Letter 1: Cicero writes to Quintus in Asia from Rome in December 60 BC.

MARCUS TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS, GREETINGS. 1. Although I did not doubt that many messengers, and finally rumor itself by its own swiftness, would outstrip this letter, and that you would hear from others before me that a third year has been added to our longing and to your labor, nevertheless I judged that the report of this annoyance ought to be carried to you by me as well. For in earlier letters, not one but several, even when the matter had already been despaired of by others, I still brought you hope of an early departure, not only that I might cheer you with a pleasant expectation as long as possible, but also because such great effort was being exerted both by us and by the praetors that I did not distrust the thing could be accomplished. 2. Now, since it has so happened that neither the praetors by their resources nor we by our zeal could accomplish anything, it is altogether difficult not to take it hard; yet our spirits, exercised in conducting and sustaining matters of the greatest moment, ought not to be broken and weakened by vexation. And since men ought to bear most grievously those things that have been brought on by their own fault, there is something in this affair more grievous for me to bear than for you. For it came about by my fault, contrary to what you had urged upon me both when setting out and by letter, that no successor was appointed last year; and in doing this, while I was looking out for the welfare of the allies, while I was resisting the impudence of certain businessmen, while I was eager that our glory should be increased by your excellence, I acted unwisely, especially since I committed the error that that second year could draw on even a third. 3. And since I confess that this fault is mine, it belongs to your wisdom and humanity to take care and to bring it about that this less-than-wise provision of mine be corrected by your diligence. And if you rouse yourself more vigorously toward winning a good reputation in every department, so as to compete not, as with others, but now with yourself; if you spur on your whole mind, care, and thought toward the desire of surpassing praise in all things, believe me, the one year added to your labor will bring us, indeed even our descendants, the joy of many years. 4. Therefore I ask this of you first: do not contract or cast down your spirit, nor allow yourself to be overwhelmed, as if by a wave, by the magnitude of the business; on the contrary, raise yourself up and resist, or even go out of your way to meet the affairs. For you are not administering that part of the commonwealth in which fortune is dominant, but one in which reason and diligence can do the most. If I saw that your command had been prolonged while you were conducting some great and dangerous war, I would tremble in spirit, because I would understand that at the same time the power of fortune over us had also been prolonged. 5. But as it is, that part of the commonwealth has been entrusted to you in which fortune holds either no part or a very small one, and which seems to me to rest wholly upon your excellence and self-control. We dread, I think, no ambushes of enemies, no battle, no defection of allies, no want of pay or of the grain supply, no mutiny of the army: things that have very often befallen the wisest of men, so that, just as the best pilots cannot overcome the force of a storm, so they could not overcome the assault of fortune. To you has been given the utmost peace, the utmost tranquility, yet in such a way that it could overwhelm a sleeping pilot but could even delight a watchful one. 6. For that province consists, first, of the kind of allies that is the most civilized of the whole human race, and then of the kind of citizens who either, because they are publicani [tax-farming contractors], are bound to us by the closest ties, or who, because they conduct their business so as to be wealthy, think they hold their fortunes secure through the benefit of our consulship. 7. "But among these very men serious disputes arise, many injuries are born, great contentions follow." As if I really thought that you bear no burden of business! I understand that the business is very great and demands the greatest judgment; but remember that I consider this business to be considerably more a matter of judgment than of fortune. For what difficulty is there in keeping in check those over whom you preside, if you keep yourself in check? Granted that this is great and difficult for others, as indeed it is most difficult; but for you it has always been the easiest thing, and indeed ought to be, since your nature is such that it seems it could have been moderate even without training, and that training has been applied to it which could cultivate even the most flawed nature. When you resist the desire for money, for pleasure, for all things, as you do, there will, I suppose, be a danger that you cannot suppress some dishonest businessman or some slightly too greedy publicanus! For the Greeks indeed will gaze on you living thus as if they thought some divine man out of the record of their annals, or even one fallen from heaven, had descended into the province. 8. And I write these things now not so that you may do them, but so that you may rejoice both that you do them and have done them. For it is a splendid thing to have held supreme command in Asia for three years in such a way that no statue, no painting, no vessel, no garment, no slave, no one's beauty, no offer of money—things in which that province abounds—has drawn you away from the utmost integrity and self-restraint. 9. And what can be found so distinguished or so desirable as that this excellence of yours, this moderation of spirit, this temperance should not lie hidden in darkness nor be concealed, but should be set in the light of Asia, before the eyes of a most illustrious province, and in the hearing of all peoples and nations? That men are not terrified by your travels, not drained dry by expense, not stirred up by your arrival? That wherever you come there is the greatest rejoicing, public and private, since the city seems to have received a protector, not a tyrant, and the household a guest, not a plunderer? 10. But in these matters experience itself has surely by now taught you that it is by no means enough for you yourself to possess these virtues, but that you must look about diligently, so that in this guardianship of the province you may seem to vouch to the allies, the citizens, and the commonwealth not for yourself alone, but for all the agents of your command. Yet you have legates who will of themselves have regard for their own dignity. Of these, Tubero excels in honor, dignity, and age, who, I think—especially since he is writing history—can select many out of his own annals whom he might wish and be able to imitate. Our Allienus, moreover, is ours both in spirit and goodwill, and indeed even in his imitation of our way of living. For why should I speak of Gratidius? Whom I certainly know to labor so over his own reputation that, out of brotherly love toward us, he labors even over ours. 11. Your quaestor you have not chosen by your own judgment, but he is the one whom the lot gave you: this man ought both of his own accord to be moderate and to obey your principles and precepts. If any of these should happen to be somewhat baser, you would tolerate it only so far as he neglected on his own account those laws by which he was bound, not so that he should use for profit that power which you had granted him for his dignity. For it does not at all please me—especially since the morals of the day have already sunk so far toward excessive laxity and self-seeking—that you should scrutinize all the sordid dealings, that you should sift each one of them; but rather that you entrust to each man only as much as is the trustworthiness in each. And among these, those whom the commonwealth itself has given you as companions and assistants in public affairs, you will vouch for them within those limits which I prescribed above. 12. But as for those whom you wished to have with you either from domestic intimacy or from necessary attendance, who are usually called as it were the praetor's cohort, of these not only the deeds but even all their words must be vouched for by us. But you have with you those whom you can easily love when they act rightly, and very easily restrain when they regard your reputation too little: by whom, when you were inexperienced, your generosity might seem to have been deceived—for the better a man is, the most difficult it is for him to suspect that others are wicked—but now let this third year keep the same integrity as the earlier ones, and even more cautious and more diligent. 13. Let your ears be such as are thought to hear what they hear, not such as falsehoods are whispered into deceitfully and for the sake of gain; let your signet ring be not like some mere implement, but as it were your very self, not the agent of another's will, but the witness of your own. Let your orderly be of that rank in which our ancestors wished him to be, who used to confer this office not in the place of a benefit but of a labor and a duty, and as a rule on none but their own freedmen, whom indeed they commanded not much otherwise than slaves. Let your lictor be the attendant not of his own [severity, but] of your mildness, and let the fasces and axes that they carry before you display the insignia of your rank rather than of your power. Let it, in short, be known to the whole province that the safety, the children, the good name, and the fortunes of all over whom you preside are most dear to you. Finally, let this be the opinion: that you will be hostile not only to those who have accepted anything but also to those who have given it, if you find it out. And indeed no one will give, when this has been perceived: that nothing is usually obtained from you through those who pretend to have great influence with you. 14. Yet this speech of mine is not of such a kind that I wish you to be too harsh or too suspicious toward your own people: for if there is any one of them who in the space of two years has never come under suspicion of avarice—as I both hear of Caesius and Chaerippus and Labeo and, because I have known them, judge to be the case—there is nothing that I would not think most rightly entrusted and confided both to them and to anyone else of the same kind; but if there is anyone in whom you have already taken offense, about whom you have sensed something, to this man confide nothing, entrust no part of your reputation. 15. But in the province itself, if you have come upon someone who has made his way deeply into your friendship, who was previously unknown to us, consider how much trust ought to be placed in him: not that there cannot be many good provincials, but it is permissible to hope this, dangerous to judge it. For each person's nature is covered with many wrappings of pretense and is veiled, as it were, by certain curtains: the brow, the eyes, the face very often lie, and speech most often of all. Wherefore how can you find any of that class of men who, drawn by desire for money, would forgo all those things from which we cannot be torn away, yet would love you, a stranger, from the heart and not feign it for the sake of their own advantage? To me indeed it seems a very great thing, especially if those same men love hardly any private person but always love all the praetors. Of this class, if by chance you have come to know someone fonder of you—for it could have happened—than of the moment, then by all means gladly enroll this man among the number of your friends; but if you do not perceive this, there will be no class to be more guarded against in intimacy, for the very reason that they know all the roads to money, do everything for the sake of money, and care nothing for the reputation of one with whom they are not going to live. 16. And even among the Greeks themselves certain intimacies must be carefully guarded against, except for those very few, if there are any, who are worthy of ancient Greece; but in truth very many of them are deceitful and frivolous and, schooled by long servitude, are trained to excessive flattery. I say that all of these should be treated generously, and that the best of each should be joined to us in hospitality and friendship; but too-close intimacies with them are neither so trustworthy—for they do not dare to oppose our wishes—and they are envious not only of our people but even of their own. 17. Now, in matters of this kind, in which I wish to be cautious and diligent—even at the risk, I fear, of being too harsh—with what spirit do you suppose I think one ought to be toward slaves? Whom indeed we ought to govern in all places, but especially in the provinces; about which class many precepts can be given, but this is both the shortest and the most easily kept: that they should conduct themselves on those Asian journeys as if you were traveling on the Appian Way, and that they should think it makes no difference whether they have come to Tralles or to Formiae. And if any of your slaves is outstandingly faithful, let him be employed in domestic and private matters; but as for those matters that pertain to the duty of your command and to any part of the commonwealth, let him touch nothing of these; for many things that can rightly be entrusted to faithful slaves nevertheless must not be entrusted, for the sake of avoiding talk and reproach. 