Marcus Tullius Cicero→Gaius Cassius Longinus|c. 43 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Syria|AI-assisted
Written at the end of May, 710 from the founding of the city [44 BC]. Cicero to Cassius, greetings.
I never cease, believe me, Cassius, from thinking about you and our friend Brutus, that is, about the whole commonwealth, whose every hope rests in you both and in Decimus Brutus. That hope I myself now hold to be better, since the commonwealth has been served most splendidly by my friend Dolabella; for that urban evil was spreading and was being strengthened day by day to such a degree that I, for my part, had lost confidence both in the city and in its civic peace, but it has been so suppressed that we seem likely to be safe from that filthiest danger at least, now and for the immediate time. The rest is great and manifold, but everything depends on you; yet let us deal with each matter in turn. For, as the case has so far been managed, we seem to have been freed not from the monarchy, but from the monarch; for though the king has been killed, we uphold all the king's nods of will. And not that alone, but we even approve, as if planned by him, things which the man himself would not do if he were alive. Nor indeed do I see any end to this business: tablets are posted up; immunities are granted; vast sums of money are assigned; exiles are recalled; forged decrees of the senate are entered in the records: so that only the hatred of that unclean man and the resentment of slavery seem to have been driven off, while the commonwealth lies prostrate amid those disorders into which he flung it. All these matters you must set right, and you must not think that the commonwealth has already received enough from you: it has indeed received as much as it never entered my mind to wish for, but it is not content, and, in proportion to the greatness both of your spirit and of your service, it desires great things from you. So far it has avenged its own wrongs, through you, by the death of the tyrant; nothing more. But what of its own honors that it has recovered? Is it that it now obeys, when he is dead, the man whom it could not endure while he lived? Are we even defending the handwritten memoranda of the very man whose laws posted on bronze we ought to have torn down? "But that is what we decreed." We did so, indeed, yielding to the circumstances, which carry the greatest weight in public affairs; but certain people are abusing our compliance immoderately and ungratefully. But of these matters, and many others, soon and in person. Meanwhile I would have you persuade yourself of this: that your standing is of the greatest concern to me, both for the sake of the commonwealth, which I have always held most dear, and for the sake of our friendship. Take care to keep well. Farewell.
DCCCXXXII (Fam. XII, 1) TO C. CASSIUS LONGINUS (IN SYRIA) ROME (1-7 APRIL) The political situation at the time of my writing these lines you will learn from Gaius Titius Strabo , a man of character and of the most excellent political sentiments: I need not add “and very desirous of your company,” for he has left the country to join you in preference to everyone else, abandoning house and fortune. His own arrival will be a sufficient recommendation of him in your eyes. I would have you realize the fact and have no doubt about it, that the only chance of finding refuge left for loyalists depends on you and Brutus , in the case — which I hope may not occur — of any reverse being sustained. At the moment of my writing the decisive moment has arrived. For Decimus Brutus is at his last gasp at Mutina : if he has been relieved, the victory is ours. But if not — which God forbid — we shall all of us hurry with one accord to you. Therefore be prepared in courage and material forces for the great task of recovering the constitution in its full completeness. Good-bye.
I. Scr. exeunte mense Maio a.u.c. 710. CICERO CASSIO SAL.
Finem nullam facio, mihi crede, Cassi, de te et Bruto nostro, id est de tota re publica, cogitandi, cuius omnis spes in vobis est et in D. Bruto; quam quidem iam habeo ipse meliorem, re publica a Dolabella meo praeclarissime gesta; manabat enim illud malum urbanum et ita corroborabatur quotidie, ut ego quidem et urbi et otio diffiderem urbano, sed ita compressum est, ut mihi videamur omne iam ad tempus ab illo dumtaxat sordidissimo periculo tuti futuri. Reliqua magna sunt ac multa, sed posita omnia in vobis: quamquam primum quidque explicemus. Nam, ut adhuc quidem actum est, non regno, sed rege liberati videmur; interfecto enim rege regios omnes nutus tuemur. Neque vero id solum, sed etiam, quae ipse ille, si viveret, non faceret, ea nos quasi cogitata ab illo probamus. Nec eius quidem rei finem video: tabulae figuntur: immunitates dantur; pecuniae maximae describuntur; exsules reducuntur; senatus consulta falsa deferentur: ut tantummodo odium illud hominis impuri et servitutis dolor depulsus esse videatur, res publica iaceat in iis perturbationibus, in quas eam ille coniecit. Haec omnia vobis sunt expedienda, nec hoc cogitandum, satis iam habere rem publicam a vobis: habet illa quidem tantum, quantum numquam mihi in mentem venit optare, sed contenta non est et pro magnitudine et animi et beneficii vestri a vobis magna desiderat. Adhuc ulta suas iniurias est per vos interitu tyranni; nihil amplius: ornamenta vero sua quae reciperavit? ad quod ei mortuo paret, quem vivum ferre non poterat? cuius aera refigere debebamus, eius etiam chirographa defendimus? "At enim ita decrevimus." Fecimus id quidem temporibus cedentes, quae valent in re publica plurimum; sed immoderate quidam et integrate nostra facilitate abutuntur. Verum haec propediem et multa alia coram: interim velim sic tibi persuadeas, mihi quum rei publicae, quam semper habui carissimam, tum amoris nostri causa maximae curae esse tuam dignitatem. Da operam, ut valeas. Vale.
