19 March 43 BCE: To Quintus Cornificius (in Africa) from Cicero (at Rome)

Cicero gets distracted from congratulating Cornificius by talking about how he is saving the Republic (again)

I received your letter on the Liberalia;¹ Cornificius delivered it to me 22 days after you sent it, he said. The Senate did not meet that day, or the day after. On the Quinquatria of Minerva,² I spoke on your behalf at a well-attended Senate meeting, and the goddess was on my side—since as a matter of fact the Senate decreed that day that my statue of Minerva, the guardian of the city, which a storm had toppled, should be set back up.³

Pansa read out your letter. It met with great approval from the Senate, which caused me great joy and the ‘Minotaur’ great offence—that is, Calvisius and Taurus.⁴ A decree of the Senate was passed in your honour. There were demands that those men should be censured too, but Pansa was more merciful.

But I, my Cornificius, since that day when I first began to hope for freedom, and laid the foundations of the Republic while everyone else held back—December 20th⁵—on that very day, I gave thought to and took into account your position. For the Senate agreed with me that governors should retain their provinces. And since then, I have not stopped chipping away at the strength of that man⁶ who was trying to retain absentee governorship of your province—an insult to you, and an affront to the Republic. He couldn’t bear my frequent (or rather daily) invectives, and returned to Rome against his will, where he was deprived of not just the hope, but in fact the material possession of the province, by my most just and honourable insults. 

I am very glad that you have most courageously retained your position, and have been rewarded with the province’s highest honours. As for your justifications about Sempronius,⁷ I accept your excuse; for in that time of slavery we were all blind. 

Even I, influencing your plans and supporting your position, in my anger at the situation, was almost carried off to Greece in my despair for freedom. But the Etesian winds,⁸ as if they were loyal citizens, refused to accompany my desertion of the Republic, and the opposing South wind returned me in a violent squall to your fellow tribesmen at Regium. From there, I sped with all haste, by sail and by oar, to my country, and the following day was the sole free man when all the rest were in total slavery.⁹

I attacked Antony and he couldn’t bear it,¹⁰ and he poured out all his drunken fury against me alone;¹¹ first he wanted me to give him a reason to slaughter me, and then he tried to catch me in his schemes. But I threw him, belching and vomiting, into the nets of Caesar Octavian. That outstanding boy raised a force to defend himself and me, and then to defend the entire Republic. And if he had not done so, Antony’s return from Brundisium would have been the ruin of our country. I think you know what happened next.

But let me return to the subject at hand and not digress further: I accept your excuse about Sempronius. For you could not have made a decision like that in times of such disturbance. ‘The new day brings a different way of life / and different customs are demanded too’¹² as Terence says. 

And so, my Quintus, embark with us, and stand at the helm. All loyal men are now in the same boat, and I am doing everything I can to keep a straight course—let’s hope our voyage is swift! But whichever winds blow, I certainly shall use every trick I have. What can my courage do, beyond that? 

For your part, keep your spirit brave and noble, and understand that your position should be bound entirely to the fate of the Republic. 

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Latin text of Ad Familiares 12.25 | Glossary | Historia Civilis video overview of 44-43 BCE

1. The Liberalia was the festival of the god Liber Pater on March 17th.

2. The Quinquatria was a festival of Minerva on March 19th.

3. Footnote borrowed from Shackleton Bailey: ‘Just before leaving Rome for exile in 58 Cicero dedicated a small statue of Minerva Guardian of the City (=Athene Polias) in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.’

4. In November 44 Antony had reassigned the provinces, giving Quintus Cornificius’ province of Africa Vetus back to its previous governor Gaius Calvisius Sabinus. The Senate later nullified the change, but Calvisius seems to have been reluctant to give up his nominal control of the province. Taurus is likely Octavian’s future ally Titus Statilius Taurus. Shackleton Bailey says that ‘The nature of [Taurus’] association with Calvisius is unknown.’ Ronald Syme says Calvisius and Taurus ‘formed a dual and fabulous monster.’ Cicero’s joke about the minotaur is a mystery.

5. When Cicero delivered the Third and Fourth Philippics.

6. Calvisius.

7. Footnote borrowed from Shackleton Bailey: ‘Cf. 357 (XII.22a).2. The most popular theory, based on 433 (XII.29).2 (q.v.), is that Sempronius had proposed a decree in the Senate adverse to Cornificius, who had blamed Cicero as in some way responsible. This conflicts with the data. In his earlier letter Cicero reproached Cornificius for not having taken some action in respect to Sempronius which would have redounded to his (Cornificius’) credit, as recommended in a previous letter from himself. Cornificius excused himself, and Cicero here accepts his excuses. From what follows the references seem to relate to the summer of 44, before Cicero left for Greece. See further E. Badian, Proc. Afr. Cl. Ass. II (1969), 4 n. 18, who thinks that the decree was most probably one permitting Sempronius return from exile.’

8. The Etesian winds blow annually from May to September.

9. Cicero had refused to go to the Senate meeting Antony held on September 1st.

10. In the First Philippic, on September 2nd.

11. Antony aggressively replied to the First Philippic in a speech on September 19th, when Cicero was not present.

12. Terence, Andria 189.