18. But somehow my discourse has slipped into a method of giving precepts, although this was not what I had proposed at the outset; for what should I prescribe to one whom I understand, especially in this kind of thing, to be not inferior to me in prudence, but indeed even superior in experience? Yet nevertheless, if my authority were added to what you do, I thought those things would be more pleasing to you yourself. Wherefore let these be the foundations of your dignity: first, your own integrity and self-restraint; then the modesty of all who are with you; a very cautious and diligent selection in intimacies both with provincials and with Greeks; a strict and consistent discipline of your household. 19. Since these things are honorable in our private and everyday affairs, in so great a command, among morals so depraved, in a province so corrupting, they must necessarily seem divine. This training and this discipline can sustain, in establishing and decreeing matters, that severity which you have employed in those things from which we have undertaken certain enmities, much to my joy—unless perhaps you think me moved by the complaints of some Paconius or other, a man who is not even a Greek but really a Mysian or rather a Phrygian, or by the cries of Tuscenius, a frenzied and base fellow, from whose most foul jaws you snatched a most disgraceful greed with the utmost fairness. 20. These and other acts full of severity which you established in that province we shall not easily sustain without the utmost integrity; wherefore let there be the greatest severity in the administration of justice, provided only that it is not varied by favor but kept impartial; yet it matters little that justice is administered by you yourself impartially and diligently, unless the same is done by those to whom you have granted some part of that function. And to me indeed it seems that there is no very great variety of business in administering Asia, but that the whole of it is chiefly sustained by jurisdiction; in which the principle of the science—especially of the provincial kind—is itself straightforward: consistency must be applied, and gravity, that resists not only favor but even the suspicion of it. 21. There must also be added accessibility in hearing, mildness in deciding, diligence in giving satisfaction and in argument. By these things Gaius Octavius recently made himself most agreeable; in whose court the lictor next to him stayed quiet, the orderly kept silent, and each man spoke as often as he wished and as long as he wished; in which respects he might perhaps seem too lenient, were it not that this leniency safeguarded that severity: the partisans of Sulla were compelled to restore what they had taken away by force and fear; those who as magistrates had decreed unjustly had to obey, as private citizens, the very same law. This severity of his would seem harsh, were it not softened by many seasonings of humanity. 22. But if this leniency is welcome at Rome, where there is such great arrogance, such unbounded liberty, such infinite license of men, in short so many magistracies, so many supports, such great power of the public assembly, such great authority of the senate, how pleasing then can a praetor's courtesy be in Asia! In which so great a multitude of citizens, so great a multitude of allies, so many cities, so many communities look to the nod of one man, where there is no help, no means of complaint, no senate, no assembly: wherefore it is the mark of a very great man, both moderate by his very nature and indeed also trained by learning and the study of the noblest arts, so to conduct himself in such great power that no other power is desired by those over whom he presides. 23. That famous Cyrus described by Xenophon was written of not for historical accuracy but as an image of just rule, whose supreme gravity is joined by that philosopher with singular courtesy: which books indeed our own Africanus, not without reason, was not in the habit of putting down from his hands; for no duty of a diligent and moderate command is omitted in them. And if he cultivated them thus, who was never going to be a private man, in what way must they be maintained by those to whom command has been given on the condition that they should give it back, and given by those laws to which they must return? 24. And to me indeed it seems that all things ought to be referred to this end by those who preside over others: that those who shall be under their command should be as happy as possible. That this is, and was from the beginning, your highest concern, as soon as you first set foot in Asia, has been celebrated by consistent rumor and by everyone's talk. It is the duty not only of one who governs allies and citizens, but even of one who governs slaves, or dumb cattle, to serve the interests and advantage of those over whom he presides; 25. and of this kind I see all agree that the utmost diligence is applied by you: that no new debt is contracted by the communities, while many have been freed by you from a great and burdensome old one; that several cities, ruined and almost deserted—among them one the most renowned of Ionia, the other of Caria, namely Samos and Halicarnassus—have been restored to life by you; that there are no factions in the towns, no discords; that you provide that the communities be administered by the counsels of the best men; that the brigandage of Mysia has been removed, killings suppressed in many places, peace established throughout the whole province, and that not only those robberies on the roads and in the fields, but many more and greater ones in the towns and shrines, have been driven out; that there has been removed from the good name, the fortunes, and the peace of the wealthy that most bitter handmaid of praetorian avarice, false accusation; that the expenses and tributes of the communities are borne equally by all who dwell within the bounds of those communities; that access to you is most easy, that your ears are open to the complaints of all, that no one's poverty and isolation is shut out, I do not say from that popular approach and the tribunal, but not even from your house and bedchamber; that, in short, in your whole command there is nothing bitter, nothing cruel, and everything full of clemency, gentleness, and humanity. 26. And how great is that benefit of yours, that you freed Asia from the unjust and heavy levy for the aediles, at the cost of great enmities for us! For if a single nobleman openly complains that by your edict, that no moneys should be voted for the games, you have snatched away two hundred thousand sesterces from him, how great a sum of money would have been paid out, if it had been disbursed in the name of all, whoever held games at Rome—which had already become the established practice? Yet we suppressed these complaints of our countrymen by that policy which, in Asia I do not quite know how, but at Rome certainly is praised with no slight admiration: that, when the communities had decreed moneys for a temple and monument in our honor, and when they had done this with the greatest goodwill both on account of my great services and your very great benefits, and the law expressly made an exception that it should be lawful to receive funds for a temple and monument, and when what was being given was not going to perish but would be in the adornments of the temple, so that it would seem given not to me rather than to the Roman people and the immortal gods—nevertheless, that thing, in which there was dignity, was law, was the will of those who offered it, I judged ought not to be accepted, both for other reasons and also so that those to whom it was neither owed nor lawful might bear it with a calmer mind. 27. Wherefore apply yourself with your whole spirit and all your zeal to that policy which you have hitherto pursued: that you should love those whom the senate and people of Rome have committed and entrusted to your good faith and power, that you should protect them by every means and wish them to be as happy as possible. But if the lot had set you over Africans or Spaniards or Gauls—savage and barbarous nations—it would still be the part of your humanity to consult their interests and to serve their advantage and welfare; but when we preside over that race of men in which civilization not only exists but from which it is believed to have passed to others, surely we ought to render it above all to those from whom we have received it. 28. For I shall not now be ashamed to say this—especially in that life and those achievements in which no suspicion of idleness or frivolity can reside—that whatever we have attained, we have attained by means of those studies and arts that have been handed down to us in the monuments and disciplines of Greece. Wherefore, beyond the common good faith which is owed to all, we seem to owe especially to that race of men this: that, among the very people by whose precepts we have been educated, we should be willing to display what we have learned from them. 29. And indeed that Plato, the prince of genius and learning, thought that commonwealths would then at last be happy if either learned and wise men had begun to rule them, or those who ruled had placed all their zeal in learning and wisdom: this union, evidently, of power and wisdom he judged could be the salvation of states; which perhaps has at some time fallen to the lot of our whole commonwealth, but now certainly has befallen that province, that he should hold supreme power in it who from boyhood had devoted the most zeal and time to acquiring learning, virtue, and humanity. 30. Wherefore take care that this year, which has been added to your labor, may be seen to be also a prolongation of welfare to Asia. Since Asia was more fortunate in keeping you than we were in bringing you back, accomplish this: that the joy of the province may soften our longing; for if, in deserving such honors as I scarcely know whether any man ever received, you were the most diligent of all, you ought to apply much greater diligence in maintaining those honors. 31. For my part, what I think about that kind of honors I wrote to you before: I have always thought that, if they were commonplace, they were cheap; if established for the sake of the occasion, they were trivial; but if—as has happened in this case—they were rendered to your merits, I judged that much effort ought to be expended by you in maintaining those honors. Wherefore, since you are engaged in those cities with supreme command and power, in which you see your virtues consecrated and placed in the number of the gods, in all things which you establish, which you decree, which you do, you will consider what you owe to such great opinions of men, to such great judgments about you, to such great honors; and that will be of such a kind that you consult the interests of all, that you remedy the misfortunes of men, that you provide for their welfare, that you wish to be both called and held the parent of Asia. 32. And yet to this resolve and diligence of yours the publicani bring great difficulty: if we oppose them, we shall sever from ourselves and from the commonwealth an order that has deserved excellently of us and has been joined to the commonwealth through us; but if we comply with them in all things, we shall allow the utter ruin of those whose welfare—to say nothing of their interests—we ought to consult. This is the one difficulty, if we are willing to think truly, in your whole command. For to be self-restrained, to keep all desires in check, to control one's own people, to hold an even principle of justice, to show oneself accessible in examining cases and in hearing and admitting men—this is splendid rather than difficult; for it does not lie in any labor but in a certain disposition and willingness of mind. 33. How much bitterness that matter of the publicani brings to the allies we have understood from the citizens who recently, in the abolishing of the customs-duties of Italy, complained not so much of the duty as of certain injuries by the collectors; wherefore I am not ignorant of what happens to the allies in the most distant lands, since I have heard the complaints of citizens in Italy. For you so to conduct yourself here that you both satisfy the publicani—especially when the public contracts have been taken up at a loss—and do not allow the allies to be ruined, seems to be a mark of a certain divine virtue, that is, of yours. And first, to the Greeks, that which is most bitter—that they are subject to tribute—ought not to seem so bitter, for the reason that without the rule of the Roman people they were likewise so, of their own accord, by their own institutions; nor can they spurn the name of the publicanus, since they themselves could not pay the tribute without the publicanus, which Sulla had assessed upon them equally; and that the Greeks are no gentler in exacting tribute than our own publicani can be understood from this: that the Caunians recently, and all the inhabitants of the islands that had been assigned to the Rhodians by Sulla, fled for refuge to the senate, asking that they might pay tribute to us rather than to the Rhodians. Wherefore neither ought those to shudder at the name of publicanus who have always been subject to tribute, nor those to spurn it who could not pay the tribute by themselves, nor those to refuse it who have asked for it. 34. At the same time let Asia also consider this: that no calamity of foreign war or of domestic discord would have been absent from her, if she were not held by this empire; and since that empire can in no way be maintained without tributes, let her with an even mind purchase for herself everlasting peace and tranquility at the price of some part of her produce. 