Letters of 43 BC: Decimus Brutus, Plancus, Lepidus and the Last Letters

DCCCXLIV. Decimus Brutus to Cicero (at Rome), Regium Lepidi, 29 April

What a loss the Republic has sustained by the death of Pansa you must be well aware. In these circumstances you must use your influence and foresight to prevent our opponents hoping to regain their strength now that the consuls have been removed. I will take care that Antony is unable to keep any footing in Italy. I am following him in hot haste. I hope that I shall secure two things—that Ventidius does not slip past me nor Antony remain in Italy. I specially beg you to send instructions to that shiftiest of men Lepidus, that he may not be in a position to renew the war against me if Antony effects a junction with him. For as to Asinius Pollio, I think you are quite clear as to what he will do. The legions of Lepidus and Asinius are numerous, good, and strong. And I don't write this to you because I know that the same facts escape your notice, but because I am most thoroughly convinced that Lepidus will never go straight-should you by chance have any doubt on that point! I beg you also to keep Plancus up to the mark, who will—I hope-stick to the Republic now that Antony has been defeated. If Antony has got himself across the Alps, I have resolved to station a force on the Alps and to keep you informed of everything.

29 April, in camp at Regium.

DCCCXLV. L. Munatius Plancus to Cicero (at Rome), Gallia Narbonensis, April

I give you undying thanks, and shall do so as long as I live: since I cannot promise to repay you. For I do not think that I can possibly make a return for such great services as yours, unless by chance, as you remarked in such eloquent and impressive words in your letter, you will consider me to have repaid you as long as I remember them. If it had been a question of your own son's position, you could not have acted at any rate more affectionately. Your first motions in the senate proposing unlimited rewards for me, your later ones made to square with circumstances and the wishes of my friends, your constant and formal speeches about me, and your wordy-warfare on my behalf with my detractors-these are all most thoroughly known to me. I must be more than commonly careful to shew myself as a citizen worthy of your praise, mindful and grateful as your friend. For the future see that your bounty is not wasted; and if by results and facts you find that I am the man you wished me to be, defend me and take up my cause. Having crossed the Rhone with my troops, and having sent forward my brother with 3,000 cavalry, while I was myself on the march for Mutina, I was told on the road of the battle that had taken place, and of Brutus and Mutina being relieved. I saw that Antony and the remains of his force had no other place of retreat except in this district, and that he had two hopes in view-one of Lepidus himself; the other of his army. As a certain fraction of my army is as infatuated as those who were with Antony, I recalled my cavalry. I halted in the country of the Allobroges myself; that I might be as completely prepared for every eventuality as the situation required. If Antony comes into this district without forces, I think I am strong enough by myself to resist him, and to carry on the business of the country in accordance with the judgment of your house, even though he be admitted by the army of Lepidus. But if he brings some of his forces with him, and if the tenth veteran legion, which, having been recalled to its duty by my exertion, is now with the others, relapses into its old mad conduct, nevertheless I will do my best to prevent any loss; and I hope I shall prevent it, provided that forces from Rome are sent across, and by forming a junction with me find it easier to crush these abandoned men. This much I will promise you, my dear Cicero, that no vigour or careful attention shall be wanting on my part. I would to heaven there was no anxiety left, but if there is, I will not fall short of any man's loyalty or perseverance on behalf of you all. I am indeed doing my best to induce Lepidus to share this policy with me, and I am promising to defer to him in every way, if he will only consent to regard the interests of the Republic. I am employing as coadjutors and go-betweens in this negotiation my brother, and Laterensis, and our friend Furnius. I will not be stopped by private quarrels from coming to an understanding with my bitterest foe on behalf of the safety of the Republic. But if I am unsuccessful, nevertheless I will do what you wish with the greatest determination, and perhaps with some addition of reputation to myself. Take care of your health, and give me love for love.

DCCCXLVI. M. Iunius Brutus to Cicero (at Rome), Dyrrachium, May

Antistius Vetus is so devoted to the Republic that I feel no doubt of his shewing himself in the case both of Caesar and Antony a most determined champion of the common liberty, if he ever gets the opportunity. For the man who, meeting P. Dolabella in Achaia in possession of infantry and cavalry, preferred incurring any danger from the treachery of an utterly unscrupulous outlaw to being thought either to have been compelled to give money, or to have given it voluntarily to a most abandoned and unprincipled man-he, I say, has not only promised but has paid us 2,000 Sestertia out of his own pocket, and, what is much more valuable, has presented himself in person and has joined us. I have been desirous to persuade him to remain in my camp in military command and to support the Republic. But he has made up his mind that he is bound to go home after having dismissed his army. He assured us, however, that he would return promptly in the position of legatus, unless the consuls intended holding the praetorian elections; for with a man of his political views, I was urgent that he should not postpone the time of his canvass. What this man has done ought to be approved by everybody, at any rate by those who believe that this army is of great moment to the state, by you all the more so in proportion as you defend our liberty with greater spirit and fame, and are sure to enjoy a higher position if the result of our plans is what we desire it to be. I also ask you, my dear Cicero, as a personal favour, and with the confidence of a friend, to love Vetus and to desire the highest promotion for him. For though nothing can turn him from his purpose, he will yet be capable of being incited by your praises and kindness still more to embrace and hold fast your principles. I shall be very grateful if it is so.

DCCCXLVII. To Quintus Cornificius (in Africa), Rome, May

You recommend P. Lucceius to me, whom I will assist in whatever ways I shall have the power. Yes indeed, it is a most unfortunate time in which to have lost our colleagues Hirtius and Pansa, whose consular administration was beneficial to the Republic, when, though relieved from the Antonian violence, it has not yet been put on a thoroughly sound footing. For my part, if the power is given me, I shall continue to defend it, though by this time I am desperately weary. But no amount of fatigue ought to stand in the way of duty and honour. However, enough of this. I would rather you learnt about me from others than myself. What I hear of you exactly answers to my wishes. About Cn. Minucius, whom in one of your letters you praised to the skies, there are somewhat unfavourable rumours. What the truth of the matter is, and in general what is going on in your province, please let me know.

DCCCXLVIII. To M. Iunius Brutus (at Dyrrachium), Rome, 5 May

On the 27th of April, when the speeches were being delivered in the senate as to the proceedings to be taken against the men who had been adjudged public enemies, Servilius referred among others to the case of Ventidius, and also advised that Cassius should conduct the war against Dolabella. I spoke in support of this, and added to the motion that you, if you thought it expedient and to the public advantage, should direct your attack upon Dolabella: and that if you could not do so with advantage to the public service, or if you thought that it was to the interests of the state, you should keep your army in the district in which it now is. The senate could not have paid you a greater compliment than leaving you to decide what you thought to be for the benefit of the state. For my own part my feeling is that, if Dolabella has a body of troops, if he has a camp, if he has any footing anywhere, it concerns your honour and position that you should go against him. As to the forces in the hands of our friend Cassius we know nothing, for we have had no despatch from him personally, nor has any news reached us upon which we can rely. But how important it is that Dolabella should be crushed you certainly fully appreciate, both that he may be punished for his crime, and that there may be no place of refuge for the ringleaders of the outlaws after their rout at Mutina. And indeed that this has all along been my opinion you may recollect from my previous letter—though at that time our only harbour of refuge was in your camp, and we were looking to your army to save us from destruction. Much more, now that we have been freed as I hope from absolute danger, ought we to devote ourselves to crushing Dolabella. But think the matter over carefully, decide it wisely, and—if you deem it right-let me know what you have resolved and what you are actually doing. I wish my son Cicero to be co-opted into your college. I think in the circumstances that in the election of sacerdotes candidates might be voted for in their absence : for it has been done even before this. For instance, Gaius Marius, though he was in Cappadocia, was created an augur under the lex Domitia; nor has any law since made that illegal. There is even a clause in the lex Julia—the most recent legislation on the subject of the priesthoods—in these words: "the candidate and anyone for whom votes shall be taken." This clearly indicates that votes can be taken for one who does not act as a candidate. I have written to my son on this subject telling him to follow your advice, as in all other things. It is for you again to decide about Domitius and our friend Cato. But however legal it may be for votes to be taken for a man in his absence, yet it is easier in every way for those who are on the spot. While if you have resolved that you must go to Asia, we shall have no means of summoning our friends to the comitia. Certainly I think that everything would have been more expeditiously done if Pansa were alive: for he would have at once held the election of his colleague, and then the comitia of the sacerdotes would have been held before those of the praetors. As it is, I foresee a long delay on account of the auspicia; for as long as there is a single patrician magistrate left the auspicia cannot revert to the senate. It is certainly a serious complication. Pray write and tell me your views on the whole question.

5 May.

DCCCXLIX. To L. Munatius Plancus (in Gallia Comata), Rome, 5 May

What a pleasant report it was that we received two days before that of the victory of the support you were bringing up, of your zeal, your rapid movements, and the forces at your disposal! And yet even now that the enemy have been repulsed our whole hope is in you. For the most notorious ringleaders of those outlaws are said to have escaped from the battle of Mutina. Now it is no less satisfactory to wipe out the last part of an invasion than to drive off the first. As for me, I am anxiously looking for a letter from you, and my anxiety is shared by many. I am in hopes, too, that Lepidus—warned by the present state of public affairs-wilt act with you and the Republic. Therefore, my dear Plancus, make it your special aim that not a single spark of that most abominable war be left alight. If this is accomplished, you will have done the state a service more than human and will also win imperishable honour for yourself.

5 May.

DCCCL. Decimus Brutus to Cicero (at Rome), Dertona, 5 May

I do not think that the Republic owes me more than I owe you. You have good assurance of my being capable of greater gratitude to you than those misguided persons shew me: and that if after all my words seem to be dictated by the exigencies of the hour, I prefer your approval to that of all those people on the other side. For your judgment of us proceeds from an independent and sincere feeling: they are debarred from that by malice and jealousy. Let them interpose to prevent my receiving marks of honour, so long as they do not prevent the public service being properly conducted by me. The extreme danger in which that now stands I will explain as briefly as I can. To begin with, you cannot fail to observe what a confusion in city business is caused by the death of the consuls, and how much ambition this vacancy in the office inspires in men. I think I have written as much as can be committed to paper. For I know to whom I am writing. I now return to Antony, who, though when he fled he had only a handful of unarmed infantry, seems, by breaking open slave-barracks and requisitioning every kind of human being, to have made up a very considerable number. To this has been added the force of Ventidius, which after accomplishing a difficult march across the Apennines has reached Vada and has there affected a junction with Antony. There is a very considerable number of veterans and fully armed soldiers with Ventidius. Antony's plan of campaign must certainly be either to join Lepidus, if Lepidus will have him; or to keep behind the lines of the Apennines and Alps, and to lay waste the district which he has invaded by sending out parties of cavalry, of which he has large numbers; or to draw back into Etruria, since that part of Italy has no army in it. But if Caesar had listened to me and crossed the Apennines, I should have reduced Antony to such straits, that he would have been ruined by failure of provisions rather than by the sword. But neither can anyone control Caesar, nor can Caesar control his own army-both most disastrous facts. These things being so, I won't hinder anybody, as far as I am concerned, from interposing, as I said before. It alarms me to think how these difficulties are to be removed, and, when they are removed by you, of the fresh hindrances that may intervene. I am already unable to feed and pay my men. When I undertook the task of freeing the Republic I had more than 40,000 sestertia in money. So far from any part of my private property remaining unencumbered, I have by this time loaded all my friends with debt. I am now supporting a force amounting to seven legions, you can imagine with what difficulty. Not if I had all the treasures of Varro, could I stand the expense. As soon as I have any certain information about Antony I will let you know. Pray continue to love me with the assurance that I entertain the same feeling for you.

5 May, in camp, Dertona.

DCCCLI. Decimus Brutus to Cicero (at Rome), Statiellae, 6 May

Decimus Brutus, imperator, consul-designate, salutes Marcus Cicero. I have received a letter from you which is a duplicate of that brought by my own servants. I consider that I owe you a debt that it is difficult to repay. I write to tell you what is going on here. Antony is on the march his object is to reach Lepidus. He hasn't given up hope even of Plancus yet, as I gather from some of his papers which have fallen into my hands, in which he noted the names of the men he was sending to Asinius, to Lepidus, to Plancus. I, however, did not hesitate what to do. I at once sent messengers to Plancus, and in the course of a couple of days I expect ambassadors from the Allobroges and the whole of Gaul, whom I shall encourage to remain loyal and shall send home again. Pray make provision for all necessary measures at Rome, that they may be conducted as you would wish them to be, and with advantage to the Republic. People's malice against me pray frustrate if you can. If you can't, console yourself with the reflexion that they cannot move me from the position I have taken up by any amount of abuse.

6 May, in camp, in the district of Statiellae.

DCCCLII. C. Cassius Longinus to Cicero (at Rome), Syria, 7 May

If you are well, I am glad. I also am well. I have read your letter in which I recognized your uncommon affection for me. For you seemed not merely to wish me well—as you always have done on private and public grounds alike—but to have involved yourself in very grave responsibility and to be exceedingly anxious about us. Therefore, because in the first place I thought that you would believe that we could not remain inactive when the Republic was crushed: and in the second place because, as you suspected that we were moving, I thought you would be anxious as to our safety and the result of the operations, as soon as I received the legions brought by Aulus Allienus from Egypt, I wrote to you and sent a number of messengers to Rome. I also wrote a despatch to the senate, which I said was not to be delivered until it had been read to you—if by any chance my messengers have chosen to obey me. If these letters have not reached you, I have no doubt that Dolabella, who seized the government of Asia after the abominable murder of Trebonius, has caught my letter-carriers and intercepted the despatches. I have now under me all the Roman forces in Syria. I have been delayed for a short time whilst providing the promised pay for the soldiers. I am only just free from that difficulty. I beg you to consider that the defence of my position is committed to you, as you know full well that I have declined no danger and no labour in the service of my country: as on your suggestion and advice I have taken up arms against the most, unscrupulous outlaws: as I have not only collected armies to defend the Republic and liberty, but have also rescued them from the most bloodthirsty tyrants. If Dolabella had anticipated me in getting hold of these armies he would have strengthened Antony's hands, not only by their actual arrival, but also by giving him reason to think 'and expect that they were coming. For which achievements defend my soldiers, since you understand that they have done wonderfully, good service to the state, and secure' that they do not regret having preferred to make the Republic the object of their labours rather than the hope of booty and plunder. Maintain. also the position of the imperators Murcus and Crispus as far as lies in your power. For Bassus was desperately unwilling to hand over his, legion' to me. Had not his soldiers in spite of him sent agents to me, he would have kept Apamea closed until it had been stormed. I make these remarks to you not only in the name of the Republic, which has always been the object of your deepest affection, 'but also in the name of our friendship, which I feel 'sure has the greatest weight with you. Believe me that this army is at the service of the senate and all the 'most loyal citizens, and above all of yourself. For from continually being told of your patriotism they regard you with wonderful devotion and affection. And if they come to understand that their interests engage your attention, they will also regard themselves as owing you everything. Since writing this- letter I have been informed that Dolabella has arrived in Cilicia with his forces. I shall start for Cilicia. Whatever I succeed in doing I will take care to let you know promptly. I can only hope that we may be as fortunate as our services to the state deserve. Keep well, and love me.

7 May, in camp.

DCCCLIII. M. Iunius Brutus to Cicero (at Rome), Dyrrachium, 7 May

My joy at hearing of the success of our friend Decimus Brutus and the Consuls it is easier for you to imagine than for me to write. I have nothing but praise and pleasure for everything that has occurred, but especially for the fact that the sortie of Brutus not only proved his own salvation, but also a very great assistance to the victory.

You remark that all the three Antonies stand on one and the same ground, and that it rests with me to decide what view I take. Well, my only conclusion is that the decision in regard to those citizens who have fought and not been killed rests with the senate or the Roman people. "Ah, but," you will say, "you are wrong to begin with in calling men citizens whose feelings to the state are those of enemies." On the contrary, I am acting with the strictest justice. For that which the senate has not yet voted, nor the Roman people ordained—that I do not take upon myself to prejudge, nor do I claim to decide it on my own authority. From this position I do not budge-from the man, whom circumstances did not compel me to put to death, I have not wrested anything in a spirit of cruelty, nor have I given him any indulgence from mere weakness; but I have retained him in my power until the end of the war. I consider it much the more honourable course, and one which the Republic can with more safety concede, not to press heavily on the unfortunate, rather than to indulge men of influence in what is calculated to inflame their ambition and arrogance. In this matter, Cicero, you—who have done the most splendid and gallant services, and are most deeply beloved by all on private and public grounds alike-seem to me too ready to believe what you hope; and the moment anyone has done anything well, to be ready to give and concede everything to him. As though it were not quite possible that a mind should be corrupted by bribery and perverted to evil. You are so good-natured that you won't be angry at receiving this hint, especially as it concerns the common safety. You will act, however, as it may seem best to you. Even I, when you have admonished me...

DCCCLIV. To L. Munatius Plancus (in Gallia Comata), Rome, 10 May

From the first moment that the opportunity was given me of promoting your position, I omitted nothing that was calculated to do you honour, whether in the way of substantial reward for valour or of complimentary words. That you will be able to learn from the decree of the senate itself: for it was drawn up word for word as I delivered my motion from a written copy; which motion was carried by a full senate with great enthusiasm and striking unanimity. Although I clearly gathered from your letter to me that you cared more for the approval of good men than for the outward badges of distinction, yet I thought that we ought to take into calculation-even if you made no demand—how much was due to you from the Republic. See that you make the end tally with the beginning. For the man who crushes Antony will have finished the war. Just so Homer did not give either Ajax or Achilles the title of" city-sacker," but Ulysses.

