Letter 3.8

Although, so far as I could gather from your letter, I saw that you would not read this until you were near Rome, when the rash gossip of provincials would already have gone cold, still, because you wrote to me at such length about what unprincipled men are saying, I thought I should answer your letter, and answer it carefully, though briefly. Two parts of your letter, however, must almost be passed over in silence. They contain nothing definite or precise, except that by my looks and my silence I supposedly showed that I was no friend to you, and that this was made clear both from the tribunal while business was being conducted and at certain social gatherings. I can well understand that there is nothing in all this; yet, though there is nothing in it, I cannot even understand what the allegation is. This much I do know: many very marked statements made by me, both from the official seat and in ordinary private conversation, were highly complimentary to you and showed an eager desire to acknowledge the close ties between us. These could have been reported to you with perfect truth. As for the deputations, what could I have done with better taste or greater fairness than reduce the expenses of communities in deep financial distress while taking nothing away from your honor, especially since the communities themselves asked for it? I had not known on what a scale deputations were being sent on your account. When I was at Apamea, the leading men of many communities told me that large sums were being voted for deputations, though the communities were insolvent. Many thoughts came to me at once. First, I did not think that you, a man of wisdom and, to use the current language, culture, took any pleasure in deputations of that sort. I believe I argued this at some length in court at Synnada. Appius Claudius, I said, was commended to the senate and people of Rome not by the testimony of the people of Midaeum, for that was the community where the subject arose, but by the natural course of things. I had seen many cases in which deputations came to Rome to commend certain men, but I did not remember any instance in which a hearing was granted them to deliver their praise at a particular time or place. I said I was pleased with their display of feeling in showing gratitude to you for your services, but that the whole idea seemed to me quite unnecessary. If they wished by that measure to show their zeal, I would praise any man who did it at his own expense; I would allow it if the cost to the community did not exceed the law; I would refuse permission if it were unlimited. What fault can be found with that? The only possible one is what you go on to mention: that certain people thought my edict had been framed expressly to hinder these deputations of yours. Really, I think the wrong done to me lies less with those who argue this than with the man who opens his ears to such a suggestion. I drew up my edict at Rome. I added not a word to it except one clause that the publicani [tax contractors] asked me at Samos to transfer word for word from your edict into mine. The clause about reducing the expenses of communities was very carefully worded, and in it there are some new provisions useful to the communities, which I very much approve. But the clause that has given rise to the suspicion that I elaborated something meant to offend you is taken from earlier edicts. I was not so foolish as to think that men were being sent on their own private affairs when they were being sent first in your interest while you still held command, and second to give thanks not in some private assembly but in the senate, the council chamber of the whole world. Nor, when I ordered that no one should leave without my permission, did I exclude those who were unable to follow me to camp and across the Taurus. That, in fact, is the most ridiculous thing in your letter. Why did they need to follow me to camp or cross the Taurus when I arranged my journey from Laodicea to Iconium precisely so that the magistrates and deputies of all the districts north of Taurus, and of all the communities there, could meet me? Unless you think no deputations were arranged until I had crossed the Taurus. That is certainly not so. At Laodicea, Apamea, Synnada, Philomelium, and Iconium, in all of which I stayed for some time, every deputation of that kind was ready and waiting for me. And I want you to know this: I made no decree reducing or entirely remitting the expense of embassies except those that the leading men of the communities asked for, so that unnecessary expenses would not be added to the sale of the tax contract and to the very painful exactions, as you know, of the poll tax and door tax. When, moved