cesar y ciceron

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Letters of Caesar and Cicero to Each Other

Author(s): Adolph F. PauliReviewed work(s):Source: The Classical World, Vol. 51, No. 5 (Feb., 1958), pp. 128-132Published by: Classical Association of the Atlantic StatesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4344010 .

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128 THE CLASSICALWORLDboth give a structuralanalysisof 453-527; Norwoodrevealsa concentricpatternaroundthe heart of thestory (481-503 - f), as follows: a b c d e f e dc b a.28 E. A. Havelock, Virgil's Road to Xanadu,"Phoenix 1 (1946) 1, 3-8; 2, 2-7; 1 Suppl. (1947)9-18, compares the imagery and the romanticgeographyin the Aristaeusepisode and Coleridge'swork. C. M. Bowra, "Orpheusand Eurydice,"CQ46 (1952) 113-126, attemptsto reconstruct he lostHellenisticoriginalby analyzing h,estoryof Orpheusand Eurydiceas we find it in Vergil and Ovid. A.Klotz, "Die Umarbeitung von Vergils Georgica,"WJA 2 (1947) 140-147, discusses the difficultiesat the end of the book and maintainsthat a passagepraisingGallusappearedoriginallyat the end of theAristaeusstory. Buchner,however,believes that theAristaeusepisode is a Hellenistic epyllion which wasaddedlater; this is supportedby the fact that severalverses in the second half of Georgics4 appearalsoin Aeneid 1, where they are functionaland thereforeearlier; cf. Buchner-Hofmann,LateinischeLiteraturund Sprache (Bern 1951) 116f.; see also Bichner,293-297, where the author argues in favor of asecond edition in 26 or 25 B.C., after the suicide ofGallus,when the Aristaeusepisodereplaceda passagepraising Gallus (but as a writer of elegy, not asprefect of Egypit).

(To be continuedn Vol.51, No. 6)GEORGE E. DUCKWORTH

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

LETTERS OF CAESAR AND CICEROTO EACH OTHER*

The purpose of this paper is again to callattention to the extent and nature of the correspon-dence of Caesar and Cicero with each other and toemphasize the importance of these letters as docu-ments for understanding and interpreting the re-lationship of the two men.Caesar's ambition and interests, h,is many activi-ties, and his desire to keep in contact with all the

important personalities of his time made it necessarythat he carry on a wide correspondence. What wehave of Cicero's extensive correspondence gives usa unique impression of what a man keenly interested

in the life and thioughtof his day expected to learnfrom letters. We have, for example, some of theletters that passed between Caelius Rufus and Cicerowhile the latter was governor of Cilicia, isolatedfrom Rome, and was depending upon Caelius tokeep him informed about the details of politicalandsocial life in the capital.1 They suggest to us howCaesar might have organizedprivate news-gatheringagencies in Rome while he was in Gaul.One should not fail to note the great extent towhich Cicero and his correspondentspassed aroundto each other letters that they had received. BothCaesarand Cicero saw more of each other's lettersthan either sent to the other. Cicero wrote toAtticus on March25, 49 (Att. 9.14.1):I sent you on the 24th of March a copy of Balbus' letterto me and of Caesar's etter to him. Then on that veryday from CapuaI got a letter from Q. Pedius saying that

Caesarhad written to him on the 14th in the followingterms. .. 2There follows for Atticus' benefit a quotation fromthe letter of Q. Pedius. In other letters to Atticuswe find: "Caesarhas sent me a very short letter ofwhich I subjoin a copy . . ." (Att. 9.13a.1);Antony has sent me a copy of a letter from Caesar(Att. 11.7.2); "Lamiawas with me after youleft, and brought me a letter Caesar had sent tohim" (Att. 13.45.1). In fact, it was rather expectedthat an important letter would be sent around inthe original or in copies.Suetonius knew three groups of Caesar's etters:

