Marcus Antonius Atticus

“ The Hermathena you sent I am delighted with: it has been placed with such Charming effect that the whole gymnasium seems arranged specially for it. [13] I am exceedingly obliged to you.
Footnotes ↑ One of the judices rejected by Verres on his trial, a pontifex and augur.↑ Agent of Atticus↑ C. Antonius (uncle of M. Antonius) was elected with Cicero. Q. Cornificius had been tr. pl. in B.C. 69. See Letter A 1.13.↑ M. Caesonius, Cicero's colleague in the aedileship. He had lost credit as one of the Iunianum concilium in the trial of Oppianicus.↑ Aufidius Lurco, tr. pl. B.C. 61. ”

“ To the speech in answer to Metellus. [10] I have made some additions. The book shall be sent you, since affection for me gives you a taste for rhetoric. What news have I for you? Let me see. Oh, yes! The consul Messalla has bought Antonius's house for 3,400 sestertia. What is that to me? you will say. Why, thus much. The price has convinced people that I made no bad bargain, and they begin to understand that in making a purchase a man may properly use his friends' means to get what suits his position. The Teucris affair drags on, yet I have hopes. Pray settle the business you have in hand. ”

“ To Atticus at Rome Formii, April 59 BC I tell you what it is: I feel myself a downright exile since arriving at Formiae. For at Antium there was never a day that I didn't know what was going on at Rome better than those who were there. For your letters used to show me not only what was doing at Rome, but the actual political situation also—and not only that, but also what was likely to happen. Now, unless I snatch a bit of news from some passing traveller, I can learn nothing at all. ”

“ To Atticus in Epirus Rome, 15 March 61 BC You have heard that my dearest brother Quintus has got Asia; for I do not doubt that rumour has conveyed the news to you quicker than a letter from any of us. Now then, considering how desirous of a good reputation he and I have ever been, and how unusually Philhellenic we are and have the reputation of being, and considering how many there are whose enmity we have incurred for the sake of the Republic, "call to mind all your valour," [1] to secure us the praise and affection of all concerned. ”

“ To Atticus at Rome Antium, April 59 BC When I had been eagerly expecting a letter from you as usual till evening, lo and behold a message that slaves have come from Rome. I summon them: I ask if they have any letters. "No," say they. "What do you say," said I, "nothing from Pomponius?" Frightened to death by my voice and look, they confessed that they had received one, and that it had been lost on the journey. Need I say more? I was intensely annoyed. For no letter has come from you for the last few days without something in it important and entertaining. ”

“ But if I ever see my way clearly in anything, I will write to you more explicitly. For yourself, if you love me as much as I am sure you do, take care to be ready to come in all haste as soon as I call for you. But I do my best, and shall do so, to make it unnecessary. I said I would call you Furius in my letters, but it is not necessary to change your name. I'll call myself Laelius and you Atticus, but I will use neither my own hand-writing nor seal, if the letter happens to be such as I should not wish to fall into the hands of a stranger. ”

“ To Atticus at Rome Vibo, April 58 BC I hope I may see the day when I shall thank you for having compelled me to remain alive! At present I thoroughly repent it. But I beg you to come and see me at Vibo at once, to which town I have for several reasons directed my journey. [1] But if you will only come there, I shall be able to consult you about my entire journey and exile. ”

“ This Atticus was Cicero's intimate friend to whom he addressed so many of his charming letters. He changed his name as stated in the text, the new name being that of an uncle who adopted him, as we learn from his life by Nepos. As is well known to all students of Cicero, Atticus had dwelt in Athens many years and derived his income from estates in Epirus, which is the point of Scrofa's jest. ”

“ Friends are not infrequently the complements, rather than the likeness, of each other. Cicero and Atticus were as close friends as Scipio and Laelius; but they were at many points exceedingly unlike. Atticus had the tact and skill in worldly matters, which Cicero lacked. Atticus kept aloof from public affairs while Cicero was unhappy whenever he could not imagine himself as taking a leading part in them. Atticus was an Epicurean, and Cicero never lost an opportunity of attacking the Epicurean philosophy. ”