35. But if they will sustain the very kind and name of publicanus without resentment, the rest may be made to seem milder to them by your counsel and prudence: in making their agreements they can look not to the censorial regulation but rather to the convenience of concluding the business and to freedom from trouble; you also can do that which you have done excellently and are still doing: that you recall how great is the dignity in the publicani, how much we owe to that order, so that—removing your command and the force of your power and the fasces—you may join the publicani to the Greeks by goodwill and influence, and may ask of those of whom you have deserved excellently and who owe you everything, that by their compliance they allow us to hold and preserve that bond which we have with the publicani. 36. But why do I urge these things upon you, which you can not only do of your own accord without anyone's precepts but have already in great part accomplished? For the most honorable and greatest companies do not cease daily to give us thanks; which is the more pleasing to me because the Greeks do the same, and it is difficult to join by goodwill those things which are opposite in interests, in advantage, and almost in their very nature. But indeed I have written what is set down above not in order to instruct you—for your prudence requires no one's precepts—but in writing the recollection of your virtue delighted me; although in this letter I have been longer than either I wished or thought I would be. 37. There is one thing on which I shall not cease to give you advice, nor shall I allow you, as far as it is in my power, to be praised with a reservation: for all who come from there speak of your virtue, integrity, and humanity in such a way that, amid your highest praises, they make one exception—your irascibility; which fault, while in this private and everyday life it seems the mark of a light and weak spirit, is yet, when one adds harshness of nature to supreme command, nothing so unsightly. Wherefore I will not undertake to set out to you now what is usually said about anger by the most learned men, since I would not wish to be too long and you can easily learn it from the writings of many; but that which is proper to a letter—that the one to whom it is written be informed of those things which he does not know—I do not think ought to be passed over. 38. Nearly all report to us thus: that nothing can be more agreeable than you when anger is absent, but that, when someone's wickedness and perversity has provoked you, you are so roused in spirit that your humanity is missed by all: wherefore, since not so much a certain desire for glory as the matter itself and fortune has led us into that course of life in which the talk of men about us will be everlasting, let us beware, as much as we can effect and accomplish, that no conspicuous fault be said to have been in us. And I do not now contend for this—which is perhaps difficult both in human nature generally and now at our age—that you change your disposition and suddenly tear out anything deeply implanted in your character; but I admonish you of this: that, if you cannot fully avoid this, because the mind is seized by anger before reason could foresee that it should not be seized, you should prepare yourself beforehand and daily meditate that anger must be resisted, and that, when it most moves the spirit, then your tongue must be most diligently restrained; which virtue indeed sometimes seems to me no less than not being angry at all: for the latter is a mark not only of gravity but sometimes also of sluggishness; but to moderate both spirit and speech when you are angry, or even to be silent and to hold in your own power the motion of your mind and your indignation, although it is not the mark of perfect wisdom, is yet a mark of no ordinary character. 39. And in this respect they report that you are now much more accommodating and milder: no more violent agitations of your spirit, no abusive words, no insults are reported to us, which, while they are repugnant to culture and humanity, are indeed contrary to command and dignity; for if angers are implacable, it is the height of harshness; but if easily appeased, the height of frivolity—which, however, as a choice of evils, is to be preferred to harshness. 40. But since the first year gave rise to the most talk about this reproach—I believe because the injuries of men, the avarice, the insolence befell you beyond expectation and seemed unbearable—while the second was much milder, because both habit and reason and, as I think, my letters too made you more patient and gentler, the third year ought to be so amended that no one can find fault with even the smallest thing. 41. And here I deal with you now not by exhortation nor by precepts but by brotherly entreaties, that you place your whole spirit, care, and thought in gathering praise from every quarter. For if our affairs stood at a moderate level of talk and renown, nothing extraordinary, nothing beyond the common practice of others would be demanded of you; but as it is, because of the splendor and magnitude of those things in which we have been engaged, unless we obtain the highest praise from that province, we scarcely seem able to avoid the highest blame. Our situation is such that all good men, while they favor us, also both demand and expect from us every diligence and virtue, while all the wicked, because we have undertaken everlasting war with them, seem content with even the slightest pretext for finding fault: 42. wherefore, since such a theater of all Asia has been given to your virtues—most crowded in attendance, most ample in size, most refined in judgment, and by nature so resonant that the expressions and voices are carried all the way to Rome—strive, I beg, and labor, that you may seem not only to have been worthy of these things, but even to have surpassed all those things by your accomplishments. 43. And since chance has given me the urban administration of the commonwealth among the magistracies, and to you the provincial, if my part yields to no one's, make your part surpass all others. At the same time consider this also: that we now labor not over a remaining and hoped-for glory, but contend over one already won, which indeed was not so much to be sought by us as it now is to be guarded. And if anything of mine could be separate from you, I would desire nothing more than this position which has already been won for me; but as it is, the matter so stands that, unless all your deeds and words there correspond to our affairs, I shall think that I have gained nothing by my great labors and great dangers, of all of which you were a partner. But if you, beyond all others, helped me to attain a most ample reputation, surely you will likewise, beyond all others, labor that we may retain it. You must rely not only on the opinions and judgments of those men who exist now, but also on those who will exist in the future; although their judgment will be truer, freed from disparagement and ill will. 44. Finally, you ought also to consider this: that you are not seeking glory for yourself alone—which, even if it were so, you still ought not to neglect, especially since you had wished to consecrate the memory of your name with the most ample monuments—but that it must be shared by you with me and handed on to our children; in which we must take care lest, if you are too careless, you seem not only to have consulted too little for yourself, but even to have begrudged your own family. 45. And these things are said not so that my speech may seem to have roused you from sleep, but rather to have spurred you on as you run; for you will do perpetually what you have done, so that all may praise your fairness, your temperance, your severity, and your integrity. But a certain boundless greed for glory on your behalf holds me, because of my singular love; although I think that, since Asia ought now to be as well known to you as his own house is to each man, and since to your supreme prudence such great experience has now been added, there is nothing pertaining to praise which you do not perceive most excellently and which does not occur to your mind daily without anyone's exhortation. But I, because when I read your writings I seem to hear you, and because when I write to you I seem to be talking with you, am therefore most delighted by your every longest letter, and in writing I am myself often longer. 46. This at the last I both beg and exhort: that, as good poets and diligent actors are wont to do, so you in the final part and conclusion of your office and business may be most diligent, so that this third year of your command, like a third act, may seem to have been the most perfectly finished and the most adorned: this you will do most easily if you think that I, whom you have always wished to please more than the whole world, am always with you and present at all those things which you say and do. It remains for me to beg you that, if you wish me and all your family to be well, you guard your health most diligently. Farewell.

Though I have no doubt that many messengers, and even common rumour, with its usual speed, will anticipate this letter, and that you will already have heard from others that a third year has been added to my loss and your labour, yet I thought you ought to receive from me also the news of this tiresome circumstance. For not in one, but in several of my previous letters, in spite of others having given up the idea in despair, I gave you hope of being able at an early date to quit your province, not only that I might as long as possible cheer you with a pleasurable belief, but also because I and the praetors took such pains in the matter, that I felt no misgiving as to the possibility of its being arranged. As it is, since matters have so turned out that neither the praetors by the weight of their influence, nor I by my earnest efforts, have been able to prevail, it is certainly difficult not to be annoyed, yet our minds, practised as they are in conducting and supporting business of the utmost gravity, ought not to be crushed or weakened by vexation. And since men ought to feel most vexed at what has been brought upon them by their own fault, it is I who ought in this matter to be more vexed than you. For it is the result of a fault on my part, against which you had protested both in conversation at the moment of your departure, and in letters since, that your successor was not named last year. In this, while consulting for the interests of our allies, and resisting the shameless conduct of some merchants, and while seeking the increase of our reputation by your virtues, I acted unwisely, especially as I made it possible for that second year to entail a third. And as I confess the mistake to have been mine, it lies with your wisdom and kindness to remedy it, and to see that my imprudence is turned to advantage by your careful performance of your duties. And truly, if you exert yourself in every direction to earn men's good word, not with a view to rival others, but henceforth to surpass yourself, if you rouse your whole mind and your every thought and care to the ambition of gaining a superior reputation in all respects, believe me, one year added to your labour will bring us, nay, our posterity also, a joy of many years' duration. Wherefore I begin by entreating you not to let your soul shrink and be cast down, nor to allow yourself to be overpowered by the magnitude of the business as though by a wave; but, on the contrary, to stand upright and keep your footing, or even advance to meet the flood of affairs. For you are not administering a department of the state, in which fortune reigns supreme, but one in which a well-considered policy and an attention to business are the most important things. But if I had seen you receiving the prolongation of a command in a great and dangerous war, I should have trembled in spirit, because I should have known that the dominion of fortune over us had been at the same time prolonged. As it is, however, a department of the state has been entrusted to you in which fortune occupies no part, or, at any rate, an insignificant one, and which appears to me to depend entirely on your virtue and self-control. We have no reason to fear, as far as I know, any designs of our enemies, any actual fighting in the field, any