first, the epistulae ad senatum, of which some atleast seem to have been published by Caesarhimself;second, epistulaead Ciceronem;and third, epistulaead familiares.3 Aulus Gellius, writing after themiiddle of the second century, says, "There arevolumesof letters of Gaius Caesaraddressed o GaiusOppius and CorneliusBalbus who had charge of hisaffairs n his absence."4Caesarhimself, Plutarch, and, above all, Ciceroshould furtherbe noted as ancient authors n whoseextant writings are digests of, or references to theletters of Caesar. The extant fragments and refer-ences to his lost letters have been collected several

times.5

28. Cf. Richardson, 155, for a different arrangement ofpanels; both concentric patterns resemble the arrangementof the Eclogues (above, Sect. 4A). See also C. W. Mendellin YCIS 12 (1951) 205-226 for similar patterns in Aeneid11 (below, Sect. 6B).* Paper read at the meeting of the Classical Association ofNew England, Middletown, Conn., April 6, 1957.

1. Fam. 2.8-16 (Cicero to Caelius); 8.1-14 (Caelius toCicero).2. Date in translation changed from "26th" to "24th."Unless otherwise indicated, the translations are those ofE. 0. Winstedt (Att.) and W. G. Williams (Fam., Q. Fr.)in the Loeb Classical Library.3. uld.56.6. Cf. A. Klotz (ed.), C. ului Caesaris Com-mentarii III (Leipzig 1927) 192ff.4. 17.9.1, trans. J. C. Rolfe (L.C.L.).5. See A. Klotz, op. cit. (supra, note 3) III (1927)192-2 10.


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THE CLASSICALWORLD 129Nonius Marcellus,a Latingrammarianwho livedsome time between the years 200 and 400, citesfrom three differentbooks of letters by Cicero AdCaesarem, in all twelve shortpassages.He also citestwenty-nine short passages from three books AdCaesarem iuniorem. Gurlitt in 1888 maintainedthatall of Nonius' citations are from the same corpusof letters, and that Caesar and Caesar iunior referto the same individual,namely,Octavian.6 One ofthe reasonsof Gurlitt for this opinion is, as phrasedby Tyrrell and Purser,7 that "None of the letters'to Caesar'need necessarily be letters addressed toJulius, and all would fit more appropriately nto acorrespondencewith Octavian." H. Sjogren in hisTeubneredition of the fragmentsof Cicero's lettersdivides without comment the fragments preservedby Nonius into two groups: Ad Caesarem, and AdCaesarem iuniorem.8The number of Caesar's etters to Cicero knownto us either in extant copies, in d-igests, r by merereference s about thirty-four.In the case of Cicero'sletters to Caesar, the number of epistles is aboutfifteen, exclusive of the doubtfulfragmentscited byNonius Marcellus. It is difficult to give more exactfigures because each reference does not necessarilyrefer to a different letter, or even, sometimes, toonly one letter.In the c.ase of each author it is difficult to de-termine how many of the letters about which wehave informationwere ever published. To what ex-

tent, for example, did Tiro or Atticus permit thepublication of the large number of letters Caesarsent to Cicero in 49, in an effort to win the latter'to the Caesarian ide in the Civil War?The letters of Caesar and Cicero to each otherabout which we have any reco.rdwere written forthe most part in two years. We know that abouteighteen letters of Caesar and six of Cicero werewritten in 54 B.C.; for the year 49 we have a recordof about eleven from Caesarand three from Cicero.Three letters of Caesar have survived in entirety.Two of these (Att. 9.6a; 9.16.2-3) were written inMarch 49 and one (Att. 10.8b) in April of the

same year. Two were incorporatedin the ninth.book of the publishedcorrespondenceof Cicero Ad

Atticurm and the third in the tenth book of thissame group of letters. These had been preservedbyAtticus in copies that he had receivedfrom Cicero.In an age when Cicero'snamewas still somewhat

