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Epistulae ad Familiares, V. ii.

state, I beg you to forgive me; for I am as great a friend of the state as the greatest friend she has. If, however, I have but defended my personal safety against his most merciless attack upon me, you must rest content that I make no complaint to you either of your brother's injustice to me.

Now when I had discovered that he was directing every effort he could make as tribune^[1] to my destruction, and laying his plans accordingly, I appealed to your wife, Claudia,^[2] and to your sister Mucia^[3] too, of whose desire to serve me, in consideration of my intimacy with Pompey, I had assured myself on several occasions, to deter him from so injurious a policy.

⁷ And yet, as I know for certain that you were told, on the last day of December he inflicted upon me, consul and saviour of the Republic as I was, an indignity such as has never yet been inflicted upon any man holding the lowest office in the state, were he the most disloyal of citizens—he robbed me, on laying down my office, of the privilege of addressing the people; but that indignity after all resulted in my being most highly honoured. For though he permitted me to do no more than merely take the oath, I took that oath, and a very true and glorious oath it was, in a loud voice; and the people also swore as loudly that that same oath I had sworn was true.^[4]

↑ When Cicero proposed in accordance with custom to address the people from the rostra on the expiration of his consulship, Q. Metellus Nepos, who, unlike his brother Celer, had sided with the Catilinarians, being then tribune, interposed his veto on the ground that Cicero had acted unconstitutionally “in putting Roman citizens to death without a trial.” The veto of Nepos was the “mere phrase” to which Celer refers to in the preceding letter. Cicero’s retort in the Senate forced Nepos to leave Rome, thereby vacating his tribunate, and it would appear that the Senate declared him a public enemy. See Chron. Sum. 63 § 4.
↑ A woman of the worst reputation, identified with the Lesbia of Catullus. See note a on p. 320.
↑ Half-sister of the two Metelli and wife of Pompey, by whom she was afterwards divorced.
↑ The words of the oath were rem publicam atque hanc urbem mea unius opera esse salvam, "that the safety of the state and this city is due to my efforts alone."

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[1] When Cicero proposed in accordance with custom to address the people from the rostra on the expiration of his consulship, Q. Metellus Nepos, who, unlike his brother Celer, had sided with the Catilinarians, being then tribune, interposed his veto on the ground that Cicero had acted unconstitutionally “in putting Roman citizens to death without a trial.” The veto of Nepos was the “mere phrase” to which Celer refers to in the preceding letter. Cicero’s retort in the Senate forced Nepos to leave Rome, thereby vacating his tribunate, and it would appear that the Senate declared him a public enemy. See Chron. Sum. 63 § 4.

[2] A woman of the worst reputation, identified with the Lesbia of Catullus. See note a on p. 320.

[3] Half-sister of the two Metelli and wife of Pompey, by whom she was afterwards divorced.

[4] The words of the oath were rem publicam atque hanc urbem mea unius opera esse salvam, "that the safety of the state and this city is due to my efforts alone."

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