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Epistulae ad Familiares, V. viii.

tinctions, and discharged in full measure the service due to our long-standing intimacy—a service, indeed, long overdue because it has been interrupted by the many vicissitudes of the times.[1]

2 And it was not, I solemnly asseverate, that I ever lacked the will to show you either respect or honour, but certain pestilent fellows, resenting the praise bestowed upon another, have once or twice estranged you from me, and now and then caused me to change my opinion of you. But an opportunity occurred, for which I had prayed rather than hoped, of enabling me in the zenith of your prosperity to give convincing proof that I was neither forgetful of our mutual goodwill nor disloyal to our friendship. For I have succeeded in making not only your whole family, but every citizen without exception, acknowledge the sincerity of my friendship for you; with the result that that paragon of women, your wife, as well as those admirably affectionate, gallant, and popular men, your sons, rely implicitly upon my counsel and advice, my zeal and my public policy; while both the Senate and the people of Rome understand that during your absence you have nothing so quickly available, or so ready to your hand, as the labour, attention, assiduity, and influence you can claim in all that touches your interests from myself.

3 I believe the letters of your household are giving you a clear account of what has been, and what is being, done here. As to myself, I am extremely anxious that you should make up your mind and convince yourself of the fact that it was not through any sudden caprice or by accident that I tumbled into the business of protecting your high position, but that from the moment I first set foot in the forum,

  1. ↑ Cicero and Crassus were thrice estranged and thrice reconciled. The first quarrel was due to Cicero’s ascribing to Pompey the whole credit of the Servile War; the second was due to Crassus’s activity in urging the banishment of Cicero, but a reconciliation was effected, mainly through Crassus’s, son Publius. The third arose from Crassus’s support of Gabinius, and the subsequent reconciliation is described in i. 9. 2.

    The complimentary and even affectionate tone of this letter contrasts unpleasantly with what Cicero calls Crassus in.a contemporary letter to Atticus (iv. 13. 2)—"o hominem nequam!" "what a worthless rascal!"

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