Letter 2.4

You know that there are many kinds of letters. But one kind is the surest, the very reason the practice itself was invented: to inform absent friends of anything that matters either to us or to them. You surely do not expect that kind of letter from me. You have people at home who can both write to you and carry news about your own affairs, and in mine there is really nothing new. Two other kinds of letters remain, both of which I greatly enjoy: one familiar and playful, the other serious and weighty. I cannot tell which is less fitting for me to use. Should I joke with you by letter? By Hercules, I do not think a man can be a good citizen if he can laugh in times like these. Should I write something more serious? What could Cicero write seriously to Curio except about the republic? Yet in that subject my position is this: I do not dare write what I think, and I do not want to write what I do not think. So, since no subject for writing is left to me, I will use my usual closing theme and urge you toward the pursuit of the highest glory. You have a formidable rival already set up and ready against you: the extraordinary expectation people have formed of you. You will defeat it very easily by one thing only, if you decide to work hard at the very qualities by which the glory you love is won. I would write more in this vein if I did not trust that you are already sufficiently stirred by your own nature. What little I have touched on I have not written to inflame you, but to bear witness to my affection.

CLXXIV (Fam. II, 4) TO C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO (IN ASIA) ROME (?MAY) You are aware that letters are of many kinds; but there is one kind which is undeniable, for the sake of which, indeed, the thing was invented, namely, to inform the absent of anything that is to the interest of the writer or recipient that they should know. You, however, certainly don't expect a letter of that kind from me. For of your domestic concerns you have members of your family both to write and to act as messengers. Besides, in my personal affairs there is really nothing new. There are two other kinds of letters which give me great pleasure: the familiar and sportive, and the grave and serious. Which of these two I ought least to employ I do not understand. Am I to jest with you by letter? Upon my word, I don't think the man a good citizen who could laugh in times like these. Shall I write in a more serious style? What could be written of seriously by Cicero to Curio except public affairs? And yet, under this head, my position is such that I neither dare write what I think, nor choose to write what I don't think. Wherefore, since I have no subject left to write about, I will employ my customary phrase, and exhort you to the pursuit of the noblest glory. For you have a dangerous rival already in the field, and fully prepared, in the extraordinary expectation formed of you and this rival you will vanquish with the greatest ease, only on one condition — that you make up your mind to put out your full strength in the cultivation of those qualities, by which the noble actions are accomplished, upon the glory of which you have set your heart. In support of this sentiment I would have written at greater length had not I felt certain that you were sufficiently alive to it of your own accord; and I have touched upon it even thus far, not in order to fire your ambition, but to testify my affection.

IV. M. CICERO S. D. CURIONI Romae; parte priore 53(?) Epistularum genera multa esse non ignoras sed unum illud certissimum, cuius causa inventa res ipsa est, ut certiores faceremus absentis si quid esset quod eos scire aut nostra aut ipsorum interesset. Huius generis litteras a me profecto non exspectas. Tuarum enim rerum domesticos habes et scriptores et nuntios, in meis autem rebus nihil est sane novi. Reliqua sunt epistularum genera duo, quae me magno opere delectant, unum familiare et iocosum, alterum severum et grave. Utro me minus deceat uti non intellego. Iocerne tecum per litteras? Civem mehercule non puto esse, qui temporibus his ridere possit. An gravius aliquid scribam? Quid est quod possit graviter a Cicerone scribi ad Curionem nisi de re publica? Atqui in hoc genere haec mea causa est ut [neque ea quae sentio audeam] neque ea quae non sentio velim scribere. Quam ob rem, quoniam mihi nullum scribendi argumentum relictum est, utar ea clausula qua soleo teque ad studium summae laudis cohortabor. Est enim tibi gravis adversaria constituta et parata incredibilis quaedam exspectatio; quam tu una re facillime vinces, si hoc statueris, quarum laudum gloriam adamaris, quibus artibus eae laudes comparantur, in iis esse laborandum. In hanc sententiam scriberem plura, nisi te tua sponte satis incitatum esse confiderem. Et hoc, quicquid attigi, non feci inflammandi tui causa sed testificandi amoris mei.