Marcus Tullius Cicero→Appius Claudius Pulcher|c. 51 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Cilicia|AI-assisted
I will send you a fuller letter when I have more leisure. I write this in haste because Brutus's messengers have come to me at Laodicea and said they are hurrying to Rome. So I am giving them no letters except for you and Brutus.
Commissioners from Appia have handed me a roll from you full of very unfounded complaints that I had hindered their building by an official reply. In the same letter you ask me to grant them permission to continue building as soon as possible, so that winter will not stop them. At the same time, you complain that I forbade them to raise a tax until I had granted leave after investigation. You say this amounted to stopping the work, since I could not hold such an investigation until after my return from Cilicia in winter.
Hear my answer to all these charges, and see how much fairness there is in your complaint. First, when people came to me saying that unbearable exactions were being imposed on them, what was unfair in my writing to forbid any further action until I had examined the facts and the merits of the case? Was it that I could not do so until winter? That is what you say in your letter. As though, for an investigation, I had to go to them, rather than they come to me.
"Such a long way off," you say. What? When you gave them that letter, in which you criticized me for preventing them from finishing their building before winter, did you suppose they would not come to me? On that point, at least, they made a ridiculous mistake: the letter they brought asking to be allowed to carry on the work in summer was delivered to me after midwinter.
But let me tell you, first, that the number of those appealing against the tax is far larger than the number who want it imposed; and second, that I will nevertheless do what I suppose you wish. So much for the people of Appia.
I have been told by Pausanias, Lentulus's freedman and my marshal, that you complained to him that I did not go out to meet you. You think I treated you with contempt and that my conduct was the height of arrogance. Your servant came to me nearly at midnight and announced that you intended to come to meet me at Iconium before daybreak. Since it was uncertain by which of the two roads you would come, for there were two, I sent Varro, your very close friend, to meet you by one, and Quintus Lepta, my chief engineer, by the other. I instructed them both to hurry back to me first, so that I could set out to meet you. Lepta rushed back and told me you had already passed my camp. I hurried to Iconium. You know the rest.
Was I likely not to try to meet you? You are an Appius Claudius, an imperator, and a friend. That last point is strongest of all. Besides, in matters of etiquette of this kind I am usually, if anything, too precise for my official rank and position.
But enough of this. Pausanias also told me that you said, "An Appius went to meet a Lentulus, a Lentulus went to meet an Ampius, and a Cicero refused to meet an Appius?" Good heavens. Do even you, a man in my judgment of the highest good sense, great learning, the widest experience, and, I may add, politeness, which the Stoics quite rightly count among the virtues, suppose that any Appius-name or Lentulus-name has more influence with me than distinctions earned by virtue?
Before I had gained what people consider the most splendid honors, I was never dazzled by those high-sounding names of yours. I regarded as great the men who had passed them down to you. But after I had obtained and administered the highest offices of state in such a way that I thought nothing remained for me to acquire in honor or glory, I hoped that I had become, never indeed superior to you nobles, but at least your equal. Nor did I perceive that Pompey, whom I place above anyone who has ever lived, or Publius Lentulus, whom I place above myself, thought otherwise.
If you think differently, you will not go wrong if, to understand high birth and nobility, you study a little more carefully what Athenodorus son of Sandon says on the subject.
But to return to the point: I want you to believe that I am not only your friend but your very warm friend. By every act of kindness in my power I will certainly make it unmistakable to you. If your object, however, is to be thought in my absence to be under a lighter obligation to me, I release you from that anxiety. "For at my side are those who honor me, and above all Zeus of wise counsel."
If, on the other hand, you are naturally inclined to hunt for faults, you will not succeed in making me less zealous for you. You will only make me rather less concerned about how you receive my goodwill. I write this to you with some frankness, relying on my awareness of my services and friendly feeling, which I deliberately adopted and will preserve as long as you are willing for me to do so.
