§4.6.1Quam legis, ex illis tibi venit epistula, Brute, §4.6.2Nasonem nolles in quibus esse locis, §4.6.3sed tu quod nolles, voluit miserabile fatum, ei mihi!
The letter which you read, Brutus, comes to you from those places in which you would wish Naso not to be, but what you did not wish, a pitiable fate has willed, alas for me!
§4.6.4plus illud quam tua vota valet.
That has more power than your prayers.
In Scythia a five-year Olympiad has been passed by me; already the time is passing into that of a second lustrum.
For tenacious Fortune persists, and, insidious, opposes her malicious foot to our prayers.
§4.6.9certus eras pro me. Fabiae laus. Maxime, gentis, §4.6.10numen ad Augustum supplice voce loqui.
You were resolved, Maximus, glory of the Fabian race, to speak with suppliant voice to the divine power of Augustus on my behalf.
§4.6.11occidis ante preces, causamque ego,. Maxime, mortis §4.6.12(nec fuero tanti) me reor esse tuae.
You died before your prayers, and I, Maximus, believe myself to be the cause of your death (though I would not have been of such worth).
Now I fear to entrust my safety to anyone: help itself has fallen by your death.
Augustus had begun to pardon my deceived fault; and he abandoned my hope and the earth at the exact same time.
§4.6.17quale tamen potui, de caelite, Brute, recenti §4.6.18vestra procul positus carmen in ora dedi.
Yet, Brutus, placed far away, I have sent to your lips such a poem as I could about the new divinity.
May that piety, I pray, profit me, and may there now be a limit to my misfortunes, and the anger of the sacred house be gentler.
I can clearly swear that you too pray for the same thing, O Brutus, known to me by no doubtful mark.
For though you have always shown true love to me, yet this love grew in my time of adversity.
And whoever had seen your tears and mine alike, would have believed that two were about to suffer punishment.
§4.6.27lenem te miseris genuit natura, nec ulli §4.6.28mitius ingenium, quam tibi, Brute, dedit: §4.6.29ut qui quid valeas ignoret Marte forensi, §4.6.30posse tuo peragi vix putet ore reos.
Nature bore you gentle to the wretched, nor did she give to anyone a milder disposition than to you, Brutus: so that one who knows not what power you have in the warfare of the forum, would scarcely believe that defendants could be prosecuted to conviction by your mouth.
§4.6.31scilicet eiusdem est, quamvis pugnare videntur, §4.6.32supplicibus facilem, sontibus esse trucem, §4.6.33cum tibi suscepta est legis vindicta severae, §4.6.34verba velut tinctu singula virus habent.
Doubtless it belongs to the same character, though they seem to conflict, to be gentle to suppliants, and fierce to the guilty, when the defense of a severe law has been undertaken by you, your individual words have a poison as if by dipping.
May it be the lot of enemies to feel how violent you are in arms, and to undergo the weapons of your tongue.
§4.6.37quae tibi tam tenui cura limantur, ut omnes §4.6.38istius ingenium corporis esse negent, §4.6.39at si quem laedi Fortuna cernis iniqua, §4.6.40mollior est animo femina nulla tuo.
which weapons are polished by you with such delicate care, that all deny that such a mind belongs to that body of yours, but if you see anyone harmed by unjust Fortune, no woman is gentler than your heart.
This I felt especially, when a great part of my friends denied knowledge of me.
Forgetful of them, I shall never be forgetful of you, who anxiously lighten my misfortunes.
§4.6.45et prius hic nimium nobis conterminus Hister §4.6.46in caput Euxino de mare vertet iter, §4.6.47utque Thyesteae redeant si tempora mensae, §4.6.48Solis ad Eoas currus agetur aquas, §4.6.49quam quisquam vestrum, qui me doluistis ademptum, §4.6.50arguat ingratum non meminisse sui.
and sooner will this Hister, too close to us, turn its course to its source from the Euxine Sea, and as if the times of Thyestes' banquet should return, the chariot of the Sun should be driven toward the Eastern waters, than that anyone of you, who lamented my removal, should accuse me of being ungrateful and of not remembering him.