under a cloud, these lettersproclaimedCaesar'shighesteem for him. Likewise,only threecompletelettersof Cicero to Caesarhave survivedand in each Cicerorecommendssome one to Caesar. One was writtenin 54, the other two in 45. It is surprising to findthat we have evidence for more than twice as manyletters addressedby Caesarto Cicero as by Ciceroto Caesar, and that, aside from the very doubtfulascriptionsby Nonius Marcellus, here s no evidencethat the friends of Cicero ever publisheda group ofletters sent by him to Caesar. We know there didappeara group of lettersentitledAd Brutum,anothercontaining epistulae ad Caesarem iuniorem, i.e.,Octavian,and perhaps even a group of letters AdPompeium. The dearth cf references to h,is letterswritten to Caesarcan hardly be explained by thefact that not all Cicero'spublishedworks have sur-vived. It has been suggested" hat Antony,who heldthe papers of Caesar n 44 B.C. and who had a bitterquarrel with Cicero which ended with the assassi-nation of the orator,would have refused to makeavailable to any friend of Cicero the letters thatCicero had sent to Caesar. We do not know to whatextent Cicero retained copies of all the letters hewrote.10 Atticus probably had the only copies ofa large number of the letters written by Cicero tohim. There is (evidence hatTiro'hadavailablecopiesof letters when he publishedAd Farniliares.In 54Cicero supplied Caesarwith a copy of a letter thathad becomeillegible."1It se2msunlikelythat Cicerowould not have retainedcopies of implortantettershe sent to Caesar n 49.

The carliestreference to a specific letter passingbetween Caesar and Cicero is that made in a lettersent by Marcus to Quintus in February 54 B.C.(Q. Fr. 2.10[12].4):I forgot to write to you about Caesar; or I see what sortof a letter you have been expecting. But he wrote toBalbus and told him that the whole packet of letters, inwhich were mine and Balbus's,was so soaked with waterwhen he received t that he did not even know there wasany letter from me. He had, however, made out a fewwords in Balbus's etter,to which he repliedin the follow-ing words: 'I see that you have written something aboutCicero, which I -ould not understand, but as far as I couldconjecture, it was the sort of thing that I thought moreto be desired than hoped for.' So later on I sent Caesaran exact duplicate of my letter.

6. L. Gurlitt, Nonius Marcellus und die Cicero-Briefe(Steglitz 1888).7. R. Y. Tyrrell and L. C. Purser (edd.), The Corre-spondence of M. Tullius Cicero V12 (Dublin and London1933) 348.8. In C. Atzert et al. (edd.), M. Tulli Ciceronis ScriptaQuae Manserunt Omnia (Leipzig 1914- ) XI (1914)150-156.

9. Tyrrell and Purser, op. Cit. V12 348.10. Cf. Fam. 7.25.1.11. See next paragraph.


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130 THE CLASSICALWORLDCaesar, in writing to Balbus the words intendedultimately for Cicero's ears, showed a graciousnessthat did not fail to please Cicero.

Cicero's enthusiastic recommendation of C. Tre-batius Testa to Caesar (Fam. 7.5) is the earliestof three extant letters from Cicero to Caesar. It waswritten about April 54. in this letter recommendingTrebatius Cicero mentions a letter ju.st received fromCaesar and three earlier letters, two from himself toCaesar and Caesar's reply to one of them. Trebatiuswas a promising young jurisconsult "of marvelousmemory and vast learning" (singulari memoria,summa scientia), who wished to gaiin military ex-perience and, above all, financial profit in the campof Caesar.A long letter to P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther,written in 54, contains a reference to an old friend-ship between the two Ciceros and Caesar and to acorrespondence that probably dates back to thespring of 56. Cicero says (Fam. 1.9.12):

Here I attached great weight as well to the long-standingfriendship, which, as you yourself are aware, my brotherQuintus and I had with Caesar, as to Caesar's courtesy andgenerosity, which even in this short time I have recognizedand acknowledged both in his letters and his acts ofkindness to me.

The letter to Lentulus is a description of thecircumstances under wh.ich Cicero's celebratedpalizoeidia had been produced; that is, Cicero wroteout for Lentulus -an elaborate explanation of therapid reversal in his policy toward Caesar, Pompey,and Crassus that had taken place between April 5and May 15, 56 B.C., two years before, -and a justifi-cation of his -subsequent conduct. It is interestingto note that Caesar in a letter to Cicero indicatedhis concern over the enmity existing between Ciceroand Crassus. Eventually, Cicero entertained Crassusat a dinner party shortly before the latter left Romefor his Parthian campaign.12