CCXLIII (Fam. III, 7) TO APPIUS CLAUDIUS PULCHER (AT ROME) LAODICEA (FEBRUARY) I will write to you at greater length when I have got more leisure. I write this in haste, Brutus 's messengers having come to me at Laodicea and told me that they are hurrying off to Rome . Accordingly, I am giving them no letters except for you and Brutus . Commissioners from Appia have handed me in a roll from you full of most ill-founded complaints of my having hindered their building by a rescript. Moreover, in the same letter you ask me to grant them permission to go on building as soon as possible, lest they should be stopped by winter; and at the same time you complain of my forbidding them to raise a tax till I granted them leave to do so after investigation: for you say that it was tantamount to stopping the work, seeing that I could not hold such investigation till after my return from Cilicia at winter time. Hear my answer to all these charges, and see how much fairness there is in your expostulation. In the first place, on my being approached by persons professing that unbearable exactions were being made upon them, what unfairness was there in my writing to forbid their proceeding till I had investigated the facts and the merits of the case? In my not being able to do so till winter? For that is what you say in your letter. As though for purposes of investigation I must go to them, and not they come to me! “Such a long way off;” you say. What! at the time you delivered that letter to them, in which you remonstrated with me against preventing them from finishing their building before winter, did you suppose that they would not come to me? However, on that point, at least, they made a ridiculous blunder: for the letter they brought with them asking to be allowed to carry on the work in the summer, they delivered to me after midwinter. But let me tell you, first, that the number of those appealing against the tax is far in excess of those who wish it levied; and, second, that I will, nevertheless, do what I may suppose you to wish. So much for the Appiani. I have been informed by Pausanias , Lentulus 's freedman and my marshal, that you had complained to him of my not having gone to meet you. I treated you with contempt, you think,' and my conduct was the height of arrogance! Your servant having come to me nearly at midnight and announced that you intended coming to meet me at Iconium before daybreak, and it being uncertain by which of the two roads (for there were two), I sent your most intimate friend Varro to meet you by one, and Q. Lepta, my captain of engineers, by the other. I charged them both to hasten back to me first, in order that I might start to meet you. Lepta came hurrying back and told me that you had already passed my camp. I came in all haste to Iconium . The rest you already know. Was I likely not to try and meet you? You — an Appius Claudius — an imperator — in spite of immemorial custom — lastly (and this is the strongest point of all) a friend. Considering, too, that in such matters of etiquette I am usually even too precise for my official rank and position. But enough of this. Pausanias also told me that you said, “What an Appius went to meet a Lentulus , a Lentulus an Ampius , and a Cicero refuse to meet an Appius ?” Heavens! do even you — a man, in my opinion, of supreme good sense, of great learning, of the widest knowledge of affairs, and I may add a man of politeness (which the Stoics are quite right in counting among the virtues) — do you, I say, suppose that any Appiusism or Lentulusism has more influence with me than the distinctions bestowed by virtue? Before I had earned what are held by mankind to be the most splendid honours, I yet was never dazzled by those high-sounding names of yours: it was the men who had bequeathed them to you that I regarded as great. But when I had so obtained and so administered the highest offices of state, as to make me think that there was nothing left for me to acquire in furtherance of my honour or glory, I hoped that I had become, never indeed the superior, but at least the equal of you nobles. Nor, by Hercules , did I perceive that Pompey , whom I put above anybody who has ever lived, nor P. Lentulus , whom I put above myself, take any other view. If you think otherwise, you will not go wrong if, in order to understand what high birth and nobility are, you would study somewhat more carefully what Athenodorus , son of Sardon, says on this subject. But to return to the point — I would have you believe that I am not only your friend, but your very warm friend. I will assuredly by every act of kindness in my power make it possible for you to judge that to be unmistakably the case. As for yourself, however, if your object is to be thought, in my absence, to be under a less heavy obligation to me, I free you from that anxiety: “For by my side are those To honour me, and, chief, right-counselling Zeus .” If, however, you are by nature prone to spy out faults, you will not, indeed, succeed in making me less zealous for you; but you will succeed in making me rather more indifferent as to how you take my goodwill. I write this to you with some candour, relying on the consciousness of my services and my friendly feeling, which, as it was deliberately adopted, I shall preserve as long as you are willing that I should do so.
