Marcus Tullius Cicero→Gaius Coelius Caldus|c. 50 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Cilicia|AI-assisted
When I received the welcome news that you had been assigned to me as quaestor, I hoped that this lot would become more pleasant to me the longer you stayed with me in the province. It seemed very important that personal association should be added to the official bond that chance had given us.
Afterward, when neither you nor anyone else wrote to me about your arrival, I began to fear what I still fear: that I might leave the province before you came into it. But I did receive a letter from you, sent to Cilicia while I was in camp on June 22, written with great kindness. From it one could easily see both your sense of duty and your talent. Still, it did not say from where or on what day it was sent, or when I should expect you; nor had the man who brought it received it from you, so that I could learn from him where or when it had been sent.
Since all this was uncertain, I nevertheless thought I should send my orderlies and lictors to you with a letter. If you receive it at a reasonably useful time, you will do me a very great favor by coming to me in Cilicia as quickly as possible.
What your cousin Curius, who is, as you know, very close to me, and likewise Gaius Vergilius, your relative and my very dear friend, have written about you with the greatest care carries much weight with me, as careful recommendations from close friends should. But your own letter, especially what it says about your standing and our connection, carries the greatest weight of all.
No quaestor could have fallen to me by lot who was more welcome. Therefore whatever distinctions can come from me to you will come, so that everyone may understand that I have taken account of your dignity and that of your ancestors. I will achieve this more easily if you come to me in Cilicia, which I judge to be in my interest, in the republic's interest, and especially in yours.
CCLXI (Fam. II, 19) TO C. CAELIUS CALDUS (APPOINTED QUAESTOR FOR CILICIA) (CILICIA, JUNE) M. Tullius Cicero , imperator, son of Marcus, grandson of Marcus, greets C. Caelius Caldus , son of Lucius, grandson of Gaius, quaestor. When I first received the most welcome intelligence that the lot had assigned you to me as quaestor, I hoped that this chance would be a source of greater pleasure the longer you were with me in the province. For it appeared to me of great importance that the connexion between us, thus formed by fortune, should be supplemented by personal intercourse. When subsequently I failed to hear anything from yourself, or to receive a letter from anyone else as to your arrival, I began to fear, what I still fear may be the case, that I should have left the province before you arrived in it. However, when I was in camp in Cilicia , I received a letter from you on the 21st of June, expressed in the most cordial terms, and sufficiently manifesting your kindness and abilities. But it contained no indication of day or place of writing, nor of the time at which I might expect you; nor was the person who delivered it to me the one to whom you had given it: for then I might have ascertained from him where and when it was despatched. In spite of this uncertainty, I yet thought that I must contrive to send some of my orderlies and lictors to you with a letter. If you receive it in anything like time, you will be doing me a very great favour if you will join me in Cilicia as soon as you can. For though, of course, what your cousin Curius , who is, as you know, a very great ally of mine, and also what your relative and my most intimate friend C. Vergilius , have written to me about you with the greatest earnestness has, of course, very great importance in my eyes — as a serious recommendation of such very warm friends is bound to have — yet your own letter, and especially what you say about your own position and our connexion, has, to my mind, the greatest weight of all. No quaestor could have been assigned to me that would have been more welcome. Wherefore whatever marks of distinction I can show you, shall be shown, demonstrating to all the world that I fully recognize your own and your ancestors' high position. I shall be better able to do this, if you join me in Cilicia , which I think is very much to my interest and that of the state, and above all to your own.
XIX. M. TULLIUS M. F. [M. N.] CICERO IMP. S. D. C. COELIO L. F. C. N. CALDO Q in castris ad Pyramum; c. ix Kal. Quint. 50
Cum optatissimum nuntium accepissem te mihi quaestorem obtigisse, eo iucundiorem mihi eam sortem sperabam fore quo diutius in provincia mecum fuisses. Magni enim videbatur interesse ad eam necessitudinem quam nobis fors tribuisset consuetudinem quoque accedere. Postea, cum mihi nihil neque a te ipso neque ab ullo alio de adventu tuo scriberetur, verebar ne ita caderet, quod etiam nunc vereor, ne, ante quam tu in provinciam venisses, ego de provincia decederem. Accepi autem a te missas litteras in Cilicia, cum essem in castris, a. d. X Kal. Quint., scriptas humanissime, quibus facile et officium et ingenium tuum perspici posset; sed neque unde nec quo die datae essent aut quo tempore te exspectarem significabant, nec is qui attulerat a te acceperat, ut ex eo scirem quo ex loco aut quo tempore essent datae. Quae cum essent incerta, existimavi tamen faciendum esse ut ad te statores meos et lictores cum litteris mitterem. Quas si satis opportuno tempore accepisti, gratissimum mihi feceris si ad me in Ciliciam quam primum veneris. Nam quod ad me Curius, consobrinus tuus, mihi, ut scis, maxime necessarius, quod item C. Vergilius, propinquus tuus, familiarissimus noster, de te accuratissime scripsit, valet id quidem apud me multum, sicuti debet hominum amicissimorum diligens commendatio, sed tuae litterae de tua praesertim dignitate et de nostra coniunctione maximi sunt apud me ponderis. Mihi quaestor optatior obtingere nemo potuit. Quam ob rem quaecumque a me ornamenta ad te [proficisci poterunt] proficiscentur, ut omnes intellegant a me habitam esse rationem tuae maiorumque tuorum dignitatis. Sed id facilius consequar si ad me in Ciliciam veneris. Quod ego et mea et rei publicae et maxime tua interesse arbitror.
