§3.7.1pluribus verbis ad te scribam, cum plus oti nactus ero; haec scripsi subito, cum Bruti pueri Laudiceae me convenissent et se Romam properare dixissent.
I will write to you with more words when I have obtained more leisure; I wrote these things suddenly, when the slaves of Brutus had met me at Laodicea and said that they were hastening to Rome.
itaque nullas iis praeterquam ad te et ad Brutum dedi litteras
Therefore, I gave them no letters except to you and to Brutus.
§3.7.2legati Appiani mihi volumen a te plenum querelae iniquissimae reddiderunt, quod corum aedificationem litteris meis impedissem.
The envoys of Appia delivered to me a scroll from you full of most unjust complaint, because I had hindered their construction by my letters.
eadem autem epistula petebas ut cos quam primum, ne in hiemem inciderent, ad facultatem aedificandi liberarem, et simul peracute querebare, quod eos tributa exigere vetarem prius quam ego re cognita permisissem; genus enim quoddam fuisse impediendi, cum ego cognoscere non possem, nisi cum ad hiemem me ex
Moreover, in the same letter you requested that I should release them as soon as possible for the opportunity of building, lest they should run into winter, and at the same time you complained very sharply because I forbade them to collect taxes before I, having investigated the matter, had permitted it; for [you said] that it was a certain kind of hindrance, since I could not investigate except when I had returned from Cilicia.
§3.7.3Cilicia recepissem. ad omnia accipe et cognosce aequitatem expostulationis tuae.
Hear my reply to all this and recognize the "justice" of your expostulation.
primum, cum ad me aditum esset ab iis, qui dicerent a se intolerabilia tributa exigi, quid habuit iniquitatis me scribere, ne facerent, ante quam ego rem causamque cognossem? non poteram, credo, ante hiemem; sic enim scribis.
First, when an approach had been made to me by those who said that intolerable taxes were being exacted from them, what injustice did it have that I wrote that they should not do so before I had investigated the matter and the cause? I was not able, I suppose, before winter; for so you write.
quasi vero ad cognoscendum ego ad illos, non illi ad me venire debuerint.
As if indeed I ought to have gone to them for the purpose of investigating, and not they to me!
'tam longe?' inquis.
"So far?" you say.
quid? cum dabas iis litteras, per quas mecum agebas, ne eos impedirem, quo minus ante hiemem aedificarent, non eos ad me venturos arbitrabare? tametsi id quidem fecerunt ridicule;
What? When you gave them the letter through which you pleaded with me not to hinder them from building before winter, did you not think that they would come to me?
quas enim litteras adferebant, ut opus aestate facere possent, eas mihi post brumam reddiderunt.
Although indeed they did so ridiculously; for the letter which they were bringing, so that they might be able to do the work in summer, they delivered to me after the winter solstice.
sed scito et multo pluris esse, qui de tributis recusent, quam qui exigi velint, et me tamen, quod te velle existimem, esse facturum.
But know both that those who refuse the taxes are far more numerous than those who wish them to be exacted, and that I, nevertheless, will do what I think you wish.
de Appianis hactenus.
So much for the people of Appia.
§3.7.4A Pausania, Lentuli liberto, accenso meo, audivi, cum diceret te secum esse questum, quod tibi obviam non prodissem.
From Pausanias, the freedman of Lentulus and my accensus, I heard, when he said that you had complained to him because I had not gone out to meet you.
scilicet contempsi te, nec potest fieri me quicquam superbius! Cum puer tuus ad me secunda fere vigilia venisset isque te ante lucem Iconium mihi venturum nuntiasset, incertumque, utra via, cum essent duae, altera Varronem, tuum familiarissimum, altera Q. Leptam, praefectum fabrum meum, tibi obviam misi.
Of course, I despised you, and nothing more arrogant than me can exist! When your slave had come to me around the second watch and had announced to me that you would come to Iconium before dawn, and since it was uncertain which way, as there were two, I sent on one road Varro, your closest friend, and on the other Quintus Lepta, my prefect of engineers, to meet you.
mandavi utrique eorum, ut tante ad me excurrerent, ut tibi obviam prodire possem.
I ordered each of them to run back to me so that I could go out to meet you.
currens Lepta venit mihique nuntiavit te iam castra praetergressum esse.
Lepta came running and informed me that you had already passed by the camp.
confestim Iconium veni.
I immediately went to Iconium.
cetera iam tibi nota sunt.