VII. Scr. Laodiceae circiter Id. Februarias a.u.c. 704. M. CICERO S. D. AP. PULCHRO.
Pluribus verbis ad te scribam, cum plus otii nactus ero: haec scripsi subito, cum Bruti pueri Laodiceae me convenissent et se Romam properare dixissent; itaque nullas iis praeterquam ad te et ad Brutum dedi litteras. Legati Appiani mihi volumen a te plenum querelae iniquissimae reddiderunt, quod eorum aedificationem litteris meis impedissem; eadem autem epistula petebas, ut eos quam primum, ne in hiemem inciderent, ad facultatem aedificandi liberarem, et simul peracute querebare, quod eos tributa exigere vetarem, priusquam ego re cognita permisissem; genus enim quoddam fuisse impediendi, cum ego cognoscere non possem, nisi cum ad hiemem me ex Cilicia recepissem. Ad omnia accipe et cognosce aequitatem expostulationis tuae: primum, cum ad me aditum esset ab iis, qui dicerent a se intolerabilia tributa exigi, quid habuit iniquitatis me scribere, ne facerent, antequam ego rem causamque cognossem? Non poteram, credo, ante hiemem; sic enim scribis: quasi vero ad cognoscendum ego ad illos, non illi ad me venire debuerint. "Tam longe?" inquis. Quid? cum dabas iis litteras, per quas mecum agebas, ne eos impedirem, quo minus ante hiemem aedificarent, non eos ad me venturos arbitrabare? tametsi id quidem fecerunt ridicule; quas enim litteras afferebant, ut opus aestate facere possent, eas mihi post brumam reddiderunt. Sed scito et multo plures esse, qui de tributis recusent, quam qui exigi velint, et me tamen, quod te velle existimem, esse facturum. De Appianis hactenus. A Pausania, Lentuli liberto, accenseo meo, audivi, cum diceret te secum esse questum, quod tibi obviam non prodissem. Scilicet contempsi te, nec potest fieri me quidquam superbius! cum puer tuus ad me secunda fere vigilia venisset isque te ante lucem Iconium mihi venturum nuntiasset, incertumque, utra via, cum essent duae, altera Varronem, tuum familiarissimum, altera Q. Leptam, praefectum fabrum meum, tibi obviam misi. Mandavi utrique eorum, ut ante ad me excurrerent, ut tibi obviam prodire possem: currens Lepta venit mihique nuntiavit te iam castra praetergressum esse; confestim Iconium veni; cetera iam tibi nota sunt. An ego tibi obviam non prodirem, primum Ap. Claudio, deinde imperatori, deinde more maiorum, deinde, quod caput est, amico? qui in isto genere multo etiam ambitiosius facere soleam, quam honos meus et dignitas postulat. Sed haec hactenus: illud idem Pausania dicebat te dixisse: "quid? Appius Lentulo, Lentulus Ampio processit obviam, Cicero Appio noluit?" Quaeso, etiamne tu has ineptias, homo mea sententia summa prudentia, multa etiam doctrina, plurimo rerum usu, addo urbanitatem, quae est virtus, ut Stoici rectissime putant? ullam Appietatem aut Lentulitatem valere apud me plus quam ornamenta virtutis existimas? Cum ea consecutus nondum eram, quae sunt hominum opinionibus amplissima, tamen ista vestra nomina numquam sum admiratus; viros eos, qui ea vobis reliquissent, magnos arbitrabar: postea vero quam ita et cepi et gessi maxima imperia, ut mihi nihil neque ad honorem neque ad gloriam acquirendum putarem, superiorem quidem numquam, sed parem vobis me speravi esse factum. Nec mehercule aliter vidi existimare vel Cn. Pompeium, quem omnibus, qui umquam fuerunt, vel P. Lentulum, quem mihi ipsi antepono: tu si aliter existimas, nihil errabis, si paullo diligentius, ut, quid sit eugeneia , quid sit nobilitas, intelligas, Athenodorus, Sandonis filius, quid de his rebus dicat, attenderis. Sed, ut ad rem redeam, me tibi non amicum modo, verum etiam amicissimum existimes velim: profecto omnibus officiis meis efficiam, ut ita esse vere possis iudicare. Tu autem si id agis, ut minus mea causa, dum ego absim, debere videaris, quam ego tua laborarim, libero te ista cura: par' emoige kai alloi hoi ke me timêsousi, malista de mêtieta Zeus. Si autem natura es philaitios , illud non perficies quo minus tua causa velim, hoc assequere, ut, quam in partem tu accipias, minus laborem. Haec ad te scripsi liberius fretus conscientia officii mei benevolentiaeque, quam a me certo iudicio susceptam, quoad tu voles, conservabo.
