CCCCXVIII (A XI, 7)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
Brundisium, 17 December
I am much obliged for your letter, in which you have set
forth with great care all that you thought had any bearing
on my position. Is it the case then, as you say in your
letter, that your friends think that I should retain my
lictors on the ground that Sestius has been allowed to do
so?[1] But in his case I don't consider that his own lictors
have been allowed him, but that lictors have been given him
by Cæsar himself.[2] For I am told that he refuses to acknowledge
any decrees of the Senate passed after the withdrawal
of the tribunes.[3] Wherefore he will be able without
forfeiting his consistency to acknowledge my lictors. However,
why should I talk about lictors, who am all but ordered
to quit Italy? For Antony has sent me a copy of Cæsar's
letter to him, in which he says that "he has been told that
Cato and L. Metellus had come to Italy, with the intention
of living openly at Rome: that he disapproved of that, for
fear of its being the cause of disturbances: and that all are
forbidden to come to Italy except those whose case he had
- [Footnote: been conspicuous at this time. The right owner, the younger Hortensius,
was serving Cæsar (vol. ii., pp. 392, 400).]
- ↑ The text is corrupt. I venture to read: arbitratus es. Itane est igitur, ut scribis, istis placere eisdem ictoribus me uti, quod concessum Sestio sit? Itane may without much violence be extracted from t ea, and factum be an inserted explanation of est.
- ↑ To P. Sestius had been allotted the province of Cilicia in succession to Cicero, but this allotment had taken place after the expulsion of the Tribunes in January, B.C. 49; for we know that Curio had up to 10th December, B.C. 50, prevented any decree as to the provinces (vol. ii., p. 182). Therefore, Cicero argues, Cæsar, who would not acknowledge any Senatus Consultum after the expulsion of the Tribunes, if he allows of Sestius having imperium, must do so as an act of his own. But in Cicero's own case his imperium dated long before, and Cæsar could consistently acknowledge it.
- ↑ M. Antonius and Q. Cassius, vol. ii., p. 234.
