§10.1.1iii Nonas cum in Laterium fratris venissem, accepi litteras tuas et paulum respiravi, quod post has ruinas mihi non acciderat.
When I had come to my brother’s villa at Laterium on the third of May, I received your letter and breathed a little more freely, which had not happened to me since this ruin began.
per enim magni aestimo tibi firmitudinem animi nostri et factum nostrum probari.
For I value it very highly that the firmness of my mind and our conduct are approved by you.
Sexto enim nostro quod scribis probari, ita laetor ut me quasi patris eius, cui semper uni plurimum tribui, iudicio comprobari putem.
Indeed, as for what you write about our Sextus approving of it, I am so glad that I feel as if I were approved by the judgment of his father, to whom alone I always paid the greatest respect.
qui mihi, quod saepe soleo recordari, dixit olim Nonis illis Decembribus, cum ego
"Sexte, quidnam ergo?"
"
μὴ μάν
"
, inquit ille
"
ἀσπουδί γε καὶ ἀκλειῶς,
ἀλλὰ μέγα ῤέξασ τι καὶ ἐσσομένοισι πυθέσθαι. "
eius igitur mihi vivit auctoritas et simillimus eius filius eodem est apud me pondere quo fuit ille.
It was he who, as I often recall, once said to me on those famous Nones of December, when I asked: 'Sextus, what then?' 'μὴ μάν,' he replied, 'ἀσπουδί γε καὶ ἀκλειῶς, ἀλλὰ μέγα ῤέξασ τι καὶ ἐσσομένοισι πυθέσθαι.' His authority, therefore, lives for me, and his son, who is very like him, is of the same weight with me as he was.
quem salvere velim iubeas plurimum.
I would like you to give him my warmest greetings.
§10.1.2tu tuum consilium etsi non in longinquum tempus differs (iam enim illum emptum pacificatorem perorasse puto, iam actum aliquid esse in consessu senatorum; senatum enim non puto), tamen suspensum animum meum detines, sed eo minus quod non dubito quid nobis agendum putes;
As for your advice, although you do not defer it to a distant time (for I think that purchased peace-maker has already finished his speech, and that something has already been done in the assembly of the senators—though I do not think it a senate), yet you keep my anxious mind in suspense, but all the less because I do not doubt what you think we ought to do.
qui enim Flavio legionem et Siciliam dari scribas et id iam fieri, quae tu scelera partim parari iam et cogitari, partim ex tempore futura censes? ego vero Solonis, popularis tui et ut puto etiam mei, legem neglegam, qui capite sanxit si qui in seditione non alterius utrius partis fuisset, et, nisi si tu aliter censes, et hinc abero et illim.
For since you write that a legion and Sicily are being given to Flavius, and that this is already being done, what crimes do you think are partly being prepared and contemplated already, and partly will arise from the circumstances? I, indeed, shall disregard the law of Solon, your fellow citizen and as I think also mine, who penalized with death anyone who did not take one side or the other in a sedition; and, unless you think otherwise, I shall be absent both from this side and from that.
sed alterum mihi est certius, nec praeripiam tamen.
But the latter course is more certain for me, yet I shall not forestall it.
exspectabo tuum consilium et eas litteras, nisi alias iam dedisti quas scripsi ut Cephalioni dares.
I shall await your advice and that letter, unless you have already sent the other which I wrote to you to give to Cephalio.
§10.1.3quod scribis, non quo alicunde audieris, sed te ipsum putare me attractum iri, si de pace agatur, mihi omnino non venit in mentem quae possit actio esse de pace, cum illi certissimum sit, si possit, exspoliare exercitu et provincia Pompeium; nisi forte iste nummarius ei potest persuadere ut, dum oratores eant redeant, quiescat.
As for your writing, not because you have heard it from anywhere, but because you think so yourself, that I shall be drawn in if peace negotiations are set on foot, it does not enter my mind at all what negotiation for peace there can be, when it is absolutely certain for him, if he can, to despoil Pompey of his army and province; unless by chance that money-grubber can persuade him to remain quiet while the envoys go and return.
nihil video quod sperem aut quod iam putem fieri posse.
I see nothing to hope for or that I can think possible to happen now.
sed tamen hominis hoc ipsum probi est †magnum sit† τῶν πολιτικωτάτων σκεμμάτων, veniendumne sit in consilium tyranni si is aliqua de re bona deliberaturus sit.
But yet, this is indeed the duty of an upright man, one of the most political considerations: whether one ought to enter the council of a tyrant if he is about to deliberate on some good matter.
qua re si quid eius modi evenerit ut arcessamur (quod equidem non credo.
Therefore, if anything of this kind happens so that we are summoned (which indeed I do not believe; for what was I going to say about peace?
quid enim essem de pace dicturus? dixi, ipse valde repudiavit), sed tamen si quid acciderit, quid censeas mihi faciendum utique scribito.
I spoke, and he himself strongly rejected it), but still, if anything happens, write to me by all means what you think I should do.
nihil enim mihi adhuc accidit quod maioris consili esset.
For nothing has yet happened to me which required more serious deliberation.
Trebati, boni viri et civis, verbis te gaudeo delectatum, tuaque ista crebra ἐκφώνησισ
"ὑπέρευ"
me sola adhuc delectavit.
I am glad you were pleased with the words of Trebatius, a good man and citizen, and that frequent exclamation of yours 'ὑπέρευ' has been the only thing to please me so far.
litteras tuas vehementer exspecto; quas quidem credo iam datas esse.
I eagerly await your letter, which indeed I believe has already been sent.
§10.1.4tu cum Sexto servasti gravitatem eandem quam mihi praecipis.
With Sextus you maintained the same dignity which you prescribe to me.
Celer tuus disertus magis est quam sapiens.
Your friend Celer is more eloquent than wise.
de iuvenibus quae ex Tullia audisti vera sunt.
What you heard from Tullia about the young men is true.
Mucianum istud quod scribis non mihi videtur tam re esse triste quam verbo.
That Mucianus affair of which you write does not seem to me as sad in fact as in word.
haec est ἄλη in qua nunc sumus mortis instar.
This is the 'ἄλη' (wandering) in which we now are, which is like death.
aut enim mihi libere inter malos πολιτευτέον fuit aut vel periculose cum bonis.
For either I ought to have engaged in public life freely among the wicked, or even at my peril with the good.
aut nos temeritatem bonorum sequamur aut audaciam improborum insectemur.
Let us either follow the rashness of the good, or pursue the audacity of the wicked.
utrumque periculosum est, at hoc quod agimus turpe nec tamen tutum.
Both are dangerous, but this which we are doing is shameful and yet not safe.
istum qui filium Brundisium de pace misit (de pace idem sentio quod tu, simulationem esse apertam, parari autem acerrime bellum), me legatum iri non arbitror, cuius adhuc, ut optavi, mentio facta nulla sit.
As to that man who sent his son to Brundisium about peace (concerning peace I think the same as you, that it is an open pretense, but that war is being prepared most vigorously), I do not think I shall be appointed as an envoy, of whom as yet, as I wished, no mention has been made.
eo minus habeo necesse scribere aut etiam cogitare quid sim facturus, si acciderit ut leger.
Therefore, I have all the less need to write or even to think what I am going to do, if it should happen that I am chosen.