CCXXIV (F II, 10)
TO M. CAELIUS RUFUS (AT ROME)
PINDENISSUS, 26 NOVEMBER
M. CICERO, imperator, 1 greets M. Caelius, curule
aedile elect. Just see how letters fail to reach
me! For I cannot be induced to believe that you
have not sent me any letter since your election to
the aedileship, considering the importance of the
fact and the congratulation for which it called:
on your account, because it was what I was hoping
for, on that of Hillus 2 (you see I lisp) because it was what
I had not expected. However, be
assured that I have received no letter from you
since that glorious election, which transported me
with delight. This makes me fear that the same may
happen to my letter. For my part, I have never
sent a single packet home without an enclosure for
you, and nothing can be more delightful and
beloved than you are to me. But let us return (not
"weturn," for I have lost my lisp) to business.
It is as you desired. For
you could have wished me, you say, to have no more
trouble than just enough for the laurel. 3 You
are afraid of the Parthians, because you have no
confidence in the forces at my disposal. Well, the
course of affairs has been as follows. On the
announcement of a Parthian invasion, relying on
certain difficulties in the country and on the
natural features of the mountains, I led my army
to Amanus, supported by a fairly good contingent
of auxiliary forces, and by a certain prestige
attaching to my reputation among populations who
had no personal knowledge of me. For one often
hears in these parts, "Is that the man by whom the
city—,whom the senate—?" You
can imagine the rest. By the time I had arrived at
Amanus, which is a mountain common to me and
Bibulus, the dividing line being the watershed,
our friend Cassius, to my great joy, had repulsed
the enemy from Antioch: Bibulus had taken over his
province. Meanwhile, with my full forces I
harassed the population of Amanus, our immemorial
foes. Many were killed and taken prisoners, the
rest were scattered: the fortified Strongholds
were taken by surprise and burnt. Accordingly,
after a complete victory, having been acclaimed
imperator at
Issus—in which place, as I have often
been told by you, Clitarchus related to you that
Darius was conquered by Alexander—I drew
off my army to the most disturbed part of Cilicia.
There for the past twenty-five days I have been
assailing a very strongly fortified town called
Pindenissus with earthworks, pent-houses, towers,
and with such great resources and energy, that the
only thing now wanting to the attainment of the
most glorious renown is the credit of taking the
town; and if, as I hope, I do take it, I will then
at Once send an official despatch. For the present
I content myself with writing this to you, to give
you hope of attaining your wish. But
to return to the Parthians, the present summer has
had the fairly fortunate result I have mentioned:
for the next, there is much cause for alarm.
Wherefore, my dear Rufus, be vigilant: in the
first place, that I may have a successor: but if
that shall turn out to be, as you write, too much
of a business, then, what is easy enough, that no
additional period be imposed. About politics I
expect in your letters, as I have said before,
current events and, even more, conjectures of the
future. Wherefore I beg you earnestly to write me
an account of everything in the greatest detail.
PINDENISSUS, 26 NOVEMBER
