We have hitherto received no certain intelligence from Spain.-I rejoice upon your account that you are absent from this unpleafing fcene; though I greatly regret it upon my own. But your courier preffes me to difpatch: fo that I can only bid you adieu, and intreat the continuance of that friendship you have ever shewn me from your earliest youth.

I

[A. U. 708.] WOULD not venture to omit writing to you by our friend Salvius; though I have nothing more to fay than what you perfectly well know already, that I infinitely love you t. I have much more reafon indeed to expect a letter from you, than you can have to receive one from me; as I imagine there is nothing going forwards in Rome, which you will think of importance enough to raife your cu riofity; unless perhaps, that I am to fit in judgment between two learned grammarians; our friend Nicias, and his antagonift Vidius. The latter, you must know, has produced a certain manufcript, relating to an account between them: to which Nicias, like a fecond Ariftarchus t, very peremptorily infifts that fome of the lines are altogether Spurious. Now I, like a venerable ancient critic, am to determine whether these suspected interpolations are genuine, or not. But you will queftion, perhaps, whether I have fufficiently forgotten the delicious mushrooms and thofe noble prawns with which I have been fo often regaled by Nicias and his gentle fpoufe, to be qualified for an impartial judge in this important caufe. Let ine afk you in return, whether you imagine I have fo entirely thrown off all my former feverity, as to retain nothing of my old folemnity of brow, even when 1 am fitting in grave tribunal? You may be fure, however, that my honeft hoft fhall be no great fufferer. Though, let

*He was at this time with Cæfar in Spain.

Whatever difagreement there was between Dolabella and Tullia, it did not, in appearance at leaft, occafion any coolnefs between him and his father-in-law; a circumftance which, confidering the tenderness of Cicero for his daughter, can only be accounted for by Dolabella's great credit with Cæfar.

A celebrated Greek critic.

me tell you, if I fhould pafs fentence of banishment upon him, I fhall by no mean allow you to reverse it, left Burfa fhould be fupplied with a pedagogue to teach him his letters §.-But I am running a in this ludicrous ftyle, without reflecting that you, who are in the midst of a cam paign, may, perhaps, be too seriously en gaged to relish thefe humorous fallies When I fhall be certain, therefore, tha you are in a difpofition to laugh, you hall hear farther from me. I canno however forbear adding, that the people were extremely folicitous concerning the fate of Sulla, till the news of his death was confirmed: but now that they ar affured of the fact, they are no longer inquifitive how it happened; well con. tented with their intelligence that he is undoubtedly defunct. As for myfelf, 1 bear this deplorable accident like a philo fopher: my only concern is, left it should damp the fpirit of Cafar's auctions

Farewel.

LETTER CXIX. To Aulus Torquatus.

[A. U. 708.]

I HOPE you will not imagine that you have been out of my thoughts, by my having lately been a more remifs corre fpondent than ufual. The true occafior of my filence has partly arifen from an il ftate of health, which, however, is now fomewhat mended; and partly has been owing to my abfence from Rome, which prevented me from being informed when any courier was dispatched to you. Be aflured that I conftantly and most affectionately preferve you in my remembrance; and that your affairs of every kind are as much my concern as if they

were my own.

Burfa was a particular enemy of Cicero, and had been banished for his riotous attempts to revenge the murder of Clodius; from which banifhment he was lately recalled.

This man had rendered himself extremely and generally odious by the purchases he had made of the confifcated eftates, during the profcriptions both of Sylla and Cæfar. Cic. de Offic. ii. 8.

In which the confifcated eftates were put up to fule. One of the methods that Cæfar took to chate thefe eftates at an under-value; and it was reward his partifans was, by fuffering them to purthe hopes of being a sharer in thefe iniquitous fpoils, that furnished one of the principal incentives to the civil war. Cic. ubi fup.

Believe

Beieve me, you have no reason, confdrag the unhappy fituation of public fs, to be uneafy that yours ftill remain in a more dubious and unfettled posture was generally hoped and imagined.

fr one of thefe three events must necefly take place: either we fhall never fee an end of our civil wars; or they will ce day fubfide, and give the republic az opportunity of recovering its vigour; er they will terminate in its utter extinction. If the fword is never to be fheathed, you can have nothing to fear either from the party which you formerly affifted, or from that by which you have lately been received. But fhould the republic gain revive, either by the contending tactions mutually agreeing to a ceffation of arms; or by their laying them down in mere laffitude; or by one fide being vanquished; you will undoubtedly be again restored both to your rank and to your fortunes. And fhould our conftitucan be totally deftroyed, agreeably to what the wife Marcus Antonius long ince apprehended, when he imagined that the prefent calamities were even then approaching; you will have the confolation at leaft to reflect, that a misfortune which is common to all, cannot be lamented as pear to any and miferable as this ciclation must prove to a man of your patriot virtues; 'tis a confolation, however, to which we must neceffarily have recourfe.

