Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Cic. Att.]. | ||
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CCCLVIII (A IX, 5)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
ON your birthday [Note] you wrote me a letter full of advice, and not only shewing the greatest kindness to me, but also the most admirable wisdom. Philotimus delivered it to me the day after receiving it from you. The points you put are indeed of extreme difficulty—the journey to the Upper Sea, a voyage by the Lower, a departure to Arpinum, lest I should seem to have avoided Caesar, a continuance at Formiae, lest I should seem to have put myself forward to congratulate him— but nothing is more distressing than the sight of those things, which, I tell you, must before long be seen. Curtius Postumus has been with me: I told you how oppressive he was. Q. Fufius also has been to see me. What a triumphant look! What assurance! Post haste for Brundisium: denouncing the crime of Pompey, the recklessness and folly of the senate. If I can't stand such things in my own villa, shall I be able to put up with Curtius in the senate-house? But suppose me to endure this with good temper, what will be the sequel of the usual
"Speak, Marcus Tullius" ?
[Note]
To say nothing of the Republican cause,
which I look upon as lost, both from the wounds inflicted on it and
the cures prepared for them, what am I to do about Pompey? With
whom—for why should I deny it ?-I am downright angry. For I am
always more affected by the causes of events than by the events
themselves. Therefore, turning over these disastrous events in my
mind—and what could be more disastrous!-or rather, coming to the
conclusion that they are his doing and his fault, I feel more hostile to
him than to Caesar himself: just as our ancestors decided that the day
of the battle of the Allia was more fatal than that of the capture of
the city, because the latter evil was the result of the former; and
accordingly the one day is even now regarded as accursed, while the
other is generally unknown—so I, remembering the errors of ten
years, among which was also that year which ruined me, without his
defending me (not to put it more strongly), and being fully aware of
the rashness, incompetence, and carelessness of the present
management, felt my anger growing. But that is all forgotten now. It
is of his kindness that I think, and also of my own position. I
understand-later, indeed, than I could have wished, thanks to the
letters and conversations of Balbus—I see plainly, I repeat, that the
one object now, nay, the one object from the beginning, was the
death of Pompey. As for me, therefore, since Homer's hero, when his
goddess mother said to him, "For next to Hector's death thy doom is
fixed," answered his mother:
Death, then! since fate allowed me not to save
[Note]
What should I do for one who was not merely a "friend," but a
"benefactor" also? One, too, of such a great character, and engaged in
such a great cause? Why, in truth, I regard such duties as worth the
loss of life. In your Optimates, however, I have no sort of confidence,
and henceforth do not devote myself either to their service. I see
how they are surrendering themselves to Caesar, and will continue to
do so in the future. Do you suppose that those decrees of
The friend I loved.
the municipalities as to Pompey's illness [Note] are to be compared with these congratulations now offered to Caesar on his victory? "All terror," you will say. Yes, but they themselves assert that they were alarmed on the former occasion. However, let us wait to see what has happened at Brundisium, Perhaps from that may come a change of plan and in the tone of my letters.
Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Cic. Att.]. | ||
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