DCCCLV. Decimus Brutus to Cicero (at Rome), Pollentia, 12 May

I am not going to thank you any more; for when one can make a man no return in deeds, it is impossible to satisfy his just claims by mere words. I want you to notice what I have on my hands. For your insight is so great that you will take in the whole situation, if you read my letter with care. I was unable, my dear Cicero, to pursue Antony at once for the following reasons. I had no cavalry, no transport animals; I did not know that Hirtius was dead; I did not know that Aquila was dead; I couldn't put any confidence in Caesar without first visiting and holding a conversation with him. So passed the first day. Next day early I was summoned by Pansa to Bononia. While I was on the way news was brought to me that he was dead. I hurried back to my poor little force—for I can call it so with truth. It was most woefully reduced and in the very worst condition from want of every kind of necessary. Antony thus got two days start of me. He made much longer marches, as being in retreat, than I could in pursuit. For he marched in loose order, I in close. Wherever he came he broke open the slave-barracks and forcibly requisitioned the men. He never made any halt anywhere till he reached Vada. I would like you to know about this place. It lies between the Apennines and the Alps, very difficult to reach by a march. When I was thirty miles from it, and when Ventidius had already effected a junction with him, a public speech delivered by Antony was reported to me, in which he began entreating his men to follow him across the Alps, telling them that he had an understanding with Marcus Lepidus. There was some murmuring, and from a good many of Ventidius's men—for Antony has very few of his own—that it was their duty to perish or conquer in Italy; and they began begging him to allow them to march to Pollentia. Not being able to withstand them, he arranged to begin his march the next day. When I received this intelligence I at once sent forward five cohorts to Pollentia and directed my march to that place. My advanced guard arrived at Pollentia an hour before Trebellius with his cavalry. I was greatly delighted: for I think that this constitutes a victory. ...

DCCCLVI. L. Munatius Plancus to Cicero (at Rome), Cularo (modern Grenoble), 13 May

What has happened since my last letter was written I thought it for the public service that you should know. My persevering attention has, I hope, borne some fruit both for myself and the Republic. For by a continual interchange of messages I urged Lepidus, laying aside all Controversies and admitting a reconciliation between us, to join me in coming to the rescue of the Republic; to have regard for himself; his children, and the city, as more precious than one abandoned and humiliated outlaw: and I promised him that he should find me thoroughly at his command in every undertaking if he did so. I have made some way with him; and accordingly he has by our intermediary Laterensis pledged his word to me that he will make war on Antony, if he fails to prevent his entrance into his province. He has asked me to join him and combine our forces. He is the more urgent on that point because Antony for his part is said to be strong in cavalry, while Lepidus himself is not even moderately equipped in that respect. For even from the small number that he did possess, ten of the best a few days ago had deserted to my camp. When I was informed of these facts I did not delay: I thought that Lepidus was to be encouraged in the path of loyalty. I saw what my arrival was likely to effect, either because I could, as I reckoned, pursue and crush his cavalry with mine, or because I might, I thought, by bringing my army up, reform and put pressure upon that part of Lepidus's army which was disaffected and disloyal to the state. Accordingly, having made a bridge in a single day across the Isara—a very large river which bounds the territory of the Allobroges—I got my army across on the 12th of May. Having, however, received information that Lucius Antonius with cavalry and some cohorts had been sent in advance and had arrived at Forum Iulli, I sent my brother with 4,000 cavalry on the 13th of May to meet him. I am going to follow him with four legions in fighting order and the rest of my cavalry as quickly as I can march. If the good fortune of the Republic aids us even to a moderate degree, we shall here find an end to the presumption of a set of ruffians and to our own anxiety. But if that outlaw gets timely warning of our approach and retreats into Italy, it will be the business of Brutus to meet him, who will not, I know, lack either strategy or courage. However, if that happens, I shall send my brother with the cavalry in pursuit of him, to protect Italy from being looted. Take care of your health and return my affection.

DCCCLVII. L. Munatius Plancus to Cicero (at Rome), Camp on the Isara, 15 May

I should have been ashamed of the contradictory nature of my despatches, had not this depended on the caprices of another. I had adopted every possible precaution for enabling me, by combining with Lepidus for the defence of the Republic, to resist these ruffians with less anxiety to you all at Rome. I conceded everything he demanded and volunteered much besides, and two days ago I wrote to tell you that I felt sure of finding Lepidus loyal, and that I should conduct the war in consultation with him. I trusted to his own handwriting, and to the personal assurances of Laterensis, who was then in my camp and was entreating me to be reconciled to Lepidus and to trust him. I was not long allowed to entertain good hopes of him. At least I have taken precautions, and will continue to do so, that the fortune of the Republic does not suffer from any credulity on my part. When after constructing a bridge in a single day I had got my army across the Isara, using all the rapidity which the gravity of the situation demanded, because he had written to me with his own hand asking me to hasten my arrival, I was met by his orderly bringing a despatch in which he warned me not to come, saying that lie could finish the affair independently, and that I should meanwhile wait for him on the Isara. I will tell you what my idea on the spur of the moment was. I had resolved to go all the same, thinking that what he was trying to avoid was having anyone to share in his glory. I thought that I could avoid trenching at all upon the reputation of a poor-spirited man, and yet could be at hand on some convenient ground, so as to be able to render prompt aid in case of any reverse. This was my idea in the innocence of my heart. But Laterensis, who is a thoroughly honourable man, sent me a letter in his own handwriting, expressing excessive despair of himself; of the army, of the good faith of Lepidus, and complaining that he had been thrown over. In this letter also he openly warned me to be on my guard against being taken in: said that he had been true to his word: and begged me not to abandon the Republic. I have sent a copy of his original letter to Titius. The original documents themselves, both those in which I believed, and those in which I thought no confidence was to be placed, I will give to Laevus Cispius—who was cognizant of all these transactions—to take home.

An additional complication is that when Lepidus harangued his men, the soldiers who are disaffected in themselves and have been also tampered with by their officers-your Canidii, Rufreni, and all that lot, whose names you shall know when needful-joined in shouting, excellent fellows! "that they desired peace and would not fight with anybody, after two distinguished consuls had been lost, so many citizens killed in defence of their country, and when finally all had been declared public enemies, and had their property confiscated." As this outbreak was neither punished nor allayed by Lepidus, I saw that I had been infatuated and rash to come here, and expose my thoroughly loyal army, my very numerous auxiliaries, the leading men of Gaul, and my whole province to those two combined armies. I saw, too, that had I been overpowered in these circumstances, and dragged down the Republic with me into ruin, my death would not only have been without honour, but without even pity. Therefore I am about to return, and will not allow the possibility of such great advantages being presented to such scoundrels. I will take care to keep my army on advantageous ground, to protect my province, even though Lepidus's army has joined in the defection, not to commit myself to anything, until you send reinforcements from home, and to defend the constitution here with the same good fortune as has been done elsewhere. At the same time, no one was ever more ready to fight a pitched battle, if occasion presents itself; or to stand a siege, if it turns out to be necessary; or to die, if so it happens, in your defence. Wherefore I urge upon you, my dear Cicero, to see to an army being sent across to this district as soon as possible, and to hasten that measure before the enemy consolidates his strength and our men begin to be shaken in their allegiance. If that is done promptly, traitors will be destroyed, and the victory will remain with the Republic. Take care of your health and love me.

DCCCLVIII. L. Munatius Plancus to Cicero (at Rome), Camp on the Isara, 15 May

Need I write to you in vindication of my brother, gallant citizen and thoroughly prepared for every kind of duty as he is? His hard work has brought on a feverish attack, which is persistent and rather troublesome. As soon as he is well enough he will not hesitate to hurry back to Rome, so as not to be wanting in his duty to the Republic anywhere. I pray you to consider that the defence of my position is committed to you. I have no occasion for any ambition: I have in you a most devoted friend and—what I always desired-possessed now of the greatest influence. It is for you to consider the extent and time of your favours to me. The only request I make to you is that you give me Hirtius's place both in your affection and in the privilege of shewing you attentions.

DCCCLIX. To Decimus Brutus (near Pollentia), Rome, between 14 and 19 May

I have received three letters from you on the same day: one a short one which you had intrusted to Volumnius Flaccus; two of greater length, one of which the letter-carrier of Titus Vibius brought, the other was forwarded to me by Lupus. To judge from your letters and from what Graeceius says, the war, so far from being extinguished, is hotter than ever. However, I feel sure that your eminent wisdom makes it clear to you that, if Antony gets any firm foothold, all those brilliant services of yours to the state will come to nothing. For the news that reached Rome, and what everybody believed, was that Antony had fled with a small body of men, who were without arms, panic-stricken, and utterly demoralized. But if he is in such a position, as Graeceius tells me, that he cannot be offered battle without risk, he appears to me not to have fled from Mutina, but merely to have changed the seat of war. Accordingly, there is a general revulsion of feeling. Some people even grumble at your not having pursued him: they think that he might have been crushed if expeditious measures had been taken. It is ever the way with a populace, and above all with that of Rome—they vent their freedom without restraint on the very man who secured it for them. All the same, we must take care that there is no just cause of complaint. The fact is this: that man will have finished the war, who has crushed Antony. The point of that remark I would rather leave you to grasp than express it more openly myself.

DCCCLX. M. Iunius Brutus to Cicero (at Rome), Macedonia, May

I have read an extract from your letter to Octavius which was sent me by Atticus. Your zeal and care for my safety gave me no novel pleasure; for it is not merely a matter of habit, but of daily habit, to be told of you that you have said or done something in defence of my position which displayed your fidelity and complimentary opinion of me. But that same extract of your letter to Octavius about us caused me a distress as great as my heart is capable of feeling. For you thank him in the name of the Republic in such terms! With such abject and whispering humbleness-why must I write the word? I blush to think of my position and high estate, yet I must write it-you commend our safety to him! Could any death be worse disaster? You, in fact,. avow that the slavery is not abolished, only the master changed! Recall your words and dare to say that those prayers are not the prayers of an enslaved subject to a tyrant. The one and only thing-you say—that is demanded and expected of him is that he consent to the safety of those citizens, of whom the loyalists and the people have a good opinion. What? If he doesn't consent, shall we not be safe? And yet it is better not to be than to be by his favour. Upon my honour I do not think that all the gods are so hostile to the safety of the Roman people, that we need entreat Octavius for the safety of any citizen, not to say for "the liberators of the world"—for there is a certain advantage in using strong language, and at any rate there is a propriety in doing so to people who do not know what every man ought to fear or to aim at.

Do you confess, Cicero, that Octavius has this power, and are you his friend? Or, if you regard me with affection, do you wish me to appear at Rome, when in order to do so safely I have had to be recommended to that boy? Why do you thank him, if you think he has to be asked to allow and suffer us to keep our lives? Is it to be regarded as a favour that he has preferred to be himself rather than a second Antony, to whom we had to make petitions like that? Does anyone address to the destroyer of another's tyranny, and not rather to its successor, a prayer that those who have done the most splendid services to their country may be allowed their lives? This is mere weakness and a counsel of despair. And the fault is not yours more than everyone else's. It was this that egged on Caesar to desire royalty, and induced Antony after his death to aim at occupying the place of the dead man, and has at the present moment put that boy of yours on such a pedestal, as to make you think that he must be absolutely entreated to grant life to such men as us, and that we shall even now be able to enjoy a bare safety from the pity of one man, and by nothing else whatever. But if we had remembered that we were Romans, these dregs of mankind would not have conceived the ambition of playing the tyrant with more boldness than we should have forbidden it: nor would Antony have had his ambition more roused by Caesar's royalty, than his fears excited by Caesar's death. For yourself; a consular and the avenger of such abominable crimes—and I fear that by their suppression the mischief was only postponed by you for a short time—how can you contemplate your own achievements, and at the same time countenance, or at any rate endure these things with such abject humbleness as to have the air of countenancing them? Again, what was your private and personal quarrel with Antony? Why, it was just because he made this very claim—that our safety should be asked as a favour from him; that we should hold our civil rights on sufferance—we from whom he had himself received his freedom; that he should be absolute in the Republic—it was for these reasons that you thought we must take up arms to prevent his playing the tyrant. Was the object of doing so that, when he had been prevented, we should have to petition another man to allow himself to be put in his place? Or was it that the Republic should be its own master and at its own disposal? Surely: unless we are to suppose that our objection was not to slavery but to the terms of our slavery! And yet, not only had we the opportunity of supporting our high estate with Antony as a liberal master, but even of enjoying rewards and honours as his partners to the top of our ambition: for what would he have refused to men, whose submissiveness he saw would be the greatest bulwark of his tyranny? But nothing seemed sufficient to make us barter our honour and freedom.

This very boy, whom the name of Caesar appears to instigate against the slayers of Caesar, what would he give, if there were a chance of such traffic, to be as powerful with our support, as he certainly will be when we choose life for its own sake, and the possession of money, and the title of consulars! But Caesar will have perished in vain: for why did we rejoice at his death, if we were to become none the less slaves when he is dead? No one else cares about these things, but may the gods and goddesses take from me every. thing sooner than the resolution of never conceding what I would not endure in Caesar—I won't say to the heir of the man I killed, but even to my father himself if he were to come to life again-namely, that he should, without a protest from me, be more powerful than the laws and the senate. Are you so deluded as to think that the rest of the world will be' free from one without whose consent there is no footing for us in Rome? Moreover, how can you possibly get what you ask? For you ask that he would consent to our safety: do we therefore appear likely to accept safety, since we have accepted life? But how can we accept it, if we previously give up position and liberty? Do you count the fact of living at Rome as complete citizenship? It is circumstance, not the particular place of residence, that must secure me that. I was neither properly a full citizen while Caesar was alive, except when I had resolved upon doing that deed; nor can I ever be anywhere an exile so long as I abhor servitude and submission to insult worse than every other evil. To ask a man who has adopted a tyrant's name as his own for the safety of the avengers and destroyers of the tyranny—is not this to fall back into the very dungeon from which you have just escaped? Why, in Greek states when tyrants are put down their sons are included under the same punishment. Am I to desire to see a state, or to regard it as a state at all, which is incapable of recovering even a freedom handed down by its ancestors and rooted in its very being, and which is more afraid of the name of a slain tyrant in the person of a mere boy, than confident in itself; though seeing the very man who possessed the most over-weening power removed by the valour of a few? For myself—do not henceforth recommend me to your Caesar, nor yourself either, if you will listen to me. You must have a great value for the few years that your time of life allows you, if for their sake you are going to be a suppliant to that boy of yours. Again, take care that those very splendid attacks which you have made and are still making upon Antony, instead of getting you credit for courage, are not misinterpreted into a belief that you are afraid. For if you think Octavius the sort of person from whom to make petitions for our safety, you will be thought not to have fled from a master, but to have looked out for a more agreeable master. Of your praising him for his conduct up to this time I quite approve, for it deserves to be praised, provided that he adopted these measures against the tyrannical power of another and not in support of his own. But when you shew your opinion that he is not only to be allowed so much power, but is even to have so much tendered to him by yourself; as to be petitioned not to refuse us our lives, you are making a very bad bargain with him, for you are giving away to him the very thing of which the Republic seemed to be in possession through him. And it does not occur to you that, if Octavius deserves those honours for waging war on Antony, to those who have cut up that mischief by the roots—of which the present position is but the last trace—the Roman people will never give what is an adequate reward of their service, though it should heap everything it had to give upon them at once. See too how much more awake people are to actual fear than to the memory of past terrors. Because Antony is still alive and in arms, while in regard to Caesar what could and was bound to be done is all over and cannot be undone, Octavius is the man whose decision as to us is awaited by the Roman people; we are in such a position that one man has to be petitioned to enable us to live. I however—to return to your policy—so far from being the sort of man to supplicate, am one forcibly to coerce those who demand that supplications should be addressed to them. If I can't do that, I will withdraw far from the servile herd and will for myself regard as Rome wherever I am able to be free. I shall feel only pity for men like yourself; if neither age nor honours nor the example of other men's courage has been able to lessen your clinging to life. For my part I shall only think myself happy if I abide with firmness and persistency in the idea that my patriotism has had its reward: for what is there better than the memory of good actions, and for a man-wanting nothing except liberty—to disregard the vicissitudes of human life? But at any rate I will not yield to the yielders, nor be conquered by those who are willing to be conquered themselves. I will try every expedient, every plan: and I will never desist from the attempt to rescue our country from slavery. If the luck follows which ought to follow, I shall rejoice: if not, I shall rejoice all the same, for on what better deeds or thoughts can my life be spent than on those which are directed to the liberation of my fellow citizens? For you, Cicero, I beg and entreat you not to give in to fatigue or despair. In warding off actually existing evils ever seek to discover those that will occur if they are not prevented, and so prevent their creeping in upon us. Consider that the brave and independent spirit, with which as consul and now as a consular you have vindicated the freedom of the state, ceases to exist if a consistent and even tenor of conduct is not preserved. For I confess that tried virtue is in a harder position than virtue that is unknown. We exact good deeds as a debt: we assail the reverse with anger in our hearts, as though we were cheated by such men. So, for instance, though it is a most laudable thing that Cicero should resist Antony, yet because the consul of that time is thought naturally to guarantee the consular of today, no one admires him. And if this same Cicero when dealing with others has distorted his judgment, which he kept unshaken with such steadiness and high spirit in routing Antony, he will not only snatch the glory of future action from his own grasp, but will even force his past career to fade from sight (for there is nothing which is truly great in itself; unless it is deliberate and systematic), because no one is under a greater obligation to love the Republic and to be the champion of liberty, whether we regard his ability or his great past or the eager demands upon him from all the world. Wherefore Octavius ought not to be petitioned to consent to our safety. Rather do you rouse yourself to the fixed belief that the state in which you have performed the most splendid services will be free and honoured, if only the people have leaders in their resistance to the plots of traitors.

