Autumn 43 BCE: To Octavian (at Rome) from Cicero (at Tusculum)
A fragmentary dispatch from Cicero's not-quite ghost
[...]1 I am doubly glad for the leave you have given both myself and Philippus—for you both forgive the past and make a grant of the future.2 [...]
Cic. Letter Fragments 23B | Glossary | Historia Civilis video overview of 44-43 BCE
1
This letter fragment is preserved as a quotation in the De Compendiosa Doctrina of Nonius Marcellus, a 4th or 5th century CE grammarian. I have used Shackleton Bailey’s Loeb edition of the Latin text.
2
After Octavian was elected to the consulship on August 19th, he graciously allowed Cicero to retire from politics and live at his villa in Tusculum. This fragment arguably contains Cicero’s last extant words.
NOOOOOOOOOOOO OH GOD NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
What perspective, to address the past so graciously and the future so hopefully …!