Letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero | Page 7

Rome among your friends and on his journey, I don't know how far the
matter went, but my whole hope of removing this unpleasantness rests
on your kindness. For if you will only make up your mind to believe
that the best men are often those whose feelings are most easily
irritated and appeased, and that this quickness, so to speak, and
sensitiveness of disposition are generally signs of a good heart; and

lastly--and this is the main thing--that we must mutually put up with
each other's gaucheries (shall I call them?), or faults, or injurious acts,
then these misunderstandings will, I hope, be easily smoothed away. I
beg you to take this view, for it is the dearest wish of my heart (which
is yours as no one else's can be) that there should not be one of my
family or friends who does not love you and is not loved by you.
That part of your letter was entirely superfluous, in which you mention
what opportunities of doing good business in the provinces or the city
you let pass at other times as well as in the year of my consulship: for I
am thoroughly persuaded of your unselfishness and magnanimity, nor
did I ever think that there was any difference between you and me
except in our choice of a career. Ambition led me to seek official
advancement, while another and perfectly laudable resolution led you
to seek an honourable privacy. In the true glory, which is founded on
honesty, industry, and piety, I place neither myself nor anyone else
above you. In affection towards myself, next to my brother and
immediate family, I put you first. For indeed, indeed I have seen and
thoroughly appreciated how your anxiety and joy have corresponded
with the variations of my fortunes. Often has your congratulation added
a charm to praise, and your consolation a welcome antidote to alarm.
Nay, at this moment of your absence, it is not only your advice--in
which you excel--but the interchange of speech--in which no one gives
me so much delight as you do--that I miss most, shall I say in politics,
in which circumspection is always incumbent on me, or in my forensic
labour, which I formerly sustained with a view to official promotion,
and nowadays to maintain my position by securing popularity, or in the
mere business of my family? In all these I missed you and our
conversations before my brother left Rome, and still more do I miss
them since. Finally, neither my work nor rest, neither my business nor
leisure, neither my affairs in the forum or at home, public or private,
can any longer do without your most consolatory and affectionate
counsel and conversation. The modest reserve which characterizes both
of us has often prevented my mentioning these facts; but on this
occasion it was rendered necessary by that part of your letter in which
you expressed a wish to have yourself and your character "put straight"
and "cleared" in my eyes. Yet, in the midst of all this unfortunate

alienation and anger on his part, there is yet one fortunate
circumstance--that your determination of not going to a province was
known to me and your other friends, and had been at various times
asserted by yourself; so that your not being with him may be attributed
to your personal tastes and judgment, not to the quarrel and rupture
between you. So those ties which have been broken will be restored,
and ours which have been so religiously preserved will retain all their
old inviolability. At Rome I find politics in a shaky condition;
everything is unsatisfactory and foreboding change. For I have no
doubt you have been told that our friends, the equites, are all but
alienated from the senate. Their first grievance was the promulgation of
a bill on the authority of the senate for the trial of such as had taken
bribes for giving a verdict. I happened not to be in the house when that
decree was passed, but when I found that the equestrian order was
indignant at it, and yet refrained from openly saying so, I remonstrated
with the senate, as I thought, in very impressive language, and was very
weighty and eloquent considering the unsatisfactory nature of my cause.
But here is another piece of almost intolerable coolness on the part of
the equites, which I have not only submitted to, but have even put in as
good a light as possible! The Companies which had contracted with the
censors for Asia complained that in the heat of the competition they
had taken the contract at an excessive price; they demanded that the
contract should be annulled. I led in their support, or rather, I was
second, for it was Crassus who induced