§8.4.1Dionysius quidem tuus potius quam noster, cuius ego cum satis cognossem mores tuo tamen potius stabam iudicio quam meo, ne tui quidem testimoni quod ei saepe apud me dederas veritus superbum se praebuit in fortuna quam putavit nostram fore; cuius fortunae nos, quantum humano consilio effici poterit, motum ratione quadam gubernabimus.
Indeed, your Dionysius rather than ours—though I had known his character well enough, yet I relied on your judgment rather than my own—not even respecting your testimony which you had often given of him to me, showed himself proud in the fortune which he thought would be ours; of which fortune's movement we shall govern, as far as can be effected by human planning, with a certain reason.
cui qui noster honos, quod obsequium, quae etiam ad ceteros contempti cuiusdam hominis commendatio defuit? ut meum iudicium reprehendi a Quinto fratre vulgoque ab omnibus mallem quam illum non efferre me laudibus Ciceronesque nostros meo potius labore subdoceri quam me alium iis magistrum quaerere; ad quem ego quas litteras, di immortales, miseram, quantum honoris significantis, quantum amoris! Dicaearchum me hercule aut Aristoxenum diceres arcessi, non unum hominem omnium loquacissimum et minime aptum ad docendum.
What honor of mine, what deference, what recommendation of a certain contemptible man even to others was lacking to him? To such an extent that I preferred my judgment to be blamed by my brother Quintus and generally by everyone, rather than not to extol him with praises, and that our Ciceros should be taught by my own labor as an assistant rather than that I should seek another master for them; to whom, ye immortal gods, what letters I had sent, showing how much honor, how much love! By Hercules, you would say that Dicaearchus or Aristoxenus was being summoned, not one man of all the most talkative and least fit for teaching.
§8.4.2sed est memoria bona.
But his memory is good.
me dicet esse meliore.
He will say that I have a better one.
quibus litteris ita respondit ut ego nemini cuius causam non reciperem.
To those letters he replied in such a way as I would to no one whose cause I did not accept.
semper enim,
"si potero, si ante suscepta causa non impediar. "
numquam reo cuiquam tam humili, tam sordido, tam nocenti, tam alieno tam praecise negavi quam hic mihi plane nulla exceptione praecidit.
For I always say, "If I can, if I am not prevented by a cause previously undertaken." I have never denied any defendant, however humble, however mean, however guilty, however alien, so flatly as he cut me off with absolutely no exception.
nihil cognovi ingratius; in quo vitio nihil mali non inest.
I have known nothing more ungrateful; in which vice there is no evil that is not present.
sed de hoc nimis multa.
But of this too much.
§8.4.3ego navem paravi.
I have prepared a ship.
tuas litteras tamen exspecto, ut sciam quid respondeant consultationi meae.
Yet I am waiting for your letters, that I may know what they reply to my consultation.
Sulmone C. Atium Paelignum aperuisse Antonio portas, cum essent cohortes quinque, Q. Lucretium inde effugisse †scis Gnaeum ire Brundisium desertum†.
You know that at Sulmo C. Atius Paelignum opened the gates to Antony, although there were five cohorts, and that Q. Lucretius fled from there, †and that Gnaeus is going to Brundisium, abandoned†.
confecta res est.
The matter is finished.