for your promised present and duns me as though I were answerable for you. But I am going to deny my obligation rather than pay up.
Footnote 8: 20,400 sesterces.
IX CICERO ATTICO SAL.
[Sidenote: _Scr. Romae post ep. 8 a. 687_] Nimium raro nobis abs te litterae adferuntur, cum et multo tu facilius reperias, qui Romam proficiscantur, quam ego, qui Athenas, et certius tibi sit me esse Romae quam mihi te Athenis. Itaque propter hanc dubitationem meam brevior haec ipsa epistula est, quod, cum incertus essem, ubi esses, nolebam illum nostrum familiarem sermonem in alienas manus devenire.
Signa Megarica et Hermas, de quibus ad me scripsisti, vehementer exspecto. Quicquid eiusdem generis habebis, dignum Academia tibi quod videbitur, ne dubitaris mittere et arcae nostrae confidito. Genus hoc est voluptatis meae; quae γυμνασιώδη maxime sunt, ea quaero. Lentulus naves suas pollicetur. Peto abs te, ut haec diligenter cures. Thyillus te rogat et ego eius rogatu Εὐμολπιδῶν πάτρια.
X CICERO ATTICO SAL.
[Sidenote: _Scr. in Tusculano ante Quintil. a. 687_] Cum essem in Tusculano (erit hoc tibi pro illo tuo: “Cum essem in Ceramico”) verum tamen cum ibi essem Roma puer a sorore tua missus epistulam mihi abs te adlatam dedit nuntiavitque eo ipso die post meridiem iturum eum, qui ad te proficisceretur. Eo factum est, ut epistulae tuae rescriberem aliquid, brevitate temporis tam pauca cogerer scribere.
IX CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Your letters are much too few and far between, considering that it is much easier for you to find some one coming to Rome than for me to find anyone going to Athens. Besides you can be surer that I am at Rome than I can be that you are in Athens. The shortness of this letter is due to my doubts as to your whereabouts. Not knowing for certain where you are, I don’t want private correspondence to fall into a stranger’s hands.
I am awaiting impatiently the statues of Megaric marble and those of Hermes, which you mentioned in your letter. Don’t hesitate to send anything else of the same kind that you have, if it is fit for my Academy. My purse is long enough. This is my little weakness; and what I want especially are those that are fit for a Gymnasium. Lentulus promises his ships. Please bestir yourself about it. Thyillus asks you, or rather has got me to ask you, for some books on the ritual of the Eumolpidae.
X CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
When I was in my house at Tusculum—that’s tit for tat against your “When I was in Ceramicus”—but when I really was there, your sister sent a man from Rome with a letter from you, and told me that some one was going to start for Greece that very afternoon. So for lack of time I must make a very short answer to your letter.
Primum tibi de nostro amico placando aut etiam plane restituendo polliceor. Quod ego etsi mea sponte ante faciebam, eo nunc tamen et agam studiosius et contendam ab illo vehementius, quod tantum ex epistula voluntatem eius rei tuam perspicere videor. Hoc te intellegere volo, pergraviter illum esse offensum; sed, quia nullam video gravem subesse causam, magno opere confido illum fore in officio et in nostra potestate.
Signa nostra et Hermeraclas, ut scribis, cum commodissime poteris, velim imponas, et si quod aliud οἰκεῖον eius loci, quem non ignoras, reperies, et maxime quae tibi palaestrae gymnasiique videbuntur esse. Etenim ibi sedens haec ad te scribebam, ut me locus ipse admoneret. Praeterea typos tibi mando, quos in tectorio atrioli possim includere, et putealia sigillata duo. Bibliothecam tuam cave cuiquam despondeas, quamvis acrem amatorem inveneris; nam ego omnes meas vindemiolas eo reservo, ut illud subsidium senectuti parem.
De fratre confido ita esse, ut semper volui et elaboravi. Multa signa sunt eius rei, non minimum, quod soror praegnans est. De comitiis meis et tibi me permisisse memini, et ego iam pridem hoc communibus amicis, qui te exspectant, praedico, te non modo non arcessi a me, sed prohiberi, quod intellegam multo magis interesse tua te agere, quod agendum est hoc tempore, quam mea te adesse comitiis. Proinde eo animo te velim esse, quasi mei negotii First I promise to patch up the quarrel between you and our friend, even if I cannot quite make peace. I should have done it before of my own accord: but now that I see from your note that you have set your heart on it, I’ll give my mind to it and try harder than ever to win him over.
