§1.9.23quod rogas, ut mea tibi scripta mittam, quae post discessum tuum scripserim, sunt orationes quaedam, quas Menocrito dabo, neque ita multae, ne pertimescas.
As for your request that I send you my writings, which I have written since your departure, they are certain speeches, which I will give to Menocritus, and they are not so many, lest you be terrified.
scripsi etiam (nam animum ab orationibus diiungo fere referoque ad mansuetiores Musas, quae me maxime sicut iam a prima adulescentia e delectarunt)—scripsi igitur Aristotelio more, quem ad modum quidem volui, tris libros in disputatione ac dialogo 'de oratore,' quos arbitror Lentulo tuo fore non inutilis; abhorrent enim a communibus praeceptis atque omnem antiquorum et Aristoteliam et Isocratiam rationem oratoriam complectuntur.
I have also written—for I usually dissociate my mind from speeches and bring it back to the gentler Muses, which have delighted me most since my early youth—I have therefore written, in the Aristotelian manner, just as I wished, three books in the form of a discussion and dialogue 'On the Orator,' which I think will be not useless to your Lentulus; for they differ from common precepts and embrace the entire oratorical system of the ancients, both Aristotelian and Isocratean.
scripsi etiam versibus tris libros 'de temporibus meis'; quos iam pridem ad te misissem, si esse edendos putassem; sunt enim testes et erunt sempiterni meritorum erga me tuorum meaeque pietatis, † sed, quia verebar non eos, qui se laesos arbitrarentur (etenim id feci parce et molliter), sed eos, quos erat infinitum bene de me meritos omnis nominare.
I have also written in verse three books 'On My Times'; which I would have sent to you long ago, if I had thought they ought to be published; for they are and will be everlasting witnesses of your merits toward me and of my piety, † but because I feared not those who might think themselves injured (for indeed I did this sparingly and gently), but those whom it would be endless to name all as having deserved well of me.
quos tamen ipsos libros, si quem, cui recte committam, invenero, curabo ad te perferendos.
These books themselves, however, if I find anyone to whom I may properly entrust them, I will take care to have delivered to you.
atque istam quidem partem vitae consuetudinisque nostrae totam ad te defero; quantum litteris, quantum studiis, veteribus nostris delectationibus, consequi poterimus, id omne ad arbitrium tuum, qui haec semper amasti, libentissime conferemus.
And indeed I defer that whole part of our life and habits entirely to you; whatever we shall be able to achieve by literature, by studies, our old delights, all of that we will most willingly contribute to your judgment, you who have always loved these things.
§1.9.24quae ad me de tuis rebus domesticis scribis quaeque mihi commendas ea tantae mihi curae sunt, ut me nolim admoneri, rogari vero sine magno dolore vix possim.
What you write to me about your domestic affairs and what you commend to me are of such great concern to me that I would not wish to be reminded, and indeed I can scarcely be asked without great pain.
quod de Quinti fratris negotio scribis, te priore aestate, quod morbo impeditus in Ciliciam non transieris, conficere non potuisse, nunc autem omnia facturum, ut conficias, id scito esse eius modi, ut frater meus vere existimet adiuncto isto fundo patrimonium fore suum per te constitutum.
What you write concerning the business of my brother Quintus, that you could not finish it last summer because, prevented by illness, you did not cross over into Cilicia, but that now you will do everything to finish it, know that this is of such a kind that my brother truly thinks his patrimony, with that farm added, will be established through you.
tu me de tuis rebus omnibus et de Lentuli tui nostrique studiis et exercitationibus velim quam familiarissime certiorem et quam saepissime facias existimesque neminem cuiquam neque cariorem neque iucundiorem umquam fuisse quam te mihi, idque me non modo ut tu sentias, sed ut omnes gentes, etiam ut posteritas omnis intellegat esse facturum.
I would wish you to inform me as familiarly and as frequently as possible about all your affairs, and about the studies and exercises of your Lentulus and ours, and to think that no one has ever been dearer or more pleasant to anyone than you are to me, and that I will act not only so that you may feel this, but so that all nations, and even all posterity, may understand it.
§1.9.25Appius in sermonibus antea dictitabat, postea dixit etiam in senatu palam sese, si licitum esset legem curiatam ferre, sortiturum esse cum conlega provinciam; si curiata lex non esset, se paraturum cum conlega tibique successurum; legemque curiatam consuli ferri opus esse, necesse non esse; se, quoniam ex senatus consulto provinciam haberet, lege Cornelia imperium habiturum, quoad in urbem introisset.
Appius used to say repeatedly in conversations before, and afterwards he said even openly in the senate, that if it were permitted to propose a curiate law, he would draw lots for the province with his colleague; if there were no curiate law, he would make an arrangement with his colleague and succeed you; and that it was desirable for a curiate law to be proposed for a consul, but not necessary; and that since he had the province by a decree of the senate, he would have the command by the Cornelian law until he entered the city.
ego, quid ad te tuorum quisque necessariorum scribat, nescio; varias esse opiniones intellego.
I do not know what each of your close friends writes to you; I understand that opinions are various.
sunt, qui putant posse te non decedere, quod sine lege curiata tibi succedatur; sunt etiam, qui, si decedas, a te relinqui posse, qui provinciae praesit.
There are those who think that you do not have to depart, because a successor is coming to you without a curiate law; there are also those who think that, if you depart, someone can be left by you to govern the province.
mihi non tam de incertum est (quamquam ne id quidem valde dubium est) quam illud, ad tuam summam amplitudinem, dignitatem, libertatem, qua te scio libentissime frui solere, pertinere te sine ulla mora provinciam successori concedere, praesertim cum sine suspicione tuae cupiditatis non possis illius cupiditatem refutare.
To me, it is not so much that matter which is uncertain (although not even that is highly doubtful) as the other, that it pertains to your supreme distinction, dignity, and freedom, which I know you are accustomed to enjoy most willingly, that you yield the province to your successor without any delay, especially since you cannot reject his desire without suspicion of your own desire.
ego utrumque meum puto esse, et quid sentiam ostendere et quod feceris defendere.
I think both are my duty, both to show what I think and to defend what you do.
§1.9.26scripta iam epistula superiore accepi tuas litteras de publicanis, in quibus aequitatem tuam non potui non probare; felicitate a quid vellem consequi potuisses, ne eius ordinis, quem semper ornasti, rem aut voluntatem offenderes.
When the previous letter had already been written, I received your letter about the publicani, in which I could not but approve of your equity; I wish you had been able to achieve it with a certain good fortune, so as not to offend the interest or the will of that order which you have always adorned.
equidem non desinam tua decreta defendere, sed nosti consuetudinem hominum;
For my part, I will not cease to defend your decrees, but you know the custom of men; you know how grievously they were enemies to Q.
scis, quam graviter inimici ipsi illi Q. Scaevolae fuerint.
Scaevola himself.
tibi tamen sum auctor, ut, si quibus rebus possis, eum tibi ordinem aut reconcilies aut mitiges.
Yet I advise you that, by whatever means you can, you either reconcile or mitigate that order to yourself.
id etsi difficile est, tamen mihi videtur esse prudentiae tuae.
Although this is difficult, yet it seems to me to belong to your wisdom.