[77]. Iliad vi, 181, ending δράκων, μέσση δὲ χίμαιρα.
and at length seek the home that I ought never to have left.
As for your complaints about my brother Quintus’ letter, to me, too, it seemed “a lion before, behind”—heaven knows what. For the groans in the first lines about his long absence would touch anybody’s heart: then afterwards he calms down sufficiently to ask me to touch up and edit his journal. Please pay some attention to the point you mention about the dues on goods transferred from port to port. He says he referred it to the Senate by the advice of his assessors. Evidently he had not read my letter, in which I told him after careful consideration and research that no tax was legally due. If any Greeks have come from Asia to Rome about it, please see them, and, it you think fit, tell them my opinion. If I can recant, I will do as the tax collectors wish, rather than see the good cause worsted in the House: but, if not, I candidly confess I prefer the interests of the whole of Asia and the merchants, for I feel it is really a matter of great importance to them. I think, however, it is a case of necessity for us. But you will see to it. Are the quaestors, then, still debating about the currency? If there is no escape from it in spite of all our efforts, I shouldn’t turn up my nose at the Asiatic coins as the last resource. I shall see you at Arpinum, and give you a country welcome, since you have despised this at the seaside.
XVII
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. in Formiano in m. Mai. a. 695
Prorsus, ut scribis, ita sentio, turbatur Sampsiceramus. Nihil est, quod non timendum sit; ὁμολογουμένως τυραννίδα συσκευάζεται. Quid enim ista repentina adfinitatis coniunctio, quid ager Campanus, quid effusio pecuniae significant? Quae si essent extrema, tamen esset nimium mali, sed ea natura rei est, ut haec extrema esse non possint. Quid enim? eos haec ipsa per se delectare possunt? Numquam huc venissent, nisi ad alias res pestiferas aditus sibi compararent. Verum, ut scribis, haec in Arpinati a. d. VI circiter Idus Maias non deflebimus, ne et opera et oleum philologiae nostrae perierit; sed conferemus tranquillo animo. Di immortales neque tam me εὐελπιστία consolatur ut antea quam ἀδιαφορία, qua nulla in re tam utor quam in hac civili et publica. Quin etiam, quod est subinane in nobis et non ἀφιλόδοξον (bellum est enim sua vitia nosse), id adficitur quadam delectatione. Solebat enim me pungere, ne Sampsicerami merita in patriam ad annos sescentos maiora viderentur quam nostra. Hac quidem cura certe iam vacuus sum; iacet enim ille sic, ut πτῶσις[[78]] Curiana stare videatur. Sed haec coram. Tu tamen videris mihi Romae fore ad nostrum adventum, quod sane facile patiar, si tuo commodo fieri possit; sin, ut scribis, ita venies, velim ex Theophane
[78]. πτῶσις Bosius: phocis codd.
XVII
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Formiae, May, B.C. 59
I agree entirely with what you say in your letter. The Pasha is running amuck. We may anticipate anything: he is quite clearly setting up a tyranny. What else is the meaning of this sudden marriage-contract,[[79]] of the proposals about the Campanian land, of this reckless expenditure of money? If that were the end of it, it would be disastrous enough: but the nature of the case makes it impossible that this should be the end. These things in themselves cannot possibly give them any pleasure: and they would never have taken this step except as the first to other pernicious acts. But, as you say, we will discuss these questions rationally at Arpinum about the 10th of May, and not prove all the labour and the midnight oil we have spent on our studies wasted by weeping over them. Heaven help us! I derive consolation not so much from hope, as I did formerly, as from a spirit of indifference, which I call to my service especially in civic and political matters. Nay more, the little strain of vanity and thirst for fame that there is in me—it is a good thing to recognize one’s own faults—even experiences a pleasurable sensation. For the thought that the Pasha’s services to the country might in the dim future be reckoned higher than mine, used to prick me to the heart: but now I rest quite easy on that score. He has fallen so low that the fallen Curius in comparison seems to stand erect. But of this when we meet. It seems now as though you will be at Rome when I arrive: for which I shall not be at all sorry, if it is