CDXCV (F IX, 21)
TO PAPIRIUS PAETUS (AT NAPLES)
ROME (ABOUT OCTOBER)
You don't say so! You think yourself a madman
for imitating the thunder of my eloquence, as you
call it? 1 You certainly would
have been beside yourself if you had failed to do
so: but since you even beat me at it, you ought to
jeer at me rather than at yourself. So you had no
need of that quotation from Trabea, 2 rather the fiasco
was mine. But, after all, what do you think of my
style in letters? Don't I talk with you in the
vulgar tongue? Why, of course one doesn't write
always in the same style. For what analogy has a
letter with a speech in court or at a public
meeting? Nay, even as to speeches in court, it is
not my practice to handle all in the same style.
Private causes and such as are of slight
importance we plead in simpler language; those
that affect a man's civil existence or reputation,
of course, in a more ornate style: but letters it
is our custom to compose in the language of
everyday life. Well, but letting that pass, how
did it come into your head, my dear Paetus, to say that there never was a Papirius who
was not a plebeian? For, in fact, there were
patrician Papirii, of the lesser houses, of whom
the first was L. Papirius Mugillanus, censor with
L. Sempronius Atratinus—having already
been his colleague in the consulship—in
the 312th year of the city. But in those days they
were called Papisii. After him thirteen sat in the
curule chair before L. Papirius Crassus, who was
the first to drop the form Papisius. This man was
named dictator, with L. Papirius Cursor as Master
of the Horse, in the 415th year of the city, and
four years afterwards was consul with Kaeso
Duilius. Cursor came next to him, a man who held a
very large number of offices; 3 then comes L. Masso,
who rose to the aedileship; then a number of
Massones. The busts of these I would have you
keep—all patricians. Then follow the
Carbones and Turdi. These latter were plebeians,
whom I opine that you may disregard. For, except
the Gaius Carbo who was assassinated by
Damasippus, there has not been one of the Carbones
who was a good and useful citizen. We knew Gnaeus
Carbo and his brother the wit: were there ever
greater scoundrels? About the one who is a friend
of mine, the son of Rubrius, I say nothing. There
have been those three brothers
Carbo—Gaius, Gnaeus, Marcus. Of these,
Marcus, a great thief, was condemned for
malversation in Sicily on the accusation of
Publius Flaccus: Gaius, when accused by Lucius
Crassus, is said to have poisoned himself with
cantharides; he behaved in a factious manner as
tribune, and was also thought to have assassinated
Publius Africanus. 4 As to the other, 5 who was put
to death by my friend Pompey at Lilybaeum, there
was never, in my opinion, a greater scoundrel.
Even his father, on being accused by M. Antonius,
is thought to have escaped condemnation by a dose
of shoemaker's vitriol. Wherefore my opinion is
that you should revert to the patrician Papirii:
you see what a bad lot the plebeians were.
ROME (ABOUT OCTOBER)