silence, the honors of the triumphal robe, which he is permitted to wear at the public shows. Crassus would not, for the world, speak anything to disoblige. I need to say no more of all the others, who could see their country sunk if their fish-ponds are safe. One patriot, indeed, we have, but in my opinion, he is patriotic more from courage and integrity, than from judgment or genius, I mean Cato. He has for these three months plagued the poor farmers of the revenue, though they have been his very good friends; nor will he suffer the Senate to return any answer to their petition. Thus, we are forced to do no kind of business, before that of the revenue is dispatched, and I believe even the deputations will be set aside. You see what storms we encounter, and from what I have written, you may form a clear judgment of what I have omitted. Pray think upon returning hither; and though it is, indeed, a disagreeable place, let your affection for me prevail so far upon you, as to bear with it, with all its inconveniences. I will take all possible care to prevent the censors from registering you before your return. But to delay your return to the very last moment, will betray too much of the minute calculator; therefore I beg that you will let me see you as soon as possible.-Epistle to Atticus.

IN EXILE, 58 B.C.

I have learnt from your letters all that passed till the 25th of May. I waited for accounts of what has happened since that time, by your advice, at Thessalonica. When I have received them, I shall the more easily determine where I am to reside. For if there is occasion, if anything is in hand, if I have any encouragement, I either will remain here, or I will repair to you. But if, as you inform me, there are but small hopes of such incidents, then must I determine on some other course. Hitherto you have hinted nothing to me but the divisions that prevail among my enemies; but those divisions spring from other matters than my concerns; I cannot, therefore, see how they can be of advantage to me. will, however, humor you as to every circumstance, from which you desire me to hope for the best. As to the frequent and severe reproofs you throw out against my

I

want of fortitude, let me ask you whether there is an evil which is not included in my misfortunes? Did ever man fall from so elevated a station, in so good a cause, with such advantages of genius, experience, and popularity, or so guarded by the interest of every worthy patriot? Is it possible I should forget who I have been; that I should not feel who I am; what glory, what honor, what children, what fortunes, and what a brother I have lost? A brother, that you may know my calamities to be unexampled, whom I loved, whom I have ever loved more than myself; yet have I been forced to avoid the sight of this very brother, lest I should either behold his sorrow and dejection, or present myself a wretch undone and lost, to him who had left me in high and flourishing circumstances. I omit my other intolerable reflections that still remain; for I am stopped by my tears. Tell me am I most to blame for giving vent to such sorrows, or for surviving my happy state, or for not still possessing it, which I easily might have done, had not the plan of my destruction been laid within my own walls. I write this that you may rather administer your wonted condolence than expose me as deserving of censure and correction. I write but a short letter to you because I am prevented by my tears; and the news I expect from Rome is of more importance to me than anything I can write of myself. Whenever anything comes to my knowledge, I will inform you exactly of my resolution. I beg you will continue to inform me so particularly of everything, that I may be ignorant of nothing that passes.-Epistle to Atticus.

DEATH OF CESAR.

Is it really so? Has all that has been done by our common Brutus, come to this, that he should live at Sanuvium, and Trebonius repair by devious marches to his government? That all the actions, writings, words, promises and purposes of Cæsar should carry with them more force than they would have done, had he been alive? You may remember what loud remonstrances I made the very first day we met in the capitol, that the Senate should be summoned thither

by the prætors. Immortal gods! What might we not have then carried amidst the universal joy of our patriots, and even our half-patriots, and the general rout of those robbers. You disapprove of what was done on the 18th of March, but what could be done? We were undone before that day. Do not you remember you called out that our cause was ruined, if Cæsar had a public funeral? But a funeral he had, and that too in the Forum, and graced with pathetic encomiums, which encouraged slaves and beggars, with flaming torches in their hands, to burn our houses. What followed? Were they not insolent enough to say, "Cæsar issued the command, and you must obey?" I cannot bear these and other things. I therefore think of retiring, and leaving behind me country after country; and even your favorite Greece is too much exposed to the political storm to continue in it.

Meanwhile, has your complaint quite left you? For I have some reason to believe, by your manner of writing, that it has. But I return to the Thebassi, the Scævæ, and the Frangones. Do you imagine that they will think themselves secure in their possessions, while we stand our ground; and experience has taught them that we have not in us the courage which they imagined. Are we to look upon those to be the friends of peace, who have been the fomenters of rebellion? What I wrote to you concerning Curtilius, and the estates of Sestilius, I apply to Censorinus, Messala, Planca, Posthumius, and the whole clan. It would have been better to perish with the slain than to have lived to witness things like these. Octavius came to Naples about the 16th, where Balbus waited upon him next morning, and from thence he came to me at Cumæ, the same day, where he acquainted me that he would accept of the succession to his uncle's estate. But this, as you observe, may be the source of a warm dispute between him and Anthony. I shall bestow all due attention and pains upon your affair at Burthrotum. You ask me whether the legacy left me by Cluvius will amount to a hundred thousand sesterces a year. It will amount pretty near it, but this first year I have laid out eighty thousand upon repairs. My brother complains greatly of his son, who, he says, is now ex

cessively complaisant to his mother, though he hated. her, at a time when she deserved his respects. He has sent me flaming letters against him. If you have not yet left Rome, and if you know what he is doing, I beg you will inform me by a letter, as indeed, you must do of everything else, for your letters give me the greatest pleasure.-Epistle to Atticus.

MARK ANTONY AND OCTAVIUS.

I fear, my Atticus, that all we have reaped from the Ides of March is but the short-lived joy of having punished him whom we have hated as the author of our sufferings. What news do I hear from Rome! What management do I see here! It was, indeed, a glorious action, but it was left imperfect. You know how much I love the Sicilians, and how much I thought myself honored in being their patron. Cæsar (and I was glad of it) did them many favors, though granting them the privileges of Latium was more than could be well borne. However I said nothing even to that. But here comes Antony, who, for a large sum of money, produces a law passed by the dictator in an assembly of the people, by which all Sicilians are made denizens of Rome, an act never once heard of in the dictator's lifetime. Is not the case of our friend Deiotarus almost the same? There is no throne which he does not deserve, but not through the interest of Fulvia. I could give you a thousand such instances. Thus far, however, your purpose may be served. Your affair of Buthrotum is so clear, so well attested, and so just, that it is impossible for you to fail in obtaining part of your claim, and, the rather, as Antony has succeeded in many things of the same kind.

Octavius lives here with me, upon a very honorable and friendly footing. His own domestics call him by the name of Cæsar; but his stepfather Philip does not, neither do I, for that reason. I deny that he can be a good citizen; he is surrounded by so many that breathe destruction to our friends, and who swear vengeance against what they have done. What in your opinion will be the consequence when the boy shall go to Rome, where our deliverers cannot live in safety? It is true,

they must be glorious, and even happy, from the consciousness of what they have done. But we, who are delivered, if I mistake not, must still remain in a state of despicable servitude. I therefore long to go where the news of such deeds can never reach my ears. I hate even those appointed consuls, who have forced me so to declaim, that even Baie was no retreat for me. But this was owing to my too great condescension. It is true there was a time when I was obliged to submit to such things, but now it is otherways, whatever may be the event of public measures. It is long since I had anything to write to you, and yet I am still writing, not that my letters give me pleasure, but that I may provoke you to answer them. I write this on the 21st of April, being at dinner at the house of Vestorius, who is no good logician, but I assure you, an excellent accountant.-Epistle to Atticus.