XV Kal. Maias ex itinere."
IX
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. in Cumano V Non. Mai. a. 705
Adventus Philotimi (at cuius hominis, quam insulsi et quam saepe pro Pompeio mentientis!) exanimavit omnes, qui mecum erant; nam ipse obdurui. Dubitabat nostrum nemo, quin Caesar itinera repressisset—volare dicitur; Petreius cum Afranio coniunxisset se—nihil adfert eius modi. Quid quaeris? etiam illud erat persuasum, Pompeium cum magnis copiis iter in
necessary to go before anything was certain. For you will have done a serious injury to our friendship and consulted your own interest very little, if you show that you are not following fortune (for everything that has happened seems most favourable to me and most unfavourable to Pompey), nor yet following the right cause (for the cause was the same then, when you thought fit to hold aloof from it), but that you have condemned some act of mine, the greatest harm you could do me. Do not take such a step, I pray you by the right of our friendship. Finally what better befits a good and peaceful man and a loyal citizen than to keep out of civil disturbance. There are some who approved such a course, but could not follow it because of the danger. But you may examine the evidence of my life and the opinion given by my friendship[144]; you will find no safer or more honourable course than to keep quite clear of the quarrel.
[144] i.e. my decision to let you be neutral. It may, however, mean "Your conviction of my friendship."
"April 16 on the march."