not only by justice but by pity, I undertook to relieve communities that had been ruined, and ruined chiefly by their own magistrates, I could not be indifferent to that needless expense. If remarks of that kind were reported to you about me, you ought not to have believed them. But if you like this habit of attributing to others whatever occurs to your own mind, you are introducing a manner of conversation between friends that is not very courteous. If I had ever thought of casting a slur on your reputation in the province, I would not have referred to your son-in-law, nor to your freedman at Brundisium, nor to your chief engineer at Corcyra, about where you wished me to come. Therefore, on the advice of the greatest philosophers, who have written most brilliantly about friendship, banish expressions such as "they argued," "I maintained in reply," "they said this," and "I denied it." Do you suppose that I have never been told anything about you? Not even that, after asking me to come to Laodicea, you yourself crossed the Taurus? Or that on the very days when I was holding assizes at Apamea, Synnada, and Philomelium, you were doing the same at Tarsus? I will say no more, in case I seem to be doing exactly what I blame in you. I will only say this, and I say it sincerely: if you yourself feel what you say others are remarking, you are greatly at fault. If others say these things to you, you are not entirely free of fault for listening to them. My conduct in every part of our friendship will be found consistent and sincere. If anyone tries to make out that I had some hidden purpose, what better example could there be of my supposed cleverness than this: after always defending you while you were away, and that though I had no idea that I myself would ever need your defense while away, I should now give you the best possible excuse to abandon me in my absence from Rome? I make one exception: conversations in which, very often, something is said that I suppose you would prefer not to be said, namely abusive remarks about one of your legates, prefects, or military tribunes. But even here, by Hercules, nothing has occurred in my hearing more serious or affecting more people than what Clodius mentioned to me at Corcyra, when under this heading he complained loudly that you had been unfortunate in the dishonesty of others. Since comments of this kind are frequently made and, in my opinion, do not reflect on your personal honor, I have never provoked them, but I have not exerted myself to suppress them either. If anyone thinks that no one is ever sincerely reconciled with another, he does not prove our lack of sincerity; he betrays his own, and at the same time shows that he thinks no worse of me than of you. If, again, anyone dislikes my administration in the province and thinks himself injured by a certain difference between my arrangements and yours, though in fact we both acted conscientiously while taking different courses, I do not care to have such a man for a friend. Your generosity, as befitted a great noble, was on a larger scale in the province. If mine is somewhat more restricted, though your second year, because of the hardness of the times, somewhat clipped the wings of your generous and bountiful nature too, people should not be surprised. I have always been naturally disinclined to be lavish at others' expense, and I am influenced by the same hard times as everyone else: "I am sour to them to keep my conscience sweet." Your information about affairs in the city pleased me, both in itself and because you showed that you intended to keep all my commissions in mind. Among them there is one I ask you to regard as the most important: see that no additional responsibility or time is added to the business in which I am now engaged. Ask Hortensius, our fellow augur and friend, if he has ever thought or done anything for my sake, to abandon this proposal of his for a two-year term as well; nothing could be more unfriendly to me. To give you the information you want about my movements: I left Tarsus on October 7 for Amanus. I write this the next day from camp in the territory of Mopsuhestia. Whatever I do, I will write and tell you, and I will never send a letter home to my family without adding one directed to be delivered to you. As for your question about the Parthians, I think they were not Parthians at all. The Arabs who were there with semi-Parthian equipment are said to have all gone back. People say there is no enemy in Syria. Please write to me as often as possible about your affairs, mine, and the general state of the republic. About the last I am especially anxious, because I gather from your letter that our friend Pompey is about to go to Spain.