If

you

well confider the full force of thefe few hints (and I do not think it prudent to be more explicit in a letter), you must be convinced without my telling yo, that you have fomething to hope, and nothing to fear, fo long as the republic fhall fubfift, either in its prefent, any other form. But fhould it be entrely fubverted; as I am fure you would not, if you were permitted, furvive its ram; fo I am perfuaded you will patiently fubmit to your fate, in the confecus fatisfaction of having in no fort deferved it. But I forbear to enter farther

This eloquent and illuftrious patriot, the grandfather of Mark Antony, was conful in the year 653: and about twelve years afterwards was put to death by the command of Marius, whofe paty he had ftrenuously oppofed. Marius was at der when the executioner of his cruel orders bght him the head of Antonius; which that fatuitary Roman received into his hands, with the infclent and horrid exultation of the moft age barbarian. Plut. in Vit. Anten. Appian. B. Croií. i. 344. Val. Max, ix. 2. 13

To Caius Caffius.

[A. U. 708.]

WILL you not blush when I remind

you, that this is the third letter I have written without having received a fingle line in return? However, I do not prefs you to be more expeditious; as I hope, and indeed infift, that you will make me amends for this delay, by the length of your next epistle. As for myself, if I had the opportunity of conveying my letters as frequently as I wish, I fhould write to you, I believe, every hour: for as often as I em ploy my pen in this manner, you feem, as it were, actually present to my view. This effect is by no means produced, let me tell you, by those subtle images which your new friends † talk fo much of; who fuppofe that even the ideas of imagination are excited by what the late Catius, with wondrous elegancy, has ftyled spelers. For by this curious wordt, you must know, he has expreffed what Epicurus, who borrowed the notion from Democritus §, has called images. But granting that these fame Specters are capable of affecting the organ of vifion; yet I cannot guefs which way they can contrive to make their entrance into the

The Epicureans; to whose system of philofophy Caffus had lately become a convert. Accordingly Cicero rallies him in this and the following paffages, on their abfurd doctrine concerning ideas; which they maintained were excited by certain thin for ms, or images, perpetually floating in the air. 1 hele images were fuppofed to be conftantly and fub tle a texture as eafily to penetrate through the por of the body, and by that means render themfe! as vifible to the mind. Lucret. iv. 726, &c.

emitted from all objects, and to be of fo delicate

It is probable that Catius either coined this word hi afelf, or employed it in a new and improper mar er. For it is obfervable, that both Lucretius and Cicero, whenever they have occafion to exprefs in their own language what the Greek Epicureans called sideλa, always render it by the word fimulachra or imagines.

He was a native of Abdera, a city in Thrace, and flou shed about 400 years before the Chriftian æra. Epicurus, who was born about forty years afterwards, borrowed much of his doctrine from the wrings of this philofopher. Cic. de Fin. i. 6.

mind.

mind. But you will folve this difficulty when we meet, and tell me by what means, whenever I fhall be difposed to think of you, I may be able to call up your Specter and not only yours, whofe image indeed is already fo deeply ftamped upon my heart, but even that of the whole British ifland, for instance, if I fhould be inclined to make it the fubject of my meditations. But more of this another time. In the mean while, I fend this as as an experiment, to try with what temper you can bear my railleries. Should they feem to touch you, I fhall renew my attack with fo much the more vigour, and will apply for a writ of reflitution to reindate you in your old tenets: "of which you, the faid Caffius, have by *force and arms * been difpoffeffed," Length of pofte'tion, in this cafe, will be no plea in bar: for whether the time be more or lefs f..ce you have been driven by the allurements of pleasure from the manfion of virtue, my action will be still mant.inable. But let me not forget whom it is that I am thus bantering: is it not that illustrious friend whofe every ftep, from his first entrance into the world, has been conducted by the highest honour and virtue ? If it be true then that you have embraced the Epicurean principles, I doubt they have more strength and foJuhty in them than I once imagined.