I would have you to know that he is very seriously annoyed with you: but, as I cannot see any serious ground for his annoyance, I hope I shall find him pliable and amenable to my influence.
Please do as you say about the statues and the Hermeraclae: and have them shipped as soon as you can conveniently, and any other things you come across that are suitable for the place—you know what it is like—especially for the Palaestra and Gymnasium. That’s where I am sitting and writing now, so my thoughts naturally run on it. I give you a commission too for bas-reliefs for insertion in the stucco walls of the hall, and for two well-covers in carved relief. Be sure you don’t promise your library to anyone, however ardent a suitor you may find for it. I am saving up all my little gleanings to buy it as a prop for my old age.
My brother’s affairs are, I trust, as I have always wished them to be and striven to make them. Everything points that way, and not the least that your sister is enceinte. As for my election, I’ve not forgotten that I gave you leave to stop away: and I’ve already warned our common friends, who expect you to come, that I’ve not only forborne to ask you to do so, but even forbidden it, knowing that present business is of much more importance to you than your presence at my election would be to me. I should like you to feel exactly as though it were my business which causa in ista loca missus esses; me autem eum et offendes erga te et audies, quasi mihi, si quae parta erunt, non modo te praesente, sed per te parta sint. Tulliola tibi diem dat, sponsorem me appellat.
XI CICERO ATTICO SAL.
[Sidenote: _Scr. Romae Quint. aut Sext. a. 687_] Et mea sponte faciebam antea et post duabus epistulis tuis perdiligenter in eandem rationem scriptis magno opere sum commotus. Eo accedebat hortator adsiduus Sallustius, ut agerem quam diligentissime cum Lucceio de vestra vetere gratia reconcilianda. Sed, cum omnia fecissem, non modo eam voluntatem eius, quae fuerat erga te, recuperare non potui, verum ne causam quidem elicere immutatae voluntatis. Tametsi iactat ille quidem illud suum arbitrium, et ea, quae iam tum, cum aderas, offendere eius animum intellegebam, tamen habet quiddam profecto, quod magis in animo eius insederit, quod neque epistulae tuae neque nostra adlegatio tam potest facile delere, quam tu praesens non modo oratione, sed tuo vultu illo familiari tolles, si modo tanti putaris, id quod, si me audies et si humanitati tuae constare voles, certe putabis. Ac, ne illud mirere, cur, cum ego antea significarim tibi per litteras me sperare illum in nostra potestate fore, nunc idem videar diffidere, incredibile est, quanto mihi videatur illius voluntas had taken you away. And you will find and hear from others that my feelings towards you are just as they would be if my success, supposing I have any, were gained not only with you here, but by your aid.
My little Tullia is for having the law of you, and is dunning me as your representative.
XI CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
I had been working for you of my own free will, and my energies were redoubled by the receipt of two letters from you insisting on the same point. Besides Sallustius was continually pressing me to do my best to replace you on your old friendly footing with Lucceius. But when I had done the uttermost, I failed not only to win back his old affection for you, but even to extract from him the reason for his change of feelings towards you. Though he is continually harping on that arbitration case of his, and the other things which I noticed provoked him when you were here, there is something else, I am sure, which is rankling in his mind.
And this your presence, a talk with him, and still more the sight of your familiar face, would do more to remove than either your letters or my services as intermediary, if you think it worth while to come. And, if you will listen to me and are disposed to act with your usual courtesy, you will certainly think it worth while. You would never believe how self-willed and stiff-necked he seems to be on the point: so don’t be astonished that I now appear to doubt my ability to manage him, though in former letters I hinted that I thought he would obstinatior et in hac iracundia offirmatior. Sed haec aut sanabuntur, cum veneris, aut ei molesta erunt, in utro culpa erit.
