§7.1.5quis? tu ipse scilicet laudator et factorum et scriptorum meorum.
Who? You yourself, of course, the praiser of both my deeds and my writings.
hanc ergo plagam effugi per duos superiores Marcellorum consulatus cum est actum de provincia Caesaris, nunc incido in discrimen ipsum? itaque †ut stultus† primus suam sententiam dicat, mihi valde placet de triumpho nos moliri aliquid, extra urbem esse cum iustissima causa.
Did I then escape this snare through the two previous consulships of the Marcelli when Caesar's province was being discussed, only to fall now into the very crisis? Therefore, †like a fool† let him state his opinion first, it pleases me greatly that we should plan something about a triumph, and remain outside the city with a most legitimate excuse.
tamen dabunt operam ut eliciant sententiam meam.
Still, they will do their best to elicit my opinion.
ridebis hoc loco fortasse.
You will perhaps laugh at this point.
quam vellem etiam nunc in provincia morari! plane opus fuit, si hoc impendebat.
How I wish I were even now lingering in the province! Clearly it was necessary, if this was impending.
etsi nil miserius.
Though nothing could be more wretched.
nam ὁδοῦ πάρεργον volo te hoc scire.
For as a ὁδοῦ πάρεργον (by-matter), I want you to know this.
omnia illa prima quae etiam tu tuis litteris in caelum ferebas ἐπίτηκτα fuerunt.
All those first things which you too in your letters used to raise to the skies were ἐπίτηκτα (plated/shams).
§7.1.6quam non est facilis virtus: quam vero difficilis eius diuturna simulatio! cum enim hoc rectum et gloriosum putarem, ex annuo sumptu qui mihi decretus esset me C. Coelio quaestori relinquere annuum, referre in aerarium ad HS †cIↃ†, ingemuit nostra cohors omne illud putans distribui sibi oportere, ut ego amicior invenirer Phrygum et Cilicum aerariis quam nostro.
How virtue is not easy! How difficult indeed is its long-term simulation! For when I thought it right and glorious to leave the residue of the annual sum decreed to me for my quaestor C. Coelius, and to return to the treasury about †one million sesterces†, my cohort groaned, thinking that all of that ought to be distributed among themselves, as if I were found to be friendlier to the treasuries of the Phrygians and Cilicians than to our own.
sed me non moverunt; nam et mea laus apud me plurimum valuit nec tamen quicquam honorifice in quemquam fieri potuit quod praetermiserim.
But they did not move me; for my own praise valued most with me, and yet nothing honorable could be done for anyone which I passed over.
sed haec fuerit ut ait Thucydides, ἐκβολὴ λόγου non inutilis.
But let this be, as Thucydides says, a not useless ἐκβολὴ λόγου (digression).
§7.1.7tu autem de nostro statu cogitabis primum quo artificio tueamur benevolentiam Caesaris, deinde de ipso triumpho; quem video, nisi rei publicae tempora impedient, εὐπόριστον.
But you will think about our situation: first, by what device we may preserve Caesar's goodwill, and then about the triumph itself, which I see, unless the times of the republic prevent it, to be εὐπόριστον (easy to obtain).
iudico autem cum ex litteris amicorum tum ex supplicatione.
I judge this both from the letters of friends and from the thanksgiving (supplicatio).
quam qui non decrevit, plus decrevit quam si omnis decresset triumphos.
He who did not vote for it voted more for me than if he had voted for all the triumphs.
ei porro adsensus est unus familiaris meus, Favonius, alter iratus, Hirrus.
Furthermore, one who agreed with him was my friend Favonius, the other was the angry Hirrus.
Cato autem et scribendo adfuit et ad me de sententia sua iucundissimas litteras misit.
Cato, however, both assisted in the drafting and sent me a most pleasant letter about his opinion.
sed tamen gratulans mihi Caesar de supplicatione triumphat de sententia Catonis nec scribit quid ille sententiae dixerit sed tantum supplicationem eum mihi non decrevisse.
Yet Caesar, congratulating me on the thanksgiving, triumphs over Cato's opinion, and does not write what opinion he gave, but only that he did not vote for my thanksgiving.
§7.1.8redeo ad Hirrum.
I return to Hirrus.
coeperas eum mihi placare; perfice.
You had begun to appease him for me; finish it.
habes Scrofam, habes Silium.
You have Scrofa, you have Silius.
ad eos ego et iam antea scripsi ad ipsum Hirrum.
I have written to them, and already before to Hirrus himself.
locutus enim erat cum iis commode se potuisse impedire sed noluisse; adsensum tamen esse Catoni, amicissimo meo, cum is honorificentissimam in me sententiam dixisset; nec me ad se ullas litteras misisse, cum ad omnis mitterem.
For he had spoken to them agreeably, saying that he could have blocked it but did not want to; yet he had agreed with Cato, my very close friend, since he had spoken of me in most honorable terms; and that I had not sent him any letter, though I was writing to everyone.
verum dicebat.
He spoke the truth.
ad eum enim solum et ad Crassipedem non scripseram.
For to him alone and to Crassipes I had not written.
§7.1.9atque haec de rebus forensibus; redeamus domum.
And so much for public affairs; let us return home.
diiungere me ab illo volo.
I want to detach myself from him.
merus est φυρατήσ germanus Lartidius.
He is a mere φυρατήσ (trouble-maker), a genuine Lartidius.
"ἀλλὰ τὰ"
reliqua expediamus, hoc primum—quod accessit cura dolori meo,—sed tamen hoc, quicquid est, Precianum cum iis rationibus quas ille meas tractat admisceri nolo.
"ἀλλὰ τὰ (But those things...)" Let us clear up the rest, this first—which has added anxiety to my grief—but yet, whatever this Precian business is, I do not want it mixed up with those accounts of mine which he manages.
scripsi ad Terentiam, scripsi etiam ad ipsum, me quicquid possem nummorum ad apparatum sperati triumphi ad te redacturum.
I have written to Terentia, and also to him, that whatever money I can, I will remit to you for the apparatus of my hoped-for triumph.
ita puto ἄμεμπτα fore; verum ut libebit.
Thus I think things will be ἄμεμπτα (unblameworthy); but as he pleases.
hanc quoque suscipe curam quem ad modum experiamur.
Take this care also, how we may try it.
id tu et ostendisti quibusdam litteris ex Epiro an Athenis datis et in eo ego te adiuvabo.
You indicated this in certain letters sent from Epirus or Athens, and in that I will help you.