LETTERS1
Cicero was in many ways the creator of Latin prose in many different genres; his books on religion, rhetoric, government, and philosophy helped to create the vocabulary (usually taken over from Greek) in those disciplines. His many speeches in the Senate and the Forum provide an insight into the political disputes of the late Republic, as his courtroom speeches tell us much about Roman legal procedure. Cicero also wrote numerous letters of which 900 survive. These are real letters; he was not thinking of their publication. So they often reveal his ambivalence and confusion in the face of political transformations.
He wrote over 400 letters to his closest friend, the financier Atticus. Since Atticus was often in Greece, there was ample opportunity to write to him about both political and personal matters. The first letter shows Cicero’s early willingness to form a political alliance with Catiline; two years later he was his mortal enemy.
To Atticus 1, 2 July (65 BCE)
I have to inform you that on the day of the election of L. Iulius Caesar and C. Marcius Figulus to the Consulship, I had an addition to my family in the shape of a baby boy. Terentia is doing well.
Why such a time without a letter from you? I have already written to you fully about my circumstances. At this present time I am considering whether to undertake the defense of my fellow candidate, Catiline. We have a jury to our minds with full consent of the prosecutor. I hope that if he is acquitted he will be more closely united with me in the conduct of our campaign; but if the result be otherwise I shall bear it with resignation. Your early return is of great importance to me, for there is a very strong idea prevailing that some intimate friends of yours, persons of high rank, will be opposed to my election. To win me their favor I see that I shall want you very much. Wherefore be sure to be in Rome in January, as you have agreed to be.
Cicero’s pain at Pompey’s lack of praise for his crushing of Catiline is evident in this letter. He already senses that Pompey is looking elsewhere for allies—and would soon form the First Triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Crassus.
To Pompey in Letters to Friends 5, 1 (April, 62 BCE)
M. Tullius Cicero, son of Marcus, greets Gn. Pompeius, son of Gnaeus, Imperator.
If you and the army are well I shall be glad. From your official dispatch I have, in common with everyone else, received the liveliest satisfaction; for you have given us that strong hope of peace, of which, in sole reliance on you, I was assuring everyone. But I must inform you that your old enemies— now posing as your friends—have received a stunning blow by this dispatch, and, being disappointed in the high hopes they were entertaining, are thoroughly depressed. Though your private letter to me contained a somewhat slight expression of your affection, yet I can assure you it gave me pleasure: for there is nothing in which I habitually find greater satisfaction than in the consciousness of serving my friends; and if on any occasion I do not meet with an adequate return, I am not at all sorry to have the balance of kindness in my favor. Of this I feel no doubt—even if my extraordinary zeal in your behalf has failed to unite you to me—that the interests of the state will certainly effect a mutual attachment and coalition between us. To let you know, however, what I missed in your letter I will write with the candor which my own disposition and our common friendship demand. I did expect some congratulation in your letter on my achievements, for the sake at once of the ties between us and of the Republic. This I presume to have been omitted by you from a fear of hurting anyone’s feelings. But let me tell you that what I did for the salvation of the country is approved by the judgment and testimony of the whole world. You are a much greater man than Africanus, but I am not much inferior to Laelius either; and when you come home you will recognize that I have acted with such prudence and spirit, that you will not be ashamed of being coupled with me in politics as well as in private friendship.
In the weeks after Caesar invaded Italy in 49 BCE, Cicero actually wrote eight letters within six days to Atticus. He pours out his disappointment with Pompey’s strategy of retreat.
To Atticus 8, 8 (February 24, 49 BCE)
What a disgraceful and, for that reason, what a miserable thing! For, in my opinion, that which is disgraceful is ultimately, or rather is alone, miserable. He had fostered Caesar, and then, all of a sudden, had begun to be afraid of him: he had declined any terms of peace: he had made no preparation for war: he had abandoned the city: he had lost Picenum by his own fault: he had blocked himself up in Apulia: he was preparing to go to Greece: he was going to leave us without a word, entirely uninformed of a move on his part so important and so unprecedented. Lo and behold, there is suddenly sprung on us a letter from Domitius to him, and one from him to the consuls. I thought honor had flashed before his eyes, and that he—the real man he ought to be—had exclaimed:
So let them try each sleight they may against me,
And every craft their cunning can devise:
The right is on my side.
But our hero, bidding a long goodbye to honor, takes himself to Brundisium, while Domitius, they say, and those with him, on hearing of this, surrendered. What a lamentable thing! Distress prevents my writing any more to you. I wait for a letter from you.
In the aftermath of Caesar’s assassination on March 15 [Ides] 44 BCE, Cicero’s moods swung from pessimism to optimism and back again. He supports the assassins, and first distrusts young Octavius (later called “the youthful Caesar”) while at the same time hoping he can be turned against Antony. He writes to his closest friend, the banker Atticus, as well as to the conspirators Marcus and Decimus Brutus. His vanity, which was his greatest weakness as a politician, is clearly evident in these letters.
