B.C. 59. Coss., C.
Iulius Caesar, M. Calpurnius Bibulus.
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 Crassus, 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
Illyricum, were so many blows at the
old constitution; and scarcely less offensive to
the Catonian Optimates were the agrarian laws
passed 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.
XXX (A II, 4)
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 Titinius 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!
1 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"
2 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
Crassus 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.
3 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.
4 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.
5 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.
XXXI (A II, 5)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
ANTIUM (APRIL)
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 !
6
"I fear to face the men of Troy And
Trojan matrons with their trailing robes."
7 For what would my friends the
Optimates say—if there are such persons
left? That I bad 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 today. 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
8 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,
9
and who are intended to be consuls—is it
Pompey and Crassus, 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
10 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.
XXXII (A II, 6)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
ANTIUM (APRIL)
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
11 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
12 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
13 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.
14 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.
