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Epistulae ad Familiares, I. vii.

energy; those who have the superiority in resources, arms, and power, seem to me, thanks to the stupidity and inconsistency of their opponents,[1] to have made such progress, as to be now superior in moral influence as well; and so with very few dissentients they have gained through the Senate all they thought they were unlikely to attain, even through the people, without an insurrection; for Caesar has not only been given money for his troops and ten lieutenant commanders by a decree, but they easily managed to prevent his being superseded under the Lex Sempronia.[2]

I write somewhat briefly on this point, because this position of affairs gives me no satisfaction; still I do write just to warn you—and this is a lesson that even I, devoted as I have been from a boy to all kinds of literature, have still learnt better from practical experience than from books—to be taught while your prosperity is still intact, that we must neither consider our safety to the detriment of our dignity, nor our dignity to the detriment of our safety.

11 You congratulate me on the engagement of my daughter to Crassipes; I appreciate your courtesy, and hope and pray the alliance will be a source of pleasure to us. 12 Our dear Lentulus, being, as he is, a youth who shows conspicuous promise of the highest excellence, you must be careful to educate not only in all the accomplishments to which you have yourself always been devoted, but especially by making him follow in your footsteps; you can give him no better tuition than that. I have a special affection for him

  1. ↑ The aristocratical party in the Senate.
  2. ↑ The law of C. Gracchus, requiring the Senate, to specify the provinces to be governed by ex-consuls before they were elected consuls. If, therefore, the Gauls were appropriated beforehand by the consuls for 55, Caesar would be ipso facto superseded in 54.
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