§8.15.1Ecquando tu hominem ineptiorem quam tuum Cn.
Did you ever see a more foolish man than your Cn.
Pompeium vidisti, qui tantas turbas, qui tam nugax esset, commorit? ecquem autem Caesare nostro acriorem in rebus gerendis, eodem in victoria temperatiorem aut legisti aut audisti? quid est? num tibi nostri milites, qui durissimis et frigidissimis locis, taeterrima hieme bellum ambulando confecerunt, malis orbiculatis esse pasti videntur? 'quid iam?' inquis.
Pompey, who stirred up such great troubles, since he was so worthless? And on the other hand, have you either read or heard of anyone more active in conducting affairs than our Caesar, or more temperate in victory? What is it? Do our soldiers, who finished the war by walking in the harshest and coldest places, in the grimmest winter, seem to you to have been fed on round apples? "Why now?" you say.
gloriose omnia.
Everything is glorious.
si scias quam sollicitus sim, tum hanc meam gloriam quae ad me nihil pertinet derideas; quae tibi exponere nisi coram non possum, idque celeriter fore spero; nam me, cum expulisset ex Italia Pompeium, constituit ad urbem vocare, id quod iam existimo confectum, nisi si maluit Pompeius Brundisi circumsederi.
If you knew how anxious I am, you would laugh at this "glory" of mine, which has nothing to do with me; I cannot explain these things to you except in person, and I hope that will be soon; for Caesar, when he has driven Pompey out of Italy, has resolved to summon me to the city, which I think is already accomplished, unless Pompey preferred to be besieged at Brundisium.
§8.15.2peream, si minima causa est properandi isto mihi, quod te videre et omnia intima conferre discupio, habeo autem quam multa.
May I perish, if the least of my reasons for hastening to your place is my burning desire to see you and to share all my secrets—and how many I have!
Hui vereor, quod solet fieri, ne cum te videro omnia obliviscar.
Oh, I fear, as usually happens, that when I see you I shall forget everything.
sed tamen quod ob scelus iter mihi necessarium retro ad Alpis versus incidit? ideo quod Intimilii in armis sunt, neque de magna causa.
But yet, for what crime has a necessary journey turned up for me, backward toward the Alps? Because the Intimilii are in arms, and not for any great reason.
Bellienus, verna Demetri, qui ibi cum praesidio erat, Domitium quendam, nobilem illi, Caesaris hospitem, a contraria factione nummis acceptis comprendit et strangulavit; civitas ad arma iit; eo †num cohortibus mihi per nivis eundum est.
Bellienus, a slave born in the house of Demetrius, who was there with a garrison, accepted money from the opposite faction, seized and strangled a certain Domitius, a nobleman of that place and a guest of Caesar; the community flew to arms; therefore, I must go through the snows with cohorts.
'usque quaque,' inquis, 'se Domitii male dant. ' vellem quidem Venere prognatus tantum animi habuisset in vestro Domitio quantum Psecade natus in hoc habuit.
"Everywhere," you say, "the Domitii come to grief." Indeed, I wish that the descendant of Venus had possessed as much spirit against your Domitius as the son of Psecas had against this one.
Ciceroni f. s. d.
To Cicero, greetings.