to be properly done; certain vaultings I did not approve and I ordered them changed.
ego ex magnis caloribus (non enim meminimus maiores) in Arpinati summa cum amoenitate fluminis me refeci ludos rum diebus, Philotimo tribulibus commendatis. in Arcano a. d. iiii Idus Septembris fui. ibi Mescidium cum Philoxeno aquamque, quam ii ducebant non longe a villa, belle sane fluentem vidi, praesertim maxima siccitate, uberioremque aliquanto sese conlecturos esse dicebant. apud herum recte erat. in Maniliano offendi Diphilum Diphilo tardiorem; sed tamen nihil ei restabat praeter balnearia et ambulationem et aviarium. villa mihi valde placuit propterea quod summam dignitatem pavimentata porticus habebat, quod mihi nunc denique apparuit postea quam et ipsa tota patet et columnae politae sunt. totum in eo est, quod mihi erit curae, tectorium ut concinnum sit. pavimenta recte fieri videbantur; cameras quasdam non probavi mutarique iussi.
The place in the colonnade where you write that you want a small atrium made — it pleased me more as it stands. For there did not seem to be enough room for a small atrium, nor is one usually made except in those buildings in which there is a larger atrium; and it could not have had bedrooms or that sort of room adjoining. Now \ either by the dignity of the vaulting or by being a very fine cool place it will hold up as a summer spot. But still, if you think otherwise, write back as soon as possible. In the bath-rooms I have moved the dry-room to the other corner of the dressing-room, because they had been so set that the steam-flue out of which the fire breaks up was right under the bedrooms. The fairly large bedroom, and the second one, the winter one, I much approved, because they are both ample and set on one side of the walking-gallery, the side nearest the bath-rooms. The columns Diphilus had set neither straight nor in line. He shall, of course, pull them down. He will some day learn how to use plumb-line and ruler. On the whole I hope Diphilus’s work will be finished within a few months; for Caesius, who was with me at the time, looks after it most diligently.
quo loco in porticu te scribere aiunt ut atriolum fiat, mihi ut est magis placebat. neque enim satis loci videbatur esse atriolo †neque† fere solet nisi in iis aedificiis fieri in quibus est atrium maius nec habere poterat adiuncta cubicula et eius modi membra. nunc †hoc vel honestate testudinis vel valde boni aestivum locum obtine bitt. tu tamen si aliter sentis, rescribe quam primum. in balneariis assa in alterum apodyteri angulum promovi propterea quod ita erant posita ut eorum vaporarium, ex quo ignis erumpit, esset subiectum cubiculis. subgrande cubiculum autem et hibernum alterum valde probavi quod et ampla erant et loco posita ambulationis uno latere, eo quod est proximum balneariis. columnas neque rectas neque e regione Diphilus conlocarat. eas scilicet demolietur. aliquando perpendiculo et linea discet uti. omnino spero paucis mensibus opus Diphili perfectum fore; curat enim diligentissime Caesius, qui tum mecum fuit.
From that place we set off straight by the Vitularian road to the Fufidian property, which we had bought you at the last market days at Arpinum from Fufidius for 101,000 sesterces. I never saw a place more shaded in summer; in very many spots there is water flowing, and in plenty. What more? Caesius judged that you would easily irrigate fifty iugera of meadow. As for me, I assert what I better understand: that you will have a wonderfully delightful villa, with a fish-pond and fountains added, and a wrestling-ground and a wood \ As to that Bovillan estate, I hear you wish to keep it. About that, you yourself shall decide what seems best. [Calibus?] he was saying that, with the water taken away and the rights of that water established, and a servitude imposed on that estate, we could even so keep up the price if we wished to sell. I had Mescidius with me. He said he had agreed with you at three sesterces a foot, but that he had measured himself the run as 3,000 paces. To me it seemed more; but I will guarantee that the outlay can be put nowhere better. I had sent for Cillo from Venafrum; but on that very day a tunnel had crushed four of his fellow slaves and apprentices at Venafrum.