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I will send you a fuller letter when I have more leisure. I write this in haste because Brutus's messengers have come to me at Laodicea and said they are hurrying to Rome. So I am giving them no letters except for you and Brutus.
Commissioners from Appia have handed me a roll from you full of very unfounded complaints that I had hindered their building by an official reply. In the same letter you ask me to grant them permission to continue building as soon as possible, so that winter will not stop them. At the same time, you complain that I forbade them to raise a tax until I had granted leave after investigation. You say this amounted to stopping the work, since I could not hold such an investigation until after my return from Cilicia in winter.
Hear my answer to all these charges, and see how much fairness there is in your complaint. First, when people came to me saying that unbearable exactions were being imposed on them, what was unfair in my writing to forbid any further action until I had examined the facts and the merits of the case? Was it that I could not do so until winter? That is what you say in your letter. As though, for an investigation, I had to go to them, rather than they come to me.
"Such a long way off," you say. What? When you gave them that letter, in which you criticized me for preventing them from finishing their building before winter, did you suppose they would not come to me? On that point, at least, they made a ridiculous mistake: the letter they brought asking to be allowed to carry on the work in summer was delivered to me after midwinter.
But let me tell you, first, that the number of those appealing against the tax is far larger than the number who want it imposed; and second, that I will nevertheless do what I suppose you wish. So much for the people of Appia.
I have been told by Pausanias, Lentulus's freedman and my marshal, that you complained to him that I did not go out to meet you. You think I treated you with contempt and that my conduct was the height of arrogance. Your servant came to me nearly at midnight and announced that you intended to come to meet me at Iconium before daybreak. Since it was uncertain by which of the two roads you would come, for there were two, I sent Varro, your very close friend, to meet you by one, and Quintus Lepta, my chief engineer, by the other. I instructed them both to hurry back to me first, so that I could set out to meet you. Lepta rushed back and told me you had already passed my camp. I hurried to Iconium. You know the rest.
Was I likely not to try to meet you? You are an Appius Claudius, an imperator, and a friend. That last point is strongest of all. Besides, in matters of etiquette of this kind I am usually, if anything, too precise for my official rank and position.
But enough of this. Pausanias also told me that you said, "An Appius went to meet a Lentulus, a Lentulus went to meet an Ampius, and a Cicero refused to meet an Appius?" Good heavens. Do even you, a man in my judgment of the highest good sense, great learning, the widest experience, and, I may add, politeness, which the Stoics quite rightly count among the virtues, suppose that any Appius-name or Lentulus-name has more influence with me than distinctions earned by virtue?
Before I had gained what people consider the most splendid honors, I was never dazzled by those high-sounding names of yours. I regarded as great the men who had passed them down to you. But after I had obtained and administered the highest offices of state in such a way that I thought nothing remained for me to acquire in honor or glory, I hoped that I had become, never indeed superior to you nobles, but at least your equal. Nor did I perceive that Pompey, whom I place above anyone who has ever lived, or Publius Lentulus, whom I place above myself, thought otherwise.
If you think differently, you will not go wrong if, to understand high birth and nobility, you study a little more carefully what Athenodorus son of Sandon says on the subject.
But to return to the point: I want you to believe that I am not only your friend but your very warm friend. By every act of kindness in my power I will certainly make it unmistakable to you. If your object, however, is to be thought in my absence to be under a lighter obligation to me, I release you from that anxiety. "For at my side are those who honor me, and above all Zeus of wise counsel."
If, on the other hand, you are naturally inclined to hunt for faults, you will not succeed in making me less zealous for you. You will only make me rather less concerned about how you receive my goodwill. I write this to you with some frankness, relying on my awareness of my services and friendly feeling, which I deliberately adopted and will preserve as long as you are willing for me to do so.