“ The party of the Optimates—in spite of his disgust at the indifference and frivolity of many of them—was to be his party: his favourite constitutional object was to be to keep the equites and the senate on good terms: and his greatest embarrassment was how to reconcile this position with his personal loyalty to Pompey, and his views as to the reforms necessary in the government of the provinces.
The Consulship, B.C. 63.
For the momentous year of the consulship we have no letters. His brother Quintus was in Rome as candidate and then prætor-designate; Atticus was also in Rome ”

“ To Atticus at Rome Tusculum, June 20 I am not at all surprised either at your sorrow in regard to Marcellus or at your misgiving as to increased sources of danger. For who would have feared such a thing as this --a thing that had never happened before and which nature seemed to forbid the possibility of happening? Therefore there is nothing that may not be feared. ”

“ There are two excellent letters to M. Marius, and one very interesting, though rather surprising, epistle to L. Lucceius. Others of more than average interest are to Terentia, M. Fadius Gallus, C. Scribonius Curio, and Tiro.
Titus Pomponius Atticus.
Atticus (B.C. 109-32) is a man of whom we should be glad to know more than we do. He was the friend of all the leading men of the day—Pompey, Cæsar, Cicero, Antony, Brutus—father-in-law of Agrippa, and survived to be a constant correspondent of Augustus, between B.C. 43 and his death in B.C. 32. ”

“ Titus Pormponius Atticus, who edited the large collection of the letters written to himself, was a cultivated Roman who lived more than twenty years in Athens for purposes of study. His zeal for cultivation was combined with the successful pursuit of wealth; and though Cicero relied on him for aid and advice in public as well as private matters, their friendship did not prevent Atticus from being on good terms with men of the opposite party. ”

“ But it may very well be said that no one but Cicero could have written it. It is not certainly one of his happiest efforts, in spite of what he says here; but he is not unaccustomed to estimate his speeches somewhat highly, and to mistake violence for vigour.↑ He will send it to Atticus to get copied by his librarii, and published.↑ Appius Claudius Pulcher, brother of P. Clodius, was a praetor this year.↑ It is not clear that Clodius was wrong; the pontifices decided that for a valid consecration an order of the people was requisite, and, of course, Clodius could allege such an order. ”

“ It is the only occasion in all the correspondence in which the least cloud seems to have rested on the perfect friendship of the two men. Atticus does not appear to have shewn any annoyance at the querulous remarks of his friend. He steadily continued to write, giving information and advice, and made no difficulty in supplying his friend with money. During Cicero's absence Atticus became still more wealthy than before by inheriting the estates of his cross-grained uncle Cæcilius. ”

“ He then moved a new clause to the decree, and carried it.↑ The decree apparently prevented the recovery of debts from a libera civitas in the Roman courts. Atticus would therefore have to trust to the regard of the Sicyonians for their credit.↑ A son must be hard up for something to say for himself if he is always harping on his father's reputation; and so must I, if I have nothing but my consulship. That seems the only point in the quotation. I do not feel that there is any reference to praise of his father in Cicero's own poem. ”

“ To Atticus on his way to Rome Tusculum, December 60 BC Take care of my dear nephew Cicero, I beg of you. I seem to share his illness. I am engaged on the "Constitution of Pellene," and, by heaven, have piled up a huge heap of Dicaearchus at my feet. [1] What a great man! You may learn much more from him than from Procilius. ”

“ Its personal tone made it dangerous now.↑ Cicero means that Atticus acted with the emotion spontaneously arising from his affection, but not with the caution which he would have shown in doing a thing which he was under some obligation to do.↑ The ancient "colleges" or "clubs" had been gradually increasing and a decree of the senate in BC 64 bad declared certain of them unlawful. ”

