Marcus Tullius Cicero→Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus|c. 43 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Mutina|AI-assisted
I received three letters from you on the same day: one short letter that you had given to Flaccus Volumnius, and two fuller ones, one brought by Titus Vibius's courier and the other sent on to me by Lupus.
From your letters, and from what Graeceius says, the war seems not only unextinguished but actually inflamed. I do not doubt that, with your exceptional judgment, you see this clearly: if Antony gains any firm footing, all your splendid services to the republic will come to nothing.
The report that reached Rome, and what everyone believed, was that Antony had fled with a few unarmed men, terrified and broken in spirit. But if he is in such a position that, as I heard from Graeceius, he cannot be engaged without risk, then he does not seem to me to have fled from Mutina. He has only changed the place where the war is being fought.
People's mood has shifted. Some are even complaining that you did not pursue him. They think he could have been crushed if speed had been used. This is absolutely typical of the people, and especially of our own people: they use their liberty most freely against the very man through whom they gained it. Still, we must take care that no just complaint can exist.
The matter stands like this: the man who crushes Antony will be the man who finishes the war. I would rather have you weigh the force of that sentence than have me write it more openly.
DCCCLIX (Fam. XI, 12) TO DECIMUS BRUTUS (NEAR POLLENTIA) ROME (BETWEEN 14 AND 19 MAY) I have received three letters from you on the same day: one a short one which you had intrusted to Volumnius Flaccus ; two of greater length, one of which the letter-carrier of Titus Vibius brought, the other was forwarded to me by Lupus. To judge from your letters and from what Graeceius says, the war, so far from being extinguished, is hotter than ever. However, I feel sure that your eminent wisdom makes it clear to you that, if Antony gets any firm foothold, all those brilliant services of yours to the state will come to nothing. For the news that reached Rome , and what everybody believed, was that Antony had fled with a small body of men, who were without arms, panic-stricken, and utterly demoralized. But if he is in such a position, as Graeceius tells me, that he cannot be offered battle without risk, he appears to me not to have fled from Mutina , but merely to have changed the seat of war. Accordingly, there is a general revulsion of feeling. Some people even grumble at your not having pursued him: they think that he might have been crushed if expeditious measures had been taken. It is ever the way with a populace, and above all with that of Rome — they vent their freedom without restraint on the very man who secured it for them. All the same, we must take care that there is no just cause of complaint. The fact is this: that man will have finished the war, who has crushed Antony . The point of that remark I would rather leave you to grasp than express it more openly myself.
XII. Scr. Romae paullo ante XIV. Kal. Iun. a.u.c. 711. M. CICERO S. D. D. BRUTO IMP. COS. DES.
Tres uno die a te accepi epistulas: unam brevem, quam Flacco Volumnio dederas; duas pleniores, quarum alteram tabellarius T. Vibii attulit, alteram ad me misit Lupus. Ex tuis litteris et ex Graeceii oratione non modo non restinctum bellum, sed etiam inflammatum videtur. Non dubito autem pro tua singulari prudentia, quin perspicias, si aliquid firmitatis nactus sit Antonius, omnia tua illa praeclara in rem publica merita ad nihilum esse ventura; ita enim Romam erat nuntiatum, ita persuasum omnibus, cum paucis inermis, perterritis metu, fracto animo fugisse Antonium. Qui si ita se habet, ut, quemadmodum audiebam de Graeceio, confligi cum eo sine periculo non possit, non ille mihi fugisse a Mutina videtur, sed locum belli gerendi mutasse. Itaque homines alii facti sunt: nonnulli etiam queruntur, quod persecuti non sitis; opprimi potuisse, si celeritas adhibita esset, existimant. Omnino est hoc populi maximeque nostri, in eo potissimum abuti libertate, per quem eam consecutus sit; sed tamen providendum est, ne quae iusta querela esse possit. Res se sic habet: is bellum confecerit, qui Antonium oppresserit; hoc quam vim habeat, te existimare malo, quam me apertius scribere.
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I received three letters from you on the same day: one short letter that you had given to Flaccus Volumnius, and two fuller ones, one brought by Titus Vibius's courier and the other sent on to me by Lupus.
From your letters, and from what Graeceius says, the war seems not only unextinguished but actually inflamed. I do not doubt that, with your exceptional judgment, you see this clearly: if Antony gains any firm footing, all your splendid services to the republic will come to nothing.
The report that reached Rome, and what everyone believed, was that Antony had fled with a few unarmed men, terrified and broken in spirit. But if he is in such a position that, as I heard from Graeceius, he cannot be engaged without risk, then he does not seem to me to have fled from Mutina. He has only changed the place where the war is being fought.
People's mood has shifted. Some are even complaining that you did not pursue him. They think he could have been crushed if speed had been used. This is absolutely typical of the people, and especially of our own people: they use their liberty most freely against the very man through whom they gained it. Still, we must take care that no just complaint can exist.
The matter stands like this: the man who crushes Antony will be the man who finishes the war. I would rather have you weigh the force of that sentence than have me write it more openly.
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
XII. Scr. Romae paullo ante XIV. Kal. Iun. a.u.c. 711. M. CICERO S. D. D. BRUTO IMP. COS. DES.
Tres uno die a te accepi epistulas: unam brevem, quam Flacco Volumnio dederas; duas pleniores, quarum alteram tabellarius T. Vibii attulit, alteram ad me misit Lupus. Ex tuis litteris et ex Graeceii oratione non modo non restinctum bellum, sed etiam inflammatum videtur. Non dubito autem pro tua singulari prudentia, quin perspicias, si aliquid firmitatis nactus sit Antonius, omnia tua illa praeclara in rem publica merita ad nihilum esse ventura; ita enim Romam erat nuntiatum, ita persuasum omnibus, cum paucis inermis, perterritis metu, fracto animo fugisse Antonium. Qui si ita se habet, ut, quemadmodum audiebam de Graeceio, confligi cum eo sine periculo non possit, non ille mihi fugisse a Mutina videtur, sed locum belli gerendi mutasse. Itaque homines alii facti sunt: nonnulli etiam queruntur, quod persecuti non sitis; opprimi potuisse, si celeritas adhibita esset, existimant. Omnino est hoc populi maximeque nostri, in eo potissimum abuti libertate, per quem eam consecutus sit; sed tamen providendum est, ne quae iusta querela esse possit. Res se sic habet: is bellum confecerit, qui Antonium oppresserit; hoc quam vim habeat, te existimare malo, quam me apertius scribere.