§3.24.1antea quom ad me scripsissetis vestro consensu consulum provincias ornatas esse, etsi verebar quorsum id casurum esset, tamen sperabam vos aliquid aliquando vidisse prudentius;
Previously, when you wrote to me that the provinces of the consuls had been equipped with your consent, although I feared where that would turn out, yet I hoped that you had on some occasion seen something more wisely.
postea quam mihi et dictum est et scriptum vehementer consilium vestrum reprehendi, sum graviter commotus, quod illa ipsa spes exigua quae erat videretur esse sublata.
But after it was both told and written to me that your plan was being vehemently criticized, I was deeply disturbed, because that very small hope which existed seemed to have been taken away.
nam si tribuni pl.
For if the tribunes of the plebs are angry with us, what hope can there be?
nobis suscensent, quae potest spes esse? ac videntur iure suscensere, cum et expertes consili fuerint ei qui causam nostram susceperant, et vestra concessione omnem vim sui iuris amiserint, praesertim cum ita dicant, se nostra causa voluisse suam potestatem esse de consulibus ornandis non ut eos impedirent sed ut ad nostram causam adiungerent; nunc si consules a nobis alieniores esse velint, posse id libere facere; sin velint nostra causa, nihil posse se invitis.
And they seem to be angry with justice, since both those who had undertaken our cause were left out of the plan, and by your concession they lost all the force of their right, especially since they say that, for our sake, they had wished their own power over equipping the consuls to exist, not to impede them, but to bind them to our cause; now, if the consuls should wish to be more estranged from us, they can do so freely; but if they should wish to act for our sake, they can do nothing against the tribunes' will.
nam quod scribis, ni ita vobis placuisset, illos hoc idem per populum adsecuturos fuisse, invitis tribunis pl. fieri nullo modo potuit.
For as to your writing that, unless it had so pleased you, they would have attained this same thing through the people—this could in no way have been done against the will of the tribunes of the plebs.
ita vereor ne et studia tribunorum amiserimus et, si studia maneant, vinclum illud adiungendorum consulum amissum sit.
Thus I fear that we have both lost the goodwill of the tribunes and, even if their goodwill remains, that bond for binding the consuls to us has been lost.
§3.24.2accedit aliud non parvum incommodum quod gravis illa opinio, ut quidem ad nos perferebatur, senatum nihil decernere ante quam de nobis actum esset, amissa est, praesertim in ea causa quae non modo necessaria non fuit sed etiam inusitata ac nova (neque enim umquam arbitror ornatas esse provincias designatorum), ut, cum in hoc illa constantia quae erat mea causa suscepta imminuta sit, nihil iam possit non decerni.
There is added another no small disadvantage, that the weight of that opinion—at least as it was reported to us—that the senate would decree nothing before my case had been dealt with, has been lost, especially in a matter which was not only unnecessary but even unusual and new (for I do not think that the provinces of designated consuls were ever before equipped), so that, since in this matter that consistency which had been undertaken for my sake has been impaired, there is now nothing that cannot be decreed.
iis ad quos relatum est amicis placuisse non mirum est; erat enim difficile reperire qui contra tanta commoda duorum consulum palam sententiam diceret.
It is no wonder that it pleased those friends to whom it was referred; for it was difficult to find anyone who would openly speak against such great advantages of two consuls.
fuit omnino difficile non obsequi vel amicissimo homini Lentulo vel Metello qui simultatem humanissime deponeret; sed vereor ne hos tamen tenere potuerimus, tribunos pl. amiserimus.
It was altogether difficult not to comply either with Lentulus, a most friendly man, or with Metellus, who was most humanely laying aside his enmity; but I fear that, although we may have held these, we have lost the tribunes of the plebs.
haec res quem ad modum ceciderit et tota res quo loco sit velim ad me scribas et ita ut instituisti.
I would wish you to write to me how this matter turned out and in what position the whole business is, and to do so as you have begun.
nam ista veritas, etiam si iucunda non est, mihi tamen grata est.
For that truth of yours, even if it is not pleasant, is nevertheless welcome to me.
data iiii Id. Decembr.
Given on the 10th of December.