Marcus Tullius Cicero→Gaius Scribonius Curio|c. 50 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Rome|AI-assisted
How matters stand here, I hardly dare describe even in a letter. Still, although wherever you are you are in the same boat, as I wrote to you before, I congratulate you on being away: partly because you do not see what we see, and partly because your reputation stands in a high and conspicuous place, in view of many allies and citizens alike. It reaches us not through obscure or shifting rumor, but in a clear and unanimous voice from everyone.
There is only one thing about which I do not know whether to congratulate you or fear for you: the extraordinary expectation of your return. I am not afraid that your character will fail to answer what people think of you. By Hercules, I fear that when you arrive there may no longer be anything for you to save, so weakened and nearly extinguished is everything already.
But even this much may not have been right to entrust to a letter. You will learn the rest from others.
Still, whether you have any hope for the republic or have given it up, prepare, rehearse, and think through the qualities that must belong to a citizen and a man who means to restore a crushed and oppressed republic, amid miserable times and ruined morals, to its old dignity and freedom.
CLXXV (Fam. II, 5) TO C. SCRIBONIUS CURIO (ON HIS WAY FROM ASIA) ROME (?JUNE) The state of business here I dare not tell even in a letter. And though, wherever you are, as I have told you before, you are in the same boat, yet I congratulate you on your absence, as well because you don't see what we see, as because your reputation is placed on a lofty and conspicuous pinnacle in the sight of multitudes both of citizens and allies; and it is conveyed to us by neither obscure nor uncertain talk, but by the loud and unanimous voice of all. There is one thing of which I cannot feel certain — whether to congratulate you, or to be alarmed for you on account of the surprising expectation entertained of your return; not because I am at all afraid of your not satisfying the world's opinion, but, by heaven, lest, when you do come, there may be nothing for you to preserve: so universal is the decline and almost extinction of all our institutions. But even thus much I am afraid I have been rash to trust to a letter wherefore you shall learn the rest from others. However, whether you have still some hope of the Republic, or have given it up in despair, see that you have ready, rehearsed and thought out in your mind, all that the citizen and the man should have at his command who is destined to restore to its ancient dignity and freedom a state crushed and overwhelmed by evil times and profligate morals.
V. M. CICERO S. D. C. CURIONI Romae; parte priore 53(?)
Haec negotia quo modo se habeant, epistula ne [ad te] quidem narrare audeo. Tibi, etsi ubicumque es, ut scripsi ad te ante, in eadem es navi, tamen quod abes gratulor, vel quia non vides ea quae nos vel quod excelso et illustri loco sita est laus tua in plurimorum et sociorum et civium conspectu; quae ad nos nec obscuro nec vario sermone sed et clarissima et una omnium voce perfertur. Unum illud nescio gratulerne tibi an timeam, quod mirabilis est exspectatio reditus tui; non quo verear ne tua virtus opinioni hominum non respondeat, sed mehercule ne, cum veneris, non habeas iam quod cures; ita sunt omnia debilitata iam [et] prope exstincta. Sed haec ipsa nescio rectene sint litteris commissa. Quare cetera cognosces ex aliis. Tu tamen, sive habes aliquam spem de re publica sive desperas, ea para, meditare, cogita quae esse in eo civi ac viro debent qui sit rem publicam adflictam et oppressam miseris temporibus ac perditis moribus in veterem dignitatem et libertatem vindicaturus.
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How matters stand here, I hardly dare describe even in a letter. Still, although wherever you are you are in the same boat, as I wrote to you before, I congratulate you on being away: partly because you do not see what we see, and partly because your reputation stands in a high and conspicuous place, in view of many allies and citizens alike. It reaches us not through obscure or shifting rumor, but in a clear and unanimous voice from everyone.
There is only one thing about which I do not know whether to congratulate you or fear for you: the extraordinary expectation of your return. I am not afraid that your character will fail to answer what people think of you. By Hercules, I fear that when you arrive there may no longer be anything for you to save, so weakened and nearly extinguished is everything already.
But even this much may not have been right to entrust to a letter. You will learn the rest from others.
Still, whether you have any hope for the republic or have given it up, prepare, rehearse, and think through the qualities that must belong to a citizen and a man who means to restore a crushed and oppressed republic, amid miserable times and ruined morals, to its old dignity and freedom.
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
V. M. CICERO S. D. C. CURIONI Romae; parte priore 53(?)
Haec negotia quo modo se habeant, epistula ne [ad te] quidem narrare audeo. Tibi, etsi ubicumque es, ut scripsi ad te ante, in eadem es navi, tamen quod abes gratulor, vel quia non vides ea quae nos vel quod excelso et illustri loco sita est laus tua in plurimorum et sociorum et civium conspectu; quae ad nos nec obscuro nec vario sermone sed et clarissima et una omnium voce perfertur. Unum illud nescio gratulerne tibi an timeam, quod mirabilis est exspectatio reditus tui; non quo verear ne tua virtus opinioni hominum non respondeat, sed mehercule ne, cum veneris, non habeas iam quod cures; ita sunt omnia debilitata iam [et] prope exstincta. Sed haec ipsa nescio rectene sint litteris commissa. Quare cetera cognosces ex aliis. Tu tamen, sive habes aliquam spem de re publica sive desperas, ea para, meditare, cogita quae esse in eo civi ac viro debent qui sit rem publicam adflictam et oppressam miseris temporibus ac perditis moribus in veterem dignitatem et libertatem vindicaturus.