Marcus Tullius Cicero→Appius Claudius Pulcher|c. 51 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Cilicia|AI-assisted
When I compare my conduct with yours, I do not give myself more credit than you for preserving our friendship, but I am far more satisfied with what I did than with what you did.
At Brundisium I asked Phania, whose loyalty to you I thought I had clearly seen and whose place in your confidence I knew, to tell me to what part of the province he thought you wanted me to come in taking over the succession. He answered that nothing would please you more than my going by sea to Side. Though arriving there was not especially dignified and was much less convenient for me in many respects, I said I would do it.
Then, when I met Lucius Clodius at Corcyra, a man so closely attached to you that speaking with him felt like speaking with you, I told him I intended to arrange my first arrival at the point Phania had requested. After thanking me, he strongly urged me to go straight to Laodicea. He said you wished to be on the very frontier of the province, so that you could leave it at the first possible moment; indeed, if your successor had not been someone you were anxious to see, you would probably have left before being formally relieved. This agreed with the letter I had received at Rome, from which I thought I understood how eager you were to depart.
I told Clodius that I would do this, and with much greater pleasure than if I had had to keep the promise I made to Phania. So I changed my plan and immediately sent you a letter in my own hand. From your letter I learned that it reached you in very good time. I am quite satisfied with my own conduct, because nothing could have been more cordial.
Now consider yours. You were not at the place where you could have seen me soonest, and you had gone so far away that it was impossible for me even to overtake you within the thirty days fixed, I think, by the Cornelian law [a law limiting a governor's stay in a province after a successor's arrival]. To people who do not know our feelings toward each other, your conduct must look like that of a man who, to put it mildly, is a stranger and wants to avoid a meeting. Mine must look like that of the closest and most affectionate of friends.
And yet before I reached my province I received a letter from you in which, though you told me you were starting for Tarsus, you still held out a fairly definite hope that I would meet you. Meanwhile, certain people, I am ready to believe out of malice, which is a very common vice, but who had managed to get hold of plausible grounds for gossip, tried to alienate my affection from you because they did not know how steady my feelings are. They said that you were holding court at Tarsus, issuing many regulations, deciding cases, and delivering judgments, although you might have guessed that your successor had by now taken over your province. Such things, they remarked, are not usually done even by men who expect to be relieved shortly.
I was not moved by talk of this kind. More than that, I assure you that if you performed any official act, I was ready to think myself relieved of trouble, and to rejoice that a government of one year, which I considered too long, had been reduced nearly to one of eleven months if, in my absence, one month's labor were subtracted.
One thing, however, to speak candidly, does trouble me: given the weakness of my military force, the three cohorts at their fullest strength are absent, and I do not know where they are. What annoys me most of all is that I do not know where I am likely to see you. I have been slower to write because I was expecting you in person from day to day, and meanwhile I did not receive even a letter telling me what you were doing or where I should meet you.
Accordingly, I have sent you Decimus Antonius, commander of my reserve troops, a brave officer and a man in whom I have complete confidence, to take over the cohorts if you think fit. I want, before the suitable season passes, to be able to accomplish something practical. In that area I had hoped, both from our friendship and from your letter, to have the benefit of your advice, and even now I do not despair of it. But unless you write to me, I cannot even guess when or where I am to see you.
For my part, I will see to it that friends and enemies alike understand that I am warmly attached to you. As for your feelings toward me, you do seem to have given ill-disposed people some grounds for thinking otherwise. If you correct that, I shall be much obliged to you.
So that you may also calculate where you can meet me without violating the Cornelian law, note this: I entered the province on the last day of July. I am on my way to Cilicia through Cappadocia. I break camp from Iconium on this last day of August. With these facts before you, if you think that by reckoning days and routes you can meet me, please decide where and on what day that can most conveniently happen.
