On the 1st of June I met your boy as I was on my way to Antium and glad to get away from M. Metellus’s gladiatorial exhibition. He delivered your letter, and a memorial of my consulship written in Greek. I felt very glad that I gave L. Cossinius the book I had written in Greek on the same subject to take to you some time ago. For, if I had read yours first you would say that I had plagiarized from you. Though yours (which I read with pleasure) seemed to me a trifle rough and unadorned, yet its very lack of ornament is an ornament in itself, just as women were thought to have the best scent who used no scent. My book, on the other hand, has exhausted all the scent box of Isocrates, and all the rouge-pots of his pupils, and some of Aristotle’s colours too. You scanned it through, as you tell me in another letter, at Corcyra, before you had received it from Cossinius, I suppose. I should never have dared to send it to you, if I had not revised it with leisure and care. I sent the memoir to Posidonius too, asking him to write something more elaborate on the same subject; but he tells me that, far from being inspired to write by the perusal of it, he was decidedly put off. In fact, I have flabbergasted the whole Greek nation: so I have ceased to be plagued by the people who were always hanging about asking me to give them something of mine to polish up. If you like the
liber, curabis, ut et Athenis sit et in ceteris oppidis Graeciae; videtur enim posse aliquid nostris rebus lucis adferre. Oratiunculas autem, et quas postulas, et plures etiam mittam, quoniam quidem ea, quae nos scribimus adulescentulorum studiis excitati, te etiam delectant. Fuit enim mihi commodum, quod in eis orationibus, quae Philippicae nominantur, enituerat civis ille tuus Demosthenes, et quod se ab hoc refractariolo iudiciali dicendi genere abiunxerat, ut σεμνότερός τις καὶ πολιτικώτερος videretur, curare, et meae quoque essent orationes, quae consulares nominarentur. Quarum una est in senatu Kal. Ianuariis, altera ad populum de lege agraria, tertia de Othone, quarta pro Rabirio, quinta de proscriptorum filiis, sexta, cum provinciam in contione deposui, septima, cum Catilinam emisi, octava, quam habui ad populum, postridie quam Catilina profugit, nona in contione, quo die Allobroges indicarunt, decima in senatu Nonis Decembribus. Sunt praeterea duae breves, quasi ἀποσπασμάτια legis agrariae. Hoc totum σῶμα curabo ut habeas; et, quoniam te cum scripta tum res meae delectant, isdem ex libris perspicies, et quae gesserim et quae dixerim; aut ne poposcisses; ego enim tibi me non offerebam.
Quod quaeris, quid sit, quo te arcessam, ac simul impeditum te negotiis esse significas neque recusas, quin, non modo si opus sit, sed etiam si velim, accurras, nihil sane est necesse, verum tamen videbare mihi tempora peregrinationis commodius posse discribere. Nimis abes diu, praesertim cum sis in propinquis
book, you will see to it that Athens and other Greek towns have it in stock; for I think it may add some lustre to my achievements. I will send you the bits of speeches you ask for and some more too, as you find some interest in things which I write to satisfy young admirers. Your fellow-citizen, Demosthenes, gained a reputation by the speeches called the Philippics, in which he departed from the quibbling style of pleading we use in the law-courts, and appeared in the role of a serious politician. So I took a fancy to leave behind me also some speeches which may be called consular. One was delivered in the House on the 1st of January, another to the people on the agrarian law, the third on Otho, the fourth for Rabirius, the fifth for the sons of the proscribed, the sixth when I declined a province in a public assembly, the seventh when I drove Catiline out, the eighth before the people the day after Catiline fled, the ninth in an assembly on the day when the Allobroges gave their information, the tenth in the House on the 5th of December. There are two more short ones, mere scraps of the agrarian law. I will see that you have the whole corpus; and, since both my writing and my achievements interest you, you will see from them what I have done, and what I have written. Or else you should not have asked for them: I was not the one to obtrude them.
