Letter 5.10

Written in Illyria at the beginning of the year 710 from the founding of the city [44 BC]. Vatinius to his friend Cicero, greetings. If you are well, it is good; and we too are well. About your Dionysius I have so far dug up nothing, and all the less because the Dalmatian cold, which drove him out of those parts, has chilled me here as well; but nevertheless I shall not give up until I unearth him at some point. And yet you lay all sorts of hard commands upon me: about Catilius you wrote me something or other by way of a most painstaking plea for mercy. Away with you and your friend Sextus Servilius! For by Hercules I too love the man; but is it men of this sort that you people take on as clients, causes of this sort that you take up? A man the most cruel of all, who slew, carried off, and utterly destroyed so many freeborn persons, mothers of families, and Roman citizens, and laid waste whole regions? An ape, not half a man, took up arms against me, and I captured him in war. But nevertheless, my dear Cicero, what can I do? By Hercules I desire everything that you command me; the punishment and execution that I was going to inflict on the man whom I had captured, I remit and pardon for your sake: but what can I answer to those who, on account of their goods plundered, their ships stormed, their brothers, children, and parents slain, demand legal action? If by Hercules I had the brazen face of Appius, in whose place I have been chosen as successor, even so I could not bear up under this. What then is to be done? I shall diligently do everything that I know you wish. He is being defended by Quintus Volusius, your pupil, in case perhaps that circumstance may be able to put our adversaries to flight; in that lies our greatest hope. As for us, if there is any need over there, you will defend us: Caesar is still doing me an injustice; about my thanksgivings and my exploits in Dalmatia he still makes no report, as though I had not performed deeds in Dalmatia that deserve the most fully justified triumph! For if this is what must be waited for, until I bring the whole war to a close, there are twenty ancient towns of Dalmatia, while those that they themselves have annexed number more than sixty: unless I storm all of these, if no thanksgivings are decreed for me, I am in a far different position from that of the other commanders.

X.a. Scr. in Illyria ineunte a.u.c. 710. VATINIUS CICERONI SUO SAL. S. V. B. E. E. Q. V. De Dionysio tuo adhuc nihil extrico, et eo minus, quod me frigus Dalmaticum, quod illinc eiecit, etiam hic refrigeravit; sed tamen non desistam, quin illum aliquando eruam. Sed tamen omnia mihi dura imperas: de Catilio nescio quid ad me scripsisti deprecationis diligentissimae. Apage te cum nostro Sex. Servilio—nam mehercule ego quoque illum amo—; sed huiuscemodi vos clientes, huiusmodi causas recipitis? hominem unum omnium crudelissimum, qui tot ingenuos, matresfamilias, cives Romanos occidit, abripuit, disperdidit, regiones vastavit? simius, non semissis homo, contra me arma tulit, et eum bello cepi. Sed tamen, mi Cicero, quid facere possum? Omnia mehercule cupio, quae tu mihi imperas; meam animadversionem et supplicium, quo usurus eram in eum, quem cepissem, remitto tibi et condono: quid illis respondere possum, qui ob sua bona direpta, naves expugnatas, fratres, liberos, parentes occisos actiones expostulant? Si mehercules Appii os haberem, in cuius locum suffectus sum, tamen hoc sustinere non possem. Quid ergo est? Faciam omnia sedulo, quae te sciam velle. Defenditur a Q. Volusio, tuo discipulo, si forte ea res poterit adversarios fugare; in eo maxima spes est. Nos, si quid erit istic opus, tu defendes: Caesar adhuc mihi iniuriam facit; de meis supplicationibus et rebus gestis Dalmaticis adhuc non refert, quasi vero non iustissimi triumphi in Dalmatia res gesserim! nam, si hoc exspectandum est, dum totum bellum conficiam, viginti oppida sunt Dalmatiae antiqua, quae ipsi sibi asciverunt, amplius sexaginta: haec nisi omnia expugno, si mihi supplicationes non decernuntur, longe alia condicione ego sum ac ceteri imperatores.