Letter 302.3

To my master. 1. [...] they appended in their own dispatches. As for what was actually accomplished after my departure, you will learn it from the letters written to me by the commanders placed in charge of each operation. Our friend Sallustius, now called Fulvianus, will give you copies of them. For my part, so that you may also be able to set out the reasoning behind my decisions, I will send you my own letters too, in which whatever had to be done is laid out. And if you should want certain pictures as well, you will be able to get them from Fulvianus. Indeed, to bring you the more fully into the actual situation, as it were, I have charged Avidius Cassius and Martius Verus to draw up certain memoranda for me, which I will send you; from these you will come to know both the characters of the men and their judgment. But if you should wish me too to draw up some memorandum, indicate it to me; I will make whatever kind you wish, and I will make it as you direct. For I am prepared to undertake anything, so long as our affairs are illuminated by you. By all means do not disdain either the speeches to the senate or our addresses to the army. I will send you also the parleys I held with the barbarians: these will be of great service to you. 2. There is one thing I wish, not indeed to point out, as a pupil to his master, but to offer for your consideration: that you should linger a good while over the causes and the beginnings of the war, and also over those things that were badly managed in our absence; come slowly to my own doings. Moreover, I think it necessary that it be made plain how superior the Parthians were before my arrival, so that it may appear how much we accomplished. Whether, then, you ought to compress all of that, the way Thucydides set out the Fifty Years [the pentekontaetia, Thucydides' compressed account of the fifty years between the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars], or whether instead to speak a little more fully, yet not so as to spread out my affairs there and then [reserving the full treatment for later] - you yourself will discern. 3. In sum, my deeds are as great as they are, naturally, of whatever sort they are; but they will seem as great as you wish them to seem.

To my master, greeting. . . . . they subjoined to their letters. What was done, however, after I had set out you can learn from the despatches sent me by the commanders entrusted with each business. Our friend Sallustius, now called Fulvianus, will provide you with copies of them. But that you may be able also to give the reasons for my measures, I will send you my own letters as well, in which all that had to be done is clearly set forth. But if you want some sort of pictures besides, you can get them from Fulvianus. And to bring you into closer touch with the reality, I have directed Avidius Cassius and Martius Verus to draw up some memoranda for me, which I will send you, and you will be quite able from them to gauge the character of the men and their capacity, but if you wish me also to draw up a memorandum, instruct me as to the form of it which you prefer, and I will follow your directions. I am ready to fall in with any suggestions as long as my exploits are set in a bright light by you. Of course you will not overlook my speeches to the Senate and harangues to the army. I will send you also my parleys with the enemy. These will be of great assistance to you. One thing I wish not indeed to point out to you—the pupil to his master—but to offer for your consideration, that you should dwell at length on the causes and early stages of the war, and especially our ill success in my absence. Do not be in a hurry to come to my share. Further, I think it essential to make quite clear the great superiority of the Parthians before my arrival, that the magnitude of my achievements may be manifest. Whether, then, you should give only a sketch of all this, as Thucydides did in his Narrative of the Fifty Years War , or go a little more deeply into the subject without however expatiating upon it, as you would upon mine in the sequel, it is for you to decide. In short, my achievements, whatsoever their character, are no greater, of course, than they actually are, but they can be made to seem as great as you would have them seem.

ad Verum Imp. 1.2 [108 Hout; 2.194 Haines] <Magistro meo.> 1 <...> illi suis litteris subdiderunt. Ea vero, quae post meam profectionem gesta sunt, ex litteris ad me scriptis a negotio cuique praepositis ducibus cognosces. Earum exemplaria Sallustius noster, nunc Fulvianus, dabit. Ego vero, ut et consiliorum meorum rationes commemorare possis, meas quoque litteras, quibus quidquid gerendum esset, demonstratur mittam tibi. Quodsi picturas quoque quasdam desideraveris, poteris a Fulviano accipere. Equidem quo magis te quasi in rem praesentem inducerem, mandavi Cassio Avidio Martioque Vero commentarios quosdam mihi facerent, quos tibi mittam; ex quibus et mores hominum et sensum eorum cognosces. Quodsi me quoque voles aliquem commentarium facere, designa mihi; Qualem velis faciam et, ut jubes, faciam. Quidvis enim subire paratus sum, dum a te res nostrae inlustrentur. Plane non contempseris et orationes ad senatum et adlocutiones nostras ad axercitum. Mittam tibi et sermones meos cum barbaris habitos: Multum haec tibi conferent. 2 Unam rem volo non equidem demonstrare discipulus magistro, sed existimandam dare: Circa causas et initia belli diu commoraberis, et etiam ea, quae nobis absentibus male gesta sunt; tarde ad nostras venies. Porro necessarium puto, quanto ante meum adventum superiores Parthi fuerint dilucere, ut quantum nos egerimus appareat. An igitur debeas, quomodo πεντηκονταετίαν Θουκυδίδης explicuit, illa omnia corripere an vero paulo altius dicere nec tamen ita ut mox nostra dispandere, ipse dispicies. 3 In summa meae res gestae tantae sunt, quantae sunt scilicet, quoiquoimodi sunt: Tantae autem videbuntur, quantas tu eas videri voles.