Cicero · Letters to Friends §2.5.1-2.5.2

Rome's Political Turmoil and Hopes for Curio

Passage 25 of 413 · Latin

Summary

Cicero avoids detailing the miserable political state of Rome in his letter, but congratulates Curio on his absence, which spares him from witnessing the decline and elevates his reputation, while urging him to prepare himself as a citizen capable of restoring the ruined republic.

§2.5.1haec negotia quo modo se habeant, ne epistula quidem narrare audeo.

How these affairs stand, I do not dare to tell even in a letter.

tibi, etsi, ubicumque es, ut scripsi ad te ante, in eadem es navi, tamen, quod abes, gratulor, vel quia non vides ea quae nos, vel quod excelso et inlustri loco sita est laus tua in plurimorum et sociorum et civium conspectu, quae ad nos nec obscuro nec vario sermone, sed et clarissima et una omnium voce perfertur.

To you, although, wherever you are, as I wrote to you before, you are in the same boat, yet, because you are absent, I congratulate you, either because you do not see those things which we see, or because your praise has been established in a high and illustrious place in the sight of very many of both allies and citizens, which is brought to us neither by obscure nor by varied rumor, but by the clearest and single voice of all.

§2.5.2unum illud nescio, gratulerne tibi an timeam, quod mirabilis est exspectatio reditus tui, non quo verear ne tua virtus opinioni hominum non respondeat, sed me hercule ne, cum veneris, non habeas iam, quod cures; ita sunt omnia debilitata et iam prope exstincta.

One thing I do not know, whether to congratulate you or to fear, because the expectation of your return is wonderful; not that I fear lest your virtue should not respond to the opinion of men, but, by Hercules, lest, when you come, you may no longer have anything to care for; so weakened are all things and now almost extinct.

sed haec ipsa nescio rectene sint litteris commissa; qua re cetera cognosces ex aliis.

But whether these very things have been properly committed to a letter, I do not know; therefore you will learn the rest from others.

tu tamen, sive habes aliquam spem de re publica sive desperas, ea para, meditare, cogita, quae esse in eo civi ac viro debent, qui sit rem publicam adflictam et oppressam miseris temporibus ac perditis moribus in veterem dignitatem et libertatem vindicaturus.

You, however, whether you have some hope for the republic or despair, prepare, meditate, and think on those things which ought to be in that citizen and man who is about to restore the republic, afflicted and oppressed by miserable times and ruined morals, to its ancient dignity and freedom.

Notes

2.5.1quod abes, gratulor — The verb gratulor takes a quod clause (quod abes, 'that you are absent') to express the ground of congratulation. The subsequent clauses introduced by vel quia... vel quod... function as adverbial clauses of reason further explaining why the writer congratulates him on his absence, resulting in a complex causal structure.
2.5.2non quo verear — The construction non quo followed by the subjunctive (verear) is used to reject a suspected or hypothetical reason ('not that I fear'). This is contrasted with the following clause sed... ne..., where the verb of fearing (verear) is implied from the context ('but [I fear] lest...').
2.5.2qui sit... vindicaturus — A relative clause of characteristic modifying the antecedent eo civi ac viro ('that citizen and man'). The subjunctive of the active periphrastic conjugation (sit... vindicaturus) describes the character, destination, or potentiality of such a person ('who is destined to/would restore').

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Friends §2.5.1-2.5.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi056.humanitext-lat1:2.5.1-2.5.2

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