208Quam quidem receperam contra pueros Octavios Cn. filios non libenter; sed Phameae causa volebam. Erat enim, si meministi, in consulatus petitione per te mihi pollicitus, si quid opus esset; quod ego perinde tuebar, ac si usus essem. Is ad me venit dixitque iudicem operam dare sibi constituisse eo die ipso, quo de Sestio nostro lege Pompeia in consilium iri necesse erat. Scis enim dies illorum iudiciorum praestitutos fuisse. Respondi non ignorare eum, quid ego deberem Sestio. Quem vellet alium diem si sumpsisset, me ei non defuturum. Ita tum ille discessit iratus. Puto me tibi narrasse. Non laboravi scilicet nec hominis alieni iniustissimam iracundiam mihi curandam putavi. Gallo autem narravi, cum proxime Romae fui, quid audissem, neque nominavi Balbum minorem. Habuit suum negotium Gallus, ut scribit. Ait illum me animi conscientia, quod Phameam destituissem, de se suspicari. Quare tibi hactenus mando, de illo nostro, si quid poteris, exquiras, de me ne quid labores. Est bellum aliquem libenter odisse et, quem ad modum non omnibus dormire, ita[[180]] non omnibus servire. Etsi mehercule, ut tu intellegis, magis mihi isti serviunt, si observare servire est.
[180]. non omnibus dormire, ita added by Lambinus.
case. It went against the grain with me to take it at all against the sons of Cn. Octavius; but for Phamea's sake I agreed.[[181]] For, if you remember, when I was standing for the consulship, he sent a promise of any assistance he could render through you; and I appreciated it as much as if I had used it. He came to me and said the judge had undertaken to hear his case on the very same day that the jury were bound by the Pompeian law to settle that of our friend Sestius. For you know the days of those cases have been fixed by law. I answered that he could not but be aware of my obligations to Sestius. If he would choose any other day, I would not fail him. So then he left me in a temper. I think I told you about it. I did not bother myself about it of course, not thinking that a perfectly unwarrantable fit of anger of a stranger concerned me. However I told Gallus the next time I was in town what I had heard, without mentioning young Balbus. Gallus took the matter up, as he tells me. He says Tigellius asserts that I suspect him because of my bad conscience about my desertion of Phamea. Accordingly I commission you to find out what you can from young Balbus, but not to bother your head about me. It is quite a good thing to have somebody to hate with a will, and not to pander to everybody any more than to be asleep for everybody.[[182]] Though upon my word, as you know, Caesar's party are obsequious to me more than I to them, if attention is obsequiousness.
[181]. Or "I did also wish well to Phamea," as Shuckburgh.
[182]. In a letter of about the same date to Gallus (Ad Fam. VII. 24) Cicero says, Cipius, opinor, olim "non omnibus dormio"; sic ego non omnibus, mi Galle, servio. It is explained that Cipius used to shut his eyes to his wife's barefaced amours in his presence; but when a servant, thinking him asleep, stole a cup before his eyes, he woke up with this remark.
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CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. in Tusculano circ. IX K. Sept. a. 709
Admonitus quibusdam tuis litteris, ut ad Caesarem uberiores litteras mittere instituerem, cum mihi Balbus nuper in Lanuvino dixisset se et Oppium scripsisse ad Caesarem me legisse libros contra Catonem et vehementer probasse, conscripsi de iis ipsis libris epistulam Caesari, quae deferretur ad Dolabellam; sed eius exemplum misi ad Oppium et Balbum, scripsique ad eos, ut tum deferri ad Dolabellam iuberent meas litteras, si ipsi exemplum probassent. Ita mihi rescripserunt, nihil umquam se legisse melius, epistulamque meam iusserunt dari Dolabellae.
Vestorius ad me scripsit, ut iuberem mancipio dari servo suo pro mea parte Hetereio cuidam fundum Brinnianum, ut ipse ei Puteolis recte mancipio dare posset. Eum servum, si tibi videbitur, ad me mittes; opinor enim ad te etiam scripsisse Vestorium.