§15.4.13quaeres fortasse quid sit quod ego hoc nescio quid gratulationis et honoris a senatu tanti aestimem.
Perhaps you will ask why it is that I value this whatever-it-is of congratulation and honor from the senate so highly.
agam iam tecum familiariter, ut est et studiis et officiis nostris mutuis et summa amicitia dignum et necessitudine etiam paterna.
I will now speak with you intimately, as is worthy of our common studies, our mutual duties, our greatest friendship, and even our paternal connection.
si quisquam fuit umquam remotus et natura et magis etiam, ut mihi quidem sentire videor, ratione atque doctrina ab inani laude et sermonibus vulgi, ego profecto is sum.
If there was ever anyone removed both by nature and even more, as I indeed seem to myself to perceive, by reason and philosophy from empty praise and the gossip of the crowd, I am certainly that man.
Testis est consulatus meus, in quo sicut in reliqua vita fateor ea me studiose secutum ex quibus vera gloria is nasci posset, ipsam quidem gloriam per se numquam putavi expetendam.
My consulship is witness of this, in which, as in the rest of my life, I confess that I eagerly pursued those things from which true glory could arise, yet I never thought that glory itself was to be sought for its own sake.
itaque et provinciam ornatam et spem non dubiam triumphi neglexi, sacerdotium denique, cum, quem ad modum te existimare arbitror, non difficillime consequi possem, non appetivi;
Therefore, I neglected both an equipped province and a certain hope of a triumph; finally, I did not seek the priesthood, although, as I think you judge, I could have obtained it without great difficulty.
idem post iniuriam acceptam, quam tu rei p. calamitatem semper appellas, meam non modo non calamitatem sed etiam gloriam, studui quam ornatissima senatus populique R de me iudicia intercedere.
Yet, the same I, after receiving the injury which you always call a calamity for the state—but for me, not only no calamity but even a glory—strove that the most honorable judgments of the senate and the Roman people concerning me should intercede.
itaque et augur postea fieri volui, quod antea neglexeram, et eum honorem, qui a senatu tribui rebus bellicis solet, neglectum a me olim nunc mihi expetendum puto.
Therefore, I both wished to become an augur afterward, which I had previously neglected, and I now think that that honor, which is accustomed to be given by the senate for military accomplishments and which was once neglected by me, ought to be sought by me.
§15.4.14huic meae voluntati, in qua inest aliqua vis desideri ad sanandum vulnus iniuriae, ut faveas adiutorque sis, quod paulo ante me negaram rogaturum, vehementer te rogo, sed ita, si non ieiunum hoc nescio quid, quod ego gessi, et contemnendum videbitur sed tale atque tantum, ut multi nequaquam paribus rebus honores summos a senatu consecuti sint.
I earnestly ask you to favor and be an assistant to this desire of mine, in which there is some force of longing to heal the wound of the injury—which a little before I had denied that I would ask—but on this condition, if this whatever-it-is that I have done does not seem meager and contemptible, but of such a kind and size that many, by no means with equal achievements, have obtained the highest honors from the senate.
equidem etiam illud mihi animum advertisse videor (scis enim quam attente te audire soleam), te non tam res gestas quam mores instituta atque vitam imperatorum spectare solere in habendis aut non habendis honoribus.
Indeed, I also seem to myself to have noticed this (for you know how attentively I am accustomed to listen to you), that in granting or not granting honors, you are accustomed to look not so much at the achievements as at the character, the principles, and the life of commanders.
quod si in mea causa considerabis, reperies me exercitu imbecillo contra metum maximi belli firmissimum praesidium habuisse aequitatem et continentiam.
If you will consider this in my case, you will find that, with a weak army, against the fear of a very great war, I had my strongest protection in equity and self-restraint.
his ego subsidiis ea sum consecutus, quae nullis legionibus consequi potuissem, ut ex alienissimis sociis amicissimos, ex infidelissimis firmissimos redderem animosque novarum rerum exspectatione suspensos ad veteris imperi benevolentiam traducerem.
By these helps, I achieved those things which I could have achieved with no legions: to make the most alienated allies most friendly, the most unfaithful most steadfast, and to bring back their minds, suspended in expectation of a revolution, to the goodwill of the ancient empire.
§15.4.15sed nimis haec multa de me, praesertim ad te, a quo uno omnium sociorum querelae audiuntur.
But this is too much about myself, especially to you, by whom alone the complaints of all the allies are heard.
cognosces ex iis, qui meis institutis se recreatos putant; cumque omnes uno is prope consensu de me apud te ea quae mihi optatissima sunt praedicabunt, tum duae maxime clientelae tuae, Cyprus insula et Cappadociae regnum, tecum de me loquentur, puto etiam regem Deiotarum, qui uni tibi est maxime necessarius.
You will learn it from those who think they have been restored by my principles; and when almost all with one consent speak before you concerning me those things which are most desirable to me, then your two chief clienteles, the island of Cyprus and the kingdom of Cappadocia, will speak with you about me; I think also King Deiotarus, who is especially closely connected to you alone.
quae si etiam maiora sunt et in omnibus saeculis pauciores viri reperti sunt qui suas cupiditates quam qui hostium copias vincerent, est profecto tuum, cum ad res bellicas haec quae rariora et difficiliora sunt genera virtutis adiunxeris, ipsas etiam illas res gestas iustiores esse et maiores putare.
And if these things are even greater, and in all ages fewer men have been found who conquered their own desires than those who conquered the forces of the enemy, it is surely your part, when you have joined to military achievements these rarer and more difficult kinds of virtue, to think those very achievements to be more just and greater.
§15.4.16extremum illud est, ut quasi diffidens rogationi meae philosophiam ad te adlegem, qua nec mihi carior ulla umquam res in vita fuit nec hominum generi maius a deis munus ullum est datum.
The last thing is that, as if distrusting my petition, I should appeal to you through philosophy, than which nothing was ever dearer to me in life, nor has any greater gift been given by the gods to the human race.
haec igitur, quae mihi tecum communis est, societas studiorum atque artium nostrarum, quibus a pueritia dediti ac devincti soli prope modum nos philosophiam veram illam et antiquam, quae quibusdam oti esse ac desidiae videtur, in forum atque in rem p. atque in ipsam aciem paene deduximus, tecum agit de mea laude; cui negari a Catone fas esse non puto.
Therefore, this partnership of our studies and accomplishments, which is common to me with you, and to which having been devoted and bound from boyhood, we almost alone have brought that true and ancient philosophy, which seems to some to be of leisure and idleness, into the forum, into the state, and almost into the battle-line itself, pleads with you for my honor; which I do not think is lawful to be denied by Cato.
quam ob rem tibi sic persuadeas velim, si mihi tua sententia tributus honos ex meis litteris fuerit, me sic existimaturum, cum auctoritate & tua tum benevolentia erga me mihi quod maxime cupierim contigisse.
Therefore, I would wish you to convince yourself of this: that if honor is given to me by your vote based on my letter, I shall consider that, both by your authority and by your goodwill toward me, what I have most desired has happened to me.