January 44 BCE: To Manius Curius (at Patrae) from Cicero (at Rome)
Cicero complains about an election
Truly, I now neither encourage nor ask you to return home; in fact, I myself wish to fly away from here and to reach somewhere
Where I may hear neither name nor deed of the Pelopidae.1
It is incredible how shamefully I seem to myself to be acting, to be taking part in these matters. Indeed, you seem to have foreseen long ago what was hanging over us, at the time when you fled from here.
Although these things are bitter even to listen to, at least listening is easier to bear than witnessing. Certainly, you weren’t on the Campus Martius at the second hour when the elections for the quaestorship had begun, and the chair of Quintus Fabius Maximus, whom those men2 appointed consul, was put in place—but then his death was announced, and the chair was carried away. But he,3 who had taken the auguries for the comitia tributa, called a comitia centuriata,4 and at the seventh hour, proclaimed a new consul, who would hold office until the Kalends of January, i.e. the early morning of the next day.
So you understand—no-one had breakfast in Caninius’ consulship! But then again, nothing bad occurred while he was consul, for he was astonishingly vigilant, and throughout his whole consulship he didn’t sleep. These things seem like jokes to you, because you aren’t here. But if you saw them, you would not hold back your tears. What if I wrote to you about the other things? For there are innumerable similar matters going on. Indeed, I would not have borne them if I had not betook myself to the refuge of philosophy, and if I did not have my Atticus as a companion in my studies.
You once wrote5 that you were his property in ownership and contract,6 but mine in usufruct, and I am content with that. For a man’s property is whatever he profits from and makes use of. But more of this at another time.
Acilius, who was sent to Greece with the legions, is under the greatest obligation to me (I successfully defended him in court against capital charges—twice). He is not an ungrateful man, and he looks out for me carefully. I have written to him, esteeming you highly, and I have attached a copy of that letter to this one. Please write to me with how he takes it and what he promises you.
Read Ad Familiares 7.30 in Latin here | Check the glossary here
A line from a play by Accius or Ennius—or maybe from an Atellan farce?
Caesar & co.
Caesar.
The comitia tributa was the assembly that elected (among other offices) the quaestors, while the comitia centuriata was the assembly that elected consuls.
nexum, a form of debt bondage.