§9.1Secutum est bellum gestum apud Mutinam.
The war waged near Mutina followed.
in quo si tantum eum. prudentem dicam, minus quam debeam praedicem, cum ille potius divinus fuerit, si divinatio appellanda est perpetua naturalis bonitas, quae nullis casibus agitatur neque minuitur. §9.2hostis Antonius iudicatus Italia cesserat: spes restituendi nulla erat.
If in this war I should call him merely prudent, I would praise him less than I ought, since he was rather divine, if "divination" is to be called that perpetual, natural goodness which is shaken by no misfortunes nor diminished. Antony, having been judged a public enemy, had departed from Italy; there was no hope of restoration.
non solum inimici, qui tum erant potentissimi et plurimi, sed etiam qui adversariis eius se venditabant et in eo laedendo aliquam consecuturos sperabant commoditatem, Antonii familiares insequebantur, uxorem Fulviam omnibus rebus spoliare cupiebant, liberos etiam exstinguere parabant. §9.3Atticus, cum Ciceronis intima familiaritate uteretur, amicissimus esset Bruto, non modo nihil iis indulsit ad Antonium violandum, sed e contrario familiares eius ex urbe profugientes, quantum potuit, texit, quibus rebus indiguerunt, adiuvit. §9.4Publio vero Volumnio ea tribuit, ut plura a parente proficisci non potuerint.
Not only his enemies, who were then most powerful and numerous, but even those who were selling themselves to his adversaries and hoping to obtain some advantage in injuring him, were pursuing the intimates of Antony, wishing to despoil his wife Fulvia of all her possessions, and even preparing to destroy his children. Atticus, although he enjoyed the most intimate friendship of Cicero and was a very close friend to Brutus, not only did not indulge them at all in harming Antony, but on the contrary protected his intimates who were fleeing from the city as much as he could, and aided them in those things which they lacked. Indeed, he bestowed so much upon Publius Volumnius that more could not have proceeded from a parent.
ipsi autem Fulviae, cum litibus distineretur magnisque terroribus vexaretur, tanta diligentia officium suum praestitit, ut nullum illa stiterit vadimonium sine Attico, Atticus sponsor omnium rerum fuerit. §9.5quin etiam, cum illa fundum secunda fortuna emisset in diem neque post calamitatem versuram facere potuisset, ille se interposuit pecuniamque sine faenore sineque ulla stipulatione credidit, maximum existimans quaestum, memorem gratumque cognosci, simulque aperiens se non fortunae, sed hominibus solere esse amicum. §9.6quae cum faciebat, nemo eum temporis causa facere poterat existimare: nemini enim in opinionem veniebat Antonium rerum potiturum. §9.7sed sensus eius a nonnullis optimatibus reprehendebatur, quod parum odisse malos cives videretur.
Moreover, to Fulvia herself, when she was distracted by lawsuits and vexed by great terrors, he performed his duty with such great diligence that she established no bail without Atticus, and Atticus was the guarantor of all her affairs. Nay even, when she in her prosperity had bought an estate with a day set for payment, and after her downfall could not make a loan to pay it, he interposed himself and lent her money without interest and without any stipulation, thinking it the greatest gain to be recognized as mindful and grateful, and at the same time showing that he was accustomed to be a friend not to fortune, but to men. When he was doing these things, no one could think that he was doing them for the sake of the times; for it came into the mind of no one that Antony would gain possession of affairs. But his attitude was blamed by some of the optimates, because he seemed to hate bad citizens too little.
ille autem, sui iudicii, potius quid se facere par esset intuebatur quam quid alii laudaturi forent.
He, however, of his own judgment, looked rather to what was proper for him to do than to what others would praise.