Lippitudinis meae signum tibi sit librarii manus et eadem causa brevitatis; etsi nunc quidem, quod scriberem, nihil erat. Omnis exspectatio nostra erat in nuntiis Brundisinis. Si nanctus hic esset Gnaeum nostrum, spes dubia pacis, sin ille ante tramisisset, exitiosi belli metus. Sed videsne, in quem hominem inciderit res publica, quam acutum, quam vigilantem, quam paratum? Si mehercule neminem occiderit nec cuiquam quicquam ademerit, ab iis, qui eum maxime timuerant, maxime diligetur. Multum mecum municipales homines loquuntur, multum rusticani; nihil
the neighbourhood of Corfinium. What I expected and foretold has happened: he refuses to meet you in the field at present, and he is hemming you in with all his forces concentrated, so that the road may not be clear for you to join me and unite your loyal contingent with my legions whose allegiance is questionable. Consequently I am all the more upset by your dispatch: for I cannot place sufficient confidence in the loyalty of my men to risk a decisive engagement, nor have the levies recruited for the consuls come here.
So do your best, if any tactics can extricate you even now, to join me as soon as possible before our enemy can concentrate all his forces. The levies cannot reach here at an early date, and, even if they were concentrated, you must see how little trust can be put in troops, which do not even know one another by sight, when facing a veteran army.
XIII
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Formiae, March 1, B.C. 49
Let my secretary's handwriting be proof that I am suffering from inflammation of the eyes, and that is my reason for brevity, though now to be sure I have no news. I depend entirely on news from Brundisium. If Caesar has come up with our friend Pompey, there is some slight hope of peace: but, if Pompey has crossed the sea, we must look for war and massacre. Do you see the kind of man into whose hands the state has fallen? What foresight, what energy, what readiness! Upon my word, if he refrain from murder and rapine, he will be the darling of those who dreaded him most. The people of the country towns and the farmers talk to me a great deal. They care for nothing at all
prorsus aliud curant nisi agros, nisi villulas, nisi nummulos suos. Et vide, quam conversa res sit; illum, quo antea confidebant, metuunt, hunc amant, quem timebant. Id quantis nostris peccatis vitiisque evenerit, non possum sine molestia cogitare. Quae autem impendere putarem, scripseram ad te et iam tuas litteras exspectabam.