DCCCLXI. M. Iunius Brutus to Atticus (at Rome), Macedonia, May

You say in your letter that Cicero wonders at my never making any remark about his political actions. Since you ask me, under compulsion from you I will set down my sentiments. I know that Cicero does everything with the best intentions—for what could be clearer to me than his devotion to the Republic? But he, the acutest of men, appears to me in certain things to have acted with a want of—shall I call it tact or disinterestedness ?-in spite of the fact that he has not scrupled to incur the enmity of Antony at the height of his power on behalf of the Republic. I don't know what to set down on paper for you except the one thing: that the boy's ambition and unscrupulousness have been rather provoked than repressed by Cicero: and that he carries this indulgence to such a pitch that he does not abstain from abusive remarks-remarks which recoil upon himself with double force, because he put more than a single person to death, and ought rather to confess himself a murderer than to taunt Casca as he does, and because he imitates in Casca's case the conduct of Bestia. Pray, because we are not always bragging of the Ides of March, as he always has his Nones of December on his lips, is Cicero in any better position for vilifying a most glorious deed than Bestia and Clodius were for their habitual attacks upon his consulship? Our friend Cicero boasts to me that he has, though a civilian, successfully faced the war of Antony. What good is that to me, if as a price for crushing Antony succession into Antony's position is demanded, and if the avenger of that evil comes forward as the supporter of another destined to have a deeper foundation and to strike deeper roots, unless we prevent it? Granted that his present policy proceeds from fear-shall we say of tyranny, or of a tyrant, or of Antony? Well, but I feel no gratitude to one who, to avoid being the slave of a bad-tempered master, does not deprecate slavery itself-nay, rather proposes to give him a triumph and pay for his men, and by all manner of decrees instigates him not to shrink from coveting the high position of the man whose name he has adopted. Is this worthy of a consular or of a Cicero? Since I have not been allowed to be silent, you will have to read what must necessarily give you annoyance, for I am conscious myself of the pain with which I have written this to you; nor am I ignorant what your sentiments as to the situation are, and how desperate also you think the possibility of its cure. Nor, by heaven, do I blame you, Atticus. For your age, your habits, and your children make you unenterprising—a fact which I gathered also from our friend Flavius. But I return to Cicero. What is the difference between Salvidienus and him? What greater honour could he have proposed in the senate? Cicero is afraid," you will say, "even now of the remnant of the civil war." Does anyone then, while fearing a war nearly concluded, think that neither the tyrannical power of 'the victorious army's commander nor the rashness of the boy is at all alarming? Or is his motive for this very action the idea that now, owing to the greatness of his power, every kind of honour must be spontaneously offered to him? How strange is the blindness of fear! While taking precautions against what you dread, actually to invite danger and to bring it upon you, though you might perhaps have avoided it altogether! We are over-fearful of death, exile, and poverty: I think that these things are the worst of evils in Cicero's eyes, and that while he has people from whom to get what he wants, and by whom to be made much of and flattered, he has no aversion to servitude, if it be but tempered by a show of respect—if there can be any respect in what is the last and most wretched degradation. Therefore, though Octavius call Cicero "father," consult him in everything, praise and thank him, nevertheless the truth will come out that words do not agree with deeds. For what can be more contrary to common sense than to regard a man as a father, who is not even reckoned as free? For my part, I set no store by those accomplishments with which I know Cicero to be better furnished than anyone else: for what good to him are the speeches on behalf of his country's liberty, the essays on dignity, death, exile, poverty, which he has composed with the utmost wealth of language? What a much truer view Philippus seems to have of those things, when he refused all compliments to his own stepson, than Cicero has, who pays them to one who has no connexion with him! Let him cease then from absolutely insulting our misfortunes by his boastful language; for what does it profit us that Antony has been conquered, if the only result of his defeat is to leave his place open to another? However, even now there is a note of uncertainty in your letter. Long live Cicero—as he may well do—to cringe and serve! if he is not ashamed to think of his age nor his honour, nor his great past. For myself, at any rate, there is no condition of servitude, however favourable, which will deter me from waging war on the principle: that is, on royalty, unconstitutional magistracies, absolutism, and power that aims at being above the laws. Though Antony may be a good man, as you say in your letter-which, however, has never been my opinion—yet the law of our ancestors was that no one, not even a father, should be an absolute master. Unless I had been as deeply attached to you as Cicero believes that Octavius is devoted to him, I should not have written this to you. I am grieved to think that as you read this you are getting angry—for you are most affectionate to all your friends, and especially to Cicero: but assure yourself of this, that my personal goodwill to Cicero is in no way modified, though my opinion is largely so, for you cannot ask a man to judge except from what seems to him to be truth in each case. I could have wished that you had mentioned in your letter what arrangements were being made for the betrothal of our dear Attica: I might have said something to you of what I felt about the matter. I am not surprised that you are anxious about Porcia's health. Lastly, I will gladly do what you ask, for my sisters ask me the same, and I know the man and his views.

DCCCLXII. M. Iunius Brutus to Cicero (at Rome), Camp in Epirus, 15 May

... Now, Cicero, now is the time for action, lest we turn out to have rejoiced in vain at the defeat of Antony, and lest it is always to be a case of cutting out one mischief for another to grow worse than the former. No reverse can now find us unprepared or otiose, in which everyone will not be to blame, and especially yourself, whose influence the senate and Roman people not only allow to be so great, but even desire to be the very greatest that one man's can be in a free state. And this influence you ought to maintain not only by good intentions but also by prudent conduct. Now the prudence, with which you are richly endowed, does not fail you in any respect except as to moderation in bestowing honours. All other endowments you possess in such profusion, that your excellences will stand comparison with any of the heroes of old. The only outcome of your grateful and generous heart that people feel to be wanting is a more cautious and better regulated liberality. For the senate ought to grant nothing to anybody which may serve as a precedent or justification to the ill-disposed. For instance, I am afraid in regard to the consulship that your friend Caesar will think that he has mounted to a higher position by means of your decrees than he will be willing to descend from, if he is once made consul. But if Antony regarded the working machinery of kingly power left by another as an opportunity for seizing kingly power for himself, what do you suppose a man's feelings will be who shall conceive himself justified in aspiring to any kind of office, not on the authority of a slain tyrant, but on that of the senate itself? Wherefore I shall reserve my compliments to your good nature and foresight till I begin to have proof that Caesar will be content with the extra-constitutional honours that he has already received. "Do you mean, then," you will say, "to make me liable for another man's misconduct?" Yes, certainly for another's, if its occurrence might have been prevented by foresight. And oh that you may clearly see the depth of my alarm in regard to him!

P.S.-After writing the above I have been informed that you have been elected consul. I shall indeed begin to imagine that I have before my eyes a complete and self-sustained Republic, when I see that. Your son is well, and has been sent in advance into Macedonia with the cavalry.

15 May, in camp.

DCCCLXIII. M. Iunius Brutus to Cicero (at Rome), Ima Candavia, 19 May

Don't expect me to thank you. From the closeness of our intimacy, which has now reached the highest possible point of friendship, that ought long ago to have become superfluous. Your son is not in my quarters; we shall meet in Macedonia. His orders were to lead the cavalry from Ambracia by way of Thessaly, and I have written to him to meet me at Heraclea. When I see him; as you consent, I will settle with him about his return for his candidature, or rather his recommendation to the office. I commend to your protection with the utmost warmth Pansa's physician Glyco, who is married to the sister of my freedman Achilles. I am told that he is suspected by Torquatus in regard to Pansa's death, and is in custody as a murderer. Nothing could be more incredible: for who lost more than he did by Pansa's death? Besides he is a well-conducted moral man, whom even personal advantage would seem unlikely to tempt to crime. I beg you, and that with great earnestness—for my Achilles is as anxious about it as he is bound to be—to rescue him from prison and be his preserver. This I regard as affecting my duty as a private man as nearly as anything else could do.

While I was actually writing this letter to you a despatch was delivered to me from Satrius, a legate of Gaius Trebonius, saying that Dolabella had been defeated and put to flight by Tillius and Deiotarus. I am sending you a Greek letter of a certain Cicereius to Satrius. Our friend Flavius in a dispute that he has with the people of Dyrrachium about an inheritance has named you as arbitrator: I beg you, Cicero, as does Flavius also, to settle this business. There is no doubt that the town owed money to the man who made Flavius his heir, nor do the Dyrrachini deny it, but they allege that they received from Caesar a remission of their debt. Don't allow your friends to do a wrong to a friend of mine.

19 May, in camp at Ima Candavia.

DCCCLXIV. M. Iunius Brutus to Cicero (at Rome), Macedonia, Latter Part of May

No one can better judge than you how dear Lucius Bibulus ought to be to me, considering his great struggles and anxieties on behalf of the Republic. Accordingly, his own excellence as well as our intimacy ought to make him your friend. I think myself therefore obliged to write at the less length: for a wish of mine ought to influence you, provided that it is equitable and is conceived in fulfilment of a necessary duty. He has resolved to stand for the place of Pansa. I beg you therefore to nominate him. You cannot do a favour to any man more closely attached than we are to you, nor can you nominate a more deserving man than Bibulus. What need to write about Domitius and Appuleius, seeing that they are most warmly recommended to you by their own merits? To Appuleius certainly you are bound to lend the protection of your influence—but Appuleius's praises shall be sung in the special letter he brings with him. Do not fail to take Bibulus to your bosom—a man, believe me, who may develop into the sort of character to deserve your most select praises.

DCCCLXV. M. Aemilius Lepidus to Cicero (at Rome), Pons Argenteus, 18 May

If you are well, I am glad. I am well. Having been informed that Antony, after sending Lucius Antonius in advance with a detachment of his cavalry, was coming with his forces into my province, I moved with my army from the confluence of the Rhone and determined to oppose them. Accordingly, I have come by daily marches to Forum Voconii, and to the east of that town I have pitched a camp on the river Argens opposite the Antonians. Publius Ventidius has united his three legions with him and has pitched a camp still farther to the east. Antony had before this junction the fifth legion, and a large number of men drawn from the other legions, but without arms. He has a large force of cavalry: for it got away after the battle without loss, so that there are more than five thousand troopers. A large number of infantry and cavalry have deserted to me from him, and his force is shrinking every day. Silanus and Culleo have abandoned him. Although they had done me a serious wrong in having joined Antony contrary to my wish, yet for kindness' sake, and in view of our close connexion, I have granted them their lives, but I am not employing them, nor allowing them to remain in camp, and I have not given them any command. As far as this war is concerned, I shall not be wanting in my duty to the senate nor to the Republic. I will keep you acquainted with my future proceedings.

DCCCLXVI. L. Munatius Plancus to Cicero (at Rome), Gaul, 18 May

What I had in my mind when Laevus and Nerva quitted me you have been able to ascertain by the letter which I forwarded by them and from these men personally, who have taken part in all my actions and consultations- There has happened to me what usually does happen to a man of honour and one who is desirous of doing his duty to the state, in fact to all good men, that I preferred to pursue a dangerous course with an approving conscience, rather than a safe one which might lay me open to some reproach. Accordingly, after the departure of his legates, as Lepidus in two successive letters begged me to join him, and Laterensis still more strongly begged me to do so in terms almost of entreaty-shewing no dread of anything except what causes me also some alarm, the fickleness and untrustworthy temper of his army—I thought I ought not to hesitate about hurrying to his assistance and confronting the common danger. Now the safe course for me was to wait on the Isére till Dec. Brutus got his army across the mountains, and to go to meet the enemy with a colleague in sympathy with my views and an army in full accord and well-affected to the had not opposed Antony's passage, and indeed seems to have joined him (App. B.C. 3.83). Republic, as his soldiers are. Nevertheless I knew that if Lepidus while entertaining loyal ideas came to any harm, it would all be laid to the charge either of my obstinacy or my timidity. I saw plainly that this would' be so, if I either failed to relieve a man closely united with the Republic, though on bad terms with myself, or had myself withdrawn from the struggle in a war of such moment. So I preferred to run the risk, and to see whether my presence might afford Lepidus protection and render his army better-affected, rather than appear over-cautious. At any rate I think there never was anyone more anxious, without any fault of his own, than myself. For the very situation which was causing me no hesitation, supposing Lepidus's army away, in the present state of things brings me great anxiety and involves great risk. For if it had been my fortune to encounter Antony first, he would not, by heaven, have held his ground an hour. So confident do I feel in myself and so completely do I despise his demoralized forces and the division of Ventidius the mule-man. But I cannot but shudder at the idea of some hidden wound, which may cause mischief before it can be known and treated. But certainly unless I had remained on the same ground Lepidus himself and the well-affected part of his army would have incurred great danger. The unscrupulous enemy also would have secured a great accession of force, if they had withdrawn any of his troops from Lepidus. And if my arrival has stopped these things occurring I shall thank my stars and my own firmness, which incited me to make this experiment. Therefore on the 20th of May I broke up my camp on the Isére: I left the bridge standing, however, which I had constructed over that river, with a fort placed at each end of it; and in them I stationed strong garrisons, that there might be a means of crossing without delay ready for Brutus and his army when he came. I shall myself, I hope, in eight days from the despatch of this letter effect a junction with the forces of Lepidus.

DCCCLXVII. To Decimus Brutus (near Vercellae), Rome, 19 May

Though from the message which you gave to Galba and Volumnius for the senate I have a good guess as to what you thought was the danger ahead, yet the message seemed to me to be less confident than suited the victory gained by yourself and the Roman people. The senate, however, my dear Brutus, is resolute and has resolute leaders. It was therefore somewhat hurt that it should be considered timid and spiritless by you, whom it considered the bravest of men. For considering that even when you were invested everybody retained the most confident hope in your valour, though Antony was in full vigour, who could be afraid of anything after he had been defeated and you released? Nor, indeed, are we afraid of Lepidus. For who in the world could expect him to be such a madman as, after saying in the midst of a most formidable war that he desired peace, to proclaim war against the Republic after the ardently desired peace had been obtained? And I do not doubt your seeing farther ahead than we can. But nevertheless a renewal of alarm so soon after the thanksgiving which we offered at all the temples in your name does cause bitter disappointment. Therefore, for my part, my wish is—as it is my hope—that Antony has been entirely ruined and crushed: but if he has by chance collected some forces, he shall feel that the senate is not without wisdom, nor the Roman people without valour, nor the Republic—as long as you are alive—without a general.

19 May.

DCCCLXVIII. L. Munatius Plancus to Cicero (at Rome), Near Forum Voconii, 20 May

On the 15th of May Antony reached Forum Iulii with his advanced guard. Ventidius is two days' march behind him. Lepidus is encamped at Forum Voconii, which is twenty-four miles from Forum Iulli, and has settled to await me there, as he has himself written to tell me. But if neither Lepidus himself nor fortune disappoints me in any way, I pledge myself to finish this business quickly in the manner in which you in the senate desire. I told you in a previous letter that my brother was ill, worn out by continuous work and rapid movements. Nevertheless, as soon as he could set foot to ground, considering that his restored health was not his own more than the state's, he was for leading the forlorn hope everywhere. But I have not merely urged, I have forced him to start for Rome—partly on the grounds that in his state of health he was more likely to wear himself to death than to assist me in camp, and partly because I thought that the Republic, having been left bare by the most regrettable death of the consuls, required the presence of such an eminent citizen as praetor for the conduct of city business. But if any of you at Rome disapprove, let it be known that it was I that lacked prudence in counsel, not he fidelity to his country. After all, Lepidus did what I wanted him to do—he sent me Apella to hold as a hostage of his good faith and of his co-operation in the public service. In that business I was well satisfied with the services of L. Gellius, whom I employed as my last emissary to Lepidus. I think that I ascertained him to be attached to the Republic, and it will give me pleasure to testify to him and to all who serve the state well. Take care of your health, return my affection for you, and defend my position, if I deserve it, as you have done up to this time with remarkable kindness.

DCCCLXIX. To M. Iunius Brutus (in Macedonia), Rome, late in May

L. Clodius, tribune-designate, is much attached to me, or, to speak with more empressement, loves me dearly. And when I am assured of that I feel certain—for you know me—that you will conclude that I love him: for nothing seems to me less human than not to give an answering affection to those by whom one's love is challenged. He seemed to me to suspect, much to his chagrin, that some unfavourable report had reached you from his friends, or rather through his enemies, by which your feelings were alienated from him. It is not my habit, my dear Brutus, as I think you know, to make rash statements about another man. It is a risky thing to do, owing to the secret feelings and complicated natures of mankind But I have seen to the bottom of Clodius's heart: I know it, and have formed my judgment of it. There are many proofs of it, but such as I need not write down, for I want you to regard this as a solemn deposition rather than a letter. He has been promoted by Antony—though a large share even of that very favour has its origin in you—and accordingly he would wish his safety so long as it is compatible with ours. But he fully understands—for he is no fool, as you are aware—that matters have come to such a point that both cannot be preserved; accordingly he prefers us. As to yourself, indeed, he both speaks and feels in the most affectionate manner. Wherefore, if anyone has written to you or spoken to you by word of mouth disparagingly of him, I beg you again and again to believe me rather than them. I have greater opportunity of judging than any such casual observer, and I am more devoted to you. Make up your mind that Clodius is most warmly attached to you, and is such a citizen as a man of the greatest sense and most ample fortune is bound to be.

