The Letters of Cicero, Volume 1

Letters of Cicero, Volume 1, by
Marcus Tullius Cicero

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Title: The Letters of Cicero, Volume 1 The Whole Extant
Correspodence in Chronological Order
Author: Marcus Tullius Cicero
Translator: Evelyn S. Shuckburgh
Release Date: April 22, 2007 [EBook #21200]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE LETTERS OF

CICERO
THE WHOLE EXTANT CORRESPONDENCE IN
CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
BY
EVELYN S. SHUCKBURGH, M.A.
LATE FELLOW OF EMMANUEL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
AUTHOR OF A TRANSLATION OF POLYBIUS, A HISTORY OF
ROME, ETC
IN FOUR VOLUMES
VOL. I. B.C. 68-52
LONDON GEORGE BELL AND SONS 1899
CHISWICK PRESS:--CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

PREFACE
The object of this book is to give the English-speaking public, in a
convenient form, as faithful and readable a copy as the translator was
capable of making of a document unique in the literature of antiquity.
Whether we regard the correspondence of Cicero from the point of
view of the biographer and observer of character, the historian, or the
lover of belles lettres, it is equally worthy of study. It seems needless to
dwell on the immense historical importance of letters written by
prominent actors in one of the decisive periods of the world's history,
when the great Republic, that had spread its victorious arms, and its law
and discipline, over the greater part of the known world, was in the
throes of its change from the old order to the new. If we would

understand--as who would not?--the motives and aims of the men who
acted in that great drama, there is nowhere that we can go with better
hope of doing so than to these letters. To the student of character also
the personality of Cicero must always have a great fascination.
Statesman, orator, man of letters, father, husband, brother, and
friend--in all these capacities he comes before us with singular
vividness. In every one of them he will doubtless rouse different
feelings in different minds. But though he will still, as he did in his
lifetime, excite vehement disapproval as well as strong admiration, he
will never, I think, appear to anyone dull or uninteresting. In the greater
part of his letters he is not posing or assuming a character; he lets us
only too frankly into his weaknesses and his vanities, as well as his
generous admirations and warm affections. Whether he is weeping, or
angry, or exulting, or eager for compliments, or vain of his abilities and
achievements, he is not a phantasm or a farceur, but a human being
with fiercely-beating pulse and hot blood.
The difficulty of the task which I have been bold enough to undertake
is well known to scholars, and may explain, though perhaps not excuse,
the defects of my work. One who undertakes to express the thoughts of
antiquity in modern idiom goes to his task with his eyes open, and has
no right at every stumbling-block or pitfall to bemoan his unhappy fate.
So also with the particular difficulties presented by the great founder of
Latin style--his constant use of superlatives, his doubling and trebling
of nearly synonymous terms, the endless shades of meaning in such
common words as officium, fides, studium, humanitas, dignitas, and the
like--all these the translator has to take in the day's work. Finally, there
are the hard nuts to crack--often very hard--presented by corruption of
the text. Such problems, though, relatively with other ancient works,
not perhaps excessively numerous, are yet sufficiently numerous and
sufficiently difficult. But besides these, which are the natural incidents
of such work, there is the special difficulty that the letters are
frequently answers to others which we do not possess, and which alone
can fully explain the meaning of sentences which must remain
enigmatical to us; or they refer to matters by a word or phrase of almost
telegraphic abruptness, with which the recipient was well acquainted,
but as to which we are reduced to guessing. When, however, all such

insoluble difficulties are allowed for, which after all in absolute bulk
are very small, there should (if the present version is at all worthy) be
enough that is perfectly plain to everyone, and generally of the highest
interest.
I had no intention of writing a commentary on the language of Cicero
or his correspondents, and my translation must,