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Epistulae ad Familiares, V. ii.-iii.

say, writing me a threatening letter, I write back and answer you thus—not only do I excuse your resentment, but I even pay it the tribute of my highest commendation; for my own feeling prevents my forgetting the power of brotherly love. I only beg you on your side, too, to prove an impartial judge of my own resentment; and if your friends have attacked me bitterly, ruthlessly, and without provocation, I ask you to come to the conclusion that not only ought I to have refused to surrender, but that in such a cause, I ought even to have availed myself of your assistance, and that of the army you command.[1] It has been my desire that you should always be friendly disposed towards me, and I have striven to convince you that I, too, am most friendly disposed towards you. That kindly feeling I still maintain, and so long as it is your pleasure, I shall continue to maintain it; and I shall sooner cease to resent your brother's conduct because I love you, than because of that resentment permit our mutual goodwill to be in the slightest degree impaired.

III

Q. Metellus Nepos to Cicero[2]

Spain, 56 B.C.

1 The insults of a very troublesome fellow,[3] which he heaps upon me in one public meeting after another, have the sting taken out of them by your good services to me; and as, coming from such a man, they carry no weight, I despise them; and, by an interchange of personality, it is a pleasure to me

  1. ↑ A slightly satirical reference to Celer's exercitui praesum in the preceding letter.
  2. ↑ It should be noticed that this letter was written six years later than the preceding letter.
  3. ↑ Almost certainly P. Clodius, as indicated by the use of fratris below.
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