DCCCLXX. To M. Iunius Brutus (in Macedonia), Rome, late in May

When I had already written and sealed a despatch to you, a letter from you was delivered to me full of startling intelligence. But the most surprising of all was that Dolabella had sent five cohorts into the Chersonese. Is he so flush of troops that a man who was said to be in flight from Asia is now attempting to get a foothold in Europe? With five cohorts, moreover, what did he think that he could do when you had five legions, a splendid body of cavalry, and very large auxiliary forces? These same cohorts, I hope, by this time are in your hands, since that outlaw has been so insensate. I strongly commend your policy in not having moved your army from Apollonia and Dyrrachium, until you heard of the flight of Antony, of Decimus Brutus having broken out of Mutina, and of the victory of the Roman people. Accordingly, in saying that you had afterwards resolved to lead your army into the Chersonese, and not to suffer the government of the Roman people to be a laughingstock to an enemy stained with the worst of crimes, you are acting in the interests of your own position and of the Republic. You speak of an outbreak in the fourteenth legion on account of Gaius Antonius; you will excuse my saying that I am in sympathy with the severity of the soldiers rather than with yours.

DCCCLXXI. Decimus Brutus to Cicero (at Rome), Vercellae, 21 May

I should wish you to read over first the despatch which I have sent the senate and make any alterations you think right. You will notice that I could not avoid writing it: for while I thought that the fourth and Martian legions would be serving with me, in accordance with the motion of Drusus and Paullus, with the support of you senators, I thought I need not much concern myself about anything else. In present circumstances, however, when I am accompanied by the most ill-equipped raw recruits, it is inevitable that I should be much alarmed both on my own account and on yours. The people of Vicetia shew very great attention to me and Marcus Brutus. I beg you to see that no wrong is done them in the senate on the question concerning their home-born slaves. They have a very strong case, are very loyal to the Republic, and have a class of men opposed to them seditious and extremely idle.

DCCCLXXII. M. Aemilius Lepidus to Cicero (at Rome), Pons Argenteus, 22 May

M. Lepidus, a second time imperator, Pontifex Maximus, greets Marcus Tullius Cicero. Though at every period we have vied with each other, in the interchange of good offices in a manner worthy of our mutual friendship, and have both been careful to keep them up, still I have no doubt that in such a sudden disturbance of political affairs some reports about me have been conveyed to you in groundless rumours by my detractors, sufficient greatly to agitate your mind in view of your devotion to the Republic. That you have been cautious in receiving them, and have not judged it right to believe them without inquiry, I have been informed by my agents. This is exceedingly gratifying to me, as it is bound to be. For I remember what on a previous occasion your kindness prompted you to do in order to promote and enhance my position: and it will ever remain fixed in my heart. I earnestly beg of you, my dear Cicero, if you have proof of my life and of my zeal in the most careful performance of public duties being worthy of the name of Lepidus, to expect equal or even more splendid services in the future, and to think accordingly that I am one who deserves the protection of your authority, in proportion as your good services make me deeper in your debt. Goodbye.

22 May, in camp at the bridge over the Argens.

DCCCLXXIII. Decimus Brutus to Cicero (at Rome), Eporedia, 24 May

What I don't do for myself my love for you and your kindnesses to me force me to do—to fear. For though I have often heard the story before, and never thought lightly of it, quite recently Segulius Labeo—and it was exactly like him-tells me that he has been in Caesar's company, and that there was a great deal of talk about you. That Caesar himself had no complaint to make against you, except as to an epigram which he said that you uttered: "that the young man must be complimented, honoured, and—got rid of." He said that he did not mean to give them the chance of getting rid of him. I believe for my part that Labeo told him this epigram or made it up himself, and that it was not mentioned first by the young man. As for the veterans, Labeo would have me believe that their language is abominable, that you are in imminent danger from them, and that they are exceedingly indignant at neither Caesar nor myself being among the ten commissioners, and at everything being put in the hands of your party. Having heard these stories, and being already on the march, I did not think that I ought to allow myself to cross the Alps until I knew what was going on with you in Rome. For as to your danger, believe me they hope by swaggering language and threats of danger to make great profit for themselves, when they have cowed you and egged on the young man, and that all that talk about your epigram has one origin-their desire to do as good a stroke of business as possible. Not, however, that I wouldn't have you be cautious and avoid traps: for nothing can be dearer and more precious to me than your life. Take care that you are not forced to be still more afraid by being timid, and that you meet the wishes of the veterans by whatever means that can be done. First, do what they want about the commission of ten. Next, as to rewards, vote, if you think good, that the lands of those veteran soldiers who have served with Antony be transferred to them by both Caesar and myself. As for the coinage, tell them that the senate with deliberation, and after a full investigation of the money, will authoritatively settle that business. For the four legions to whom you in the senate have voted that lands should be given, I see there will be enough land to draw upon from the confiscations of Sulla and the territory of Capua. I think these lands should be given to the legions share and share alike, or by drawing lots. It is no particular wisdom of mine that makes me write this to you, but my love for you and my yearning for peace, which cannot be firmly secured without you. Unless it is absolutely necessary I shall not quit Italy. I am arming and preparing my legions. I hope that I shall have an army that will not be very unfit to grapple with all chances of fortune and all attacks of men. From the army commanded by Pansa Caesar does not intend to allow a legion to join me. Please answer this letter at once, or if the matter is very confidential, and one which you think I ought to know, send one of your men.

24 May, Eporedia.

DCCCLXXIV. Decimus Brutus to Cicero (at Rome), Eporedia, 25 May

We are all well here, and I shall do my best to make us better. Lepidus seems to us to be fairly well disposed. Having got rid of every fear, we ought to consult for the interests of the state with freedom. But if everything else went wrong, yet with three such great armies devoted to the service of the Republic in full force, you ought to have the high courage which you have always kept, and can now by the blessing of fortune increase. As to what I told you under my hand in my previous letter—it is all mere talk meant to bluff you. If you once get the bit between your teeth, may I die if all of them put together will be able to stand against you when you start speaking. As I told you in my last letter, I shall remain in Italy till a letter from you reaches me.

25 May, Eporedia.

DCCCLXXV. To L. Munatius Plancus (in Gaul), Rome, 27 May

Though I do not look for formal thanks from you, since I know that you are most grateful in fact and from your heart, nevertheless—for I must confess the truth—they were very gratifying to me. For I seem to see, as though it were something actually visible to the eye, that I am beloved by you. You will say, "What did you think before?" Well, I always knew it, but never with greater clearness. Your despatch was wonderfully liked by the senate, both for the facts it contained, which were of the utmost importance and significance, indicating supreme courage and consummate strategy, and also for the impressiveness of its sentiments and language. But, my dear Plancus, push on with all your might and finish the last struggles of the war. In this you will find the greatest popularity and glory. Of course the object of all my desires is the Republic: but, by heaven, I am by this time tired out with my efforts to save it, and am now not more earnest in favour of my country than of your glory. To win that the immortal gods have now given you a unique opportunity, as I hope. Embrace it, I beseech you. For the man who crushes Antony will have brought a most abominable and dangerous war to an end.

DCCCLXXVI. To Gaius Furnius (in Gaul with Plancus), Rome, 26-30 May

If it is of importance to the Republic—as is the general belief—that you should complete the work in the same spirit as you have begun to do it and have actually done it, and that you should take part in the important operations for extinguishing the last sparks of the war, I think you can do nothing better or more laudable or more to your honour: and in my opinion this labour, activity, and patriotic spirit on your part is to be preferred to any hurrying on of the praetorship. For I would not have you ignorant of the amount of reputation which you have gained. Believe me, it is second only to Plancus, and that too on the testimony of Plancus himself, as well as by the report and knowledge of everybody else. Wherefore, if there is still any labour left for you to perform, my opinion is that you should throw yourself into it with energy. What can be more to your honour? And what is to be preferred to honour? But if you think that you have done all you are bound to do for the state, I think you should come with all speed to the comitia, for they are likely to take place early: provided only that this hurry to secure office does not detract in any way from the glory which we have secured. There have been many very illustrious men who, being abroad on the public service, have missed their proper year for canvassing. And this is easier in our case, because this is not the year marked out for you, on the principle that if you had been aedile your year would have been two years later. As it is, you will appear not to omit any of the customary observance, and what is a quasi-statutory period of canvassing. Moreover, I foresee that with Plancus consul (although even without him your path would be clear) your canvass would be after all more brilliant, provided that the campaign on which you are now engaged shall have been brought to the conclusion we desire. On the whole I don't think that there is much need for me to write any more, considering your great prudence and judgment, yet nevertheless I was unwilling that you should be ignorant of my opinion: the upshot of which is that I would rather you should judge of everything by consideration for your true position than from the chance of official promotion, and should look for your reward in a lasting reputation rather than in a rapid attainment of the praetorship. This was the gist of what I said in my house at a conference with my brother Quintus, Caecina, and Calvisius—all men most devoted to you—your freedman Dardanus being also present. My speech seemed to be approved by all of them. But after all you will judge best for yourself.

DCCCLXXVII. To L. Munatius Plancus (at Cularo), Rome, 27 May

Never within living memory have I seen anything happen, Plancus, more glorious, more welcome, or more exactly in the nick of time, than your despatch. For it was delivered to Cornutus in a full meeting of the senate just after he had read aloud the cold and shuffling despatch of Lepidus. Immediately after it yours was read and was received with loud cheers. For it was not only most welcome for the actual news it contained and the zeal and good services to the state which it implied, but its language and sentiments were also most impressive. Cries were raised that Cornutus should at once bring forward a motion arising from your despatch. He said that he wished time for consideration. When this had brought down on him a severe remonstrance from the whole senate, five of the tribunes brought forward a motion. Servilius being called upon voted for postponing the business. I then delivered an opinion with which they all agreed to a man. What it was you will learn from the decree itself. As for you, though you are in no want of prudence, or rather have enough and to spare, you ought yet to resolve to refer nothing here, nor in the midst of such sudden and pressing emergencies to think yourself bound to ask advice from the senate. Be your own senate, and follow wherever the interest of the public service shall lead you. Let it be your object that we hear of some brilliant operation by you before we thought that it was going to happen. I pledge my word to you that whatever you achieve the senate will accept as having been done not merely with loyal intention, but also with wisdom.

DCCCLXXVIII. P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther to Cicero (at Rome), Perga, 29 May

Having been to see our friend Brutus and discovered that he was not coming to Asia for some time, I returned to Asia to finish off the arrears of my business and to transmit the money to Rome as soon as possible. Meanwhile I was informed that Dolabella's fleet was in Lycia, and more than a hundred ships of burden, on board which his army might be embarked; and that Dolabella's plan was that, if he was disappointed of his hopes of getting possession of Syria, he should take ship and make for Italy, and there join the Antonies and the other outlaws. That so alarmed me that, throwing all other business aside, I endeavoured to reach these ships with a fleet of fewer and smaller vessels. And had I not been hindered by the Rhodians, that force would have perhaps been entirely destroyed. After all, it was to a great extent put out of action; for the fleet itself was scattered in all directions by the terror of our approach, the soldiers and officers took flight, the ships of burden, to the last vessel, fell into our hands. At least, I think I have secured—what was causing the greatest alarm—that Dolabella cannot reach Italy, nor make your difficulties greater by reinforcing his allies. How completely the Rhodians thought that it was all over with us and the Republic you will learn from my public despatch. And indeed I have written much more mildly about their delusion than I found it in real fact to be. But do not be surprised at my having mentioned them in my despatch at all, for their infatuation is really surprising. I was not moved by any private wrong received from them at any time; it was their ill-will in a matter involving our lives, their violent adherence to the other side, the persistent disrespect shewn by them to all the best loyalists, that were intolerable to me. Yet after all I don't think that they were all bad men: but that same party of them who in old times refused to receive my father in his flight, L. Lentulus, Pompey, and other men of the greatest distinction, these same men, I say, as though by some fatality are now either actual magistrates or have those who are in office in their power. And so they shew the same proud obstinacy in their malice. That the evil propensities of these men should sooner or later be checked, and that we should not allow them to increase by impunity, is not only to the advantage of the Republic, but absolutely necessary. I hope you will continue as before to defend my position whenever you get an opportunity, and in the senate and elsewhere give your support to my reputation. Since Asia has been assigned by decree to the consuls, and they have been allowed until their arrival to commit the administration to the magistrates now in possession, I beg you to ask them to select me before anyone else for this position, and to commit the administration of Asia to me till one or the other of them arrives. For there is no reason for their hurrying hither during their year of office or sending an army. For Dolabella is in Syria, and, as you have foreseen in your prophetic soul and have foretold, Cassius will crush him while they are on their way. For Dolabella has had the gates of Antioch shut in his face and got a good beating in trying to storm it. Not trusting in any other city, he has betaken himself to Laodicea, on the sea-coast of Syria. There I hope he will speedily pay the penalty of his crime: for he has no place of refuge, nor will he much longer be able there to stand out against an army as large as that of Cassius. I even hope that Dolabella has by this time been overpowered and crushed. Wherefore I don't suppose that Pansa and Hirtius will hurry themselves to go to their provinces whilst they are consuls, but will conduct the consulship at Rome. Therefore, if you will ask them to give me the administration of Asia in the meantime, I hope you may be able to get it for me. Besides, Pansa and Hirtius promised me personally, and wrote to me when I was away, and Pansa faithfully promised our friend Verrius that he would see to no successor being appointed for me during their consulship. It is not, upon my honour, from any special desire of a province that I wish my period of office prolonged; for this province has been to me the source of much labour, danger, and loss. And I am very anxious that I may not have undergone all these in vain, nor be forced to leave it before I wind up what, in spite of my diligence, there still remains to be done. For if I had been able to send the whole sum which I have levied, I should have asked to be relieved. As it is, I want to get in and make up what I have advanced to Cassius, what I have lost by the death of Trebonius, or by the cruelty of Dolabella, or the perfidy of those who have not kept their word with me and the Republic. And this cannot be done unless I have time. Pray take care—as is your habit—that I get my wish through you. I think my services to the state have been sufficient to give me a right to expect not only the reward of this province, but as much as Cassius and the two Bruti got, not only because I shared in that glorious deed and the danger of it, but also from the zeal and integrity of my conduct now. For I was the first to defy the laws passed by Antony; I was the first to bring over Dolabella's cavalry to the Republic and hand them on to Cassius; I was the first to hold a levy to protect the common safety against a most criminal Conspiracy. I was the sole cause of Syria and the armies in it being put under the authority of Cassius and the Republic. For unless I had handed to Cassius such a large sum of money and such strong forces, and with such promptitude, he would not have even had the courage to enter Syria, and at this moment no less dangers would have been threatening the Republic from Dolabella than from Antony. And then, too, I did all this though I was a club-fellow and most intimate friend of Dolabella, most closely allied in blood to the Antonies, and, moreover, in possession of a province by their favour; yet, "loving my country more," I was the first to proclaim war against men who were all my friends. Though I am aware that these things have as yet not brought me much profit, nevertheless I do not despair, nor shall I be prevented by fatigue from abiding not merely in my passion for freedom, but also in labour and dangers. Still, after all, if I am encouraged by some just and well-deserved credit through the good offices of the senate and aristocracy, I shall enjoy a greater prestige with others, and be able to be so much the more serviceable to the Republic. I could not see your son when I visited Brutus, because he had already started with the cavalry into winter quarters, but upon my honour I am rejoiced at the reputation he enjoys, both for your sake and his, and especially for mine. For he is like a brother to me, as being your son and worthy of you. Good-bye.

29 May, Perga.

DCCCLXXIX. P. Lentulus, Proquaestor, Propraetor, to the Consuls, Praetors, Tribunes, Senate, and Roman People, Perga, 29 May-2 June

If you and your children are well, I am glad. I am well. Asia having been overrun by the criminal proceedings of Dolabella, I betook myself to the neighbouring province of Macedonia and to those defences of the Republic which the honourable citizen Marcus Brutus had under his command, and urged that the province of Asia and its revenues should be restored to your authority by those who could do so most promptly. This alarmed Dolabella, and therefore, after plundering the province, seizing its revenues, selecting Roman citizens especially to beggar and sell up, he quitted Asia quicker than the protecting force could be brought into it. I therefore did not think it necessary to delay any longer, nor to wait for the garrison, and I conceived that I ought to return at the earliest opportunity to my duty, in order that I might both collect the arrears of revenue and call in the money I had deposited, and ascertain as soon as possible what part of it had been seized, or by whose fault that had occurred, and inform you about the whole affair.

