Late December 44 BCE: To Cicero (at Rome) from Lucius Munatius Plancus (in Transalpine Gaul)
Plancus swears his loyalty to the Republic, and to Cicero especially
I was very glad to receive your letter, which I notice you wrote after your conversation with Furnius. The only excuse I have for the amount of time I have allowed to pass is that I had heard that you had set off,1 and I didn’t know that you had returned until just before I found out from your letter.
I say this because I feel I am unable to neglect the obligations of our friendship, even in the slightest, without feeling deeply guilty. I have multiple reasons for being so careful: your close relationship with my father, and the regard I have held you in since childhood, and your mutual affection for me.
And so, my dear Cicero, trust that (as our respective ages allow), in fostering our friendship, I have decided to treat you and you alone with fatherly reverence. Therefore all of your advice to me seems no less full of good sense—which you possess to the highest degree—than of personal loyalty, which I surmise through my own feelings.
And so, if I had felt otherwise,2 your admonition would have certainly checked me; or if I had been hesitant, your encouragement would have given me the push to support what you think best. But really, what is there now which could sway me towards another faction? Because of your affection towards me, you are too kind in your evaluation of whatever advantages I possess—the gifts either of a kind fortune, or the results of my own effort—but still, my bitterest enemy would judge that my advantages are so great that I don’t seem to lack anything but a good repute in the eyes of the world.
And so, be sure of this one thing: as much as my strength can achieve, my wisdom can foresee, and my authority can advise—all of this will always be for the benefit of the Republic. I am not unaware of your feelings; nor if I had the opportunity to see you in person (as I wish I could!) would I ever disagree with your advice. As it is, I shall ensure that you cannot rightly find fault with any act of mine.
I am waiting for news about everything: what is happening in Cisalpine Gaul, and what is happening in Rome in January. Please let me know. In the meantime, my greatest worry and concern here remains that, while others do wrong, the peoples here may think that our misfortune is their opportunity.3 But if I am as successful as I deserve, I shall do all that is required, both for you, whom I wish to please most of all, and for all good men.4
Take care of your health, and love me as I do you.
Read Ad Familiares 10.4 in Latin here | Check the glossary here | Watch an overview of events from the Ides of March onwards here
On his aborted trip to visit his son in Athens.
i.e. disloyal to the Republic.
i.e. that there would be an uprising against Roman rule in Transalpine Gaul.
Footnote borrowed from E.S. Shuckburgh: ‘This letter well illustrates the vanity and shiftiness of the ‘constitutional traitor’ Plancus, who was already making his plans to watch events and join the stronger party. He therefore contrives in most elaborate language to say just nothing. The two objects which he had in view were to keep his province, of which Antony's triumph would probably deprive him, but also to have the consulship of B.C. 42, to which Caesar had nominated him. For this latter purpose it might suit him better to join Antony. This double ambition kept him for many months hovering between the two sides.’