The Society for Ancient Languages
Week Three
English Translation |
EPISTULAE AD ATTICUM |
LETTERS TO ATTICUS |
| 2. ...illud meum proprium problêma,
quaeso, suscipe. videsne ut te auctore sim utrumque complexus [Pompeium et Caesarem]? ac
vellem a principio te audisse amicissime monentem, all'
emon oupote thumon eni stêthessin epeithes. sed aliquando tamen persuasisti ut alterum complecterer quia de me erat optime meritus, alterum quia tantum valebat. feci igitur, itaque effeci omni obsequio ut neutri illorum quisquam esset me carior. 3. haec enim cogitabamus, nec mihi coniuncto cum Pompeio fore necesse peccare in re publica aliquando nec cum Pompeio sentienti pugnandum esse cum Caesare; tanta erat illorum coniunctio. nunc impendet, ut et tu ostendis et ego video, summa inter eos contentio. me autem uterque numerat suum, nisi forte simulat alter. nam Pompeius non dubitat; vere enim iudicat ea quae de re publica nunc sentiat mihi valde probari. utriusque autem accepi eius modi litteras eodem tempore quo tuas ut neuter quemquam omnium pluris facere quam me videretur. |
2. I pray, take a look at that
particular problem of mine. Do you see that I have embraced both of them [Pompey and
Caesar], with you being the cause? And I wished that I would have listened to you from the
beginning, you who were most dearly advising me. But they could never persuade the
heart within my breast. But in the end, nevertheless, you persuaded me that I embrace one of them since he deserved that most greatly from me, the other since he was so strong. I did so, therefore, and so I yielded to every indulgence so that to neither of them anyone would be more dear than me. For we thought the following, neither for it to be necessary for me, having joined with Pompey, to go astray in political matters at this time, more for me deciding with Pompey that war be fought with Caesar; such was their union. Now there threatens, as both you show and I see, the highest contest between them. Each counts me, however, as his own, unless by chance one of them pretends. For Pompey hesitates not; for truly he judges those things about the republic he now thinks to be very much approved by me. The letters of each, however, I have received in his own way at the same time as yours, so that neither seems to esteem anyone of all the world more than me. |
| 4. Verum quid agam? non quaero illa ultima (si enim castris res geretur, video cum altero vinci satius esse quam cum altero vincere), sed illa quae tum agentur cum venero, ne ratio absentis habeatur, ut exercitum dimittat. 'dic, M. Tulli,' quid dicam? 'exspecta, amabo te, dum Atticum conveniam'? non est locus ad tergiversandum. contra Caesarem? 'ubi illae sunt densae dexterae?' nam ut illi hoc liceret adiu<v>i, rogatus ab ipso Ravennae de Caelio tribuno pl. ab ipso autem? etiam a Gnaeo nostro in illo divino tertio consulatu. aliter sensero? 'aideomai' non Pompeium modo sed 'Trôas kai Trôadas.' 'Pouludamas moi prôtos elegcheiên katathêsei'; quis? tu ipse scilicet, laudator et factorum et scriptorum meorum. | 4. But truly what should I do? I do not seek that last resort (for if the business is done at camp, i.e. at war, I see that it is better to be conquered with one than to conquer with the other), but those things which will be done at that time when I will have come, so that the reason [Caesar's candidature in absentia] is not considered in absence, so that he dismiss his army. "Speak, Marcus Tullius." What shall I say? "Wait, if you please, until I meet with Atticus?" This is not the place for being evasive. Against Caesar? "Where are those close-clasped hands?" For I helped that this be permitted to him, having been asked by him in Ravenna about Caelius the tribune of the plebs. By himself moreover but even by our Gnaeus, in that divine third consulship. If I will have thought otherwise? "I fear," not only Pompey but "Trojan men and women." "Polydamas first will cry me shame." Who? You yourself, of course, the praiser both of my deeds and my writings. |
| 5. Hanc ergo plagam effugi per duos superiores Marcellorum consulatus cum est actum de provincia Caesaris; nunc incido in discrimen ipsum. itaque 'ut stultus primus suam sententiam dicat,' mihi valde placet de triumpho nos moliri aliquid, extra urbem esse cum iustissima causa. tamen dabunt operam ut eliciant sententiam meam. ridebis hoc loco fortasse: quam vellam etiam nunc in provincia morari! ... | 5. Therefore, I have escaped this trap in the two earlier Marcelline consulships when there was a discussion about the command of Caesar; now I come in at the crisis itself. And so "that the fool states his opinion first," it is most pleasing to me that we do something about the triumph, to be outside the city with a most just cause. Nevertheless they will take pains to elicit my opinion. You will laugh at this position, perhaps; how I wish even now to linger in my province! ... |