Marcus Tullius Cicero→Gaius Claudius Marcellus|c. 47 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Rome|Human translated
How great your concern for my honor was, and how you proved to be as consul in distinguishing and advancing me as you always were alongside your parents and your whole family -- although the facts themselves speak clearly, I have nevertheless learned it from the letters of all my people. And so there is nothing so great that I do not owe it for your sake and shall not do willingly and eagerly. For it matters much to whom you owe a debt, and I have preferred to be indebted to no one more than to you, to whom both our shared pursuits and your father's services and your own had already bound me; and now there is added, in my judgment at least, the greatest bond of all: that you are conducting and have conducted the republic in such a way that I cannot refuse to owe you, one man alone, as much as all good men owe you, since nothing is dearer to me than the republic. I would therefore wish you those outcomes you deserve and which I am confident will come. As for me, if the voyage does not delay me -- it would coincide with the Etesian winds -- I shall, I hope, see you very soon.
CCLXXIII (Fam. XV, 11) TO C. CLAUDIUS MARCELLUS (CONSUL) (ASIA, AUGUST) How much trouble you have taken as to the honour to be bestowed on me, and how far your conduct as consul in complimenting me and promoting my dignity has been exactly the same as — in common with your ancestors and your whole family — it had always been before, though facts spoke for themselves, I have nevertheless been informed by letters from all my friends. Accordingly, there is no service so great that I am not bound and fully purposed zealously and gladly to do in your interests. For it makes a great difference who the man is to whom one is under an obligation: but there is no one to whom I preferred to be under an obligation before yourself, to whom, while common interests and kindnesses received both from your father and yourself had already closely united me, there is now added what in my opinion is the strongest bond of all, the fact that your present and past administration of the Republic (the thing dearest to me in the world) is of such a nature, that I cannot disown an obligation to you in my single person as great as that which all loyalists put together owe you. Wherefore I wish you the success which you deserve, and which I feel confident you will have. Unless my voyage, which falls in precisely with the Etesian winds , delays me, I hope to see you shortly.
XI. Scr. in Cilicia mense Quinctili (III. Non. Sex. vel paullo post) a.u.c. 704. M. CICERO IMP. S. D. C. MARCELLO COS.
Quantae curae tibi meus honos fuerit et quam idem exstiteris consul in me ornando et amplificando, qui fueras semper cum parentibus tuis et cum tota domo, etsi res ipsa loquebatur, cognovi tamen ex meorum omnium litteris: itaque nihil est tantum, quod ego non tua causa debeam facturusque sim studiose ac libenter; nam magni interest, cui debeas, debere autem nemini malui quam tibi, cui me cum studia communia, beneficia paterna tuaque iam ante coniunxerant, tum accedit mea quidem sententia maximum vinculum, quod ita rem publicam geris atque gessisti, qua mihi carius nihil est, ut, quantum tibi omnes boni debeant, quo minus tantundem ego unus debeam, non recusem. Quamobrem tibi velim ii sint exitus, quos mereris et quos fore confido: ego, si me navigatio non morabitur, quae incurrebat in ipsos etesias, propediem te, ut spero, videbo.
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How great your concern for my honor was, and how you proved to be as consul in distinguishing and advancing me as you always were alongside your parents and your whole family -- although the facts themselves speak clearly, I have nevertheless learned it from the letters of all my people. And so there is nothing so great that I do not owe it for your sake and shall not do willingly and eagerly. For it matters much to whom you owe a debt, and I have preferred to be indebted to no one more than to you, to whom both our shared pursuits and your father's services and your own had already bound me; and now there is added, in my judgment at least, the greatest bond of all: that you are conducting and have conducted the republic in such a way that I cannot refuse to owe you, one man alone, as much as all good men owe you, since nothing is dearer to me than the republic. I would therefore wish you those outcomes you deserve and which I am confident will come. As for me, if the voyage does not delay me -- it would coincide with the Etesian winds -- I shall, I hope, see you very soon.
Human translation - ToposText / Shuckburgh
Latin / Greek Original
XI. Scr. in Cilicia mense Quinctili (III. Non. Sex. vel paullo post) a.u.c. 704. M. CICERO IMP. S. D. C. MARCELLO COS.
Quantae curae tibi meus honos fuerit et quam idem exstiteris consul in me ornando et amplificando, qui fueras semper cum parentibus tuis et cum tota domo, etsi res ipsa loquebatur, cognovi tamen ex meorum omnium litteris: itaque nihil est tantum, quod ego non tua causa debeam facturusque sim studiose ac libenter; nam magni interest, cui debeas, debere autem nemini malui quam tibi, cui me cum studia communia, beneficia paterna tuaque iam ante coniunxerant, tum accedit mea quidem sententia maximum vinculum, quod ita rem publicam geris atque gessisti, qua mihi carius nihil est, ut, quantum tibi omnes boni debeant, quo minus tantundem ego unus debeam, non recusem. Quamobrem tibi velim ii sint exitus, quos mereris et quos fore confido: ego, si me navigatio non morabitur, quae incurrebat in ipsos etesias, propediem te, ut spero, videbo.