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Epistulae ad Familiares, VI. xb.-xi.

some unexpectedly mild and liberal measure. And as everything now depends upon the oscillations, slight as they often are, of time and circumstance, I shall keep my eye on every swing of the pendulum, and let slip no opportunity of helping you and lightening your lot.

6 Therefore that second kind of letter-writing[1] which I mentioned will daily become easier for me, so that I can even make promises. As to that, I should prefer to act rather than to talk. I should like you to believe that, so far as I have been able to ascertain, you have more friends than any of those who are and have been as unfortunate as yourself, and that I yield precedence to no one of them. Do not fail to maintain a high and courageous spirit, and that depends upon yourself alone; what depends upon fortune will be ruled by circumstances, and provided for by the measures we take.

XI

Cicero to the same

Rome, middle of June, 45 B.C.

1 For Dolabella I have had so far no more than a kindly regard; I was under no obligation to him; I had never, as it happened, any occasion to be so, and he was in my debt, because I had not failed him in the days of his danger.[2] Now I am beholden to him for a kindness so exceptional—for he has given me the most unbounded satisfaction first in the matter of your property, and now in your restoration—that I am more indebted to him than to any

  1. ↑ i.e., the consolatory kind.
  2. ↑ Dolabella was twice tried on a capital charge, before he was twenty. What those charges were we do not know. For a further account of Dolabella see note on iii. 10. 1.
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