Early February 43 BCE: To Lucius Papirius Paetus (at Naples) from Cicero (at Rome)
Cicero avoids a plot against him and philosophises about dinner parties
That Rufus of yours, your friend, whom you now write to me about a second time—I would have helped him to the best of my ability, even if he had wronged me somehow, just because I saw how much effort you put in on his behalf. But since I understand and can judge clearly from your letters, and from what he has sent me, how worried he is about my safety, I can’t not see him as a friend; and not only because of your recommendation alone—although that has had a very great influence on me, as it ought to!—but even of my own volition, and from my own judgement.
For I want you to know, my Paetus, that it was your letter which initially made me suspicious and cautious and careful; and I then received letters that corroborated yours from many other people. For there were plans laid against me at Aquinum and Fabrateria, which I believe you were not unaware of, and as if these men prophesied that I would be troublesome for them, they did everything that they could to take me by surprise.1
And I would have been entirely unsuspecting and caught off guard, if it hadn’t been for your warning! So, that friend of yours needs no recommendation to me. I can only hope that the Republic is fortunate enough that he will have the opportunity to know how grateful I am! But enough about that.
I am sorry to hear that you have stopped going out for dinner—you have deprived yourself of a great source of enjoyment and pleasure. And in addition (for I can speak freely with you), I fear that you will unlearn the small amount that you once knew, and forget how to give your little dinners. For if even when you had something to imitate, you made little progress, what should I expect from you now?2
In fact, when I pointed this out to Spurinna,3 and explained to him how you used to live, he pointed out that there was a great danger to the entire Republic if you do not revert to your former habits when the Spring Wind starts to blow; he said that right now it could be endured, if perhaps you could not endure the cold.4
But by Hercules, my Paetus, I’m not joking when I advise you to spend your time with good, pleasant, friendly men—in fact, I think this is vital to living a happy life. Nothing is more important to life, nothing is more crucial to living happily. And I am not speaking only of pleasure, but of living life in community, and of the relaxation of the mind, which is most easily accomplished through familiar conversation—which is most pleasant at dinner parties.
We are wiser about this than the Greeks; they speak of ‘symposia’ and ‘syndeipna’—that is, ‘drinking together’ or ‘dining together’—while we say ‘living together’,5 because it is at dinner parties that life is most truly lived together.6 See how I am trying to draw you back to dining by philosophising!
Take care of your health; which you can do most easily by dining out.7
But, if you love me, don’t assume that because I write to you jokingly I have neglected to care for the Republic. Believe me, my Paetus, that night and day I do nothing else; I have no other care but that my fellow citizens are safe and free. I pass over no opportunity to warn, to act, to prepare. Finally, I feel that if I must give my life in the course of performing this task and directing public affairs, I would think it a noble act.
Again and again, goodbye!
Latin text of Ad Familiares 9.24 | Glossary | Historia Civilis video overview of 44-43 BCE
Presumably the plots were by followers of Mark Antony.
Footnote borrowed from Shackleton Bailey: ‘The danger in view is not that Paetus by ceasing to go to other people’s dinner-parties will give up entertaining, but that he will forget whatever little gastronomic skill he had managed to acquire.’
The same soothsayer who warned Caesar about the danger of the Ides of March.
The Spring Wind would blow around February 8th.
The literal meaning of convivia (dinner parties).
Cicero makes a similar point in his work On Old Age.
Footnote borrowed from Shackleton Bailey: ‘Cicero had intended to end here, but added the next paragraph as an afterthought, to correct the appearance of levity.’