The Letters of Cicero Part 13

[Footnote 187: Reading _primum_; others _primus_, "his head lictor."]

x.x.x (A II, 4)

[Sidenote: B.C. 59. Coss., C. Iulius Caesar, M. Calpurnius Bibulus.]

This year was a crucial one in the history of the Republic, and also of Cicero particularly. It witnessed the working of the agreement entered into in the previous year between Pompey, Caesar, and Cra.s.sus, to secure their several objects, commonly called the First Triumvirate. The determined enmity of the consuls to each other, the high-handed conduct of Caesar in regard to the senate, his ultimate appointment to the unusual period of five years'

government of the Gauls and Illyric.u.m, were so many blows at the old const.i.tution; and scarcely less offensive to the Catonian Optimates were the agrarian laws pa.s.sed in favour of Pompey's veterans, the forcing of his _acta_ through the senate, and the arrangement whereby he too was eventually to have the consulship again, and an extended period of provincial government. Cicero was distracted by hesitation. He had pinned his faith on Pompey's ultimate opposition to Caesar, and yet did not wholly trust him, and was fully aware of the unpracticable nature of Cato and the weakness of the Optimates. The triumvirs had an instrument for rendering him helpless in Clodius, but Cicero could not believe that they would use it, or that his services to the state could be so far forgotten as to make danger possible. We shall find him, then, wholly absorbed in the question as to how far he is to give into or oppose the triumvirs. It is not till the end of the year that he begins to see the real danger ahead. We have one extant oration of this year--_pro Flacco_--which was not much to his credit, for Flaccus had evidently been guilty of extortion in Asia.

He also defended the equally guilty C. Antonius in a speech which brought upon him the vengeance of the triumvirs, but it is happily lost.

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

TUSCULUM (APRIL)

[Sidenote: B.C. 59, aeT. 47]

I am exceedingly obliged to you for sending me Serapio's book, of which indeed, between you and me, I scarcely understood a thousandth part. I have ordered the money for it to be paid you at once, that you may not put it down to the cost of presentation copies. But as I have mentioned the subject of money, I will beg you to try to come to a settlement with t.i.tinius in any way you can. If he doesn't stand by his own proposal, what I should like best is that what he bought at too dear a rate should be returned, if that can be done with Pomponia's consent: if that too is impossible, let the money be paid rather than have any difficulty. I should be very glad if you would settle this before you leave Rome, with your usual kindness and exactness.

So Clodius, you say, is for Tigranes? I only wish he would go--on the same terms as the Skepsian![188] But I don't grudge him the job; for a more convenient time for my taking a "free legation" is when my brother Quintus shall have settled down again, as I hope, into private life, and I shall have made certain how that "priest of the Bona Dea"[189] intends to behave. Meanwhile I shall find my pleasure in the Muses with a mind undisturbed, or rather glad and cheerful; for it will never occur to me to envy Cra.s.sus or to regret that I have not been false to myself. As to geography, I will try to satisfy you, but I promise nothing for certain.[190] It is a difficult business, but nevertheless, as you bid me, I will take care that this country excursion produces something for you. Mind you let me know any news you have ferreted out, and especially who you think will be the next consuls. However, I am not very curious; for I have determined not to think about politics. I have examined Terentia's woodlands. What need I say? If there was only a Dodonean oak in them, I should imagine myself to be in possession of Epirus. About the 1st of the month I shall be either at Formiae or Pompeii.[191] If I am not at Formiae, pray, an you love me, come to Pompeii. It will be a great pleasure to me and not much out of the way for you. About the wall, I have given Philotimus orders not to put any difficulty in the way of your doing whatever you please. I think, however, you had better call in Vettius.[192] In these bad times, when the life of all the best men hangs on a thread, I value one summer's enjoyment of my Palatine _palaestra_ rather highly; but, of course, the last thing I should wish would be that Pomponia and her boy should live in fear of a falling wall.

[Footnote 188: That is, if it ends in his death, for Meliodorus of Skepsis was sent by Mithridates to Tigranes to urge him to go to war with Rome, but privately advised him not to do so, and, in consequence, was put to death by Mithridates (Plut. _Luc._ 22). The word _Scepsii_ (S??????) was introduced by Gronovius for the unintelligible word _Syrpie_ found in the MSS., which so often blunder in Greek names.]

[Footnote 189: Clodius, alluding to his intrusion into the mysteries.]

[Footnote 190: Atticus has asked Cicero for a Latin treatise on geography--probably as a publisher, Cicero being the prince of book-makers--and to that end has sent him the Greek geography of Serapio.]

[Footnote 191: In his Formianum or Pompeianum, his villas at Formiae and Pompeii.]

[Footnote 192: An architect, a freedman of Cyrus, of whom we have heard before.]

x.x.xI (A II, 5)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

ANTIUM (APRIL)

[Sidenote: B.C. 59, aeT. 47]

I wish very much, and have long wished, to visit Alexandria, and at the same time to get away from here, where people are tired of me, and return when they have begun to feel my loss--but at such a time and at the bidding of such statesmen![193]

"I fear to face the men of Troy And Trojan matrons with their trailing robes."[194]

For what would my friends the Optimates say--if there are such persons left? That I had accepted a bribe to change my views?

"Polydamas the first would lay the charge."