You inquire why I ask you to come back, and hint that you are hindered by business. Still you don’t refuse to come, if there is any need, or even if I wish it. There is no real necessity; but it does seem to me that you could arrange your times for going away more conveniently. You are away too long, especially when you are quite near, and
locis, neque nos te fruimur, et tu nobis cares. Ac nunc quidem otium est, sed, si paulo plus furor Pulchelli progredi posset, valde ego te istim excitarem. Verum praeclare Metellus impedit et impediet. Quid quaeris? est consul φιλόπατρις et, ut semper iudicavi, natura bonus. Ille autem non simulat, sed plane tribunus pl. fieri cupit. Qua de re cum in senatu ageretur, fregi hominem et inconstantiam eius reprehendi, qui Romae tribunatum pl. peteret, cum in Sicilia hereditatem se petere dictitasset, neque magno opere dixi esse nobis laborandum, quod nihilo magis ei liciturum esset plebeio rem publicam perdere, quam similibus eius me consule patriciis esset licitum. Iam, cum se ille septimo die venisse a freto, neque sibi obviam quemquam prodire potuisse, et noctu se introisse dixisset, in eoque se in contione iactasset, nihil ei novi dixi accidisse. “Ex Sicilia septimo die Romam; ante tribus horis Roma Interamnam. Noctu introisse; idem ante. Non est itum obviam; ne tum quidem, cum iri maxime debuit.” Quid quaeris? hominem petulantem modestum reddo non solum perpetua gravitate orationis, sed etiam hoc genere dictorum. Itaque iam familiariter cum ipso cavillor ac iocor; quin etiam, rum candidatum deduceremus, quaerit ex me, num consuessem Siculis locum gladiatoribus dare. Negavi. “At ego,” inquit, “novus
so I have no chance of enjoying your society and you lack mine. Just at present things are peaceful: but if that little beauty[[47]] should be strong enough to indulge in any wilder freaks I should certainly be routing you out of your retreat. However, Metellus is holding him in nobly and will continue to do so. Most assuredly he is a thoroughly patriotic consul, and, as I always thought, an excellent fellow. Clodius does not beat about the bush, he is quite plainly aiming at the tribunate. When the point was discussed in the Senate, I sat on him, accusing him of inconsistency, for seeking the tribunate now in Rome, when in Sicily he did nothing but repeat that what he wanted was an inheritance. However, I added, we need not put ourselves about on that point, as he would not be allowed to ruin the country if he becomes a plebeian any more than patricians of his kidney were allowed to in my consulship. Then, when he said he had come from the straits in a week, so that no one could go to meet him, and had entered the city at night, and boasted of the fact in a public speech, I said there was nothing new in that. “Seven days from Sicily to Rome: the other time three hours from Rome to Interamna. He came in at night: so he did before. No one met him now: nor did anyone meet him last time, when they certainly ought to have done so.” In fact, I am taking the cheek out of him, not only by serious set speeches, but by quips of this kind too. So nowadays I bandy jests and banter with him quite familiarly. For instance, when we were escorting a candidate, he asked me whether I used to give the Sicilians seats at the gladiatorial shows. I said, “No.” “Well,” said he,
[47]. P. Clodius Pulcher.
patronus instituam; sed soror, quae tantum habeat consularis loci, unum mihi solum pedem dat.” “Noli,” inquam “de uno pede sororis queri; licet etiam alterum tollas.” Non consulare, inquies, dictum. Fateor; sed ego illam odi male consularem. “Ea est enim seditiosa, ea cum viro bellum gerit” neque solum cum Metello, sed etiam cum Fabio, quod eos[[48]] in hoc esse moleste fert.
Quod de agraria lege quaeris, sane iam videtur refrixisse. Quod me quodam modo molli brachio de Pompei familiaritate obiurgas, nolim ita existimes, me mei praesidii causa cum illo coniunctum esse, sed ita res erat instituta, ut, si inter nos esset aliqua forte dissensio, maximas in re publica discordias versari esset necesse. Quod a me ita praecautum atque provisum est, non ut ego de optima illa mea ratione decederem, sed ut ille esset melior et aliquid de populari levitate deponeret. Quem de meis rebus, in quas eum multi incitarant, multo scito gloriosius quam de suis praedicare; sibi enim bene gestae, mihi conservatae rei publicae dat testimonium. Hoc facere illum mihi quam prosit, nescio; rei publicae certe prodest. Quid? si etiam Caesarem, cuius nunc venti valde sunt secundi, reddo meliorem, num tantum obsum rei publicae? Quin etiam, si mihi nemo invideret, si omnes, ut erat aequum, faverent, tamen non minus esset probanda medicina, quae sanaret vitiosas partes rei publicae, quam quae exsecaret.