Mid December 44 BCE: To Decimus Brutus (in Cisalpine Gaul) from Cicero (at Rome)
Cicero tells Decimus Brutus to act without orders from the Senate
Marcus Cicero greets Decimus Brutus, imperator, consul-designate.
Lupus brought both Libo and your cousin Servius over to my house. I think you’ll find out what my opinion was from Marcus Seius, who was there for our conversation. You should be able to find out from Graeceius, although Graeceius left soon after Seius.
The main point was that I want you to note carefully and remember that you should not wait for authorisation from the Senate—which is not yet free—to preserve the freedom and safety of the Republic. If you did so, you would condemn your own act1—for you freed the Republic on your own initiative, which is in fact a greater and more illustrious deed—and you would conclude that the young man (or rather the boy)2 Caesar acted rashly when he took up such an important public cause on his own personal initiative.3 And as well, you would conclude that those men, who are country people, but very brave men and loyal citizens, are out of their minds—first of all your own veteran fellow soldiers, then the Martian Legion and the Fourth Legion, which all concluded that the consul is a public enemy, and came to the defence of the Republic and her safety.4
The will of the Senate should be taken as its authorisation, when its authorisation is held back by fear. Finally, it is within your power to do so: you have now taken up this cause twice, first on the Ides of March, and then recently when you assembled a new army with fresh troops. So you should be prepared for anything. And you should be encouraged not to do nothing without being ordered, but to act in a way that will win universal praise and admiration.
Read Ad Familiares 11.7 in Latin here | Check the glossary here | Watch an overview of events from the Ides of March onwards here
The assassination of Caesar.
Footnote borrowed from Shackleton Bailey: ‘According to Suet. Aug. 12 and Dio XLVI.41.4 Octavian resented being called a boy, as Cicero called him not only in letters but in public speeches: cf. Phil. III.3 adulescens, paene potius puer, IV.3 clarissimi adulescentis, vel pueri potius; J.H. McCarthy, Cl. Phil. 26 (1931), 362ff.’
i.e. when Octavian hired a private army and occupied the Forum with it.
The Martian and Fourth legions had both defected from Antony to Octavian in late November.