CCXII (Fam. III, 6) TO APPIUS CLAUDIUS PULCHER (AT TARSUS) WITH THE ARMY IN CAPPADOCIA (29 AUGUST) When I compare my course of action with yours, though in maintaining our friendship I do not allow myself greater credit than I do you, yet I am more satisfied with my conduct than with yours. For at Brundisium I asked Phania — and I imagined that I saw clearly his fidelity to you and knew what a high place he had in your confidence — to tell me to what part of the province he thought you would like me to come in taking over the succession. Having been answered by him that I could not please you more than by going by sea to Sida , although the arrival there was not very dignified and much less convenient for me on many accounts, I yet said that I would do so. Again, having met L. Clodius in Corcyra — a man so closely attached to you, that in talking to him I seemed to be talking to you — I told him that I meant to arrange for my first arrival to be at the point at which Phania had requested that it should be. Thereupon, after thanking me, he begged me very strongly to go straight to Laodicea : that you wished to be on the very frontier of the province, in order to quit it at the first moment: nay, that, had I not been a successor whom you were anxious to see, you would most likely have quitted before you were relieved. And this last agreed with the letter which I had received in Rome , from which I thought that I perceived how much in a hurry you were to depart. I answered Clodius that I would do so, and with much greater pleasure than if I had had to do what I had promised Phania . Accordingly, I changed my plan and at once sent a letter in my own writing to you; and this, I learnt from your letter, reached you in very good time. With my conduct I am, for my part, quite satisfied; for nothing could be more cordial. Now, on the other hand, consider your own. Not only were you not at the place where you might have seen me earliest, but you had gone such a distance as made it impossible for me to overtake you even, within the thirty days fixed by, I think, the Cornelian law. Such a course of action on your part must appear to those who are ignorant of our feelings to each other to indicate one who, to put it at the mildest, is a stranger and desirous of avoiding a meeting, while mine must seem that of the most closely united and affectionate of friends. And, after all, before reaching my province, I received a letter from you, in which, though you informed me that you were starting for Tarsus , you yet held out no uncertain hope of my meeting you. Meanwhile, certain persons, I am ready to believe out of spite — for that is a vice widely spread and to be found in many — yet who had managed to get hold of some plausible grounds for their gossip, being unacquainted with the constancy of my feelings, tried to alienate my affection from you, by saying that you were holding an assize at Tarsus , were issuing many enactments, deciding actions, delivering judgments, though you might have guessed that your successor had by this time taken over your province — things (they remarked) not usually done even by those who expect to be relieved shortly. I was not moved by the talk of such persons; nay, more, I assure you, that if you performed any official act, I was prepared to consider myself relieved from trouble, and to rejoice that from being a government of a year, which I regarded as too long, it had been reduced nearly to one of eleven months, if in my absence the labour of one month were subtracted. One thing, however, to speak candidly, does disturb me — that, considering the weakness of my military force, the three cohorts which are at their fullest strength should be absent, and that I should not know where they are. But what causes me most annoyance of all is that I do not know where I am likely to see you, and have been the slower to write to you, because I was expecting you in person. from day today; and meanwhile I did not receive so much as a letter to tell me what you were doing or where I was to see you. Accordingly, I have sent you the commander of my reserve-men, Decimus Antonius , a gallant officer and possessed of my fullest confidence, to take over the cohorts, if you think well, in order that, before the suitable season of the year is gone, I may be able to accomplish something practical. It was in that department that I had hoped, both from our friendship and your letter, to have the advantage of your advice, of which I do not even now despair. But the truth is that, unless you write to me, I cannot even guess when or where I am to see you. For my part, I will take care that friends and enemies alike understand that I am most warmly attached to you: of your feelings towards me you do appear to have given the ill-disposed some grounds for 'thinking differently: if you will put that straight I shall be much obliged to you. That you may also be able to calculate at what place you may meet me without a breach of the Cornelian law, note this — I entered the province on the last day of July: I am on my way to Cilicia through Cappadocia : I break up the camp from Iconium on this last day of August. With these facts before you, if you think by reckoning days and routes you may meet me, please settle at what place that may be most conveniently done, and on what day.
