The short letter you wrote after the other, about Brutus' letter to Antony and also his to you, delighted me much. It looks as though things might be better than they have been at present. But we must look carefully into our present position and our immediate movements.
XV
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Puteoli, May 1, B.C. 44
Well done my Dolabella! For now I call him mine: up to now, you know, I had some doubts. This will make people open their eyes—hurling from the rock, crucifixion, pulling down the column[[213]] and ordering the place to be paved. Why, these are heroic deeds. I take it he has put an end to this feigning of regret, which up to now was creeping on day by day, and, if it became a habit, I was afraid it might be dangerous to our tyrannicides. Now I quite agree with your letter and hope for better things. However I cannot put up with the people who under a pretence of wishing for peace defend criminal actions. But still we can't have everything at once. Things are beginning to get better than I had expected, and of course I will not go away, unless you think I can do so honourably. My friend Brutus certainly I will never desert; and I should act in the same way, even if there were no ties between us, on account of his extraordinary and incredible strength of character.
[213]. A column erected in honour of Caesar by the Pseudo-Marius. Riotous mass-meetings were held round it, and it was the people who took part in these who were summarily executed by Dolabella without any trial.
260Piliae nostrae villam totam, quaeque in villa sunt, trado, in Pompeianum ipse proficiscens K. Maiis. Quam velim Bruto persuadeas, ut Asturae sit!
XVI
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. Puteolis in hortis Cluvianis V Non. Mai. a. 710
V Nonas conscendens ab hortis Cluvianis in phaselum epicopum has dedi litteras, cum Piliae nostrae villam ad Lucrinum, vilicos, procuratores tradidissem. Ipse autem eo die in Paeti nostri tyrotarichum imminebam; perpaucis diebus in Pompeianum, post in haec Puteolana et Cumana regna renavigare. O loca ceteroqui valde expetenda, interpellantium autem multitudine paene fugienda!
Sed ad rem ut veniam, o Dolabellae nostri magnam ἀριστείαν! Quanta est ἀναθεώρησις! Equidem laudare eum et hortari non desisto. Recte tu omnibus epistulis significas, quid de re, quid de viro sentias. Mihi quidem videtur Brutus noster iam vel coronam auream per forum ferre posse. Quis enim audeat laedere proposita cruce aut saxo, praesertim tantis plausibus, tanta approbatione infimorum?