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
VII. Scr. Laodiceae circiter Id. Februarias a.u.c. 704. M. CICERO S. D. AP. PULCHRO.
Pluribus verbis ad te scribam, cum plus otii nactus ero: haec scripsi subito, cum Bruti pueri Laodiceae me convenissent et se Romam properare dixissent; itaque nullas iis praeterquam ad te et ad Brutum dedi litteras. Legati Appiani mihi volumen a te plenum querelae iniquissimae reddiderunt, quod eorum aedificationem litteris meis impedissem; eadem autem epistula petebas, ut eos quam primum, ne in hiemem inciderent, ad facultatem aedificandi liberarem, et simul peracute querebare, quod eos tributa exigere vetarem, priusquam ego re cognita permisissem; genus enim quoddam fuisse impediendi, cum ego cognoscere non possem, nisi cum ad hiemem me ex Cilicia recepissem. Ad omnia accipe et cognosce aequitatem expostulationis tuae: primum, cum ad me aditum esset ab iis, qui dicerent a se intolerabilia tributa exigi, quid habuit iniquitatis me scribere, ne facerent, antequam ego rem causamque cognossem? Non poteram, credo, ante hiemem; sic enim scribis: quasi vero ad cognoscendum ego ad illos, non illi ad me venire debuerint. "Tam longe?" inquis. Quid? cum dabas iis litteras, per quas mecum agebas, ne eos impedirem, quo minus ante hiemem aedificarent, non eos ad me venturos arbitrabare? tametsi id quidem fecerunt ridicule; quas enim litteras afferebant, ut opus aestate facere possent, eas mihi post brumam reddiderunt. Sed scito et multo plures esse, qui de tributis recusent, quam qui exigi velint, et me tamen, quod te velle existimem, esse facturum. De Appianis hactenus. A Pausania, Lentuli liberto, accenseo meo, audivi, cum diceret te secum esse questum, quod tibi obviam non prodissem. Scilicet contempsi te, nec potest fieri me quidquam superbius! cum puer tuus ad me secunda fere vigilia venisset isque te ante lucem Iconium mihi venturum nuntiasset, incertumque, utra via, cum essent duae, altera Varronem, tuum familiarissimum, altera Q. Leptam, praefectum fabrum meum, tibi obviam misi. Mandavi utrique eorum, ut ante ad me excurrerent, ut tibi obviam prodire possem: currens Lepta venit mihique nuntiavit te iam castra praetergressum esse; confestim Iconium veni; cetera iam tibi nota sunt. An ego tibi obviam non prodirem, primum Ap. Claudio, deinde imperatori, deinde more maiorum, deinde, quod caput est, amico? qui in isto genere multo etiam ambitiosius facere soleam, quam honos meus et dignitas postulat. Sed haec hactenus: illud idem Pausania dicebat te dixisse: "quid? Appius Lentulo, Lentulus Ampio processit obviam, Cicero Appio noluit?" Quaeso, etiamne tu has ineptias, homo mea sententia summa prudentia, multa etiam doctrina, plurimo rerum usu, addo urbanitatem, quae est virtus, ut Stoici rectissime putant? ullam Appietatem aut Lentulitatem valere apud me plus quam ornamenta virtutis existimas? Cum ea consecutus nondum eram, quae sunt hominum opinionibus amplissima, tamen ista vestra nomina numquam sum admiratus; viros eos, qui ea vobis reliquissent, magnos arbitrabar: postea vero quam ita et cepi et gessi maxima imperia, ut mihi nihil neque ad honorem neque ad gloriam acquirendum putarem, superiorem quidem numquam, sed parem vobis me speravi esse factum. Nec mehercule aliter vidi existimare vel Cn. Pompeium, quem omnibus, qui umquam fuerunt, vel P. Lentulum, quem mihi ipsi antepono: tu si aliter existimas, nihil errabis, si paullo diligentius, ut, quid sit eugeneia , quid sit nobilitas, intelligas, Athenodorus, Sandonis filius, quid de his rebus dicat, attenderis. Sed, ut ad rem redeam, me tibi non amicum modo, verum etiam amicissimum existimes velim: profecto omnibus officiis meis efficiam, ut ita esse vere possis iudicare. Tu autem si id agis, ut minus mea causa, dum ego absim, debere videaris, quam ego tua laborarim, libero te ista cura: par' emoige kai alloi hoi ke me timêsousi, malista de mêtieta Zeus. Si autem natura es philaitios , illud non perficies quo minus tua causa velim, hoc assequere, ut, quam in partem tu accipias, minus laborem. Haec ad te scripsi liberius fretus conscientia officii mei benevolentiaeque, quam a me certo iudicio susceptam, quoad tu voles, conservabo.