Meanwhile on my voyage by the island route into Asia I was met by the information that Dolabella's fleet was in Lycia, and that the Rhodians had a number of vessels fully equipped and ready launched. Accordingly, with the ships which either I had brought with me or the proquaestor Patiscus had secured—a man very closely united to me both by intimate friendship and political sympathies—I diverted my course to Rhodes, trusting in your authority and the decree of the senate, by which you had declared Dolabella a public enemy, and also in the treaty which had been renewed with them in the consulship of M. Marcellus and Servius Sulpicius, in which the Rhodians had sworn to have the same enemies as the senate and Roman people. However, I found myself entirely mistaken. For so far from our strengthening our fleet by any assistance from them, our soldiers were even warned off by the Rhodians from city, harbour, the roadstead outside the city, from purchasing provisions, and finally even from taking in water; while I myself was only just allowed to approach in a single boat. This insult and derogation from the dignity, not only of my official position, but also of the imperial position of the Roman people, I did not resent, because from an intercepted despatch I had learnt that Dolabella, if he had despaired of Syria and Egypt—as was certain to happen-was prepared to embark on board his ships with all his outlaws and all his money and make for Italy; and that for that purpose also some transports, not one of which was less than 2,000 amphorae burden, collected in Lycia were being guarded by his fleet. Dismayed by the alarming nature of this report, fathers of the senate, I preferred to submit to the insult and to try first every means, though involving personal indignities. Therefore, being in accordance with their wishes introduced into the city and senate, I pleaded the cause of the Republic with the greatest earnestness of which I was capable, and stated the whole danger of the situation which threatened us, if that outlaw embarked with all his forces. But I found the Rhodians to be so utterly misguided, that they thought the loyalists were the weakest of all parties: that they were more ready to disbelieve in the existing unanimity and agreement of all orders in the defence of liberty: that they were confident that the tolerance of the senate and the aristocracy was even now what it had been before, and that no one would have the courage to declare Dolabella a public enemy: in fact that they regarded as true all the figments of the traitors rather than what had really taken place and was being stated by me. It was with these views that even before my arrival, after the atrocious murder of Trebonius and numerous other abominable crimes, two embassies from them had gone to Dolabella, and that too contrary to all precedent, it being against their own laws, and in spite of the prohibition of the then existing magistrates. Though they might easily have applied a remedy for this crisis, they refused to do so. I don't know whether it was, as they give out, from fear for the lands which they possess on the continent, or from the infatuation or tolerance of a few politicians who on previous occasions equally insulted men of the highest rank and now do so to those actually in the chief offices, without precedent and without provocation from us. They refused—I say—in spite of the danger threatening us who were on the spot, and of that which threatened Italy and our city, if that murderer with his crew of outlaws sailed to Italy after being expelled from Asia and Syria. Some of us even suspected the magistrates of having detained us and of having wasted time until Dolabella's fleet was informed of our arrival. And this suspicion was deepened by several things that occurred afterwards, especially by the fact that Dolabella's legates Sextus Marius and Gaius Titius suddenly quitted the fleet on the Lycian coast and fled on board a ship of war, abandoning the transports, in the collection of which they had spent considerable time and labour. Accordingly, when we arrived at Lycia from Rhodes with the ships then in our possession, we took over the transports and sent them back to their owners. Thus we ceased to feel what had been our chief fear—that Dolabella might find means to reach Italy with his outlaws. We pursued his flying fleet as far as Sida, which is the farthest district of my province. There I ascertained that some of Dolabella's ships had scattered and fled, that the rest had made for Syria and Cyprus. These being thus dispersed, as I knew that the very large fleet of the eminent citizen and general Cassius would be ready to meet him in Syria, I returned to my official duties: as I shall do my best, fathers of the senate, to give you and the Republic the full benefit of my zeal and industry; and as to money—I will collect as much as I can and with the greatest possible promptness, and will send it by every means in my power. When I have made a tour of my province and have ascertained who have been faithful to us and to the Republic in safeguarding the money which I deposited with them, and who are guilty of actually handing over public money and by this gift entering into a partnership with Dolabella in his crimes, I will inform you. And if you will pass a severe sentence, should it so please you, upon these men and back me up by the weight of your authority, I shall be able with greater ease both to collect the arrears of revenue and keep that already collected safe. Meantime, in order more thoroughly to protect the revenues and to defend my province from ill-treatment, I have enrolled a guard formed of volunteers and only such as was absolutely necessary.

After I had written this despatch, about thirty soldiers, whom Dolabella had enlisted in Asia, escaping from Syria arrived in Pamphylia. They brought word that Dolabella bad arrived at Antioch in Syria: that not being admitted he made several attempts to force an entry, but had always been repulsed with great loss; and accordingly after losing about 600 men, abandoning his sick, he retreated by night from Antioch towards Laodicea: that in that night nearly all his Asiatic soldiers deserted him: that of these about 800 returned to Antioch and surrendered to the officers commanding the city who had been left there by Cassius: that the rest crossed Mount Amanus and descended into Cilicia, to which number they said that they also belonged themselves: finally, that Cassius with his whole force was reported to be four days' march from Laodicea at the time when Dolabella was pressing on to that town. Wherefore I feel sure that a most villainous outlaw will be punished sooner than I thought.

2 June, Perga.

DCCCLXXX. To L. Munatius Plancus (in Gaul), Rome, 29 May

All the news from your part of the world is so uncertain that nothing occurs to me to say to you. For at one time reports of Lepidus are satisfactory, at another the reverse. However, of you the report is unvarying—that you can be neither hoodwinked nor beaten. The credit for the latter is to a certain extent fortune's, for the former it wholly belongs to your own good sense. But I have received a letter from your colleague dated the 15th of May, in which he said that you had written to tell him that Antony was not being received by Lepidus. I shall feel more certain of this if you give me the same information in a letter, but perhaps you do not venture to do so owing to the ill-grounded cheerfulness of your former letter. But as it was possible for you, my dear Plancus, to make a mistake—for who escapes doing so ?-so no one can fail to see that it was impossible that you should be taken in. Now, however, even the plea of being mistaken has been taken away—"Twice on the same stone," you know, is a fault reproved by a common proverb. But if the truth is as you have written to your colleague, we are freed from all anxiety; yet we shall not be so until you inform us that it is the case. My opinion indeed, as I have often told you in my letters, is that the man who extinguishes the last embers of this part of the war will be the real victor in the whole war, and I both hope and believe that you will be the man. I am not at all surprised and am deeply gratified that my zeal on your behalf, which certainly could not have been surpassed, has been as pleasant to your feelings as I thought it would be. You will find it indeed to be greater and more effective still, if things go well with you there.

29 May.

DCCCLXXXI. M. Aemilius Lepidus to the Magistrates and Senate, Pons Argenteus, 30 May

M. Lepidus, second time imperator, Pontifex Maximus, greets the praetors, tribunes, the senate, populace, and plebs of Rome.

If you and your children are well, I am glad. I and my army are well. I call gods and men to witness, fathers of the senate, what my feelings and sentiments have ever been towards the Republic, and how I have thought nothing of more importance than the common safety and liberty. And this I should shortly have demonstrated to you, had not fortune snatched from me the power of following my own policy. For my whole army broke out into a mutiny, by way of retaining its traditional principle of preserving fellow citizens and the general peace, and—to confess the truth-compelled me to undertake to defend the lives and civil rights of so large a number of Roman citizens. And in regard to this matter, I beg and beseech you, fathers of the senate, to forget private quarrels and to consult for the highest interests of the Republic, and not to regard the compassionate feelings of myself and my army in the light of a crime. But if you take the lives and political position of all into consideration, you will consult better for yourselves and the Republic.

30 May, from Pons Argenteus.

DCCCLXXXII. To Decimus Brutus (at Eporedia), Rome, May, late

I am wonderfully pleased, my dear Brutus, that you approve of my policy and sentiments about the decemvirs, and about complimenting the young man. But what does it matter? Believe me—a man not given to brag—I am now, Brutus, quite in the cold shade. For my weapon was the senate: that has now gone to pieces. Your splendid breaking out from Mutina, and the flight of Antony after his army had been cut to pieces, had given us such a bright hope of certain victory, that the spirits of all have begun to flag, and those old fiery contests of mine seem to be, as it were, a mere fighting with shadows. But to return to business. People who know them say that the Martia and the fourth legion cannot by any persuasion whatever be brought over to you. As to the money you want, some means can be taken for that, and shall be taken. About summoning Marcus Brutus and keeping Caesar to protect Italy, I agree with you. But, as you say, you have some detractors. I have no difficulty in rebutting them, yet they do hamper one. We are expecting the legions from Africa. But people are surprised at the war in your parts being renewed. Nothing was ever more unexpected. For when the victory was announced on your birthday, we saw the Republic freed for many generations. These new alarms undo all that has gone before. Now you said in your letter to me of the 15th of May that you had lately heard from Plancus that Antony was not being received by Lepidus. If that is so, everything will be easier. If otherwise, there is a serious business on hand, the result of which I do not dread. It is your part of the play. I cannot do more than I have done. You, however, I desire—as I also hope—to see become the greatest and most illustrious man in the world.

DCCCLXXXIII. To M. Iunius Brutus (in Macedonia), Rome, May-June

I shall recommend many to you, and it is inevitable that I should do so—for it is always the best men and best citizens that are most inclined to follow your judgment; and it is for your approval that all brave men desire to work and study with activity; and finally everyone thinks that my influence and favour have very great weight with you. But I recommend to you Gaius Nasidienus—a burgher of Suessa—with an earnestness beyond which I cannot go about anyone. In the war in Crete under Metellus he led the eighth "first line": afterwards he was employed in the management of his property. At this period, influenced by the party divisions in the state, and by your pre-eminent position, he wishes to gain some distinction by your means. I am recommending to you, Brutus, a man of courage, a man of good character, and— if that is at all to the point—of wealth also. I shall be very much obliged if you treat him so as to enable him to thank me for favours received from you.

DCCCLXXXIV. To Decimus Brutus (at Eporedia), Rome, May-June

It is of very great importance at what time you receive this letter-whether when you are suffering any anxiety or when you are free from all distress. Accordingly, I have instructed the bearer to be careful as to the time of its delivery. For just as in personal intercourse those who visit us at an inconvenient time are often troublesome, so do letters cause annoyance if delivered unseasonably. If, however, as I hope, nothing is vexing or hampering you, and if the messenger charged with it selects the time of approaching you with tact and discretion, I feel confident that I shall have no difficulty in obtaining from you what I desire. Lucius Lamia is a candidate for the praetorship. I am particularly intimate with him. There is a friendship of very old standing and very close between us, and what is of the greatest weight of all is that he is supremely delightful in a social point of view. Besides that, I am under great obligations to him for kindness and good offices. For in the Clodian period, being at the head of the equestrian order and fighting with the greatest gallantry in defence of my safety, he was banished from Rome by the consul Gabinius, a thing that had never before that time happened to any Roman citizen at Rome. When the Roman people remembers this, it is most discreditable that I should forget it. Therefore, my dear Brutus, persuade yourself that I am a candidate for the praetorship: for though Lamia is in a brilliant position and extremely popular, and conducted his aedileship with most magnificent liberality, yet I have taken up his cause as if these things were not so. In these circumstances, if you value me as highly as I feel sure you do, since you control certain centuries of the equites, among whom you are all-powerful, send word to our friend Lupus to secure the votes of those centuries for us. Though there is nothing that I do not expect from you, Brutus, yet there is nothing in which you can more oblige me than this.

DCCCLXXXV. To Decimus Brutus (at Eporedia), Rome, May-June

There is no one with whom I am more intimate than Lucius Lamia. His—I won't call them attentions, but good services, to me are great, and are most thoroughly well known to the Roman people. After administering the aedileship with most splendid liberality, he is now a candidate for the praetorship, and everybody is aware that he is not deficient either in position or popularity. But there is such an energetic canvass going on that I am thoroughly alarmed about the whole business, and think myself bound to back up Lamia. How much help you can give me in that affair I have no difficulty in seeing, nor indeed have I any doubt of how much you are willing to do for my sake. Pray therefore, my dear Brutus, convince yourself that I can make no request of you with greater earnestness, and that you cannot oblige me more than by assisting Lamia in his canvass with all your influence and all your zeal. I warmly beg you to do so.

DCCCLXXXVI. C. Asinius Pollio to Cicero (at Rome), Corduba, May-June

If you are well, I am glad. I am also well. Lepidus caused me to be later than I should have been in receiving intelligence of the battles fought near Mutina, for he detained my letter-carriers for nine days. However, it is almost a thing to be desired, that one should be as late as possible in hearing of such a calamity to the Republic, especially for those who can do no good or offer any cure for it. And oh! that by the same decree by which you summoned Plancus and Lepidus into Italy, you had also ordered me to come! Assuredly the Republic would not have sustained this blow. At which, if certain persons rejoice for the moment, because both officers and veterans of Caesar's party appear to have perished, it is yet inevitable that they will presently have cause to mourn, when they contemplate the havoc of Italy. For the flower and main stock of our soldiers have been destroyed, if at least the news reaching me is in any degree true. Nor do I fail to perceive of how much service to the Republic I was likely to have been, had I come to Lepidus: for I should have dispelled all his hesitation, especially with the aid of Plancus. But it was clearly necessary for me to smooth down a man who writes me the sort of letter which I inclose for your perusal, exactly in the same tone as the harangues which he is said to have delivered at Narbo, if I wished to have any provisions during a march through his province. Besides I was afraid, if the battle took place before I had accomplished my purpose, that my detractors would put an exactly opposite interpretation on my patriotic design on account of my friendship with Antony, which after all was not greater than that with Plancus. Therefore in April having embarked two letter-carriers on two separate ships at Gades, I wrote to you and the consuls and Octavian, requesting to be informed how I could do the best service to the Republic. But, as I calculate the time, the ships started from Gades on the very day on which Pansa fought his battle : for that was the first day since the winter that navigation was possible. And by heaven, being far from any suspicion of the coming civil outbreak, I had put the legions into winter quarters in remote parts of Lusitania. Moreover, both sides were in such a hurry to fight, as though they were afraid of the war being settled without the greatest possible damage to the Republic. However, if such haste was necessary, I perceive that the strategy of Hirtius was in all respects that of a consummate general. At present I have the following news from Lepidus's district of Gaul by letter and messengers: that Pansa's army has been cut to pieces; that Pansa has died of his wounds: that in the same battle the Martian legion was annihilated, and L. Tabatus, Gaius Peducaeus, and Decimus Carfulenus killed: that in the battle fought by Hirtius both the fourth legion and all Antony's alike were cut to pieces, as well as those of Hirtius; that the fourth, indeed, after also capturing Antony's camp were annihilated by the fifth: that there Hirtius also and Pontius Aquila perished: that Octavian also is said to have fallen—for this if true, which God forbid! I am exceedingly grieved: that Antony has abandoned the siege of Mutina with disgrace, but has 5,000 cavalry, three legions fully armed and organized, and one commanded by Publius Bagiennus: that Ventidius also with the seventh, eighth, and ninth legions has effected a junction with him: and that if Antony finds nothing to hope for from Lepidus, he will have recourse to extreme measures, and raise not only the native tribes, but also the slaves: that Parma has been sacked: that L. Antonius has occupied the pass of the Alps. very doubtful whether this military organization of the equites existed at this time in reality. It was elaborated by Augustus some years later. Now if these things are true, not one of us ought to be idle or wait for a decree from the senate. For the situation forces all to aid in quenching such a dreadful conflagration, who wish the Empire, or in fact the very name, of the Roman people, to survive. For I hear that Decimus Brutus has only seventeen cohorts, and two weak legions of recruits, which Antony had enrolled. However, I have no doubt the survivors of Hirtius's army are all flocking to him. For I don't think there is much hope in a levy, especially as, nothing can be more risky than that Antony should have time given him for concentration. The season of the year too gives me more freedom of action, because the corn is by this time in the fields or in the farmhouses. Therefore in my next letter my plans shall be explained: for I do not wish to fail in duty to or to survive the Republic. However, what vexes me most is the length and dangerous nature of the journey to my quarters, the result of which is that no news reaches me till the fortieth day after the event, or even later.

DCCCLXXXVII. Decimus Brutus to Cicero (at Rome), In camp (near Cularo), 3 June

In the midst of excessive sorrow I find consolation in the fact that the world now knows that it was not without cause that I feared what has actually occurred. Let them consider whether to bring the legions from Africa or not, and also from Sardinia; and whether to summon Marcus Brutus or not; and whether to give or decree me pay for my soldiers. I am sending a despatch to the senate. Believe me that unless all these measures are taken as described in my despatch, we shall be in the greatest danger. I beseech you to see to whom to intrust the business of bringing the legions to me. What is necessary is loyalty and speed.