VI. Scr. in castris ad Iconium pr. Kal. Sept. a. u. c. 703. M. CICERO S. D. AP. PULCHRO.
Cum meum factum cum tuo comparo, etsi non magis mihi faveo in nostra amicitia tuenda quam tibi, tamen multo magis meo facto delector quam tuo. Ego enim Brundisii quaesivi ex Phania, cuius mihi videbar et fidelitatem erga to perspexisse et nosse locum, quem apud te is teneret, quam in partem provinciae maxime putaret te velle ut in succedendo primum venirem; cum ille mihi respondisset nihil me tibi gratius facere posse, quam si ad Sidam navigassem, etsi minus dignitatis habebat ille adventus et ad multas res mihi minus erat aptus, tamen ita me dixi esse facturum. Idem ego; cum L. Clodium Corcyrae convenissem, hominem ita tibi coniunctum, ut mihi, cum illo cum loquerer, tecum loqui viderer, dixi ei me ita facturum esse, ut in eam partem, quam Phania rogasset, primum venirem; tunc ille, mihi cum gratias egisset, magno opere a me petivit, ut Laodiceam protinus irem; te in prima provincia velle esse, ut quam primum decederes; quin, nisi ego successor essem, quem tu cuperes videre, te antea, quam tibi successum esset, decessurum fuisse—quod quidem erat consentaneum cum iis litteris, quas ego Romae acceperam, ex quibus perspexisse mihi videbar, quam festinares decedere—; respondi Clodio me ita esse facturum ac multo quidem libentius, quam si illud esset faciendum, quod promiseram Phaniae: itaque et consilium mutavi et ad te statim mea manu scriptas litteras misi, quas quidem ex tuis litteris intellexi satis mature ad te esse perlatas. Hoc ego meo facto valde detector, nihil enim potuit fieri amantius; considera nunc vicissim tuum: non modo ibi non fuisti, ubi me quam primum videre posses, sed eo discessisti, quo ego te ne persequi quidem possem triginta diebus, qui tibi ad decedendum lege, ut opinor, Cornelia constituti essent, ut tuum factum iis, qui, quo animo inter nos simus, ignorant, alieni hominis, ut levissime dicam, et fugientis congressum, meum vero coniunctissimi et amicissimi esse videatur. Ac mihi tamen, antequam in provinciam veni, redditae sunt a te litterae, quibus etsi te Tarsum proficisci demonstrabas, tamen mihi non dubiam spem mei conveniendi afferebas, cum interea, credo equidem, malevoli homines—late enim patet hoc vitium et est in multis—. sed tamen probabilem materiem nacti sermonis ignari meae constantiae conabantur alienare a te voluntatem meam, qui te forum Tarsi agere, statuere multa, decernere, iudicare dicerent, quam posses iam suspicari tibi esse successum, quae ne ab iis quidem fieri solerent, qui brevi tempore sibi succedi putarent. Horum ego sermone non movebar, quin etiam, credas mihi velim, si quid tu ageres, levari me putabam molestia et ex annua provincia, quae mihi longa videretur, prope iam undecim mensum provinciam factam esse gaudebam, si absenti mihi unius mensis labor detractus esset: illud, vere dicam, me movet, in tanta militum paucitate abesse tres cohortes, quae sint plenissimae, nec me scire ubi sint; molestissime autem fero, quod, te ubi visurus sim, nescio, eoque ad te tardius scripsi, quod quotidie te ipsum exspectabam, cum interea ne litteras quidem ullas accepi, quae me docerent, quid ageres aut ubi te visurus essem. Itaque virum fortem mihique in primis probatum, D. Antonium, praefectum evocatorum, misi ad te, cui, si tibi videretur, cohortes traderes, ut, dum tempus anni esset idoneum, aliquid negotii gerere possem: in quo, tuo consilio ut me sperarem esse usurum, et amicitia nostra et litterae tuae fecerant, quod ne nunc quidem despero; sed plane, quando aut ubi te visurus sim, nisi ad me scripseris, ne suspicari quidem possum. Ego, ut me tibi amicissimum esse et aequi et iniqui intelligant, curabo: de tuo in me animo iniquis secus existimandi videris nonnihil loci dedisse; id si correxeris, mihi valde gratum erit. Et, ut habere rationem possis, quo loco me salva lege Cornelia convenias, ego in provinciam veni pridie Kalendas Sextiles, iter in Ciliciam facio per Cappadociam, castra movi ab Iconio pridie Kalendas Septembres. Nunc tu et ex diebus et ex ratione itineris, si putabis me esse conveniendum, constitues, quo loco id commodissime fieri possit et quo die.
