CLXXIV (F II, 4)
TO C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO (IN ASIA)
ROME (?MAY)
You are aware that letters are of many kinds;
but there is one kind which is undeniable, for the
sake of which, indeed, the thing was invented,
namely, to inform the absent of anything that is
to the interest of the writer or recipient that
they should know. You, however, certainly don't
expect a letter of that kind from me. For of your
domestic concerns you have members of your family
both to write and to act as messengers. Besides,
in my personal affairs there is really nothing
new. There are two other kinds of letters which
give me great pleasure: the familiar and sportive,
and the grave and serious. Which of these two I
ought least to employ I do not understand. Am I to
jest with you by letter? Upon my word, I don't
think the man a good citizen who could laugh in
times like these. Shall I write in a more serious
style? What could be written of seriously by
Cicero to Curio except public affairs? And yet,
under this head, my position is such that I
neither dare write what I think, nor choose to
write what I don't think. Wherefore, since I have
no subject left to write about, I will employ my
customary phrase, and exhort you to
the pursuit of the noblest glory. For you have a
dangerous rival already in the field, and fully
prepared, in the extraordinary expectation formed
of you and this rival you will vanquish with the
greatest ease, only on one
condition—that you make up your mind to
put out your full strength in the cultivation of
those qualities, by which the noble actions are
accomplished, upon the glory of which you have set
your heart. In support of this sentiment I would
have written at greater length had not I felt
certain that you were sufficiently alive to it of
your own accord; and I have touched upon it even
thus far, not in order to fire your ambition, but
to testify my affection.
ROME (?MAY)
