say as to the suspicion of a Parthian invasion caused me great uneasiness. For I was able to conjecture the amount of your forces, and your letter confirms my calculation. Therefore I can only hope that that nation will not move until the legions reach you, which I hear are on their way. But if you have not forces adequate for the struggle, do not forget to follow the policy of M. Bibulus, who kept himself shut up in a very strongly fortified and well-supplied town, as long as the Parthians were in the province.[1] But you will settle these points better on the spot, and in view of the actual circumstances. For myself, I shall continue to feel anxious as to what you are doing, until I know what you have done. I have never had anyone to whom to give a letter without giving one. I beg you to do the same, and above all, when you write to your family, to assure them of my devotion to you.
DCLXIX (F XIII, 4)
TO Q. VALERIUS ORCA (IN ETRURIA)
Rome (Autumn[2])
Marcus Cicero greets Quintus Valerius, son of Quintus,
legatus pro prætore.[3] I have very close ties with the townsmen
of Volaterræ. In fact, having received great kindness from
me, they repaid me to the full: for they never failed me either
in my prosperity or my adversity. And even if there were
no special reason for our union, yet, having a very warm
affection for you, and feeling that you have a high value for
me, I should have warned and urged you to have a regard
- ↑ There is a touch of malice in this suggestion. Cicero jeers at the over-caution of Bibulus elsewhere. See vol. ii., pp. 199, 217.
- ↑ There is really nothing to decide the exact date of these two letters to Orca. The land commission referred to was established in the previous year (B.C. 46), and the letters may possibly belong to that year.
- ↑ This was Orca's title as head of the land commission; he was "legate (i.e., of Cæsar) with rank of prætor." For Cæsar's use of public land for his veterans at this time, see Suet. Iul. 38.
