IX
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Formiae, March 17, B.C. 49
I got three letters from you on the 16th. They were dated the 12th, 13th and 14th. So I will take the earliest first. I agree with you that it is best for me to stay at Formiae. I also agree about the Adriatic. But as I wrote you before, I will strive to discover how I may be able with Caesar's goodwill to keep quite clear of politics. You praise me for saying that I forget Pompey's former misdeeds and ill-doings, but it is a fact. Nay, those very actions you call to mind, in which he did harm to me myself, have no place in my memory. I am so determined to feel gratitude for his kindness rather than resentment for injuries. Let me act then as you decree, and pull myself together. For I philosophize as I walk about my estate, and in my perambulations I do not cease to ponder my themes. But some of them are very difficult to decide. As for the loyalists, let it be as you wish. You know the old saying "Dionysius in Corinth."[93]
[93] Dionysius, when expelled from the throne of Syracuse, fled to Corinth and according to some authorities set up a school there. But whether the saying here mentioned refers merely to his exile and means "There are ups and downs in life," or to his schoolmastering, as Jeans suggests, referring to a passage in Tusc. III, 27, where Cicero says Dionysius took to schoolmastering because he wished to tyrannize over somebody, is uncertain. If the latter, it would mean that the optimates would ill-use Cicero again as soon as they got the power.
Titinius' son is with Caesar. You seem to fear that your advice irks me; but nothing indeed pleases me except your counsel and your letters. So do as you promise. Do not omit to write to me anything that comes into your mind; for nothing can delight me more.
I turn now to your next letter. You are right not
Clodia. Falsum etiam de corruptis navibus. Quod consules laudas, ego quoque animum laudo, sed consilium reprehendo; dispersu enim illorum actio de pace sublata est, quam quidem ego meditabar. Itaque postea Demetri librum de concordia tibi remisi et Philotimo dedi. Nec vero dubito, quin exitiosum bellum impendeat; cuius initium ducetur a fame. Et me tamen doleo non interesse huic bello! In quo tanta vis sceleris futura est, ut, cum parentes non alere nefarium sit, nostri principes antiquissimam et sanctissimam parentem, patriam, fame necandam putent. Atque hoc non opinione timeo, sed interfui sermonibus. Omnis haec classis Alexandria, Colchis, Tyro, Sidone, Arado, Cypro, Pamphylia, Lycia, Rhodo, Chio, Byzantio, Lesbo, Zmyrna, Mileto, Coo ad intercludendos commeatus Italiae et ad occupandas frumentarias provincias comparatur. At quam veniet iratus! et iis quidem maxime, qui eum maxime salvum volebant, quasi relictus ab iis, quos reliquit. Itaque mihi dubitanti, quid me facere par sit, permagnum pondus adfert benevolentia erga illum; qua dempta perire melius esset in patria quam patriam servando evertere. De septemtrione plane ita est. Metuo,
to believe the reports about the number of Pompey's soldiers. Clodia's letter made them just double. It was untrue also about the destruction of the vessels. You praise the consuls; so do I praise their courage, but I blame their policy. Their departure has destroyed the negotiations for peace, the very thing which I was contemplating. So after that I returned you Demetrius' book on Concord and gave it to Philotimus. And I have no doubt a disastrous war is imminent, which will be ushered in by famine. And here I am lamenting that I have no hand in the war, a war which will be so criminal, that though it is wicked not to support one's parents, yet our chiefs will not hesitate to destroy by starvation their country, that most reverend and holiest of parents! And my fears are not based on mere surmise. I have heard their talk. All this fleet from Alexandria, Colchis, Tyre, Sidon, Aradus, Cyprus, Pamphylia, Lycia, Rhodes, Chius, Byzantium, Lesbos, Smyrna, Miletus, Cos, is being got ready to cut off the supplies of Italy and to blockade the grain-producing provinces. And how angry Pompey will be when he comes, particularly with those who particularly desire his safety, as if he were abandoned by those whom he has abandoned! So in my doubt what I ought to do, I am greatly swayed by my good feeling towards Pompey. Without that it were better to perish in my country, than to destroy my country by saving it. As to the north wind, it is clearly as you write. I fear Epirus