XXI
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. Laodiceae Id. Febr. a. 704
Te in Epirum salvum venisse et, ut scribis, ex sententia navigasse vehementer gaudeo, non esse Romae meo tempore pernecessario submoleste fero. Hoc me tamen consolor uno, spero te istic iucunde hiemare et libenter requiescere. C. Cassius, frater Q. Cassi, familiaris tui, pudentiores illas litteras miserat, de quibus tu ex me requiris, quid sibi voluerint, quam cas, quas postea misit, quibus per se scribit confectum esse Parthicum bellum. Recesserant illi quidem ab Antiochia ante Bibuli adventum, sed nullo nostro εὐημερήματι; hodie vero hiemant in Cyrrhestica, maximumque bellum impendet. Nam et Orodi, regis Parthorum, filius in provincia nostra est, nec dubitat Deiotarus, cuius filio pacta est Artavasdis filia, ex quo sciri potest, quin cum omnibus copiis ipse prima aestate Euphraten transiturus sit. Quo autem die Cassi litterae victrices in senatu recitatae sunt, datae Nonis Octobribus, eodem meae tumultum nuntiantes. Axius noster ait nostras auctoritatis plenas fuisse, illis negat creditum. Bibuli nondum erant allatae; quas certo scio plenas timoris fore.
my former commissions to look after Pammenes’ house, so that the boy may not be robbed of what he owes to your kindness and mine. This I think will redound to our honour and will please me much.
XXI
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Laodicea, Feb. 13, B.C. 50
I am very glad that you have reached Epirus safely, and that you report a voyage to your liking. But I am rather upset that you are absent from Rome at a moment so critical for me. However I have one consolation: I hope you will have a pleasant winter where you are and a nice rest. You ask me the purport of a letter that C. Cassius, the brother of Q. Cassius, your friend, sent me. The letter he wrote is more modest than a subsequent epistle in which he claimed to have ended the Parthian war. The Parthians to be sure had retired from Antioch before the arrival of Bibulus: but it was not thanks to any coup de main of our troops. To-day the enemy is wintering in Cyrrhestica and a serious war is imminent: for the son of Orodes the king of the Parthians is in a Roman province, and Deiotarus, to whose son the daughter of Artavasdes is betrothed, a very competent authority, is positive that the king himself will cross the Euphrates with all his forces in the early summer. On the very day on which Cassius’ despatch, dated the 7th of October, announcing victory was read in the Senate, came mine announcing trouble. My friend Axius says that Cassius’ despatch gained no belief and mine was considered worthy of attention. Bibulus’ despatch had not yet arrived: but I know for a fact that it will express alarm.
Ex his rebus hoc vereor, ne, cum Pompeius propter metum rerum novarum nusquam dimittatur, Caesari nullus honos a senatu habeatur, dum hic nodus expediatur, non putet senatus nos, antequam successum sit, oportere decedere nec in tanto motu rerum tantis provinciis singulos legates praeesse. Hic, ne quid mihi prorogetur, quod ne intercessor quidem sustinere possit, horreo, atque eo magis, quod tu abes, qui consilio, gratia, studio multis rebus occurreres. Sed dices me ipsum mihi sollicitudinem struere. Cogor, ut velim ita sit; sed omnia metuo. Etsi bellum ἀκροτελεύτιον habet illa tua epistula, quam dedisti nauseans Buthroto: “Tibi, ut video et spero, nulla ad decedendum erit mora.” Mallem “ut video,” nihil opus fuit “ut spero.” Acceperam autem satis celeriter Iconi per publicanorum tabellarios a Lentuli triumpho datas. In his γλυκύπικρον illud confirmas, moram mihi nullam fore, deinde addis, si quid secus, te ad me esse venturum. Angunt me dubitationes tuae; simul et vides, quas acceperim litteras. Nam, quas Hermonis centurionis caculae ipse scribis te dedisse, non accepi. Laeni pueris te dedisse saepe ad me scripseras. Eas Laodiceae denique, cum eo venissem, III Idus Februar. Laenius mihi reddidit datas a. d. X Kal. Octobres. Laenio tuas commendationes et statim verbis et reliquo tempore re probabo. Eae litterae cetera vetera habebant, unum
This makes me fear that the Senate may pay no respect to Caesar’s demands, refusing to let Pompey quit Rome, when revolution is imminent. Until this trouble is unravelled, it may decline to allow me to leave the province before my successor comes, and not be willing to entrust such important provinces in troublous times to legates. So I shudder to think that the term of my office may be extended without even any tribune being able to veto it; and the more so on account of your absence, when you might interfere in many cases with your advice, influence and efforts. You will say I am raising imaginary alarms. I am forced to hope that my alarms may be idle, but everything frightens me. Though your letter written at Buthrotum in sickness had a charming finale. “As I see and hope, there will be nothing to hinder your departure,” still I should prefer the phrase “as I see” and there was no need for the words “and hope.” I have received a letter dated just after the triumph of Lentulus, which was brought post haste to Iconium by the tax-farmers’ messengers. In it you repeat that bitter-sweet saying, that there will be no delay, with a postscript, that, if anything goes wrong, you yourself will come to me. I am tortured by the doubts you express: and you may see which of your letters I have received, for I have not got the letter which you say was handed to Hermo the centurion’s orderly. You have repeatedly told me you entrusted a letter to the slaves of Laenius. That letter, which was dated the 21st of September, was handed to me at last by Laenius on my arrival at Laodicea on the 11th of February. I will show Laenius at once in word and in the future in deed that your recommendation carries weight. Besides old topics the letter had
hoc novum de Cibyratis pantheris. Multum te amo, quod respondisti M. Octavio te non putare. Sed posthac omnia, quae recta non erunt, pro certo negato. Nos enim et nostra sponte bene firmi et mehercule auctoritate tua inflammati vicimus omnes (hoc tu ita reperies) cum abstinentia tum iustitia, facilitate, clementia. Cave putes quicquam homines magis umquam esse miratos quam nullum terruncium me obtinente provinciam sumptus factum esse nec in rem publicam nec in quemquam meorum praeterquam in L. Tullium legatum. Is ceteroqui abstinens, sed Iulia lege transitans,[[195]] semel tamen in diem, non, ut alii solebant, omnibus vicis (praeter eum semel nemo accepit) facit, ut mihi excipiendus sit, cum terruncium nego sumptus factum. Praeter eum accepit nemo. Has a nostro Q. Titinio sordes accepimus.