The Letters, Volume 3. Cicero
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receipt of debts—nothing is too great or too small to be committed to those faithful hands and all-enduring patience. To him were fittingly dedicated the essays on Old Age and Friendship, composed in the early part of this year.
Of the other correspondents, most of the more important letters in the first part of the volume are addressed to members of the beaten party residing in various places of exile—expatiating on the chances of their recall, on the miseries of Rome which they escape, and justifying his own policy of submission to the conqueror. There is a certain sameness about these letters, but they bring out clearly Cicero's real view of the situation, and serve to illustrate very fully the state of things under the dictatorial government: and while they shew how unreconcilable was the old party of Optimates, they certainly tend to increase our respect for the moderation and magnanimity of Caesar.
M. Terentius Varro, B.C. 116-28.
There are some rather interesting letters to the famous M. TERENTIUS VARRO.48 They do not, indeed, possess the charm of the more open and impulsive letters addressed to some others. Cicero, I think, was afraid of Varro's great learning and critical disposition. He envied, while he could not copy, the calmness with which he went on with his old pursuits in the midst of political troubles: "I consider the time you spent at Tusculum," he says to him, "a specimen of true life: and I would with pleasure resign all the wealth in the world on condition of being allowed, without the interruption of violence, to live a life like yours."49 But the two men were not really sympathetic. Varro's learning was encyclopaedic, and his industry must have been immense: but he neither possessed nor cared to possess any graces of style; and probably regarded Cicero's popular tracts on philosophy with little respect. Cicero was anxious to be introduced into one of his dialogues, or to be named in the dedication of one of his treatises, but that compliment which he had been promised had never been paid to him, and it was with considerable trepidation that he dedicated to Varro his own Academics. Varro himself, who had been in Pompey's army in Epirus, had easily obtained his pardon from Caesar, and had been employed in collecting a great public library. He appears to have entirely abstained from politics after that. His being placed on the list of the proscribed in B.C. 43-42 was probably owing to Antony, who, having plundered his villa at Casinum, had been forced to make restitution,50 and probably had quarrelled with him. He however escaped, and survived all the leading men of the Civil War, dying in B.C. 28.
Servius Sulpicius Rufus, Cos. B.C. 51.
Another recipient of long and friendly letters was SERVIUS SULPICIUS RUFUS, a jurisconsult of eminence, who had taken the Pompeian side, though without much enthusiasm, for his son, apparently with his consent, was serving under Caesar: and after Pharsalia he himself accepted the government of Greece and Epirus as Caesar's legatus. He died whilst on the embassy from the senate to Antony at Mutina in B.C. 43. Cicero addresses him as though confident of his disapproving of much in Caesar's government,51 but he had previously referred in rather severe terms to his lukewarmness and inconsistency. Sulpicius in fact appears to have been a man of high character, but of no strong political opinions, content with performing his administrative functions without troubling himself too much on the constitutional authority of those under whom he acted.
More ominous is the evidently closer relations with M. BRUTUS and C. CASSIUS. We have seen that the intercourse with Brutus in previous years had not been entirely a pleasure to Cicero. Brutus adopted rather too high and patronizing a tone, which Cicero resented, though he wished to stand well with him. But in the letters of introduction addressed to him in this volume there is an air of greater intimacy. And though Cicero did not much like the letter of consolation from him on the death of Tullia, he is always shewing interest in his movements; continually questions Atticus about him; and is particularly eager to hear all about his marriage with Porcia, daughter of Cato Uticensis and widow of the Pompeian Bibulus—a match which seems to have fluttered society at Rome a good deal, as a sign that Brutus was gravitating back to his old party. The two letters also addressed to Cassius when on a tour undertaken—perhaps on a hint from headquarters—so as to be absent from Rome while Caesar, whom he had declined to accompany, was in Spain, indicate a growing understanding between them. An estimate of Brutus, Cassius, and other persons who took a prominent part in politics after Caesar's death must be reserved for the next volume. Here I must be content with noticing the growing rapprochement between them.
L. Papirius Paetus.
Another group of letters which are attractive in a different way are those addressed to L. PAPIRIUS PAETUS. They are not the less interesting that we know nothing about Paetus beyond what we read in the letters. As in the case of M. Marius in Volume I. (to whom there is also an interesting letter in this volume, p. 78), we are content to regard him simply as a friend of Cicero's, to whom he seems to write with frankness and affection. He lived at Naples and was rich and hospitable, and though his sympathies were Caesarian, politics play a minor part in the correspondence. Light banter, social anecdote, historical, literary and philosophical discussions of a superficial kind fill up a large proportion of the letters. One letter, on decency in language and the Stoic rule of calling a spade a spade (pp. 293 ff.), throws a curious light upon the squeamishness of a society which was far from being over-nice in conduct.
Footnotes:
1 P. 10. Cp. pp.114, 115.
2 τὸ μηδὲν μέγα αὐτῷ χρῆσθαι Πομπήιον (Plut. Cic. 38).
3 See pp.2, 9.
4 See pp.17, 79, 87, 114, 115, etc.
5 P.14. Plut. Cic. 39.
6 P. 19. Cp. <=>2 Phil. § 5.
7 Pp. 16, 18. Cp. pro Lig. § 7.
8 See p. 27.
9 See vol. ii., pp.363, 366.
10 P.26.
11 See his letter to Caesar, p.30.
12 See pp.88, 144, 280, 321.
13 P.348.
14 Vol. iv., pp.97, 100.
15 Plut. Cic. 39.
16 P.97.
17 P.113.
18 Pp.137, 171, 172.
19 P.70.
20 See p.103 "I like a dinner party. I talk freely there on whatever comes upon the tapis, and convert sighs into loud bursts of laughter."
21 Pp.76, 93, 95.
22 P.247.
23 Pp.65, 70, 72-74.
24 Pp.74, 75.
25 See pp.81, 100, 101.
26 Pp.104, 106, 109, 110.
27 See pp. 118, 134, 316.
28 P. 117
29 Pp.101, 123, 129, 137, 256.
30 Pp.173, 214.
31 Pp.232, 234, etc.
32 Pp.88, 141.
33 Pp.300, 307, 310
34 P.357.
35 Pp.197, 228, 260, 332, 334.
36 Pro Ligario, pro Marcello, pro Deiotaro.
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