Quod in epistula tua scriptum erat me iam arbitrari designatum esse, scito nihil tam exercitum esse nunc Romae quam candidatos omnibus iniquitatibus, nec, quando futura sint comitia, sciri. Verum haec audies de Philadelpho.
Tu velim, quae Academiae nostrae parasti, quam primum mittas. Mire quam illius loci non modo usus, sed etiam cogitatio delectat. Libros vero tuos cave cuiquam tradas; nobis eos, quem ad modum scribis, conserva.
Summum me eorum studium tenet sicut odium iam ceterarum rerum; quas tu incredibile est quam brevi tempore quanto deteriores offensurus sis, quam reliquisti.
XII CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Teucris illa lentum sane negotium, neque Cornelius ad Terentiam postea rediit. Opinor, ad Considium, Axium, Selicium confugiendum est; nam a Caecilio propinqui minore centesimis nummum movere non possunt. Sed ut ad prima illa redeam, nihil ego illa impudentius, astutius, lentius vidi. “Libertum mitto, Tito mandavi.” Σκήψεις atque ἀναβολαί; sed nescio an ταὐτόματον ἡμῶν. Nam mihi Pompeiani prodromi nuntiant aperte Pompeium acturum Antonio succedi be under my thumb. But that will be all put right when you come, or he will smart for it who deserves it.
You say in your note that my election is thought certain; but let me tell you that candidates are plagued to death nowadays with all sorts of unfairness, and even the date of the election is not fixed. But you will hear about that from Philadelphus.
Please send what you have purchased for my Academy as soon as possible.
It is astonishing how the mere thought of the place raises my spirits even when I am not in it. Be sure you don’t get rid of your books. Keep them for me as you promise. My enthusiasm for them increases with my disgust at everything else. You would never believe how changed for the worse you will find everything has been in the short time you have been away.
XII CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Teucris[9] is an unconscionably slow coach and Cornelius has never come back to Terentia: so I suppose I shall have to turn to Considius, Axius or Selicius. Even his relatives can’t screw a penny out of Caecilius at less than 12 per cent. But to return to the point; Teucris’ behaviour is the most shameless mixture of cunning and laziness I have ever seen.
“I’m sending a freedman,” says she, or “I’ve given Titus a commission.”
All excuses and delays! But perhaps “_dieu dispose_”;[10] for Pompey’s advance party bring news that he is going to move for Antony’s Footnote 9: Probably a pseudonym for some agent of Gaius Antonius, though some suggest that it stands for Antonius himself.
Footnote 10: Menander, ταὐτόματον ἡμῶν καλλίω βουλεύεται.
oportere, eodemque tempore aget praetor ad populum. Res eius modi est, ut ego nec per bonorum nec per popularem existimationem honeste possim hominem defendere, nec mihi libeat, quod vel maximum est. Etenim accidit hoc, quod totum cuius modi sit, mando tibi, ut perspicias. Libertum ego habeo sane nequam hominem, Hilarum dico, ratiocinatorem et clientem tuum. De eo mihi Valerius interpres nuntiat, Thyillusque se audisse scribit haec, esse hominem cum Antonio; Antonium porro in cogendis pecuniis dictitare partem mihi quaeri et a me custodem communis quaestus libertum esse missum. Non sum mediocriter commotus neque tamen credidi, sed certe aliquid sermonis fuit. Totum investiga, cognosce, perspice et nebulonem illum, si quo pacto potes, ex istis locis amove. Huius sermonis Valerius auctorem Cn. Plancium nominabat. Mando tibi plane totum, ut videas cuius modi sit.
Pompeium nobis amicissimum constat esse. Divortium Muciae vehementer probatur. P. Clodium, Appi f., credo te audisse cum veste muliebri deprehensum domi C. Caesaris, cum pro populo fieret, eumque per manus servulae servatum et eductum; rem esse insigni infamia. Quod te moleste ferre certo scio.
