History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0249/02498.txt

Text File | 1992-10-12 | 21KB | 311 lines

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$Title{Letters Of Cicero
Part III}
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$Author{Cicero, Marcus Tullius}
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$Subject{letter
caesar
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$Date{65bc}
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Title:       Letters Of Cicero
Author:      Cicero, Marcus Tullius
Date:        65bc
Translation: Shuckburg, E.S.

Part III

Letter 13: To His Brother Quintus (in the Country), Rome, February, 54 B.C.

     Your note by its strong language has drawn out this letter. For as to
what actually occurred on the day of your start, it supplied me with
absolutely no subject for writing. But as when we are together we are never at
a loss for something to say, so ought our letters at times to digress into
loose chat. Well, then, to begin, the liberty of the Tenedians has received
short shrift, no one speaking for them except myself, Bibulus, Calidius, and
Favonius. A complimentary reference to you was made by the legates from
Magnesia and Sipylum, they saying that you were the man who alone had resisted
the demand of L. Sestius Pansa. On the remaining days of this business in the
senate, if anything occurs which you ought to know, or even if there is
nothing, I will write you something every day. On the 12th I will not fail you
or Pomponius. The poems of Lucretius are as you say - with many flashes of
genius, yet very technical. But when you return,...if you succeed in reading
the Empedoclea of Sallustius, I shall regard you as a hero, yet scarcely
human.

Letter 14: To His Brother Quintus (in Britain), Arpinum and Rome,
28 September, 54 B.C.

     After extraordinarily hot weather - I never remember greater heat - I
have refreshed myself at Arpinum, and enjoyed the extreme loveliness of the
river during the days of the games, having left my tribesmen under the charge
of Philotimus. I was at Arcanum on the 10th of September. There I found
Mescidius and Philoxenus, and saw the water, for which they were making a
course not far from your villa, running quite nicely, especially considering
the extreme drought, and they said they were going to collect it in much
greater abundance. Everything is right with Herus. In your Manilian property I
came across Diphilus outdoing himself in dilatoriness. Still, he had nothing
left to construct, except baths, and a promenade, and an aviary. I liked that
villa very much, because its paved colonnade gives it an air of very great
dignity. I never appreciated this till now that the colonnade itself has been
all laid open, and the columns have been polished. It all depends - and this I
will look to - upon stuccoing being prettily done. The pavements seemed to be
being well laid. Certain of the ceilings I did not like, and ordered them to
be changed. As to the place in which they say that you write word that a small
entrance hall is to be built - namely, in the colonnade - I liked it better as
it is. For I did not think there was space sufficient for an entrance hall;
nor is it usual to have one, except in those buildings which have a larger
court; nor could it have bedrooms and apartments of that kind attached to it.
As it is, from the very beauty of its arched roof, it will serve as an
admirable summer room. However, if you think differently, write back word as
soon as possible. In the bath I have moved the hot chamber to the other corner
of the dressing-room, because it was so placed that its steam-pipe was
immediately under the bedrooms. A fair-sized bedroom and a lofty winter one
I admired very much, for they were both spacious and well situated - on the
side of the promenade nearest to the bath. Diphilus had placed the columns out
of the perpendicular, and not opposite each other. These, of course, he shall
take down; he will learn some day to use the plumb-line and measure. On the
whole, I hope Diphilus' work will be completed in a few months: for Caesius,
who was with me at the time, keeps a very sharp look-out upon him.