CCXXI (Fam. III, 8) TO APPIUS CLAUDIUS PULCHER (AT ROME) CILICIA, 8 OCTOBER: ALTHOUGH, as far as I have been able to gather from your letter, I see that you won't read this till you are at the gates of Rome , when the extremely reckless gossip of provincials will have become quite stale, yet, as you have written to me at such length about what unprincipled men are saying, I thought I ought to be careful to give your letter a brief answer. Two clauses of your epistle, however, must in a manner be passed over in silence: for they contain nothing that is definite or precise, beyond saying that alike by my looks and my silence I had shown that I was no friend to you: and that this had been made unmistakable both on my judicial seat, when business was going on, and at certain social parties. I can well understand that there is nothing in all this; yet, though there is nothing in it, I fail to understand even what the allegation is. I know thus much, indeed — that many observations of a very marked character, made by me both from the high official seat and on the level of private intercourse, which were exceedingly complimentary to you, and indicated an anxious desire to acknowledge the close ties between us, might have with strict truth been reported to you. For as to the legates, what could I have done in better taste or with greater regard to equity, than to diminish the expenses of states that were in great financial distress, and yet at the same time to detract nothing from your honour, especially as it was in answer to the petition of the states themselves? For I had not been aware of the scale on which deputations were being sent on your account. When I was at Apamea , the head men of many states informed me that large sums were being voted for legates, though the states were insolvent At this, many thoughts occurred to me at once. First, I did not think that you — a man of wisdom, and, to use the jargon of the day, a man of “culture ” — took any pleasure in deputations of that sort: and I believe I argued to that effect at some length in court at Synnada . In the first place (I said) Appius Claudius was commended to the senate and people of Rome , not by the evidence of the people of Midaeium (for it was in that state that the subject was started), but in the natural course of things: and, in the second place, I had seen many cases in which deputations had come to Rome to commend certain persons, but I never remembered any instance of a hearing being granted them, to deliver their panegyric at any particular time or place I was pleased (I said) with their display of feeling in being grateful to you for your services; but their whole idea appeared to me quite superfluous. If, however, they wished by that measure to show their zeal, I should commend any man who did it at his own expense; should allow of it if the expense to the state did not exceed the law; should refuse permission if it were unlimited. Well, what fault can be found with that? The only possible one is what you go on to say — that certain persons considered my edict to have been expressly framed with a view to hinder these deputations of yours. Really, I think it is not so much those who argue thus who do me a wrong, as he who opens his ears to such a proposition. I drew up my edict at Rome : I never added a word to it except a clause which the publicani in their interview with me at Samos , asked me to transfer word for word from your edict to my own. The clause referring to the diminishing the expenses of the states was very carefully worded; and in that clause there are some new provisions advantageous to the states, with which I am greatly pleased: but this clause, which has given birth to the suspicion of my elaborating something meant to be offensive to you, is taken from former edicts. For I was not so foolish as to hold that men were being deputed on their own private affairs, who were being sent, in the first place, in your interests while you were still in possession of imperium; and, in the second place, were being sent to deliver a vote of thanks, not in any private assembly, but in the council chamber of the whole world, the senate. Nor when I ordered that no one was to go without my leave, did I exclude those from doing so who might be unable to follow me to the camp and across the Taurus . That, in fact, is the most ridiculous thing in your letter: for what need was there for their following me to the camp or crossing the Taurus , when I arranged my journey from Laodicea as far as Iconium , with the express object of the magistrates and legates of all the dioceses north of Taurus , and of all the states there, meeting me? Unless you suppose that no deputations were arranged till I had crossed the Taurus ! That is certainly not so. For when I was at Laodicea , at Apamea , at Synnada , at Philomelium , at Iconium , in all of which towns I made some stay, there were ready waiting for me all the deputations of that kind. And yet I would have you know this, that I made no decree about diminishing or wholly remitting the expense of embassies, except such as the head men of the states asked for — that quite unnecessary expenses should not be added to the selling of the contract for