unparalleled misfortune. I shall start for Epirus as soon as I have news about the first few days of the new tribunate. Please let me know in your next letter how the beginning has turned out.
November 29.
XXIV
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Dyrrachium, Dec. 10, B.C. 58
When you wrote to me some time ago that the estimates for the consular provinces[[106]] were passed with your consent, I hoped you saw some good reason or other for that course, though I was afraid of the result: but now that I have been told by word of mouth and by letter that your policy was severely criticized, I am much disturbed at seeing the faint hope I had apparently taken from me. For, if the tribunes are annoyed with us, what hope is left? And they seem to me to have every reason for annoyance, when they were left out of the plan, though they had espoused my cause, and by our concession they have lost all use of their just right, especially as they assert that it was for my sake they wished to exercise their powers in fitting out the consuls, with a view not to oppose them but to attach them to my cause. But now if the consuls choose to stand aloof from me, they are perfectly free to do so, while, if they take my part, they can do nothing against the tribunes’ will. As for your writing that, if you had
[106]. Ornare consules or provincias is the phrase used of the arrangement of the number of troops, the staff, and the amount of money to be granted to each consul, when going he went to his province. It generally took place after they came into office; but for some reason it had been arranged earlier on this occasion.
illos hoc idem per populum adsecuturos fuisse, invitis tribunis pl. fieri nullo modo potuit. Ita vereor ne et studia tribunorum amiserimus et, si studia maneant, vinclum illud adiungendorum consulum amissum sit.
Accedit aliud non parvum incommodum, quod gravis illa opinio, ut quidem ad nos perferebatur, senatum nihil decernere, antequam de nobis actum esset, amissa est, praesertim in ea causa, quae non modo necessaria non fuit, sed etiam inusitata ac nova (neque enim umquam arbitror ornatas esse provincias designatorum), ut, cum in hoc illa constantia, quae erat mea causa suscepta, imminuta sit, nihil iam possit non decerni. Iis, ad quos relatum est, amicis placuisse non mirum est; erat enim difficile reperire, qui contra tanta commoda duorum consulum palam sententiam diceret. Fuit omnino difficile non obsequi vel amicissimo homini Lentulo, vel Metello, qui simultatem humanissime deponeret; sed vereor, ne hos tamen tenere potuerimus, tribunos pl. amiserimus. Haec res quem ad modum ceciderit, et tota res quo loco sit, velim ad me scribas et ita, ut instituisti. Nam ista veritas, etiamsi iucunda non est, mihi tamen grata est.
Data IIII Id. Decembr.
not assented, they would have got their way all the same through the people, that could never have happened, if the tribunes opposed it. So I am afraid that I have lost the tribunes’ favour, and that, if it is still retained, the bond which should have united the consuls with them has been lost.