ex eo loco recta Vitularia via profecti sumus in Fufidianum fundum, quem tibi proximis nundinis Arpini de Fufidio HS ccciↃↃↃ ciↃ emeramus. ego locum aestate umbrosiorem vidi numquam; permultis locis aquam profluentem et eam uberem. quid quaeris? iugera L prati Caesius inrigaturum facile te arbitrabatur. equidem hoc quod melius intellego adfirmo, mirifica suavitate villam habiturum piscina et salientibus additis, palaestra et silva †virdicata†. fundum audio te hunc Bovillanum velle retinere. de eo quid videatur ipse constitues. †Calibus† aiebat aqua dempta et eius aquae iure constituto et servitute fundo illi imposita tamen nos pretium servare posse si vendere vellemus. Mescidium mecum habui. is se ternis nummis in pedem tecum transegisse dicebat, sese autem mensum pedibus aiebat passuum IIICIↃ. mihi plus visum est; sed praestabo sumptum nusquam melius posse poni. cillonem arcessieram Venafro,; sed eo ipso, die quattuor eius conservos et discipulos Venafri cuniculus oppresserat.
On the Ides of September [13 September] I was at Laterium. I inspected the road; which pleased me so much that it seemed to be a public work, except for 150 paces (for I myself measured it) from that little bridge which is at Furina’s shrine, towards Satricum. In that place dust has been thrown rather than gravel (and it shall be changed); and that part of the road is much sloped — but I understood that it could not have been led otherwise, especially when you wanted neither to lead it through Locusta’s land nor through Varro’s. Velvinus(?) had built well in front of his estate; Locusta had not touched it. Him I shall accost at Rome, and, I think, get him moving; and at the same time M. Taurus, who I hear has made you a promise, who was now at Rome, I shall ask about leading the water across his estate.
Idibus Septembr. in Laterio fui. viam perspexi; quae mihi ita placuit ut opus publicum videretur esse, praeter CL passus (sum enim ipse mensus) ab eo ponticulo, qui est ad Furinae, Satricum versus. eo loco pulvis non glarea iniecta est (et mutabitur), et ea viae pars valde acclivis est; sed intellexi aliter duci non potuisse, praesertim cum tu neque per Lucustae neque per Varronis velles ducere. †Velvinum† ante suum fundum probe munierat; Lucusta non attigerat. quem ego Romae adgrediar et, ut arbitror, commovebo, et simul M. Taurum, quem tibi audio promisisse, qui nunc Romae erat, de aqua per fundum eius ducenda rogabo.
Nicephorus, your overseer, I quite approved, and asked of him whether you had given him any commission about that little house at Laterium of which you spoke with me. He answered me that he himself had been the contractor for that work for 16,000 sesterces, but that you had afterwards added many things to the work, and nothing to the price, so that he had given it up. By Hercules, it greatly pleases me that you should add what you had decided on; although the villa as it now stands seems to be a kind of philosopher woman who scolds the madness of the others. But still that addition will be a delight. The garden-keeper I praised; he has so clothed everything with ivy — the foundation of the villa, the spaces between the columns of the walking-gallery — that the cloaked Greeks themselves seem to be doing topiary and to be selling ivy. Now apoduterion (the dressing-room): nothing cooler, nothing more mossy.
Nicephorum, vilicum tuum, sane probavi quaesivique ex eo ecquid ei de illa aedificatiuncula Lateri de qua mecum locutus es mandavisses. tum is mihi respondit se ipsum eius operis HS xvi conductorem fuisse sed te postea multa addidisse ad opus, nihil ad pretium; itaque id se omisisse. mihi me hercule valde placet te illa ut constitueras addere; quamquam ea villa, quae nunc est, tamquam philosopha videtur esse quae obiurget ceterarum villarum insaniam. verum tamen illud additum delectabit. topiarium laudavi; ita omnia convestivit hedera, qua basim villae, qua intercolumnia ambulationis, ut denique illi palliati topiariam facere videantur et hederam vendere. iam ἀποδυτηρίῳ nihil alsius, nihil muscosius.
You have nearly the whole on country matters. The polishing of the town house Philotimus and Cincius press on, but I myself also look in often, which is easy to do. Wherefore I would have you freed from that care.
habes fere de rebus rusticis. Vrbanam expolitionem urget ille quidem et Philotimus et Cincius sed etiam ipse crebro interviso, quod est facile factu. quam ob rem ea te cura liberatum volo.
About my Cicero (the boy), as you keep asking me — I forgive you indeed, but I would have you forgive me too. For I do not concede to you that you love him more than I do myself. And how I wish he had been with me these days at Arpinum, as he himself had wanted, and I no less! As to Pomponia, I would have you write, if it seems good to you, that when we go out somewhere she should come with us and bring the boy. I shall make it splendid if I have him with me at leisure; for at Rome there is no place to breathe. You know that I had promised you this before for nothing; what now do you suppose, with such great pay set forth to me from you?
de Cicerone quod me semper rogas, ignosco equidem tibi sed tu quoque mihi velim ignoscas. non enim con cedo tibi plus ut illum ames quam ipse amo. atque utinam mihi his diebus in Arpinati, quod et ipse cupierat et ego non minus, mecum fuisset! quod ad Pomponiam, si tibi videtur, scribas velim, cum aliquo exibimus eat nobiscum puerumque educat. clamores efficiam si eum mecum habuero otiosus; nam Romae respirandi non est locus. id me scis antea gratis tibi esse pollicitum, quid nunc putas tanta mihi abs te mercede proposita?
I now come to your letters, of which I received several while I was at Arpinum; for in one day three were brought to me, and indeed sent, as it seemed, by you at the same time — one of more words, in which there was first the matter that an earlier date had been set in your letter than in Caesar’s. That Oppius does of necessity, sometimes: when he has fixed to send couriers and has received letters from us, if he is hindered by some new matter, he must of necessity send later than he had fixed; and we, the letters being already given, do not trouble to change the date. You write of Caesar’s highest love towards us.
venio nunc ad tuas litteras quas pluribus epistulis accepi dum sum in Arpinati; nam mihi uno die tres sunt redditae et quidem, ut videbantur, eodem abs te datae tempore, una pluribus verbis in qua primum erat quod antiquior dies in tuis fuisset adscripta litteris quam in Caesaris. id facit Oppius non numquam necessario ut, cum tabellarios constituerit mittere litterasque a nobis acceperit, aliqua re nova impediatur et necessario serius quam constituerat mittat neque nos datis iam epistulis diem commutari curamus. scribis de Caesaris summo in nos amore.
This both you will cherish, and we shall augment by every means we can. About Pompey I am acting diligently, and shall act, as you advise. As to your gratefulness for my permission of your remaining there — I, with my highest grief and longing, am glad of it in part. About sending for Hippodamus and several others, I do not understand what you have in mind. There is none of those men but expects from you a gift like a suburban estate. As for my Trebatius, that you should mix him in there is unneeded. I sent him to Caesar, who has now satisfied me; if he himself is less satisfied, I owe to perform nothing; and I likewise from him take Trebatius back and free him. As to your writing that you are loved more by Caesar each day, I am everlastingly delighted; and Balbus, who is the assistant in that business as you write, I bear in my eyes. That my Trebonius is loved by you, and you by him, I greatly rejoice.
hunc et tu fovebis et nos quibuscumque poterimus rebus augebimus. de Pompeio et facio diligenter et faciam quod mones. quod tibi mea permissio mansionis tuae grata est, id ego summo meo dolore et desiderio, tamen ex parte gaudeo. in Hippodamo et non nullis aliis arcessendis quid cogites non intellego. nemo istorum est quin abs te munus fundi suburbani instar exspectet. Trebatium vero meum quod isto admisceas nihil est. ego illum ad Caesarem misi, qui mihi iam satis fecit; si ipsi minus, praestare nihil debeo teque item ab eo vindico et libero. quod scribis te a Caesare cotidie plus diligi, immortaliter gaudeo; Balbum vero, qui est istius rei quem ad modum scribis adiutor, in oculis fero. Trebonium meum a te amari teque ab illo pergaudeo.