Quod praeterea ad te scribam, non habeo, et mehercule eram in scribendo conturbatior. Nam puer festivus anagnostes noster Sositheus decesserat, meque plus quam servi mors debere videbatur, commoverat.
retirement, and a praetor will bring the motion forward. Under my circumstances I couldn’t honourably champion him. I should lose the respect of both parties if I did: and what’s more, I wouldn’t, if I could, in view of certain things that have happened, to which I should like to call your attention. There’s a freedman of mine, an utter scoundrel—Hilarus I mean—an accountant and a client of yours. Valerius the interpreter sends me news of him, and Thyillus says he has heard too that the fellow is with Antony, and that Antony, when he is making requisitions, always asserts that part is levied on my authority, and that I have sent a freedman to look after my share. I am considerably annoyed, though I hardly believe the story: but there has been a good deal of talk. Look into the matter thoroughly and try to get to the bottom of it, and, if you possibly can, get that rascal shifted.
Valerius mentioned Cn. Plancius as his authority for the statement. I leave the whole matter entirely in your hands to investigate.
I am assured that Pompey is on the best of terms with me. Mucia’s divorce meets with every one’s approval. I expect you have heard that P.
Clodius, son of Appius, was discovered in woman’s clothes in C. Caesar’s house, where the sacrifice was going on: but a servant girl managed to smuggle him out. It has created a public scandal: and I am sure you will be sorry to hear of it.
I don’t think I have any other news for you: and I’m sorry to say I’ve been rather upset while writing. My reader Sositheus, a charming fellow, has died; and I am more upset about it than anyone would suppose I should be about a slave’s death. Please Tu velim saepe ad nos scribas. Si rem nullam habebis, quod in buccam venerit, scribito. Kal. Ianuariis M. Messalla, M. Pisone coss.
XIII CICERO ATTICO SAL.
[Sidenote: _Scr. Romae VI K. Febr. a. 693_] Accepi tuas tres iam epistulas, unam a M. Cornelio, quam Tribus Tabernis, ut opinor, ei dedisti, alteram, quam mihi Canusinus tuus hospes reddidit, tertiam, quam, ut scribis, ancora soluta[11] de phaselo dedisti; quae fuerunt omnes,[12] ut rhetorum pueri loquuntur, cum humanitatis sparsae sale tum insignes amoris notis. Quibus epistulis sum equidem abs te lacessitus ad rescribendum; sed idcirco sum tardior, quod non invenio fidelem tabellarium. Quotus enim quisque est, qui epistulam paulo graviorem ferre possit, nisi eam pellectione relevarit? Accedit eo, quod mihi non est notum ut quisque in Epirum proficiscitur. Ego enim te arbitror caesis apud Amaltheam tuam victimis, statim esse ad Sicyonem oppugnandum profectum, neque tamen id ipsum certum habeo, quando ad Antonium proficiscare, aut quid in Epiro temporis ponas. Ita neque Achaicis hominibus neque Epiroticis paulo liberiores litteras committere audeo.
Sunt autem post discessum a me tuum res dignae litteris nostris, sed non committendae eius modi periculo, ut aut interire aut aperiri aut intercipi possint. Primum igitur scito primum me non esse rogatum sententiam praepositumque esse nobis pacificatorem Footnote 11: ancora sublata _Lambinus_: ora soluta _Peerlkamp_. _But Schmalz (Antibarbarus, ii. 588, 7th ed.) points out the reading of the MSS. is defensible as a contamination of_ ancora sublata _and_ nave soluta.
Footnote 12: ut rhetorum pueri _Madvig_: rethorum pure _MSS._ write frequently. If you’ve no news, write the first thing that comes into your head.
Jan. 1, in the consulship of M. Messalla and M. Piso.
XIII CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
I have had your three letters: one from M. Cornelius, to whom you gave it, I think at the Three Taverns; another brought by your host at Canusium; and a third which you say you posted from the boat just as you got under weigh. All three of them were, as a pupil in the rhetorical schools would say, at once sprinkled with the salt of refinement and stamped with the brand of affection. They certainly provoke an answer: but I have been rather slow about sending one, for lack of a safe messenger. There are very few who can carry a letter of weight without lightening it by a perusal. Besides, I don’t hear of every traveller to Epirus. For I suppose, when you have offered sacrifice at your villa Amalthea, you will start at once to lay siege to Sicyon. I’m not certain either how or when you are going to join Antony or how long you will stay in Epirus. So I dare not trust at all outspoken letters to people going either to Achaia or to Epirus.