In the letter he wrote to h,is brother Quintusearly in June Cicero mentions (Q. Fr. 2.13 [15a] .1)a letter that he had received on June 3 from Caesar.It was. . .brimming over with every sort of kindness,assiduousattention, and charm. These expressions of good will onhis part are significant or rather most significant; forthey have a powerful influence in the direction of ourhonour and glory and exaltation in the state. But believeme (you know me by this time) when I say that I alreadypossess what I value most of all in the whole situation-I mean, first of all, your own efficient service in supportof our common position, and, secondly, Caesar's extra-ordinary affection for me, which I set above all thosehonours he wishes me to anticipate at his hands. In fact,his letter, delivered simultaneously with yours (which be-gins with his saying how delighted he was with yourarrival and the renewal of the memory of your old affection,and he goes on to say that he wi1l so manage mattersthat in the midst of my sorrow and yearning for you, Ishould be cheered by your being, though away from me,in his company more than any other), that letter, I say,gave me more pleasure than you could possibly believe.Here, as in many instances, we have in Cicero'swords a digest of what Caesar had written to him.In this letter to his brother Cicero makes threedifferent references to a letter he had received fromCaesar; all these references are probably to the onehe had received on June 3.

Common literary interests were fostered by Caesarand Marcus Cicero. It seems quite certain that earlyin the year 54 Caesar, while on his way throughthe Alps to join his army in Gaul, wrote 'his famousDe Analogia, a grammatical treatise probably sug-gested by certain pas-sages in Cicero's De Oratore.This work Caesar dedicated to Cicero. Moreover, welearn that Caesar, although a very busy man, hadtaken time previous to June 2, 54, to read andcomment favorably to Quintus upon a poem by hisbrother Marcus, either the one known to us as DeTemporibus Meis, or, less likely, I think, the one

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12. Fam. 1.9.20. I assume that Caesar addressed his letterto Cicero.


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THE CLASSICALWORLD 131dealing with Caesar'sexpedition to Britain.13 Un-doubtedly t had been sent directlyby MarcusCiceroto Caesar.In a letter to his brother,Cicerogives usmore informationregardingCaesar'sopinion of thispoem. Subsequentto June 3, Cicero had receivedanother letter from Caesar giving some detailedcriticism, but evidently not telling the worst. Cicerowrote to Quintusas follows (Q. Fr. 2.15 [161.5):What, oh what, my dear brother,did Caesar hink of myverses? He wrote to me some time ago that he had readmy firstbook; and of the firstpart he declared hat he hadnever read anythingbetter, even in Greek; the rest of it,as far as a certainpassage,was rather 'happy-go-lucky'-that is the term he uses. Tell me the truth-is it thesubjector the style that does not pleasehim? You needn'tbe afraid;I shall fancy myself not a whit the less.L4

Because of the pleasant manner with whichCaesar had accepted Trebatius on his staff Ciceroventured to ask for a tribuneshipfor M. Curtius,and was not only told that there was one at Curtius'service but was even chided for the modesty wiithwhich the request had been made.On September1, 54, Caesarposted a letter toCicerofrom Briitainwhich was receivedon the 28th(Q. Fr. 3.1.25). On October24 Cicero received aletter from his brother and another from Caesar"dated rom the nearest coast of Britaiinon the 26thof September"(Att. 4.18.5).15 Both letters Cicerosummarizesas follows: "Britain done with . . .hostagestaken . . . no baoty . . . a tribute,however,imposed; they were on the point of bringing back

the army."Cicero welcomed the friendly correspondencewith Caesarin 54 B.C. as a sort of consolationforthe unpleasantpolitical situation at Rome.From a letter written to Atticus in 50 B.C. welearn that from both Caesar and Pompey Cicerohad received letters "in terms that would appear tomake more of me than of anyoneat all" (Att. 7.1.3).

