§3.8.7unum genus excipio sermonis, in quo persaepe aliquid dicitur, quod te putem nolle dici, si aut legatorum tuorum quoipiam aut praefectorum aut tribunorum militum male dicitur; quod tamen ipsum non mehercule adhuc accidit, me audiente ut aut gravius diceretur aut in pluris, quam mecum Corcyrae Clodius est locutus, cum in eo genere maxime quereretur te aliorum improbitate minus felicem fuisse.
I except one class of discourse, in which something is very often said which I think you would not wish to be said, if evil is spoken of any of your legates or prefects or military tribunes; which very thing, however, by Hercules, has not yet happened in my hearing, so that it was spoken either more severely or against more people than Clodius spoke with me at Corcyra, when he complained most of all in that class that you had been less fortunate through the wickedness of others.
hos ego sermones, quod et multi sunt et tuam existimationem, ut ego sentio, non offendunt, lacessivi numquam, sed non valde repressi.
These speeches, because they are both numerous and, as I feel, do not offend your reputation, I have never provoked, but I have not strongly repressed them.
si quis est qui neminem bona fide in gratiam putet redire posse, non nostram is perfidiam coarguit, sed indicat suam, simulque non de me is peius quam de te existimat; sin autem quem mea instituta in provincia non delectant et quadam dissimilitudine institutorum meorum ac tuorum laedi se putat, cum uterque nostrum recte fecerit, sed non idem uterque secutus sit, hunc ego amicum habere non curo.
If there is anyone who thinks that no one can return to favor in good faith, he does not prove our bad faith, but indicates his own, and at the same time he does not think worse of me than of you; but if, on the other hand, there is someone whom my arrangements in the province do not please and who thinks himself injured by a certain dissimilarity between my arrangements and yours, although each of us acted rightly, but each did not follow the same path, I do not care to have this man as a friend.
§3.8.8liberalitas tua ut hominis nobilissimi latius in provincia patuit; nostra si angustior est (etsi de tua prolixa beneficaque natura limavit aliquid posterior annus propter quandam tristitiam temporum), non debent mirari homines, cum et natura semper ad largiendum ex alieno fuerim restrictior et temporibus, quibus alii moventur, isdem ego movear, 'med esse acerbum sibi, uti sim dulcis mihi. ' §3.8.9de rebus urbanis quod me certiorem fecisti, cum per se mihi gratum fuit, tum quod significasti tibi omnia mea mandata curae fore.
Your liberality, as that of a most noble man, was more widely manifest in the province; if ours is more restricted (although the latter year scraped away something from your abundant and beneficent nature due to a certain gloominess of the times), people ought not to wonder, since both by nature I have always been more restricted in giving from another's property, and I am moved by the same times by which others are moved, so that 'I am harsh to them, that I may be sweet to myself.' As to your informing me about urban affairs, it was both pleasing to me in itself, and also because you indicated that all my commissions would be a care to you.
in quibus unum illud te praecipue rogo ut cures, ne quid mihi ad hoc negoti aut oneris accedat aut temporis, Hortensiumque, nostrum conlegam et familiarem, roges ut, si umquam mea causa quicquam aut sensit aut fecit, de hac quoque sententia bima decedat, qua mihi nihil potest esse inimicius.
Among which I especially ask you to care for this one thing: that no addition of business, burden, or time be made to this office of mine, and that you ask Hortensius, our colleague and intimate friend, that, if he has ever thought or done anything for my sake, he should also recede from this motion for a two-year term, than which nothing can be more hostile to me.
§3.8.10de nostris rebus quod scire vis, Tarso Nonis Octobribus ad Amanum versus profecti sumus; haec scripsi postridie eius dici, cum castra haberem in agro Mopsuhestiae si quid egero, scribam ad te neque domum umquam ad me litteras mittam, quin adiungam eas, quas tibi reddi velim.
As to what you wish to know about our affairs, we set out from Tarsus on the Nones of October towards the Amanus; I wrote this on the day after that day, when I had my camp in the territory of Mopsuhestia. If I achieve anything, I will write to you, nor will I ever send a letter to my home without adding those which I would wish to be delivered to you.
de Parthis quod quaeris, fuisse nullos puto; Arabes qui fuerunt admixto Parthico ornatu, dicuntur omnes revertisse; hostem esse in Syria negant ullum.
As to what you ask about the Parthians, I think there were none; the Arabs who were there, with an admixture of Parthian equipment, are all said to have returned; they deny that there is any enemy in Syria.
tu velim ad me quam saepissime et de tuis rebus scribas et de meis et de omni rei publicae statu; de quo sum sollicitus eo magis, quod ex tuis litteris cognovi Pompeium nostrum in Hispaniam iturum.
I would wish you to write to me as often as possible both about your affairs and about mine and about the entire state of the republic; about which I am all the more anxious because I learned from your letter that our Pompey is going to Spain.