Lettres à Atticus Passage 3

ego Arpini volo esse pridie Kal., deinde circum villulas nostras errare quas visurum me postea desperavi. εὐγενῆ tua consilia et tamen pro temporibus non incauta mihi valde probantur. Lepido quidem (nam fere συνδιημερεύομεν , quod gratissimum illi est) numquam placuit ex Italia exire, Tullo multo minus. crebro enim illius litterae ab aliis ad nos commeant. sed me illorum sententiae minus movebant; minus multa dederant illi rei publicae pignora. tua me hercule auctoritas vehementer movet; adfert enim et reliqui temporis reciperandi rationem et praesentis tuendi. sed obsecro te, quid hoc miserius quam alterum plausus in foedissima causa quaerere, alterum offensiones in optima? alterum existimari conservatorem inimicorum, alterum desertorem amicorum? et me hercule quamvis amemus Gnaeum nostrum, ut et facimus et debemus, tamen hoc quod talibus viris non subvenit laudare non possum. nam sive timuit, quid ignavius? sive, ut quidam putant, meliorem suam causam illorum caede fore putavit, quid iniustius? sed haec omittamus; augemus enim dolorem retractando.

I intend to be at Arpinum on the day before the Kalends, and then to wander among our little villas, which I had despaired of ever seeing again. Your noble counsels, and yet counsels not incautious in present circumstances, please me greatly. Lepidus, with whom I spend nearly every day, much to his delight, has never approved leaving Italy, and Tullus still less. Letters from him often reach us through others. But their opinions moved me less, since they had given fewer pledges to the republic. Your authority, by Hercules, moves me profoundly, for your course provides both a way to recover the future and to safeguard the present. But I beseech you, what could be more pitiable than for one man to seek applause in the vilest cause and the other to incur displeasure in the best, for one to be regarded as the savior of his enemies and the other as the deserter of his friends? However much we love our Gnaeus, as we do and ought, I cannot praise his failure to aid men of such standing. If he was afraid, what could be more cowardly? If, as some think, he supposed their slaughter would improve his cause, what could be more unjust? But let us omit this. By handling it again we only increase our grief.

Je veux être à Arpinum la veille des calendes, puis errer autour de nos petites propriétés, que j’avais désespéré de revoir. Tes résolutions sont nobles et néanmoins prudentes au regard des circonstances ; elles me plaisent fort. Lepidus, avec qui je passe presque toutes mes journées, ce qui lui est très agréable, n’a jamais approuvé qu’on quittât l’Italie, et Tullus encore moins. Les lettres de ce dernier nous parviennent fréquemment par d’autres. Mais leurs avis m’émouvaient moins : ils avaient donné moins de gages à la République. Ton autorité, ma foi, me touche puissamment ; elle offre un moyen de reconquérir l’avenir et de préserver le présent. Mais je t’en supplie, quoi de plus misérable que de voir l’un chercher les applaudissements dans la cause la plus honteuse, et l’autre les reproches dans la meilleure ? L’un passe pour le sauveur de ses ennemis, l’autre pour celui qui abandonne ses amis. Et, ma foi, malgré toute l’affection que nous portons et devons porter à notre Gnaeus, je ne puis louer son refus de secourir de tels hommes. S’il a eu peur, quoi de plus lâche ? Si, comme certains le pensent, il a cru que leur massacre améliorerait sa cause, quoi de plus injuste ? Mais laissons cela : y revenir ne fait qu’accroître notre douleur.