Marcus Tullius Cicero→Quintus Cornificius|c. 43 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Africa|Human translated
I shall answer first what came last in the letter I most recently received from you, for I have noticed that you great orators sometimes do this. You ask for my letters; but for my part, whenever your people told me someone was leaving, I always sent one. As far as I can understand from your letter, you will do nothing rashly and will settle on nothing definite until you know which way that fellow, whoever he is, Caecilius Bassus, may break out -- this I had hoped, relying on your good sense, and your most welcome letter has confirmed my confidence. I ask you most earnestly to do this as often as possible, so that I can know both what you are doing and what is going on, and even what you are planning. Although I bore with great reluctance your departure from me, at that time I consoled myself that you were going to the greatest tranquility and leaving behind the great troubles that threatened. Both turned out otherwise: war has broken out over there, and peace has followed here -- but a peace of such a kind that, if you were present, much would not please you; yet things that do not please even Caesar himself. For the outcomes of civil wars are always such that not only what the victor wishes comes about, but he must also humor those by whose help the victory was won. I for my part have already become so hardened that at our Caesar's games I watched Titus Plancus with the most equable mind and listened to the poems of Laberius and Publilius. Know that I miss nothing so much as someone with whom I can laugh at these things in an intimate and learned way. That person will be you, if you come as soon as possible, which I think is in your interest as well as mine.
DCLXVII (Fam. XII, 18) TO Q. CORNIFICIUS (IN SYRIA) ROME (OCTOBER) I will answer the end part of your last letter first — for I have noticed that that is what you great orators occasionally do. You express disappointment at not getting letters from me; whereas I never fail to send one whenever I am informed by your family that somebody is going to you. I think I gather from your letter that you are not likely to take any step rashly, nor to decide on any plan before you know in what direction that fellow Caecilius Bassus is likely to break out. That is what I had hoped, for I felt confidence in your wisdom, and now your very welcome letter makes me quite secure. And I beg you as a special favour that you will, as often as you can, make it possible for me to know what you are doing, what is being done, and also what you intend to do. Although I felt much distressed at your leaving me, I consoled myself at the time by thinking that you were going to a scene of the most profound tranquillity, and were leaving the cloud of serious troubles overhanging us. In both cases the actual truth has been the reverse. Where you are a war has broken out: with us there has followed a period of peace. Yet, after all, it is a peace in which, had you been here, there would have been many things that would not have pleased you, things in fact which do not please Caesar himself. In truth, this is always among the results of civil wars — that it is not only what the victor wishes that is done: concessions have also to be made to those by whose aid the victory was won. For my part, I have become so hardened that at our friend Caesar 's games I saw T. Plancus and listened to the poems of Laberius and Publilius with the utmost sangfroid There is nothing I feel the lack of so much as of some one with whom to laugh at these things in a confidential and philosophic spirit. You will be the man, if you will only come as soon as possible. That you should do so I think is important to yourself as well as to me.
XVIII. Scr. Romae sub finem a.u.c. 708. CICERO S. D. CORNIFICIO COLLEGAE.
Quod extremum fuit in ea epistula, quam a te proxime accepi, ad id primum respondebo; animum adverti enim hoc vos magnos oratores facere nonnumquam: epistulas requiris meas; ego autem numquam, quum mihi denuntiatum esset a tuis ire aliquem, non dedi. Quod mihi videor ex tuis litteris intelligere, te nihil commissurum esse temere nec ante, quam scisses, quo iste nescio qui Caecilius Bassus erumperet, quidquam certi constituturum, id ego et speraram prudentia tua fretus et ut confiderem fecerunt tuae gratissimae mihi litterae, idque ut facias quam saepissime, ut et quid tu agas et quid agatur scire possim et etiam quid acturus sis, valde te rogo. Etsi periniquo patiebar animno te a me digredi, tamen eo tempore me consolabar, quod et in summum otium te ire arbitrabar et ab impendentibus magnis negotiis discedere: utrumque contra accidit; istic enim bellum est exortum, hic pax consecuta, sed tamen eiusmodi pax, in qua, si adesses, multa te non delectarent, ea tamen, quae ne ipsum Caesarem quidem delectant; bellorum enim civilium ii semper exitus sunt, ut non ea solum fiant, quae velit victor, sed etiam, ut iis mos gerendus sit, quibus adiutoribus sit parta victoria. Equidem sic iam obdurui, ut ludis Caesaris nostri animo aequissimo viderem T. Plancum, audirem Laberii et Publilii poemata. Nihil mihi tam deesse scito quam quicum haec familiariter docteque rideam: is tu eris, si quam primum veneris; quod ut facias, non mea solum, sed etiam tua interesse arbitror.
