de me pacta sunt, ea non servantur, in caelo sum, ut sciat hic nosier Hierosolymarius traductor ad plebem, quam bonam meis putissimis orationibus gratiam rettulerit. Quarum exspecta divinam παλινῳδίαν. Etenim, quantum coniectura auguramur, si erit nebulo iste cum his dynastis in gratia, non modo de cynico consulari, sed ne de istis quidem piscinarum Tritonibus poterit se iactare. Non enim poterimus ulla esse invidia spoliati opibus et illa senatoria potentia. Sin autem ab iis dissentiet, erit absurdum in nos invehi. Verum tamen invehatur.
Festive, mihi crede, et minore sonitu, quam putaram. orbis hic in re publica est conversus; citius omnino, quam potuit, idque[[69]] culpa Catonis, sed rursus improbitate istorum, qui auspicia, qui Aeliam legem. qui Iuniam et Liciniam, qui Caeciliam et Didiam neglexerunt, qui omnia remedia rei publicae effuderunt, qui regna quasi praedia tetrarchis, qui immanes pecunias paucis dederunt. Video iam, quo invidia transeat et ubi sit habitatura. Nihil me existimaris neque usu neque a Theophrasto didicisse, nisi brevi tempore desiderari nostra illa tempora videris. Etenim, si fuit invidiosa senatus potentia, cum ed non ad populum, sed ad tres homines immoderatos redacta sit, quid iam censes fore? Proinde isti licet faciant, quos
[69]. idque Wesenberg: id M.
me is not kept, I am in the seventh heaven with delight at thinking how that Jerusalemite plebeian-monger will learn what a pretty return he has made for all my choicest panegyrics: and you may expect recantation of eclipsing brilliancy; for, so far as I can see, if that good-for-nothing is in favour with our sovereigns, he will have to give up crowing over the “ex-consul with a cynic’s tongue” and those “Tritons of the fish-ponds” together: for there will be nothing to envy me for, when I have been robbed of my power and my influence in the Senate. If on the other hand he quarrels with them, then any attack on me would be absurd. However let him attack, if he likes.
Upon my word the wheel of State has turned round gaily and with less noise than I had expected: more quickly to be sure than it might have done. That is Cato’s fault, but it is still more through the villainy of those who have disregarded auspices and the Aelian law, the Iunian and Licinian law and the Caecilian and Didian law, who have thrown out of the window all the physic for the State, who have given kingdoms to tetrarchs as though they were farms and immense sums of money to one or two people. I can see already which way jealousy is tending and where it will come home to roost. Count me too big a dunce to have learned anything by experience or from Theophrastus, if you do not see very shortly men mourning for the days of my government. For if the power of the Senate was unpopular, you can imagine what things will be like now, when the power has been transferred not to the people, but to three unbridled men. So let them make anyone they like consuls and tribunes,
volent, consules, tribunos pl., denique etiam Vatini strumam sacerdotii διβάφῳ vestiant, videbis brevi tempore magnos non modo eos, qui nihil titubarunt, sed etiam illum ipsum, qui peccavit, Catonem. Nam nos quidem, si per istum tuum sodalem Publium licebit, σοφιστεύειν cogitamus, si ille cogit, tum[[70]] dumtaxat nos defendere, et, quod est proprium artis huius, ἐπαγγέλλομαι
ἄνδρ’ ἀπαμύνεσθαι, ὅτε τις πρότερος χαλεπήνῃ.
Patria propitia sit. Habet a nobis, etiamsi non plus, quam debitum est; plus certe, quam postulatum est. Male vehi malo alio gubernante quam tam ingratis vectoribus bene gubernare. Sed haec coram commodius.
Nunc audi, quod quaeris. Antium me ex Formiano recipere cogito a. d. V Nonas Maias; Antio volo Nonis Maiis proficisci in Tusculanum. Sed, cum e Formiano rediero (ibi esse usque ad pr. K. Maias volo), faciam statim te certiorem. Terentia tibi salutem, καὶ Κικέρων ὁ μικρὸς ἀσπάζεται Τίτον Ἀθηναῖον.