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Written at the end of May, 710 from the founding of the city [44 BC]. Cicero to Cassius, greetings.
I never cease, believe me, Cassius, from thinking about you and our friend Brutus, that is, about the whole commonwealth, whose every hope rests in you both and in Decimus Brutus. That hope I myself now hold to be better, since the commonwealth has been served most splendidly by my friend Dolabella; for that urban evil was spreading and was being strengthened day by day to such a degree that I, for my part, had lost confidence both in the city and in its civic peace, but it has been so suppressed that we seem likely to be safe from that filthiest danger at least, now and for the immediate time. The rest is great and manifold, but everything depends on you; yet let us deal with each matter in turn. For, as the case has so far been managed, we seem to have been freed not from the monarchy, but from the monarch; for though the king has been killed, we uphold all the king's nods of will. And not that alone, but we even approve, as if planned by him, things which the man himself would not do if he were alive. Nor indeed do I see any end to this business: tablets are posted up; immunities are granted; vast sums of money are assigned; exiles are recalled; forged decrees of the senate are entered in the records: so that only the hatred of that unclean man and the resentment of slavery seem to have been driven off, while the commonwealth lies prostrate amid those disorders into which he flung it. All these matters you must set right, and you must not think that the commonwealth has already received enough from you: it has indeed received as much as it never entered my mind to wish for, but it is not content, and, in proportion to the greatness both of your spirit and of your service, it desires great things from you. So far it has avenged its own wrongs, through you, by the death of the tyrant; nothing more. But what of its own honors that it has recovered? Is it that it now obeys, when he is dead, the man whom it could not endure while he lived? Are we even defending the handwritten memoranda of the very man whose laws posted on bronze we ought to have torn down? "But that is what we decreed." We did so, indeed, yielding to the circumstances, which carry the greatest weight in public affairs; but certain people are abusing our compliance immoderately and ungratefully. But of these matters, and many others, soon and in person. Meanwhile I would have you persuade yourself of this: that your standing is of the greatest concern to me, both for the sake of the commonwealth, which I have always held most dear, and for the sake of our friendship. Take care to keep well. Farewell.
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
I. Scr. exeunte mense Maio a.u.c. 710. CICERO CASSIO SAL.
Finem nullam facio, mihi crede, Cassi, de te et Bruto nostro, id est de tota re publica, cogitandi, cuius omnis spes in vobis est et in D. Bruto; quam quidem iam habeo ipse meliorem, re publica a Dolabella meo praeclarissime gesta; manabat enim illud malum urbanum et ita corroborabatur quotidie, ut ego quidem et urbi et otio diffiderem urbano, sed ita compressum est, ut mihi videamur omne iam ad tempus ab illo dumtaxat sordidissimo periculo tuti futuri. Reliqua magna sunt ac multa, sed posita omnia in vobis: quamquam primum quidque explicemus. Nam, ut adhuc quidem actum est, non regno, sed rege liberati videmur; interfecto enim rege regios omnes nutus tuemur. Neque vero id solum, sed etiam, quae ipse ille, si viveret, non faceret, ea nos quasi cogitata ab illo probamus. Nec eius quidem rei finem video: tabulae figuntur: immunitates dantur; pecuniae maximae describuntur; exsules reducuntur; senatus consulta falsa deferentur: ut tantummodo odium illud hominis impuri et servitutis dolor depulsus esse videatur, res publica iaceat in iis perturbationibus, in quas eam ille coniecit. Haec omnia vobis sunt expedienda, nec hoc cogitandum, satis iam habere rem publicam a vobis: habet illa quidem tantum, quantum numquam mihi in mentem venit optare, sed contenta non est et pro magnitudine et animi et beneficii vestri a vobis magna desiderat. Adhuc ulta suas iniurias est per vos interitu tyranni; nihil amplius: ornamenta vero sua quae reciperavit? ad quod ei mortuo paret, quem vivum ferre non poterat? cuius aera refigere debebamus, eius etiam chirographa defendimus? "At enim ita decrevimus." Fecimus id quidem temporibus cedentes, quae valent in re publica plurimum; sed immoderate quidam et integrate nostra facilitate abutuntur. Verum haec propediem et multa alia coram: interim velim sic tibi persuadeas, mihi quum rei publicae, quam semper habui carissimam, tum amoris nostri causa maximae curae esse tuam dignitatem. Da operam, ut valeas. Vale.