3 June, from camp.

DCCCLXXXVIII. To Decimus Brutus (at Eporedia), Rome, 4 June

The gods confound your friend Segulius, the greatest scoundrel that exists, or has existed, or ever will exist! What? Do you mean that he only told you, or that he told Caesar? Why, he never let anyone go, with whom he could get in a word, without telling that same story! Nevertheless, I am as much obliged to you, my dear Brutus, as I ought to be for wishing me to know that piece of folly, whatever it amounted to. For you gave a great proof of your affection thereby. As to what this same Segulius says of you and Caesar not being among the commission of ten, would to heaven I were not either! For what could be a greater bore? However, when I expressed an opinion that a motion should be made about those who were in command of armies, the usual lot in the senate shouted "No !" Accordingly, you were all left out in spite of my vehement opposition. Therefore let us pay no regard to Segulius, who is always on the look-out for revolutionary bonnes fortunes—not that he has devoured his own, for he never had any, but he has made a hearty meal on this last tit-bit. Again, you say that what you would not do for yourself, you do for me— namely, be somewhat alarmed. Best and dearest of men, I free you from all fear for me! For I shall not be caught napping in any affairs that admit of being foreseen. In regard to those which will admit of no precautions I do not much trouble myself. For I should be shameless if I asked more than a human being can have bestowed on him by nature. When you bid me take care lest by a timid line of policy I may be compelled to fear still more, you speak like the wise man and affectionate friend that you are. But pray believe that, as everyone knows you to be eminent in this particular excellence-never, that is, to be frightened, never to lose your head—so I come near this high quality of yours. Wherefore I will fear nothing and be on my guard about everything. But be careful, my dear Brutus, that it is not your fault if I am afraid of anything. For, encouraged by your resources and your consulship, even if we had been timid by nature, we should yet have shaken off all fear, especially as everyone would have been convinced, and I above all, that we were regarded by you with unique affection. I warmly approve of your policy about the four legions, and about the assignation of lands by both of you. Accordingly, when some of my colleagues were nibbling at the land business, I upset the whole affair and caused it to be reserved entirely for your decision. If there is anything to say more than usually secret, and, as you express it, more "confidential," I will send some one by whom the letter may be conveyed with greater fidelity.

4 June.

DCCCLXXXIX. To Decimus Brutus (at Eporedia), Rome, 6 June

I tell you what: I used to be somewhat irritated at the brevity of your letters. Now I think myself over-talkative. I will therefore imitate you. What a volume in a few words—that you are quite well and will take measures to be daily better; that Lepidus is well-disposed, and that we ought to have confidence in their armies! If I had been nervous, that letter would still have wiped away all fear from my heart. But, as you advise, I have taken the bit between my teeth: for when I rested every hope on you, in spite of your being closely invested, what do you think that I do now? I desire now, Brutus, to make over to you my sleepless watchfulness, though without diminishing my own firm policy. You say that, if the enemy permits it, you will stay in Italy till you get a letter from me. You are not wrong: for much happens at Rome: but if the war can be finished by your arrival on the scene, let that be your first care. The money that was most readily available has been decreed to you. You have a very warm friend in Servius : I never fail to support you.

6 June.

DCCCXC. L. Munatius Plancus to Cicero (at Rome), Cularo, 6 June

Never by heaven! my dear Cicero, shall I repent of encountering the greatest dangers for my country, provided that, if anything happen to me, I escape the reproach of rashness. I confess that I should have made a slip from imprudence, if I had ever believed at the bottom of my heart in Lepidus. For credulity is an error rather than a crime, and indeed the honester the man the more easily does it find its way into his mind. But it was not by this defect that I was all but taken in: for I knew Lepidus thoroughly. What was it, then? It was over-scrupulousness—the most dangerous thing in war—that compelled me to incur this risk. For, if I had stopped there, I was afraid of being thought by some of my detractors both to have been too obstinate in my quarrel with Lentulus, and to be actually fostering the war by my waiting policy. Accordingly, I brought up my forces almost to within sight of Lepidus and Antony, and leaving a space between us of forty miles I took up a position with the design of being able either to approach them with speed or to retire in safety. In selecting my ground I secured two advantages, a river in my front, which would delay an enemy in crossing it, and the Vocontii close at hand, through whose territory my road would be kept open without fear of treachery. Lepidus, having given up hope of my arrival, which he was very anxious to secure, effected a junction with Antony on the 29th of May, and on the same day they advanced against me. When they were twenty miles off I got news of this. By the blessing of heaven I managed to retire with speed without this movement having any appearance of a flight: without a single soldier or horseman or particle of baggage being lost or being intercepted by those hot-headed outlaws. Accordingly, on the 4th of June I got my whole force across the Isara and broke the bridge which I had constructed, that my men might have time to pull themselves together, and that I might meanwhile effect a junction with my colleague, whom I am expecting in three days from the date of this letter. I will always acknowledge the fidelity and eminent loyalty to the Republic of my friend Laterensis. But certainly his excessive consideration for Lepidus made him somewhat less acute in his view of these dangers. It is true that when he saw that he had been duped, he tried to lay the hands upon himself which he would have done better to have armed against Lepidus. In this attempt, however, he was interrupted, and is still alive, and is said to be likely to live: but of this after all I have no certain information. It was a great chagrin to those parricides that I escaped from their clutches: for they were coming inspired by the same madness against me as against their country. Their temper also had been embittered by recent events-because I had not ceased lashing Lepidus, urging him to put an end to the war; because I rejected the idea of conferences; because I had forbidden legates sent to me under the guarantee of Lepidus to come into my presence; because I had captured Gaius Catius Vestinus, a military tribune, sent by Antony to him with, a despatch, and had treated him as an enemy. And in all this I have at least this satisfaction, that at any rate the more eager they were to get me the more annoyance has their failure caused them. It is your part, my dear Cicero, to, continue as before using all your vigilance and energy in reinforcing us who are at the actual seat of war. Let Caesar come with the best troops he has, or, if any circumstance prevents him from coming himself, let his army be sent. For it is a question of considerable peril for himself. All the ruffian element that was at any time likely to join the camp against their country has now combined. In defence, then, of the city's bare existence, why should we not employ all the resources at our disposal? But if you at Rome don't fail me, certainly, as far as I am concerned, I shall in all respects do my whole duty and something more to the Republic. For you, my dear Cicero, I love you more every day of my life, and every day your services sharpen my anxiety not to forfeit any of your affection or good opinion. I pray that I may be permitted by a personal display of my devotion and duty to make your kindnesses a subject of greater gratification to yourself.

6 June, Cularo, in the country of the Allobroges.

DCCCXCI. C. Asinius Pollio to Cicero (at Rome), Corduba, 8 June

My quaestor Balbus having amassed from the public taxes a large sum of ready money, a great amount of bullion, and a still greater amount of silver, has withdrawn from Gades without even paying the soldiers, and after being detained three days off Calpe by bad weather, on the 1st of June crossed into the kingdom of Bogudes, with a very pretty bit of money in his pocket. With the rumours now going about I don't yet know whether he intends to return to Gades or to go to Rome—for at every fresh piece of news he changes his plans in the most contemptible manner. But besides his peculations and violent robberies and flogging of allies, he has done the following—as he is himself accustomed to boast—in imitation of Caesar. At the games which he gave at Gades, on the last day of the show, he presented the actor Herennius Gallus with a gold ring and formally conducted him to a seat in the fourteen rows —for he had arranged that number of rows for men of equestrian rank. He also caused his office as one of the quattuorviri to be continued beyond the year: he held elections for two years in two following days, that is, he declared whom he chose elected: he recalled exiles, not those of recent times, but of that period in which the senate was massacred or expelled by rebels in the proconsulship of Sextus Varus. The next thing, at any rate, is not covered by a precedent of Caesar's: he put on the stage a "Roman drama" representing his own expedition to solicit the proconsul Lucius Lentulus, and, what is more, whilst it was being acted he burst into tears, affected by the memory of his own adventures. At the gladiatorial Contests, moreover, there was the case of the old Pompeian soldier named Fadius. Because this man, having been pressed into the gladiatorial school, and having fought twice without pay, refused to bind himself as a professional gladiator, and threw himself on the protection of the people, he first of all sent a squadron of Gallic horse to charge the people—for stones were thrown at him as Fadius was being dragged off—and then, having seized him, he half buried him in the school and burnt him alive. While this was being done he walked about after dinner without his boots, with tunic ungirdled, and his hands behind his back, and in answer to the unhappy man crying out " I am a born Roman citizen," he replied: "Off with you then, and appeal to the people " He also exposed Roman citizens to the beasts, among them a certain travelling pedlar—a very well-known character at Hispalis from his misshapen body. This is the kind of monster with whom I have had to deal. But more about him when we meet. For the present the important thing is to make up your minds what you want me to do. I have three strong legions, one of which—the twenty-eighth-Antonius tried to get to join him by promising that on the day it arrived in camp he would give each soldier 500 denarii, and the same bounty in case of victory as to his own legions. And of such bounties who thinks that there will be any limit or end ?-Nevertheless I have managed to retain it though in a most restless state: nor should I have retained it, if I had kept it united and stationary, for certain cohorts have actually mutinied. My other legions also he has not ceased to solicit by letters and unlimited promises. Nor, indeed, has Lepidus been less urgent with me—in letters of his own and from Antony—to send them the thirtieth legion. So the army which I have refused to part with at any price, or to weaken from fear of the dangers portended in case they were victorious, you ought to consider to have been retained and preserved for the Republic, and to believe that I was prepared to obey any future commands of yours, since I have obeyed those which you have given. For I have kept my province in peace and my army under my own control: I have not quitted the borders of my province in any direction: I have not despatched a single soldier anywhere-not only of the legions, but even of the auxiliaries; and such of the cavalry as I have detected in trying to get out of the country I have punished. For these acts I shall think myself sufficiently rewarded if the Republic is safe. But if the Republic and the majority of the senate had known me as well as they ought, they would have got greater advantages out of me. A despatch which I have addressed to Balbus, since he is at this moment in the province, I am sending for your perusal. Also if you will care to read a "Roman drama," ask my friend Cornelius Gallus for it. Corduba, 8 June.

DCCCXCII. To M. Iunius Brutus (in Macedonia), Rome, June

I have no letter as yet from you—not so much as a rumour—to shew that you are aware of the resolution of the senate and are bringing your army into Italy. That you should do so, and with all speed, the Republic urgently requires: for the internal mischief daily grows more serious, and we are in difficulties from enemies at home no less than from those abroad. The former have, it is true, always existed from the beginning of the war, but they were then more easily crushed. The senate was then in a more resolute frame of mind, roused to action not only by the motions which I brought forward, but also by my earnest exhortations. Pansa was then in the senate very strenuous and bold in his attacks upon all men of that sort, and especially his father-in-law. As consul his courage never failed him from the beginning, nor his loyalty at the end. The conduct of the war at Mutina left nothing to complain of in Caesar, though some few points in Hirtius. The fortune of this war is For happy though but ill, for ill not worst. The Republic was victorious: Antony's forces were cut to pieces, and he himself driven out of the country. Then came so many mistakes on the part of Decimus Brutus, that in a certain sense the victory slipped through our fingers. Our generals did not pursue the demoralized, unarmed, wounded enemy, and time was granted to Lepidus to give us a taste of that fickleness, which we had had many occasions to know before, in a more disastrous field. The armies of Brutus and Plancus are good but raw; their auxiliary forces of Gauls are very numerous and very loyal. But certain persons by most unprincipled letters and misleading agents and messages induced Caesar—up to that time wholly governed by my advice, and personally possessed of brilliant ability and admirable firmness of character—to entertain a very confident hope of the consulship. As soon as I discovered that, I never ceased offering him advice by letter in his absence, and remonstrating with his connexions who were in town, and who seemed to be supporting his ambition; nor in the senate did I hesitate to lay bare the sources of a most criminal plot. Nor indeed do I remember a better disposition on the part of senate or magistrates. For in the case of voting an extra-constitutional office to a man of power, or rather of super-eminent power—since power now depends on force and arms—it never yet happened that no tribune, no one in any other office, no private senator was found to support it. But in spite of this firmness and manly spirit, the city was after all in a state of anxiety. For we are flouted, Brutus, both by the airs assumed by the soldiers and the arrogance of their commander. Each man claims to be powerful in the Republic in proportion to his physical force. Reason, moderation, law, custom, duty—all go for nothing: as do the judgment and opinion of their fellow citizens, and their respect for the verdict of posterity. It was because I foresaw all this long ago that I was on the point of flying from Italy at the time when the report of the edicts issued by you and Cassius recalled me. You also roused my spirits, Brutus, at Velia. For though it vexed me to be going to a city from which you who freed it were an exile—which had also happened to me formerly in a similar danger, though with more melancholy result-yet I continued my journey and reached Rome, and without any guard to protect me I shook the power of Antony, and encouraged by my influence and advice the protecting force offered by Caesar against his treasonable arms. And if Caesar keeps his word and follows my counsel, I think we shall have protection enough. But if the counsels of the disloyal have greater weight than mine, or if the weakness of his time of life proves unequal to the strain of the business, our whole hope is in you. Wherefore fly hither, I beseech you, and put the last touch to the freedom of a state, which you liberated by courage and high spirit rather than by any fortunate coincidence. Men of all sorts will crowd round you. Write and urge Cassius to do the same. Hope of liberty is nowhere to be found except in the headquarters of your two camps. We have, it is true, generals and armies in the west on which we Can rely. The protecting force of the young Caesar, for instance, I regard at present as trustworthy: but so many are trying to shake his loyalty that at times I am mortally afraid of his giving way.

That is a complete view of the political situation, as it exists at the moment at which I write. I could wish that it might improve as we go on: but if otherwise—which God forbid! I shall grieve for the sake of the Republic, which ought to have been immortal: but for myself—what a brief span of life is left!

DCCCXCIII. To Gaius Cassius Longinus (in Syria), Rome, June

The crime of your relative Lepidus and the extreme fickleness and levity of his conduct I think that you will have learnt from the gazette of the senate, which I am assured is sent to you. Accordingly, after once finishing the war we have a renewed war upon our hands, and our whole hope is in Decimus Brutus and Plancus. If you would have the real truth, it is in you and our friend M. Brutus, not only for immediate safety, if, what I trust may not be the case, any reverse occurs, but also for securing a permanent liberty. We at Rome have gratifying intelligence about Dolabella, but it does not rest on good authority. Let me assure you that you are the hero of the hour, both from present impressions and future expectations. With this knowledge before your eyes, be sure that you aim at the highest achievement. There is nothing which the Roman people does not think can be accomplished and sustained by you.

DCCCXCIV. To Q. Cornificius (in Africa), Rome, June

Is it really so? Does no one bring a letter from me to you except suitors? There are a good many of that sort certainly: for you have created the impression that no one is effectively recommended to you without a letter from me. But who among all your friends ever told me of anyone to whom I could intrust a letter without my doing so? Or what greater pleasure have I than writing to you or reading a letter from you, since I am debarred from talking to you? What troubles me more than anything is that I am so overwhelmed with business as not to have the power of writing to you whenever I choose. For I should have bombarded you, not with mere letters, but with whole volumes, with which, however, I ought to have been first challenged by you to respond. For though you are busy, yet you have more leisure than I have, or, if you haven't any leisure either, don't cast modesty to the winds and vex me by demanding more frequent letters, when you only write to me yourself at long intervals. For though I was before this distracted with the most constant engagements, arising from the fact that I consider the safety of the state to require my every thought and care, yet at this present moment I am much more distracted than ever. For as an illness is more serious when after imagining themselves cured invalids suffer a relapse, so is our distress more acute when, after fighting a successful battle and almost putting an end to the contest, we are struggling with a recrudescence of the same war. But enough of this. Assure yourself, my dear Cornificius, that I am not so feeble-minded, not to say unfeeling, as to be capable of being surpassed by you in good offices or affection. I never doubted it indeed, but Chaerippus has all the same made your affection to me much more evident. What an excellent fellow! He always suited my taste, but now I find him quite delightful. It was not merely your sentiments and words that he conveyed to me: he brought vividly before me your every look. So don't be afraid of my having been annoyed with you for treating me as you do the rest of the world. I have indeed desired a letter from you addressed exclusively to myself, but it was never unreasonably, and always in an affectionate spirit. As to the money which you say you are spending and have spent on your army, I can do absolutely nothing to aid you, because the senate is made helpless by the loss of both consuls, and the treasury is in incredible straits for money, which is being called in on every side to satisfy the promises made to the soldiers who have done such excellent public service. Even this I think cannot be done without a property tax. That business of Attius Dionysius I think amounts to nothing, for Tratorius said nothing to me about it. As to Publius Lucceius I don't in any way yield to you in zealous interest: for he is a close friend of mine. But when I asked the liquidators for a postponement, they satisfied me that they were prevented from granting it both by the agreement that had been come to and by their oath. Wherefore in my opinion Lucceius must appear. However, if he has obeyed the letter I wrote to him, he ought to be at Rome by the time you read this. As to the other matters you mention, and especially as to money, you wrote in ignorance of Pansa's death about certain grants which you thought that you might get from him through me. In which you would not have been disappointed had he been alive, for he was attached to you. But after his death I fail to see what can be done. As to Venuleius, Latinus, and Horatius, I much commend you. The next thing you say, however, I don't approve—that in order to soften the matter for them you have deprived your legates also of their lictors: for in outward marks of honour they ought not to be put on a level with men who deserve to be disgraced; and I think that those three men ought in virtue of the senate's decree, if they do not quit the province, to be compelled to do so. This is what I had to say in answer to the letter which I received in duplicate. For the rest, be assured that my own political position is not dearer to me than yours.

DCCCXCV. [Decimus Brutus and L. Munatius Plancus to the Senate and Magistrates], Cularo, about 9 June

...they had hoped, because they neither thought that the four legions of Plancus were a match for their forces, nor believed that an army could be brought across the Alps from Italy with such speed. Yet the Allobroges themselves with the whole body of cavalry—sent forward by us with that express purpose—have been able to hold them in check up to now in a confident manner enough: and when we arrive we feel sure that they will be still more easily held up. Nevertheless, if they have by any chance crossed the Isara, we shall take the greatest care to prevent loss to the public service. We would have you be of high courage and entertain the best hopes of the public safety, since you see our armies united in complete sympathy and prepared for any and every service on your behalf. Nevertheless you must not relax in your earnest attention, and you must do your best to enable us in defence of your safety to confront, in the highest state of preparation both as to men and other necessaries, the utterly abominable combination of our enemies, who have in fact suddenly converted the forces, which they had long been collecting under pretence of serving the state, to the purpose of endangering their country.

DCCCXCVI. Cassius Parmensis to Cicero (at Rome), Crommyuacris in Cyprus, 13 June

If you are well, I am glad. I am well. I rejoice not only at the safety and victory of the Republic, but also at the revival of your glorious reputation. That as the noblest of consulars you have surpassed yourself as the noblest of consuls I am at once delighted and unable to wonder sufficiently. A certain special favour of destiny has been shewn to your virtue—of which we have often had practical proofs. For your toga has been more fortunate than everyone else's arms; and has now once more rescued the Republic, when all but conquered, from the hands of its enemies, and restored it to us. So now we shall live free men: now we shall have you—greatest of all citizens and most beloved by me, as you discovered in the darkest hour of the public fortunes—now, I say, we shall have you as a witness to our love both to you and to the Republic, which is so closely bound up with you. And that which you often promised that you would suppress while we were slaves, and would say of me when likely to be to my service, now, I shall not so much desire to be said as to be felt by you. For I would not wish to be commended by you to the good opinion of others more than to have been commended to your own in a manner worthy of my deserts, that you may judge these recent acts of mine to have been no mere hasty impulses or departures from principle, but in harmony with those lines of thought of which you are a witness; and may think that I deserve to be brought forward prominently by yourself, as giving promise of doing excellent service to my country. You, Marcus Tullius, have children and relatives worthy of you and deservedly most beloved by you. Next to them those also ought to be dear to you in public life who emulate your special branch of learning, of whom I wish you a goodly store: yet after all I don't regard myself as excluded, however great the crowd. You will always have room to receive me, and to employ me in everything you wish and approve. Of the goodness of my disposition perhaps you have already been convinced: my ability, certainly, such as it is, our prolonged servitude has allowed to appear less than after all it really is.

From the sea-coast of the province of Asia and from the islands we have launched all the ships we could; we have levied rowers, with great opposition on the part of the cities, yet with fair rapidity; and we have pursued Dolabella's fleet, which is commanded by Lucius Figulus. This officer, by frequently holding out hopes of deserting to us, and yet keeping continually edging away, has by his most recent move got to Corycus, and having closed the harbour, is beginning to offer resistance. Abandoning that fleet, because we thought it better to make our way to the camp, and because there was another fleet coming, which Tillius Cimber had collected in the previous year, and the quaestor Turullius was commanding, we made for Cyprus. The information I got there I am anxious to tell you as quickly as possible. It is this: Dolabella has been actually invited not only by the people of Tarsus, the worst of allies, but also by the Laodiceans, who are still more disaffected. By the number of Greek soldiers which he has got from both these states, he has secured what looks like an army. He has a camp pitched outside the town of Laodicea, and has pulled down a part of the wall and united his camp with the town. Our friend Cassius with ten legions and twenty auxiliary cohorts, and cavalry 4,000 strong, has a camp pitched twenty miles away at Paltus, and thinks that he can win without a battle: for in Dolabella's quarters corn is already twelve drachmae the medimnus. Unless he manages to get some brought in by the ships of Laodicea, he must soon perish of hunger. That he should not be able to get any in we can easily secure between us—that is, Cassius's fleet, which is a fairly large one under the command of Sextilius Rufus, and the three which I, Turullius, and Patiscus have brought up. I would have you be hopeful, and feel sure that, as you at Rome have relieved the Republic from its difficulties, so on our part it can be quickly relieved by us. Good-bye.

13 June, Cyprus, off Crommyuacris.

DCCCXCVII. To M. Iunius Brutus (in Macedonia), Rome, 8 June

I would have performed the function, which you performed in my own time of mourning, and have written you a letter of consolation, had I not known that you did not stand in need of those remedies in your sorrow with which you relieved mine. And I should hope that you will now more easily heal your own wound than you then could mine. It is, moreover, quite unlike a man as great as you are not to be able to do himself what be has enjoined on another. For myself, the arguments which you had collected, as well as your personal influence, deterred me from excessive indulgence in grief: for when I seemed to you to be bearing my sorrow with less firmness than was becoming to a man, and especially one accustomed to console others, you wrote upbraiding me in sharper terms than were usual with you. Accordingly, putting a high value on your opinion, and having a wholesome awe of it, I pulled myself together and regarded what I had learnt, read, and been taught as being the weightier by the addition of your authority. And at that time, Brutus, I owed nothing except to duty and nature: you now have to regard the people and the stage—to use a common expression. For since the eyes not only of your army, but of all the citizens, and I ought almost to say of all the world, are fixed on you, it is not at all seemly that the man who makes us all braver should himself seem weakened in mind. To sum up: you have met with a sorrow—for you have lost a thing unparalleled in the world—and you must needs suffer from so severe a wound, lest the fact of having no sense of sorrow should be a greater misfortune than sorrow itself: but that you should do so in moderation is advantageous to others, necessary for yourself. I would have written at greater length, had not even this been already too much. We are expecting you and your army, without which-even if everything else succeeds to our wishes—we seem likely to be scarcely as free as we could desire. On the whole political situation I will write at greater length, and perhaps with more certainty, in the letter which I think of handing to our friend Vetus.

DCCCXCVIII. To Decimus Brutus (at Cularo?), Rome, 10 June

As I was waiting day after day for a letter from you, our friend Lupus suddenly gave me notice to write to you if I wanted to say anything. But I, though I had nothing to say—for I knew the gazette was being sent to you, and I was also told that the chatter of a letter with nothing in it was disagreeable to you—have aimed at brevity, following your teaching. Be it known to you then that our every hope rests on you and your colleague. As to M. Brutus we have as yet nothing certain: but I never stop calling on him in my confidential correspondence to come and take his share in the war in which we are all engaged. Would to heaven he were already here! We should have less reason to fear the danger within the city, which is really serious. But what am I doing? I am not imitating your laconic style; I am already beginning a second page of paper. Victory and health to you!

18 June.

DCCCXCIX. To C. Cassius Longinus (in Syria), Rome, June

The brevity of your letter makes me the briefer in mine, and, to speak the honest truth, I can think of nothing to say. For what is going on with us I know for certain is conveyed to you in the gazette, what is going on with you we don't know. For just as though Asia were under blockade, nothing reaches us except rumours of Dolabella being crushed. These rumours are persistent enough, but they as yet lack confirmation. As for us, when we thought the war finished, we have suddenly been brought into the most extreme anxiety by your relative Lepidus. Therefore convince yourself that the chief hope of the Republic rests on you and your forces. We have, it is true, trustworthy armies: but nevertheless, though everything should go well, as I hope it will, it is of great importance that you should come. For the hope of the Republic is small—I shrink from saying "none"—but whatever it is, it is plighted to the year of your consulship.

DCCCC. To Decimus Brutus (at Cularo?), Rome, June

Though your letter was most gratifying to me, yet it was still more gratifying that in the midst of your great stress of business you commissioned your colleague Plancus to write and make your excuses to me; which he did with due care. But to me nothing can be more touching than your politeness and careful attention. Your junction with your colleague and your harmonious relations announced in your joint despatch were gladly welcomed by the senate and Roman people. For the rest, go on, my dear Brutus, and henceforth vie, not with others, but with yourself. I need write no more, especially to you, whose teaching I follow in being brief. I anxiously await a letter from you, and above all such a one as I hope and pray for.

DCCCCI. To L. Munatius Plancus (at Cularo), Rome, end of June

In you and your colleague is our every hope, with the blessing of heaven. With the cordial union existing between you, which was manifested in your joint despatch, both the senate and the whole body of citizens were delighted. You mention in your letter to me the subject of the land commission. If the senate had been consulted on the matter I should have supported whoever made the proposal most complimentary to you—and that person would have certainly been myself. But when, owing to the slowness with which opinions were expressed, and the delay thus caused to business, the motions brought before the senate did not reach a settlement, it seemed best to myself and your brother Plancus to avail ourselves of the senatorial decree, as to which you will have learnt from your brother's letter who it was that prevented its being drawn up exactly in accordance with our wishes. But if you find anything wanting in that decree or in other things, still assure yourself that the affection for you among all loyalists is so great, that no kind of position can be imagined, however splendid, which is not at your disposal. I am exceedingly anxious to hear from you, and to hear such news as I most desire.

DCCCCII. To Gaius Furnius (in the camp of Plancus), Rome, end of June

After reading your letter in which you state that Narbonensis must be abandoned or a dangerous battle fought, the former course seemed to me the more formidable, which I am glad to hear has been avoided. You mention the Cordial union of Plancus and Decimus Brutus: in that I place my strongest hope of victory. As to the loyalty of the Gauls, we shall some day learn, as you say, by whose exertions that has been roused. But, believe me, we already know it. Therefore, most delightful as your letter was, I felt a little vexed at the end of it. For you say that if the elections are fixed for August you will hurry home: if they are already over you will come still sooner, "that you may not any longer play the fool and risk your life as well." Oh, my dear Furnius, how completely you fail to grasp your position, though so readily understanding other people's! Do you really suppose that you are now a candidate, or do you Contemplate hurrying home to the elections; or, if they are over, to live at your own house that—as you say—"you may not be the biggest fool alive and in danger as well "? I don't think these are your real sentiments; for I know your keenness for glory. But if you do really think as you write, I don't blame you more than I do my own opinion of you. Can it be that an untimely haste for an office of the most trivial and commonplace kind—if you get it in the same way as most people do—will withdraw you from the pursuit of such glorious deeds, for which all the world is rightly and sincerely praising you to the skies? The question, good heavens! is whether you become praetor at this election or the next, not whether you are to serve the Republic so as to be thought worthy above all men of every kind of honour! Is it that you are ignorant of the height to which you have climbed, or that you think it worthless? If you are ignorant, I forgive you: the fault is ours. But if you are not, is any praetorship more attractive in your eyes than duty for which few, or than glory for which all, strive? On this point I and Calvisius—a man of very sound judgment and most devoted to you—daily find fault with you. As to the comitia—as you are depending on them—we are doing our best, thinking it for many reasons to be for the benefit of the Republic, to put them off till January. So then victory and health to you!

DCCCCIII. M. Iunius Brutus to Cicero (at Rome), Macedonia, 1 July

The fear which others entertain makes me nervous about M. Lepidus. If he has wrenched himself from us—which I hope it will turn out that people have suspected about him hurriedly and without good grounds—I beg and beseech you, Cicero, appealing to our close friendship and your kindness to me, to forget that my sister's children are the sons of Lepidus, and to consider that I have succeeded to the place of their father. If I can induce you to do that, there is certainly nothing that you will hesitate to undertake for them. Some people live on one sort of terms with their relations, others on another, but I cannot do enough for my sister's children to satisfy my affection or duty. What consideration is there, moreover, which either the loyalists can shew me—if I am but worthy of some consideration from them—or what can I promise my mother and sister and these children, if Brutus being their uncle has no weight with you and the senate against the fact of Lepidus being their father? I am neither able for anxiety and vexation to write at great length to you, nor ought I to do so. For in a matter of so much importance and so vitally affecting me, if I need words in order to move your interest and confirm your resolution, there is no hope that you will do what I wish or what you are in duty bound to do. Therefore don't expect a lengthy petition from me. Only fix your eyes on me, who have a good right to obtain this service from you, either on private grounds from Cicero the man—and the closest of my friends—or from the consular, all private ties put aside. What you mean to do please write and tell me as soon as possible.

1 July, in camp.

DCCCCIV. To M. Iunius Brutus (in Macedonia), Rome, beginning of July

Though I am immediately about to give a letter to Messalla Corvinus, yet I could not let our friend Vetus reach you without a letter from me. The Republic, Brutus, is in the most imminent peril, and though victorious we are forced to begin the struggle once more. This is the result of the crime and infatuation of M. Lepidus. At such a time, while many things afflict me owing to the anxiety I feel for the Republic, yet nothing has given me greater vexation than to be unable to grant the petitions of your mother and sister: for as to yourself—which is of the greatest importance in my eyes—I think that I shall have no difficulty in satisfying you. The fact is that the position of Lepidus cannot on any consideration be separated from that of Antony, and in the judgment of all is even a worse one, both because he had been complimented by the senate with the most splendid honours, and had even sent an excellent despatch to the senate a few days before. Suddenly he not only receives the remnants of the enemy, but begins a war by land and sea with the greatest ferocity, the result of which is still in the balance. Therefore, while we are asked to shew consideration to his children, no guarantee is offered that we shall not undergo the most extreme penalties, if their father— which God forbid—is victorious. Not indeed that I fail to consider how cruel it is that the crimes of parents should be expiated by the punishment of sons. But it is an excellent doctrine in law that affection for children should make parents more loyal to the Republic: therefore it is Lepidus that is cruel to his children, not he who declares Lepidus a public enemy. Nay, even if he laid down his arms and was condemned for vis—a prosecution in which he would have no defence to offer-his sons would have met with the same disaster by the confiscation of his property. However, what your mother and sister deprecate in the case of his children, that very thing and measures more cruel still are what Lepidus, Antony, and the rest denounce against us. Therefore our chief hope at this time is in you and your army. It is of very great importance both to the highest interests of the Republic and to your own glory and political position that—as I wrote to say before-you should come to Italy at the earliest possible opportunity: for the Republic stands sorely in need both of your material forces and of your counsel. I have gladly, in pursuance of what you said in your letter, opened my arms to Vetus as his affection and his extreme loyalty to you deserved, and I have found him most zealous and devoted both to yourself and the Republic. My son I hope shortly to see: for I feel confident that he will promptly come to Italy in your train.

DCCCCV. To Gaius Cassius Longinus (in Syria), Rome, beginning of July

Lepidus, your marriage relation, and my friend, was on the 30th of June declared a public enemy by a unanimous vote of the senate, as well as all who with him deserted the Republic. To them, however, a chance of returning to their right minds was given up to the 1st of September. The senate was very resolute, but chiefly in reliance on your aid. There is, in fact, a very grave war in progress at the moment of my writing this, owing to the crime and instability of Lepidus. We daily hear satisfactory intelligence about Dolabella, but as yet by mere rumour-without definite source or confirmation. But though that is the case, still the letter which I have received from you dated from camp on the 7th of May has persuaded the whole city to believe that he has already been crushed, and that you are on your way to Italy with an army, so that, if affairs in these parts are settled as we wish, we may rely on your counsel and influence; and if there is any mishap—as will occur in war—we may rely on your army. This army, indeed, I will compliment by all the means in my power. The time for that will be when it has begun to be known what amount of aid it is likely to give to the Republic, or what amount it has already given. For at present we are only told of attempts-excellent indeed and most glorious—but we wait to hear of some decisive action: which for my own part I feel sure has taken place or is near doing so. Nothing can be more glorious than your valour and high spirit. Therefore we long to see you as soon as possible in Italy. We shall think that we have the Republic, if we have you. We had gained a splendid victory, had not Lepidus received Antony when he was without provisions or arms and in flight. Therefore Antony was never such an object of dislike to the state as Lepidus is now. For the former stirred up war when the Republic was in a revolutionary state, the latter when victory had been crowned by peace. Opposed to this war we have the consuls-designate. In them we have indeed high hopes, but owing to the uncertainty of the results of battles, we are in all the anxiety of suspense. Assure yourself; therefore, that everything depends on you and Marcus Brutus, and that you are both anxiously expected, Brutus indeed now momentarily. And if; as I hope, your arrival finds our enemies conquered, yet your authority will enable the Republic to raise its head and once more to stand on some tolerable foundation. For there will be many things demanding reform, even if the Republic shall seem fairly well released from the criminal attempts of its enemies.

DCCCCVI. To Appius Claudius (in Exile), Rome, 6 July

Of my zeal for you and your restoration I think you have learnt from the letters of your friends, whom I know for certain that I have satisfied in the most complete manner possible; nor do I yield to them-eminently devoted as they are to you—in my wishes for your safety. They are obliged to yield to me the credit of having at this particular time greater power than they of furthering your recall And this I have never ceased and never will cease to do. I have already to a very great degree succeeded, and have laid the foundations of your restoration. Be sure to keep a good heart and high courage, and trust me not to fail you in anything. July 6.

DCCCCVII. To Decimus Brutus (at Cularo?), Rome, 6 July

I have a friendship with Appius Claudius, son of Gaius, founded on many good services on his part and corresponding ones on mine. I ask you with more than usual earnestness, for the sake either of your own kindness or for mine, that you determine that his safety shall be secured by your influence. I wish you, as you are known to be the most gallant of men, to be considered also the most merciful. It will be a great feather in your cap that a young man of the highest rank has been restored by your favour. His claim ought to be all the stronger from the fact that it was from filial feeling that he joined Antony in gratitude for his father's restitution. wherefore, though you will have an excuse to plead that is not entirely sound, yet you will be able to bring one forward that at 'east is plausible. Your nod can retain in the fu;l rights of citizenship a man of the highest birth, of the greatest ability, and one besides who is full of kindness and gratitude. I ask you to do this with a heartfelt earnest-ness beyond which I cannot go in making any request.

