[251]. Brutus as praetor urbanus ought to have presided at the Ludi Apollinares, but fearing to go to Rome he left it to a colleague Gaius Antonius.

[252]. The banishment of Dion from Syracuse by the younger Dionysius under the pretext of an embassy seems to have passed into a proverb in this sense.

322

XI
CICERO ATTICO SAL.

Scr. in Antiati a. d. VI Id. Iun a. 710

Antium veni a. d. VI Idus. Bruto iucundus noster adventus. Deinde multis audientibus, Servilia, Tertulla, Porcia, quaerere, quid placeret. Aderat etiam Favonius. Ego, quod eram meditatus in via, suadere, ut uteretur Asiatica curatione frumenti; nihil esse iam reliqui, quod ageremus, nisi ut salvus esset; in eo etiam ipsi rei publicae esse praesidium. Quam orationem cum ingressus essem, Cassius intervenit. Ego eadem illa repetivi. Hoc loco fortibus sane oculis Cassius (Martem spirare diceres) se in Siciliam non iturum. "Egone ut beneficium accepissem contumeliam?" "Quid ergo agis?" inquam. At ille in Achaiam se iturum. "Quid tu," inquam, "Brute?" "Romam," inquit, "si tibi videtur." "Mihi vero minime; tuto enim non eris." "Quid? si possem esse, placeretne?" "Atque ut omnino neque nunc neque ex praetura in provinciam ires; sed auctor non sum, ut te urbi committas." Dicebam ea, quae tibi profecto in mentem veniunt, cur non esset tuto futurus. Multo inde sermone querebantur, atque id quidem Cassius maxime, amissas occasiones Decimumque graviter accusabant. Ego negabam oportere praeterita, adsentiebar tamen. Cumque ingressus essem dicere, quid oportuisset, nec vero quicquam novi, sed ea,

XI
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.

Antium, June 8, B.C. 44

I reached Antium on the 8th. Brutus was very glad to see me. Then before Servilia, Tertulla, Porcia,[[253]] and a lot of others, he asked me for my opinion. Favonius was present too. I had made up my mind on the journey, and advised him to accept the control of the corn supply from Asia: there was nothing else for us to do now except to keep him out of danger: by so doing we should have some safeguard for the republic too. When I was in the midst of my speech, in came Cassius. I said the same over again. Whereupon Cassius, with flashing eyes and fairly breathing war, declared he would not go to Sicily. "Am I to take an insult like a favour?" "What will you do then?" I asked; and he said he would go to Achaia. "What of you, Brutus," I said. "To Rome," he answered, "if you think I ought." "I don't think so at all, for you won't be safe." "Well, if it were possible to be there in safety, would you approve?" "Yes, I would rather you did not go to a province either now or after your praetorship; but I don't advise you to trust yourself in Rome." I gave him the reasons that will occur to you, why it would not be safe. Then they kept on bewailing the chances that had been let slip, especially Cassius, and they complained bitterly of Decimus. I said they ought not to harp on the past, but I agreed with them. When I had gone on to explain what ought to have been done, saying nothing new, but what everybody is saying daily,

[253]. Respectively mother, half-sister, and second wife of Brutus.