Letter 12: Cicero writes to Brutus from Rome to Macedonia in 8 June 43 BC.

I would be discharging the same office toward you that you discharged in my time of grief, and would console you by letter, were I not aware that you have no need in your own sorrow of those remedies with which you eased my pain; and I could wish that you may now heal yourself more easily than I then could be healed. But it is unworthy of a man as great as you are to be unable to do for himself the very thing he has prescribed for another. As for me, it was both the arguments you had assembled and your own authority that held me back from excessive mourning. For when I seemed to you to bear my loss more softly than befitted a man, especially one accustomed to console others, you reproached me by letter in harsher words than your usual manner allowed. [2] And so, setting a high value on your judgment and standing in awe of it, I pulled myself together, and reckoned the things I had learned, read, and received as carrying greater weight once your authority was added to them. And at that time, Brutus, I had to answer only to duty and to nature; but you must now serve the people and, as the saying goes, the stage. For since the eyes not only of your army but of all the citizens, and almost of all nations, are fixed upon you, it is least of all fitting that the very man on whose account the rest of us are braver should himself be seen as weakened in spirit. Therefore you have indeed met with grief (for you have lost that to which nothing on earth was like), and one must grieve at so grave a wound, lest the very thing-being without any feeling of grief-prove more wretched than to grieve; but just as moderation is useful for others, so for you it is a necessity. [3] I would write more, were these very words not already too many to send to you. We are awaiting you and your army; without it, even if everything else turns out as we wish, we scarcely seem likely to be free enough. About the whole state of the commonwealth [res publica] I shall write more, and perhaps with more certainty, in the letter I was planning to give to our old friend Vetus.

§ Brut.1.9 DCCCXCVII (Brut. I, 9) TO M. IUNIUS BRUTUS (IN MACEDONIA) ROME (8 JUNE) I would have performed the function, which you performed in my own time of mourning, and have written you a letter of consolation, had I not known that you did not stand in need of those remedies in your sorrow with which you relieved mine. And I should hope that you will now more easily heal your own wound than you then could mine. It is, moreover, quite unlike a man as great as you are not to be able to do himself what he has enjoined on another. For myself, the arguments which you had collected, as well as your personal influence, deterred me from excessive indulgence in grief: for when I seemed to you to be bearing my sorrow with less firmness than was becoming to a man, and especially one accustomed to console others, you wrote upbraiding me in sharper terms than were usual with you. Accordingly, putting a high value on your opinion, and having a wholesome awe of it, I pulled myself together and regarded what I had learnt, read, and been taught as being the weightier by the addition of your authority. And at that time, Brutus, I owed nothing except to duty and nature: you now have to regard the people and the stage — to use a common expression. For since the eyes not only of your army, but of all the citizens, and I ought almost to say of all the world, are fixed on you, it is not at all seemly that the man who makes us all braver should himself seem weakened in mind. To sum up: you have met with a sorrow — for you have lost a thing unparalleled in the world — and you must needs suffer from so severe a wound, lest the fact of having no sense of sorrow should be a greater misfortune than sorrow itself: but that you should do so in moderation is advantageous to others, necessary for yourself. I would have written at greater length, had not even this been already too much. We are expecting you and your army, without which — even if everything else succeeds to our wishes — we seem likely to be scarcely as free as we could desire. On the whole political situation I will write at greater length, and perhaps with more certainty, in the letter which I think of handing to our friend Vetus.

[IX] Scr. Romae. in. Quint.,...ut videtur a. 711 (43). CICERO BRVTO SAL. fungerer eo officio quo tu functus es in meo luctu teque per litteras consolarer, nisi scirem iis remediis quibus meum dolorem tu levasses te in tuo non egere, ac velim facilius quam tunc mihi nunc tibi tute medeare. est autem alienum tanto viro quantus es tu, quod alteri praeceperit id ipsum facere non posse. me quidem cum rationes quas conlegeras tum auctoritas tua a nimio maerore deterruit. Cum enim mollius tibi ferre viderer quam deceret virum praesertim eum qui alios consolari soleret, accusasti me per litteras gravioribus verbis quam tua consuetudo ferebat. [2] itaque iudicium tuum magni aestimans idque veritus me ipse conlegi et ea quae didiceram, legeram, acceperam, graviora duxi tua auctoritate addita. ac mihi tum, Brute, officio solum erat et naturae, tibi nunc populo et scaenae, ut dicitur, serviendum est. nam cum in te non solum exercitus tui sed omnium civium ac paene gentium coniecti oculi sint, minime decet propter quem fortiores ceteri sumus eum ipsum animo debilitatum videri. quam ob rem accepisti tu quidem dolorem (id enim amisisti cui simile in terris nihil fuit), et est dolendum in tam gravi vulnere ne id ipsum, carere omni sensu doloris, sit miserius quam dolere, sed ut modice ceteris utile est, <ita> tibi necesse est. [3] scriberem plura nisi ad te haec ipsa nimis multa essent. nos te tuumque exercitum exspectamus; sine quo, ut reliqua ex sententia succedant, vix satis liberi videmur fore. de tota re publica plura scribam et fortasse iam certiora iis litteris quas veteri nostro cogitabam dare.