as I am in my summer camp, I fancied that would be the best place for them.
Sestius wrote me an account of his conversation with you about my pressing domestic affairs, and of your opinion. Please devote yourself to the business and write to me what can be done and what you think. Sestius told me that Hortensius has said something or other about extending my term of office. He undertook at Cumae to take good care that it should not outlast a year. If you have any regard for me, get that point fixed up squarely. I cannot describe my dislike to being away from you. Moreover I hope that my justice and restraint may become more famous, if I leave soon: for it was so in the case of Scaevola, who governed Asia only nine months.
On seeing that I was about to arrive, our friend Appius left Laodicea and went up to Tarsus. I am not offended at the slight he has done me by holding court while I am in the province, for I have enough business to heal the wounds that he has inflicted on it: and I try to do this with as little reflection on him as possible. But please tell our friend Brutus, that his father-in-law has not acted well in going away as far as he could on my arrival.
XVIII
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
In camp at Cybistra in Cappadocia, Sept. 20, B.C. 51
If you don’t happen to be in town, I wish to goodness you were. I have no positive news beyond your letter dated the 19th of July, in which you said you were going to Epirus about the 1st of August. But whether you are at Rome or in Epirus, the Parthians have crossed the Euphrates under the leadership of
duce Pacoro, Orodis regis Parthorum filio, cunctis fere copiis. Bibulus nondum audiebatur esse in Syria; Cassius in oppido Antiochia est cum omni exercitu, nos in Cappadocia ad Taurum cum exercitu, ad Cybistra; hostis in Cyrrhestica, quae Syriae pars proxima est provinciae meae. His de rebus scripsi ad senatum, quas litteras, si Romae es, videbis putesne reddendas, et multa, immo omnia, quorum κεφάλαιον, ne quid inter caesa et porrecta, ut aiunt, oneris mihi addatur aut temporis. Nobis enim hac infirmitate exercitus, inopia sociorum, praesertim fidelium, certissimum subsidium est hiems. Ea si venerit, nec illi ante in meam provinciam transierint, unum vereor, ne senatus propter urbanarum rerum metum Pompeium nolit dimittere. Quodsi alium ad ver mittit, non laboro, nobis modo temporis ne quid prorogetur. Haec igitur, si es Romae; sin abes, aut etiam si ades, haec negotia sic se habent. Stamus animis et, quia consiliis, ut videmur, bonis utimur, speramus etiam manu. Tuto consedimus copioso a frumento, Ciliciam prope conspiciente, expedito ad mutandum loco parvo exercitu, sed, ut spero, ad benevolentiam erga nos consentiente. Quem nos Deiotari adventu cum suis omnibus copiis duplicaturi eramus. Sociis multo fidelioribus utimur, quam quisquam usus est; quibus incredibilis videtur nostra et mansuetudo et abstinentia. Dilectus habetur
Pacorus, a son of the Parthian king Orodes, with nearly all their forces. There is no news of the presence of Bibulus in Syria: Cassius is in the town of Antioch with his whole army. I am in Cappadocia near the Taurus with my army close to Cybistra. The enemy is in Cyrrhestica, a district of Syria adjoining my province. I have sent a despatch to the Senate on the situation. If you are in Rome, please look at the despatch and say whether you think it ought to be delivered: and so for my other affairs, chief of which is lest there be, as the saying goes, any slip between the cup and the lip,[[184]] I mean that I may not be burdened with an extension of office. Considering the weakness of my army, my want of allies, especially faithful allies, my most sure support is the winter weather. If winter comes and the enemy have not first crossed into my province, I am afraid the Senate may refuse to let Pompey leave Rome owing to fear of disturbance at home. But if it sends some one else by spring, I don’t care, provided that there be no extension of my term of office. Those are my commissions, if you are in town. If you are out of town, or even if you are not, the situation is this. I am in excellent spirits; and I hope, as my plans are well laid, that I am not too sanguine about my preparations. I have pitched camp in a safe spot, well supplied on the score of corn, almost within sight of Cilicia, convenient for change of quarters, with an army small but, I hope, very loyal to me, which will be doubled by the arrival of Deiotarus with all his forces. I have found our allies far more loyal than any of my predecessors have found them. They cannot understand my mildness and self-abnegation. A levy is
[184]. Lit. “Between the slaying and the offering of the victim.”
civium Romanorum; frumentum ex agris in loca tuta comportatur. Si fuerit occasio, manu, si minus, locis nos defendemus. Quare bono animo es. Video enim te et, quasi coram adsis, ita cerno συμπάθειαν amoris tui. Sed te rogo, si ullo pacto fieri poterit, si integra in senatu nostra causa ad Kal. Ianuarias manserit, ut Romae sis mense Ianuario. Profecto nihil accipiam iniuriae, si tu aderis. Amicos consules habemus, nostrum tribunum pl. Furnium. Verum tua est opus adsiduitate, prudentia, gratia. Tempus est necessarium. Sed turpe est me pluribus verbis agere tecum.