§9.6.1Caninius noster me tuis verbis admonuit, ut scriberem ad te, si quid esset quod putarem te scire oportere.
Our Caninius reminded me, in your words, to write to you if there should be anything that I thought you ought to know.
est igitur adventus Caesaris scilicet in exspectatione, neque tu id ignoras.
Therefore, Caesar's arrival is of course expected, and you are not ignorant of it.
sed tamen, cum ille scripsisset, ut opinor, se in Alsiense venturum, scripserunt ad eum sui ne id faceret; multos ei molestos fore ipsumque multis; Ostiae videri commodius eum exire posse.
But yet, when he had written, as I think, that he would come to his estate at Alsium, his friends wrote to him not to do so; they said that many would be troublesome to him, and he himself to many; it seemed more convenient that he should land at Ostia.
id ego non intellegebam quid interesset; sed tamen Hirtius mihi dixit et se ad eum et Balbum et Oppium scripsisse ut ita faceret, homines, ut cognovi, amantis tui.
I did not understand what difference that made; but yet Hirtius told me that both he himself, Balbus, and Oppium had written to him to do so—men who, as I have found, are fond of you.
§9.6.2hoc ego idcirco nosse te volui, ut scires hospitium tibi ubi parares, vel potius ut utrubique (quid enim ille facturus sit incertum est), et simul ostentavi tibi me istis esse familiarem et consiliis eorum interesse.
I wished you to know this for this reason, so that you might know where to prepare quarters for yourself, or rather in both places (for what he will do is uncertain), and at the same time I showed you that I am intimate with those men and take part in their counsels.
quod ego cur nolim nihil video; non enim est idem ferre, si quid ferendum est, et probare, si quid non probandum est.
Why I should not wish this, I see no reason; for it is not the same thing to bear, if something must be borne, and to approve, if something must not be approved.
etsi quid non probem equidem iam nescio, praeter initia rerum; nam haec in voluntate fuerunt.
Although indeed what I do not approve I do not now know, except for the beginnings of things; for these were in the power of our will.
vidi enim (nam tu aberas) nostros amicos cupere bellum, hunc autem non tam cupere quam non timere (ergo haec consili fuerunt, reliqua necessaria), vincere autem aut hos aut illos necesse esse.
For I saw (since you were absent) that our friends desired war, but that this man did not desire it so much as he did not fear it (therefore these things were of counsel, the rest necessary), and that it was necessary for either these or those to conquer.
§9.6.3scio te semper mecum in luctu fuisse, cum videremus quom illud ingens malum, alterius utrius exercitus et ducum interitum, tum vero extremum malorum omnium esse civilis belli victoriam; quam quidem ego etiam illorum timebam, ad quos veneramus; crudeliter enim otiosissimi minabantur, eratque iis et tua invisa voluntas et mea oratio; nunc vero, si essent nostri potiti, valde intemperantes fuissent, erant enim nobis perirati; quasi quicquam de nostra salute decrevissemus, quod non idem illis censuissemus, aut quasi utilius rei p. fuerit eos etiam ad bestiarum auxilium confugere quam vel emori vel cum spe, §9.6.4si non optima, at aliqua tamen vivere.
I know that you have always been with me in grief, when we saw both that huge evil, the destruction of either army and its generals, and indeed that the victory in a civil war is the ultimate of all evils; which victory indeed I feared even from those to whom we had come; for the most idle men threatened cruelly, and both your inclination was hated by them and my speech; now indeed, if our men had got the upper hand, they would have been exceedingly intemperate, for they were very angry with us; as if we had decreed anything about our safety which we had not voted the same for them, or as if it were more useful for the state that they should flee even to the aid of wild beasts than either to die or to live with some hope, even if not the best, yet some.
at in perturbata re p.
But we live in a troubled state.
vivimus.
Who denies it?
quis negat? sed hoc viderint ii, qui nulla sibi subsidia ad omnis vitae status paraverunt; huc enim ut venirem, superior longius quam volui fluxit oratio.
But let those look to this who have prepared no support for themselves for all states of life; for in order to come to this point, my former speech flowed longer than I wished.
Cum enim te semper magnum hominem duxi, tum quod his tempestatibus es prope solus in portu fructusque doctrinae percipis eos qui maximi sunt, ut ea consideres eaque tractes, quorum et usus et delectatio est omnibus istorum et actis et voluptatibus anteponenda.
For as I have always held you to be a great man, so especially because in these tempests you are almost alone in port and gather those fruits of learning which are greatest, so that you consider and handle those things whose use and pleasure are to be preferred to all the deeds and pleasures of those men.
equidem hos tuos Tusculanensis dies instar esse vitae puto libenterque omnibus omnis opes concesserim, ut mihi liceat vi nulla interpellante isto modo vivere; §9.6.5quod nos quoque imitamur, ut possumus, et in nostris studiis libentissime conquiescimus.
Indeed, I think these Tusculan days of yours are the image of life, and I would gladly grant all wealth to all men so that I might be allowed to live in that manner with no force interrupting; which we also imitate as far as we can, and rest most gladly in our studies.
quis enim hoc non dederit nobis ut, cum opera nostra patria sive non possit uti sive nolit, ad eam vitam revertamur, quam multi docti homines fortasse non recte, sed tamen multi etiam rei p.
For who would not grant this to us, that when our country either cannot or will not use our services, we should return to that life which many learned men, perhaps not rightly, but yet many have thought should be preferred even to the state?
praeponendam putaverunt? quae igitur studia magnorum hominum sententia vacationem habent quandam publici muneris, iis concedente re p. cur non abutamur?
Why then should we not make full use of those studies which, in the opinion of great men, have a certain exemption from public duty, with the state conceding it?
§9.6.6sed plus facio quam Caninius mandavit, †iure enim, si quid ego scirem, rogarat, quod tu nescires, ego tibi ea narro, quae tu melius scis quam ipse, qui narro.
But I am doing more than Caninius commanded; for he indeed had asked, if I knew anything which you did not know, that I should write, but I am telling you those things which you know better than I who tell them.
faciam ergo illud, quod rogatus sum, ut eorum, quae temporis huius sint, †quae tua audiero, ne quid ignores.
I will therefore do what I was asked, so that you may not be ignorant of anything of those things which belong to this time, whatever of yours I shall hear.