revolts of allies, any default in the tribute or in the supply of corn, any mutiny in the army: things which have very often befallen the wisest of men in such a way, that they have been no more able to get the better of the assault of fortune than the best of pilots a violent tempest. You have been granted profound peace, a dead calm: yet if the pilot falls asleep, it may even so overwhelm him, though if he keeps awake it may give him positive pleasure. For your province consists, in the first place, of allies of a race which; of all the world, is the most civilized; and, in the second place, of Citizens, who, either as being publicani are very closely connected with me, or, as being traders who have made money, think that they owe the security of their property to my consulship. But it may be said that among even such men as these there occur serious disputes, many wrongful acts are committed, and hotly contested litigation is the result. As though I ever thought that you had no trouble to contend with! I know that the trouble is exceedingly great, and such as demands the very greatest prudence; but remember that it is prudence much more than fortune on which, in my opinion, the result of your trouble depends. For what trouble is it to govern those over whom you are set, if you do but govern yourself? That may be a great and difficult task to others, and indeed it is most difficult: to you it has always been the easiest thing in the world, and indeed ought to be so, for your natural disposition is such that, even without discipline, it appears capable of self-control; whereas a discipline has, in fact, been applied that might educate the most faulty of characters. But while you resist, as you do, money, pleasure, and every kind of desire yourself, there will, I am to be told, be a risk of your not being able to suppress some fraudulent banker or some rather over-extortionate tax-collector! For as to the Greeks, they will think, as they behold the innocence of your life, that one of the heroes of their history, or a demigod from heaven, has come down into the province. And this I say, not to induce you to act thus, but to make you glad that you are acting or have acted so. It is a splendid thing to have been three years in supreme power in Asia without allowing statue, picture, plate, napery, slave, anyone's good looks, or any offer of money--all of which are plentiful in your province--to cause you to swerve from the most absolute honesty and purity of life. What can be imagined so striking or so desirable as that a virtue, a command over the passions, a self-control such as yours, are not remaining in darkness and obscurity, but have been set in the broad daylight of Asia, before the eyes of a famous province, and in the hearing of all nations and peoples? That the inhabitants are not being ruined by your progresses, drained by your charges, agitated by your approach? That there is the liveliest joy, public and private, wheresoever you come, the city regarding you as a protector and not a tyrant, the private house as a guest and not a plunderer? But in these matters I am sure that mere experience has by this time taught you that it is by no means sufficient to have these virtues yourself, but that you must keep your eyes open and vigilant, in order that in the guardianship of your province you may be considered to vouch to the allies, the citizens, and the state, not for yourself alone, but for all the subordinates of your government. However, you have in the persons of your legati men likely to have a regard for their own reputation. Of these in rank, position, and age Tubero is first; who, I think, particularly as he is a writer of history, could select from his own Annals many whom he would like and would be able to imitate. Allienus, again, is ours, as well in heart and affection, as in his conformity to our principles. I need not speak of Gratidius: I am sure that, while taking pains to preserve his own reputation, his fraternal affection for us makes him take pains for ours also. Your quaestor is not of your own selection, but the one assigned you by lot. He is bound both to act with propriety of his own accord, and to conform to the policy and principles which you lay down. But should any one of these adopt a lower standard of conduct, you should tolerate such behaviour, if it goes no farther than a breach, in his private capacity, of the rules by which he was bound, but not if it goes to the extent of employing for gain the authority which you granted him as a promotion. For I am far from thinking, especially since the moral sentiments of the day are so much inclined to excessive laxity and self-seeking, that you should investigate every case of petty misconduct, and thoroughly examine every one of these persons; but that you should regulate your confidence by the trustworthiness of its recipient. And among such persons you will have to vouch for those whom the Republic has itself given you as companions and assistants in public affairs, at least within the limits which I have before laid down. In the case, however, of those of your personal staff or official attendants whom you have yourself selected to be about you--who are usually spoken of as a kind of praetor's cohort--we must vouch, not only for their acts, but even for their words. But those you have with you are the sort of men of whom you may easily be fond when they are acting rightly, and whom you may very easily check when they show insufficient regard for your reputation. By these, when you were raw to the work, your frank disposition might possibly have been deceived--for the better a man is the less easily does he suspect others of being bad--now, however, let this third year witness an integrity as perfect as the two former, but still more wary and vigilant. Listen to that only which you are supposed to listen to; don't let your ears be open to whispered falsehoods and interested suggestions. Don't let your signet ring be a mere implement, but, as it were, your second self: not the minister of another's will, but a witness of your own. Let your marshal hold the rank which our ancestors wished him to hold, who, looking upon this place as not one of profit, but of labour and duty, scarcely ever conferred it upon any but their freedmen, whom they indeed controlled almost as absolutely as their slaves. Let the lictor be the dispenser of your clemency, not his own; and let the fasces and axes which they carry before you constitute ensigns rather of rank than of power. Let it, in fact, be known to the whole province that the life, children, fame, and fortunes of all over whom you preside are exceedingly dear to you. Finally, let it be believed that you will, if you detect it, be hostile not only to those who have accepted a bribe, but to those also who have given it. And, indeed, no one will give anything, if it is made quite clear that nothing is usually obtained from you through those who pretend to be very influential with you. Not, however, that the object of this discourse is to make you over-harsh or suspicious towards your staff. For if any of them in the course of the last two years has never fallen under suspicion of rapacity, as I am told about Caesius and Chaerippus and Labeo--and think it true, because I know them--there is no authority, I think, which may not be entrusted to them, and no confidence which may not be placed in them with the utmost propriety, and in anyone else like them. But if there is anyone of whom you have already had reason to doubt, or concerning whom you have made some discovery, in such a man place no confidence, intrust him with no particle of your reputation. If, however, you have found in the province itself anyone, hitherto unknown to us, who has made his way into intimacy with you, take care how much confidence you repose in him; not that there may not be many good provincials, but, though we may hope so, it is risky to be positive. For everyone's real character is covered by many wrappings of pretence and is concealed by a kind of veil: face, eyes, expression very often lie, speech most often of all. Wherefore, how can you expect to find in that class any who, while foregoing for the sake of money all from which we can scarcely tear ourselves away, will yet love you sincerely and not merely pretend to do so from interested motives? I think, indeed, it is a hard task to find such men, especially if we notice that the same persons care nothing for almost any man out of office, yet always with one consent show affection for the praetors. But of this class, if by chance you have discovered any one to be fonder of you--for it may so happen--than of your office, such a man indeed gladly admit upon your list of friends: but if you fail to perceive that, there is no Class of people you must be more on your guard against admitting to intimacy, just because they are acquainted with all the ways of making money, do everything for the sake of it, and have no consideration for the reputation of a man with whom they are not destined to pass their lives. And even among the Greeks themselves you must be on your guard against admitting close intimacies, except in the case of the very few, if such are to be found, who are worthy of ancient Greece. As things now stand, indeed, too many of them are untrustworthy, false, and schooled by long servitude in the arts of extravagant adulation. My advice is that these men should all be entertained with courtesy, but that close ties of hospitality or friendship should only be formed with the best of them: excessive intimacies with them are not very trustworthy--for they do not venture to oppose our wishes--and they are not only jealous of our countrymen, but of their own as well. And now, considering the caution and care that I would show in matters of this kind--in which I fear I may be somewhat over-severe--what do you suppose my sentiments are in regard to slaves? Upon these we ought to keep a hold in all places, but especially in the provinces. On this head many rules may be laid down, but this is at once the shortest and most easily maintained--that they should behave during your progresses in Asia as though you were travelling on the Appian way, and not suppose that it makes any difference whether they have arrived at Tralles or Formiae. But if, again, any one of your slaves is conspicuously trustworthy, employ him in your domestic and private affairs; but in affairs pertaining to your office as governor, or in any department of the state, do not let him lay a finger. For many things which may, with perfect propriety, be in-trusted to slaves, must yet not be so entrusted, for the sake of avoiding talk and hostile remark. But my discourse, I know not how, has slipped into the didactic vein, though that is not what I proposed to myself originally. For what right have I to be laying down rules for one who, I am fully aware, in this subject especially, is not my inferior in wisdom, while in experience he is even my superior? Yet, after all, if your actions had the additional weight of my approval, I thought that they would seem more satisfactory to yourself. Wherefore, let these be the foundations on which your public character rests: first and foremost your own honesty and self-control, then the scrupulous conduct of all your staff, the exceedingly cautious and careful selection in regard to intimacies with provincials and Greeks, the strict and unbending government of your slaves. These are creditable even in the conduct of our private and everyday business: in such an important government, where morals are so debased and the province has such a corrupting influence, they must needs seem divine. Such principles and conduct on your part are sufficient to justify the strictness which you have displayed in some acts of administration, owing to which I have encountered certain personal disputes with great satisfaction, unless, indeed, you suppose me to be annoyed by the complaints of a fellow like Paconius--who is not even a Greek, but in reality a Mysian or Phrygian--or by the words of Tuscenius, a madman and a knave, from whose abominable jaws you snatched the fruits of a most infamous piece of extortion with the most complete justice. These and similar instances of your strict administration in your province we shall find difficulty in justifying, unless they are accompanied by the most perfect integrity: wherefore let there be the greatest strictness in your administration of justice, provided only that it is never varied from favour, but is kept up with impartiality. But it is of little avail that justice is administered by yourself with impartiality and care, unless the same is done by those to whom you have entrusted any portion of this duty. And, indeed, in my view there is no very great variety of business in the government of Asia: the entire province mainly depends on the administration of justice. In it we have the whole theory of government, especially of provincial government, clearly displayed: all that a governor has to do is to show consistency and firmness enough, not only to resist favouritism, but even the suspicion of it. To this also must be added courtesy in listening to pleaders, consideration in pronouncing