And now, will you not be inclined to atk how I could poffibly think of amusing you in this idle manner? The truth of it 15, I am not furnished with a more important fubject, a, I have nothing to write to you concerning public affairs; nor indeed do I chufe to truft my fentitments of them in a letter. Farewel.

LETTER CXXI,
Caffius to Cicero.

[A. U. 708.] NOTHING affords me a greater pleafure in my travels, than to converfe *Thefe were the formal words of the prætor's edict, commanding the refloration of a perfon to an eftate, of which he had been forcibly difpoffeffed. Cicero, perhap, befides the humour of their geTeral application, meant likewife archly to intimate that Cafhus had been driven out of his more rigid principles by his military companions; as in letter written to Tiebatius, when he wat making

a campugn with Caefar in Gaul, where our author 1s rallying him upon a fimilar occafion, he infimave, that he had acquired his Epicurifin in the Indi vandi Pania, fys he, Epicureum te camp. off fucémie Ongira præclara! Epift. Fan, vii. 12.

with my friend. It brings you, indeed, fo ftrongly to my mind, that I fancy myfelf indulging a vein of pleafantry with you in perion. This lively impretion, however, is by no means produced by thofe Catian peters you mention: ard for which piece of raillery I intend to draw up in my next fuch a lift of inelegant Stoics, as will force you to acknowledge that Catius, in comparif on with thefe, may well pafs for a native of the refined Athens.

It gives me much fatisfaction, not only upon our friend Panfa's account, but for the fake of every one of us, that he received fach marks of public esteem when he fet out for his government. I hope this circumftance will be thought a convincing proof how amiable airit of probity and benevolence, and odions the contrary difpofition renders it poffeffor; and that the world will learn from hence, that thefe popular honours, which are fo pamionately courted by bad citizens, are the fure attendants on thofe whofe characters are the re fe. To perfuade mankind that virtue is its own reward, is a tak, I fear, of too much difficulty: but that real and undisturbed pleafures neceffarily flow from probity, justice, and whatever elfe is fair and beautiful in moral actions, is a truth, furely, of moft eafy admittion. Epicurus himfelf,

from whom the Catii and the Amafini, together with the rest of thofe injurious interpreters of his meaning, pretend to derive their tenets, exprefly declares, that "a pleasurable life can alone be pro"cured by the practice of virtue." Accordingly Panfa, who purfues pleasure agreeably to this juft notion of it, ftill perfeveres, you fee, in a virtuous conduct. The truth is, thofe whom your fect has ftigmatised by the name of voluptuaries, are warm admirers of moral beauty; and confequently cultivate and practile the whole train of focial duties. But commend me to the judicious Sulla; who obferving that the philofophers were di vided in their opinions concerning the Supreme Good, left them to fettle the question among themfelves, whilst he turned his views to a lefs controverted acquifition, by purchasing every good thing that was put up to fale. I received the news of his death with much fortitude: and indeed Cæfar will take care that we fhall not long have occafion to regret his lots; as there are numbers of equal merit

whom

But,

77

Bt to turn to public affairs; let me what is doing in Spain. It is a point indeed upon which I am extremely citous: as I had much rather fubmit to an old mafter whofe clemency I have experienced, than run the hazard of being expofed to the cruelty of a new one. You know the weakness of young Pompey's intellects; that he looks upon cruelty as heroifm; and that he is fenfible how much he has ever been the object of our idicule. I fear therefore he would be apt to treat us fomewhat roughly, and rein our jokes with the point of his fword. you have any value for me then, you not fail to let me know whatever happen. Ah, my friend, how do I with I were apprifed whether you read with an eafy or an anxious mind! for by that fingle circumftance I fhould be determined, what measures are proper me to purfue. But not to detain you my longer, I will only intreat you to conte your friendship to me, and then bid ya farewel.

P.S. If Cæfar fhould prove victorious, you may expect to fee me very foon.

All unavailing prov'd his every art,
To shake the purpose of my stedfast heart †.

For whilft the gallant chiefs of our party were on the other fide perpetually exclaiming to me,

"Rife thou, diftinguish'd 'midst the fons of
fame,

And fair tranfmit to times unborn thy name ‡;"
Too cafy dupe of flattery's fpecious voice,
Darkling 1 ftray'd from wifdom's better choice §.

And fain would they ftill raise my spirits, while they endeavour, infenfible as I now am to the charms of glory, to re kindle that paffion in my heart. With this view they are ever repeating,

O let me not inglorious fink in death,
And yield like vulgar fouls my parting breath:
In fome brave effort give me to expire,
That distant ages may the deed admire || !

