§22cessit auctoritati amplissimi viri vel potius paruit: una est profectus cum eis quorum erat una causa.
Tubero yielded to the authority of a most distinguished man, or rather obeyed him; he set out together with those who shared the same cause.
tardius iter fecit; itaque in Africam venit iam occupatam.
He delayed his journey; and so he arrived in Africa when it was already occupied.
hinc in Ligarium crimen oritur vel ira potius.
From this arises the charge against Ligarius, or rather anger.
nam si crimen est voluisse, non minus magnum est vos Africam, arcem omnium provinciarum, natam ad bellum contra hanc urbem gerendum, obtinere voluisse quam aliquem se maluisse.
For if it is a crime to have wished [to hold it], it is no less a crime that you wished to hold Africa, the citadel of all provinces, born to wage war against this city, than that someone preferred himself [to remain there].
atque is tamen aliquis Ligarius non fuit: Varus imperium se habere dicebat; fascis certe habebat.
And yet that "someone" was not Ligarius: Varus said that he held the command; he certainly had the fasces.
§23sed quoquo modo se illud habet, haec querela, Tubero, vestra quid valet?
recepti in provinciam non sumus. quid, si essetis? Caesarine eam tradituri fuistis an contra Caesarem retenturi? vide quid licentiae, Caesar, nobis tua liberalitas det vel potius audaciae.
But however that may be, Tubero, what weight does this complaint of yours carry? "We were not received into the province." What if you had been? Were you going to hand it over to Caesar, or hold it against Caesar? See, Caesar, what license, or rather what boldness, your generosity gives us.
si responderit Tubero, Africam, quo senatus eum sorsque miserat, tibi patrem suum traditurum fuisse, non dubitabo apud ipsum te cuius id eum facere interfuit gravissimis verbis eius consilium reprehendere.
If Tubero answers that his father was going to hand over Africa to you, [the province] where the senate and the lot had sent him, I will not hesitate to censure his plan in the gravest terms before you yourself, whose interest it was that he should do so.
non enim, si tibi ea res grata fuisset, esset etiam approbata.
For, even if that action would have been pleasing to you, it would not also have been approved.
§24sed iam hoc totum omitto, non ultra offendam tuas patientissimas auris quam ne Tubero quod numquam cogitavit facturus fuisse videatur.
But now I pass over all this, nor will I further offend your most patient ears than lest Tubero should seem about to do what he never thought of.
veniebatis igitur in provinciam, unam ex omnibus huic victoriae maxime infensam, in qua rex potentissimus inimicus huic causae, aliena voluntas conventus firmi atque magni.
You came, therefore, into the province, the one of all most hostile to this victory, in which a most powerful king was an enemy to this cause, and the disposition of a strong and large association was hostile.
quaero: quid facturi fuistis? quamquam quid facturi fueritis dubitem, cum videam quid feceritis? prohibiti estis in provincia vestra pedem ponere et prohibiti summa cum iniuria.
I ask: what were you going to do? Although should I doubt what you were going to do when I see what you did? You were forbidden to set foot in your province, and forbidden with the greatest injustice.
§25quo modo id tulistis? acceptae iniuriae querelam ad quem detulistis? nempe ad eum cuius auctoritatem secuti in societatem belli veneratis.
How did you bear it? To whom did you bring your complaint of the injustice you received? To him, of course, whose authority you followed when you joined the alliance of war.
quod si Caesaris causa in provinciam veniebatis, ad eum profecto exclusi provincia venissetis.
But if you were coming into the province for Caesar's sake, you would surely have come to Caesar when excluded from the province.
venistis ad Pompeium.
You went to Pompey.
quae est ergo apud Caesarem querela, cum eum accusetis a quo queramini prohibitos vos contra Caesarem gerere bellum? atque in hoc quidem vel cum mendacio, si voltis, gloriemini per me licet, vos provinciam fuisse Caesari tradituros.
What complaint is there then before Caesar, when you accuse him by whom you complain that you were prevented from waging war against Caesar? And indeed in this matter, if you wish, you may even boast with a lie, as far as I am concerned, that you were going to hand over the province to Caesar.
etiam si a Varo et a quibusdam aliis prohibiti estis, ego tamen confitebor culpam esse Ligari qui vos tantae laudis occasione privarit.
Even if you were forbidden by Varus and certain others, I will nevertheless confess that it was the fault of Ligarius, who deprived you of the opportunity for such great praise.
§26sed vide, quaeso, Caesar, constantiam ornatissimi viri L. Tuberonis, quam ego, quamvis ipse probarem, ut probo, tamen non commemorarem, nisi a te cognovissem in primis eam virtutem solere laudari.
But look, I pray, Caesar, at the consistency of the most honored man, Lucius Tubero, which I, although I myself approve of it, as indeed I do, would nevertheless not mention unless I knew from you that this virtue is accustomed to be praised in the highest degree.
quae fuit igitur umquam in ullo homine tanta constantia? Constantiam dico; nescio an melius patientiam possim dicere.
What consistency, then, was ever so great in any man? Consistency, I say; I know not whether I might better call it patience.
quotus enim istud quisque fecisset ut, a quibus partibus in dissensione civili non esset receptus, essetque etiam cum crudelitate reiectus, ad eas ipsas partis rediret? Magni cuiusdam animi atque eius viri quem de suscepta causa propositaque sententia nulla contumelia, nulla vis, nullum periculum posset depellere.
For how few would have done this, to return to those very parts from which they had not been received in a civil dissension, and indeed had been rejected with cruelty? [It was the act] of a certain great mind, and of a man whom no insult, no force, no danger could turn away from the cause he had undertaken and the opinion he had proposed.
§27ut enim cetera paria Tuberoni cum Varo fuissent, honos, nobilitas, splendor, ingenium, quae nequaquam fuerunt, hoc certe praecipuum Tuberonis quod iusto cum imperio ex senatus consulto in provinciam suam venerat.
For even if other things had been equal between Tubero and Varus—honor, nobility, distinction, talent, which they were by no means—this indeed was the special privilege of Tubero, that he had come into his own province by a decree of the senate with a lawful command.
hinc prohibitus non ad Caesarem ne iratus, non domum ne iners, non aliquam in regionem ne condemnare causam illam quam secutus esset videretur: in Macedoniam ad Cn. Pompei castra venit, in eam ipsam causam a qua erat reiectus iniuria.
Forbidden from here, he did not go to Caesar, lest he should seem angry; nor home, lest he should seem inactive; nor to any other region, lest he should seem to condemn that cause which he had followed: he came to Macedonia, to the camp of Gnaeus Pompey, to that very cause from which he had been unjustly rejected.