§4.7.1etsi eo te adhuc consilio usum intellego, ut id reprehendere non audeam,. non quin ab eo ipse dissentiam, sed quod ea te sapientia esse iudicem, ut meum consilium non anteponam tuo, tamen et amicitiae nostrae vetustas et tua summa erga me benevolentia, quae mihi iam a pueritia tua cognita est, me hortata est ut ea scriberem ad te, quae et saluti tuae conducere arbitrarer et non aliena esse ducerem a dignitate.
Although I understand that you have hitherto used such a counsel that I do not dare to find fault with it—not that I myself do not dissent from it, but because I judge you to be of such wisdom that I do not prefer my counsel to yours—yet both the antiquity of our friendship and your greatest goodwill towards me, which has been known to me from your boyhood, have encouraged me to write those things to you which I both thought would contribute to your safety and did not consider foreign to your dignity. I well remember that you are the man who saw the beginnings of these evils long before, and conducted the consulship most magnificently and excellently; but I also saw those same things: that you approved neither of the plan of conducting the civil war in that manner, nor of the forces of Cn.
§4.7.2ego eum te esse, qui horum malorum initia multo ante videris, consulatum magnificentissime atque optime gesseris, praeclare memini; sed idem etiam illa vidi, neque te consilium civilis belli ita gerendi nec copias Cn. Pompei nec genus exercitus probare semperque summe diffidere;
Pompeius, nor of the kind of army, and always distrusted them in the highest degree; in which opinion I think you remember that I also was.
qua in sententia me quoque fuisse memoria tenere te arbitror. itaque neque tu multum interfuisti rebus gerendis et ego id semper egi, ne interessem; non enim iis rebus pugna bamus, quibus valere poteramus, consilio, auctoritate, causa, quae erant in nobis superiora, sed lacertis et viribus, quibus pares non eramus.
And so you did not take much part in the management of affairs, and I always made it my object not to take part; for we were not fighting with those things in which we could be strong—counsel, authority, cause, which were superior in us—but with muscles and forces, in which we were not equal.
victi sumus igitur aut, si vinci dignitas non potest, fracti certe et abiecti.
We were therefore conquered, or, if dignity cannot be conquered, we were certainly broken and cast down.
in quo tuum consilium nemo potest non maxime laudare, quod cum spe vincendi simul abiecisti certandi etiam cupiditatem ostendistique sapientem et bonum civem initia belli civilis invitum suscipere, extrema libenter non persequi. §4.7.3qui non idem consilium quod tu secuti sunt, eos video in duo genera esse distractos; aut enim renovare bellum conati sunt, ii qui se in Africam contulerunt, aut quem ad modum nos victori sese crediderunt.
In which matter no one can fail to praise your counsel in the highest degree, because along with the hope of conquering you cast aside at the same time even the desire of contending, and showed that a wise and good citizen undertakes the beginnings of a civil war unwillingly, but does not willingly pursue it to its extremes. Those who did not follow the same counsel as you, I see are divided into two kinds; for they either attempted to renew the war, those who betook themselves to Africa, or, in the manner we did, entrusted themselves to the conqueror.
medium quoddam tuum consilium fuit qui hoc fortasse humilis animi duceres, illud pertinacis.
Your counsel was a kind of middle course, since you perhaps regarded the latter as a mark of a humble spirit, and the former of an obstinate one.
fateor a plerisque vel dicam ab omnibus sapiens tuum consilium, a multis etiam magni ac fortis animi iudicatum; sed habet ista ratio, ut mihi quidem videtur, quendam modum, praesertim cum nihil tibi deesse arbitrer ad tuas fortunas omnis obtinendas praeter voluntatem.
I confess that by most, or indeed I should say by all, your counsel has been judged wise, and by many even of a great and brave spirit; but that view of yours has, as it indeed seems to me, a certain limit, especially since I think nothing is wanting to you for obtaining all your fortunes except your own will.
sic enim intellexi, nihil aliud esse quod dubitationem adferret ei, penes quem est potestas, nisi quod vereretur ne tu illud beneficium omnino non putares. de quo quid sentiam nihil attinet dicere, cum appareat, ipse quid fecerim.
For I have understood this: that there is nothing else which brings doubt to him in whose hands the power is, except that he fears lest you should not consider that a benefit at all.
§4.7.4sed tamen, si iam ita constituisses, ut abesse perpetuo malles quam ea, quae nolles, videre, tamen id cogitare deberes, ubicumque esses, te fore in eius ipsius, quem fugeres, potestate.
Concerning which, what I feel there is no need to say, since it is apparent what I myself have done. But yet, if you had already so determined that you preferred to be absent perpetually rather than to see those things which you did not wish, yet you ought to consider this: that wherever you were, you would be in the power of that very man whom you were fleeing.
qui si facile passurus esset te carentem patria et fortunis tuis quiete et libere vivere, cogitandum tibi tamen esset Romaene et domi tuae, cuicuimodi res esset, an Mitylenis aut Rhodi malles vivere.
And if he were easily to permit you, lacking your country and your fortunes, to live quietly and freely, yet you would have to consider whether you would prefer to live at Rome and in your own home, of whatever kind the state of things might be, or at Mitylene or Rhodes.
sed cum ita late pateat eius potestas, quem veremur, ut terrarum orbem complexa sit, nonne mavis sine periculo tuae domi esse quam cum periculo alienae? equidem, etiam si oppetenda mors esset, domi atque in patria mallem quam in externis atque alienis locis. hoc idem omnes, qui te diligunt, sentiunt; quorum est magna pro tuis maximis clarissimisque virtutibus multitudo.
But since the power of him whom we fear extends so widely that it has embraced the whole world, do you not prefer to be in your own home without danger rather than in another's with danger? For my part, even if death had to be met, I should prefer to meet it at home and in my own country rather than in foreign and strange places.
§4.7.5habemus etiam rationem rei familiaris tuae, quam dissipari nolumus.
All who love you feel this same thing; of whom there is a great multitude in proportion to your greatest and most illustrious virtues. We have also regard for your private property, which we do not wish to be scattered.
nam, etsi nullam potest accipere iniuriam, quae futura perpetua sit, propterea quod neque is, qui tenet rem publicam, patietur neque ipsa res publica, tamen impetum praedonum in tuas fortunas fieri nolo; ii autem qui essent, auderem scribere, nisi te intellegere confiderem. §4.7.6hic te unius sollicitudines, unius etiam multae et assiduae lacrimae, C. Marcelli, fratris optimi, deprecantur.
For, although it can receive no injury that will be perpetual, because neither he who holds the republic will permit it nor the republic itself, yet I do not wish an attack of plunderers to be made upon your fortunes; but who those would be, I should dare to write, if I were not confident that you understand. Here the anxieties of one man, and also the many and constant tears of one man, C. Marcellus, your excellent brother, plead for you.
nos cura et dolore proximi sumus, precibus tardiores, quod ius adeundi, cum ipsi deprecatione eguerimus, non habemus; gratia tantum possumus quantum victi; sed tamen consilio, studio Marcello non desumus.
We are nearest in care and grief, but slower in prayers, because we do not have the right of approaching him, since we ourselves stand in need of intercession; in influence we are able to do only as much as conquered men; but yet in counsel and zeal we are not wanting to Marcellus.
A tuis reliquis non adhibemur; ad omnia parati sumus.
By your other relations we are not employed; but we are ready for all things.