But I am immovable, as you see, by all their perfuafions. Renouncing, therefore, the pompous heroics of Homer, I turn to the juft maxims of Euripides, and fay with that poet,

Curfe on the fage, who, impotently wife,
O'erlooks the paths where humbler prudence lies.

My old friend Præcilius is a great admirer of the fentiment in these lines; infifting, that a patriot may preferve a prudential regard to his own fafety, and

yet,

Above his peers the first in honour shine ¶.

will greatly oblige me by extending to But to return from this digreffion: you this young man that uncommon generofity which fo peculiarly marks your chaation to increase the number of those faracter; and by fuffering my recommendvours which I am perfuaded you are difhis family. pofed to confer upon him for the fake of

I have not addreffed you in the usual ftyle of recommendatory letters, that you might fee I did not intend this as an application of common form. Farewel,

Hom. Odyff. vii. 258. Hom. Odyff. i. 302. Hom. Odyff. xxiv. 314. Hom. I. xxii. Hom. II. vi. 208.

LETTER CXXIII.

To the fame.

[A. U. 708.]

AMONGST all our young nobility Pub

lius Craffus was one for whom I en

tertained the highest regard; and indeed he amply juftified, in his more mature years, the favourable opinion I had conceived of him from his infancy. It was during his life that his freedman Apollonius first recommended himself to my efteem: for he was zealously attached to the intereft of his patron, and perfectly well qualified to affift him in thofe noble ftudies to which he was devoted; accordingly Crafius was extremely fond of him. But Apollonius, after the death of his patron, proved himself ftill more worthy of my protection and friendship; as he dif tinguished with peculiar marks of refpect all who loved Craffus, or had been beloved by him. It was this that induced Apollonius to follow me into Cilicia: where, upon many occafions, I received fingular advantage from his faithful and judicious fervices. If I miitake not, his moft fincere and zealous offices were not

your

wanting to you likewife in the Alexandrine war, and it is in the hope of thinking fo, that he has refolved, in concurrence with my fentiments, but chiefly indeed from his own, to wait upon you in Spain. I would not promife, however, to recommend him to your favour. Not that I fufpected my applications would be void of weight; but I thought they would be unneceffary in behalf of a man who had ferved in the army under you, and whom, from your regard to the memory of Craffus, you would undoubtedly confider as a friend of your own. Befides, I knew he could eafily procure letters of this kind from many other hands. But as he greatly values my good opinion, and as I am fenfible it has fome influence

upon yours; I very willingly give him my teftimonial. Let me affure you then,

that I know him to be a man of literature, and one who has applied himself to the polite arts from his earlieft youth. For when he was a boy he frequently vifited at my houfe with Diodotus the Stoic: a philofopher, in my judgment, of confummate erudition. Apollonius, inflamed with zeal for the glory of your actions, is greatly defirous of recording them in Greek; and I think him very

capable of the undertaking. He has excellent genius, and has been partic larly converfant in ftudies of the hiftoric kind: as he is wonderfully ambitious lik wife of doing juftice to your immor fame. Thefe are my fincere fentimer them, your own fuperior judgment w of the man; but how far he deferv best determine. But though I told Ap lonius that I fhould not particularly r not forbear affuring you, that every i commend him to your favour; yet I ca ftance of your generofity towards hi will extremely oblige me. Farewel.

Quintus Cicero to Marcus Cicero *. Proteft to you, my dear brother, y have performed an act extreme agreeable to me in giving Tiro his fre dom; as a ftate of fervitude was a fitu tion far unworthy of his merit. Belie me, I felt the higheft complacency, wh I found by his letter and yours, that y rather chose we fhould look upon him the number of our friends, than in th of our flaves: and I both congratula and thank you for this inftance of yo gencrofity towards him. If I receive much fatisfaction from the fervices of r freedman Statius; how much more v luable must the fame good qualities a pear in Tiro, as they have the addition advantages of his learning, his wit, a his politenefs, to recommend them? I ha many powerful motives for the affection bear you; and this mark of your ben ficence to Tiro, together with your givi the family-joy upon this occafion, still i me part (as indeed you had reafon) creafes the number. In a word, I fa and admired all the amiable qualities your heart, in the letter you wrote to n on this fubject.

I have promifed my best fervices the flaves of Sabinus; and it is a promi I will most affuredly make good. Fare

wel.