CDLXI (F IX, 5)
TO M. TERENTIUS VARRO (AT
TUSCULUM)
ROME (LATE IN MAY)
Yes, I think the 5th of next month will be in
very good time, both in consideration of the state
of public affairs and of the season of the year.
1 Wherefore
I approve of that day: and will myself accordingly
aim at the same. I should not have
thought that we ought to repent of our policy,
even if those who did not adopt it were not now
repentant. For our guiding star was not advantage,
but duty: and what we abandoned was not duty, but
a hopeless task. So we shewed greater
sensitiveness to honour than those who never
stirred from home, and greater reasonableness than
those who did not return home when all was lost.
But nothing irritates me so much as the severe
Criticism of the do-nothings, and I am more
inclined to feel scrupulous about those who fell
in the war, than to trouble myself about those who
are angry with us for being alive. If I find a
spare moment for coming to Tusculum before the
5th, I will see you there: if not, I will follow
you to your Cuman villa, and give you notice
beforehand, that the bath may be got ready.
ROME (LATE IN MAY)