The rest is already known to you.
an ego tibi obviam non prodirem, primum Ap. Claudio, deinde imperatori, deinde more maiorum, deinde, quod caput est, amico, cum in isto genere multo etiam ambitiosius facere soleam, quam honos meus et dignitas postulat? sed haec hactenus.
Was I not to go out to meet you—first to Appius Clodius, then to an imperator, then according to the custom of our ancestors, and then, what is chief, to a friend, when in that sort of thing I am accustomed to act even much more solicitously than my honor and dignity demand? But so much for these things.
§3.7.5illud idem Pausania dicebat te dixisse: 'quidni? Appius Lentulo, Lentulus Ampio processit obviam, Cicero Appio noluit?' quaeso, etiamne tu has ineptias, homo mea sententia summa prudentia, multa etiam doctrina, plurimo rerum usu, addo urbanitatem, quae est virtus, ut Stoici rectissime putant? ullam Appietatem aut Lentulitatem valere apud me plus quam ornamenta virtutis existimas? Cum ea consecutus nondum eram, quae sunt hominum opinionibus amplissima, tamen ista vestra nomina numquam sum admiratus;
That same Pausanias was saying that you had said: "Why? Appius went out to meet Lentulus, Lentulus to Ampius, but Cicero was unwilling to Appius?" I ask, do even you, a man in my opinion of the highest wisdom, of much learning, of the greatest experience in affairs, and I add urbanity, which is a virtue, as the Stoics most correctly think, hold these absurdities? Do you think that any "Appius-ness" or "Lentulus-ness" has more weight with me than the ornaments of virtue?
viros eos, qui ea vobis reliquissent, magnos arbitrabar. postea vero quam ita et cepi et gessi maxima imperia, ut mihi nihil neque ad honorem neque ad gloriam adquirendum putarem, superiorem quidem numquam, sed parem vobis me speravi esse factum.
When I had not yet attained those things which in the opinions of men are the most ample, yet I never admired those names of yours; I thought those men great who had left them to you.
nec mehercule aliter vidi existimare vel Cn. Pompeium, quem omnibus, qui umquam fuerunt, vel P. Lentulum, quem mihi ipsi antepono;
But after I had so obtained and exercised the greatest military commands that I thought nothing was to be acquired by me for honor or for glory, I hoped that I had been made, never indeed superior, but equal to you.
tu si aliter existimas, nihil errabis, si paulo diligentius, ut, quid sit eu)ge/neia, quid sit nobilitas, intellegas, Athenodorus, Sandonis filius, quid de his rebus dicat, attenderis.
And by Hercules, I have not seen either Gnaeus Pompeius, whom I prefer to all who have ever been, or Publius Lentulus, whom I place before myself, think otherwise; if you think otherwise, you will make no mistake if you pay attention a little more diligently to what Athenodorus, the son of Sandon, says about these things, so that you may understand what is noble birth (εὐγένεια), and what is nobility (nobilitas).
§3.7.6sed ut ad rem redeam, me tibi non amicum modo, verum etiam amicissimum existimes velim.
But to return to the matter, I would like you to think of me not only as a friend, but indeed as a most close friend.
profecto omnibus officiis meis efficiam, ut ita esse vere possis iudicare.
Certainly, I will bring it about by all my services that you can truly judge it to be so.
tu autem si id agis, ut minus mea causa, dum ego absim, debere videaris, quam ego tua laborarim, libero te ista cura; "
pa/r' e)/moige kai\ a)/lloi
oi(/ ke/ me timh/sousi, ma/lista de\ mhti/eta *zeu/s. "
si autem natura es filai/tios, illud non perficies, quo minus tua causa velim; hoc adsequere, ut, quam in partem tu accipias, minus laborem.
But if you are acting in such a way that you may seem to owe less for my sake while I am absent than I have labored for yours, I release you from that care; "For I have others by my side who will honor me, and especially Zeus the counsellor." If, however, you are by nature fond of finding fault (φιλαίτιος), you will not accomplish that I should wish less for your sake; you will achieve this, that I shall labor less as to how you take it.
haec ad te scripsi liberius fretus conscientia offici mei benevolentiaeque, quam a me certo iudicio susceptam, quoad tu voles, conservabo.
I have written these things to you rather freely, relying on the consciousness of my duty and goodwill, which, having been undertaken by me with a certain judgment, I will preserve as long as you wish.