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XXXVI
XXXVI
To M. Iunius Brutus (in Macedonia)
Rome, Middle of July, 43 B.C.
You have Messalla with you. What letter, therefore, can I write with such
minute care as to enable me to explain to you what is being done and what is
occurring in public affairs, more thoroughly than he will describe them to
you, who has at once the most intimate knowledge of everything, and the talent
for unfolding and conveying it to you in the best possible manner? For beware
of thinking, Brutus - for though it is unnecessary for me to write to you what
you know already, yet I cannot pass over in silence such eminence in every
kind of greatness - beware of thinking, I say, that he has any parallel in
honesty and firmness, care and zeal for the Republic. So much so that in him
eloquence - in which he is extraordinarily eminent - scarcely seems to offer
any opportunity for praise. Yet in this accomplishment itself his wisdom is
made more evident; with such excellent judgment and with so much acuteness has
he practised himself in the most genuine style of rhetoric. Such also is his
industry, and so great the amount of midnight labour that he bestows on this
study, that the chief thanks would not seem to be due to natural genius, great
as it is in his case. But my affection carries me away: for it is not the
purpose of this letter to praise Messalla, especially to Brutus, to whom his
excellence is not less known than it is to me, and these particular
accomplishments of his which I am praising even better. Grieved as I was to
let him go from my side, my one consolation was that in going to you who are
to me a second self, he was performing a duty and following the path of the
truest glory. But enough of this. I now come, after a long interval of time,
to a certain letter of yours, in which, while paying me many compliments, you
find one fault with me - that I was excessive and, as it were, extravagant in
proposing votes of honour. That is your criticism: another`s, perhaps, might
be that I was too stern in inflicting punishment and exacting penalties,
unless by chance you blame me for both. If that is so, I desire that my
principle in both these things should be very clearly known to you. And I do
not rely solely on the dictum of Solon, who was at once the wisest of the
Seven and the only lawgiver among them. He said that a state was kept together
by two things - reward and punishment. Of course there is a certain moderation
to be observed in both, as in everything else, and what we may call a golden
mean in both these things. But I have no intention to dilate on such an
important subject in this place.
But what has been my aim during this war in the motions I have made in
the senate I think it will not be out of place to explain. After the death of
Caesar and your ever memorable Ides of March, Brutus, you have not forgotten
what I said had been omitted by you and your colleagues, and what a heavy
cloud I declared to be hanging over the Republic. A great pest had been
removed by your means, a great blot on the Roman people wiped out, immense
glory in truth acquired by yourselves: but an engine for exercising kingly
power had been put into the hands of Lepidus and Antony, of whom the former
was the more fickle of the two, the latter the more corrupt, but both of whom
dreaded peace and were enemies to quiet. Against these men, inflamed with the
ambition of revolutionizing the state, we had no protecting force to oppose.
For the fact of the matter was this: the state had become roused as one man to
maintain its liberty; I at the time was even excessively warlike; you, perhaps
with more wisdom, quitted the city which you had liberated, and when Italy
offered you her services declined them. Accordingly, when I saw the city in
the possession of parricides, and that neither you nor Cassius could remain in
it with safety, and that it was held down by Antony`s armed guards, I thought
that I too ought to leave it: for a city held down by traitors, with all
opportunity of giving aid cut off, was a shocking spectacle. But the same
spirit as always had animated me, staunch to the love of country, did not
admit the thought of a departure from its dangers. Accordingly, in the very
midst of my voyage to Achaia, when in the period of the Etesian gales a south
wind - as though remonstrating against my design - had brought me back to
Italy, I saw you at Velia and was much distressed: for you were on the point
of leaving the country, Brutus - leaving it, I say, for our friends the Stoics
deny that wise men ever "flee." As soon as I reached Rome I at once threw
myself in opposition to Antony`s treason and insane policy: and having roused
his wrath against me, I began entering upon a policy truly Brutus-like - for
this is the distinctive mark of your family - that of freeing my country. The
rest of the story is too long to tell, and must be passed over by me, for it
is about myself. I will only say this much: that this young Caesar, thanks to
whom we still exist, if we would confess the truth, was a stream from the
fountainhead of my policy. To him I voted honours, none indeed, Brutus, that
were not his due, none that were not inevitable. For directly we began the
recovery of liberty, when the divine excellence of even Decimus Brutus had not
yet bestirred itself sufficiently to give us an indication of the truth, and
when our sole protection depended on the boy who had shaken Antony from our
shoulders, what honour was there that he did not deserve to have decreed to
him? However, all I then proposed for him was a complimentary vote of thanks,
and that too expressed with moderation. I also proposed a decree conferring
imperium on him, which, although it seemed too great a compliment for one of
his age, was yet necessary for one commanding an army - for what is an army
without a commander with imperium? Philippus proposed a statue; Servius at
first proposed a licence to stand for office before the regular time.
