DCCCXCII (BRUT. I, 10)
TO M. IUNIUS BRUTUS (IN
MACEDONIA)
ROME (JUNE)
I have no letter as yet from you—not
so much as a rumour—to shew that you are
aware of the resolution of the senate and are
bringing your army into Italy. That you should do
so, and with all speed, the Republic urgently
requires: for the internal mischief
daily grows more serious, and we are in
difficulties from enemies at home no less than
from those abroad. The former have, it is true,
always existed from the beginning of the war, but
they were then more easily crushed. The senate was
then in a more resolute frame of mind, roused to
action not only by the motions which I brought
forward, but also by my earnest exhortations.
Pansa was then in the senate very strenuous and
bold in his attacks upon all men of that sort, and
especially his father-in-law. 1 As consul his courage never
failed him from the beginning, nor his loyalty at
the end. The conduct of the war at Mutina left
nothing to complain of in Caesar, though some few
points in Hirtius. The fortune of this war is
“For happy though but ill, for ill not
worst.”
2 The Republic was
victorious: Antony's forces were cut to pieces,
and he himself driven out of the country. Then
came so many mistakes on the part of Decimus
Brutus, that in a certain sense the victory
slipped through our fingers. 3
Our generals did not pursue the demoralized,
unarmed, wounded enemy, and time was granted to
Lepidus to give us a taste of that fickleness,
which we had had many occasions to know before, in
a more disastrous field. The armies of Brutus and
Plancus are good but raw; their auxiliary forces
of Gauls are very numerous and very loyal. But
certain persons by most unprincipled letters and
misleading agents and messages induced
Caesar—up to that time wholly governed
by my advice, and personally possessed of
brilliant ability and admirable firmness of
character—to entertain a
very confident hope of the consulship. As soon as
I discovered that, I never ceased offering him
advice by letter in his absence, and remonstrating
with his connexions who were in town, and who
seemed to be supporting his ambition; nor in the
senate did I hesitate to lay bare the sources of a
most criminal plot. Nor indeed do I remember a
better disposition on the part of senate or
magistrates. For in the case of voting an
extra-constitutional office to a man of power, or
rather of super-eminent power—since
power now depends on force and arms—it
never yet happened that no tribune, no one in any
other office, no private senator was found to
support it. But in spite of this firmness and
manly spirit, the city was after all in a state of
anxiety. For we are flouted, Brutus, both by the
airs assumed by the soldiers and the arrogance of
their commander. Each man claims to be powerful in
the Republic in proportion to his physical force.
Reason, moderation, law, custom,
duty—all go for nothing: as do the
judgment and opinion of their fellow citizens, and
their respect for the verdict of posterity. It was
because I foresaw all this long ago that I was on
the point of flying from Italy at the time when
the report of the edicts issued by you and Cassius
recalled me. You also roused my spirits, Brutus,
at Velia. For though it vexed me to be going to a
city from which you who freed it were an
exile—which had also happened to me
formerly in a similar danger, though with more
melancholy result-yet I continued my journey and
reached Rome, and without any guard to protect me
I shook the power of Antony, and encouraged by my
influence and advice the protecting force offered
by Caesar against his treasonable arms. And if
Caesar keeps his word and follows my counsel, I
think we shall have protection enough. But if the
counsels of the disloyal have greater weight than
mine, or if the weakness of his time of life
proves unequal to the strain of the business, our
whole hope is in you. Wherefore fly hither, I
beseech you, and put the last touch to the freedom
of a state, which you liberated by courage and
high spirit rather than by any fortunate
coincidence. Men of all sorts will crowd round
you. Write and urge Cassius to do the same. Hope
of liberty is nowhere to be found except in the
headquarters of your two camps. We have, it is
true, generals and armies in the
west on which we Can rely. The protecting force of
the young Caesar, for instance, I regard at
present as trustworthy: but so many are trying to
shake his loyalty that at times I am mortally
afraid of his giving way. That is a complete view of the political
situation, as it exists at the moment at which I
write. I could wish that it might improve as we go
on: but if otherwise—which God forbid! I
shall grieve for the sake of the Republic, which
ought to have been immortal: but for
myself—what a brief span of life is
left!
ROME (JUNE)