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Epistulae ad Familiares, IV. iv.

modest"); and yet even so (and there is no "mock-modesty" in this either) I readily acknowledge your superiority in the refinement and good taste^[1] of your compositions.

² That policy of yours which, as you write, led you not to decline this post in Achaia, I have always approved, and approve much more heartily now that I have read your last letter; for all the reasons you specify are perfectly sound and quite worthy of your high position and sagacity. You think that in this case things have not turned out as you expected; well, there I do not agree with you at all. The fact is that so appalling is the general disorganization and chaos, so irremediable the overthrow and prostration of every interest by this most horrible war, that every man thinks that where he happens to be is the most miserable place, and himself the most miserable person in the world; and that is precisely why you not only regret your policy, but also imagine that we who are at home are happy; while we on the other hand consider you to be, not indeed free from all annoyances, but still happy as compared with ourselves. Moreover, in this particular respect your lot is better than ours—you venture to put in writing what is troubling you, we cannot do even that with any safety; and that is through no fault of the victor, who is a marvel of moderation, but of the victory itself, which in civil wars is ever overbearing.

³ On one point I claim a victory over you; I got to know of the restoration of your colleague Marcellus,^[2]

↑ Or "purity and propriety" (Watson).
↑ M. Marcellus, consul with Sulpicius in 51 B.C., when he showed himself a bitter enemy to Caesar. He even caused a citizen (according to some authorities, a senator or ex-magistrate) of Comum to be scourged at Rome for some trivial offence, to prove that he repudiated the validity of the civitas conferred upon that colony, under the Lex Vatinia, by Caesar. Early in 49 he urged, but unsuccessfully, the necessity of levying Republican troops before openly breaking with Caesar. He fled from Rome on the outbreak of the Civil War, and after Pharsalia retired to Mitylene, where he devoted himself to rhetoric and philosophy. In 46, his cousin C. Marcellus, in a full senate, implored Caesar to pardon his kinsman, with the result described in this letter. Cicero formally expressed his gratitude to Caesar in his speech Pro Marcello. Returning to Rome, Marcellus got as far as the Piraeus, where he was murdered by P. Magius Cilo (see Ep. xii of this Book).

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[1] Or "purity and propriety" (Watson).

[2] M. Marcellus, consul with Sulpicius in 51 B.C., when he showed himself a bitter enemy to Caesar. He even caused a citizen (according to some authorities, a senator or ex-magistrate) of Comum to be scourged at Rome for some trivial offence, to prove that he repudiated the validity of the civitas conferred upon that colony, under the Lex Vatinia, by Caesar. Early in 49 he urged, but unsuccessfully, the necessity of levying Republican troops before openly breaking with Caesar. He fled from Rome on the outbreak of the Civil War, and after Pharsalia retired to Mitylene, where he devoted himself to rhetoric and philosophy. In 46, his cousin C. Marcellus, in a full senate, implored Caesar to pardon his kinsman, with the result described in this letter. Cicero formally expressed his gratitude to Caesar in his speech Pro Marcello. Returning to Rome, Marcellus got as far as the Piraeus, where he was murdered by P. Magius Cilo (see Ep. xii of this Book).

[1]

[2]