a decision, and painstaking efforts to convince suitors of its justice, and to answer their arguments. It is by such habits that C. Octavius has recently made himself very popular; in whose court, for the first time, the lictor did not interfere, and the marshal kept silence, while every suitor spoke as often and as long as he chose. In which conduct he would perhaps have been thought over-lax, had it not been that this laxity enabled him to maintain the following in stance of severity. The partisans of Sulla were forced to restore what they had taken by violence and terrorism. Those who had made inequitable decrees, while in office, were now as private citizens forced to submit to the principles they had established. This strictness on his part would have been thought harsh, had it not been rendered palatable by many sweetening influences of courtesy. But if this gentleness was sufficient to make him popular at Rome, where there is such haughtiness of spirit, such unrestrained liberty, such unlimited licence of individuals, and, in fine, so many magistrates, so many means of obtaining protection, such vast power in the hands of the popular assembly, and such influence exercised by the senate, how welcome must a praetor's courtesy be in Asia, in which there is such a numerous body of citizens and allies, so many cities, so many communities, all hanging on one man's nod, and in which there are no means of protection, no one to whom to make a complaint, no senate, no popular assembly! Wherefore it requires an exalted character, a man who is not only equitable from natural impulse, but who has also been trained by study and the refinements of a liberal education, so to conduct himself while in the possession of such immense power, that those over whom he rules should not feel the want of any other power. Take the case of the famous Cyrus, portrayed by Xenophon, not as an historical character, but as a model of righteous government, the serious dignity of whose character is represented by that philosopher as combined with a peculiar courtesy. And, indeed, it is not without reason that our hero Africanus used perpetually to have those books in his hands, for there is no duty pertaining to a careful and equitable governor which is not to be found in them. Well, if he cultivated those qualities, though never destined to be in a private station, how carefully ought those to maintain them to whom power is given with the understanding that it must be surrendered, and given by laws under whose authority they must once more come? In my opinion all who govern others are bound to regard as the object of all their actions the greatest happiness of the governed. That this is your highest object, and has been so since you first landed in Asia, has been published abroad by Consistent rumour and the conversation of all. It is, let me add, not only the duty of one who governs allies and citizens, but even of one who governs slaves and dumb animals, to serve the interests and advantage of those under him. In this point I notice that everyone agrees that you take the greatest pains: no new debt is being contracted by the states, while many have been relieved by you from a heavy and long-standing one. Several cities that had become dilapidated and almost deserted--of which one was the most famous state in Ionia, the other in Caria, Samus and Halicarnassus--have been given a new life by you: there is no party fighting, no civil strife in the towns: you take care that the government of the states is administered by the best class of citizens: brigandage is abolished in Mysia; murder suppressed in many districts; peace is established throughout the province; and not only the robberies usual on highways and in country places, but those more numerous and more serious ones in towns and temples, have been completely stopped: the fame, fortunes, and repose of the rich have been relieved of that most oppressive instrument of praetorial rapacity-vexatious prosecution; the expenses and tribute of the states are made to fall with equal weight on all who live in the territories of those states: access to you is as easy as possible: your ears are open to the complaints of all: no man's want of means or want of friends excludes him, I don't say from access to you in public and on the tribunal, but -even from your house and chamber: in a word, throughout your government there is no harshness or cruelty-everywhere clemency, mildness, and kindness reign supreme. What an immense benefit, again, have you done in having liberated Asia from the tribute exacted by the aediles, a measure which cost me some violent controversies! For if one of our nobles complains openly that by your edict, "No moneys shall be voted for the games," you have robbed him of 200 sestertia, what a vast sum of money would have been paid, had a grant been made to the Credit of every magistrate who held games, as had become the regular custom! However, I stopped these Complaints by taking up this position--what they think of it in Asia I don't know, in Rome it meets with no little approval and praise--I refused to accept a sum of money which the states had decreed for a temple and monument in our honour, though they had done so with the greatest enthusiasm in view both of my services and of your most valuable benefactions; and though the law contained a special and distinct exception in these words, "that it was lawful to receive for temple or monument"; and though again the money was not going to be thrown away, but would be employed on decorating a temple, and would thus appear to have been given to the Roman people and gift in its favour, I determined that I must not accept it, for the immortal Gods rather than to myself--yet, in spite of its having desert, law, and the wishes of those who offered the this reason among others, namely, to prevent those, to whom such an honour was neither due nor legal, from being jealous. Wherefore adhere with all your heart and soul to the policy which you have hitherto adopted--that of being devoted to those whom the senate and people of Rome have committed and entrusted to your honour and authority, of doing your best to protect them, and of desiring their greatest happiness. Even if the lot had made you governor of Africans, or Spaniards, or Gauls--uncivilized and barbarous nations--it would still have been your duty as a man of feeling to consult for their interests and advantage, and to have contributed to their safety. But when we rule over a race of men in which civilization not only exists, but from which it is believed to have spread to others, we are bound to repay them, above all things, what we received from them. For I shall not be ashamed to go so far--especially as my life and achievements have been such as to exclude any suspicion of sloth or frivolity--as to confess that, whatever I have accomplished, I have accomplished by means of those studies and principles which have been transmitted to us in Greek literature and schools of thought. Wherefore, over and above the general good faith which is due to all men, I think we are in a special sense under an obligation to that nation, to put in practice what it has taught us among the very men by whose maxims we have been brought out of barbarism. And indeed Plato, the fountain-head of genius and learning, thought that states would only be happy when scholars and philosophers began being their rulers, or when those who were their rulers had devoted all their attention to learning and philosophy. It was plainly this union of power and philosophy that in his opinion might prove the salvation of states. And this perhaps has at length fallen to the fortune of the whole empire: certainly it has in the present instance to your province, to have a man in supreme power in it, who has from boyhood spent the chief part of his zeal and time in imbibing the principles of philosophy, virtue, and humanity. Wherefore be careful that this third year, which has been added to your labour, may be thought a prolongation of prosperity to Asia. And since Asia was more fortunate in retaining you than I was in my endeavour to bring you back, see that my regret is softened by the exultation of the province. For if you have displayed the very greatest activity in earning honours such as, I think, have never been paid to anyone else, much greater ought your activity to be in preserving these honours. What I for my part think of honours of that kind I have told you in previous letters. I have always regarded them, if given indiscriminately, as of little value, if paid from interested motives, as worthless: if, however, as in this case, they are tributes to solid services on your part, I hold you bound to take much pains in preserving them. Since, then, you are exercising supreme power and official authority in cities, in which you have before your eyes the consecration and apotheosis of your virtues, in all decisions, decrees, and official acts consider what you owe to those warm opinions entertained of you, to those verdicts on your character, to those honours which have been rendered you. And what you owe will be to consult for the interests of all, to remedy men's misfortunes, to provide for their safety, to resolve that you will be both called and believed to be the "father of Asia." However, to such a resolution and deliberate policy on your part the great obstacle are the publicani: for, if we oppose them, we shall alienate from ourselves and from the Republic an order which has done us most excellent service, and which has been brought into sympathy with the Republic by our means; if, on the other hand, we comply with them in every case, we shall allow the complete ruin of those whose interests, to say nothing of their preservation, we are bound to consult. This is the one difficulty, if we look the thing fairly in the face, in your whole government. For disinterested conduct on one's own part, the suppression of all inordinate desires, the keeping a check upon one's staff, courtesy in hearing causes, in listening to and admitting suitor--all this is rather a question of credit than of difficulty: for it does not depend on any special exertion, but rather on a mental resolve and inclination. But how much bitterness of feeling is caused to allies by that question of the publicani we have had reason to know in the case of citizens who, when recently urging the removal of the port-dues in Italy, did not complain so much of the dues themselves, as of certain extortionate conduct on the part of the collectors. Wherefore, after hearing the grievances of citizens in Italy, I can comprehend what happens to allies in distant lands. To conduct oneself in this matter in such a way as to satisfy the publicani especially when contracts have been undertaken at a loss, and yet to preserve the allies from ruin, seems to demand a virtue with something divine in it, I mean a virtue like yours. To begin with, that they are subject to tax at all, which is their greatest grievance, ought not to be thought so by the Greeks, because they were so subject by their own laws without the Roman government. Again, they cannot despise the word publicanus, for they have been unable to pay the assessment according to Sulla's poll-tax without the aid of the publican. But that Greek publicani are not more considerate in exacting the payment of taxes than our own may be gathered from the fact that the Caunii, and all the islands assigned to the Rhodians by Sulla, recently appealed to the protection of the senate, and petitioned to be allowed to pay their tax to us rather than to the Rhodians. Wherefore neither ought those to revolt at the name of a publicanus who have always been subject to tax, nor those to despise it who have been unable to make up the tribute by themselves, nor those to refuse his services who have asked for them. At the same time let Asia reflect on this, that if she were not under our government, there is no calamity of foreign war or internal strife from which she would be free. And since that government cannot possibly be maintained without taxes, she should be content to purchase perpetual peace and tranquillity at the price of a certain proportion of her products. But if they will fairly reconcile themselves to the existence and name of publican, all the rest may be made to appear to them in a less offensive light by your skill and prudence. They may, in making their bargains with the publicani, not have regard so much to the exact conditions laid down by the censors as to the convenience of settling the business and freeing themselves from farther trouble. You also may do, what you have done splendidly and are still doing, namely, dwell on the high position of the publicani, and on your obligations to that order, in such a way as--putting out of the question all considerations of your imperium and the power of your official authority and dignity--to reconcile the Greeks with the publicani; and to beg of those, whom you have served eminently well, and who owe you everything, to suffer you by their compliance to maintain and preserve the bonds which unite us with the publicani. But why do I address these exhortations to you, who are not only capable of carrying them