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Epistulae ad Familiares, VI. iii.-iv.

3 And, understanding this[1] so fully, I see such a position that it seems that it will be no evil if, even before a decisive victory, that befalls which is lield out as being of all things the most to be dreaded.[2] For to live on such terms as we should have to live after that is the depth of misery, but no wise man has ever held that to die is any misery, even for one who is in prosperity. But you are in a city in which the very walls of the houses themselves seem able to say all this, or even more, and after a nobler fashion.

4 I can assure you of this, though it is but a poor consolation that is based on the miseries of others, that you are in no whit greater danger now than any one either of those who have gone off to the war, or of those who have stayed at home. The former are engaged in battle, the latter fear the conqueror.

That, however, is a poor consolation; this other one has greater weight, and I hope you take advantage of it, as I certainly do; for never, while I exist, shall anything cause me pain, as long as I am guiltless of any wrong conduct; and if I cease to exist, I lose all sensation.

But here again in writing thus to you I am but "sending an owl to Athens."[3] You and yours and all you possess are my chief concern, and will be as long as I live.

IV

Cicero to the same

Rome, January, 45 B.C.

1 There is no news for me to send you, and even if there were, I know that you generally get the in-

  1. ↑ i.e., the trouble that must ensue in either case.
  2. ↑ i.e., death.
  3. ↑ Equivalent to our "sending coals to Newcastle," the owl being sacred to Pallas Athene, the tutelary goddess of Athens.
441
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