Around 9 May 43 BCE: To Cicero (at Rome) from Decimus Brutus (near Pollentia)
Decimus Brutus has a bad time, and then a slightly better time
From Decimus Brutus, imperator, consul designate, to Marcus Cicero, greetings.
At this point, I won’t thank you; I can scarcely pay back in action what I cannot allow to be repaid through words alone.
I want you to pay attention to the matter at hand. Nothing will escape you and your good sense if you read my letter carefully. I could not pursue Antony immediately, Cicero, for the following reasons: I had no cavalry, and no pack animals; I did not know that Hirtius had died; I knew that Aquila had died; I did not trust Caesar1 until I had met him and spoken to him. That is how the first day went.
The following morning, I was summoned to Bononia by Pansa. While I was on the way there, I received the news that he had died. I rushed back to my little force—I can call it that entirely truthfully. It is very much diminished, and has been treated terrible by the lack of every sort of provision.
Antony left two days before me, and while he fled, his marches were much longer than mine were as I pursued him. He went without a plan; I went in an orderly manner. Wherever he went, he opened up the slave workhouses and carried men off, and he did not stop anywhere until he reached Vada. I would like you to know about this place. It lies between the Apennines and the Alps, and the march there is very difficult.
When I was about thirty miles away, and Ventidius had already joined up with Antony, a speech of Antony’s was delivered to me in which he began to ask the soldiers to follow him across the Alps, and said that he had an understanding with Lepidus. They responded with shouts, many of which were from Ventidius’ soldiers (for Antony has very few men of his own), that they must either die or be victorious in Italy, and they started to beg him to let them march on Pollentia. He could not hold them back, and decided to march the following day.
When I had heard these reports, I immediately sent five cohorts ahead to Pollentia and planned to march to there myself as well. My detachment reached Pollentia an hour before Trebellius and his cavalry. I am quite pleased.2 For I think victory depends on [...]3
Latin text of ad Familiares 11.13 | Glossary | Historia Civilis video overview of 44-43 BCE
i.e. Octavian.
E.S. Shuckburgh writes: ‘There is no doubt that Decimus Brutus was completely outmanoeuvred. Antony's despatch of cavalry to Pollentia was a feint to draw Decimus Brutus away from the road to Vada, and he fell into the trap.’ Shackleton Bailey writes: ‘The evidence does not support the view that D. Brutus was deceived by a feint.’ The commentators are fightingggggg.
The rest of the letter does not survive.