     Thence I started straight along the via Vitularia to your Fufidianum, the
estate which we bought for you a few weeks ago at Arpinum for 100,000
sesterces (about 800 pounds). I never saw a shadier spot in summer - water
springs in many parts of it, and abundant into the bargain. In short, Caesius
thought that you would easily irrigate fifty iugera of the meadow-land. For
my part, I can assure you of this, which is more in my line, that you will
have a villa marvelously pleasant, with the addition of a fish-pond,
spouting fountains, a palaestra, and a shrubbery. I am told that you wish to
keep this Bovillae estate. You will determine as you think good. Calvus said
that, even if the control of the water were taken from you, and the right of
drawing it off were established by the vendor, and thus an easement were
imposed on that property, we could yet maintain the price in case we wish to
sell. He said that he had agreed with you to do the work at three sesterces a
foot, and that he had stepped it, and made it three miles. It seemed to me
more. But I will guarantee that the money could nowhere be better laid out. I
had sent for Cillo from Venafrum, but on that very day four of his fellow
servants and apprentices had been crushed by the falling in of a tunnel at
Venafrum. On the 13th of September I was at Laterium. I examined the road,
which appeared to me to be so good as to seem almost like a highroad, except a
hundred and fifty paces - for I measured it myself form the little bridge at
the temple of Furina, in the direction of Satricum. There they had put down
dust, not gravel (this shall be changed), and that part of the road is a very
steep incline. But I understood that it could not be taken in any other
direction, particularly as you did not wish it to go through the property of
Locusta or Varro. The latter alone had made the road very well where it
skirted his own property. Locusta hadn't touched it; but I will call on him at
Rome, and think I shall be able to stir him up, and at the same time I think I
shall ask M. Tarus, who is now at Rome, and whom I am told promised to allow
you to do so, about making a watercourse through his property. I much approved
of your steward Nicephorius and I asked him what orders you had given about
that small building at Laterium, about which you spoke to me. He told me in
answer that he had himself contracted to do the work for sixteen sestertia
(about 128 pounds), but that you had afterwards made many additions to the
work, but nothing to the price, and that he had therefore given it up. I quite
approve, by Hercules, of your making the additions you had determined upon;
although the villa as it stands seems to have the air of a philosopher, meant
to rebuke the extravagance of other villas. Yet, after all, that addition will
be pleasing. I praised your landscape gardener: he has so covered everything
with ivy, both the foundation-wall of the villa and the spaces between the
columns of the walk, that, upon my word, those Greek statues seemed to be
engaged in fancy gardening, and to be shewing off the ivy. Finally, nothing
can be cooler or more mossy than the dressing-room of the bath. That is
about all I have to say about country matters. The gardener, indeed, as well
as Philotimus and Cincius are pressing on the ornamentation of your town
house; but I also often look in upon it myself, as I can do without
difficulty. Wherefore don't be at all anxious about that.

     As to your always asking me about your son, of course I "excuse you"; but
I must ask you to "excuse" me also, for I don't allow that you love him more
than I do. And oh, that he had been with me these last few days at Arpinum, as
he had himself set his heart on being, and as I had no less done! As to
Pomponia, please write and say that, when I go out of town anywhere, she is to
come with me and bring the boy. I'll do wonders with him, if I get him to
myself when I am at leisure: for at Rome there is no time to breathe. You know
I formerly promised to do so for nothing. What do you expect with such a
reward as you promise me? I now come to your letters which I received in
several packets when I was at Arpinum. For I received three from you in one
day, and, indeed, as it seemed, despatched by you at the same time - one of
considerable length, in which your first point was that my letter to you was
dated earlier than that to Caesar. Oppius at times cannot help this: the
reason is that, having settled to send letter-carriers, and having received
a letter from me, he is hindered by something turning up, and obliged to
despatch them later than he had intended; and I don't take the trouble to have
the day altered on a letter which I have once handed to him. You write about
Caesar's extreme affection for us. This affection you must on your part keep
warm, and I for mine will endeavour to increase it by every means in my power.
About Pompey, I am carefully acting, and shall continue to act, as you advise.
That my permission to you to stay longer is a welcome one, though I grieve at
your absence and miss you exceedingly, I am yet partly glad. What you can be
thinking of in sending for such people as Hippodamus and some others, I do not
understand. There is not one of those fellows that won't expect a present from
you equal to a suburban estate. However, there is no reason for your classing
my friend Trebatius with them. I sent him to Caesar, and Caesar has done all I
expected. If he has not done quite what he expected himself, I am not bound to
make it up to him, and I in like manner free and absolve you from all claims
on his part. Your remark, that you are a greater favourite with Caesar every
day, is a source of undying satisfaction to me. As to Balbus, who, as you say,
promotes that state of things, he is the apple of my eye. I am indeed glad
that you and my friend Trebonius like each other. As to what you say about the
military tribuneship, I, indeed, asked for it definitely for Curtius, and
Caesar wrote back definitely to say that there was one at Curtius' service,
and chided me for my modesty in making the request. If I have asked one for
anyone else - as I told Oppius to write and tell Caesar - I shall not be at
all annoyed by a refusal, since those who pester me for letters are annoyed at
a refusal from me. I like Curtius, as I have told him, not only because you
asked me to do so, but from the character you gave of him; for from your
letter I have gathered the zeal he shewed for my restoration. As for the
British expedition, I conclude from your letter that we have no occasion
either for fear or exultation. As to public affairs, about which you wish Tiro
to write to you, I have written to you hitherto somewhat more carelessly than
usual, because I knew that all events, small or great, were reported to
Caesar. I have now answered your longest letter.

