Rome, July, B.C. 59
I have done all I could for Anicatus, knowing you wanted me to do so, and have willingly adopted Numestius as a friend on the strength of the earnest recommendation in your letter. To Caecilius I take care to pay every suitable attention. Varro is as good as I can expect; and Pompey shows me friendship and affection. Can I believe him, you ask. I do believe him; he quite convinces me. But since men of the world are always advising one in their histories and precepts and even in their verses to beware and forbidding one to believe, I do the one and beware, but to the other—not to believe—I cannot persuade myself. Clodius is still threatening me with danger, while Pompey asserts that there is no danger. He swears it, adding even that he will not see me injured if it costs him his life. The point is under
[86]. Lit. “to be coy,” or “to coquet.”
res. Simul et quid erit certi, scribam ad te. Si erit pugnandum, arcessam ad societatem laboris; si quies dabitur, ab Amalthea te non commovebo.
De re publica breviter ad te scribam; iam enim, charta ipsa ne nos prodat, pertimesco. Itaque posthac, si erunt mihi plura ad te scribenda, ἀλληγορίαις obscurabo. Nunc quidem novo quodam morbo civitas moritur, ut, cum omnes ea, quae sunt acta, improbent, querantur, doleant, varietas nulla in re sit, aperteque loquantur et iam clare gemant, tamen medicina nulla adferatur. Neque enim resisti sine internecione posse arbitramur nec videmus, qui finis cedendi praeter exitium futurus sit. Bibulus hominum admiratione et benevolentia in caelo est; edicta eius et contiones describunt et legunt. Novo quodam genere in summam gloriam venit. Populare nunc nihil tam est quam odium popularium. Haec quo sint eruptura, timeo; sed, si dispicere quid coepero, scribam ad te apertius. Tu, si me amas tantum, quantum profecto amas, expeditus facito ut sis, si inclamaro, ut accurras; sed do operam et dabo, ne sit necesse. Quod scripseram me tibi ut[[87]] Furio scripturum, nihil necesse est tuum nomen mutare; me faciam Laelium et te Atticum neque utar meo chirographo neque signo, si modo erunt eius modi litterae, quas in alienum incidere nolim.
[87]. me tibi ut Wesenberg: et M.
negotiation: as soon as any certain conclusion is reached, I will write to you. If I have to fight, I will summon you to share my labour: but if I am left in peace, I will not rout you out of your Amalthea.
Political matters I shall only touch on briefly: for I am beginning to be afraid that the very paper may betray me. So in future, if I have to write in fuller detail to you, I shall hide my meaning under covert language. Now the State is dying of a new disease. The measures that have been passed cause universal discontent and grumbling and indignation: there is no disagreement on the point and people are now venting their opinion and their disapproval openly and loudly, yet no remedy is applied. Resistance seems impossible without bloodshed: nor can we see any other end to concession except destruction. Bibulus is exalted to the skies amid universal admiration and popularity. His edicts and speeches are copied out and read. He has attained the height of glory in quite a novel way. Nothing is so popular now as hatred of the popular party. I have my fears about the issue of all this. But I will write more clearly, if I get any definite views. Do you, if your affection for me is as real as I know it to be, hold yourself ready to run to my call, when it comes. But I am doing my best, and will continue to do it, to prevent any necessity. I said I would call you Furius in my letters, but there is no need to alter your name. I will call myself Laelius and you Atticus, and I won’t use my own handwriting or seal, at any rate if the letters are such that I should not like them to fall into a stranger’s hands.
Diodotus mortuus est; reliquit nobis HS fortasse centiens. Comitia Bibulus cum Archilochio edicto in ante diem XV Kal. Novembr. distulit. A Vibio libros accepi. Poeta ineptus et tamen scit nihil, sed est non inutilis. Describe et remitto.