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Epistulae ad Familiares, V. xvii.-xviii.

5 And that is why you ought to find a store of comfort not only in your son's exceptionally high character and profound affection for you, but in me and all those others who estimate you, and always will estimate you not by your fortune but by your character; and most of all in your own conscience, when you reflect that you have not deserved anything that has happened to you, and when you think of this too, that what troubles men of wisdom is the consciousness of guilt, not the accidents of fortune, their own misconduct, not any injury done them by others. For my part, impressed as I am by the memory of our long-standing friendship, the high character of your son, and the respect he has shown me, I shall always be at my post to soothe and lighten your misfortunes; and should you on your part happen to write to me about anything, I shall be very careful to give you no reason to suppose that you have written in vain.

XVIII

Cicero to T. Fadius[1]

52 B.C.

1 Although I, who am anxious to console you, am myself in need of consolation (for it is long since I have resented anything more bitterly than your misfortune), still in all earnestness I exhort you, and not only that, but entreat and implore you in the name of our mutual affection, to summon all your courage and prove yourself a man, and consider under what conditions all men and in what times we in

  1. ↑ Titus Fadius Gallus was quaestor to Cicero when consul in 63; he was a tribune in 58, and was one of those who tried to bring about Cicero's recall. He was now in exile, through allows to live in Italy and see his family; and the words facultatem sis habiturus etc. in § 2 imply his speedy restoration.
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