“ To Atticus at Athens Rome, 68 BC We are such intimate friends that more than almost anyone else you can appreciate the grief as well as the actual public and private loss that the death of my cousin Lucius is to me. There is absolutely no gratification which any human being can receive from the kindly character of another that I have not been accustomed to receive from him. ”

“ Did the old man, Hipparchus, die [12] of joy on hearing of his good fortune? It may have been so, for at this point he disappears from the story and returns no more. Atticus remains in possession, but such hazardous possession! If his fellow-citizens heard of the treasure, they would wrest it from him; if the Emperor learnt of it, he, as lord of all soil of the Empire, had the right to claim it for himself. To enjoy it on the spot or to remove it in secret was equally impossible, and Atticus wisely decided to throw himself on the well-known generosity of the Emperor. ”

“ To Atticus in Epirus Rome, 20 January 60 BC Believe me there is nothing at this moment of which I stand so much in need as a man with whom to share all that causes me anxiety: a man to love me; a man of sense to whom I can speak without affectation, reserve, or concealment. ”

“ According to Plutarch, Pompey avoided a personal interview (Cic. 31) .↑ The kindness has been all on the side of Atticus, who will therefore be attached to the object of it—for the benefactor loves more than the benefited.↑ A privilegium was a law referring to a particular person, which was forbidden by the twelve tables, and if it was shown to be unconstitutional a decree of the senate could declare it void. ”

“ In his fourth epistle to Atticus, he says [7] “If they will not be friendly to me who possess no power, I must endeavour to make those like me who have the power of being useful. ‘I told you so long ago,’ you will say; I know that you did, and I was an ass for not taking your advice.” The opinion too of his friend Cælius, would have great weight with most men, in such disturbed times. “It cannot have escaped you, that the duty of men amidst domestic dissensions, is to espouse the honestest side, as long as the contention is of a civil nature, and force is not used. ”

“ My hope of getting the one enjoyment which I care for, when I come to retire, depends entirely on your kindness.
Footnotes ↑ The mother of Atticus lived to be ninety, dying in B.C. 33, not long before Atticus himself, who at her funeral declared that "he had never been reconciled to her, for he had never had a word of dispute with her" (Nep. Att. 17) .↑ This sum is for the works of art purchased for the writer by Atticus. ”

“ The unhappy marriage between his daughter Tullia and her profligate husband, Dolabella, was dissolved at much the same time, but she only survived for a few months. Her death, which occurred in February, 45 B.C., seems to have prostrated Cicero with grief, and a long series of daily letters, from March to August of that year, are largely filled with reiterations of his grief and projects for the erection of a shrine in her honour. They are interesting for the light they cast on Atticus' treatment of Cicero when he was unstrung and excited. Atticus evidently disapproved entirely of the project ”

“ In the first place your kindly disposition should bid you forgive that, for everyone ought to look after his own friends; in the next place, leaving Atticus out of the question, if you love me—and you are always declaring how great is the respect you have for your friend Cicero—grant me that now I may know for a certainty what I have always believed, that you have a great affection for me. ”

“ It seems as though it would have been preferable to die than to be one of such men. So, my dear Atticus, think on these problems, or rather think them out. I shall bear any result more bravely than this affliction.
[Pg 200]
VIa
CAESAR IMP. S. D. CICERONI IMP.
Scr. in itinere in. m. Mart. a. 705
Cum Furnium nostrum tantum vidissem neque loqui neque audire meo commodo potuissem, properarem atque essem in itinere praemissis iam legionibus, praeterire tamen non potui, quin et scriberem ad te et illum mitterem gratiasque agerem, etsi hoc et feci saepe et saepius mihi facturus videor. ”

“ One charm of the correspondence is variety. There is almost every sort of letter. Those to Atticus are unstudied, spontaneous, and reflect the varying moods of the writer. At times of special excitement they follow each other day by day, and sometimes more than once in the same day; and the writer seems to conceal nothing, however much it might expose him to ridicule, and to the charge of fickleness, weakness, or even cowardice. Those addressed to other friends are sometimes familiar and playful, some [Pg xv] times angry and indignant. ”