I mean my friend Cato, who is as good as a hundred thousand in my eyes.

What, too, will history say of me six hundred years hence? I am much more afraid of that than of the petty gossip of the men of to-day. But, I think, I had better lie low and wait. For if it is really offered to me, I shall be to a certain extent in a position of advantage, and then will be the time to weigh the matter. There is, upon my word, a certain credit even in refusing. Wherefore, if Theophanes[195] by chance has consulted you on the matter, do not absolutely decline. What I am expecting to hear from you is, what Arrius says, and how he endures being left in the lurch,[196] and who are intended to be consuls--is it Pompey and Cra.s.sus, or, as I am told in a letter, Servius Sulpicius with Gabinius?--and whether there are any new laws or anything new at all; and, since Nepos[197] is leaving Rome, who is to have the augurship--the one bait by which those personages could catch me! You see what a high price I put on myself! Why do I talk about such things, which I am eager to throw aside, and to devote myself heart and soul to philosophy. That, I tell you, is my intention. I could wish I had done so from the first.

Now, however, that I have found by experience the hollowness of what I thought so splendid, I am thinking of doing business exclusively with the Muses. In spite of that, please give me in your next some more definite information about Curtius and who is intended to fill his place, and what is doing about P. Clodius, and, in fact, take your time and tell me everything as you promise; and pray write me word what day you think of leaving Rome, in order that I may tell you where I am likely to be: and send me a letter at once on the subjects of which I have written to you. I look forward much to hearing from you.

[Footnote 193: The triumvirs. The mission to Egypt was in the affairs of Ptolemy Auletes (father of Cleopatra), who was this year declared a "friend and ally." He soon got expelled by his subjects.]

[Footnote 194: _Il._ vi. 442; xxii. 100. Cicero's frequent expression for popular opinion, or the opinion of those he respects--his Mrs.

Grundy.]

[Footnote 195: Theophanes, a philosopher of Mitylene, a close friend of Pompey's, in whose house he frequently resided. He took charge of Pompey's wife and children in B.C. 48-47.]

[Footnote 196: Q. Arrius, an orator and friend of Caesar's, by whose help he had hoped for the consulship. See p. 49.]

[Footnote 197: Q. Caecilius Metellus Nepos (consul B.C. 57). His brother, the consul of B.C. 60, had just died and made a vacancy in the college of augurs.]

x.x.xII (A II, 6)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

ANTIUM (APRIL)

[Sidenote: B.C. 59, aeT. 47]

As to my promise to you in a former letter that there should be some product of this country excursion, I cannot confirm it to any great extent: for I have become so attached to idleness that I cannot be torn from its arms. Accordingly, I either enjoy myself with books, of which I have a delightful stock at Antium, or I just count the waves--for the rough weather prevents my shrimping! From writing my mind positively recoils. For the geographical treatise, upon which I had settled, is a serious undertaking: so severely is Eratosthenes, whom I had proposed as my model, criticised by Serapio and Hipparchus: what think you will be the case if Tyrannio[198] is added to the critics? And, by Hercules, the subject is difficult of explanation and monotonous, and does not seem to admit of as much embellishment as I thought, and, in short--which is the chief point--any excuse for being idle seems to me a good one: for I am even hesitating as to settling at Antium and spending the rest of my life there, where, indeed, I would rather have been a duovir[199] than at Rome. You, indeed, have done more wisely in having made yourself a home at Buthrotum. But, believe me, next to that free town of yours comes the borough of the Antiates. Could you have believed that there could be a town so near Rome, where there are many who have never seen Vatinius? Where there is no one besides myself who cares whether one of the twenty commissioners[200] is alive and well? Where no one intrudes upon me, and yet all are fond of me? This, this is the place to play the statesman in! For yonder, not only am I not allowed to do so, but I am sick of it besides. Accordingly, I will compose a book of secret memoirs for your ear alone in the style of Theopompus, or a more acrid one still.[201] Nor have I now any politics except to hate the disloyal, and even that without any bitterness, but rather with a certain enjoyment in writing. But to return to business: I have written to the city quaestors about my brother's affair. See what they say to it, whether there is any hope of the cash in _denarii_, or whether we are to be palmed off with Pompeian _cistophori_.[202] Farthermore, settle what is to be done about the wall. Is there anything else? Yes! Let me know when you are thinking of starting.

[Footnote 198: A captive brought by Lucullus, who became a friend of Cicero and tutor to his son and nephew.]

[Footnote 199: One of the two yearly officers of a colony--they answer to the consuls at Rome. Therefore Cicero means, "I wish I had been a consul in a small colony rather than a consul at Rome."]

[Footnote 200: For distribution of land under Caesar's law. P. Vatinius was a tribune this year, and worked in Caesar's interests.]

[Footnote 201: Theopompus of Chios, the historian (_Att._ vi. 1, -- 12).

Born about B.C. 378. His bitterness censured by Polybius, viii. 11-13.]

[Footnote 202: The money due from the treasury to Q. Cicero in Asia. He wants it to be paid in Roman currency (_denarii_), not in Asiatic coins (_cistophori_), a vast amount of which Pompey had brought home and deposited in the treasury. So an Indian official might like sovereigns instead of rupees if he could get them.]

x.x.xIII (A II, 7)