§4.3.1vehementer te esse sollicitum et in communibus miseriis praecipuo quodam dolore angi multi ad nos cotidie deferunt.
Daily many people report to me that you are exceedingly anxious and distressed by a peculiar grief amid the common miseries.
quod quamquam minime miror et meum quodam modo agnosco, doleo tamen te sapientia praeditum prope singulari non tuis bonis delectari potius quam alienis malis laborare.
Although I do not wonder at this at all and in a way recognize it as my own, yet I grieve that you, endowed with an almost singular wisdom, do not rather delight in your own good things than suffer from the evils of others.
me quidem, etsi nemini concedo, qui maiorem ex pernicie et peste rei publicae molestiam traxerit, tamen multa iam consolantur maximeque conscientia consiliorum meorum.
As for me, indeed, although I yield to no one who has drawn greater trouble from the ruin and plague of the republic, yet many things already console me, and especially the consciousness of my plans.
multo enim ante tamquam ex aliqua specula prospexi tempestatem futuram, neque id solum mea sponte, sed multo etiam magis monente et denuntiante te.
For long before, as if from some watchtower, I foresaw the future storm, and that not of my own accord alone, but even much more because of your advising and warning.
etsi enim afui magnam partem consulatus tui, tamen et absens cognoscebam, quae esset tua in hoc pestifero bello cavendo et praedicendo sententia, et ipse adfui primis temporibus tui consulatus, cum accuratissime monuisti senatum conlectis omnibus bellis civilibus, ut et illa timerent, quae meminissent, et scirent, cum superiores nullo tali exemplo antea in re publica cognito tam crudeles fuissent, quicumque postea rem publicam oppressisset armis, multo intolerabiliorem futurum.
For although I was absent during a great part of your consulship, yet even while absent I knew what your opinion was in avoiding and foretelling this pestilential war; and I myself was present in the first period of your consulship, when you most carefully warned the senate, having reviewed all the civil wars, that they should both fear those things which they remembered, and know that, since the earlier men, with no such example previously known in the republic, had been so cruel, whoever afterwards should oppress the republic with arms would be much more intolerable.
nam, quod exemplo fit, id etiam iure fieri putant, ipsi aliquid atque adeo multa addunt et adferunt de suo.
For what is done by example, that they think is done even by right; and they themselves add and bring something, and indeed many things, of their own.
§4.3.2qua re meminisse debes eos, qui auctoritatem et consilium tuum non sint secuti, sua stultitia occidisse, cum tua prudentia salvi esse potuissent.
Therefore you ought to remember that those who did not follow your authority and counsel have fallen by their own folly, when they could have been safe by your prudence.
dices: 'quid me ista res consolatur in tantis tenebris et quasi parietinis rei publicae?' est omnino vix consolabilis dolor; tanta est omnium rerum amissio et desperatio reciperandi;
You will say: 'What does that matter console me in such great darkness and as it were the ruins of the republic?' It is altogether a pain scarcely consolable; so great is the loss of all things and the despair of recovering them.
sed tamen et Caesar ipse ita de te iudicat et omnes cives sic existimant, quasi lumen aliquod exstinctis ceteris elucere sanctitatem et prudentiam et dignitatem tuam.
But yet both Caesar himself judges thus of you, and all citizens think so, as if, other lights being extinguished, your sanctity, prudence, and dignity shine forth like some light.
haec tibi ad levandas molestias magna esse debent.
These things ought to be of great weight to you for alleviating your troubles.
quod autem a tuis abes, id eo levius ferendum est, quod eodem tempore a multis et magnis molestiis abes; quas ad te omnis perscriberem, nisi vererer ne ea cognosceres absens, quae quia non vides, mihi videris meliore esse condicione quam nos, qui videmus.
Moreover, as to your being absent from your loved ones, this is to be borne more lightly for this reason, that at the same time you are absent from many and great troubles; all of which I would write to you, if I did not fear that you would learn in your absence of those things which, because you do not see them, make you seem to me to be in a better condition than we who do see them.
§4.3.3hactenus existimo nostram consolationem recte adhibitam esse, quoad certior ab homine amicissimo fieres iis de rebus, quibus levari possent molestiae tuae.
Thus far I think my consolation has been rightly applied, so far as you might be made more sure by a most friendly man concerning those things by which your troubles could be alleviated.
reliqua sunt in te ipso neque mihi ignota nec minima solacia, ut quidem ego sentio, multo maxima; quae ego experiens cotidie sic probo, ut ea mihi salutem adferre videantur.
The rest are in yourself, consolations neither unknown to me nor the least, but indeed, as I feel, by far the greatest; which I, experiencing daily, so approve that they seem to bring me salvation.
te autem ab initio aetatis memoria teneo summe omnium doctrinarum studiosum fuisse omniaque, quae a sapientissimis ad bene vivendum tradita essent, summo studio curaque didicisse; quae quidem vel optimis rebus et usui et delectationi esse possent, his vero temporibus habemus aliud nihil, in quo adquiescamus.
For I remember that you from the beginning of your life have been most zealous of all learning, and have learned with the greatest zeal and care all things which had been handed down by the wisest men for living well; which indeed, even in the best of times, could be both of use and of delight, but in these times we have nothing else in which we may find rest.
nihil faciam insolenter neque te tali vel scientia vel natura praeditum hortabor, ut ad eas te referas artis, quibus a primis temporibus aetatis studium tuum dedisti; §4.3.4tantum dicam, quod te spero approbaturum, me, postea quam illi arti, cui studueram, nihil esse loci neque in curia neque in foro viderem, omnem meam curam atque operam ad philosophiam contulisse.
I will do nothing presumptuously, nor will I exhort you, endowed with such knowledge and nature, to return to those arts to which you gave your zeal from the earliest times of your life; I will only say, which I hope you will approve, that after I saw that there was no place left for that art which I had studied, neither in the senate-house nor in the forum, I directed all my care and effort to philosophy.
tuae scientiae excellenti ac singulari non multo plus quam nostrae relictum est loci.
For your excellent and unique knowledge, not much more place is left than for mine.
qua re non equidem te moneo, sed mihi ita persuasi, te quoque in isdem versari rebus, quae etiam si minus prodessent, animum tamen a sollicitudine abducerent.
Therefore I indeed do not advise you, but I have so persuaded myself that you too are occupied in the same things, which, even if they should be of less benefit, would nevertheless draw away the mind from anxiety.
Servius quidem tuus in omnibus ingenuis artibus in primisque in hac, in qua ego me scripsi adquiescere, ita versatur, ut excellat; a me vero sic diligitur, ut tibi, uni concedam, praeterea nemini; mihique ab eo gratia refertur, in quo ille existimat, quod facile appareat, cum me colat et observet, tibi quoque in eo se facere gratissimum.
Indeed, your Servius is so engaged in all the liberal arts, and especially in this one in which I wrote that I find rest, that he excels; and he is indeed so loved by me that I yield only to you, and to no one else besides; and gratitude is returned to me by him, in which he thinks—as indeed easily appears when he cultivates and respects me—that in doing this he does what is most pleasing to you too.