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When I received the welcome news that you had been assigned to me as quaestor, I hoped that this lot would become more pleasant to me the longer you stayed with me in the province. It seemed very important that personal association should be added to the official bond that chance had given us.
Afterward, when neither you nor anyone else wrote to me about your arrival, I began to fear what I still fear: that I might leave the province before you came into it. But I did receive a letter from you, sent to Cilicia while I was in camp on June 22, written with great kindness. From it one could easily see both your sense of duty and your talent. Still, it did not say from where or on what day it was sent, or when I should expect you; nor had the man who brought it received it from you, so that I could learn from him where or when it had been sent.
Since all this was uncertain, I nevertheless thought I should send my orderlies and lictors to you with a letter. If you receive it at a reasonably useful time, you will do me a very great favor by coming to me in Cilicia as quickly as possible.
What your cousin Curius, who is, as you know, very close to me, and likewise Gaius Vergilius, your relative and my very dear friend, have written about you with the greatest care carries much weight with me, as careful recommendations from close friends should. But your own letter, especially what it says about your standing and our connection, carries the greatest weight of all.
No quaestor could have fallen to me by lot who was more welcome. Therefore whatever distinctions can come from me to you will come, so that everyone may understand that I have taken account of your dignity and that of your ancestors. I will achieve this more easily if you come to me in Cilicia, which I judge to be in my interest, in the republic's interest, and especially in yours.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
XIX. M. TULLIUS M. F. [M. N.] CICERO IMP. S. D. C. COELIO L. F. C. N. CALDO Q in castris ad Pyramum; c. ix Kal. Quint. 50
Cum optatissimum nuntium accepissem te mihi quaestorem obtigisse, eo iucundiorem mihi eam sortem sperabam fore quo diutius in provincia mecum fuisses. Magni enim videbatur interesse ad eam necessitudinem quam nobis fors tribuisset consuetudinem quoque accedere. Postea, cum mihi nihil neque a te ipso neque ab ullo alio de adventu tuo scriberetur, verebar ne ita caderet, quod etiam nunc vereor, ne, ante quam tu in provinciam venisses, ego de provincia decederem. Accepi autem a te missas litteras in Cilicia, cum essem in castris, a. d. X Kal. Quint., scriptas humanissime, quibus facile et officium et ingenium tuum perspici posset; sed neque unde nec quo die datae essent aut quo tempore te exspectarem significabant, nec is qui attulerat a te acceperat, ut ex eo scirem quo ex loco aut quo tempore essent datae. Quae cum essent incerta, existimavi tamen faciendum esse ut ad te statores meos et lictores cum litteris mitterem. Quas si satis opportuno tempore accepisti, gratissimum mihi feceris si ad me in Ciliciam quam primum veneris. Nam quod ad me Curius, consobrinus tuus, mihi, ut scis, maxime necessarius, quod item C. Vergilius, propinquus tuus, familiarissimus noster, de te accuratissime scripsit, valet id quidem apud me multum, sicuti debet hominum amicissimorum diligens commendatio, sed tuae litterae de tua praesertim dignitate et de nostra coniunctione maximi sunt apud me ponderis. Mihi quaestor optatior obtingere nemo potuit. Quam ob rem quaecumque a me ornamenta ad te [proficisci poterunt] proficiscentur, ut omnes intellegant a me habitam esse rationem tuae maiorumque tuorum dignitatis. Sed id facilius consequar si ad me in Ciliciam veneris. Quod ego et mea et rei publicae et maxime tua interesse arbitror.