hominum milia triginta et consules duo et tribuni pl. et senatores, qui fuerunt cum eo, omnes cum uxoribus et liberis. Conscendisse dicitur a. d. IIII Nonas Martias. Ex ea die fuere septemtriones venti. Naves, quibus usus non est, omnes aut praecidisse aut incendisse dicunt."
De hac re litterae L. Metello tribuno pl. Capuam allatae sunt a Clodia socru, quae ipsa transiit. Ante sollicitus eram et angebar, sicut res scilicet ipsa cogebat, cum consilio explicare nihil possem; nunc autem, postquam Pompeius et consules ex Italia exierunt, non angor, sed ardeo dolore,
οὐδέ μοι ἦτορ
ἔμπεδον, ἀλλ' ἀλαλύκτημαι.
Non sum, inquam, mihi crede, mentis compos; tantum mihi dedecoris admisisse videor. Mene non primum cum Pompeio qualicumque consilio uso, deinde cum bonis esse quamvis causa temere instituta? praesertim cum ii ipsi, quoram ego causa timidius me fortunae committebam, uxor, filia, Cicerones pueri, me illud sequi mallent, hoc turpe et me indignum putarent. Nam Quintus quidem frater, quicquid mihi placeret, id rectum se putare aiebat, id animo aequissimo sequebatur.
Tuas nunc epistulas a primo lego. Hae me paulum recreant. Primae monent et rogant, ne me proiciam, proximae gaudere te ostendunt me remansisse. Eas cum lego, minus mihi turpis videor, sed tam diu, dum lego. Deinde emergit rursum dolor et ἀισχροῦ φαντασία. Quam ob rem obsecro te, mi Tite, eripe
are 30,000 men, two consuls, tribunes and the senators who were with him, all accompanied by wives and children. He is said to have embarked on the 4th of March. From that day there have been northerly winds. They say he disabled or burned all the ships he did not use."
[Sidennote Iliad x, 91]
On this matter a letter has been received at Capua by Lucius Metellus, the tribune of the plebs, from Clodia, his mother-in-law, who herself crossed the sea. I was anxious and distracted before, naturally enough under the circumstances, when I could find no solution of affairs. But, now that Pompey and the consuls have left Italy, I am not only distracted, but I blaze with indignation. "Steady my heart no more, but wild with grief." Believe me, I say I am no longer responsible, so great the shame I seem to have incurred. To think that in the first place I should not be with Pompey, whatever his plan, nor again with the loyalists, however rashly they have mismanaged their cause! Particularly when those very people, whose interests kept me cautious, my wife, my daughter and the boys, preferred that I should follow Pompey's fortunes, and thought Caesar's cause disgraceful and unworthy of me. As for my brother Quintus, whatever I thought right, he agreed to, and he followed my course with perfect contentment.