     Now hear what I have to say to your small one. The first point is about
Clodius' letter to Caesar. In that matter I approve of Caesar's policy, in
not having given way to your request so far as to write a single word to that
Fury. The next thing is about the speech of Calventius "Marius." I am
surprised at your saying that you think I ought to answer it, particularly as,
while no one is likely to read that speech, unless I write an answer to it,
every schoolboy learns mine against him as an exercise. My books, all of which
you are expecting, I have begun, but I cannot finish them for some days yet.
The speeches for Scaurus and Plancius which you clamour for I have finished.
The poem to Caesar, which I had begun, I have cut short. I will write what you
ask me for, since your poetic springs are running dry, as soon as I have time.

     Now for the third letter. It is very pleasant and welcome news to hear
from you that Balbus is soon coming to Rome, and so well accompanied! and will
stay with me continuously till the 15th of May. As to your exhorting me in the
same letter, as in many previous ones, to ambition and labour, I shall, of
course, do as you say: but when am I to enjoy any real life?

     Your fourth letter reached me on the 13th of September, dated on the 10th
of August from Britain. In it there was nothing new except about your Erigona,
and if I get that from Oppius I will write and tell you what I think of it. I
have no doubt I shall like it. Oh, yes! I had almost forgotten to remark as to
the man who, you say in your letter, had written to Caesar about the applause
given to Milo - I am not unwilling that Caesar should think that it was as
warm as possible. And in point of fact it was so, and yet that applause, which
is given to him, seems in a certain sense to be given to me.

     I have also received a very old letter, but which was late in coming into
my hands, in which you remind me about the temple of Tellus and the colonnade
of Catulus. Both of these matters are being actively carried out. At the
temple of Tellus I have even got your statue placed. So, again, as to your
reminder about a suburban villa and gardens, I was never very keen for one,
and now my town house has all the charm of such a pleasure-ground. On my
arrival in Rome on the 18th of September I found the roof on your house
finished: the part over the sitting-rooms, which you did not wish to have
many gables, now slopes gracefully towards the roof of the lower colonnade.
Our boy, in my absence, did not cease working with his rhetoric master. You
have no reason for being anxious about his education, for you know his
ability, and I see his application. Everything else I take it upon myself to
guarantee, with full consciousness that I am bound to make it good.

     As yet there are three parties prosecuting Gabinius: first, L. Lentulus,
son of the flamen, who has entered a prosecution for lese majeste; secondly,
Tib. Nero, with good names at the back of his indictment; thirdly, C. Memmius
the tribune in conjunction with L. Capito. He came to the walls of the city on
the 19th of September, undignified and neglected to the last degree. But in
the present state of the law courts I do not venture to be confident of
anything. As Cato is unwell, he has not yet been formally indicted for
extortion. Pompey is trying hard to persuade me to be reconciled to him, but
as yet he has not succeeded at all, nor, if I retain a shred of liberty, will
he succeed. I am very anxious for a letter from you. You say that you have
been told that I was a party to the coalition of the consular candidates - it
is a lie. The compacts made in that coalition, afterwards made public by
Memmius, were of such a nature that no loyal man ought to have been a party to
them; nor at the same time was it possible for me to be a party to a coalition
from which Messalla was excluded, who is thoroughly satisfied with my conduct
in every particular, as also, I think, is Memmius. To Domitius himself I have
rendered many services which he desired and asked of me. I have put Scaurus
under a heavy obligation by my defence of him. It is as yet very uncertain
both when the elections will be and who will be consuls.

