Ut tu de provincia Bruti et Cassi per senatus consultum, ita scribit et Balbus et Oppius. Hirtius quidem se afuturum (etenim iam in Tusculano est) mihique, ut absim, vehementer auctor est, et ille quidem periculi causa, quod sibi etiam fuisse dicit, ego autem, etiam ut nullum periculum sit, tantum abest, ut Antoni suspicionem fugere nunc curem, ne videar eius secundis rebus non delectari, ut mihi causa ea sit, cur Romam venire nolim, ne illum videam. Varro autem noster ad me epistulam misit sibi a nescio quo missam (nomen enim delerat); in qua scriptum erat veteranos eos, qui reiciantur (nam partem esse dimissam), improbissime loqui, ut magno periculo Romae sint futuri, qui ab eorum partibus dissentire videantur. Quis porro noster itus, reditus, vultus, incessus inter istos? Quodsi, ut scribis,
V
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Tusculum, May 28, B.C. 44
My messenger has returned from Brutus, bringing a letter from him and from Cassius too. They want my advice badly, and Brutus asks which of two courses he ought to pursue. Alas! I have not the remotest idea what to say. So I think I shall keep silent, unless you think I must not. If anything occurs to you, please write. Cassius, indeed, begs and beseeches me to make Hirtius as sound as possible. Do you think he is in his senses? It's fairy gold![[247]] I am sending his letter.
[247]. Lit. "the treasure is ashes," a proverbial expression for disappointment; cf. Lucian, Zeuxis, 2: Timon, 41.
Balbus and Oppius tell me the same as you about the province to be assigned by the Senate to Brutus and Cassius, and Hirtius says he will not attend—he is here at Tusculum—and he strongly advises me to keep away. He does so on the strength of the danger which he says there has been even for him; but, even if there be no danger, I am so far from caring to avoid giving Antony a suspicion that I do not rejoice in his prosperity, that the very reason why I would rather not go to Rome is to avoid seeing him. But our friend Varro has sent me a letter from somebody or other—I don't know who, as he has erased the name—telling him that the veterans whose claims have been put off (for some of them have been disbanded) are using most criminal language, saying that those who seem not to favour their claims will be in great danger at Rome. What, I should like to know, can our goings and comings, our looks and our demeanour, be among them? If again, as you say,
312L. Antonius in D. Brutum, reliqui in nostros, ego quid faciam aut quo me pacto geram? Mihi vero deliberatum est, ut nunc quidem est, abesse ex ea urbe, in qua non modo florui cum summa, verum etiam servivi cum aliqua dignitate; nec tam statui ex Italia exire, de quo tecum deliberabo, quam istuc non venire.
VI
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. In Tusculano VI K. Iun. vesperi a. 710
Cum ad me Brutus noster scripsisset et Cassius, ut Hirtium, qui adhuc bonus fuisset (sciebam neque eum confidebam fore) mea auctoritate meliorem facerem (Antonio est enim fortasse iratior, causae vero amicissimus), tamen ad eum scripsi eique dignitatem Bruti et Cassi commendavi. Ille quid mihi rescripsisset, scire te volui, si forte idem tu quod ego existimares, istos etiam nunc vereri, ne forte ipsi nostri plus animi habeant quam habent.