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DCCCLIV (F X, 13)

TO L. MUNATIUS PLANCUS (IN GALLIA COMATA)
ROME (10 MAY)
From the first moment that the opportunity was given me of promoting your position, I omitted nothing that was calculated to do you honour, whether in the way of substantial reward for valour or of complimentary words. That you will be able to learn from the decree of the senate itself: for it was drawn up word for word as I delivered my motion from a written copy; which motion was carried by a full senate with great enthusiasm and striking unanimity. Although I clearly gathered from your letter to me that you cared more for the approval of good men than for the outward badges of distinction, yet I thought that we ought to take into calculation-even if you made no demand—how much was due to you from the Republic. See that you make the end tally with the beginning. For the man who crushes Antony will have finished the war. Just so Homer did not give either Ajax or Achilles the title of" city-sacker," but Ulysses. 1


1 This is true of the Odyssey, but in the Iliad Achilles is called πτολιπόρθιος four times (viii. 372; 15.77; 21.550; 24.108). But as the great critic Aristarchus made the same remark, he was either referring only to the Odyssey, or he disbelieved in the genuineness of these verses in the iliad. The point here is that, though Ajax and Achilles won victories, it was Ulysses who finished the war by leading the chiefs in the wooden horse; so it is the man who conquers Antony that will finish the war.

Cicero. The Letters of Cicero; the whole extant correspondence in chronological order, in four volumes. Evelyn S. Shuckburgh. London. George Bell and Sons. 1908-1909.

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