     Just as I was folding up this epistle letter-carriers arrived from you
and Caesar (20th September) after a journey of twenty days. How anxious I was!
How painfully I was affected by Caesar's most kind letter! But the kinder it
was, the more sorrow did his loss occasion me. But to turn to your letter: To
begin with, I reiterate my approval of your staying on, especially as,
according to your account, you have consulted Caesar on the subject. I wonder
that Oppius has anything to do with Publius, for I advised against it. Farther
on in your letter you say that I am going to be made legatus to Pompey on the
13th of September: I have heard nothing about it, and I wrote to Caesar to
tell him that neither Vibullius nor Oppius had delivered his message to Pompey
about my remaining at home. Why, I know not. However, it was I who restrained
Oppius from doing so, because it was Vibullius who should take the leading
part in that matter: for with him Caesar had communicated personally, with
Oppius only by letter. I indeed can have no "second thoughts" in matters
connected with Caesar. He comes next after you and our children in my regard,
and not much after. I think I act in this with deliberate judgment, for I have
by this time good cause for it, yet warm personal feeling no doubt does
influence me also.

     Just as I had written these last words - which are by my own hand - your
boy came in to dine with me, as Pomponia was dining out. He gave me your
letter to read, which he had received shortly before - a truly Aristophanic
mixture of jest and earnest, with which I was greatly charmed. He gave me also
your second letter, in which you bid him cling to my side as a mentor. How
delighted he was with those letters! And so was I. Nothing could be more
attractive than that boy, nothing more affectionate to me! - This, to explain
its being in another handwriting, I dictated to Tiro while at dinner.

     Your letter gratified Annalis very much, as shewing that you took an
active interest in his concerns, and yet assisted him with exceedingly candid
advice. Publius Servilius the elder, from a letter which he said he had
received from Caesar, declares himself highly obliged to you for having spoken
with the greatest kindness and earnestness of his devotion to Caesar. After my
return to Rome from Arpinum I was told that Hippodamus had started to join
you. I cannot say that I was surprised at his having acted so discourteously
as to start to join you without a letter from me: I only say this, that I was
annoyed. For I had long resolved, from an expression in your letter, that if I
had anything I wished conveyed to you with more than usual care, I should give
it to him: for, in truth, into a letter like this, which I send you in an
ordinary way, I usually put nothing that, if it fell into certain hands, might
be a source of annoyance. I reserve myself for Minucius and Salvius and Labeo.
Labeo will either be starting late or will stay here altogether. Hippodamus
did not even ask me whether he could do anything for me. T. Penarius sends me
a kind letter about you: says that he is exceedingly charmed with your
literary pursuits, conversation, and above all by your dinners. He was always
a favourite of mine, and I see a good deal of his brother. Wherefore continue,
as you have begun, to admit the young man to your intimacy.

     From the fact of this letter having been in hand during many days, owing
to the delay of the letter-carriers, I have jotted down in it many various
things at odd times, as, for instance, the following: Titus Anicius has
mentioned to me more than once that he would not hesitate to buy a suburban
property for you, if he found one. In these remarks of his I find two things
surprising: first that when you write to him about buying a suburban property,
you not only don't write to me to that effect, but write even in a contrary
sense; and, secondly, that in writing to him you totally forget his letters
which you shewed me at Tusculum, and as totally the rule of Epicharmus,
"Notice how he has treated another": in fact, that you have quite forgotten,
as I think, the lesson conveyed by the expression of his face, his
conversation, and his spirit. But this is your concern. As to a suburban
property, be sure to let me know your wishes, and at the same time take care
that that fellow doesn't get you into trouble. What else have I to say?
Anything? Yes, there is this: Gabinius entered the city by night on the 27th
of September and to-day, at two o'clock, when he ought to have appeared on
his trial for lese majeste, in accordance with the edict of C. Alfius, he was
all but crushed to the earth by a great and unanimous demonstration of the
popular hatred. Nothing could exceed his humiliating position. However, Piso
comes next to him. So I think of introducing a marvellous episode into my
second book - Apollo declaring in the council of the gods what sort of return
that of the two commanders was to be, one of whom had lost, and the other sold
his army. From Britain I have a letter of Caesar's dated the 1st of September,
which reached me on the 27th, satisfactory enough as far as the British
expedition is concerned, in which, to prevent my wondering at not getting one
from you, he tells me that you were not with him when he reached the coast. To
that letter I made no reply, not even a formal congratulation, on account of
his mourning. Many, many wishes, dear brother, for your health.