Marcus Tullius Cicero→Unknown|c. -50 AD|Cicero|AI-assisted
I rejoice greatly that my service toward Rhodo and the other efforts I have rendered to you and yours have been welcome to you, a most grateful man. Know that your standing is daily becoming a greater concern to me — though indeed it has been so enhanced by your own integrity and clemency that nothing seems possible to add. But as I think more and more each day about your situation, I am pleased with that advice of mine which I set before our friend Aristo at the outset, when he came to me: that you would take on serious enmities if a powerful and noble young man were subjected to disgrace by you. And indeed, without doubt, it will be a disgrace. For you have no one of higher rank in your honors; but he, to say nothing of his noble birth, surpasses the best of men and the most blameless — your own legates — in this very thing: that he is a quaestor, and your quaestor at that. I see clearly that no one could harm you out of anger, but still I do not want you to have three brothers, born to the highest station, energetic, and not without eloquence, angry at you — especially with good reason. I see that they will be tribunes of the plebs in successive years over the next three years. And who knows what the political situation will be? To me it looks likely to be turbulent. Why would I want you to fall into the terrors of tribunician power, especially when you could, without anyone's reproach, give precedence to a quaestor over legates of quaestorian rank? If he proves himself worthy of his ancestors, as I hope and pray, the credit will in some part be yours; but if he stumbles in any way, the fault will fall entirely on him and not at all on you. These were the thoughts that came to my mind which I believed concerned you, and since I was setting out for Cilicia, I judged that I ought to write them to you. Whatever course you take, I hope the gods approve it. But if you will listen to me, you will avoid enmities and look to the peace of your future years.
XVIII. M. CICERO IMP. S. D. Q. THERMO PRO PR. Laodiceae; in. Mai. 50
Officium meum erga Rhodonem ceteraque mea studia quae tibi ac tuis praestiti tibi, homini gratissimo, grata esse vehementer gaudeo, mihique scito in dies maiori curae esse dignitatem tuam; quae quidem a te ipso integritate et clementia tua sic amplificata est ut nihil addi posse videatur. Sed mihi magis magisque cottidie de rationibus tuis cogitanti placet illud meum consilium quod initio Aristoni nostro, ut ad me venit, ostendi, gravis te suscepturum inimicitias si adulescens potens et nobilis a te ignominia adfectus esset. Et hercule sine dubio erit ignominia. Habes enim neminem honoris gradu superiorem; ille autem, ut omittam nobilitatem, hoc ipso vincit viros optimos hominesque innocentissimos legatos tuos, quod et quaestor est et quaestor tuus. Nocere tibi iratum neminem posse perspicio, sed tamen tris fratris summo loco natos, promptos, non indisertos, te nolo habere iratos, iure praesertim; quos video deinceps tribunos pl. per triennium fore. Tempora autem rei publicae qualia futura sint quis scit? Mihi quidem turbulenta videntur fore. Cur ego te velim incidere in terrores tribunicios, praesertim cum sine cuiusquam reprehensione quaestoriis legatis quaestorem possis anteferre? Qui si se dignum maioribus suis praebuerit, ut spero et opto, tua laus ex aliqua parte fuerit; sin quid offenderit, sibi totum, nihil tibi offenderit. Quae mihi veniebant in mentem quae ad te pertinere arbitrabar, quod in Ciliciam proficiscebar, existimavi me ad te oportere scribere. tu quod egeris, id velim di approbent. sed si me audies, vitabis inimicitias et posteritatis otio consules.
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I rejoice greatly that my service toward Rhodo and the other efforts I have rendered to you and yours have been welcome to you, a most grateful man. Know that your standing is daily becoming a greater concern to me — though indeed it has been so enhanced by your own integrity and clemency that nothing seems possible to add. But as I think more and more each day about your situation, I am pleased with that advice of mine which I set before our friend Aristo at the outset, when he came to me: that you would take on serious enmities if a powerful and noble young man were subjected to disgrace by you. And indeed, without doubt, it will be a disgrace. For you have no one of higher rank in your honors; but he, to say nothing of his noble birth, surpasses the best of men and the most blameless — your own legates — in this very thing: that he is a quaestor, and your quaestor at that. I see clearly that no one could harm you out of anger, but still I do not want you to have three brothers, born to the highest station, energetic, and not without eloquence, angry at you — especially with good reason. I see that they will be tribunes of the plebs in successive years over the next three years. And who knows what the political situation will be? To me it looks likely to be turbulent. Why would I want you to fall into the terrors of tribunician power, especially when you could, without anyone's reproach, give precedence to a quaestor over legates of quaestorian rank? If he proves himself worthy of his ancestors, as I hope and pray, the credit will in some part be yours; but if he stumbles in any way, the fault will fall entirely on him and not at all on you. These were the thoughts that came to my mind which I believed concerned you, and since I was setting out for Cilicia, I judged that I ought to write them to you. Whatever course you take, I hope the gods approve it. But if you will listen to me, you will avoid enmities and look to the peace of your future years.
Latin / Greek Original
XVIII. M. CICERO IMP. S. D. Q. THERMO PRO PR. Laodiceae; in. Mai. 50
Officium meum erga Rhodonem ceteraque mea studia quae tibi ac tuis praestiti tibi, homini gratissimo, grata esse vehementer gaudeo, mihique scito in dies maiori curae esse dignitatem tuam; quae quidem a te ipso integritate et clementia tua sic amplificata est ut nihil addi posse videatur. Sed mihi magis magisque cottidie de rationibus tuis cogitanti placet illud meum consilium quod initio Aristoni nostro, ut ad me venit, ostendi, gravis te suscepturum inimicitias si adulescens potens et nobilis a te ignominia adfectus esset. Et hercule sine dubio erit ignominia. Habes enim neminem honoris gradu superiorem; ille autem, ut omittam nobilitatem, hoc ipso vincit viros optimos hominesque innocentissimos legatos tuos, quod et quaestor est et quaestor tuus. Nocere tibi iratum neminem posse perspicio, sed tamen tris fratris summo loco natos, promptos, non indisertos, te nolo habere iratos, iure praesertim; quos video deinceps tribunos pl. per triennium fore. Tempora autem rei publicae qualia futura sint quis scit? Mihi quidem turbulenta videntur fore. Cur ego te velim incidere in terrores tribunicios, praesertim cum sine cuiusquam reprehensione quaestoriis legatis quaestorem possis anteferre? Qui si se dignum maioribus suis praebuerit, ut spero et opto, tua laus ex aliqua parte fuerit; sin quid offenderit, sibi totum, nihil tibi offenderit. Quae mihi veniebant in mentem quae ad te pertinere arbitrabar, quod in Ciliciam proficiscebar, existimavi me ad te oportere scribere. tu quod egeris, id velim di approbent. sed si me audies, vitabis inimicitias et posteritatis otio consules.