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Epistulae ad Familiares, I. vii.-viii.

and hold him dear for three reasons,—he is your son, he is worthy of his father, and he is, and always has been, fond of me.


VIII

To the same

Rome, January 55 B.C.

1 On all matters which affect you, what has been I done, what has been decided upon, what Pompey has engaged to do, you will be best informed by M. Plaetorius, who has not only taken part, but has also taken a leading part in those affairs, and has omitted no act of duty to you which you might expect of one most devoted to you, and most shrewd and painstaking in business. He will also be your informant as to the general position of public affairs; for it is not easy to describe it in a letter. Those affairs are, it is true, in the hands of our own friends,[1] and so securely that it seems unlikely that there will ever be any change in our generation.

2 For my own part, as I ought to do, and as you yourself instructed me, and as both loyalty and expediency compel me to do, I am attaching myself to the interests of that man whose attachment to yourself you thought necessary in my interests; but you must see how difficult it is to cast off a political creed, especially when it is well and truly based.

Anyhow, I adapt myself to his will, for I cannot honourably dissent from him, and in doing so I am no hypocrite as some perhaps think I am; for so

  1. ↑ Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus.
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