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When I compare my conduct with yours, I do not give myself more credit than you for preserving our friendship, but I am far more satisfied with what I did than with what you did.
At Brundisium I asked Phania, whose loyalty to you I thought I had clearly seen and whose place in your confidence I knew, to tell me to what part of the province he thought you wanted me to come in taking over the succession. He answered that nothing would please you more than my going by sea to Side. Though arriving there was not especially dignified and was much less convenient for me in many respects, I said I would do it.
Then, when I met Lucius Clodius at Corcyra, a man so closely attached to you that speaking with him felt like speaking with you, I told him I intended to arrange my first arrival at the point Phania had requested. After thanking me, he strongly urged me to go straight to Laodicea. He said you wished to be on the very frontier of the province, so that you could leave it at the first possible moment; indeed, if your successor had not been someone you were anxious to see, you would probably have left before being formally relieved. This agreed with the letter I had received at Rome, from which I thought I understood how eager you were to depart.
I told Clodius that I would do this, and with much greater pleasure than if I had had to keep the promise I made to Phania. So I changed my plan and immediately sent you a letter in my own hand. From your letter I learned that it reached you in very good time. I am quite satisfied with my own conduct, because nothing could have been more cordial.
Now consider yours. You were not at the place where you could have seen me soonest, and you had gone so far away that it was impossible for me even to overtake you within the thirty days fixed, I think, by the Cornelian law [a law limiting a governor's stay in a province after a successor's arrival]. To people who do not know our feelings toward each other, your conduct must look like that of a man who, to put it mildly, is a stranger and wants to avoid a meeting. Mine must look like that of the closest and most affectionate of friends.
And yet before I reached my province I received a letter from you in which, though you told me you were starting for Tarsus, you still held out a fairly definite hope that I would meet you. Meanwhile, certain people, I am ready to believe out of malice, which is a very common vice, but who had managed to get hold of plausible grounds for gossip, tried to alienate my affection from you because they did not know how steady my feelings are. They said that you were holding court at Tarsus, issuing many regulations, deciding cases, and delivering judgments, although you might have guessed that your successor had by now taken over your province. Such things, they remarked, are not usually done even by men who expect to be relieved shortly.
I was not moved by talk of this kind. More than that, I assure you that if you performed any official act, I was ready to think myself relieved of trouble, and to rejoice that a government of one year, which I considered too long, had been reduced nearly to one of eleven months if, in my absence, one month's labor were subtracted.
One thing, however, to speak candidly, does trouble me: given the weakness of my military force, the three cohorts at their fullest strength are absent, and I do not know where they are. What annoys me most of all is that I do not know where I am likely to see you. I have been slower to write because I was expecting you in person from day to day, and meanwhile I did not receive even a letter telling me what you were doing or where I should meet you.
Accordingly, I have sent you Decimus Antonius, commander of my reserve troops, a brave officer and a man in whom I have complete confidence, to take over the cohorts if you think fit. I want, before the suitable season passes, to be able to accomplish something practical. In that area I had hoped, both from our friendship and from your letter, to have the benefit of your advice, and even now I do not despair of it. But unless you write to me, I cannot even guess when or where I am to see you.
For my part, I will see to it that friends and enemies alike understand that I am warmly attached to you. As for your feelings toward me, you do seem to have given ill-disposed people some grounds for thinking otherwise. If you correct that, I shall be much obliged to you.
So that you may also calculate where you can meet me without violating the Cornelian law, note this: I entered the province on the last day of July. I am on my way to Cilicia through Cappadocia. I break camp from Iconium on this last day of August. With these facts before you, if you think that by reckoning days and routes you can meet me, please decide where and on what day that can most conveniently happen.
