§2.17.1Litteras a te mihi stator tuus reddidit Tarsi a. d. xvi K. Sextilis.
Your messenger delivered your letter to me at Tarsus on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of Sextilis.
his ego ordine, ut videris velle, respondebo.
I will reply to these in order, as you seem to wish.
de successore meo nihil audivi neque quemquam fore arbitror.
I have heard nothing about my successor, nor do I think there will be anyone.
quin ad diem decedam, nulla causa est, praesertim sublato metu Parthico.
There is no reason why I should not depart on the day, especially since the Parthian fear has been removed.
commoraturum me nusquam sane arbitror; Rhodum Ciceronum causa puerorum accessurum puto, neque id tamen certum.
Indeed I do not think I shall delay anywhere; I think I shall visit Rhodes for the sake of the boys, the Ciceros, though even that is not certain.
ad urbem volo quam primum venire; sed tamen iter meum rei publicae et rerum urbanarum ratio gubernabit.
I wish to come to the city as soon as possible; but nevertheless, the state of the republic and of urban affairs will govern my journey.
successor tuus non potest ita maturare, ullo modo ut tu me in Asia possis convenire.
Your successor cannot make such haste that you could in any way meet me in Asia.
§2.17.2de rationibus referendis non erat incommodum te nullas referre, quam tibi scribis a Bibulo fieri potestatem; sed id vix mihi videris per legem Iuliam facere posse, quam Bibulus certa quadam ratione non servat, tibi magno opere servandam censeo.
Concerning the rendering of accounts, it was not inconvenient that you should render none, which opportunity you write is given to you by Bibulus; but you seem to me to be scarcely able to do that under the Julian law, which Bibulus, for some specific reason, does not observe, but which I think you ought to observe with great care.
§2.17.3quod scribis Apamea praesidium deduci non oportuisse, videbam item ceteros existimare molesteque ferebam de ea re minus commodos sermones malevolorum fuisse.
As to your writing that the garrison ought not to have been withdrawn from Apamea, I saw that others also thought the same, and I was displeased that there were rather unfavorable rumors among the malevolent on that matter.
Parthi transierint necne praeter te video dubitare neminem.
I see that no one except you doubts whether the Parthians crossed or not.
itaque omnia praesidia, quae magna et firma paraveram, commotus hominum non dubio sermone dimisi.
Therefore, I dismissed all the garrisons, which I had prepared large and strong, moved by the unambiguous rumors of the people.
§2.17.4rationes mei quaestoris nec verum fuit me tibi mittere, nec tamen erant confectae; eas nos Apameae deponere cogitabamus.
It was neither proper for me to send you the accounts of my quaestor, nor were they completed; we were thinking of depositing them at Apamea.
de praeda mea praeter quaestores urbanos, id est populum Romanum, terruncium nec attigit nec tacturus est quisquam.
Of my booty, no one has touched or is going to touch a single farthing, except the urban quaestors, that is, the Roman people.
Laudiceae me praedes accepturum arbitror omnis pecuniae publicae, ut et mihi et populo cautum sit sine vecturae periculo.
I think I shall accept sureties at Laodicea for all the public money, so that security may be provided both for myself and for the people without the risk of carriage.
quod scribis ad me de drachmum ccciↃↃↃ, nihil est quod in isto genere cuiquam possim commodare; omnis enim pecunia ita tractatur, ut praeda a praefectis, quae autem mihi attributa est, a quaestore curetur.
As to what you write to me about the hundred thousand drachmae, there is nothing of that kind that I can lend to anyone; for all money is so handled, that the booty is managed by the prefects, and that which is assigned to me is managed by the quaestor.
§2.17.5quod quaeris, quid existimem de legionibus quae decretae sunt in Syriam, antea dubitabam venturaene essent; nunc mihi non est dubium quin, si antea auditum erit otium esse in Syria, venturae non sint; Marium quidem successorem tarde video esse venturum, propterea quod senatus ita decrevit, ut cum legionibus iret.
