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Epistulae ad Familiares, I. ix.-x.

hand over your province to your successor without a moment's delay, especially as you could not well thwart his eagerness for office without rousing a suspicion of such eagerness in yourself. As regards myself, I consider I have a double duty to discharge—to tell you plainly what I think, and to defend whatever you may do.

²⁶ Since I wrote the foregoing letter I have read yours about the publicani,^[1] and while I could not but approve the fairness with which you dealt with them, I could wish that you had managed by some happy dexterity to avoid falling foul of the interests or inclinations of a department you have always honoured. For my part I shall not cease to defend your decrees, but you know the traditions of that class of men; and you remember what bitter enemies they proved themselves to the great Q. Scaevola^[2] himself. At all events I strongly advise you, if by any means you can do so, either to effect a reconciliation with that department, or to mitigate their resentment. It is a difficult problem, but I am sure you are shrewd enough to solve it.^[3]

X

M. Cicero to L. Valerius Jurisconsult^[4]

Rome, 54 B.C.

[Cicero greets L. Valerius, "learned in the law "]—for I really don't see why I should not flatter you to that extent, especially since in these days one may safely put impudence in the place of erudition.

↑ The farmers of the public revenues of the State; they were drawn almost exclusively from among the equites, and Cicero, himself an eques, always staunchly supported the equestrian order.
↑ Quintus Mucius Scaevola, when governor of Asia in 99 B.C., endeavoured to protect the provincials from the extortions of the publicani, thereby offending the equites.
↑ Or "I think a man of your foresight should attend to it."
↑ L. Valerius was an intimate and dear friend of Cicero, but, though a jurisconsult, he was no lawyer (cf. iii.1.3). He was now in Cilicia, and had asked Cicero to write on his behalf to Lentulus, the then proconsul, but Cicero tells him he had much better come home, and banters him on his attempt to set up as " learned in the law " in the province.

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[1] The farmers of the public revenues of the State; they were drawn almost exclusively from among the equites, and Cicero, himself an eques, always staunchly supported the equestrian order.

[2] Quintus Mucius Scaevola, when governor of Asia in 99 B.C., endeavoured to protect the provincials from the extortions of the publicani, thereby offending the equites.

[3] Or "I think a man of your foresight should attend to it."

[4] L. Valerius was an intimate and dear friend of Cicero, but, though a jurisconsult, he was no lawyer (cf. iii.1.3). He was now in Cilicia, and had asked Cicero to write on his behalf to Lentulus, the then proconsul, but Cicero tells him he had much better come home, and banters him on his attempt to set up as " learned in the law " in the province.

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