About the tribunate, of which you write: I indeed asked by name for Curtius, and Caesar himself wrote back that the post was prepared for Curtius by name, and rebuked my modesty in asking. If I shall ask for any one besides — which I have also told Oppius to write to him — I shall easily bear being refused, since those who are troublesome to me will not easily bear to be refused by me. I love Curtius, as I myself told him, not only on account of the request but also on account of your testimony, since from your letter I have plainly perceived his zeal for our preservation. About British matters I have learned from your letters that there is nothing either to fear or to rejoice at. About the public business which you wish Tiro to write to you of, I was earlier writing to you the more carelessly because I knew that everything, smallest and greatest, was being sent to Caesar.
de tribunatu quod scribis, ego vero nominatim petivi Curtio et mihi ipse Caesar nominatim Curtio paratum esse rescripsit meamque in rogando verecundiam obiurgavit. si cui praeterea petiero, (id quod etiam Oppio dixi ut ad s illum scriberet) facile patiar mihi negari, quoniam illi qui mihi molesti sunt sibi negari a me non facile patiuntur. ego Curtium, id quod ipsi dixi, non modo rogatione sed etiam testimonio tuo diligo, quod litteris tuis studium illius in salutem nostram facile perspexi. de Britannicis rebus cognovi ex tuis litteris nihil esse nec quod metuamus nec quod gaudeamus. de publicis negotiis quae vis ad te Tironem scribere, neglegentius ad te ante scribebam quod omnia minima maxima ad Caesarem mitti sciebam.
I have replied to the largest letter; hear now of the little one, in which there is first the matter of Clodius’s letter to Caesar. In which I approve Caesar’s counsel, that he did not yield to your most loving request to write back any word to that fury. The other matter is about Calventius Marius’s speech, which you write of. I am surprised that it should please you that I write back against it, especially when no one will read his speech if I write nothing back, but my speech against him every schoolboy commits to memory as if it were dictation. The books I am working on, which you are awaiting, I have begun, but cannot finish in these days. The orations urgently asked for, on behalf of Scaurus and on behalf of Plancius, I have completed. The poem to Caesar which I had begun I have given up. As for your request, since the very fountains are now thirsting, if I have any spare time, I will write.
rescripsi epistulae maximae audi nunc de minuscula in qua primum est de Clodi ad Caesarem litteris in quo Caesaris consilium probo, quod tibi amantissime petenti veniam non dedit uti ullum ad illam furiam verbum rescriberet. alterum est de calventi Mari oratione quod scribis. miror tibi placere me ad eam rescribere, praesertim cum illam nemo lecturus sit si ego nihil rescripsero, meam in illum pueri omnes tamquam dictata perdiscant. Libros meos omnis quos exspectas incohavi sed conficere non possum his diebus. orationes efflagitatas pro Scauro et pro Plancio absolvi. poema ad Caesarem quod composueram incidi; tibi quod rogas, quoniam ipsi fontes iam sitiunt, si quid habebo spati, scribam.
I come to the third letter. That you say Balbus will be coming to Rome before long, well attended, and will be with me constantly until the Ides of May, is to me most welcome and most pleasant. As to your urging me, in the same letter as often before, to canvassing and to labour — I will indeed do it; but when shall we live?
venio ad tertiam. Balbum quod ais mature Romam bene comitatum esse venturum mecumque adsidue usque ad Idus Maias futurum, id mihi pergratum perque iucundum. quod me in eadem epistula sicut saepe antea cohortaris ad ambitionem et ad laborem, faciam equidem, sed quando vivemus?
The fourth letter was delivered to me on the Ides of September [13 September], which you had given on the fourth day before the Ides of August [10 August] from Britain. In it there was nothing very new, except about Erigona (which, when I receive it from Oppius, I will write to you what I think of it; nor do I doubt that it will please me); and what I almost passed over, about the man you wrote of, who wrote to Caesar about Milo’s applause. I indeed easily bear that Caesar should think the applause was as great as possible. And it really was so; and yet that applause which is given to him seems somehow to be given to us.
quarta epistula mihi reddita est Idibus Sept. quam a. d. iiii Idus Sext. ex Britannia dederas. in ea nihil sane erat novi praeter Erigonam (quam si ab Oppio accepero, scribam ad te quid sentiam, nec dubito quin mihi placitura sit) et, quod paene praeterii, de eo quem scripsisti de Milonis plausu scripsisse ad Caesarem. ego vero facile patior ita Caesarem existimare illum quam maximum fuisse plausum. et prorsus ita fuit; et tamen ille plausus qui illi datur quodam modo nobis videtur dari.
