Latin Texts & Translations

DCCLXXIV (A XVI, 16 b)

TO GNAEUS MUNATIUS PLANCUS (AT ROME) JULY

I have already written to request you ^[Note] that the cause of the Buthrotians having received the approval of the consuls, to whom authority had been given both by a law and a senatorial decree, "that they should investigate, determine, and decide on Caesar's acta," you would support that decision and relieve both our friend Atticus—whom I know you to be anxious to serve—and myself, who am no less anxious than he, from all trouble. For as the whole business has been completed with much care and much labour, it now rests with you that we should be able to make as early an end as possible to our anxiety. Although I am well aware that a man of your wisdom must see that, if the decrees of the consuls which have been delivered as to Caesar's acta are not observed, a most chaotic state of things will be the result. The fact is that though many of Caesar's arrangements—as was inevitable in the multitude of his occupations—are not now thought good, I am yet accustomed to sup-port them with the utmost vigour for the sake of peace and quietness. I think you ought by all means to do the same, though this letter is not meant to persuade but to prefer a request. Therefore, my dear Plancus, I beg and beseech you with an earnestness and a heartiness beyond which, upon my honour, I cannot plead any cause, to carry on,

treat, and settle this business in such a way that what we have obtained from the consuls without any hesitation, owing to their great kindness and the justice of our cause, you will not only acquiesce, but even rejoice, in our having secured. What your disposition towards Atticus is you have often shewn him to his face, as well as myself. If you do this you will have put me—always closely allied to you by personal feeling and inherited friendship-under the greatest possible obligation. I ask you earnestly and repeatedly to do so.