Marcus Tullius Cicero→Unknown|c. -48 AD|Cicero|AI-assisted
I was not deterred from sending you a letter after you came to Italy by the fact that you had sent me none, but because I could find neither what to promise you when I myself was lacking everything, nor what to advise when I myself lacked counsel, nor what consolation to offer in such great evils. Although these things are now no better, and indeed much more desperate, I still preferred my letters to be empty rather than non-existent. If I thought you had attempted to take on more duty for the republic than you were able to deliver, I would still, by whatever means I could, urge you to that condition of life which might be offered and which might exist. But since you have set as the end of your course of action, which was well and bravely undertaken, the limit that fortune itself wished to be the boundary of our struggles, I beg and implore you, by our old bond and connection and by my supreme goodwill toward you and your equal goodwill toward me, to preserve yourself safe for us, for your parent, your wife, and all your family, to whom you are and always have been most dear; to consult for your own safety and that of those who depend on you; to make use at this time of those things which you have learned and which, from adolescence onward, you have most beautifully grasped from the wisest men through memory and knowledge; and to bear the loss of those whom you have lost, bound to you by the deepest goodwill and the most numerous services, if not with an equal mind, then at least with a brave one. I do not know what I can do, or rather I perceive that I can do very little; but this I do promise you: that whatever I shall judge to be conducive to your safety and dignity, I shall do with as great zeal as you have always shown in your zeal and service for my affairs. I have conveyed this my disposition to your mother, an excellent woman and most devoted to you. If you write anything to me, I shall do as I understand you wish; but even if you write less, I shall nonetheless attend to everything I think will be useful to you with the greatest zeal and care. Farewell.
XXII. Scr. Romae ineunte anno u.c. 708. CICERO DOMITIO
Non ea res me deterruit, quo minus, posteaquam in Italiam venisti, litteras ad te mitterem, quod tu ad me nullas miseras, sed quia nec, quid tibi pollicerer ipse egens rebus omnibus, nec, quid suaderem, cum mihimet ipsi consilium deesset, nec, quid consolationis afferrem in tantis malis, reperiebam. Haec quamquam nihilo meliora sunt nunc atque etiam multo desperatiora, tamen inanes esse meas litteras quam nullas malui. Ego, si te intelligerem plus conatum esse suscipere rei publicae causa muneris, quam quantum praestare potuisses, tamen, quibuscumque rebus possem, ad eamm condicionem te vivendi, quae daretur quaeque esset, hortarer; sed, cum consilii tui bene fortiterque suscepti eum tibi finem statueris, quem ipsa fortuna terminum nostrarum contentionum esse voluisset, oro obtestorque te pro vetere nostra coniunctione ac necessitudine proque summa mea in te benevolentia et tua in me pari, te ut nobis, parenti, coniugi tuisque omnibus, quibus es fuistique semper carissimus, salvum conserves, incolumitati tuae tuorumque, qui ex te pendent, consulas, quae didicisti quaeque ab adolescentia pulcherrime a sapientissimis viris tradita memoria et scientia comprehendisti, iis hoc tempore utare, quos coniunctos summa benevolentia plurimisque officiis amisisti, eorum desiderium, si non aequo animo, at forti feras. Ego quid possim nescio vel potius me parum posse sentio: illud tamen tibi polliceor, me, quaecumque saluti dignitatique tuae conducere arbitrabor, tanto studio esse facturum, quanto semper tu et studio et officio in meis rebus fuisti; hanc meam voluntatem ad matrem tuam, optimam feminam tuique amantissimam, detuli. Si quid ad me scripseris, ita faciam, ut te velle intellexero; sin autem tu minus scripseris, ego tamen omnia, quae tibi utilia esse arbitrabor, summo studio diligenterque curabo. Vale. Cicero
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I was not deterred from sending you a letter after you came to Italy by the fact that you had sent me none, but because I could find neither what to promise you when I myself was lacking everything, nor what to advise when I myself lacked counsel, nor what consolation to offer in such great evils. Although these things are now no better, and indeed much more desperate, I still preferred my letters to be empty rather than non-existent. If I thought you had attempted to take on more duty for the republic than you were able to deliver, I would still, by whatever means I could, urge you to that condition of life which might be offered and which might exist. But since you have set as the end of your course of action, which was well and bravely undertaken, the limit that fortune itself wished to be the boundary of our struggles, I beg and implore you, by our old bond and connection and by my supreme goodwill toward you and your equal goodwill toward me, to preserve yourself safe for us, for your parent, your wife, and all your family, to whom you are and always have been most dear; to consult for your own safety and that of those who depend on you; to make use at this time of those things which you have learned and which, from adolescence onward, you have most beautifully grasped from the wisest men through memory and knowledge; and to bear the loss of those whom you have lost, bound to you by the deepest goodwill and the most numerous services, if not with an equal mind, then at least with a brave one. I do not know what I can do, or rather I perceive that I can do very little; but this I do promise you: that whatever I shall judge to be conducive to your safety and dignity, I shall do with as great zeal as you have always shown in your zeal and service for my affairs. I have conveyed this my disposition to your mother, an excellent woman and most devoted to you. If you write anything to me, I shall do as I understand you wish; but even if you write less, I shall nonetheless attend to everything I think will be useful to you with the greatest zeal and care. 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
XXII. Scr. Romae ineunte anno u.c. 708. CICERO DOMITIO
Non ea res me deterruit, quo minus, posteaquam in Italiam venisti, litteras ad te mitterem, quod tu ad me nullas miseras, sed quia nec, quid tibi pollicerer ipse egens rebus omnibus, nec, quid suaderem, cum mihimet ipsi consilium deesset, nec, quid consolationis afferrem in tantis malis, reperiebam. Haec quamquam nihilo meliora sunt nunc atque etiam multo desperatiora, tamen inanes esse meas litteras quam nullas malui. Ego, si te intelligerem plus conatum esse suscipere rei publicae causa muneris, quam quantum praestare potuisses, tamen, quibuscumque rebus possem, ad eamm condicionem te vivendi, quae daretur quaeque esset, hortarer; sed, cum consilii tui bene fortiterque suscepti eum tibi finem statueris, quem ipsa fortuna terminum nostrarum contentionum esse voluisset, oro obtestorque te pro vetere nostra coniunctione ac necessitudine proque summa mea in te benevolentia et tua in me pari, te ut nobis, parenti, coniugi tuisque omnibus, quibus es fuistique semper carissimus, salvum conserves, incolumitati tuae tuorumque, qui ex te pendent, consulas, quae didicisti quaeque ab adolescentia pulcherrime a sapientissimis viris tradita memoria et scientia comprehendisti, iis hoc tempore utare, quos coniunctos summa benevolentia plurimisque officiis amisisti, eorum desiderium, si non aequo animo, at forti feras. Ego quid possim nescio vel potius me parum posse sentio: illud tamen tibi polliceor, me, quaecumque saluti dignitatique tuae conducere arbitrabor, tanto studio esse facturum, quanto semper tu et studio et officio in meis rebus fuisti; hanc meam voluntatem ad matrem tuam, optimam feminam tuique amantissimam, detuli. Si quid ad me scripseris, ita faciam, ut te velle intellexero; sin autem tu minus scripseris, ego tamen omnia, quae tibi utilia esse arbitrabor, summo studio diligenterque curabo. Vale. Cicero