Plenty of things have happened worth writing about since your departure, but I dared not commit them to the risk of the letters being either lost or opened or intercepted. First then let me tell you I was not asked my opinion first in the House, but had to play second fiddle to the “peace-maker” of the Allobrogum, idque admurmurante senatu neque me invito esse factum. Sum enim et ab observando homine perverso liber et ad dignitatem in re publica retinendam contra illius voluntatem solutus, et ille secundus in dicendo locus habet auctoritatem paene principis et voluntatem non nimis devinctam beneficio consulis. Tertius est Catulus, quartus, si etiam hoc quaeris, Hortensius. Consul autem ipse parvo animo et pravo tamen cavillator genere illo moroso, quod etiam sine dicacitate ridetur, facie magis quam facetiis ridiculus, nihil agens cum re publica, seiunctus ab optimatibus, a quo nihil speres boni rei publicae, quia non vult, nihil speres mali, quia non audet. Eius autem collega et in me perhonorificus et partium studiosus ac defensor bonarum. Qui nunc leviter inter se dissident. Sed vereor, ne hoc, quod infectum est, serpat longius. Credo enim te audisse, cum apud Caesarem pro populo fieret, venisse eo muliebri vestitu virum, idque sacrificium cum virgines instaurassent; mentionem a Q. Cornificio in senatu factam (is fuit princeps, ne tu forte aliquem nostrum putes); postea rem ex senatus consulto ad virgines atque ad pontifices relatam idque ab iis nefas esse decretum; deinde ex senatus consulto consules rogationem promulgasse; uxori Caesarem nuntium remisisse. In hac causa Piso amicitia P. Clodi ductus Allobroges.[13] Nor did I mind much, though the senate murmured disapproval. It has freed me from the necessity of bowing to a crotchety individual, and sets me at liberty to preserve my political dignity in spite of him. The second place carries nearly as much weight with it as the first, and one’s actions are not so much bound by obligation to the consul. The third place fell to Catulus: the fourth, if you want to go as far, to Hortensius. The consul is petty-minded and perverse, a quibbler who used that bitter kind of sarcasm, which raises a laugh even when there is no wit in the words, on the strength of his expression rather than his expressions. He is no politician at all, he stands aloof from the conservatives: and one cannot expect him to render any good services to the state, because he does not wish to do so, nor any bad, because he does not dare. But his colleague is most polite to me, a keen politician and a bulwark of the conservative party. There is a slight difference of opinion between them at present: but I am afraid that the contagion may spread. No doubt you have heard that, when the sacrifice was taking place in Caesar’s house, a man in woman’s clothes got in; and that after the Vestal Virgins had performed the sacrifice afresh, the matter was mentioned in the House by Cornificius. Note that he was the prime mover and none of us. Then a resolution was passed, the matter was referred to the Virgins and the priests, and they pronounced it a sacrilege. So the consuls were directed by the House to bring in a bill about it. Caesar has divorced his wife. Piso’s friendship Footnote 13: C. Calpurnius Piso, consul in 67 B.C. and governor of Gallia Narbonensis in 66–65 B.C. He had temporarily pacified the Allobroges, but they were already in revolt again.
operam dat, ut ea rogatio, quam ipse fert et fert ex senatus consulto et de religione, antiquetur. Messalla vehementer adhuc agit severe. Boni viri precibus Clodi removentur a causa, operae comparantur, nosmet ipsi, qui Lycurgei a principio fuissemus, cotidie demitigamur, instat et urget Cato. Quid multa? Vereor, ne haec neglecta a bonis, defensa ab improbis magnorum rei publicae malorum causa sit. Tuus autem ille amicus (scin, quem dicam?), de quo tu ad me scripsisti, posteaquam non auderet reprehendere, laudare coepisse, nos, ut ostendit, admodum diligit, amplectitur; amat, aperte laudat, occulte, sed ita, ut perspicuum sit, invidet. Nihil come, nihil simplex, nihil ἐν τοῖς πολιτικοῖς illustre, nihil honestum, nihil forte, nihil liberum. Sed haec ad te scribam alias subtilius; nam neque adhuc mihi satis nota sunt, et huic terrae filio nescio cui committere epistulam tantis de rebus non audeo.
