Marcus Tullius Cicero→Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus|c. 43 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Mutina|AI-assisted
Our friend Lupus reached Rome from Mutina on the sixth day, and the next morning he came to see me. He set out your instructions to me with the greatest care and delivered your letter. When you entrust your dignity to me, I think at the same time you are entrusting mine to me; by Hercules, I do not hold my own dearer than yours.
So you will do me the greatest favor if you regard it as certain that neither my advice nor my zeal will ever be absent from your honors. When the tribunes of the plebs announced that the Senate should meet on December 20, and intended to raise the question of protection for the consuls-designate, I had resolved not to come to the Senate before January 1. Yet because your edict had been posted that very day, I said it would be an outrage either for the Senate to meet and stay silent about your almost divine services to the republic, which would have happened if I had not come, or, if anything honorable was said about you, for me not to be present.
So I came to the Senate early. When that was noticed, the senators gathered in very large numbers. What I did for you in the Senate, and what I said in a very crowded public meeting, I would rather you learn from other men's letters. But I want you to be persuaded of this: everything that concerns the increase of your dignity, which is already very great in itself, I will always undertake and defend with the highest zeal. Although I understand that many will join me in this, I shall still seek the leading place in it.
DCCCIX (Fam. XI, 6) TO DECIMUS BRUTUS (AT MUTINA) ROME, 20 DECEMBER: OUR friend Lupus, having reached Rome on the sixth day from Mutina , came to call on me next morning and delivered your message to me in the most explicit terms and gave me your letter. When you commend the defence of your political position to me, I regard you as at the same time commending to me my own, which, by heaven, I do not regard as dearer to me than yours. Wherefore you will be doing me the greatest favour, if you will regard it as a settled thing that no counsel or zeal on my part will ever be wanting in the promotion of your reputation. The tribunes of the plebs having given notice of a meeting of the senate for the 20th of December, and designing to make a proposal for the protection of the consuls-designate, though I had resolved not to attend the senate before the 1st of January, yet as your edict also was put up on that same day, I thought that it would be shocking either that a meeting of the senate should be held without any mention being made of your brilliant services to the Republic — which would have been the case had I been absent — or that, if anything complimentary to you were said, I should not be there to support it. Accordingly, I went to the senate early, and when that was observed there was a very full house. The motion I made in regard to you in the senate, and the speech I made in a very crowded public meeting, I should prefer your learning from the letters of others. Pray make up your mind that I will ever undertake and support with the greatest zeal every measure tending to enhance your political position, splendid as it already is in itself. I know that I shall have many companions in that policy, yet I shall aim at taking the lead in it.
VI. Scr. Romae exeunte mense Decembri a.u.c. 710. M. CICERO S. D. D. BRUTO IMP. COS. DESIG.
Lupus noster cum Romam sexto die Mutina venisset, postridie me mane convenit: tua mihi mandata diligentissime exposuit et litteras reddidit. Quod mihi tuam dignitatem commendas, eodem tempore existimo te mihi meam [dignitatem] commendare, quam mehercule non habeo tua cariorem: quare mihi gratissimum facies, si exploratum habebis tuis laudibus nullo loco nec consilium nec studium meum defuturum. Cum tribuni pl. edixissent, senatus adesset a. d. XIII. Kal. Ian., haberentque in animo de praesidio consulum designatorum referre, quamquam statueram in senatum ante Kal. Ian. non venire, tamen, cum eo die ipso edictum tuum propositum esset, nefas esse dixi aut ita haberi senatum, ut de tuis divinis in rem publicam meritis sileretur—quod factum esset, nisi ego venissem—, aut etiam, si quid de te honorifice diceretur, me non adesse. Itaque in senatum veni mane; quod cum esset animadversum, frequentissimi senatores convenerunt. Quae de te in senatu egerim, quae in concione maxima dixerim, aliorum te litteris malo cognoscere: illud tibi persuadeas velim, me omnia, quae ad tuam dignitatem augendam pertinebunt, quae est per se amplissima, summo semper studio suscepturum et defensurum; quod quamquam intelligo me cum multis esse facturum, tamen appetam huius rei principatum.
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Our friend Lupus reached Rome from Mutina on the sixth day, and the next morning he came to see me. He set out your instructions to me with the greatest care and delivered your letter. When you entrust your dignity to me, I think at the same time you are entrusting mine to me; by Hercules, I do not hold my own dearer than yours.
So you will do me the greatest favor if you regard it as certain that neither my advice nor my zeal will ever be absent from your honors. When the tribunes of the plebs announced that the Senate should meet on December 20, and intended to raise the question of protection for the consuls-designate, I had resolved not to come to the Senate before January 1. Yet because your edict had been posted that very day, I said it would be an outrage either for the Senate to meet and stay silent about your almost divine services to the republic, which would have happened if I had not come, or, if anything honorable was said about you, for me not to be present.
So I came to the Senate early. When that was noticed, the senators gathered in very large numbers. What I did for you in the Senate, and what I said in a very crowded public meeting, I would rather you learn from other men's letters. But I want you to be persuaded of this: everything that concerns the increase of your dignity, which is already very great in itself, I will always undertake and defend with the highest zeal. Although I understand that many will join me in this, I shall still seek the leading place in it.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
VI. Scr. Romae exeunte mense Decembri a.u.c. 710. M. CICERO S. D. D. BRUTO IMP. COS. DESIG.
Lupus noster cum Romam sexto die Mutina venisset, postridie me mane convenit: tua mihi mandata diligentissime exposuit et litteras reddidit. Quod mihi tuam dignitatem commendas, eodem tempore existimo te mihi meam [dignitatem] commendare, quam mehercule non habeo tua cariorem: quare mihi gratissimum facies, si exploratum habebis tuis laudibus nullo loco nec consilium nec studium meum defuturum. Cum tribuni pl. edixissent, senatus adesset a. d. XIII. Kal. Ian., haberentque in animo de praesidio consulum designatorum referre, quamquam statueram in senatum ante Kal. Ian. non venire, tamen, cum eo die ipso edictum tuum propositum esset, nefas esse dixi aut ita haberi senatum, ut de tuis divinis in rem publicam meritis sileretur—quod factum esset, nisi ego venissem—, aut etiam, si quid de te honorifice diceretur, me non adesse. Itaque in senatum veni mane; quod cum esset animadversum, frequentissimi senatores convenerunt. Quae de te in senatu egerim, quae in concione maxima dixerim, aliorum te litteris malo cognoscere: illud tibi persuadeas velim, me omnia, quae ad tuam dignitatem augendam pertinebunt, quae est per se amplissima, summo semper studio suscepturum et defensurum; quod quamquam intelligo me cum multis esse facturum, tamen appetam huius rei principatum.