out of your own accord without anyone's instruction, but have already to a great extent thoroughly done so? For the most respectable and important companies do not cease offering me thanks daily, and this is all the more gratifying to me because the Greeks do the same. Now it is an achievement of great difficulty to unite in feeling things which are opposite in interests, aims, and, I had almost said, in their very nature. But I have not written all this to instruct you--for your wisdom requires no man's instruction--but it has been a pleasure to me while writing to set down your virtues, though I have run to greater length in this letter than I could have wished, or than I thought I should. There is one thing on which I shall not cease from giving you advice, nor will I, as far as in me lies, allow your praise to be spoken of with a reservation. For all who come from your province do make one reservation in the extremely high praise which they bestow on your virtue, integrity, and kindness--it is that of sharpness of temper. That is a fault which, even in our private and everyday life, seems to indicate want of solidity and strength of mind; but nothing, surely, can be more improper than to combine harshness of temper with the exercise of supreme power. Wherefore I will not undertake to lay before you now what the greatest philosophers say about anger, for I should not wish to be tedious, and you can easily ascertain it yourself from the writings of many of them: but I don't think I ought to pass over what is the essence of a letter, namely, that the recipient should be informed of what he does not know. Well, what nearly everybody reports to me is this: they usually say that, as long as you are not out of temper, nothing can be pleasanter than you are, but that when some instance of dishonesty or wrong-headedness has stirred you, your temper rises to such a height that no one can discover any trace of your usual kindness. Wherefore, since no mere desire for glory, but circumstances and fortune have brought us upon a path of life which makes it inevitable that men will always talk about us, let us be on our guard, to the utmost of our means and ability, that no glaring fault may be alleged to have existed in us. And I am not now urging, what is perhaps difficult in human nature generally, and at our time of life especially, that you should change your disposition and suddenly pluck out a deeply-rooted habit, but I give you this hint: if you cannot completely avoid this failing, because your mind is surprised by anger before cool calculation has been able to prevent it, deliberately prepare yourself beforehand, and daily reflect on the duty of resisting anger, and that, when it moves your heart most violently, it is just the time for being most careful to restrain your tongue. And that sometimes seems to me to be a greater virtue than not being angry at all. For the latter is not always a mark of superiority to weakness, it is sometimes the result of dullness; but to govern temper and speech, however angry you may be, or even to hold your tongue and keep your indignant feelings and resentment under control, although it may not be a proof of perfect wisdom, yet requires no ordinary force of character. And, indeed, in this respect they tell me that you are now much more gentle and less irritable. No violent outbursts of indignation on your part, no abusive words, no insulting language are reported to me: which, while quite alien to culture and refinement, are specially unsuited to high power and place. For if your anger is implacable, it amounts to extreme harshness; if easily appeased, to extreme weakness. The latter, however, as a choice of evils, is, after all, preferable to harshness. But since your first year gave rise to most talk in regard to this particular complaint--I believe because the wrong-doing, the covetousness, and the arrogance of men came upon you as a surprise, and seemed to you unbearable-while your second year was much milder, because habit and refection, and, as I think, my letters also, rendered you more tolerant and gentle, the third ought to be so completely reformed, as not to give even the smallest ground for anyone to find fault. And here I go on to urge upon you, not by way of exhortation or admonition, but by brotherly entreaties, that you would set your whole heart, care, and thought on the gaining of praise from everybody and from every quarter. If, indeed, our achievements were only the subject of a moderate amount of talk and commendation, nothing eminent, nothing beyond the practice of others, would have been demanded of you. As it is, however, owing to the brilliancy and magnitude of the affairs in which we have been engaged, if we do not obtain the very highest reputation from your province, it seems scarcely possible for us to avoid the most violent abuse. Our position is such that all loyalists support us, but demand also and expect from us every kind of activity and virtue, while all the disloyal, seeing that we have entered upon a lasting war with them, appear contented with the very smallest excuse for attacking us. Wherefore, since fortune has allotted to you such a theatre as Asia, completely packed with an audience, of immense size, of the most refined judgment, and, moreover, naturally so capable of conveying sound, that its expressions of opinion and its remarks reach Rome, put out all your power, I beseech you, exert all your energies to appear not only to have been worthy of the part we played here, but to have surpassed everything done there by your high qualities. And since chance has assigned to me among the magistracies the conduct of public business in the city, to you that in a province, if my share is inferior to no one's, take care that yours surpasses others. At the same time think of this: we are not now working for a future and prospective glory, but are fighting in defence of what has been already gained; which indeed it was not so much an object to gain as it is now our duty to defend. And if anything in me could be apart from you, I should desire nothing more than the position which I have already gained. The actual fact, however, is that unless all your acts and deeds in your province correspond to my achievements, I shall think that I have gained nothing by those great labours and dangers, in all of which you have shared. But if it was you who, above all others, assisted me to gain a most splendid reputation, you will certainly also labour more than others to enable me to retain it. You must not be guided by the opinions and judgments of the present generation only, but of those to come also: and yet the latter will be a more candid judgment, for it will not be influenced by detraction and malice. Finally, you should think of this--that you are not seeking glory for yourself alone (and even if that were the case, you still ought not to be careless of it, especially as you had determined to consecrate the memory of your name by the most splendid monuments), but you have to share it with me, and to hand it down to our children. In regard to which you must be on your guard lest by any excess of carelessness you should seem not only to have neglected your own interests, but to have begrudged those of your family also. And these observations are not made with the idea of any speech of mine appearing to have roused you from your sleep, but to have rather "added speed to the runner". For you will continue to compel all in the future, as you have compelled them in the past, to praise your equity, self-control, strictness, and honesty. But from my extreme affection I am possessed with a certain insatiable greed for glory for you. However, I am convinced that, as Asia should now be as well-known to you as each man's own house is to himself, and since to your supreme good sense such great experience has now been added, there is nothing that affects reputation which you do not know as well as possible yourself, and which does not daily occur to your mind without anybody's exhortation. But I, who when I read your writing seem to hear your voice, and when I write to you seem to be talking to you, am therefore always best pleased with your longest letter, and in writing am often somewhat prolix myself. My last prayer and advice to you is that, as good poets and painstaking actors always do, so you should be most attentive in the last scenes and conclusion of your function and business, so that this third year of your government, like a third act in a play, may appear to have been the most elaborated and most highly finished. You will do that with more ease if you will think that I, whom you always wished to please more than all the world besides, am always at your side, and am taking part in everything you say and do. It remains only to beg you to take the greatest care of your health, if you wish me and all your friends to be well also. Farewell.

I. Scr. Romae a. u. c. 694. MARCUS QUINTO FRATRI SAL. I. 1. Etsi non dubitabam, quin hanc epistulam multi nuntii, fama denique esset ipsa sua celeritate superatura tuque ante ab aliis auditurus esses annum tertium accessisse desiderio nostro et labori tuo, tamen existimavi a me quoque tibi huius molestiae nuntium perferri oportere: nam superioribus litteris, non unis, sed pluribus, cum iam ab aliis desperata res esset, tamen tibi ego spem maturae decessionis afferebam, non solum ut quam diutissime te iucunda opinione oblectarem, sed etiam quia tanta adhibebatur et a nobis et a praetoribus contentio, ut rem posse confici non diffiderem; 2. nunc, quoniam ita accidit, ut neque praetores suis opibus neque nos nostro studio quidquam proficere possemus, est omnino difficile non graviter id ferre, sed tamen nostros animos maximis in rebus et gerendis et sustinendis exercitatos frangi et debilitari molestia non oportet. Et, quoniam ea molestissime ferre homines debent, quae ipsorum culpa contracta sunt, est quiddam in hac re mihi molestius ferendum quam tibi: factum est enim mea culpa, contra quam tu mecum et proficiscens et per litteras egeras, ut priore anno non succederetur; quod ego, dum saluti sociorum consulo, dum impudentiae nonnullorum negotiatorum resisto, dum nostram gloriam tua virtute augeri expeto, feci non sapienter, praesertim cum id commiserim, ut ille alter annus etiam tertium posset adducere. 3. Quod quoniam peccatum meum esse confiteor, est sapientiae atque humanitatis tuae curare et perficere, ut hoc minus sapienter a me provisum diligentia tua corrigatur. Ac, si te ipse vehementius ad omnes partes bene audiendi excitaris, non ut cum aliis, sed ut tecum iam ipse certes, si omnem tuam mentem, curam, cogitationem ad excellentis in omnibus rebus laudis cupiditatem incitaris, mihi crede, unus annus additus labori tuo multorum annorum laetitiam nobis, immo vero etiam posteris nostris afferet. 4. Quapropter hoc te primum rogo, ne contrahas aut demittas animum neve te obrui, tamquam fluctu, sic magnitudine negotii sinas, contraque te erigas ac resistas sive etiam ultro occuras negotiis; neque enim eiusmodi partem rei publicae geris, in qua fortuna dominetur, sed in qua plurimum ratio possit et diligentia. Quod si tibi bellum aliquod magnum et periculosum administranti prorogatum imperium viderem, tremerem animo, quod eodem tempore esse intelligerem etiam fortunae potestatem in nos prorogatam: 5. nunc vero ea pars tibi rei publicae commissa est, in qua aut nullam aut perexiguam partem fortuna teneat et quae mihi tota in tua virtute ac moderatione animi posita esse videatur. Nullas, ut opinor, insidias hostium, nullam proelii dimicationem, nullam defectionem sociorum, nullam inopiam stipendii aut rei frumentariae, nullam seditionem exercitus pertimescimus; quae persaepe sapientissimis viris acciderunt, ut, quemadmodum gubernatores optimi vim tempestatis, sic illi fortunae impetum superare non possent. Tibi data est summa pax, summa tranquillitas, ita tamen, ut ea dormientem gubernatorem vel obruere, vigilantem etiam delectare possit; 6. constat enim ea provincia primum ex eo genere sociorum, quod est ex hominum omni genere humanissimum, deinde ex eo genere civium, qui aut, quod publicani sunt, nos summa necessitudine attingunt aut, quod ita negotiantur, ut locupletes sint, nostri consulatus beneficio se incolumes fortunas habere arbitrantur. II. 7. "At enim inter hos ipsos existunt graves controversiae, multae nascuntur iniuriae, magnae contentiones consequuntur."—Quasi vero ego id putem, non te aliquantum negotii sustinere. Intelligo permagnum esse negotium et maximi consilii, sed memento consilii me hoc negotium esse magis aliquanto quam fortunae putare; quid est enim negotii continere eos, quibus praesis, si te ipse contineas? id autem sit magnum et difficile ceteris, sicut est difficillimum: tibi et fuit hoc semper facillimum et vero esse debuit, cuius natura talis est, ut etiam sine doctrina videatur moderata esse potuisse, ea autem adhibita doctrina est, quae vel vitiosissimam naturam excolere possit. Tu cum pecuniae, cum voluptatis, cum omnium rerum cupiditati resistes, ut facis, erit, credo, periculum, ne improbum negotiatorem, paullo cupidiorem publicanum comprimere non possis! nam Graeci quidem sic te ita viventem intuebuntur, ut quendam ex annalium memoria aut etiam de caelo divinum hominem esse in provinciam delapsum putent. 