Quantis curis conficiar, etsi profecto vides, tamen cognosces ex Lepta et Trebatio. Maximas poenas pendo temeritatis meae, quam tu prudentiam mihi videri vis; neque te deterreo, quo minus id disputes scribasque ad me quam saepissime. Non nihil enim me levant tuae litterae hoc tempore. Per eos, qui nostra causa volunt valentque apud illum, diligentissime contendas opus est, per Balbum et Oppium maxime, ut de me scribant quam diligentissime. Oppugnamur enim, ut audio, et a praesentibus quibusdam et per litteras. Eis ita est occurrendum, ut rei magnitudo postulat. Fufius est illic, mihi inimicissimus. Quintus misit filium non solum sui deprecatorem, sed etiam accusatorem mei. Dictitat se a me apud Caesarem oppugnari, quod refellit Caesar ipse omnesque eius amici. Neque vero desistit, ubicumque est, omnia in me maledicta conferre, Nihil mihi umquam tam incredibile accidit, nihil in his malis tam acerbum. Qui ex ipso audissent, cum Sicyone palam multis audientibus loqueretur nefaria quaedam, ad me pertulerunt. Nosti genus, etiam expertus es fortasse. In me id est omne conversum. Sed augeo commemorando dolorem et facio etiam tibi. Quare ad illud redeo. Cura, ut huius rei causa dedita opera mittat
VIII
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Brundisium Dec. 18, B.C. 48
Though of course you see for yourself in what distress I am, you will learn more about it from Lepta and Trebatius. I am paying very heavily for my rashness, which you want to persuade me was prudence: and I don't want to stop you arguing that it was and writing to me to that effect as often as possible. For your letters afford me a good deal of relief under the present circumstances. You must use your utmost endeavour with those who are my supporters and have influence with him—Balbus and Oppius especially—to make them write about me as strongly as possible. For I hear that I am being attacked by some who are with him, and also by letter. Their attack must be met, as the importance of the matter demands. Fufius, a very bitter enemy of mine, is there. Quintus sent his son not only to make peace for himself, but to accuse me. He keeps saying that I am trying to set Caesar against him, though Caesar and all his friends deny it. And he does not cease, wherever he is, from heaping all sorts of abuse on me. It is the most surprising thing that ever happened to me and the bitterest of all my present sorrows. Those who reported the matter to me professed to have heard it from his own lips, when he was slandering me at Sicyon in the hearing of many. You know his way; indeed you may have had some personal experience of it. Now it is all turned on me. But I increase my own sorrow, and yours too, by speaking of it. So I return to my first point. Take care that Balbus sends some one expressly
aliquem Balbus. Ad quos videbitur, velim cures litteras meo nomine. Vale. XIII Kal. Ian.