2 June 44 BCE: To Atticus (at Rome) from Cicero (at Tusculum)
Are Brutus and Cassius planning something, or is Hirtius overreacting?
Our dear Brutus has written, along with Cassius, to ask that I make Hirtius, ‘who has been good thus far,’ even better.1 I don’t know that he has been good thus far, and nor do I trust that he will be made any better by my authority (for maybe he is more angry with Antony than usual, but he is still very friendly to the cause), but still, I have written to him and entrusted him with Brutus and Cassius’ position. I want you to see how he replied to me, if perhaps you think the same thing as I did, that even now that lot fear that our friends have more courage than they really do.
Hirtius greets his friend Cicero.
You ask whether I have returned from the country yet. But when the situation is heating up, am I one to act lazily? In fact, I have left the city, for I have decided that it is more useful for me to be somewhere else. I write you this letter as I set out for Tusculum. But do not think me so active that I will rush back for the 5th. For I don’t see any need for us to worry, since defences have been prepared for so many years to come.2
I wish Brutus and Cassius could be persuaded by you not to form a plan rashly as easily as they can get whatever they want from you regarding myself! You say they wrote their letters as they left. Where to, and for what reason? Hold them back, I’m begging you Cicero, and do not allow the current state of things to be ruined—for by the god of truth, it will be overturned entirely by looting, arson, slaughter.3 If they fear anything, let them be on guard, but go not further than that. By the god of truth, they will not gain anything more through the most hasty action than they would through pure inaction, so long as they are careful about it. For the current state of things is necessarily short-lived, and cannot last long; but in a conflict they have the resources at hand to really hurt. Write to me at Tusculum what your hopes are for them.
There is Hirtius’ letter. I replied to him that they are planning nothing rashly, and I have reassured him of this. I wanted you to read this, whatever worth it may be.
My letter was already sealed when I found out from Balbus that Servilia has returned with reassurance that they will not be departing. Now I wait for a letter from you.
Read Ad Atticum 15.6 in Latin here | Check the glossary here
Cicero (and Brutus and Cassius) mean ‘good’ and ‘better’ in a political sense. Their vague political grouping was known as the boni (good men) or optimates (the best), and had opposed Caesar, whereas Hirtius had been a Caesarian. Brutus and Cassius hoped that with Caesar dead, Hirtius (who would be consul in 43 BCE) could be convinced to join them.
Shackleton Bailey says about this: ‘Perhaps best taken with Tenney Frank as an ironical reference to Antony’s plebiscitum conferring six-year commands upon himself and Dolabella, which was probably passed on 2 June. iam points to something that had just happened, not to Caesar’s nomination of Consuls and Tribunes for 43-42 or to Caesar’s measures in general.’ But Hirtius’ letter is so focused on Brutus and Cassius acting ‘rashly’ that I took it as an ironical reference to their lack of planning for what would happen after the assassination of Caesar.
me dius fidius (by the god of truth) is a common interjection or oath. Dius Fidius might be associated with Jupiter.