Provincias praetores nondum sortiti sunt. Res eodem est loci, quo reliquisti. Τοποθεσίαν, quam postulas, Miseni et Puteolorum, includam orationi meae. “A. d. III Non. Decembr.” mendose fuisse animadverteram.
Quae laudas ex orationibus, mihi crede, valde mihi placebant, sed non audebam antea dicere; nunc vero, quod a te probata sunt; multo mi ἁττικώτερα videntur. In illam orationem Metellinam for Clodius is making him do his best to have the bill shelved, though he is the person who has to bring it forward under the House’s orders—and a bill for sacrilege too! Messalla at present takes a strict view of the case. The conservatives are dropping out of it under persuasion from Clodius. Gangs of rowdies are being formed. I, who at first was a perfect Lycurgus, am daily cooling down. Cato, however, is pressing the case with energy. But enough. I am afraid that what with the lack of interest shown in the case by the conservatives, and its championship by the socialists, it may cause a lot of mischief to the state. Your friend[14]—you know whom I mean, the man who, you say, began to praise me as soon as he feared to blame me—is now parading his affection for me openly and ostentatiously; but in his heart of hearts he is envious, and he does not disguise it very well. He is totally lacking in courtesy, candour, in brilliancy in his politics, as well as in sense of honour, resolution and generosity. But I’ll write more fully about that another time. I’ve not got hold of the facts properly yet, and I dare not trust an important letter to a man in the street like this messenger.
The praetors have not drawn their provinces yet: and things are just as they were when you left. I will insert a description of Misenum and Puteoli in my speech as you suggest. I had already spotted the mistake in the date, Dec. 3. The passages in my speeches which took your fancy were, do you know, just those that I was proud of, but didn’t like to say so before: and after Atticus’ approval they look much more Attic in my eyes. I have added a Footnote 14: Pompey.
addidi quaedam. Liber tibi mittetur, quoniam te amor nostri φιλορήτορα reddidit.
Novi tibi quidnam scribam? quid? etiam. Messalla consul Autronianam domum emit HS ¯CXXXIIII¯. “Quid id ad me?” inquies. Tantum, quod ea emptione et nos bene emisse iudicati sumus, et homines intellegere coeperunt licere amicorum facultatibus in emendo ad dignitatem aliquam pervenire. Teucris illa lentum negotium est, sed tamen est in spe. Tu ista confice. A nobis liberiorem epistulam exspecta. VI Kal. Febr. M.
Messalla, M. Pisone coss.
XIV CICERO ATTICO SAL.
[Sidenote: _Scr. Romae Id. Febr. a. 693_] Vereor, ne putidum sit scribere ad te, quam sim occupatus, sed tamen ita distinebar, ut huic vix tantulae epistulae tempus habuerim atque id ereptum e summis occupationibus. Prima contio Pompei qualis fuisset, scripsi ad te antea, non iucunda miseris, inanis improbis, beatis non grata, bonis non gravis; itaque frigebat. Tum Pisonis consulis impulsu levissimus tribunus pl. Fufius in contionem producit little to my reply to Metellus. I’ll send the book to you since your affection for me has given you a taste for rhetoric.
Is there any news to tell you? Let me see—yes. The consul Messalla has bought Autronius’ house for £1200.[15] What business is that of mine, you will ask. Only that it proves that my house was a good investment, and is beginning to open people’s eyes to the fact that it is quite legitimate to make use of a friend’s pocket to buy a place that gives one a social position. That Teucris is a slow coach; but it is not hopeless yet. Mind you get your part finished. I’ll write less guardedly soon.
Jan. 25, in the consulship of M. Messalla and M. Piso.
XIV CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
I’m afraid you’ll be heartily sick of my pleas of business, but I’m so driven from pillar to post that I can hardly find time for these few lines, and even that I have to snatch from important business. I have already written and told you what Pompey’s first public speech was like.
