The Letters of Cicero, Volume 1 / The Whole Extant Correspodence in Chronological Order
The object of this book is to give the English-speaking public, in a convenient form, as faithful and readable a copy as the translator was capable of making of a document unique in the literature of antiquity. Whether we regard the correspondence of Cicero from the point of view of the biographer and observer of character, the historian, or the lover of belles lettres , it is equally worthy of study. It seems needless to dwell on the immense historical importance of letters written by prominent actors in one of the decisive periods of the world's history, when the great Republic, that had spread its victorious arms, and its law and discipline, over the greater part of the known world, was in the throes of its change from the old order to the new. If we would understand—as who would not?—the motives and aims of the men who acted in that great drama, there is nowhere that we can go with better hope of doing so than to these letters. To the student of character also the personality of Cicero must always have a great fascination. Statesman, orator, man of letters, father, husband, brother, and friend—in all these capacities he comes before us with singular vividness. In every one of them he will doubtless rouse different feelings in different minds. But though he will still, as he did in his lifetime, excite vehement disapproval as well as strong admiration, he will never, I think, appear to anyone dull or uninteresting. In the greater part of his letters he is not posing or assuming a character; he lets us only too frankly into his weaknesses and his vanities, as well as his generous admirations and warm affections. Whether he is weeping, or angry, or exulting, or eager for compliments, or vain of his abilities and achievements, he is not a phantasm or a farceur, but a human being with fiercely-beating pulse and hot blood.
The difficulty of the task which I have been bold enough to undertake is well known to scholars, and may explain, though perhaps not excuse, the defects of my work. One who undertakes to express the thoughts of antiquity in modern idiom goes to his task with his eyes open, and has no right at every stumbling-block or pitfall to bemoan his unhappy fate. So also with the particular difficulties presented by the great founder of Latin style—his constant use of superlatives, his doubling and trebling of nearly synonymous terms, the endless shades of meaning in such common words as officium , fides , studium , humanitas , dignitas , and the like—all these the translator has to take in the day's work. Finally, there are the hard nuts to crack—often very hard—presented by corruption of the text. Such problems, though, relatively with other ancient works, not perhaps excessively numerous, are yet sufficiently numerous and sufficiently difficult. But besides these, which are the natural incidents of such work, there is the special difficulty that the letters are frequently answers to others which we do not possess, and which alone can fully explain the meaning of sentences which must remain enigmatical to us; or they refer to matters by a word or phrase of almost telegraphic abruptness, with which the recipient was well acquainted, but as to which we are reduced to guessing. When, however, all such insoluble difficulties are allowed for, which after all in absolute bulk are very small, there should (if the present version is at all worthy) be enough that is perfectly plain to everyone, and generally of the highest interest.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
THE LETTERS OF
CICERO
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
EVELYN S. SHUCKBURGH, M.A.
IN FOUR VOLUMES
Vol. I. B.C. 68-52
PREFACE
LETTERS IN VOLUME I
INTRODUCTION
CICERO'S LETTERS
ERRATA IN VOL. I.
CICERO'S LETTERS
TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)
TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)
TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)
TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)
TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)
TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)
TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)
TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)
TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)
TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)
TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)
TO CN. POMPEIUS MAGNUS
Q. METELLUS CELER TO CICERO
TO Q. METELLUS (IN CISALPINE GAUL)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO C. ANTONIUS (IN MACEDONIA)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (IN GREECE)
TO ATTICUS (ON HIS WAY TO ROME)
TO ATTICUS (ON HIS WAY TO ROME)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN ASIA)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (ON HIS WAY TO EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN ASIA)
TO L. CULLEOLUS (IN ILLYRICUM)
TO L. CULLEOLUS (IN ILLYRICUM)
LETTERS IN EXILE
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO TERENTIA, TULLIOLA, AND YOUNG CICERO (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (ON HIS WAY TO ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO TERENTIA (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO TERENTIA
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO TERENTIA (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (? AT ROME)
TO Q. METELLUS THE CONSUL (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO M. FADIUS GALLUS (AT ROME)
TO P. LENTULUS SPINTHER (IN CILICIA)
TO P. LENTULUS SPINTHER (IN CILICIA)
TO P. LENTULUS SPINTHER (IN CILICIA)
TO P. LENTULUS SPINTHER (IN CILICIA)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN SARDINIA)
TO ATTICUS (RETURNING FROM EPIRUS)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN SARDINIA)
TO P. LENTULUS SPINTHER (IN CILICIA)
TO P. LENTULUS SPINTHER (IN CILICIA)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN SARDINIA)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN SARDINIA)
TO ATTICUS (RETURNING FROM EPIRUS)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
FROM Q. METELLUS NEPOS (IN SPAIN)
TO P. LENTULUS SPINTHER (IN CILICIA)
Q. VALERIUS ORCA (PROCONSUL IN AFRICA)
TO Q. VALERIUS ORCA (PROCONSUL IN AFRICA)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (RETURNING FROM SARDINIA)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO P. LENTULUS SPINTHER (IN CILICIA)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN THE COUNTRY)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO M. FADIUS GALLUS
TO M. MARIUS (AT CUMÆ)
TO Q. PHILIPPUS (PROCONSUL IN ASIA)
TO Q. ANCHARIUS (PROCONSUL IN MACEDONIA)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TO M. LICINIUS CRASSUS (ON HIS WAY TO SYRIA)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN THE COUNTRY)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN THE COUNTRY)
TO CÆSAR (IN GAUL)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN THE COUNTRY)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (ON HIS WAY TO GAUL)
TO ATTICUS (ON A JOURNEY)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS OR ON HIS JOURNEY TO ASIA)
TO ATTICUS (IN EPIRUS)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN BRITAIN)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN BRITAIN)
TO ATTICUS (ABROAD)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)
TO P. LENTULUS SPINTHER (IN CILICIA)
TO ATTICUS (IN ASIA)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
TO ATTICUS (ON HIS WAY TO ROME)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)
TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
TO L. VALERIUS (IN CILICIA)
TO M. CURIUS (A PROCONSUL)
TO C. MUNATIUS (IN A PROVINCE)
TO Q. PHILIPPUS (PROCONSUL OF ASIA)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
TO C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO (IN ASIA)
TO C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO (IN ASIA)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
TO C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO (IN ASIA)
TO C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO (ON HIS WAY FROM ASIA)
TO C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO (ARRIVED IN ITALY)
TO M. MARIUS (IN CAMPANIA)
APPENDIX A
DE PETITIONE CONSULATUS
Q. CICERO TO HIS BROTHER MARCUS (AT ROME)
APPENDIX B
L. VETTIUS (Letter L, a ii, 24)
APPENDIX C
I (F XVI, 13)
TO TIRO
II (F XVI, 14)
TO TIRO
III (F XVI, 15)
TO TIRO
IV (F XVI, 10)
TO TIRO
V (F XVI, 16)
Q. CICERO TO HIS BROTHER
FOOTNOTES: