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DCCCLXXIV (F XI, 23)

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 (F X, 19)

TO L. MUNATIUS PLANCUS (IN GAUL)

ROME (27 MAY)

THOUGH I do not look for formal thanks from you,1 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,

1 See pp. 236, 254.

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 (F X, 25)

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 prætorship. 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 ædile 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.2 Moreover, I foresee that with Plancus consul3 (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 prætorship. This was the gist of what I said in my house at a conference with my brother Quintus, Cæcina, and Calvisius—all men most devoted to you-your freedman Dardanus being also present. My speech seemed to be approved by all of them. after all you will judge best for yourself.

But

The rule was that a full year must elapse between the ædileship and election to the prætorship—that is, two full years between the actual holding of the two offices. Thus, if Furnius had been ædile in B.C. 44, he could only have been elected prætor in B.C. 42, and held the prætorship in B.C. 41.

2 The law required a professio seventeen days (trinundinum) before the election. The year's canvassing was a matter of custom, not law, but of such common custom that Cicero calls it “quasi-statutory.” 3 Plancus was consul-designate for B.C. 42.

DCCCLXXVII (F X, 16)

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.

1 Prætor Urbanus, presiding in absence of consuls. See pp. 207, 215. 2 P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus. Cicero thinks him always too lenient towards the party of Antony (see p. 207). He had been Cæsar's colleague in the consulship of B.C. 48. Though so much junior to Cicero as a consular, he seems to have been called on first.

DCCCLXXVIII (F XII, 14)

P. CORNELIUS LENTULUS SPINTHER' TO CICERO (AT ROME)

3

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

1 1 P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, son of the consul of B.C. 57, of whom, as well as of his father, we have heard much before, was one of those who, according to Plutarch (Cæs. 67), though not actually engaged in Cæsar's assassination, joined the assassins on the Capitol and professed to have been in the plot. He was now in Asia, whither he had gone as quæstor with Trebonius. His year of quæstorship being over at the end of B.C. 44, he is now proquæstor, as having had no successor appointed.

After the murder of Trebonius, Lentulus went into Macedonia to ask the advice of Brutus (see p. 276). Brutus and Cassius had received special authority over all provinces east of the Adriatic from the senate (App. B. C. iii. 63).

Of the taxes, which he would receive as quæstor.

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