Marcus Tullius Cicero→Gaius Trebianus|c. 48 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Rome|AI-assisted
[Written at Rome, 708 from the founding of the city (46 BC).] Cicero to Trebianus, greetings.
How highly I esteem you, and always have esteemed you, and how highly I have understood myself to be esteemed by you, I am my own witness; for both your decision, or rather your misfortune, in remaining too long under arms in the civil conflict has always been a source of great grief to me, and this present outcome, that you are recovering your fortune and your standing more slowly than is fair and than I should wish, is of no less concern to me than my own misfortunes have always been to you. And so to Postumulenus and to Sestius, and very often to our friend Atticus, and most recently to Theudas, your freedman, I have laid myself entirely open, and I have said this to each of them frequently: that by whatever means I can, I desire to give satisfaction to you and to your children; and I should wish you to write this to your people, at least these things which are certainly within my power, so that they may consider my effort, my counsel, my resources, and my good faith ready at their disposal for every need. If I had as much weight by authority and influence as I ought to be able to have in that commonwealth from which I have so deserved, you too would be the man you once were, both most worthy of every most distinguished rank and certainly the readily acknowledged leader of your order; but, since at one and the same time and from one and the same cause each of us has fallen, I promise you both those things which I wrote above, which are still mine, and those things which besides I seem to myself in some part to retain, as though out of the remnants of my former dignity: for Caesar himself, as I have been able to perceive from many circumstances, is not estranged from us, and nearly all his closest friends, bound to me by my great former services, attend upon me and cultivate me diligently. And so, if any opening shall be given me of acting on behalf of your fortunes, that is, of your safety, in which everything is at stake, which indeed every day I am the more led by their conversations to hope for, I will act through my own self and will exert myself. There is no need to pursue each point one by one: I lay before you my whole zeal and goodwill. But it greatly concerns me that all your people should know this, which it may be brought about by your letters that they understand, that everything of Cicero's lies open to Trebianus. This is to the end that they may judge nothing to be so difficult that, if undertaken by me on your behalf, it would not be a pleasure to me in the future.
Xa. Scr. Romae a.u.c. 708. CICERO TREBIANO S. D
Ego quanti te faciam semperque fecerim quantique me a te fieri intellexerim, sum mihi ipse testis; nam et consilium tuum vel casus potius diutius in armis civilibus commorandi semper mihi magno dolori fuit, et hic eventus, quod tardius, quam est aequum et quam ego vellem, reciperas fortunam et dignitatem tuam, mihi non minori curae est, quam tibi semper fuerunt casus mei. Itaque et Postumuleno et Sestio et saepissime Attico nostro proximeque Theudae, liberto tuo, totum me patefeci et hoc iis singulis saepe dixi, quacumque re possem, me tibi et liberis tuis satisfacere cupere, idque tu ad tuos velim scribas, haec quidem certe, quae in potestate mea sunt, ut operam consilium, rem fidem meam sibi ad omnes res paratam putent. Si auctoritate et gratia tantum possem, quantum in ea re publica, de qua ita meritus sum, posse deberem, tu quoque is esses, qui fuisti, cum omni gradu amplissimo dignissimus, tum certe ordinis tui facile princeps, sed, quoniam eodem tempore eademque de causa nostrum uterque cecidit, tibi et illa polliceor, quae supra scripsi, quae sunt adhuc mea, et ea, quae praeterea videor mihi ex aliqua parte retinere tamquam ex reliquiis pristinae dignitatis: neque enim ipse Caesar, ut multis rebus intelligere potui, est alienus a nobis et omnes fere familiarissimi eius casu devincti magnis meis veteribus officiis me diligenter observant et colunt. Itaque, si qui mihi erit aditus de tuis fortunis, id est de tua incolumitate, in qua sunt omnia, agendi, quod quidem quotidie magis ex eorum sermonibus adducor ut sperem, agam per me ipse et moliar. Singula persequi non est necesse: universum studium meum et benevolentiam ad te defero. Sed magni mea interest hoc tuos omnes scire, quod tuis litteris fieri potest ut intelligant, omnia Ciceronis patere Trebiano. Hoc eo pertinet, ut nihil existiment esse tam difficile, quod non pro te mihi susceptum iucundum sit futurum.