A very old letter has also been delivered to me, but late in arriving, in which you remind me about the temple of Tellus and Catulus’s portico. Both are being attended to diligently. At the temple of Tellus indeed I have placed your statue too. Likewise as to the gardens, of which you remind me — I never wanted them very greatly, and now my house supplies the pleasantness of gardens. When I had come to Rome on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of October [19 September], I found the roof finished on your house, the part above the chambers which you had not wished should be of many gables; this now slopes elegantly over the lower portico. Our Cicero (the boy), while I was away, was not idle at the rhetor’s. About his learning, that you should worry, there is no need, since you know his talent and I see his industry. The rest of his concerns I take on as I think I ought to perform.
reddita etiam mihi est pervetus epistula, sed sero adlata, in qua de aede telluris et de porticu Catuli me admones. fit utrumque diligenter. ad telluris quidem etiam tuam statuam locavi. item de hortis me quod admones, nec fui umquam valde cupidus et nunc domus suppeditat mihi hortorum amoenitatem. Romam cum venissem a. d. xiii K. Octobris, absolutum offendi in aedibus tuis tectum, quod supra conclavia non placuerat tibi esse multorum fastigiorum, id nunc honeste vergit in tectum inferioris porticus. Cicero noster dum ego absum non cessavit apud rhetorem. de eius eruditione quod labores nihil est, quoniam ingenium eius nosti, studium ego video. cetera eius sic suscipio, ut me putem praestare debere.
Gabinius is being prosecuted by three factions: L. Lentulus, the flamen’s son, who has already laid the charge of maiestas; Ti. Nero with good supporting subscribers; and C. Memmius, tribune of the plebs, with L. Capito. He came up to the city on the twelfth day before the Kalends of October [20 September]. Nothing more shameful, nothing more deserted: but I dare put no confidence in these trials. Because Cato was unwell, he had not yet been prosecuted on extortion. Pompey is pressing me hard to be reconciled with him; but he has so far made no progress, nor, if I shall hold any part of my freedom, will he. I am vehemently awaiting your letter.
Gabinium tres adhuc factiones postulant, L. Lentulus, flaminis filius, qui iam de maiestate postulavit, Ti. Nero cum bonis subscriptoribus, C. Memmius tribunus pl. cum L. Capitone. ad urbem accessit a. d. xii K. Octobr. nihil turpius nec desertius. sed his iudiciis nihil audeo confidere. quod Cato non valebat, adhuc de pecuniis repetundis non erat postulatus. Pompeius a me valde contendit de reditu in gratiam sed adhuc nihil profecit nec, si ullam partem libertatis tenebo, proficiet. tuas litteras vehementer exspecto.
As to your having heard that I took part in a coalition of the consular candidates, that is false. For such bargains were made in that coalition — which Memmius afterwards laid bare — that no good man should have taken part in them; and at the same time it was not for me to commit myself to such coalitions in which Messalla would be excluded. To Messalla I am giving every satisfaction, as I think, in all matters; and so to Memmius too. To Domitius himself I have already done many things which he wished and which he has asked of me. By the kindness of my defence I have very greatly bound Scaurus to me. So far it was very uncertain both when the elections would be and who the consuls would be.
quod scribis te audisse in candidatorum consularium coitione me interfuisse, id falsum est. eius modi enim pactiones in ea coitione factae sunt, quas postea Memmius patefecit, ut nemo bonus interesse debuerit, et simul mihi committendum non fuit ut iis coitionibus interessem quibus Messala excluderetur. cui quidem vehementer satis facio rebus omnibus, ut arbitror, etiam Memmio. Domitio ipsi multa iam feci quae voluit quaeque a me petiyit. Scaurum beneficio defensionis valde obligavi. adhuc erat valde incertum et quando comitia et qui consules futuri essent.
As I was already folding up this letter, the couriers from you came on the eleventh day before the Kalends [21 September], on the twenty-seventh day. How distressed I am! How much I grieved at Caesar’s most charming letter! But the more charming it was, the more grief did that misfortune of his bring. But I come to your letter. First, your remaining there I again and again approve, especially as, you write, you have shared this with Caesar. I am surprised that Oppius should have anything to do with Publius; for it had not pleased me.