As to your question, what I think of the legions which have been decreed for Syria, previously I doubted whether they would come; now I have no doubt that, if it has been heard beforehand that there is peace in Syria, they will not come; indeed I see that Marius, the successor, will come late, because the senate decreed that he should go with the legions.
§2.17.6uni epistulae respondi; venio ad alteram.
I have answered one letter; I come to the other.
Petis a me, ut Bibulo te quam diligentissime commendem.
You ask me to recommend you to Bibulus as earnestly as possible.
in quo mihi voluntas non dest, sed locus esse videtur tecum expostulandi.
In this my goodwill is not lacking, but there seems to be occasion for complaining with you.
solus enim tu ex omnibus, qui cum Bibulo sunt, certiorem me numquam fecisti, quam valde Bibuli voluntas a me sine causa abhorreret.
For you alone of all who are with Bibulus have never informed me how strongly Bibulus's goodwill shrank from me without cause.
permulti enim ad me detulerunt, quom magnus Antiochiae metus esset et magna spes in me atque in exercitu meo, solitum dicere quidvis se perpeti malle quam videri eguisse auxilio meo; quod ego officio quaestorio te adductum reticere de praetore tuo non moleste ferebam, quamquam, quem ad modum tractarere, audiebam.
For very many have reported to me that, when there was great fear at Antioch and great hope in me and in my army, he was accustomed to say that he would rather suffer anything than seem to have needed my help; which fact I was not annoyed that you, led by your quaestorial duty, kept silent about your praetor, although I kept hearing how you were being treated.
ille autem, cum ad Thermum de Parthico bello scriberet, ad me litteram numquam misit, ad quem intellegebat eius belli periculum pertinere; tantum de auguratu fili sui scripsit ad me; in quo ego misericordia commotus, et quod semper amicissimus Bibulo fui, dedi operam ut ei quam humanissime scriberem.
But he, when writing to Thermus about the Parthian war, never sent a letter to me, to whom he understood the danger of that war belonged; he only wrote to me about his son's augurship; in which matter, moved by pity and because I have always been most friendly to Bibulus, I took care to write to him as humanely as possible.
§2.17.7ille si in omnis est malevolus, quod numquam existimavi, minus offendor in me; sin autem a me est alienior, nihil tibi meae litterae proderunt; nam, ad senatum quas Bibulus litteras misit, in iis, quod mihi cum illo erat commune, sibi soli attribuit: se ait curasse ut cum quaestu populi pecunia permutaretur; quod autem meum erat proprium, ut alariis Transpadanis uti negarem, id etiam populo se remisisse scribit; quod vero illius erat solius, id mecum communicat: 'equitibus auxiliariis,' inquit, 'cum amplius frumenti postularemus. ' illud vero pusilli animi et ipsa malevolentia ieiuni atque inanis, quod Ariobarzanem, quia senatus per me regem appellavit mihique commendavit, iste in litteris non regem, sed regis Ariobarzanis filium appellat.
If he is malevolent toward everyone, which I never thought, I am less offended regarding myself; but if he is especially estranged from me, my letter will be of no use to you; for in the letter which Bibulus sent to the senate, what was common to me and him, he attributed to himself alone: he says that he took care that the money should be exchanged to the advantage of the people; while what was my own proper act, namely, refusing to use the Transpadane auxiliaries, he writes that he remitted that also to the people; but what indeed was his alone, he shares with me: "when we," he says, "demanded more corn for the auxiliary cavalry." That indeed is the mark of a petty mind and one barren and empty of goodwill itself, that although the senate called Ariobarzanes king through me and commended him to me, that fellow in his letter calls him not king, but the son of king Ariobarzanes.
hoc animo qui sunt, deteriores fiunt rogati.
Those who are of this mind become worse when requested.
sed tibi morem gessi; litteras ad eum scripsi, quas cum acceperis, facies quod voles.
But I have complied with your wish; I have written a letter to him, which when you receive, you will do what you wish.