§1.4.1quanta sim laetitia adfectus cognitis rebus Bruti nostri et consulum facilius est tibi existimare quam mihi scribere.
How much joy I have been filled with upon learning of the successes of our Brutus and of the consuls is easier for you to imagine than for me to write.
Cum alia laudo et gaudeo accidisse, tum quod Bruti eruptio non solum ipsi salutaris fuit sed etiam maximo ad victoriam adiumento.
While I praise and rejoice that other things have happened, I am especially glad that Brutus's sally was not only salutary for himself but also of the greatest assistance to the victory.
§1.4.2quod scribis mihi trium Antoniorum unam atque eandem causam esse, quid ego sentiam mei iudici esse: statuo nihil nisi hoc, senatus aut populi Romani iudicium esse de iis civibus qui pugnantes non interierint.
As to your writing to me that the case of the three Antonii is one and the same, and that what I think is a matter for my own judgment: I decide nothing but this, that there should be a judgment of the senate or of the Roman people concerning those citizens who did not perish while fighting.
at hoc ipsum
inquies
inique facis qui hostilis animi in rem publicam homines civis appelles. immo iustissime.
"But in this very point," you will say, "you act unjustly by calling men of hostile mind toward the republic 'citizens'." Nay, most justly.
quod enim nondum senatus censuit nec populus Romanus iussit, id adroganter non praeiudico neque revoco ad arbitrium meum.
For what the senate has not yet decreed, nor the Roman people ordered, I do not arrogantly prejudge nor refer to my own arbitration.
illud quidem non muto, quod ei quem me occidere res non coegit neque crudeliter quicquam eripui neque dissolute quicquam remisi habuique in mea potestate quoad bellum fuit.
Indeed, I do not change that conduct of mine, namely, that toward him whom the circumstances did not compel me to kill, I neither cruelly snatched anything away nor dissolutely remitted anything, and I held him in my power as long as the war lasted.
multo equidem honestius iudico magisque quod concedere possit res publica miscrorum fortunam non inscctari quam infinite tribucre potentibus quac cupiditatem et adrogantiam incendere possint.
Indeed, I judge it far more honorable, and more what the republic can allow, not to persecute the fortune of the miserable than to bestow infinitely upon the powerful things that can inflame their desire and arrogance.
§1.4.3qua in re, Cicero, vir optime atque fortissime mihique merito et meo nomine et rei publicae carissime, nimis credere videris spei tuae statimque, ut quisque aliquid recte fecerit, omnia dare ac permittere, quasi non liceat traduci ad mala consilia corruptum largitionibus animum.
In this matter, Cicero, most excellent and gallant of men, and deservedly most dear to me both on my own account and that of the republic, you seem to trust your hope too much and, as soon as anyone has done something rightly, to give and permit everything at once, as if it were not possible for a mind corrupted by largesses to be led astray to evil counsels.
quae tua est humanitas, aequo animo te moneri patieris, praesertim de communi salute; facies tamen quod tibi visum fuerit; etiam ego, cum me docueris * *
Such is your humanity, you will bear with equanimity being admonished, especially concerning the common safety; yet you will do what seems best to you; I too, when you have instructed me * *