DCCCCVIII. To M. Iunius Brutus (in Macedonia), Rome, 11 July

Yours was a very short letter. "Short" do I say? Rather it was not a letter at all. Brutus write to me in three lines at such a crisis as this? I would rather have written nothing at all. And you talk of not hearing from me! Which of your men ever came to you without a letter from me? And what epistle of mine had not something of weight in it? And if they have not reached you, I think that your family letters cannot have done So either. You say that you will give a longer letter to my son. So far, so good: but even this one ought to have had more matter in it. Now upon your writing to me about my son's quitting you, I immediately bustled my letter-carriers off with a letter to my son telling him that, even if he came to Italy, he should return to you: for nothing could be more gratifying to me and nothing more honourable to him. However, I had several times written to tell him that the election to the sacred colleges had by great exertions on my part been put off to another year. This I had taken pains to do for the sake of my son, and also for that of Domitius, Cato, Lentulus, and the Bibuli—as I wrote to tell you. But of course when you sent me that stingy little note this was not yet known to you. Wherefore I urge you, my dear Brutus, with all my might not to send my son from your side, and to bring him home with you in person, which if you have any regard for the Republic, for which you were born, you ought to do at once. For the war has revived—and a very serious one—owing to the crime of Lepidus: while Caesar's army, which was in an excellent state, is not only of no service, but even makes it necessary for your army to be summoned. If that once reaches Italy there will not be a single citizen, deserving to be called such, who will not find his way to your camp. It is true that Decimus Brutus has effected a splendid junction with Plancus, yet you are not ignorant how uncertain are men's feelings when infected with party spirit, how uncertain the results of battles. Nay, even if we conquer, as I hope, nevertheless the public service will require a great deal of guidance from your wisdom and your influence. Come to our help, therefore, in God's name, and that as soon as possible: and assure yourself that you did not do better service to your country by the Ides of March, on which you shook the yoke of slavery from your fellow citizens, than you will do if you now arrive in good time.

11 July.

DCCCCIX. To M. Iunius Brutus (in Macedonia), Rome, middle of July

You have Messalla with you. What letter, therefore, can I write with such minute care as to enable me to explain to you what is being done and what is occurring in public affairs, more thoroughly than he will describe them to you, who has at once the most intimate knowledge of everything, and the talent for unfolding and conveying it to you in the best possible manner? For beware of thinking, Brutus—for though it is unnecessary for me to write to you what you know already, yet I cannot pass over in silence such eminence in every kind of greatness-beware of thinking, I say, that he has any parallel in honesty and firmness, care and zeal for the Republic. So much so that in him eloquence—in which he is extraordinarily eminent-scarcely seems to offer any opportunity for praise. Yet in this accomplishment itself his wisdom is made more evident; with such excellent judgement and with so much acuteness has he practised himself in the most genuine style of rhetoric. Such also is his industry, and so great the amount of midnight labour that he bestows on this study, that the chief thanks would not seem to be due to natural genius, great as it is in his case. But my affection carries me away: for it is not the purpose of this letter to praise Messalla, especially to Brutus; to whom his excellence is not less known than it is to me, and these particular accomplishments of his which I am praising even better. Grieved as I was to let him go from my side, my one consolation was that in going to you who are to me a second self; he was performing a duty and following the path of the truest glory. But enough of this I now come, after a long interval of time, to a certain letter of yours, in which, while paying me many compliments, you find one fault with me—that I was excessive and, as it were, extravagant in proposing votes of honour. That is your criticism: another's, perhaps, might be that I was too stern in inflicting punishment and exacting penalties, unless by chance you blame me for both. If that is so, I desire that my principle in both these things should be very clearly known to you. And I do not rely solely on the dictum of Solon, who was at once the wisest of the Seven and the only lawgiver among them. He said that a state was kept together by two things-reward and punishment. Of course there is a certain moderation to be observed in both, as in everything else, and what we may call a golden mean in both these things. But I have no intention to dilate on such an important subject in this place.

But what has been my aim during this war in the motions I have made in the senate I think it will not be out of place to explain. After the death of Caesar and your ever memorable Ides of March, Brutus, you have not forgotten what I said had been omitted by you and your colleagues, and what a heavy cloud I declared to be hanging over the Republic. A great pest had been removed by your means, a great blot on the Roman people wiped out, immense glory in truth acquired by yourselves: but an engine for exercising kingly power had been put into the hands of Lepidus and Antony, of whom the former was the more fickle of the two, the latter the more corrupt, but both of whom dreaded peace and were enemies to quiet. Against these men, inflamed with the ambition of revolutionizing the state, we had no protecting force to oppose. For the fact of the matter was this: the state had become roused as one man to maintain its liberty; I at the time was even excessively warlike; you, perhaps with more wisdom, quitted the city which you had liberated, and when Italy offered you her services declined them. Accordingly, when I saw the city in the possession of parricides, and that neither you nor Cassius could remain in it with safety, and that it was held down by Antony's armed guards, I thought that I too ought to leave it: for a city held down by traitors, with all opportunity of giving aid cut off, was a shocking spectacle. But the same spirit as always had animated me, staunch to the love of country, did not admit the thought of a departure from its dangers. Accordingly, in the very midst of my voyage to Achaia, when in the period of the Etesian gales a south wind—as though remonstrating against my design—had brought me back to Italy, I saw you at Velia and was much distressed: for you were on the point of leaving the country, Brutus—leaving it, I say, for our friends the Stoics deny that wise men ever "flee." As soon as I reached Rome I at once threw myself in opposition to Antony's treason and insane policy: and having roused his wrath against me, I began entering upon a policy truly Brutus-like—for this is the distinctive mark of your family—that of freeing my country. The rest of the story is too long to tell, and must be passed over by me, for it is about myself. I will only say this much: that this young Caesar, thanks to whom we still exist, if we would confess the truth, was a stream from the fountain-head of my policy. To him I voted honours, none indeed, Brutus, that were not his due, none that were not inevitable. For directly we began the recovery of liberty, when the divine excellence of even Decimus Brutus had not yet bestirred itself sufficiently to give us an indication of the truth, and when our sole protection depended on the boy who had shaken Antony from our shoulders, what honour was there that he did not deserve to have decreed to him? However, all I then proposed for him was a complimentary vote. of thanks, and that too expressed with moderation. I also proposed a decree conferring imperium on him, which, although it seemed too great a compliment for one of his age, was yet necessary for one commanding an army—for what is an army without a commander with imperium ? Philippus proposed a statue; Servius at first proposed a licence to stand for office before the regular time. Servilius afterwards proposed that the time should be still farther curtailed. At that time nothing was thought too good for him.

But somehow men are more easily found who are liberal at a time of alarm, than grateful when victory has been won. For when that most joyful day of Decimus Brutus's relief from blockade had dawned on the Republic and happened also to be his birthday, I proposed that the name of Brutus should be entered in the fasti under that date. And in that I followed the example of our ancestors, who paid this honour to the woman Laurentia, at whose altar in the Velabrum you pontiffs are accustomed to offer sacrifice. And when I proposed this honour to Brutus I wished that there should be in the fasti an eternal memorial of a most welcome victory: and yet on that very day I discovered that the ill-disposed in the senate were somewhat in a majority over the grateful. In the course of those same days I lavished honours—if you like that word-upon the dead Hirtius, Pansa, and even Aquila. And who has any fault to find with that, unless he be one who, no sooner an alarm is over, forgets the past danger? There was added to this grateful memorial of a benefit received some consideration of what would be for the good of posterity also; for I wished that there should exist some perpetual record of the popular execration of our most ruthless enemies. I suspect that the next step does not meet with your approbation. It was disapproved by your friends, who are indeed most excellent citizens, but inexperienced in public business. I mean my proposing an ovation for Caesar. For myself; however—though I am perhaps wrong, and I am not a man who believes his own way necessarily right—I think that in the course of this war I never took a more prudent step. The reason for this I must not reveal, lest I should seem to have a sense of favours to come rather than to be grateful for those received. I have said too much already: let us look at other points. I proposed honours to Decimus Brutus, and also to Lucius Plancus. Those indeed are noble spirits whose spur to action is glory but the senate also is wise to avail itself of any means-provided that they are honourable—by which it thinks that a particular man can be induced to support the Republic. But—you say—I am blamed in regard to Lepidus: for, having placed his statue on the rostra, I also voted for its removal. I tried by paying him a compliment to recall him from his insane policy. The infatuation of that most unstable of men rendered my prudence futile. Yet all the same more good was done by demolishing the statue of Lepidus, than harm by putting it up.

Enough about honours; now I must say a few words about penalties. For I have gathered from frequent expressions in your letters that in regard to those whom you have conquered in war, you desire that your clemency should be praised. I hold, indeed, that you do and say nothing but what becomes a philosopher. But to omit the punishment of a crime—for that is what "pardoning" amounts to-even if it is endurable in other cases, is mischievous in a war like this. For there has been no civil war, of all that have occurred in the state within my memory, in which there was not certain to be some form of constitution remaining, whichever of the two sides prevailed. In this war, if we are victorious, I should not find it easy to affirm what kind of constitution we are likely to have; if we are conquered, there will certainly never be any. I therefore proposed severe measures against Antony, and severe ones also against Lepidus, and not so much out of revenge as in order that I might for the present prevent unprincipled men by this terror from attacking their country, and might for the future establish a warning for all who were minded to imitate their infatuation. However, this proposal was not mine more than it was everybody's. The point in it which had the appearance of cruelty was that the penalty extended to the children who did not deserve any. But that is a thing of long standing and characteristic of all states. For instance, the children of Themistocles were in poverty. And if the same penalty attaches to citizens legally condemned in court, how could we be more indulgent to public enemies? What, moreover, can anyone say against me when he must confess that, had that man conquered, he would have been still more revengeful towards me?

Here you have the principles which dictated my senatorial proposals, at any rate in regard to this class of honours and penalties. For, in regard to other matters, I think you have been told what opinions I have expressed and what votes I have given. But all this is not so very pressing. What is really pressing, Brutus, is that you should come to Italy with your army as soon as possible. There is the greatest anxiety for your arrival. Directly you reach Italy all classes will flock to you. For whether we win the victory—and we had in fact won a most glorious one, only that Lepidus set his heart on ruining everything and perishing himself with all his friends-there will be need of your counsel in establishing some form of constitution. And even if there is still some fighting left to be done, our greatest hope is both in your personal influence and in the material strength of your army. But make haste, in ,God's name! You know the importance of seizing the right moment, and of rapidity. What pains I am taking in the interests of your sister's children, I hope you know from the letters of your mother and sister. In undertaking their cause I shew more regard to your affection, which is very precious to me, than, as some think, to my own consistency. But there is nothing in which I more wish to be and to seem consistent than in loving you.

DCCCCX. To M. Iunius Brutus (in Macedonia), Rome, 27 July

After I had often urged you by letter to come as soon as possible to the aid of the state, and to bring your army into Italy, and when I thought that your relatives had no doubt on that subject, I was asked by that most prudent and careful lady your mother—whose every thought and care are directed and devoted to you—to call on her on the 24th of July, which, as in duty bound, I at once did. On my arrival, I found Casca, Labeo, and Scaptius there. Well, she opened the subject and asked me my opinion, whether we should ask you to come to Italy, and whether we thought that to your advantage, or whether it were better that you should put it off and stay where you were. I answered—as was my real opinion—that it was of the highest advantage to your position and reputation to bring help at the first possible moment to the tottering and almost prostrate Republic. For what disaster do you think is wanting in a war, in which the victorious armies refuse to pursue a flying enemy, and in which an officer with imperium in full possession of his rights, enjoying the most splendid honours and the most ample fortune, with wife and children, with you and Cassius related to him by marriage, has yet proclaimed war on the Republic? How can I use the words "in such unanimity of senate and people," when such fatal mischief abides within our very walls? But the bitterest sorrow which is affecting me as I write this is that, whereas the Republic accepted me as a surety for that youth, or, I might almost say, that boy, I seem scarcely able to make my promise good. Truly, a guarantee for another's feeling and sentiment, especially in affairs of the greatest importance, is more onerous and difficult than one for money. For money can be paid, and a loss of property is bearable. But how are you to make good what you have guaranteed to the state, unless he for whom you undertook the obligation is willing that it should be fulfilled? However, I shall retain even him, I hope, in spite of many adverse influences. For he seems to have a character of his own, though he is at the pliable time of life, and there are many prepared to corrupt him, who hope that, by holding out before him the glamour of false honour, the sight of a naturally good intelligence may be blinded. Accordingly, to my other labours has been added the task of applying every engine to the keeping of a hold upon the young man, that I may not incur a reputation for rashness. However, where is the rashness? I bound the man, for whom I gave the guarantee, more tightly than I did myself; nor can the state regret my having given a guarantee for one who in the actual campaign was rendered more resolute by my promise, as well as from his own disposition. But, unless I am mistaken, the greatest difficulty in the Republic is the want of money. For the loyalists grow daily more callous to the call for property tax. All that was collected by the one per cent. income tax, owing to the shameless returns made by the wealthy, is exhausted by the bounties given to two legions: whereas endless expenses are hanging over us, both for the armies now protecting us, and for yours—for our friend Cassius seems able to come home very well provided. But of this and many other things I desire to talk to you when we meet, and that as soon as possible. About your sister's sons, Brutus, I did not wait for you to write. As a matter of fact, the state of the times itself—for the war will be protracted-guarantees that the case will be left for you to decide. But from the very first, though I could not divine the long continuance of the war, I pleaded the cause of the boys in the senate, as I think you Can have learnt from your mother's letter. Nor will there ever arise any circumstance in which I shall not, even at the risk of my life, say and do whatever I think is your wish and to your interest.

DCCCCXI. L. Munatius Plancus to Cicero (at Rome), Camp near Cularo, 28 July

I cannot refrain from thanking you in view of the course of events and of your services. But, by heaven! I blush to do it. For an intimacy as close as that which you have wished me to have with you seems not to require any formal thanks, nor do I willingly pay the poor recompense of words in return for your supreme kindness, and I would rather, when we meet, prove my gratitude by my respect, my obedience to your wishes, and my constant attentions. But if to live on is my fate, in this same respect, obedience to your wishes, and constant attentions, I will surpass all your beloved friends and even your devoted relatives. For whether your affection for me and your opinion of me are likely to bring me greater reputation in perpetuity or greater daily pleasure, I should find it hard to decide.

You have concerned yourself as to the bounties to the soldiers; whom I wished to be rewarded by the senate, not to enhance my own power—for I am conscious of entertaining no thoughts except for the common benefit—but first of all, because in my opinion they deserved it; next, because I wished them to be still more closely attached to the Republic in view of all eventualities; and lastly, in order that I might guarantee their continuing as completely proof against all attempts to tamper with their loyalty, as they have been up to this time.

As yet we have kept everything here in statu quo. And this policy of ours, though I know how eager men are and with reason for a decisive victory, is yet, I hope, approved of by you. For if any disaster happens to these armies, the Republic has no great forces in reserve to resist any sudden attack or raid of the parricides. The amount of our forces I presume is known to you. In my camp there are three legions of veterans, one of recruits perhaps the finest of all: in the camp of Decimus Brutus there is one veteran legion, a second of two-years'-service men, eight of recruits. Therefore the whole force taken together is very strong in numbers, in stamina inferior. For how much it is safe to trust to raw levies in the field we have had too frequent experience. To the strength of these armies of ours, if there was added either the African army which consists of veterans, or that of Caesar, we should hazard the safety of the Republic on a battle without any uneasiness. Now, as to Caesar, we see that he is considerably the nearer of the two. I have therefore never ceased importuning him by letter, and he has uniformly replied that he is coming without delay: while all the time I perceive that he has given up that idea and has taken up some other scheme. Nevertheless, I have sent our friend Furnius to him with a message and a letter, in case he may be able to do some good. You know, my dear Cicero, that in regard to love for Caesar you and I are partners, either because, being one of Iulius Caesar's intimates, I was obliged-while he was alive—to look after the boy and shew him affection; or because he was himself, as far as I could make out, of a very orderly and kindly disposition; or because, after such a remarkable friendship as existed between me and Iulius Caesar, it seems discreditable that I should not regard as a son one who was adopted into that position by his decision and by that of your house alike. Yet after all—and whatever I write to you I write rather in sorrow than in anger—the fact that Antony is alive today, that Lepidus is with him, that they have far from contemptible armies, that they are hopeful and bold—for all these they may thank Caesar. I will not go back to old matters, but from the moment that he gave out that he was coming to me, if he had chosen to come, the war would at once have either been put an end to, or, to their very great loss, have been thrust back into Spain, which is most hostile in sentiment to them. What idea or whose advice has withdrawn him from such great glory, which was at the same time required by his interests and needful for his safety, and has turned his attention to the thought of a two-months' consulship, entailing a great and general panic, and demanded in a peremptory and offensive manner—I cannot conjecture. It seems to me that in this matter his relations could exercise considerable influence both for his sake and for that of the Republic: most of all, as I think, could you also do so, since he is more obliged to you than anyone else is except myself—for I shall never forget that the obligations I owe you are exceedingly great and numerous. I commissioned Furnius to urge these considerations upon him. But if I prove to have as great an influence with him as I ought to have, I shall have done him a great service himself. Meanwhile we are maintaining the war at a disadvantage, because we do not think an engagement the safest Solution of the difficulty, and yet will not allow the Republic to suffer greater loss by our retirement. But if either Caesar has bethought himself; or the African legions have come promptly, we will relieve you of anxiety on this side. I beg you to continue to honour me with your regard, and to believe that I am peculiarly at your service.

28 July, in camp.