Caesar in his letter sent Cicero congratulationsona supplicatio that had been voted by the senate toCicero for his military explolits when governor ofCilicia, and exulted over the fact that Cato,a leadingconservative, had voted against it and had therebydisplayed signal ingratitude and enmity towardsCicero.Cicero Imperator,returning from the provinceof Cilicia, reachedthe outskirtsof Rome on January4, 49. The Civil War between Caesar and Pompeybroke out about a week later. On June 7 of thesame year Cicero left Italy for the camp of Pompeyin Greece. During the intervening months Caesar.appreciating he moralvalue of Cicero'ssupport,hadattempted to gain it, and, failing in this, had triedto persuadehim to remain neutral. Cicero, recallingthat much of the unhappiness he experienced in

the years following his consulship had developedfrom his relationswith Pompey and Caesar,was nowdetermined to act cautiously. His anxiety is ex-pressedin his letters to Atticus. Cicero worked forpeace at almost any price; Pompey was afraid ofpeace (Att. 7.8.4-5); and Caesiarwas confident andready for any eventuality.The lettersthatpassed between Caesarand Ciceroin 49 do credit to the characterof both men. Undertrying circumstancesboth show remarkable estraintand courtesy to each other. Caesar,of course, strovehard to keep Cicero out of Pompey's camp. OnFebruary17 Cicerowrote to Atticus (Att. 8.2.1.):

I sent Caesarone letter from Capuain answer to his in-quiries abouthis gladiators. It was short but friendly, and,so far from abusing Pompey, praisedhim highly. I hadto do that, as I was an advocateof peace between them.If Caesarhas passedon my letter, good: I should like himto placard t in public.The extant letter of Caesar o Cicerowritten onApril 16, 49, was a desperateeffort to keep Ciceroneutral. The letter begins (Att. 10.8b.1):

CaesarImperator o CiceroImperator,Greeting.AlthoughI had concluded hatyou woulddo nothing rashlyor imprudently, evertheless have been so stirredby whatpeople say that I thought it best to write to you and askyou in the name of our good will to each other not togo anywhere,now that fortune inclines my way, whereyou did not think it necessary o go before anythingwascertain.

Eventually,afterPharsalia, riendlyrelationswereagain resumedby the two men. Early in 45 Cicerowrote a long letterof recommendation Famn. 3.16)in behalf of Publius Crassus,son of the triumvir,who wished to serve under Caesar n Spain. At theend of Marchhe wrote anotherrecommendationnbehalf of Praecilius, "the son of a very excellentgentleman who is your close, and my very own

13. See W. W. Ewbank, The Poems of Cicero (London1933) 16-19. On Caesar's interest in the creative activityof Cicero the poet in 54, see W. Allen, Jr., "The BritishEpics of Quintus and Marcus Cicero," TAPA 76 (1955)143-159; H. W. Benario, "Caesar, Propaganda, and thePoets," CW 50 (1956-57) 23-24.14. One is also reminded of the suggestion that the extantverses of Caesar and Cicero in criticism of Terence wereprobably school-room exercises on the same theme pro-duced by them as fellow-pupils of Marcus Antonius Gnipho,a grammaticus who taught at Rome in the first half ofthe first century B.C. Each writer began his bit of poetrywith the same words "tu quoque" and expressed the samegroup of critical sentiments. Cf. W. A. Oldfather and G.Bloom, CJ 22 (1926-27) 587f.; J. W. Spaeth, CJ 26(1930-31) 506, 601.15. Trans. E. S. Shuckburgh.


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132 THE CLASSICALWORLDvery intimate friend" (Fam. 13.15.1). We learnfrom a letter to Atticus (Att. 13.20.1) that on thelast day of April 45, Caesar, n far off Spain,posteda letter of condolence to Cicero upon the death ofCicero'sdaughterTullia. After Cato had committedsuicide very dramatically n 46, Brutus, M. FadiusGallus, and Cicero wrote panegyrics entitled Cato.Caesarfound the subject matter of these works sodistasteful that he wrote in reply an Anticato.However, Caesarand Cicero found it possible to saysome pleasant things about each cther's work onCato.'6

The lettersthatpassed betweenCaesarandCicerosuggest to us that although each may have beentrying to use the other for his own poli;tical ad-vantage,it also seems evident that they were willingto do more than just maintainpolite diplomatic re-lations. They disagreed seriously on many matters,yet, less than three monthsbefore the Ides of March44 B.C., Caesarwas Cicero's dinner guest at Pulteoli."Therewas no serious talk,but plenty of literary. Ina word he was pleased and enjoyed himself," soCiceroreportedto Atticus (Att. 13.52.2).WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY ADOLPH F. PAULI

