CLXXIX (F V, 18)
TO T. FADIUS (IN EXILE)
ROME
Although I too, who am desirous of consoling
you,1 stand in need of
consolation myself—for nothing for a
long time past has so deeply afflicted me as your
disaster—nevertheless I do strongly not
only exhort, but even beg and implore you, with
all the earnestness that my affection dictates, to
summon all your energies, to shew a manly courage,
and to reflect under what conditions all mortals,
and in what times we particularly, have been born.
Your virtue has given you more than fortune has
taken away: for you have obtained what not many
"new men" have obtained; you have lost what many
men of the highest rank have lost. Finally, a
state of legislation, law courts, and politics
generally appears to be imminent, such that the
man would seem to be the most fortunate who has
quitted such a republic as ours with the lightest
possible penalty. As for you,
however—since you retain your fortune
and children, with myself and others still very
closely united to you, whether by relationship or
affection—and since you are likely to
have much opportunity of living with me and all
your friends—and since, again, your
condemnation is the only one out of so many that
is impugned, because, having been passed by one
vote (and that a doubtful one), it is regarded as
a concession to a particular person's overwhelming
power 2 —for all these reasons, I say,
you ought to be as little distressed
as possible at the inconvenience that has befallen
you. My feeling towards yourself and your children
will always be such as you wish, and such as it is
in duty bound to be.
ROME
