Marcus Tullius Cicero→Marcus Claudius Marcellus|c. 45 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Mytilene|Human translated
I do not dare to advise a man of your outstanding wisdom, nor to encourage a person of the greatest spirit and singular courage, and as for consolation, I can offer none at all. For if you bear what has happened as I hear you do, I ought rather to congratulate your virtue than console your grief; but if the great misfortunes of the republic are crushing you, I am not so rich in talent as to be able to console you when I cannot console myself. What remains, then, is for me to offer and provide myself to you in every matter, and to be at the service of all that your people wish, so that I consider myself bound to do everything I can for your sake, and even what I cannot. Yet consider that I have either advised you or expressed my opinion, or that I could not keep silent out of goodwill: that, as I do myself, you too should resolve that if there is any republic left, you ought to be in it, first in the judgment of men and in fact, yielding to necessity as the times require; but if there is none at all, this place is still the most suitable even for exile. For if we seek freedom, what place is free from this despotism? If we seek any place at all, what is more pleasant than one's own home? But believe me, even the man who holds everything favors men of talent, and embraces the nobility and rank of men as far as his circumstances and his own interests allow. But I have said more than I intended. I return therefore to the one point: that I am yours. I shall stand with your people, if they prove to be yours; if not, I at least shall in all things do enough for our bond and our affection. Farewell.
CDLXXXIII (Fam. IV, 8) TO M. CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS (AT MITYLENE) ROME (SEPTEMBER) I do not venture to advise a man of your consummate wisdom, nor to offer encouragement to a man of the highest spirit and the most conspicuous gallantry-certainly not to console him in any way whatever. For if you bear what has happened as lam told you do, I ought rather to congratulate you on your manliness than console your sorrow. But if these great disasters to the state are breaking your heart, I have no ingenuity to spare for finding consolations for you, when I cannot console myself. All that remains, therefore, for me to do is at every point so to display and guarantee my services, and to be in such a way ready to undertake whatever your friends may wish, as to show that I hold myself your debtor not only for everything that is within my power to do, but also for what is beyond it. Nevertheless, please to consider that in what follows I have given you a warning, or (if you like) expressed an opinion, or from affection for you have been unable to refrain from saying — that you, as I do myself, should make up your mind, if there is to be a republic at all, that the first place in it is your due in everybody's judgment as well as in actual fact, though you are necessarily yielding to the circumstances of the hour: but if there is none, that after all this is the place best fitted for living even in exile. For if we are seeking freedom, what place is free from the master's hand? But if all we want is Some place, no matter of what sort, what residence is pleasanter than one's own home? But believe me, even the man who now dominates everything favours men of talent: moreover, he opens his arms to high birth and lofty position, as far as circumstances and his own party needs allow. But I have said more than I intended. I return, therefore, to that one fact — that I am yours, and will be by the side of your friends, always provided that they are yours: if not, I will in any case satisfy the claims of our attachment and affection in all particulars. Good-bye.
VIII. Scr. Romae (post VII. Kal. Sext.) a.u.c. 708. M. CICERO S. D. M. MARCELLO.
Neque monere te audeo praestanti prudentia virum nec confirmare maximi animi hominem unumque fortissimum, consolari vero nullo modo; nam, si ea, quae acciderunt, ita fers, ut audio, gratulari magis virtuti debeo quam consolari dolorem tuum, sin te tanta mala rei publicae frangunt, non ita abundo ingenio, ut te consoler, cum ipse me non possim. Reliquum est igitur, ut tibi me in omni re eum praebeam praestemque et ad omnia, quae tui velint, ita sim praesto, ut me non solum omnia debere tua causa, que possim, sed etiam quae non possim, putem. Illud tamen vel tu me monuisse vel censuisse puta vel propter benevolentiam tacere non potuisse, ut, quod ego facio, tu quoque animum inducas, si sit aliqua res publica, in ea te esse oportere, iudicio hominum reque principem, necessitate cedentem tempori, sin autem nulla sit, hunc tamen aptissimum esse etiam ad exsulandum locum; si enim libertatem sequimur, qui locus hoc dominatu vacat? sin qualemcumque locum, quae est domestica sede iucundior? Sed mihi crede, etiam is, qui omnia tenet, favet ingeniis, nobilitatem vero et dignitates hominum, quantum ei res et ipsius causa concedit, amplectitur. Sed plura, quam statueram; redeo ergo ad unum illud, me tuum esse: fore cum tuis, si modo erunt tui, si minus, me certe in omnibus rebus satis nostrae coniunctioni amorique facturum. Vale.
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I do not dare to advise a man of your outstanding wisdom, nor to encourage a person of the greatest spirit and singular courage, and as for consolation, I can offer none at all. For if you bear what has happened as I hear you do, I ought rather to congratulate your virtue than console your grief; but if the great misfortunes of the republic are crushing you, I am not so rich in talent as to be able to console you when I cannot console myself. What remains, then, is for me to offer and provide myself to you in every matter, and to be at the service of all that your people wish, so that I consider myself bound to do everything I can for your sake, and even what I cannot. Yet consider that I have either advised you or expressed my opinion, or that I could not keep silent out of goodwill: that, as I do myself, you too should resolve that if there is any republic left, you ought to be in it, first in the judgment of men and in fact, yielding to necessity as the times require; but if there is none at all, this place is still the most suitable even for exile. For if we seek freedom, what place is free from this despotism? If we seek any place at all, what is more pleasant than one's own home? But believe me, even the man who holds everything favors men of talent, and embraces the nobility and rank of men as far as his circumstances and his own interests allow. But I have said more than I intended. I return therefore to the one point: that I am yours. I shall stand with your people, if they prove to be yours; if not, I at least shall in all things do enough for our bond and our affection. Farewell.
Human translation - ToposText / Shuckburgh
Latin / Greek Original
VIII. Scr. Romae (post VII. Kal. Sext.) a.u.c. 708. M. CICERO S. D. M. MARCELLO.
Neque monere te audeo praestanti prudentia virum nec confirmare maximi animi hominem unumque fortissimum, consolari vero nullo modo; nam, si ea, quae acciderunt, ita fers, ut audio, gratulari magis virtuti debeo quam consolari dolorem tuum, sin te tanta mala rei publicae frangunt, non ita abundo ingenio, ut te consoler, cum ipse me non possim. Reliquum est igitur, ut tibi me in omni re eum praebeam praestemque et ad omnia, quae tui velint, ita sim praesto, ut me non solum omnia debere tua causa, que possim, sed etiam quae non possim, putem. Illud tamen vel tu me monuisse vel censuisse puta vel propter benevolentiam tacere non potuisse, ut, quod ego facio, tu quoque animum inducas, si sit aliqua res publica, in ea te esse oportere, iudicio hominum reque principem, necessitate cedentem tempori, sin autem nulla sit, hunc tamen aptissimum esse etiam ad exsulandum locum; si enim libertatem sequimur, qui locus hoc dominatu vacat? sin qualemcumque locum, quae est domestica sede iucundior? Sed mihi crede, etiam is, qui omnia tenet, favet ingeniis, nobilitatem vero et dignitates hominum, quantum ei res et ipsius causa concedit, amplectitur. Sed plura, quam statueram; redeo ergo ad unum illud, me tuum esse: fore cum tuis, si modo erunt tui, si minus, me certe in omnibus rebus satis nostrae coniunctioni amorique facturum. Vale.