8. Atque haec nunc non ut facias, sed ut te et facere et fecisse gaudeas scribo; praeclarum est enim summo cum imperio fuisse in Asia triennium sic, ut nullum te signum, nulla pictura, nullum vas, nulla vestis, nullum mancipium, nulla forma cuiusquam, nulla condicio pecuniae, quibus rebus abundat ista provincia, ab summa integritate continentiaque deduxerit; 9. quid autem reperiri tam eximium aut tam expetendum potest, quam istam virtutem, moderationem animi, temperantiam non latere in tenebris neque esse abditam, sed in luce Asiae, in oculis clarissimae provinciae atque in auribus omnium gentium ac nationum esse positam? non itineribus tuis perterreri homines, non sumptu exhauriri, non adventu commoveri? esse, quocumque veneris, et publice et privatim maximam laetitiam, cum urbs custodem, non tyrannum, domus hospitem, non expilatorem recepisse videatur? III. 10. His autem in rebus iam te usus ipse profecto erudivit nequaquam satis esse ipsum has te habere virtutes, sed esse circumspiciendum diligenter, ut in hac custodia provinciae non te unum, sed omnes ministros imperii tui sociis et civibus et rei publicae praestare videare. Quamquam legatos habes eos, qui ipsi per se habituri sint rationem dignitatis suae, de quibus honore et dignitate et aetate praestat Tubero, quem ego arbitror, praesertim cum scribat historiam, multos ex suis annalibus posse deligere, quos velit et possit imitari, Allienus autem noster est cum animo et benevolentia, tum vero etiam imitatione vivendi; nam quid ego de Gratidio dicam? quem certe scio ita laborare de existimatione sua, ut propter amorem in nos fraternum etiam de nostra laboret. 11. Quaestorem habes non tuo iudicio delectum, sed eum, quem sors dedit: hunc oportet et sua sponte esse moderatum et tuis institutis ac praeceptis obtemperare. Quorum si quis forte esset sordidior, ferres eatenus, quoad per se negligeret eas leges, quibus esset astrictus, non ut ea potestate, quam tu ad dignitatem permisisses, ad quaestum uteretur; neque enim mihi sane placet, praesertim cum hi mores tantum iam ad nimiam lenitatem et ad ambitionem incubuerint, scrutari te omnes sordes, excutere unum quemque eorum, sed, quanta sit in quoque fides, tantum cuique committere. Atque inter hos eos, quos tibi comites et adiutores negotiorum publicorum dedit ipsa res publica, dumtaxat finibus iis praestabis, quos ante praescripsi; IV. 12. quos vero aut ex domesticis convictionibus aut ex necessariis apparitionibus tecum esse voluisti, qui quasi ex cohorte praetoris appellari solent, horum non modo facta, sed etiam dicta omnia praestanda nobis sunt. Sed habes eos tecum, quos possis recte facientes facile diligere, minus consulentes existimationi tuae facillime coercere: a quibus, rudis cum esses, videtur potuisse tua liberalitas decipi, nam, ut quisque est vir optimus, ita difficillime esse alios improbos suspicatur; nunc vero tertius hic annus habeat integritatem eandem, quam superiores, cautiorem etiam ac diligentiorem. 13. Sint aures tuae, quae id, quod audiunt, existimentur audire, non in quas ficte et simulate quaestus causa insusurretur; sit anulus tuus non ut vas aliquod, sed tamquam ipse tu, non minister alienae voluntatis, sed testis tuae; accensus sit eo numero, quo eum maiores nostri esse voluerunt, qui hoc non in beneficii loco, sed in laboris ac muneris non temere nisi libertis suis deferebant, quibus illi quidem non multo secus ac servis imperabant; sit lictor non * suae, [ three different versions exist in MSS.: lictor non suae, lictor non severitatis suae, lictor non saevitiae suae. ] ed tuae lenitatis apparitor maioraque praeferant fasces illi ac secures dignitatis insignia quam potestatis: toti denique sit provinciae cognitum tibi omnium, quibus praesis, salutem, liberos famam, fortunas esse carissimas. Denique haec opinio sit, non modo iis, qui aliquid acceperint, sed iis etiam, qui dederint, te inimicum, si id cognoveris, futurum: neque vero quisquam dabit, cum erit hoc perspectum, nihil per eos, qui simulant se apud te multum posse, abs te solere impetrari. 14. Nec tamen haec oratio mea est eiusmodi, ut te in tuos aut durum esse nimium aut suspiciosum velim: nam, si quis est eorum, qui tibi biennii spatio numquam in suspicionem avaritiae venerit, ut ego Caesium et Chaerippum et Labeonem et audio et, quia cognovi, existimo, nihil est, quod non et iis et si quis est alius eiusdemmodi et committi et credi rectissime putem; sed, si quis est, in quo iam offenderis, de quo aliquid senseris, huic nihil credideris, nullam partem existimationis tuae commiseris. V. 15. In provincia vero ipsa si quem es nactus, qui in tuam familiaritatem penitus intrarit, qui nobis ante fuerit ignotus, huic quantum credendum sit, vide: non quin possint multi esse provinciales viri boni, sed hoc sperare licet, iudicare periculosum est; multis enim simulationum involucris tegitur et quasi velis quibusdam obtenditur unius cuiusque natura: frons, oculi, vultus persaepe mentiuntur, oratio vero saepissime. Quamobrem qui potes reperire ex eo genere hominum, qui pecuniae cupiditate adducti careant iis rebus omnibus, a quibus nos divulsi esse non possumus, te autem, alienum hominem, ament ex animo ac non sui commodi causa simulent? Mihi quidem permagnum videtur, praesertim si iidem homines privatum non fere quemquam, praetores semper omnes amant: quo ex genere si quem forte tui cognosti amantiorem—fieri enim potuit—quam temporis, hunc vero ad tuorum numerum libenter ascribito; sin autem id non perspicies, nullum genus erit in familiaritate cavendum magis, propterea quod et omnes vias pecuniae norunt et omnia pecuniae causa faciunt et, quicum victuri non sunt, eius existimationi consulere non curant. 16. Atque etiam e Graecis ipsis diligenter cavendae sunt quaedam familiaritates praeter hominum perpaucorum, si qui sunt vetere Graecia digni: sic vero fallaces sunt permulti et leves et diuturna servitute ad nimiam assentationem eruditi: quos ego universos adhiberi liberaliter, optimum quemque hospitio amicitiaque coniungi dico oportere; nimiae familiaritates eorum neque tam fideles sunt—non enim audent adversari nostris voluntatibus—, et invident non nostris solum, verum etiam suis. VI. 17. Iam, qui in eiusmodi rebus, in quibus vereor etiam ne durior sim, cautus esse velim ac diligens, quo me animo in servis esse censes? quos quidem cum omnibus in locis, tum praecipue in provinciis regere debemus; quo de genere multa praecipi possunt, sed hoc et brevissimum est et facillime teneri potest, ut ita se gerant in istis Asiaticis itineribus, ut si iter Appia via faceres, neve interesse quidquam putent, utrum Trallis an Formias venerint. Ac, si quis est ex servis egregie fidelis, sit in domesticis rebus et privatis, quae res ad officium imperii tui atque ad aliquam partem rei publicae pertinebunt, de his rebus ne quid attingat; multa enim, quae recte committi servis fidelibus possunt, tamen sermonis et vituperationis vitandae causa committenda non sunt. 18. Sed nescio quo pacto ad praecipiendi rationem delapsa est oratio mea, cum id mihi propositum initio non fuisset; quid enim ei praecipiam, quem ego, in hoc praesertim genere, intelligam prudentia non esse inferiorem quam me, usu vero etiam superiorem? sed tamen, si ad ea, quae faceres, auctoritas accederet mea, tibi ipsi illa putavi fore iucundiora. Quare sint haec fundamenta dignitatis tuae: tua primum integritas et continentia, deinde omnium, qui tecum sunt, pudor, delectus in familiaritatibus et provincialium hominum et Graecorum percautus et diligens, familiae gravis et constans disciplina. 19. Quae cum honesta sint in his privatis nostris quotidianisque rationibus, in tanto imperio tam depravatis moribus, tam corruptrice provincia divina videantur necesse est. Haec institutio atque haec disciplina potest sustinere in rebus statuendis et decernendis eam severitatem, qua tu in iis rebus usus es, ex quibus nonnullas simultates cum magna mea laetitia susceptas habemus: nisi forte me Paconii nescio cuius, hominis ne Graeci quidem ac Mysi aut Phrygis potius, querelis moveri putas aut Tuscenii, hominis furiosi ac sordidi, vocibus, cuius tu ex impurissimis faucibus inhonestissimam cupiditatem eripuisti summa cum aequitate. VII. 20. Haec et cetera plena severitatis, quae statuisti in ista provincia, non facile sine summa integritate sustinuerimus; quare sit summa in iure dicundo severitas, dummodo ea ne varietur gratia, sed conservetur aequabilis; sed tamen parvi refert abs te ipso ius dici aequabiliter et diligenter, nisi idem ab iis fiet, quibus tu eius muneris aliquam partem concesseris. Ac mihi quidem videtur non sane magna varietas esse negotiorum in administranda Asia, sed ea tota iurisdictione maxime sustineri; in qua scientiae, praesertim provincialis, ratio ipsa expedita est: constantia est adhibenda et gravitas, quae resistat non solum gratiae, verum etiam suspicioni. 21. Adiungenda etiam est facilitas in audiendo, lenitas in decernendo, in satisfaciendo ac disputando diligentia. Iis rebus nuper C. Octavius iucundissimus fuit, apud quem proximus lictor quievit, tacuit accensus, quoties quisque voluit dixit et quam voluit diu; quibus ille rebus fortasse nimis lenis videretur, nisi haec lenitas illam severitatem tueretur: cogebantur Sullani homines, quae per vim et metum abstulerant, reddere; qui in magistratibus iniuriose decreverant, eodem ipsis privatis erat iure parendum. Haec illius severitas acerba videretur, nisi multis condimentis humanitatis mitigaretur. 22. Quod si haec lenitas grata Romae est, ubi tanta arrogantia est, tam immoderata libertas, tam infinita hominum licentia, denique tot magistratus, tot auxilia, tanta vis concionis, tanta senatus auctoritas, quam iucunda tandem praetoris comitas in Asia potest esse! in qua tanta multitudo civium, tanta sociorum, tot urbes, tot civitates unius hominis nutum intuentur, ubi nullum auxilium est, nulla conquestio, nullus senatus, nulla concio: quare permagni hominis est et cum ipsa natura moderati, tum vero etiam doctrina atque optimarum artium studiis eruditi sic se adhibere in tanta potestate, ut nulla alia potestas ab iis, quibus is praesit, desideretur. VIII. 23. Cyrus ille a Xenophonte non ad historiae fidem scriptus est, sed ad effigiem iusti imperii; cuius summa gravitas ab illo philosopho cum singulari comitate coniungitur: quos quidem libros non sine causa noster ille Africanus de manibus ponere non solebat; nullum est enim praetermissum in iis officium diligentis et moderati imperii, eaque si sic coluit ille, qui privatus futurus numquam fuit, quonam modo retinenda sunt iis, quibus imperium ita datum est, ut redderent, et ab iis legibus datum est, ad quas revertendum est? 24. Ac mihi quidem videntur huc omnia esse referenda iis, qui praesunt aliis, ut ii, qui erunt in eorum imperio, sint quam beatissimi: quod tibi et esse antiqissimum et ab initio fuisse, ut primum Asiam attigisti, constanti fama atque omnium sermone celebratum est. Est autem non modo eius, qui sociis et civibus, sed etiam eius, qui servis, qui mutis pecudibus praesit, eorum, quibus praesit, commodis utilitatique servire; 25. cuius quidem generis constare inter omnes video abs te summam adhiberi diligentiam: nullam aes alienum novum contrahi civitatibus, vetere autem magno et gravi multas abs te esse liberatas; urbes complures dirutas ac paene desertas, in quibus unam Ioniae nobilissimam, alteram Cariae, Samum et Halicarnassum, per te esse recreatas; nullas esse in oppidis seditiones, nullas discordias; provideri abs te, ut civitates optimatium consiliis administrentur; sublata Mysiae latrocinia, caedes multis locis repressas, pacem tota provincia constitutam, neque solum illa itinerum atque agrorum, sed multo etiam plura et maiora oppidorum et fanorum latrocinia esse depulsa; remotam a fama et a fortunis et ab otio locupletium illam acerbissimam ministram praetorum avaritiae, calumniam; sumptus et tributa civitatum ab omnibus, qui earum civitatum fines incolant, tolerari aequaliter; facillimos esse aditus ad te, patere aures tuas querelis omnium, nullius inopiam ac solitudinem non modo illo populari accessu ac tribunali, sed ne domo quidem et cubiculo esse exclusam tuo; toto denique in imperio nihil acerbum esse, nihil crudele, atque omnia plena clementiae, mansuetudinis, humanitatis. IX. 26. Quantum vero illud est beneficium tuum, quod iniquo et gravi vectigali aedilicio cum magnis nostris simultatibus Asiam liberasti? Etenim, si unus homo nobilis queritur palam te, quod edixeris, ne ad ludos pecuniae decernerentur, HS. CC. sibi eripuisse, quanta tandem pecunia penderetur, si omnium nomine, quicumque Romae ludos facerent, quod erat iam institutum, erogaretur? Quamquam has querelas hominum nostrorum illo consilio oppressimus, quod in Asia nescio quonam modo, Romae quidem non mediocri cum admiratione laudatur, quod, cum ad templum monumentumque nostrum civitates pecunias decrevissent, cumque id et pro meis magnis meritis et pro tuis maximis beneficiis summa sua voluntate fecissent nominatimque lex exciperet, ut ad templum et monumentum capere liceret, cumque id, quod dabatur, non esset interiturum, sed in ornamentis templi futurum, ut non mihi potius quam populo Romano ac dis immortalibus datum videretur, tamen id, in quo erat dignitas, erat lex, erat eorum, qui faciebant, voluntas, accipiendum non putavi cum aliis de causis, tum etiam ut animo aequiore ferrent ii, quibus nec deberetur nec liceret. 