Cum hanc iam epistulam complicarem, tabellarii a vobis venerunt a. d. xi K. septimo vicesimo die. O me sollicitum! quantum ego dolui in Caesaris suavissimis litteris! sed quo erant suaviores, eo maiorem dolorem illius ille casus adferebat. sed ad tuas venio litteras. primum tuam remansionem etiam atque etiam probo, praesertim cum, ut scribis, cum Caesare communicaris. Oppium miror quicquam cum Publio; mihi enim non placuerat.
As to what you write in the inner letter, that on the Ides of September I shall be made legate to Pompey: that I had not heard, and I wrote to Caesar that neither Vibullius had brought Caesar’s instructions about my remaining to Pompey, nor had Oppius. With what counsel? Yet Oppius I held back, because Vibullius’s part came first; for with him Caesar had spoken in person, to Oppius he had only written. But for myself I can have no deuteras phrontidas (second thoughts) in matters concerning Caesar. He is to me, after you and our children, such that he is almost equal to you. I seem to do this by judgement; for I am now in his debt; but yet I am kindled with love.
quod interiore epistula scribis, me Idibus Septembribus Pompeio legatum iri, id ego non audivi scripsique ad Caesarem neque Vibullium Caesaris mandata de mea mansione ad Pompeium pertulisse nec Oppium. quo consilio? quamquam Oppium ego tenui quod priores partes Vibulli erant; cum eo enim coram Caesar egerat, ad Oppium scripserat. ego vero nullas δευτέρασ φροντίδασ habere possum in Caesaris rebus. ille mihi secundum te et liberos nostros ita est ut sit paene par. videor id iudicio facere; iam enim debeo, sed tamen amore sum incensus.
When I had written these last lines in my own hand, your son Cicero came to me to dinner, since Pomponia was dining out. He gave me your letter to read which he had received a little earlier, in the manner of Aristophanes, very pleasing indeed and weighty by Hercules; with which I was extremely delighted. He gave me also the other one, in which you bid him stick to me as to a teacher. How those letters delighted him, how me! Nothing is more charming than that boy, nothing more loving towards us. This I have dictated to Tiro at dinner, that you may not wonder it is in another hand.
Cum scripsissem haec infima quae sunt mea manu, venit ad nos Cicero tuus ad cenam, cum Pomponia foris cenaret. dedit mihi epistulam legendam tuam, quam paulo ante acceperat, Aristophaneo modo valde me hercule et suavem et gravem; qua sum admodum delectatus. dedit etiam alteram illam mihi, qua iubes eum mihi esse adfixum tamquam magistro. quam illum epistulae illae delectarunt, quam me! nihil puero illo suavius, nihil nostri amantius. hoc inter cenam Tironi dictavi, ne mirere alia manu esse.
To Annalis your letter was most welcome — both that you should look after his interests carefully and yet help him with the truest counsel. P. Servilius the elder signifies, from a letter which he said had been sent to him by Caesar, that you have done him a great kindness in speaking, about his goodwill towards Caesar, most courteously and most diligently.
annali pergratae litterae tuae fuerunt, quod et curares de se diligenter et tamen consilio se verissimo iuvares. P. Servilius pater ex litteris, quas sibi a Caesare missas esse dicebat, significat valde te sibi gratum fecisse quod de sua voluntate erga Caesarem humanissime diligentissimeque locutus esses.
When I had returned to Rome from Arpinum, it was told me that Hippodamus had set out to you. I cannot write that I was astonished he should have acted so inhumanly as to set out to you without my letter; this I do write, that it has been a trouble to me. For I had now for a long time been thinking, on the basis of what you had written to me, that, if I had anything I wanted to be carried more diligently to you, I would give it to him; for, by Hercules, in these letters which I send to you in the ordinary way I write almost nothing such that, if it should fall into anyone’s hands, it would have to be borne ill. I was reserving for Minucius, Salvius, and Labienus. Labeo will either set out late or remain here.
Cum Romam ex Arpinati revertissem, dictum mihi est Hippodamum ad te profectum esse. non possum scribere me miratum esse illum tam inhumaniter fecisse ut sine meis litteris ad te proficisceretur; illud scribo, mihi molestum fuisse. iam enim diu cogitaveram ex eo quod tu ad me scripseras ut, si quid esset quod ad te diligentius perferri vellem, illi darem, quod me hercule hisce litteris quas vulgo ad te mitto nihil fere scribo, quod si in alicuius manus inciderit, moleste ferendum sit. Minucio me et Salvio et Labieno reservabam. Labeo aut tarde proficiscetur aut hic manebit.
