§5.20.1quoquo modo potuissem, te convenissem, si eo, quo constitueras, venire voluisses.
I would have met you by whatever means I could have, if you had wished to come to that place which you had appointed.
qua re, etsi mei commodi causa commovere me noluisti, tamen ita existimes velim, me antelaturum fuisse, si ad me misisses, voluntatem tuam commodo meo.
Therefore, although you were unwilling to move for the sake of my convenience, yet I would like you to think that, if you had sent to me, I would have preferred your wish to my convenience.
ad ea, quae scripsisti, commodius equidem possem de singulis ad te rebus scribere, si M. Tullius, scriba meus, adesset.
As to what you have written, I could indeed write to you more conveniently about individual matters if M. Tullius, my scribe, were present.
A quo mihi exploratum est in rationibus dumtaxat referendis (de ceteris rebus adfirmare non possum) nihil eum fecisse scientem, quod esset contra aut rem aut existimationem tuam; dein, si rationum referendarum ius vetas et mos antiquus maneret, me relaturum rationes, nisi tecum pro coniunctione nostrae necessitudinis contulissem confecissemque, non fuisse.
From him I have ascertained that, at least in submitting the accounts (about other matters I cannot affirm), he did nothing knowingly that was against either your property or your reputation; further, that if the old law and ancient custom of submitting accounts had remained, I would not have submitted the accounts unless I had compared and completed them with you in accordance with the closeness of our relationship.
§5.20.2quod igitur fecissem ad urbem, si consuetudo pristina maneret, id, quoniam lege Iulia relinquere rationes in provincia necesse erat easdemque totidem verbis referre ad aerarium, feci in provincia, neque ita feci ut te ad meum arbitrium adducerem, sed tribui tibi tantum, quantum me tribuisse numquam me paenitebit.
Therefore, what I would have done near the city, if the former custom had remained, that, since by the Julian law it was necessary to leave the accounts in the province and to submit the same in so many words to the treasury, I did in the province; and I did not do it in such a way as to bring you to my arbitration, but I paid you as much respect as I shall never regret having paid.
totum enim scribam meum, quem tibi video nunc esse suspectum, tibi tradidi.
For I handed over to you my entire scribe, whom I see is now suspected by you.
tu ei M. Mindium, fratrem tuum, adiunxisti.
You joined to him M. Mindius, your brother.
rationes confectae me absente sunt tecum; ad quas ego nihil adhibui praeter lectionem.
The accounts were completed with you in my absence; to which I applied nothing except a reading.
ita accepi librum a meo servo scriba, ut eundem acceperim a fratre tuo.
I received the book from my slave scribe in such a way that I received the same from your brother.
si honos is fuit, maiorem tibi habere non potui, si fides, maiorem tibi habui quam paene ipsi mihi; si providendum fuit ne quid aliter ac tibi et honestum et utile esset referretur, non habui cui potius id negoti darem, quam cui dedi.
If that was respect, I could not have shown you greater; if trust, I had greater trust in you than almost in myself; if care had to be taken lest anything should be reported otherwise than was both honorable and useful to you, I had no one to whom I would rather have given that task than to him to whom I gave it.
illud quidem certe factum est, quod lex iubebat, ut apud duas civitates, Laudicensem et Apamensem, quae nobis maxime videbantur, quoniam ita necesse erat, rationes confectas conlatas deponeremus.
That indeed was certainly done which the law commanded, that we should deposit the completed and compared accounts at two states, Laodicea and Apamea, which seemed most appropriate to us, since it was so necessary.
itaque huic loco primum respondeo me, quamquam iustis de causis rationes deferre properarim, tamen te exspectaturum fuisse, nisi in provincia relictas rationes pro relatis haberem, quam ob rem §5.20.3de Volusio quod scribis, non est id rationum;
Therefore, to this point I reply first that, although I hastened to submit the accounts for just reasons, I would nevertheless have waited for you, had I not regarded the accounts left in the province as already submitted; for which reason, as to what you write concerning Volusius, that is not a matter of the accounts.
docuerunt enim me periti homines, in his cum omnium peritissimus tum mihi amicissimus, C. Camillus, ad Volusium traferri nomen a Valerio non potuisse, praedes Valerianos teneri.
For experienced men, and among them C. Camillus, both the most experienced of all and most friendly to me, have taught me that the debt could not be transferred to Volusius from Valerius, but that the Valerian sureties are held.
neque id erat HS x_x_x_, ut scribis, sed HS x_i_x_; erat enim curata nobis pecunia Valeri mancipis nomine; ex qua reliquum quod erat in rationibus rettuli.
Nor was that sum thirty thousand sesterces, as you write, but nineteen thousand sesterces; for money had been paid to us in the name of Valerius the contractor, and from this I entered what was remaining into the accounts.
§5.20.4sed sic me et liberalitatis fructu privas et diligentiae et, quod minime tamen laboro, mediocris etiam prudentiae: liberalitatis, quod mavis scribae mei beneficio quam meo legatum meum praefectumque Q. Leptam maxima calamitate levatos, cum praesertim non deberent esse obligati; diligentiae, quod existimas de tanto officio meo, tanto etiam periculo, nec scisse me quicquam nec cogitavisse, scribam, quicquid voluisset, cum id mihi ne recitavisset quidem, rettulisse; prudentiae, †cum rem a me non insipienter excogitatam quidem putas.
But in this way you deprive me of the fruit of both my liberality and my diligence and, what I care least about, even of ordinary prudence: of liberality, because you prefer that my legate and my prefect Q. Lepta were relieved of a very great calamity by the favor of my scribe rather than by mine, especially when they ought not to have been liable; of diligence, because you think that concerning so great a service of mine, and indeed so great a danger, I neither knew anything nor thought anything, but that the scribe, when he had not even read it aloud to me, entered whatever he wished; of prudence, †when you do not even think that the matter was not foolishly devised by me†.
nam et Volusi liberandi meum fuit consilium, et, ut multa tam gravis Valerianis praedibus ipsique T. Mario depelleretur, a me inita ratio est;
For both the plan of freeing Volusius was mine, and the scheme was entered upon by me so that so heavy a burden might be averted from the Valerian sureties and from T.
quam quidem omnes non solum probant, sed etiam laudant, et, si verum scire vis, hoc uni scribae meo intellexi non nimium placere.
Marius himself; which indeed everyone not only approves of but also praises, and, if you wish to know the truth, I understood that this did not please my scribe alone too much.
sed ego putavi esse viri boni, cum populus suum servaret, consulere fortunis tot vel amicorum vel civium.
But I thought it was the part of a good man, while the public kept its own, to consult the fortunes of so many either of his friends or citizens.