§1.9.1fungerer eo officio quo tu functus es in meo luctu teque per litteras consolarer, nisi scirem iis remediis quibus meum dolorem tu levasses te in tuo non egere, ac velim facilius quam tunc mihi nunc tibi tute medeare.
I would perform that duty which you performed during my mourning and comfort you by letter, did I not know that you do not lack in your own grief those remedies with which you alleviated mine; and I could wish that you may now cure yourself more easily than I did then.
est autem alienum tanto viro quantus es tu, quod alteri praeceperit id ipsum facere non posse.
Moreover, it is foreign to a man as great as you are, that he should be unable to do the very thing which he has prescribed to another.
me quidem cum rationes quas conlegeras tum auctoritas tua a nimio maerore deterruit.
As for me, indeed, both the reasons you had gathered and your authority deterred me from excessive grief.
Cum enim mollius tibi ferre viderer quam deceret virum praesertim eum qui alios consolari soleret, accusasti me per litteras gravioribus verbis quam tua consuetudo ferebat.
For when I seemed to you to bear it more weakly than became a man, especially one who was accustomed to comfort others, you reproached me by letter in harsher words than your habit allowed.
§1.9.2itaque iudicium tuum magni aestimans idque veritus me ipse conlegi et ea quae didiceram, legeram, acceperam, graviora duxi tua auctoritate addita.
Therefore, valuing your judgment highly and fearing it, I pulled myself together, and those things which I had learned, read, and received, I considered to carry more weight with the addition of your authority.
ac mihi tum, Brute, officio solum erat et naturae, tibi nunc populo et scaenae, ut dicitur, serviendum est.
And to me then, Brutus, it was necessary to serve only duty and nature, but to you now, you must serve the people and the stage, as the saying goes.
nam cum in te non solum exercitus tui sed omnium civium ac paene gentium coniecti oculi sint, minime decet propter quem fortiores ceteri sumus eum ipsum animo debilitatum videri.
For since the eyes not only of your army but of all citizens and almost of all nations are fixed upon you, it is least fitting that the very person because of whom the rest of us are stronger should appear weakened in spirit.
quam ob rem accepisti tu quidem dolorem (id enim amisisti cui simile in terris nihil fuit), et est dolendum in tam gravi vulnere ne id ipsum, carere omni sensu doloris, sit miserius quam dolere, sed ut modice ceteris utile est, ita tibi necesse est.
Wherefore you have indeed accepted grief (for you have lost that to which nothing on earth was similar), and one must grieve in so heavy a wound lest this very thing, to be devoid of all sense of pain, be more wretched than to grieve; but as it is useful for others to do so moderately, so it is necessary for you.
§1.9.3scriberem plura nisi ad te haec ipsa nimis multa essent.
I would write more, were these very things not too much for you.
nos te tuumque exercitum exspectamus; sine quo, ut reliqua ex sententia succedant, vix satis liberi videmur fore.
We await you and your army; without which, even if the rest of our affairs turn out according to our wish, we scarcely seem likely to be sufficiently free.
de tota re publica plura scribam et fortasse iam certiora iis litteris quas veteri nostro cogitabam dare.
I shall write more, and perhaps more certain things, about the entire republic in that letter which I am thinking of giving to our old friend.