Be sober of head, and mistrustful of friends;
Hinges are these on which wisdom depends.
There you have, I think, an outline sketch of my rule of life.
You keep writing about that business of yours; but at present I have no remedy for it. The decree
consultum summa pedariorum voluntate nullius nostrum auctoritate factum. Nam, quod me esse ad scribendum vides, ex ipso senatus consulto intellegere potes aliam rem tum relatam, hoc autem de populis liberis sine causa additum. Et ita factum est a P. Servilio filio, qui in postremis sententiam dixit, sed immutari hoc tempore non potest. Itaque conventus, qui initio celebrabantur, iam diu fieri desierunt. Tu si tuis blanditiis tamen a Sicyoniis nummulorum aliquid expresseris, velim me facias certiorem.
Commentarium consulatus mei Graece compositum misi ad te. In quo si quid erit, quod homini Attico minus Graecum eruditumque videatur, non dicam, quod tibi, ut opinor, Panhormi Lucullus de suis historiis dixerat, se, quo facilius illas probaret Romani hominis esse, idcirco barbara quaedam et σόλοικα dispersisse; apud me si quid erit eius modi, me imprudente erit et invito. Latinum si perfecero, ad te mittam. Tertium poema exspectato, ne quod genus a me ipso laudis meae praetermittatur. Hic tu cave dicas: Τίς πατέρ’ αἰνήσει; Si est enim apud homines quicquam quod potius sit, laudetur, nos vituperemur, qui non potius alia laudemus; quamquam non ἐγκωμιαστικὰ sunt haec, sed ἱστορικά, quae scribimus.
Quintus frater purgat se mihi per litteras et adfirmat nihil a se cuiquam de te secus esse dictum.
was passed by the enthusiasm of the silent members[[42]] without any support from our party. For as to my signature which you find attached to it, you can see from the decree itself that it was quite a different matter which was brought forward, and this clause about the free peoples was added without rhyme or reason. It was the work of P. Servilius the younger, who was one of the last to speak: but it cannot be altered at the present time. So the meetings which at first were held about it have ceased long ago. If, however, you should manage to squeeze a few pence out of the Sicyonians, please let me know.
I have sent you a copy of my account of my consulship in Greek. If there is anything in it, which to your Attic taste seems bad Greek or unscholarly, I will not say what Lucullus said to you—at Panhormus, I think—about his history, that he had interspersed a few barbarisms and solecisms as a clear proof that it was the work of a Roman. If there is anything of the kind in my work, it is there without my knowledge and against my will. When I have finished the Latin version, I will send it to you. In the third place you may expect a poem, not to let slip any method of singing my own praises. Please don’t quote “Who will praise his sire?”[[43]] For if there is any more fitting subject for eulogy, then I am willing to be blamed for not choosing some other subject. However my compositions are not panegyrics at all but histories.
My brother Quintus has written exculpating himself and declaring that he never said a word against