◆
[Written at Rome, 708 from the founding of the city (46 BC).] Cicero to Trebianus, greetings.
How highly I esteem you, and always have esteemed you, and how highly I have understood myself to be esteemed by you, I am my own witness; for both your decision, or rather your misfortune, in remaining too long under arms in the civil conflict has always been a source of great grief to me, and this present outcome, that you are recovering your fortune and your standing more slowly than is fair and than I should wish, is of no less concern to me than my own misfortunes have always been to you. And so to Postumulenus and to Sestius, and very often to our friend Atticus, and most recently to Theudas, your freedman, I have laid myself entirely open, and I have said this to each of them frequently: that by whatever means I can, I desire to give satisfaction to you and to your children; and I should wish you to write this to your people, at least these things which are certainly within my power, so that they may consider my effort, my counsel, my resources, and my good faith ready at their disposal for every need. If I had as much weight by authority and influence as I ought to be able to have in that commonwealth from which I have so deserved, you too would be the man you once were, both most worthy of every most distinguished rank and certainly the readily acknowledged leader of your order; but, since at one and the same time and from one and the same cause each of us has fallen, I promise you both those things which I wrote above, which are still mine, and those things which besides I seem to myself in some part to retain, as though out of the remnants of my former dignity: for Caesar himself, as I have been able to perceive from many circumstances, is not estranged from us, and nearly all his closest friends, bound to me by my great former services, attend upon me and cultivate me diligently. And so, if any opening shall be given me of acting on behalf of your fortunes, that is, of your safety, in which everything is at stake, which indeed every day I am the more led by their conversations to hope for, I will act through my own self and will exert myself. There is no need to pursue each point one by one: I lay before you my whole zeal and goodwill. But it greatly concerns me that all your people should know this, which it may be brought about by your letters that they understand, that everything of Cicero's lies open to Trebianus. This is to the end that they may judge nothing to be so difficult that, if undertaken by me on your behalf, it would not be a pleasure to me in the future.
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
Xa. Scr. Romae a.u.c. 708. CICERO TREBIANO S. D
Ego quanti te faciam semperque fecerim quantique me a te fieri intellexerim, sum mihi ipse testis; nam et consilium tuum vel casus potius diutius in armis civilibus commorandi semper mihi magno dolori fuit, et hic eventus, quod tardius, quam est aequum et quam ego vellem, reciperas fortunam et dignitatem tuam, mihi non minori curae est, quam tibi semper fuerunt casus mei. Itaque et Postumuleno et Sestio et saepissime Attico nostro proximeque Theudae, liberto tuo, totum me patefeci et hoc iis singulis saepe dixi, quacumque re possem, me tibi et liberis tuis satisfacere cupere, idque tu ad tuos velim scribas, haec quidem certe, quae in potestate mea sunt, ut operam consilium, rem fidem meam sibi ad omnes res paratam putent. Si auctoritate et gratia tantum possem, quantum in ea re publica, de qua ita meritus sum, posse deberem, tu quoque is esses, qui fuisti, cum omni gradu amplissimo dignissimus, tum certe ordinis tui facile princeps, sed, quoniam eodem tempore eademque de causa nostrum uterque cecidit, tibi et illa polliceor, quae supra scripsi, quae sunt adhuc mea, et ea, quae praeterea videor mihi ex aliqua parte retinere tamquam ex reliquiis pristinae dignitatis: neque enim ipse Caesar, ut multis rebus intelligere potui, est alienus a nobis et omnes fere familiarissimi eius casu devincti magnis meis veteribus officiis me diligenter observant et colunt. Itaque, si qui mihi erit aditus de tuis fortunis, id est de tua incolumitate, in qua sunt omnia, agendi, quod quidem quotidie magis ex eorum sermonibus adducor ut sperem, agam per me ipse et moliar. Singula persequi non est necesse: universum studium meum et benevolentiam ad te defero. Sed magni mea interest hoc tuos omnes scire, quod tuis litteris fieri potest ut intelligant, omnia Ciceronis patere Trebiano. Hoc eo pertinet, ut nihil existiment esse tam difficile, quod non pro te mihi susceptum iucundum sit futurum.