The poor did not relish it, the socialists thought it pointless, the rich were not pleased with it, and the conservatives were dissatisfied: so it fell flat. Then at the instance of the consul Piso, an untrustworthy tribune, Fufius, must Footnote 15: There seems to be some mistake about the numeral, as £1,200 (134,000 sesterces) is too little for a house which could be compared with Cicero’s, which cost £30,000. If it is supposed to stand for ¯CXXXIV¯ (i.e. 13,400,000 sesterces) it would be too large. Tyrrell suggests Pompeium. Res agebatur in circo Flaminio, et erat in eo ipso loco illo die nundinarum πανήγυρις. Quaesivit ex eo, placeretne ei iudices a praetore legi, quo consilio idem praetor uteretur. Id autem erat de Clodiana religione ab senatu constitutum. Tum Pompeius μάλ’ ἀριστοκρατικῶς locutus est senatusque auctoritatem sibi omnibus in rebus maximam videri semperque visam esse respondit et id multis verbis.
Postea Messalla consul in senatu de Pompeio quaesivit, quid de religione et de promulgata rogatione sentiret. Locutus ita est in senatu, ut omnia illius ordinis consulta γενικῶς laudaret, mihique, ut adsedit, dixit se putare satis ab se etiam “de istis rebus” esse responsum. Crassus posteaquam vidit illum excepisse laudem ex eo, quod suspicarentur homines ei consulatum meum placere, surrexit ornatissimeque de meo consulatu locutus est, cum ita diceret, “se, quod esset senator, quod civis, quod liber, quod viveret, mihi acceptum referre; quotiens coniugem, quotiens domum, quotiens patriam videret, totiens se beneficium meum videre.” Quid multa? totum hunc locum, quem ego varie meis orationibus, quarum tu Aristarchus es, soleo pingere, de flamma, de ferro (nosti illas ληκύθους), valde graviter pertexuit. Proximus Pompeio sedebam. Intellexi hominem moveri, utrum Crassum inire eam gratiam, quam ipse needs trot out Pompey to deliver an harangue. This happened in the Circus Flaminius, where there was the usual market-day gathering of riff-raff. Fufius asked him whether he agreed with the proposal that the praetor should have the selection of the jurymen and then use them as his panel. That of course was the plan proposed by the Senate in Clodius’ trial for sacrilege. To this Pompey replied _en grand seigneur_ that he felt and always had felt the greatest respect for the Senate’s authority; and very long-winded he was about it. Afterwards the consul Messalla asked Pompey in the Senate for his opinion on the sacrilege and the proposed bill. He delivered a speech eulogizing the Senate’s measures _en bloc_, and said to me as he sat down at my side, that he thought he had given a sufficiently clear answer to “those questions.”
Crassus no sooner saw that he had won public appreciation, because people fancied that he approved of my consulship, than up he got and spoke of it in the most complimentary way. He said that he owed his seat in the House, his privileges as a citizen, his freedom and his very life, to me. He never saw his wife’s face, or his home, or his native land, without recognizing the debt he owed to me. But enough. He worked up with great effect all that purple patch which I so often use here and there to adorn my speeches, to which you play Aristarchus[16]—the passage about fire and sword—you know the paints I have on my palette. I was sitting next to Pompey, and noticed that he was much affected, possibly at seeing Crassus Footnote 16: An Alexandrine grammarian noted especially for his criticism of the Homeric poems, in which he detected many spurious lines.
praetermisisset, an esse tantas res nostras, quae tam libenti senatu laudarentur, ab eo praesertim, qui mihi laudem illam eo minus deberet, quod meis omnibus litteris in Pompeiana laude perstrictus esset. Hic dies me valde Crasso adiunxit, et tamen ab illo aperte tecte quicquid est datum, libenter accepi. Ego autem ipse, di boni! quo modo ἐνεπερπερευσάμην novo auditori Pompeio! Si umquam mihi περίοδοι, si καμπαί, si ἐνθυμήματα, si κατασκευαί suppeditaverunt, illo tempore. Quid multa? clamores. Etenim haec erat ὑπόθεσις, de gravitate ordinis, de equestri concordia, de consensione Italiae, de intermortuis reliquiis coniurationis, de vilitate, de otio. Nosti iam in hac materia sonitus nostros. Tanti fuerunt, ut ego eo brevior sim, quod eos usque istinc exauditos putem.
