toto negotio nobis opus non fuit. Quanto tua provincia melior! Decedes, cum voles, nisi forte iam decessisti; quem videbitur, praeficies Thesprotiae et Chaoniae. Necdum tamen ego Quintum conveneram, ut iam, si id placeret, scirem, possetne ab eo impetrari: nee tamen, si posset, quid vellem, habebam. Hoc est igitur eius modi.
Reliqua plena adhuc et laudis et gratiae, digna iis libris, quos dilaudas, conservatae civitates, cumulate publicanis satis factum, offensus contumelia nemo, decreto iusto et severo perpauci, nec tamen quisquam, ut queri audeat, res gestae dignae triumpho; de quo ipso nihil cupide agemus, sine tuo quidem consilio certe nihil. Clausula est difficilis in tradenda provincia. Sed haec deus aliquis gubernabit.
De urbanis rebus scilicet plura tu scis; saepius et certiora audis; equidem doleo non me tuis litteris certiorem fieri. Huc enim odiosa adferebantur de Curione, de Paulo; non quo ullum periculum videam stante Pompeio vel etiam sedente, valeat modo; sed mehercule Curionis et Pauli, meorum familiarium, vicem doleo. Formam igitur mihi totius rei publicae, si iam es Romae aut cum eris, velim mittas, quae mihi obviam veniat, ex qua me fingere possim et praemeditari, quo animo accedam ad urbem. Est enim quiddam advenientem non esse peregrinum atque hospitem. Et, quod paene praeterii, Bruti tui causa,
made a mistake over the whole matter. Your sphere is far preferable. You can depart at pleasure; and perhaps you have left already. You can put Thesprotia and Chaonia[[218]] in charge of anyone you like. I have not yet met my brother to know whether he would consent, if I want him to take it over; nor, should he consent, am I settled in my plans. So much for that.
The rest so far is full of honour and glory and worthy of the volumes which you praise. Communities have found salvation, the whole body of tax-collectors has been satisfied, no one has been annoyed by ill-considered conduct, very few by the severity of upright justice—none so that he could dare complain—and a campaign has been conducted in a way that deserves a triumph, though I shall not seek it greedily, nor seek it at all without your advice. The conclusion is difficult in the matter of handing over the province. But some god will direct my course.
About doings in town of course you know more, as your information comes more frequently and more surely. I am sorry that you do not pass on your news in a letter, for tiresome tidings have reached me about Curio and Paulus, not that there would seem anything to fear, if Pompey keeps his influence or even his inactivity. Only let him recover his health. But I am annoyed for Curio and Paulus, my friends. So, if you are now in town, or when you are there, please send me a sketch of the political situation to meet me on my way, that I may mould my conduct upon it and bethink me of the proper spirit in which to approach Rome. It is something not to arrive as a foreigner and a stranger. There was one point I nearly omitted. As I have said often, I have
[218]. The country round Atticus’ house in Epirus.
ut saepe ad te scripsi, feci omnia. Cyprii numerabant; sed Scaptius centesimis renovato in singulos annos faenore contentus non fuit. Ariobarzanes non in Pompeium prolixior per ipsum quam per me in Brutum. Quem tamen ego praestare non poteram; erat enim rex perpauper, aberamque ab eo ita longe, ut nihil possem nisi litteris; quibus pugnare non destiti. Summa haec est. Pro ratione pecuniae liberalius est Brutus tractatus quam Pompeius. Bruto curata hoc anno talenta circiter c, Pompeio in sex mensibus promissa cc. Iam in Appi negotio quantum tribuerim Bruto, dici vix potest. Quid est igitur, quod laborem? Amicos habet meras nugas, Matinium, Scaptium. Qui quia non habuit a me turmas equitum, quibus Cyprum vexaret, ut ante me fecerat, fortasse suscenset, aut quia praefectus non est, quod ego nemini tribui negotiatori, non C. Vennonio, meo familiari, non tuo, M. Laenio, et quod tibi Romae ostenderam me servaturum; in quo perseveravi. Sed quid poterit queri is, qui, auferre pecuniam cum posset, noluit? Scaptio, qui in Cappadocia fuit, puto esse satis factum. Is a me tribunatum cum accepisset, quem ego ex Bruti litteris ei detulissem, postea scripsit ad me se uti nolle eo tribunatu.
Gavius est quidam, cui cum praefecturam detulissem Bruti rogatu, multa et dixit et fecit cum quadam mea contumelia, P. Clodi canis. Is me nec proficiscentem Apameam prosecutus est, nec, cum postea in castra venisset atque inde discederet, num quid vellem, rogavit, et fuit aperte mihi nescio quare
done everything for your friend Brutus. The people of Cyprus were paying down the money. Scaptius was not content with 12 per cent compound interest. Ariobarzanes is not more accommodating to Pompey for his own sake than to Brutus for mine. Still I could not go bail for him, for he is a very needy monarch and I was such a long way off that I could only press him on paper, as I did continually. The conclusion is this. In proportion to the sum lent, Brutus has been treated more liberally than Pompey: for Brutus there has been got this year about £24,400. To Pompey has been promised £48,800 within six months. In the business of Appius, my concessions to Brutus are almost incalculable. I have no reason to distress myself. Brutus’ friends are men of straw, Matinius, and Scaptius, who is perhaps angry because he could not get troops to harry Cyprus as he had done before my time, or because he was not made a prefect, an office I have not granted to any man of business, not to C. Vennonius, my friend, nor to your friend M. Laenius. I have persevered in the course that I told you at Rome I should keep: but a man who refused to take his money, when he could, cannot grumble. The other Scaptius who was in Cappadocia I think is satisfied. First of all he accepted a military tribuneship from me, which a letter from Brutus had persuaded me to offer him; but he wrote me afterwards that he did not want to take it up.