I come now to the matter of Brutus. On your advice I zealously cultivated his friendship, I had even begun to feel a real liking for him: but there I pull myself up for fear I should vex you. For do not imagine that there is anything I should prefer better than to execute his commission, or anything on which I have taken more pains. He gave me a volume of commissions, and you spoke to me about his affairs. I have done my best with all of them; first of all I induced Ariobarzanes to pay him the money he promised me. So long as his highness was with me the business was on a good footing: but later the king was dunned by scores of agents from
Pompeius autem cum ob ceteras causas plus potest unus quam ceteri omnes, tum quod putatur ad bellum Parthicum esse venturus. Ei tamen sic nunc solvitur, tricensimo quoque die talenta Attica XXXIII et hoc ex tributis. Nec inde satis efficitur in usuram menstruam. Sed Gnaeus noster clementer id fert; sorte caret, usura nec ea, solida contentus est. Alii neque solvit cuiquam nec potest solvere; nullum enim aerarimn, nullum vectigal habet. Appi instituto tributa imperat. Ea vix in faenus Pompei quod satis sit efficiunt. Amici regis duo tresve perdivites sunt, sed ii suum tam diligenter tenent quam ego aut tu. Equidem non desino tamen per litteras rogare, suadere, accusare regem. Deiotarus etiam mihi narravit se ad eum legatos misisse de re Bruti; eos sibi responsum rettulisse illum non habere. Et mehercule ego ita iudico. nihil illo regno spoliatius, nihil rege egentius. Itaque aut tutela cogito me abdicare aut ut pro Glabrione Scaevola faenus et impendium recusare. Ego tamen, quas per te Bruto promiseram praefecturas, M. Scaptio, L. Gavio, qui in regno rem Bruti procurabant, detuli; nec enim in provincia mea negotiabantur. Tu autem meministi nos sic agere, ut, quot vellet praefecturas, sumeret, dum ne negotiatori. Itaque duas
Pompey. Pompey has more influence than anyone for many reasons and because it is rumoured that he will come to conduct the war against the Parthians. Even to him however payment is made on the following terms. On every thirtieth day some £8,000 is paid and that by tribute imposed on the king’s subjects. Even such a sum will not cover the amount of monthly interest. However our friend Gnaeus is an easy-going creditor. He is willing to forgo his capital and is content with interest, and that not in full. The king pays no one else and has no means to pay. He has no treasury and no regular tribute: he levies taxes on the method of Appius. They are scarcely sufficient to pay the interest on Pompey’s money. His highness has two or three very wealthy friends, but they look after their own pockets as well as you or I. Still I do not cease to write dunning, coaxing and scolding his highness. Deiotarus too has told me that he has sent messengers to him about his debt to Brutus: and they came back with the reply that he has no assets. I can quite believe it, for I have never seen a kingdom more plundered or a king more needy. So I am thinking of resigning my guardianship, or, as Scaevola did for Glabrio, of repudiating both capital and interest. However I have conferred the office of prefect, which I promised Brutus through you, on M. Scaptius and L. Gavius, who are his agents in the kingdom; for they were not conducting their business in my province. You will remember that my principle was that he might have as many offices of prefect at his disposal as he liked, provided he did not give them to business men: so I offered him
ei praeterea dederam. Sed ii, quibus petierat, de provincia decesserant.
Nunc cognosce de Salaminiis, quod video tibi etiam novum accidisse tamquam mihi. Numquam enim ex illo audivi illam pecuniam esse suam; quin etiam libellum ipsius habeo, in quo est: “Salaminii pecuniam debent M. Scaptio et P. Matinio, familiaribus meis.” Eos mihi commendat; adscribit etiam et quasi calcar admovet intercessisse se pro iis magnam pecuniam. Confeceram, ut solverent centesimis sexennii ductis cum renovatione singulorum annorum. At Scaptius quaternas postulabat. Metui, si impetrasset, ne tu ipse me amare desineres; nam ab edicto meo recessissem et civitatem in Catonis et in ipsius Bruti fide locatam meisque beneficiis ornatam funditus perdidissem. Atque hoc tempore ipso impingit mihi epistulam Scaptius Bruti rem illam suo periculo esse, quod nec mihi umquam Brutus dixerat nec tibi, etiam ut praefecturam Scaptio deferrem. Id vero per te exceperamus, ne negotiatori; quodsi cuiquam, huic tamen non. Fuerat enim praefectus Appio et quidem habuerat turmas equitum, quibus inclusum in curia senatum Salamine obsederat, ut fame senatores quinque morerentur. Itaque ego, quo die tetigi provinciam, cum mihi Cyprii legati Ephesum obviam venissent, litteras misi, ut equites ex insula statim decederent. His de causis credo Scaptium iniquius de me aliquid ad Brutum scripsisse. Sed tamen hoc sum animo.
two others besides. But the gentlemen for whom he asked them had left my province.