Romanae autem se res sic habent. Senatus Ἄρειος πάγος; nihil constantius, nihil severius, nihil fortius. Nam, cum dies venisset rogationi ex senatus consulto ferendae, concursabant barbatuli iuvenes, totus ille grex Catilinae, duce filiola Curionis et populum, ut antiquaret, rogabant. Piso autem consul lator rogationis idem erat dissuasor. Operae Clodianae pontes occuparant, tabellae ministrabantur ita, ut nulla daretur “VTI ROGAS.” Hic tibi in rostra Cato advolat, snap up the chance of winning popularity, which he had thrown away, and perhaps at realizing the importance of my achievements, when he saw that praise of them met with the Senate’s entire approval, especially coming from one who had all the less necessity to praise me, because in every one of my works he has been censured for Pompey’s benefit. To-day has done a great deal to cement my friendship with Crassus: but still I gladly received any crumbs Pompey let fall openly or covertly.[17] As for me, ye gods, how I showed off before my new listener Pompey! Then, if ever, my flow of rounded periods, my easy transitions, my antitheses, my constructive arguments stood me in good stead. In a word, loud applause! For the gist of it was the importance of the Senatorial order, its unison with the knights, the concord of all Italy, the paralysed remains of the conspiracy, peace and plenty. You know how I can thunder on a subject like that. This time my thunders were so loud that I forbear to say any more about them. I expect you heard them right over there.
Well, there you have the news of the town. The Senate is a perfect Areopagus, all seriousness, steadfastness and firmness. For when the time came for passing the Senate’s measure, all those callow youths, Catiline’s cubs, met under the leadership of Curio’s feminine son, and asked the people to reject it. The consul Piso had to propose the law, but spoke against it. Clodius’ rowdies held the gangways; and the voting papers were so managed that no _placet_ forms were given out. Then you have Cato flying to the Footnote 17: Or “let fall with obvious covertness”; or “I openly received what he covertly gave.”
commulcium Pisoni consuli mirificum facit, si id est commulcium,[18] vox plena gravitatis, plena auctoritatis, plena denique salutis. Accedit eodem etiam noster Hortensius, multi praeterea boni; insignis vero opera Favoni fuit. Hoc concursu optimatium comitia dimittuntur, senatus vocatur. Cum decerneretur frequenti senatu contra pugnante Pisone, ad pedes omnium singillatim accidente Clodio, ut consules populum cohortarentur ad rogationem accipiendam, homines ad quindecim Curioni nullum senatus consultum facienti adsenserunt, ex altera parte facile CCCC fuerunt. Acta res est. Fufius tribunus tum concessit. Clodius contiones miseras habebat, in quibus Lucullum, Hortensium, C. Pisonem, Messallam consulem contumeliose laedebat; me tantum “comperisse” omnia criminabatur. Senatus et de provinciis praetorum et de legationibus et de ceteris rebus decernebat, ut, antequam rogatio lata esset, ne quid ageretur.
Habes res Romanas. Sed tamen etiam illud, quod non speraram, audi.
Messalla consul est egregius, fortis, constans, diligens, nostri laudator, amator, imitator. Ille alter uno vitio minus vitiosus, quod iners, quod somni plenus, quod imperitus, quod ἀπρακτότατος, sed voluntate ita καχέκτης, ut Pompeium Footnote 18: Commulticium _M_: convicium _M in the margin_. _But as Schmidt points out_, commulcium, _which is the reading of Z in the first case, and of Z M in the second case, is probably a genuine vulgar Latin word._ rostrum and giving Piso a slap in the face, if one can say “slap in the face” of an utterance full of dignity, full of authority, and full of saving counsel. Our friend Hortensius joined him too, and many other loyalists, Favonius particularly distinguishing himself for his energy.
This rally of the conservatives broke up the meeting, and the Senate was called together. In a full house a resolution was passed that persuasion should be used to induce the people to accept the measure, though Piso opposed it and Clodius went down on his knees to us one by one. Some fifteen supported Curio’s rejection of the bill, while the opposite party numbered easily 400. That settled the matter. Funfius the tribune