3 May 44 BCE: To Atticus (at Rome) from Cicero (at Pompeii)
Cicero's nephew is a despicable man(!)
[This is the third of three letters from May 3rd.]
I reached Pompeii on May 3rd, having set Pilia up in Cumae the day before, as I wrote to you earlier. While I was having dinner there, your letter was delivered, which you had given to your freedman Demetrius on the 30th. It contains much wisdom, but such things, you were cautious to write, that meant every plan seems to depend on fortune. So we will discuss these matters face to face when the moment arises.
About the Buthrotian business, oh how I wish I could meet with Antony! I am sure I would accomplish a lot from it. But they don’t think he will turn away from Capua; and in fact I fear his going there will be very bad for the Republic. Lucius Caesar thought the same thing—I visited him yesterday at Naples. and he is seriously ill. So we must discuss the matter and have it resolved on June 1st.1 But enough of that.
The younger Quintus has sent his father a very bitter letter, which was delivered when we reached Pompeii; the main point however was that he would not bear Aquilia as a stepmother. That might be tolerable, but this? That he owes everything to Caesar and nothing to his father, and that he looks to the rest from Antony—oh, what a despicable man! But we will deal with it.
I have written letters to our dear Brutus, and to Cassius and Dolabella. I have sent you copies of them—not that I am questioning whether they should be delivered, for I clearly judge that they should be, and I have no doubt that you will think the same.
My Atticus, please provide my son with as much as seems right to you, and allow me to burden you with this responsibility. What you have already done, I am exceedingly thankful for.
I have not yet put the finishing touches on my anecdotum, as I wanted to.2 That material that you wanted me to weave in must wait for another, separate volume. You must believe me when I say that it was possible to speak against that unspeakable party with less danger when the tyrant was alive than now that he is dead. I don’t know why, but he put up with me at least to an extraordinary degree. Now, wherever we go, we are called back not just by Caesar’s acts, but even by his intentions.
Now that Flamma has arrived, please see to Montanus. I think the matter should be in a better place.
Read Ad Atticum 14.17 in Latin here | Check the glossary here
When the Senate was due to meet.
Shackleton-Bailey suggests that this is Cicero’s ‘Secret History,’ which he also called the ἀνέκδοτα in Ad Atticum 2.6.