the tribute, and the very galling exaction (as you know) of the poll-tax and door-tax. Now, when at the instigation not only of justice but of pity, I undertook to relieve from their distress the states that had been ruined, and ruined, too, chiefly through their own magistrates, I could not be indifferent to that source of unnecessary expense. For your part, if observations of that nature were reported to you in regard to me, you ought not to have believed them. But if you like this way of attributing to others whatever occurs to your own mind, you are introducing a style of conversation between friends which is not very courteous. Whereas if I had ever had any thought of casting a slur on your reputation in the province, I should not have referred to your son-in-law, nor to your freedman at Brundisium , nor to your prefect of engineers at Corcyra , as to where you wished me to come. Wherefore, on the advice of the greatest philosophers, who have written most brilliantly on the conduct of friendship, you may banish all expressions such as “they argued,” “I maintained in opposition,” “they said so,” “I denied it.” Do you suppose that I have never been told anything about you? Not even this — that, after having desired me to come to Laodicea , you yourself crossed the Taurus ? That on the same days as I was holding assizes at Apamea , Synnada , and Philomelium you were doing so at Tarsus ? I will say no more, lest I should seem to be doing exactly what I blame in you. I will only say this, and I feel it: if you feel in your own heart what you say that others are remarking, you are much to blame: but if others say these things to you, you are not entirely without fault in listening to them. My conduct in every particular of our friendship will be found to be consistent and sincere. But if anyone tries to make out that I had some ulterior object in view, could there be a better example of my supposed cunning than that, having always defended you while abroad — and that though I had no idea of ever requiring your defence while abroad myself — I should now give you the best possible excuse for abandoning me in my absence from town? I except from this denial one species of conversation, in which on very many occasions something is said, such as I presume you would prefer not being said — I mean when any abusive remark is made about any of your legates, prefects, or military tribunes. But even in regard to this nothing, by Hercules , has occurred in my hearing of a graver character, or reflecting on more persons, than what Clodius mentioned to me at Corcyra , when under that head he made a very loud complaint that you had been unfortunate in the dishonesty of others. Such observations as these, seeing that they are frequently made, and do not reflect, in my opinion, on your personal honour, I have never provoked, but neither have I exerted myself to repress them. If there is anyone who thinks that no man is ever sincerely reconciled with another, he does not prove our want of sincerity, but betrays his own, and at the same time shows that he thinks no worse of me than he does of you. But if, again, there is anyone who dislikes my administration in the province, and considers himself injured by a certain dissimilarity between my arrangements and yours — the fact being that we have both acted conscientiously, though we took different lines — such a man I do not care to have for a friend. Your liberality, as became a great noble, was on a larger scale in the province; if mine is somewhat more restricted — though your second year, owing to the hardness of the times, somewhat clipped the wings of your generous and bountiful nature — men ought not to be surprised, since I have always been naturally disinclined to be lavish at the expense of others, and am influenced by the same hard times as others are, “That I am sour to them to keep my conscience sweet.” Your giving me information about affairs in the city was pleasant to me, both for its own sake, and because you showed your intention of keeping all my commissions in mind. Among them there is one that I beg you to regard as supreme — see that to the business in which I am now engaged there should be no addition made either of responsibility or time; and to ask Hortensius , our fellow augur and friend, if ever he has thought or done anything for my sake, to give up this two-year proposal of his also, than which nothing could be more unfriendly to me. To give you the information you want about my proceedings, I left Tarsus on the 7th of October for Amanus . I write this on the day after that in camp, in the territory of Mopsuhestia . Whatever I do I will write and tell you, nor will I ever send a letter home to my family without adding one directed to be delivered to you. As to your question about the Parthians , I think they were not Parthians at all. The Arabs who were there with a semi- Parthian equipment, are said to have all gone back. People say that there is no enemy in Syria . Pray write to me as often as possible about both your own and my affairs, and on the state of the Republic generally. About the last I am the more anxious, because I gather from your letter that our friend Pompey is about to go to Spain.