27. Quapropter incumbe toto animo et studio omni in eam rationem, qua adhuc usus es, ut eos, quos tuae fidei potestatique senatus populusque Romanus commisit et credidit, diligas et omni ratione tueare et esse quam beatissimos velis. Quod si te sors Afris aut Hispanis aut Gallis praefecisset, immanibus ac barbaris nationibus, tamen esset humanitatis tuae consulere eorum commodis et utilitati salutique servire: cum vero ei generi hominum praesimus, non modo in quo ipso sit, sed etiam a quo ad alios pervenisse putetur humanitas, certe iis eam potissimum tribuere debemus, a quibus accepimus; 28. non enim me hoc iam dicere pudebit, praesertim in ea vita atque iis rebus gestis, in quibus non potest residere inertiae aut levitatis ulla suspicio, nos ea, quae consecuti sumus iis studiis et artibus esse adeptos, quae sint nobis Graeciae monumentis disciplinisque tradita. Quare praeter communem fidem, quae omnibus debetur, praeterea nos isti hominum generi praecipue debere videmur, ut, quorum praeceptis sumus eruditi, apud eos ipsos, quod ab iis didicerimus, velimus expromere. X. 29. Atque ille quidem princeps ingenii et doctrinae Plato tum denique fore beatas res publicas putavit, si aut docti et sapientes homines eas regere coepissent aut ii, qui regerent, omne suum studium in doctrina et sapientia collocassent: hanc coniunctionem videlicet potestatis et sapientiae saluti censuit civitatibus esse posse; quod fortasse aliquando universae rei publicae nostrae, nunc quidem profecto isti provinciae contigit, ut is in eam summam potestatem haberet, cui in doctrina, cui in virtute atque humanitate percipienda plurimum a pueritia studii fuisset et temporis. 30. Quare cura, ut hic annus, qui ad laborem tuum accessit, idem ad salutem Asiae prorogatus esse videatur. Quoniam in te retinendo fuit Asia felicior, quam nos in deducendo, perfice, ut laetitia provinciae desiderium nostrum leniatur; etenim, si in promerendo, ut tibi tanti honores haberentur, quanti haud scio an nemini, fuisti omnium diligentissimus, multo maiorem in iis honoribus tuendis adhibere diligentiam debes. 31. Equidem de isto genere honorum quid sentirem, scripsi ad te ante: semper eos putavi, si vulgares essent, viles, si temporis causa constituerentur, leves; si vero, id quod ita factum est, meritis tuis tribuerentur, existimabam multam tibi in iis honoribus tuendis operam esse ponendam. Quare, quoniam in istis urbibus cum summo imperio et potestate versaris, in quibus tuas virtutes consecratas et in deorum numero collocatas vides, in omnibus rebus, quas statues, quas decernes, quas ages, quid tantis hominum opinionibus, tantis de te iudiciis, tantis honoribus debeas, cogitabis; id autem erit eiusmodi, ut consulas omnibus, ut medeare incommodis hominum, provideas saluti, ut te parentem Asiae et dici et haberi velis. XI. 32. Atqui huic tuae voluntati ac diligentiae difficultatem magnam afferunt publicani: quibus si adversabimur, ordinem de nobis optime meritum et per nos cum re publica coniunctum et a nobis et a re publica diiungemus; sin autem omnibus in rebus obsequemur, funditus eos perire patiemur, quorum non modo saluti, sed etiam commodis consulere debemus. Haec est una, si vere cogitare volumus, in toto imperio tuo difficultas: nam esse abstinentem, continere omnes cupiditates, suos coercere, iuris aequabilem tenere rationem, facilem se in rebus cognoscendis, in hominibus audiendis admittendisque praebere praeclarum magis est quam difficile; non est enim positum in labore aliquo, sed in quadam inductione animi et voluntate. 33. Illa causa publicanorum quantam acerbitatem afferat sociis, intelleximus ex civibus, qui nuper in portoriis Italiae tollendis non tam de portorio quam de nonnullis iniuriis portitorum querebantur; quare non ignoro, quid sociis accidat in ultimis terris, cum audierim in Italia querelas civium. Hic te ita versari, ut et publicanis satisfacias, praesertim publicis male redemptis, et socios perire non sinas, divinae cuiusdam virtutis esse videtur, id est tuae. Ac primum Graecis id, quod acerbissimum est, quod sunt vectigales, non ita acerbum videri debet, propterea quod sine imperio populi Romani suis institutis per se ipsi item fuerunt; nomen autem publicani aspernari non possunt, qui pendere ipsi vectigal sine publicano non potuerint, quod iis aequaliter Sulla descripserat; non esse autem leniores in exigendis vectigalibus Graecos quam nostros publicanos hinc intelligi potest, quod Caunii nuper omnesque ex insulis, quae erant a Sulla Rhodiis attributae, confugerunt ad senatum, nobis ut potius vectigal quam Rhodiis penderent. Quare nomen publicani neque ii debent horrere, qui semper vectigales fuerunt, neque ii aspernari, qui per se pendere vectigal non potuerunt, neque ii recusare, qui postulaverunt. 34. Simul et illud Asia cogitet, nullam ab se neque belli externi neque domesticarum discordiarum calamitatem afuturam fuisse, si hoc imperio non teneretur; id autem imperium cum retineri sine vectigalibus nullo modo possit, aequo animo parte aliqua suorum fructuum pacem sibi sempiternam redimat atque otium. XII. 35. Quod si genus ipsum et nomen publicani non iniquo animo sustinebunt, poterunt iis consilio et prudentia tua reliqua videri mitiora: possunt in pactionibus faciendis non legem spectare censoriam, sed potius commoditatem conficiendi negotii et liberationem molestiae; potes etiam tu id facere, quod et fecisti egregie et facis, ut commemores, quanta sit in publicanis dignitas, quantum nos illi ordini debeamus, ut remoto imperio ac vi potestatis et fascium publicanos cum Graecis gratia atque auctoritate coniungas et ab iis, de quibus optime tu meritus es et qui tibi omnia debent, hoc petas, ut facilitate sua nos eam necessitudinem, quae est nobis cum publicanis, obtinere et conservare patiantur. 36. Sed quid ego te haec hortor, quae tu non modo facere potes tua sponte sine cuiusquam praeceptis, sed etiam magna iam ex parte perfecisti? non enim desistunt nobis agere quotidie gratias honestissimae et maximae societates; quod quidem mihi idcirco iucundius est, quod idem faciunt Graeci, difficile est autem ea, quae commodis, utilitate et prope natura diversa sunt, voluntate coniungere. At ea quidem, quae supra scripta sunt, non ut te instituerem scripsi—neque enim prudentia tua cuiusquam praecepta desiderat—, sed me in scribendo commemoratio tuae virtutis delectavit: quamquam in his litteris longior fui, quam aut vellem aut quam me putavi fore. XIII. 37. Unum est, quod tibi ego praecipere non desinam, neque te patiar, quantum erit in me, cum exceptione laudari: omnes enim, qui istinc veniunt, ita de tua virtute, integritate, humanitate commemorant, ut in tuis summis laudibus excipiant unam iracundiam; quod vitium cum in hac privata quotidianaque vita levis esse animi atque infirmi videtur, tum vero nihil est tam deforme, quam ad summum imperium etiam acerbitatem naturae adiungere. Quare illud non suscipiam, ut, quae de iracundia dici solent a doctissimis hominibus, ea nunc tibi exponam, cum et nimis longus esse nolim et ex multorum scriptis ea facile possis cognoscere: illud, quod est epistulae proprium, ut is, ad quem scribitur, de iis rebus, quas ignorat, certior fiat, praetermittendum esse non puto. 38. Sic ad nos omnes fere deferunt, nihil, cum absit iracundia, te fieri posse iucundius, sed, cum te alicuius improbitas perversitasque commoverit, sic te animo incitari, ut ab omnibus tua desideretur humanitas: quare, quoniam in eam rationem vitae nos non tam cupiditas quaedam gloriae quam res ipsa ac fortuna deduxit, ut sempiternus sermo hominum de nobis futurus sit, caveamus, quantum efficere et consequi possumus, ut ne quod in nobis insigne vitium fuisse dicatur. Neque ego nunc hoc contendo, quod fortasse cum in omni natura, tum iam in nostra aetate difficile est, mutare animum et, si quid est penitus insitum moribus, id subito evellere, sed te illud admoneo, ut, si hoc plene vitare non potes, quod ante occupatur animus ab iracundia, quam providere ratio potuit, ne occuparetur, ut te ante compares quotidieque meditere resistendum esse iracundiae, cumque ea maxime animum moveat, tum tibi esse diligentissime linguam continendam; quae quidem mihi virtus non interdum minor videtur quam omnino non irasci: nam illud est non solum gravitatis, sed nonnumquam etiam lentitudinis; moderari vero et animo et orationi, cum sis iratus, aut etiam tacere et tenere in sua potestate motum animi et dolorem, etsi non est perfectae sapientiae, tamen est non mediocris ingenii. 39. Atque in hoc genere multo te esse iam commodiorem mitioremque nuntiant: nullae tuae vehementiores animi concitationes, nulla maledicta ad nos, nullae contumeliae perferuntur, quae cum abhorrent a litteris atque ab humanitate, tum vero contraria sunt imperio ac dignitati; nam, si implacabiles iracundiae sunt, summa est acerbitas, sin autem exorabiles, summa levitas, quae tamen, ut in malis, acerbitati anteponenda est. XIV. 40. Sed, quoniam primus annus habuit de hac reprehensione plurimum sermonis, credo propterea, quod tibi hominum iniuriae, quod avaritia, quod insolentia praeter opinionem accidebat et intolerabilis videbatur, secundus autem multo leniore, quod et consuetudo et ratio et, ut ego arbitror, meae quoque litterae te patientiorem lenioremque fecerunt, tertius annus ita debet esse emendatus, ut ne minimam quidem rem quisquam possit ullam reprehendere. 41. Ac iam hoc loco non hortatione neque praeceptis, sed precibus tecum fraternis ago, totum ut animum, curam cogitationemque tuam ponas in omnium laude undique colligenda. Quod si in mediocri statu sermonis ac praedicationis nostrae res essent, nihil abs te eximium, nihil praeter aliorum consuetudinem postularetur: nunc vero propter earum rerum, in quibus versati sumus, splendorem et magnitudinem, nisi summam laudem ex ista provincia assequimur, vix videmur summam vituperationem posse vitare. Ea nostra ratio est, ut omnes boni cum faveant, tum etiam omnem a nobis diligentiam virtutemque et postulent et exspectent, omnes autem improbi, quod cum iis bellum sempiternum suscepimus, vel minima re ad reprehendendum contenti esse videantur: 42. quare, quoniam eiusmodi theatrum totius Asiae virtutibus tuis est datum, celebritate refertissimum, magnitudine amplissimum, iudicio eruditissimum, natura autem ita resonans, ut usque Romam significationes vocesque referantur, contende, quaeso, atque elabora, non modo ut his rebus dignus fuisse, sed etiam ut illa omnia tuis artibus superasse videare. XV. 43. Et quoniam mihi casus urbanam in magistratibus administrationem rei publicae, tibi provincialem dedit, si mea pars nemini cedit, fac, ut tua ceteros vincat. Simul et illud cogita, nos non de reliqua et sperata gloria iam laborare, sed de parta dimicare, quae quidem non tam expetenda nobis fuit, quam tuenda est. Ac, si mihi quidquam esset abs te separatum, nihil amplius desiderarem hoc statu, qui mihi iam partus est: nunc vero sic res sese habet, ut, nisi omnia tua facta atque dicta nostris rebus istinc respondeant, ego me tantis meis laboribus tantisque periculis, quorum tu omnium particeps fuisti, nihil consecutum putem. Quod si, ut amplissimum nomen consequeremur, unus praeter ceteros adiuvisti, certe idem, ut id retineamus, praeter ceteros elaborabis. Non est tibi his solis utendum existimationibus ac iudiciis, qui nunc sunt, hominum, sed iis etiam, qui futuri sunt; quamquam illorum erit verius iudicium, obtrectatione et malevolentia liberatum. 44. Denique etiam illud debes cogitare, non te tibi soli gloriam quaerere; quod si esset, tamen non negligeres, praesertim cum amplissimis monumentis consecrare voluisses memoriam nominis tui; sed ea est tibi communicanda mecum, prodenda liberis nostris: in quo cavendum est, ne, si negligentior fueris, non solum tibi parum consuluisse, sed etiam tuis invidisse videaris. XVI. 45. Atque haec non eo dicuntur, ut te oratio mea dormientem excitasse, sed potius ut currentem incitasse videatur; facies enim perpetuo, quae fecisti, ut omnes aequitatem tuam, temperantiam, severitatem integritatemque laudarent. Sed me quaedam tenet propter singularem amorem infinita in te aviditas gloriae; quamquam illud existimo, cum iam tibi Asia sic, uti uni cuique sua domus, nota esse debeat, cum ad tuam summam prudentiam tantus usus accesserit, nihil esse, quod ad laudem attineat, quod non tu optime perspicias et tibi non sine cuiusquam hortatione in mentem veniat quotidie; sed ego, quia, cum tua lego, te audire, et quia, cum ad te scribo, tecum loqui videor, idcirco et tua longissima quaque epistula maxime delector et ipse in scribendo sum saepe longior. 46. Illud te ad extremum et oro et hortor, ut, tamquam poetae boni et actores industrii solent, sic tu in extrema parte et conclusione muneris ac negotii tui diligentissimus sis, ut hic tertius annus imperii tui tamquam tertius actus perfectissimus atque ornatissimus fuisse videatur: id facillime facies, si me, cui semper uni magis quam universis placere voluisti, tecum semper esse putabis et omnibus iis rebus, quas dices et facies, interesse. Reliquum est, ut te orem, ut valetudini tuae, si me et tuos omnes valere vis, diligentissime servas. Vale.