Now to talk about the people of Salamis, a matter which I see came as a surprise to you as it did to me. Brutus never told me that that money was his. Indeed I have his own memorandum stating “The people of Salamis owe money to M. Scaptius and P. Matinius, my friends.” He recommends these gentlemen to me, and to spur me adds a postscript that he has gone security to them for a large sum. I had arranged that they should pay in compound interest for six years at 12 percent. But Scaptius demanded 48 per cent, I was afraid, if he got his request, that you too would cease to be my friend, for I should have departed from the terms of my own edict, and have ruined utterly a state enjoying the protection of Cato and Brutus himself and distinguished by my attentions. At this very point Scaptius thrusts a letter of Brutus into my hand, stating what Brutus had never told me or you, that Brutus himself was the party concerned, and asking me to give the office of prefect to his agent. But that was the very proviso I had authorized you to make, that no office could be given to a business man, above all to such a fellow as Scaptius. For he had been a prefect of Appius, and indeed had had some squadrons of cavalry, which he had used to beset the Senate at Salamis in their own chamber, so that five Members of the House died of starvation. Accordingly on the day I reached the province, since an embassy from Cyprus had already met me at Ephesus, I sent orders that his cavalry should leave the island at once. This, I fancy, had led Scaptius to write somewhat bitterly about me to Brutus. However, my attitude
Si Brutus putabit me quaternas centesimas oportuisse decernere, cum tota provincia singulas observarem itaque edixissem, idque etiam acerbissimis faeneratoribus probaretur, si praefecturam negotiatori denegatam queretur, quod ego Torquato nostro in tuo Laenio, Pompeio ipsi in Sex. Statio negavi et iis probavi, si equites deductos moleste feret, accipiam equidem dolorem mihi illum irasci, sed multo maiorem non esse eum talem, qualem putassem. Illud quidem fatebitur Scaptius, me ius dicente sibi omnem pecuniam ex edicto meo auferendi potestatem fuisse. Addo etiam illud, quod vereor tibi ipsi ut probem. Consistere usura debuit, quae erat in edicto meo. Deponere volebant: impetravi a Salaminiis, ut silerent. Veniam illi quidem mihi dederunt, sed quid iis fiet, si huc Paulus venerit? Sed totum hoc Bruto dedi; qui de me ad te humanissimas litteras scripsit, ad me autem, etiam cum rogat aliquid, contumaciter, adroganter, ἀκοινονοήτως solet scribere. Tu autem velim ad eum scribas de his rebus, ut sciam, quo modo haec accipiat; facies enim me certiorem.
Atque haec superioribus litteris diligenter ad te perscripseram, sed plane te intellegere volui mihi non excidisse illud, quod tu ad me quibusdam litteris scripsisses, si nihil aliud de hac provincia nisi illius benevolentiam deportassem, mihi id satis esse. Sit sane, quondam ita tu vis, sed tamen cum eo, credo, quod
is this. If Brutus thinks that I ought to have allowed 48 per cent, when throughout my province I have recognized only 12 per cent, and have fixed this rate in my edict, with the approval of the most grasping usurers; if he complains of my refusal to give office to a business man, which I made also to our friend Torquatus in the case of your acquaintance Laenius, and to Pompey himself in the case of Sex. Statius, without annoying either of them; if he is angry at the disbanding of his cavalry, well I shall be sorry that he is angry with me, but I shall be far sorrier at discovering he is not the man I imagined he was. Scaptius will admit that he had the opportunity of getting by my decision all the money allowed by my edict. I will add a point which I fear you may not like, the interest allowed by my edict ought to have ceased to run.[[203]] The people of Salamis wished to deposit the sum in a temple; but I begged them not to raise the point. They gave way to me: but what will happen to them if Brutus’ brother-in-law, Paulus, comes here? I allowed Brutus all this privilege: and he has written very kind letters about me to you; but to me, even when he asks a favour, he writes in an arrogant, bold tone and uncivilly. Please write to Brutus about the matter, that I may know how he takes it. You can inform me.