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I shall answer first what came last in the letter I most recently received from you, for I have noticed that you great orators sometimes do this. You ask for my letters; but for my part, whenever your people told me someone was leaving, I always sent one. As far as I can understand from your letter, you will do nothing rashly and will settle on nothing definite until you know which way that fellow, whoever he is, Caecilius Bassus, may break out -- this I had hoped, relying on your good sense, and your most welcome letter has confirmed my confidence. I ask you most earnestly to do this as often as possible, so that I can know both what you are doing and what is going on, and even what you are planning. Although I bore with great reluctance your departure from me, at that time I consoled myself that you were going to the greatest tranquility and leaving behind the great troubles that threatened. Both turned out otherwise: war has broken out over there, and peace has followed here -- but a peace of such a kind that, if you were present, much would not please you; yet things that do not please even Caesar himself. For the outcomes of civil wars are always such that not only what the victor wishes comes about, but he must also humor those by whose help the victory was won. I for my part have already become so hardened that at our Caesar's games I watched Titus Plancus with the most equable mind and listened to the poems of Laberius and Publilius. Know that I miss nothing so much as someone with whom I can laugh at these things in an intimate and learned way. That person will be you, if you come as soon as possible, which I think is in your interest as well as mine.
Human translation - ToposText / Shuckburgh
Latin / Greek Original
XVIII. Scr. Romae sub finem a.u.c. 708. CICERO S. D. CORNIFICIO COLLEGAE.
Quod extremum fuit in ea epistula, quam a te proxime accepi, ad id primum respondebo; animum adverti enim hoc vos magnos oratores facere nonnumquam: epistulas requiris meas; ego autem numquam, quum mihi denuntiatum esset a tuis ire aliquem, non dedi. Quod mihi videor ex tuis litteris intelligere, te nihil commissurum esse temere nec ante, quam scisses, quo iste nescio qui Caecilius Bassus erumperet, quidquam certi constituturum, id ego et speraram prudentia tua fretus et ut confiderem fecerunt tuae gratissimae mihi litterae, idque ut facias quam saepissime, ut et quid tu agas et quid agatur scire possim et etiam quid acturus sis, valde te rogo. Etsi periniquo patiebar animno te a me digredi, tamen eo tempore me consolabar, quod et in summum otium te ire arbitrabar et ab impendentibus magnis negotiis discedere: utrumque contra accidit; istic enim bellum est exortum, hic pax consecuta, sed tamen eiusmodi pax, in qua, si adesses, multa te non delectarent, ea tamen, quae ne ipsum Caesarem quidem delectant; bellorum enim civilium ii semper exitus sunt, ut non ea solum fiant, quae velit victor, sed etiam, ut iis mos gerendus sit, quibus adiutoribus sit parta victoria. Equidem sic iam obdurui, ut ludis Caesaris nostri animo aequissimo viderem T. Plancum, audirem Laberii et Publilii poemata. Nihil mihi tam deesse scito quam quicum haec familiariter docteque rideam: is tu eris, si quam primum veneris; quod ut facias, non mea solum, sed etiam tua interesse arbitror.