Servilius afterwards proposed that the time should be still farther curtailed.
At that time nothing was thought too good for him.
But somehow men are more easily found who are liberal at a time of alarm,
than grateful when victory has been won. For when that most joyful day of
Decimus Brutus` relief from blockade had dawned on the Republic and happened
also to be his birthday, I proposed that the name of Brutus should be entered
in the fasti under that date. And in that I followed the example of our
ancestors, who paid this honour to the woman Laurentia, at whose altar in the
Velabrum you pontiffs are accustomed to offer service. And when I proposed
this honour to Brutus I wished that there should be in the fasti an eternal
memorial of a most welcome victory: and yet on that very day I discovered that
the ill-disposed in the senate were somewhat in a majority over the
grateful. In the course of those same days I lavished honours - if you like
that word - upon the dead Hirtius, Pansa, and even Aquila. And who has any
fault to find with that, unless he be one who, no sooner an alarm is over,
forgets the past danger? There was added to this grateful memorial of a
benefit received some consideration of what would be for the good of posterity
also; for I wished that there should exist some perpetual record of the
popular execration of our most ruthless enemies. I suspect that the next step
does not meet with your approbation. It was disapproved by your friends, who
are indeed most excellent citizens, but inexperienced in public business. I
mean my proposing an ovation for Caesar. For myself, however - though I am
perhaps wrong, and I am not a man who believes his own way necessarily right -
I think that in the course of this war I never took a more prudent step. The
reason for this I must not reveal, lest I should seem to have a sense of
favours to come rather than to be grateful for those received. I have said too
much already: let us look at other points. I proposed honours to Decimus
Brutus, and also to Lucius Plancus. Those indeed are noble spirits whose spur
to action is glory: but the senate also is wise to avail itself of any means -
provided that they are honourable - by which it thinks that a particular man
can be induced to support the Republic. But - you say - I am blamed in regard
to Lepidus: for, having placed his statue on the rostra, I also voted for its
removal. I tried by paying him a compliment to recall him from his insane
policy. The infatuation of that most unstable of men rendered my prudence
futile. Yet all the same more good was done by demolishing the statue of
Lepidus, than harm by putting it up.
Enough about honours; now I must say a few words about penalties. For I
have gathered from frequent expressions in your letters that in regard to
those whom you have conquered in war, you desire that your clemency should be
praised. I hold, indeed, that you do and say nothing but what becomes a
philosopher. But to omit the punishment of a crime - for that is what
"pardoning" amounts to - even if it is endurable in other cases, is
mischievous in a war like this. For there has been no civil war, of all that
have occurred in the state within my memory, in which there was not certain to
be some form of constitution remaining, whichever of the two sides prevailed.
In this war, if we are victorious, I should not find it easy to affirm what
kind of constitution we are likely to have; if we are conquered, there will
certainly never be any. I therefore proposed severe measures against Antony,
and severe ones also against Lepidus, and not so much out of revenge as in
order that I might for the present prevent unprincipled men by this terror
from attacking their country, and might for the future establish a warning for
all who were minded to imitate their infatuation.
However, this proposal was not mine more than it was everybody`s. The
point in it which had the appearance of cruelty was that the penalty extended
to the children who did not deserve any. But that is a thing of long standing
and characteristic of all states. For instance, the children of Themistocles
were in poverty. And if the same penalty attaches to citizens legally
condemned in court, how could we be more indulgent to public enemies? What,
moreover, can anyone say against me when he must confess that, had that man
conquered, he would have been still more revengeful towards me?
Here you have the principles which dictated my senatorial proposals, at
any rate in regard to this class of honours and penalties. For, in regard to
other matters, I think you have been told what opinions I have expressed and
what votes I have given. But all this is not so very pressing. What is really
pressing, Brutus, is that you should come to Italy with your army as soon as
possible. There is the greatest anxiety for your arrival. Directly you reach
Italy all classes will flock to you. For if we win the victory - and we had in
fact won a most glorious one, only that Lepidus set his heart on ruining
everything and perishing himself with all his friends - there will be need of
your counsel in establishing some form of constitution. And even if there is
still some fighting left to be done, our greatest hope is both in your
personal influence and in the material strength of your army. But make haste,
in God`s name! You know the importhnce of seizing the right moment, and of
rapidity. What pains I am taking in the interests of your sister`s children, I
hope you know from the letters of your mother and sister. In undertaking their
cause I shew more regard to your affection, which is very precious to me,
than, as some think, to my own consistency. But there is nothing in which I
more wish to be and to seem consistent than in loving you.
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