Hippodamus did not even ask whether I wanted anything. T. Pinarius sends to me about you affectionate letters: that he is most delighted by your letters, conversations, dinners. The man has always been a delight to me, and his brother is much with me. So, as you have begun, embrace the young man.
Hippodamus ne numquid vellem quidem rogavit. T. Pinarius amabilis ad me de te litteras mittit, se maxime litteris, sermonibus, cenis denique tuis delectari. is homo semper me delectavit fraterque eius mecum est multum. qua re, uti instituisti, complectere adulescentem.
As I have had the letter on hand for several days on account of the couriers’ delay, on that account many things have been gathered, one at one time, another at another, like this: T. Anicius has often now told me that he would not hesitate to buy you a suburban estate if he found one. In his speech I usually wonder at both: that, when you write to him about buying a suburban property, you not only do not write to me but actually write in a different sense to me about a suburban property; and that, when you write to him, you remember nothing \ those letters which you yourself showed me at his Tusculan villa, nothing of the precepts of Epicharmus: gnōthi pōs allōi kechrētai “know how he uses another” — in short, his whole face, his speech, his spirit, as I conjecture, \ But these things you yourself shall see to.
quod multos dies epistulam in manibus habui propter commorationem tabellariorum, ideo multa conlecta sunt aliud alio tempore velut hoc: T. Anicius mihi saepe iam dixit sese tibi suburbanum si quod invenisset non dubitaturum esse emere. in eius sermone ego utrumque soleo admirari, et te de suburbano emendo cum ad illum scribas non modo ad me non scribere sed etiam aliam in sententiam de suburbano scribere, et cum ad illum scribas nihil te recordari †de se de epistulis† illis quas in Tusculano eius tu mihi ostendisti, nihil de praeceptis Epicharmi: Γνῶθι πῶσ ἄλλῳ κέχρηται, totum denique vultum, sermonem, animum eius, quem ad modum conicio, †quasi† sed haec tu videris.
About the suburban estate, see that I know what you wish, and at the same time see that he does not stir up any trouble. What besides? What? Yes: Gabinius, on the fourth day before the Kalends of October [28 September], entered the city by night; and today, at the eighth hour, when by C. Alfius’s edict on maiestas he ought to have been present, by a great gathering and by the universal hatred of the people he was almost laid low. Nothing is fouler than he. Yet next is Piso. So I am thinking of putting a marvellous embolium in the second book of My Times: Apollo speaking in the council of the gods, what kind of homecoming there would be of two imperators — of whom the one had lost his army, the other had sold his.
de suburbano cura ut sciam quid velis, et simul ne quid ille turbet vide. quid praeterea? quid? etiam. Gabinius a. d. iiii K. Octobr. noctu in urbem introierat et hodie hora viii, cum edicto C. Alfi de maiestate eum adesse oporteret, concursu magno et odio universi populi paene adflictus est nihil illo turpius. proximus tamen est Piso. itaque mirificum embolium cogito in secundum librum meorum temporum includere, dicentem Apollinem in concilio deorum, qualis reditus duorum imperatorum futurus esset, quorum alter exercitum perdidisset, alter vendidisset.
From Britain Caesar gave me a letter on the Kalends of September [1 September], which I received on the fourth day before the Kalends of October [28 September], satisfactory enough about British matters, in which, that I should not be surprised at receiving none from you, he writes that he had been without you when he had advanced to the sea. To this letter of his I wrote nothing back, not even by way of congratulation, on account of his bereavement. I beseech you again and again, my brother, that you keep well.
ex Britannia Caesar ad me K. Septembr. dedit litteras quas ego accepi a. d. iiii K. Octobr., satis commodas de Britannicis rebus, quibus, ne admirer quod a te nullas acceperim, scribit se sine’ te fuisse cum ad mare accesserit ad eas ego ei litteras nihil rescripsi ne gratulandi quidem causa propter eius luctum. te oro etiam atque etiam, mi frater, ut valeas.