IN THE JOURNALSThis column is intended primarily to be of service toteachers of Latin in secondary schools. New investigationsand evaluations of the lives and works of Caesar, Cicero,Vergil, and information concerning the Rome of their era,

constantly appear in classical periodicals, American andEuropean. Unfortunately, too frequently these valuablestudies are unknown or inaccessible to teachers and inter-ested students. CW plans to summarize each month certainarticles which seem informative and pertinent to classroomuse. Obviously, such summaries will present, rather thancriticize. Equally obviously, no summary can supplant thewealth of the arguments offered in the original articles;readers are urged to procure, when possible, the periodicalsin which they appear.In recent years, scholars have unearthed andpieced together much new information concerningrhe fascinating but complicated question of Romaninfluence on and contact with the 'barbarians'beyondthe borders of Roman domination. Especially inter-

esting is the problem of communication with theEast, and with the older civilization of China. H. H.Dubs, in his article "A Roman City in AncientChina," Greece and Rome, 2nd series, Vol. 4 (1957),pp. 139-148, has rescued from obscurity a minor

but probablyunique event in the historyof the re-lationsbetweenRome and the FarEast. His accountof this romanticstory should appeal stronglyto theimaginativestudent.ProfessorDubs calls attention to the remarkablefact that in the registeTrf Chinesecities and coun-tries for the year 5 A.D., here are listed a city andcounty designated by the most ancient Chinesename for Rome. In this list, only two other foreignnames occur, and we know that these two citieswere inhabited by non-Chinese immigrants. Onemust conclude, then, that the city named'Rome'wassettled by people from the Roman empire.But h-owcould'thisbe? More thanfour thousandmiles separated he Roman Empireand the Chinesefrontier;betweenthe two lay deserts,mounta-ins,ndthe vast land of the Parthians, he bitterestenemiesof Rome. iCaravanswould normally be allowed topassbetweenwest andeast, but certainly he Parthiantribasmenwould not permit any mass migration.This city called Rome was located in northwestGan-su province. It did not exist in 79 B.C. TheChinesegave it their name for Rome, Li-jien; thiswas a transcriptionof the name of 'the Greek cityAlexandria, which Orientals customarily identifiedwith Rome and the Roman empire. This new cityhad also anothername, given to it by the usurperWang Mang, who practisedthe Confuciandoctrineof applying to cities names especiallyappropriate othem. Li-jien,then, he calledJie-lu,which can mean"caitiffs (captured) in taking (a place) by storm,"or "caiitiffsaiised p." Did the ChinesecapturesomeRoman soldiers,and settle them as borderguards inwestern China? If so, who could these legionarieshiavebeen, and how did they fall into the 'handsofthis distant people?Dubs relates these curious facts to the invasionof Parthiaby the triumviTCrassus.Against the ad-vice of wiser generals, in 53 B.C. Crassusmarchedinto Parthia with 42,000 men. At Carrhae, thelegions were surrounded by the Parthians; theRomans formed a square, but their locked shield

foirmation the testudo) could not hold off the rainof arrowsfrom the bows of their mountedenemies.By night, 20,000 Romaans ere dead and 10,000 hadsurrendered.Hardly a fourth of the army escapedto Syria.What happened to the prisoners? Our littleevidencefrom Roman sourcesofferssmall enlighten-ment. Pliny (H. N. 6.47) states that the Parrhiansmarchedthem to Margiana (about 1,500 miles) to

(Continuedn page137)

16. Caesar on Cicero's Cato (Att. 13.46.2): Multa de meoCatone, quo saepissime legendo se dicit copiosiorem factum,Bruti Catone lecto se sibi visum disertum; Cicero on Caesar'sAnticato (Att. 13.50.1): me legisse libros contra Catonemet vehementer probasse . . .; see also Att. 13.51.1. On theseworks see Schanz-Hosius, Gesch. d. rnm. Lit. 14 335f.

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