CCCCLXXVIII (F IX, 17)
TO L. PAPIRIUS PÆTUS (AT NAPLES)
Rome (August)
Aren't you a ridiculous fellow for asking me what I think
will be done about those municipal towns and lands, when
our friend Balbus[1] has been staying with you? As though I
were likely to know what he doesn't, and as though, when
I do know anything, it is not from him that I always
learn it. Nay rather, if you love me, tell me what is going
to be done about us: for you have had in your power one
from whom you could have learnt it either sober or at any rate
drunk. But for myself, I do not ask you for such information:
in the first place, because I put it down as so much gain that I
have been left alive for the last four years, if gain it is to be
called, and if it is life to survive the Republic; and, in the
second place, because I think that I myself know what is going
to happen. For whatever the stronger chooses will be done,
and the stronger will always be the sword. We ought,
accordingly, to be content with any concession made to us,
whatever it is; the man who was unable to endure this
ought to have died.
They are measuring the territory of Veii and Capena.[2] This is not far from my Tusculan property. However, I don't at all alarm myself. I enjoy while I may: I only wish it may last. If that does not turn out to be the case, yet, since I in my courage and philosophy thought that nothing was better than to remain alive, I cannot but love the man by whose kindness I gained that object. But even if he should desire the continuance of a republic, such as perhaps he wishes and we ought all to pray for, he yet does not know how to do it: so completely has he entangled himself with many other people.
