12 April 44 BCE: To Atticus (at Rome) from Cicero (at Fundi)
Cicero angsts about The State Of Things while eating dessert
I received your letters on the 12th, while dining at Fundi. First: you are better. Second: you have better news. It was an unsettling report, that the legions were on the march. About Octavius, it’s neither here nor there. I’m waiting to find out about Marius—indeed I thought Caesar had done away with him.
Antony’s conversation with our heroes is not a setback with the way things are. And yet, still nothing delights me except for the Ides of March. For while I am at Fundi with our Ligus, it torments me that Sextilius’ farm has been seized by that scoundrel Curtilius.
When I say this, I say it about that whole type. For what is more miserable than that we are upholding the things that we hated that man for? Are even the consuls and tribunes of the plebs for the next two years the ones that he picked?1 I can’t see how I can take part in politics at all. For there is no greater aberration than that the tyrant-killers are praised to the skies, while the deeds of the tyrant are defended.2 But you see the consuls, you see the rest of the magistrates, if they really are magistrates,3 you see the sluggishness of the good men. They’re ecstatic with joy in the country towns. I can’t put into words how happy they are, how they rush to see me, how they wish to hear me speak about the state of the republic. Meanwhile, there are no decrees.4 We have governed things in such a way that we fear the defeated.
I wrote you this after dessert had been set out. More, and more about politics, later—and you, write to me about how you are and what happens.
Read Ad Atticum 14.6 in Latin here | Check the glossary here
On March 17th the Senate had voted to ratify Caesar’s acts.
This phrase is almost identical to one used in yesterday’s letter, except illi magistratus (those magistrates) has become isti magistratus (those magistrates (derogatory)).
Decrees from municipal senates, in favour of the Liberatores.