VIII. Scr. in castris in agro Mopsuhestiae a. d. VIII. Idus Octobres a.u.c. 703. M. CICERO S. D. AP. PULCHRO. Etsi, quantum ex tuis litteris intelligere potui, videbam te hanc epistulam, cum ad urbem esses, lecturum refrigerato iam levissimo sermone hominum provincialium, tamen, cum tu tam multis verbis ad me de improborum oratione scripsisses, faciendum mihi putavi, ut tuis litteris brevi responderem. Sed prima duo capita epistulae tuae tacita mihi quodammodo relinquenda sunt; nihil enim habent, quod definitum sit aut certum, nisi me vultu et taciturnitate significasse tibi non esse amicum, idque pro tribunali, cum aliquid ageretur, et nonnullis in conviviis intelligi potuisse. Hoc totum nihil esse possum intelligere; sed, cum sit nihil, ne qui dicatur quidem intelligo: illud quidem scio, meos multos et illustres et ex superiore et ex aequo loco sermones habitos cum tua summa laude et cum magna significatione nostrae familiaritatis ad te vere potuisse deferri. Nam, quod ad legatos attinet, quid a me fieri potuit aut elegantius aut iustius, quam ut sumptus egentissimarum civitatum minuerem sine ulla imminutione dignitatis tuae, praesertim ipsis civitatibus postulantibus? nam mihi totum genus legationum tuo nomine proficiscentium notum non erat. Apameae cum essem, multarum civitatum principes ad me detulerunt sumptus decerni legatis nimis magnos, cum solvendo civitates non essent. Hic ego multa simul cogitavi. Primum te, hominem non solum sapientem, verum etiam, ut nunc loquimur, urbanum, non arbitrabar genere isto legationum delectari, idque me arbitror Synnadis pro tribunali multis verbis disputavisse: primum Ap. Claudium senatui populoque Romano non Midaeensium testimonio—in ea enim civitate mentio facta est—, sed sua sponte esse laudatum; deinde me ita vidisse accidere multis, ut eorum causa legationes Romam venirent, sed iis legationibus non meminisse [me] ullum tempus laudandi ant locum dari; studia mihi eorum placere, quod in te bene merito grati essent, consilium totum videri minime necessarium; si autem vellent declarare in eo officium suum, laudaturum me, si qui suo sumptu functus esset officio, concessurum, si legitimo, non permissurum, si infinito. Quid in me reprehendi potest? nisi quod addis visum esse quibusdam edictum meum quasi consulto ad istas legationes impediendas esse accommodatum. Iam non tam mihi videntur iniuriam facere ii, qui haec disputant, quam si cuius aures ad hanc disputationem patent. Romae composui edictum; nihil addidi, nisi quod, publicani me rogarunt, cum Samum ad me venissent, ut de tuo edicto totidem verbis transferrem in meum. Diligentissime scriptum caput est, quod pertinet ad minuendos sumptus civitatum: quo in capite sunt quaedam nova, salutaria civitatibus, quibus ego magno opere delector; hoc vero, ex quo suspicio nata est me exquisisse aliquid, in quo te offenderem, tralaticium est. Neque enim eram tam desipiens, ut privatae rei causa legari putarem, qui, et tibi non privato et pro re non privata sua, sed publica, non in privato, sed in publico orbis terrae consilio, id est in senatu, ut gratias agerent, mittebantur; neque, cum edixi, ne quis iniussu meo proficisceretur, exclusi eos, qui me in castra et qui trans Taurum persequi non possent; nam id est maxime in tuis litteris irridendum; quid enim erat, quod me persequerentur in castra Taurumve transirent, cum ego Laodicea usque ad Iconium iter ita fecerim, ut me omnium illarum dioecesium, quae cis Taurum sunt, omniumque earum civitatum magistratus legationesque convenirent? nisi forte postea coeperunt legare, quam ego Taurum transgressus sum: quod certe non ita est; cum enim Laodiceae, cum Apameae, cum Synnadis, cum Philomelii, cum Iconii essem, quibus in oppidis omnibus commoratus sum, omnes iam istius generis legationes erant constitutae. Atque hoc tamen te scire volo, me de isto sumptu legationum ant minuendo ant remittendo decrevisse nihil, nisi quod principes civitatum a me postulassent, ne in venditionem tributorum et illam acerbissimam exactionem, quam tu non