To Atticus 14, 12 (April 22, 44 BCE)
… Ah, my dear Atticus, I fear the Ides of March have brought us nothing beyond exultation, and the satisfaction of our anger and resentment. What news reaches me from Rome! What things are going on here under my eyes! Yes, it was a fine piece of work, but inconclusive after all! … Octavius here treats me with great respect and friendliness. His own people addressed him as “Caesar,” but Philippus did not, so I did not do so either. I declare that it is impossible for him to be a good citizen. He is surrounded by such a number of people, who even threaten our friends with death. He says the present state of things is unendurable. But what do you think of it, when a boy like that goes to Rome, where our liberators cannot be in safety. They indeed will always be illustrious, and even happy, from the consciousness of their great deed. But for us, unless I am mistaken, we shall be ruined. …
To Marcus Brutus at Dyrrachium 1, 3 (April 21, 44 BCE)
Our cause seems in a better position: for I feel sure that you have had letters telling you what has happened. The consuls have shown themselves to be the sort of men I have often described them in my letters. In the youthful Caesar indeed there is a surprising natural strain of virtue. Pray heaven we may govern him in the flush of honors and popularity as easily as we have held him up to this time. That is certainly a more difficult thing, but nevertheless I have no mistrust. For the young man has been convinced, and chiefly by my arguments, that our safety is his work, and that at least, if he had not diverted Antony from the city, all would have been lost. Three or four days indeed before this glorious news, the city, struck by a sudden panic, was for pouring out with wives and children to seek you. The same city on the 20th of April, with its fears all dispelled, would rather that you came here than go to you. On that day in very truth I reaped the most abundant harvest of my great labors and my many sleepless nights—that is, at least, if there is a harvest in genuine and well-grounded glory. For I was surrounded by a concourse of people as great as our city can contain, by whom I was escorted to the Capitol and placed upon the rostra amidst the loudest cheers and applause. I have no vanity in me—and indeed I ought to have none: yet after all a unanimous feeling of all orders, thanks, and congratulations do move my heart, because it is a thing to be proud of that in the hour of the People’s preservation I should be the People’s hero. But these things I would rather you heard from others. Pray inform me of your own doings and plans with the greatest exactness; and do be careful that your generosity does not bear the appearance of weakness. This is the sentiment of the Senate, and of the People, that no enemies ever more richly deserved condign punishment than those citizens who have taken up arms against their country in this war. Indeed in every speech I make in the Senate I call for vengeance upon them and attack them amidst the applause of all loyal citizens. What your view of this is I must leave you to judge for yourself: My opinion is that all three brothers stand on one and the same ground.
To Atticus 16, 8 (November 22, 44 BCE)
When I know what day I am coming to town I will let you know. I must expect some hindrances, and there is illness among my household. On the evening of the 1st I got a letter from Octavian. He is entering upon a serious undertaking. He has won over to his views all the veterans at Casilinum and Calatia. And no wonder: he gives a bounty of 500 denarii a piece. Clearly, his view is a war with Antony under his leadership. So I perceive that before many days are over we shall be in arms. But who are we to follow? Consider his name, consider his age! Again, to begin with, he demands a secret interview with me, at Capua of all places! It is really quite childish if he supposes that it can be kept private. I have written to explain to him that it is neither necessary nor practicable. He sent a certain Caecina of Volterra to me, an intimate friend of his own, who brought me the news that Antony was on his way towards the city with the legion Alauda, was imposing a money contribution on the municipal towns, and was marching at the head of the legion with colors flying. He wanted my opinion whether he should start for Rome with his army of 3,000 veterans, or should hold Capua, and so intercept Antony’s advance, or should join the three Macedonian legions now sailing by the Adriatic Sea, which he hopes are devoted to himself. They refused to accept a bounty offered them by Antony, as my informant at least says. They even used grossly insulting language to him, and moved off when he attempted to address them. In short, Octavian offers himself as our military leader, and thinks that our right policy is to stand by him. On my part I advised his making for Rome. For I think that he will have not only the city mob, but, if he can impress them with confidence, the loyalists also on his side. Oh, Brutus, where are you? What an opportunity you are losing? For my part, I did not foresee this, but I thought that something of the sort would happen. Now, I desire to have your advice. Shall I come to Rome or stay on here? Or am I to fly to Arpinum? There is a sense of security about that place! My opinion is—Rome, lest my absence should be remarked, if people think that a blow has been struck. Unravel this difficulty. I was never in greater perplexity.
Decimus Brutus was one of the assassins of Julius Caesar. In 43 his army was besieged in northern Italy by Marc Antony, and liberated by the army of young Caesar (Octavian). The Senate foolishly tried to shunt Octavian aside, so he soon formed an alliance with Antony. Decimus was captured and killed by order of Antony, and Cicero was murdered in November.
To Decimus Brutus in Letters to Friends 11, 20 (May 24, 43 BCE)
What I don’t do for myself my love for you and your kindnesses to me force me to do—to fear. For though I have often heard the story before, and never thought lightly of it, quite recently Segulius Labeo—and it was exactly like him—tells me that he has been in Caesar’s company, and that there was a great deal of talk about you. That Caesar himself had no complaint to make against you, except as to an epigram which he said that you uttered: “that the young man must be complimented, honored, and—got rid of.” He said that he did not mean to give them the chance of getting rid of him. I believe for my part that Labeo told him this epigram or made it up himself, and that it was not mentioned first by the young man. As for the veterans, Labeo would have me believe that their language is abominable, that you are in imminent danger from them, and that they are exceedingly indignant at neither Caesar nor myself being among the 10 commissioners, and at everything being put in the hands of your party. Having heard these stories, and being already on the march, I did not think that I ought to allow myself to cross the Alps until I knew what was going on with you in Rome. For as to your danger, believe me they hope by swaggering language and threats of danger to make great profit for themselves, when they have cowed you and egged on the young man, and that all that talk about your epigram has one origin—their desire to do as good a stroke of business as possible. Not, however, that I wouldn’t have you be cautious and avoid traps: for nothing can be dearer and more precious to me than your life. …