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
VI. Scr. in castris ad Iconium pr. Kal. Sept. a. u. c. 703. M. CICERO S. D. AP. PULCHRO.
Cum meum factum cum tuo comparo, etsi non magis mihi faveo in nostra amicitia tuenda quam tibi, tamen multo magis meo facto delector quam tuo. Ego enim Brundisii quaesivi ex Phania, cuius mihi videbar et fidelitatem erga to perspexisse et nosse locum, quem apud te is teneret, quam in partem provinciae maxime putaret te velle ut in succedendo primum venirem; cum ille mihi respondisset nihil me tibi gratius facere posse, quam si ad Sidam navigassem, etsi minus dignitatis habebat ille adventus et ad multas res mihi minus erat aptus, tamen ita me dixi esse facturum. Idem ego; cum L. Clodium Corcyrae convenissem, hominem ita tibi coniunctum, ut mihi, cum illo cum loquerer, tecum loqui viderer, dixi ei me ita facturum esse, ut in eam partem, quam Phania rogasset, primum venirem; tunc ille, mihi cum gratias egisset, magno opere a me petivit, ut Laodiceam protinus irem; te in prima provincia velle esse, ut quam primum decederes; quin, nisi ego successor essem, quem tu cuperes videre, te antea, quam tibi successum esset, decessurum fuisse—quod quidem erat consentaneum cum iis litteris, quas ego Romae acceperam, ex quibus perspexisse mihi videbar, quam festinares decedere—; respondi Clodio me ita esse facturum ac multo quidem libentius, quam si illud esset faciendum, quod promiseram Phaniae: itaque et consilium mutavi et ad te statim mea manu scriptas litteras misi, quas quidem ex tuis litteris intellexi satis mature ad te esse perlatas. Hoc ego meo facto valde detector, nihil enim potuit fieri amantius; considera nunc vicissim tuum: non modo ibi non fuisti, ubi me quam primum videre posses, sed eo discessisti, quo ego te ne persequi quidem possem triginta diebus, qui tibi ad decedendum lege, ut opinor, Cornelia constituti essent, ut tuum factum iis, qui, quo animo inter nos simus, ignorant, alieni hominis, ut levissime dicam, et fugientis congressum, meum vero coniunctissimi et amicissimi esse videatur. Ac mihi tamen, antequam in provinciam veni, redditae sunt a te litterae, quibus etsi te Tarsum proficisci demonstrabas, tamen mihi non dubiam spem mei conveniendi afferebas, cum interea, credo equidem, malevoli homines—late enim patet hoc vitium et est in multis—. sed tamen probabilem materiem nacti sermonis ignari meae constantiae conabantur alienare a te voluntatem meam, qui te forum Tarsi agere, statuere multa, decernere, iudicare dicerent, quam posses iam suspicari tibi esse successum, quae ne ab iis quidem fieri solerent, qui brevi tempore sibi succedi putarent. Horum ego sermone non movebar, quin etiam, credas mihi velim, si quid tu ageres, levari me putabam molestia et ex annua provincia, quae mihi longa videretur, prope iam undecim mensum provinciam factam esse gaudebam, si absenti mihi unius mensis labor detractus esset: illud, vere dicam, me movet, in tanta militum paucitate abesse tres cohortes, quae sint plenissimae, nec me scire ubi sint; molestissime autem fero, quod, te ubi visurus sim, nescio, eoque ad te tardius scripsi, quod quotidie te ipsum exspectabam, cum interea ne litteras quidem ullas accepi, quae me docerent, quid ageres aut ubi te visurus essem. Itaque virum fortem mihique in primis probatum, D. Antonium, praefectum evocatorum, misi ad te, cui, si tibi videretur, cohortes traderes, ut, dum tempus anni esset idoneum, aliquid negotii gerere possem: in quo, tuo consilio ut me sperarem esse usurum, et amicitia nostra et litterae tuae fecerant, quod ne nunc quidem despero; sed plane, quando aut ubi te visurus sim, nisi ad me scripseris, ne suspicari quidem possum. Ego, ut me tibi amicissimum esse et aequi et iniqui intelligant, curabo: de tuo in me animo iniquis secus existimandi videris nonnihil loci dedisse; id si correxeris, mihi valde gratum erit. Et, ut habere rationem possis, quo loco me salva lege Cornelia convenias, ego in provinciam veni pridie Kalendas Sextiles, iter in Ciliciam facio per Cappadociam, castra movi ab Iconio pridie Kalendas Septembres. Nunc tu et ex diebus et ex ratione itineris, si putabis me esse conveniendum, constitues, quo loco id commodissime fieri possit et quo die.