Let us return to our heroes. You hint that you have good hopes for them in the moderate tone of the edicts. But, when Hirtius left me at Puteoli on the 16th of May to meet Pansa at Naples, his whole mind was revealed to me. For I took him aside and exhorted him to keep the peace. He could not, of course, say that he did not want peace, but he did say that he was as much afraid of armed action on our side as from Antony, and that after all both had reason for being on their guard, and for his part he was afraid of hostilities from both. In fact he is quite unreliable.
About young Quintus I agree with you. His father, at any rate, was most pleased with your nice letter. Caerellia I easily satisfied; she did not seem to me to bother herself much, and, if she had, I certainly should not have done so. As to the lady who you say is plaguing you, I wonder you listened to her at all. For, if I did compliment her before friends, when three of her own sons and your daughter were present, what is there in that?
"Why should I wear a mask before men's eyes?"
Is not old age itself a mask ugly enough?
You say Brutus asks me to come before the 1st. He has written to me too, and perhaps I shall do so. But I really don't know what he wants. What advice can I give him, when I want advice myself, and when he has thought of his immortality rather than our peace of mind? The rumour about Cleopatra is dying out. As to Flamma, pray do what you can.
296
Ia
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. in Sinuessano XV Kal. Iun. a. 710
Here dederam ad te litteras exiens e Puteolano deverteramque in Cumanum. Ibi bene valentem videram Piliam. Quin etiam paulo post Cumis eam vidi. Venerat enim in funus; cui funeri ego quoque operam dedi. Cn. Lucullus, familiaris noster, matrem efferebat. Mansi igitur eo die in Sinuessano atque inde mane postridie Arpinum proficiscens hanc epistulam exaravi. Erat autem nihil novi, quod aut scriberem aut ex te quaererem, nisi forte hoc ad rem putas pertinere. Brutus noster misit ad me orationem suam habitam in contione Capitolina, petivitque a me, ut eam ne ambitiose corrigerem, antequam ederet. Est autem oratio scripta elegantissime sententiis, verbis, ut nihil possit ultra. Ego tamen, si illam causam habuissem, scripsissem ardentius. Ὑπόθεσις vides quae sit et persona dicentis. Itaque eam corrigere non potui. Quo enim in genere Brutus noster esse vult et quod iudicium habet de optimo genere dicendi, id ita consecutus in ea oratione est, ut elegantius esse nihil possit; sed ego secutus aliud sum, sive hoc recte sive non recte. Tu tamen velim eam orationem legas, nisi forte iam legisti, certioremque me facias, quid iudices ipse. Quamquam vereor, ne cognomine tuo lapsus ὑπεραττικὸς sis in iudicando. Sed, si recordabere Δημοσθένους fulmina, tum intelleges