ignoras, capitum atque ostiorum inducerentur sumptus minime necessarii; ego autem, cum hoc suscepissem non solum iustitia, sed etiam misericordia adductus, ut levarem miseriis perditas civitates et perditas maxime her magistratus suos, non potui in illo sumptu non necessario negligens esse. Tu, si istiusmodi sermones ad te delati de me sunt, non debuisti credere; si autem hoc genere delectaris, ut, quae tibi in mentem veniant, aliis attribuas, genus sermonis inducis in amicitiam minime liberale. Ego, si in provincia de tua fama detrahere umquam cogitassem, non ad generum tuum neque ad libertum Brundisii neque ad praefectum fabrum Corcyrae, quem in locum me venire velles, rettulissem. Quare potes doctissimis hominibus auctoribus, quorum sunt de amicitia gerenda praeclarissime scripti libri, genus hoc totum orationis tollere: "disputabant; ego contra disserebam: dicebant; ego negabam." An mihi de te nihil esse dictum umquam putas? ne hoc quidem, quod, cum me Laodiceam venire voluisses, Taurum ipse transisti? quod iisdem diebus meus conventus erat Apameae, Synnadae, Philomelii, tuus Tarsi? Non dicam plura, ne, in quo te obiurgem, id ipsum videar imitari: illud dicam, ut sentio: si ista, quae alios loqui dicis, ipse sentis, tua summa culpa est; sin autem alii tecum haec loquuntur, tua tamen, quod audis, culpa nonnulla est. Mea ratio in tota amicitia nostra constans et gravis reperietur; quod si qui me astutiorem fingit, quid potest esse calidius quam, cum te absentem semper defenderim, cum praesertim mihi usu venturum non arbitrarer, ut ego quoque a te absens defendendus essem, nunc committere, ut tu iure optimo me absentem deserere possis? Unum genus excipio sermonis, in quo persaepe aliquid dicitur, quod te putem nolle dici, si aut legatorum tuorum cuipiam aut praefectorum aut tribunorum militum male dicitur: quod tamen ipsum non mehercule adhuc accidit, me audiente ut aut gravius diceretur aut in plures, quam mecum Corcyrae Clodius est locutus, cum in eo genere maxime quereretur te aliorum improbitate minus felicem, fuisse. Hos ego sermones, quod et multi sunt et tuam existimationem, ut ego sentio, non offendunt, lacessivi numquam, sed non valde repressi. Si quis est, qui neminem bona fide in gratiam putet redire posse, non nostram is perfidiam coarguit, sed indicat suam, simulque non de me is peius quam de te existimat; sin autem quem mea instituta in provincia non delectant et quadam dissimilitudine institutorum meorum ac tuorum laedi se putat, cum uterque nostrum recte fecerit, sed non idem uterque secutus sit, hunc ego amicum habere non curo. Liberalitas tua, ut hominis nobilissimi, latius in provincia patuit: nostra si angustior est—etsi de tua prolixa beneficaque natura limavit aliquid posterior annus propter quandam tristitiam temporum—, non debent mirari homines, cum et natura semper ad largiendum ex alieno fuerim restrictior et temporibus, quibus alii moventur, iisdem ego movear, me esse acerbum sibi, ut sim dulcis mihi. De rebus urbanis quod me certiorem fecisti, cum per se mihi gratum fuit, tum quod significasti tibi omnia mea mandata curae fore; in quibus unum illud te praecipue rogo ut cures, ne quid mihi ad hoc negotii aut oneris accedat aut temporis, Hortensiumque, nostrum collegam et familiarem, roges, ut, si umquam mea causa quidquam aut sensit aut fecit, de hac quoque sententia bima decedat, qua mihi nihil potest esse inimicius. De nostris rebus quod scire vis, Tarso Nonis Octobribus ad Amanum versus profecti sumus; haec scripsi postridie eius diei, cum castra haberem in agro Mopsuhestiae. Si quid egero, scribam ad te, neque domum umquam ad me litteras mittam, quin adiungam eas, quas tibi reddi velim. De Parthis quod quaeris, fuisse nullos puto; Arabes qua fuerunt admixto Parthico ornatu, dicuntur omnes revertisse; hostem esse in Syria negant ullum. Tu velim ad me quam saepissime et de tuis rebus scribas et de meis et de omni rei publicae statu, de quo sum sollicitus eo magis, quod ex tuis litteris cognovi Pompeium nostrum in Hispaniam iturum.