Letter 9.18

While I was at leisure at my Tusculan estate, because I had sent my pupils ahead to meet me, so that they might reconcile me as much as possible with their intimate friend, I received your letter, full of charm. From it I understood that my plan is approved by you: that, just as the tyrant Dionysius, when driven from Syracuse, is said to have opened a school at Corinth, so I, with the courts abolished and my forensic kingdom lost, have begun to run what amounts to a school. What can I say? The plan delights me too, for I gain many things by it. First, what is most needed now, I fortify myself for these times. What this amounts to, I do not know; I only see that so far no one's plan seems to me preferable to this; unless perhaps it would have been better to die -- in bed, I confess, but it did not happen; in battle I was not. As for the rest, Pompey, your Lentulus, Scipio, Afranius -- they all perished disgracefully. "But Cato magnificently." Well, that at any rate will be permitted whenever we wish. Let us only take care that it is not as necessary for us as it was for him, and this is what I am working at. So that is the first point. The second follows: I am improving personally -- first in health, which I had lost by interrupting my exercises; then that very faculty of speech, if I ever had any, would have dried up had I not returned to these exercises. The last point, which you may perhaps consider the first: I have now dispatched more peacocks than you have young pigeons. You are amusing yourself there with Haterius's gravy; I am enjoying myself here with Hirtius's. Come then, if you are a man, and learn from me those introductory principles you are looking for, though a pig may be teaching Minerva. But I shall see to the details. If you cannot sell your property taken in payment and cannot fill a pot with denarii, you will have to migrate back to Rome. It is better to have indigestion here than to starve there. I see you have lost your property. I hope your friends there have too. So you are done for unless you take precautions. You can make it to Rome on that mule you say is all you have left, since you have eaten the nag. There will be a chair for you in the school next to mine, like an assistant teacher's; a cushion will follow.

CDLXXI (Fam. IX, 18) TO L. PAPIRIUS PAETUS (AT NAPLES) TUSCULUM (JULY) Being quite at leisure in my Tusculan villa, because I had sent my pupils to meet him, that they might at the same time present me in as favourable a light as possible to their friend, I received your most delightful letter, from which I learnt that you approved my idea of having begun — now that legal proceedings are abolished and my old supremacy in the forum is lost — to keep a kind of school, just as Dionysius , when expelled from Syracuse , is said to have opened a school at Corinth . In short, I too am delighted with the idea, for I secure many advantages. First and foremost, I am strengthening my position in view of the present crisis, and that is of primary importance at this time. How much that amounts to I don't know: I only see that as at present advised I prefer no one's policy to this, unless, of course, it had been better to have died. In one's own bed, I confess it might have been, but that did not occur: and as to the field of battle, I was not there. The rest indeed-Pompey, your friend Lentulus , Afranius — perished ingloriously. But, it may be said, Cato died a noble death. Well, that at any rate is in our power when we will: let us only do our best to prevent its being as necessary to us as it was to him. That is what I am doing. So that is the first thing I had to say. The next is this: I am improving, in the first place in health, which I had lost from giving up all exercise of my lungs. In the second place, my oratorical faculty, such as it was, would have completely dried up, had I not gone back to these exercises. The last thing I have to say, which I rather think you will consider most important of all, is this: I have now demolished more peacocks than you have young pigeons) You there revel in Haterian law-sauce, I here in Hirtian hot-sauce. Come then, if you are half a man, and learn from me the maxims which you seek: yet it is a case of" a pig teaching Minerva ." But it will be my business to see to that: as for you, if you can't find purchasers for your foreclosures and so fill your pot with denarii back you must come to Rome . It is better to die of indigestion here, than of starvation there. I see you have lost money: I hope these friends of yours have done the same. You are a ruined man if you don't look out. You may possibly get to Rome on the only mule that you say you have left, since you have eaten up your pack horse . Your seat in the school, as second master, will be next to mine: the honour of a cushion will come by-and-by.

XVIII. Scr. in Tusculano exeunte mense Quinctili (ante VII. K. Sext.) a.u.c. 708. CICERO S. D. PAETO. Cum essem otiosus in Tusculano, propterea quod discipulos obviam miseram, ut eadem me quam maxime conciliarent familiari suo, accepi tuas litteras plenissimas suavitatis, ex quibus intellexi probari tibi meum consilium, quod, ut Dionysius tyrannus, cum Syracusis pulsus esset, Corinthi dicitur ludum aperuisse, sic ego sublatis iudiciis amisso regno forensi ludum quasi habere coeperim. Quid quaeris? me quoque delectat consilium; multa enim consequor: primum, id quod maxime nunc opus est, munio me ad haec tempora. Id cuiusmodi sit, nescio; tantum video, nullius adhuc consilium me huic anteponere; nisi forte mori melius fuit: in lectulo, fateor, sed non accidit; in acie non fui; ceteri quidem, Pompeius, Lentulus tuus, Scipio, Afranius foede perierunt. "At Cato praeclare." Iam istuc quidem, cum volemus, licebit; demus modo operam, ne tam necesse nobis sit, quam illi fuit, id quod agimus. Ergo hoc primum. Sequitur illud: ipse melior fio, primum valetudine, quam intermissis exercitationibus amiseram; deinde ipsa illa, si qua fuit in me facultas orationis, nisi me ad has exercitationes rettulissem, exaruisset. Extremum illud est, quod tu nescio an primum putes: plures iam pavones confeci, quam tu pullos columbinos; tu istic te Hateriano iure delectas, ego me hic Hirtiano. Veni igitur, si vir es, et disce a me prolegom°naw, quas quaeris; etsi sus Minervam; sed, quomodo, videro. Si aestimationes tuas vendere non potes neque ollam denariorum implere, Romam tibi remigrandum est: satius est hic cruditate, quam istic fame. Video te bona perdidisse; spero item istic familiares tuos: actum igitur de te est, nisi provides. Potes mulo isto, quem tibi reliquum dicis esse, quoniam cantherium comedisti, Romam pervehi. Sella tibi erit in ludo tamquam hypodidascalo proxima; eam pulvinus sequetur.