DCCCXCI (F X, 32)
C. ASINIUS POLLIO TO CICERO (AT
ROME)
CORDUBA, 8 JUNE
MY quaestor Balbus 1 having amassed from the public taxes a
large sum of ready money, a great amount of
bullion, and a still greater amount of silver, has
withdrawn from Gades without even
paying the soldiers, and after being detained
three days off Calpe by bad weather, on the 1st of
June crossed into the kingdom of Bogudes, 2 with a very pretty bit of
money in his pocket. With the rumours now going
about I don't yet know whether he intends to
return to Gades or to go to Rome—for at
every fresh piece of news he changes his plans in
the most contemptible manner. But besides his
peculations and violent robberies and flogging of
allies, he has done the following—as he
is himself accustomed to boast—in
imitation of Caesar. At the games which he gave at
Gades, on the last day of the show, he presented
the actor Herennius Gallus with a gold ring and
formally conducted him to a seat in the fourteen
rows 3 —for
he had arranged that number of rows for men of
equestrian rank. He also caused his office as one
of the quattuorviri 4 to be continued beyond the year: he held
elections for two years in two following days,
that is, he declared whom he chose elected: he
recalled exiles, not those of recent times, but of
that period in which the senate was massacred or
expelled by rebels in the proconsulship of Sextus
Varus. 5
The next thing, at any rate, is not covered by a
precedent of Caesar's: he put on the stage a
"Roman drama" representing his own expedition to
solicit the proconsul Lucius Lentulus, and, what
is more, whilst it was being acted he burst into
tears, affected by the memory of his own
adventures. 6 At the gladiatorial
Contests, moreover, there was the case of the old
Pompeian soldier named Fadius. Because this man,
having been pressed into the gladiatorial school,
and having fought twice without pay, refused to
bind himself as a professional gladiator, and
threw himself on the protection of the people, he
first of all sent a squadron of Gallic horse to
charge the people—for stones were thrown
at him as Fadius was being dragged
off—and then, having seized him, he half
buried him in the school and burnt him alive.
While this was being done he walked about after
dinner without his boots, 7 with tunic
ungirdled, and his hands behind his back, and in
answer to the unhappy man crying out " I am a born
Roman citizen," he replied: "Off with you then,
and appeal to the people " 8 He
also exposed Roman citizens to the beasts, among
them a certain travelling pedlar—a very
well-known character at Hispalis from his
misshapen body. This is the kind of monster with
whom I have had to deal. But more about him when
we meet. For the present the important thing is to
make up your minds what you want me to do. I have
three strong legions, one of which—the
twenty-eighth-Antonius tried to get to join him by
promising that on the day it arrived in camp he
would give each soldier 500 denarii, 9
and the same bounty in case of victory as to his
own legions. And of such bounties who thinks that
there will be any limit or end ?-Nevertheless I
have managed to retain it though in a most
restless state: nor should I have retained it, if
I had kept it united and stationary, for certain
cohorts have actually mutinied. My other legions
also he has not ceased to solicit by letters and
unlimited promises. Nor, indeed, has Lepidus been
less urgent with me—in letters of his
own and from Antony—to send them the thirtieth legion. So the army which I
have refused to part with at any price, or to
weaken from fear of the dangers portended in case
they were victorious, you ought to consider to
have been retained and preserved for the Republic,
and to believe that I was prepared to obey any
future commands of yours, since I have obeyed
those which you have given. For I have kept my
province in peace and my army under my own
control: I have not quitted the borders of my
province in any direction: I have not despatched a
single soldier anywhere-not only of the legions,
but even of the auxiliaries; and such of the
cavalry as I have detected in trying to get out of
the country I have punished. For these acts I
shall think myself sufficiently rewarded if the
Republic is safe. But if the Republic and the
majority of the senate had known me as well as
they ought, they would have got greater advantages
out of me. A despatch which I have addressed to
Balbus, since he is at this moment in the
province, I am sending for your perusal. Also if
you will care to read a "Roman drama," 10 ask my friend Cornelius
Gallus 11 for it.
Corduba, 8 June.
CORDUBA, 8 JUNE
