M. Tulli Ciceronis Epistularum
Ad Quintum Fratrem Libri Tres

Introduction

     Quintus Tullius Cicero was born in 102 B.C., four years younger than his famous brother, Marcus. The brothers enjoyed a similar pattern of education, provided by their father, starting with elementary education in their home town of Arpinum, then with more advanced educational opportunities being provided to the two Cicero brothers after their father moved them to Rome. Like Marcus, Quintus also began his way up the cursus honorum, the political route a Roman citizen mapped out as he tried to become a leading citizen of the Roman Republic. In 67 B.C., at age 35, Quintus became Aedile, and in 62 praetor. The three years after his praetorship saw Quintus governing the province of Asia as propraetor. It was during this time that Marcus wrote Book I of his letters to Quintus.
     In 58 B.C. Quintus returned to Rome, taking up the cause of getting Marcus' exile by Clodius annulled, even though he himself had enemies threatening him for alleged malpractices in Asia. In 56 he joined the staff of Pompey in Sardinia, who had just been appointed curator annonae, "Minister of the Corn Supply." In 55 he joined Caesar in Gaul as his legatus, and served with great distinction in several battles, most notably one in which he resisted with one legion a vastly superior force of Gauls in the country of the Nervii. In 51 he joined his brother as one of his legati to Cilicia, when Marcus was forced by Pompey to govern a province.
   When civil war broke out between Pompey and Caesar, he joined Pompey. After Pompey's defeat at Pharsalia, Caesar, who had a high regard for him, treated him with great leniency and kindness, as he did Marcus. In an unusual turn of events, Quintus during this time, became estranged from Marcus, and his notorious temper caused him to write a series of letters to Caesar and others insulting Marcus. Marcus, though, ever loyal to his brother, after accidentally intercepting these letters, wrote to Caesar pleading with Caesar not to hold Quintus responsible for any action by Marcus, regarding Marcus' opposition to Caesar during the civil war. He begged Caesar to befriend the brother who had behaved so badly to himself. "It seems to us," as Tyrell rightly remarks, "that this is an act of large nobleness and truly chivalrous feeling, quite startling when we remember the times in which Cicero lived." In fact, Marcus' patience and paternal gentleness with Quintus can be seen throughout the letters that exist in these three books. Outside of this one brief period of discord, Quintus' attitude towards Marcus was one of loyalty and affection. Unfortunately Quintus' loyalty to his brother would ultimately cost him, and his son, as they both were included in the Triumvirate's (Antony, Octavian, & Lepidus) proscription of Marcus Tullius Cicero in December of 43 B.C. Quintus was put to death in Rome a few days before the murder of Marcus.
     It is in these letters that we learn of Quintus' ungovernable temper and overbearing treatment of subordinates. Nevertheless, he was just, honest, and free from corruption as a provincial administrator, and his military record was well-established by his service in Gaul. He is said to have written many works, including 4 tragedies in a unbelievably short 16 days, but the only extant text is the Commentariolum Petitionis, or Handbook of Electioneering. He was married to Pomponia, the sister of Marcus' best friend Atticus, but it was a unhappy marriage, and ended in divorce.

--Excerpts from "Introduction", M. Tulli Ciceronis Epistularum Ad Quintum Fratrem, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 462, trans. W. Glynn Williams. Harvard UP, 1972.

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