Letter 7.27

I wonder why you accuse me, when you have no right to do so. And even if you had the right, you ought not to have done it. "For I," you say, "had shown you respect during your consulship," and you say that Caesar will restore you. You say many things, but no one believes you. You say you sought the tribunate on my account: I wish you were always tribune! You would not need to seek someone to veto. You say I do not dare to say what I think: as if I had not answered you boldly enough when you asked me shamelessly. I have written you these things so that you might recognize that in this very field in which you wish to have some ability, you are nothing. But if you had complained to me in a humane fashion, I would gladly and easily have cleared myself; for what you did for me is not unwelcome, but what you wrote is annoying. And I am amazed that I, on whose account others are free, should not seem free to you. For if the reports that you say you brought to me were false, what do I owe you? If they were true, you are the best witness of what the Roman people owes me.

CDLXXIV (Fam. VII, 27) TO TITUS FADIUS GALLUS (IN EXILE) ROME (?) I am surprised at your finding fault with me, when etiquette forbids it. Even if there had been no such obstacle, you ought not to have done it. “Why I showed you attention in your consulship” — and then you go on to say that Caesar will certainly recall you. Well, you have a great deal to say, but nobody believes you. You allege that you stood for the tribuneship for my sake. I wish you had always been a tribune, then you would not have wanted anyone to intervene! You say that I dare not speak what I think, on the ground that I did not give a sufficiently spirited answer to a shameless request of yours. I write thus to show you that even in that peculiar style of composition, in which you desire to be forcible, you are nil. But if you had presented your grievance to me in a reasonable spirit, I should have cleared myself in your eyes with readiness and ease: for I am not ungrateful for what you have done, but vexed with what you have written. Now I do wonder that you think me, the cause of everyone else's freedom, to be but a slave. For if the information — as you call it — which you gave me was false, what do I owe you? If true, you are the best witness of what the Roman people owe me.

XXVII. Scr. Romae a.u.c. 708. M. CICERO S. D. GALLO. Miror, cur me accuses, cum tibi id facere non liceat; quod si liceret, tamen non debebas. "Ego enim te," inquis, "in consulatu observaram," et ais fore, ut te Caesar restituat. Multa tu quidem dicis, sed tibi nemo credit. Tribunatum plebei dicis te mea causa petisse: utinam semper esses tribunus! intercessorem non quaereres. Negas me audere, quod sentiam, dicere: quasi tibi, cum impudenter me rogares, parum fortiter responderim. Haec tibi scripsi, ut isto ipso in genere, in quo aliquid posse vis, te nihil esse cognosceres. Quod si humaniter mecum questus esses, libenter tibi me et facile purgassem; non enim ingrata mihi sunt, quae fecisti, sed, quae scripsisti, molesta. Me autem, propter quem ceteri liberi sunt, tibi liberum non visum demiror; nam, si falsa fuerunt, quae tu ad me, ut ais, detulisti, quid tibi ego debeo? si vera, tu es optimus testis, quid mihi populus Romanus debeat.