Letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero | Page 6

have agreed to be.
III
To CN. POMPESUS MAGNUS
ROME
M. Tullius Cicero, son of Marcus, greets Ca. Pompeius, son of Cneius,
Imperator.

IF you and the army are well I shall be glad. From your official
despatch I have, in common with everyone else, received the liveliest
satisfaction; for you have given us that strong hope of peace, of which,
in sole reliance on you, I was assuring everyone. But I must inform you
that your old enemies--now posing as your friends--have received a
stunning blow by this despatch, and, being disappointed in the high
hopes they were entertaining, are thoroughly depressed. Though your
private letter to me contained a somewhat slight expression of your
affection, yet I can assure you it gave me pleasure: for there is nothing
in which I habitually find greater satisfaction than in the consciousness
of serving my friend; and if on any occasion I do not meet with an
adequate return, I am not at all sorry to have the balance of kindness in
my favour. Of this I feel no doubt--even if my extraordinary zeal in
your behalf has failed to unite you to me--that the interests of the state
will certainly effect a mutual attachment and coalition between us. To
let you know, however, what I missed in your letter I will write with
the candour which my own disposition and our common friendship
demand. I did expect some congratulation in your letter on my
achievements, for the sake at once of the ties between us and of the
Republic. This I presume to have been omitted by you from a fear of
hurting anyone's feelings. But let me tell you that what I did for the
salvation of the country is approved by the judgment and testimony of
the whole world. You are a much greater man that Africanus, but I am
not much inferior to Laelius either; and when you come home you will
recognize that I have acted with such prudence and spirit, that you will
not now be ashamed of being coupled with me in politics as well as in
private friendship.
IV (A I, 17)
To ATTICUS (IN ERIAUS)
ROME, 5 DECEMBER
Your letter, in which you inclose copies of his letters, has made me
realize that my brother Quintus's feelings have undergone many
alternations, and that his opinions and judgments have varied widely
from time to time. This has not only caused me all the pain which my

extreme affection for both of you was bound to bring, but it has also
made me wonder what can have happened to cause my brother Quintus
such deep offence, or such an extraordinary change of feeling. And yet
I was already aware, as I saw that you also, when you took leave of me,
were beginning to suspect, that there was some lurking dissatisfaction,
that his feelings were wounded, and that certain unfriendly suspicions
had sunk deep into his heart. On trying on several previous occasions,
but more eagerly than ever after the allotment of his province, to
assuage these feelings, I failed to discover on the one hand that the
extent of his offence was so great as your letter indicates; but on the
other I did not make as much progress in allaying it as I wished.
However, I consoled myself with thinking that there would be no doubt
of his seeing you at Dyrrachium, or somewhere in your part of the
country: and, if that happened, I felt sure and fully persuaded that
everything would be made smooth between you, not only by
conversation and mutual explanation, but by the very sight of each
other in such an interview. For I need not say in writing to you, who
knows it quite well, how kind and sweet-tempered my brother is, as
ready to forgive as he is sensitive in taking offence. But it most
unfortunately happened that you did not see him anywhere. For the
impression he had received from the artifices of others had more weight
with him than duty or relationship, or the old affection so long existing
between you, which ought to have been the strongest influence of all.
And yet, as to where the blame for this misunderstanding resides, I can
more easily conceive than write: since I am afraid that, while defending
my own relations, I should not spare yours. For I perceive that, though
no actual wound was inflicted by members of the family, they yet could
at least have cured it. But the root of the mischief in this case, which
perhaps extends farther than appears, I shall more conveniently explain
to you when we meet. As to the letter he sent to you from Thessalonica,
and about the language which you suppose him to have used both at