Book
2, letter 19
Part
3 of 3
To
Cicero on Pompey
Cicero,
it is sad to say that Pompey was not as good a friend to you, as you
were to him. I'm going to refer to a couple of your letters to
Atticus, in which you speak of your friendship with Pomey, in the
months leading up to your exile. Clodius, a rival, was manoeuvring
senators against you, arranging for a law to be passed which would
ensure your conviction and execution as punishment for a past action
during your Consular year. The atmosphere in Rome was one of looming
violence, some historians describe it as 'gangster' style politics.
Political gangs were arming themselves on the city streets, senators
hired gladiators as body guards. The killings of the past had
emboldened a cynical and savvy class of citizen to buck the rules and
swagger about with confidence that 'the sword is mightier than the
toga', a reverse of that famous phrase of yours Cicero. (The stories
of Clodius alone are astounding, I will have to write about him in
another letter)
But
despite this threatening and electric state of affairs, you were
confident in your allies ability to protect you and counter the bill
being pushed, you had friends on all sides of politics. Your letter
says it better than I can describe.
From Letter XLVI (a ii20) To
Atticus BCE 59. July. Rome.
“...Pompey
loves me and regards me as a good friend. “Do you believe that?”
you will say. I do: he quite convinces me. But seeing that men of
the world in all histories, precepts and even verses, are for ever
bidding one be on one's guard and forbidding belief, I carry out the
former - “to be on my guard” - the latter - “to disbelieve” -
I cannot carry out. Clodius is still threatening me with danger.
Pompey asserts that there is no danger. He swears it. He even adds
that he himself will be murdered by him sooner than I injured.”
But
Cicero, in your very next letter, written in the same month, you
describe a very different man, and the image of him is terrible. I
think I understand his situation...Pompey was in the middle of a
loosing struggle against a political rival named Bibulus. The
details are complex, and I'm not sure that I understand it well
enough to describe it, but that's not important. What is important
is the description you give of him, Pompey the Great, Pompeius
Magnus, as a heart broken man, crushed by the sway of public opinion
against him.
From letter XLVII (a ii, 21) To Atticus, Rome, July,
BCE 59
“Accordingly,
that friend of ours, unaccustomed to being unpopular, always used to
an atmosphere of praise, and revelling in glory, now disfigured in
body and broken in spirit, does not know which way to turn; sees that
to go on is dangerous, to return a betrayal of vacillation; has the
loyalists his enemies, the disloyal themselves not his friends. Yet
see how soft-hearted I am. I could not refrain from tears when, on
the 25th of July, I saw him making a speech on the edicts of Bibulus.
The man who in old times had been used to bear himself in that place
with the utmost confidence and dignity, surrounded by the warmest
affection of the people, amidst universal favour—how humble, how
cast down he was then! How ill-content with himself, to say nothing
of how unpleasing to his audience! Oh, what a spectacle! No one could
have liked it but Crassus—no one else in the world!”
Then
a few months later you wrote to your brother, as the struggle against
Clodius continues.
From letter LII
(q fr i, 2) To his brother Quintus (In Asia) Rome, 26 October, BCE59
“All promise
me the aid of themselves, their friends, clients, freedmen, slaves,
and, finally, of their money. Our old regiment of loyalists is warm
in its zeal and attachment to me. If there were any who had formerly
been comparatively hostile or lukewarm, they are now uniting
themselves with the loyalists from hatred to these despots. Pompey
makes every sort of promise, and so does Cæsar: but my confidence in
them is not enough to induce me to drop any of my preparations.”
“Pray to God,
but row for shore” we might say today. Does that phrase tickle
you? It seems you had the foresight to arrange for the worst, and
the worst was on its way. Only six months later, you were writing to
Atticus from the road as you fled Rome in self directed exile,
begging your friend to join you in Vibo, but it was to be a long time
before you and Atticus were re-united.
Letter LV (a iii,
3)
To Atticus (At
Rome)
Vibo, April
BCE 58
I hope I may
see the day when I shall thank you for having compelled me to remain
alive! At present I thoroughly repent it. But I beg you to come and
see me at Vibo at once, to which town I have for several reasons
directed my journey. But if you will only come there, I shall be
able to consult you about my entire journey and exile. If you don't
do so, I shall be surprised, but I feel sure you will.
It seems that all your hopes and expectations of friendship and alliance with Pompey were ill placed, and that in the end, his political needs and his own weakness of spirit combined to produce the betrayal which...well, Plutarch finishes off this part of the story very well in his biography of Pompey. Nearly two hundred years later when Plutarch was writing this, it seem that people did not forget, and Pompey is punished by history for his abandoning of you in favour of himself.
“Pompey,
defeated and harried as he was, found it necessary to look for
support to popular tribunes and young adventurers. Of these much the
most unscrupulous character was Clodius. One may say that Clodius
took Pompey up and threw him down at the people's feet, causing him
to roll about ignominiously in the dirt of the forum. He carried
Pompey around with him, using him as a means to give weight and
authority to his own speeches and proposals, all of which were made
simply to gratify and flatter the mob. He even went so far as to ask
to be paid for his services, as though he were doing Pompey good
instead of bringing him into disgrace; and later he got his reward,
when Pompey betrayed Cicero, who was his friend and indeed had done
more for him in politics than had anyone else. Now when Cicero was
in danger and implored Pompey to help him, Pompey would not even meet
him face to face; he kept his front door barred against those who
came with messages from Cicero and slipped out himself by a back
entrance. After this, Cicero, fearing the result of his trial,
secretly fled from Rome.”
Pompey
collapsed. What terrible desires he must have struggled with that
could make him side with such a popular despot as Clodius. It seems
that all his former glories and triumphs were for naught and when the
chips were down, Pompey turned out to be rather spineless. His story
is more complicated of course, there were many political defeats he
suffered before this alliance with Clodius. Many times he had
reached for civilian achievements, only to be put back in his box by
severe opposition from the Senate. This collapse of Pompey's moral
certainty and loyalty to you was a low point on a long slope
downwards, but it was such an extreme betrayal that even two thousand
years later, the pain of it stings me.
*
It
has taken me a few weeks to write this letter, and today as I finish,
the world outside my bedroom window is blurry with heavy rain. It's
amazing the change of feeling that rain brings about in my whole body
and mind. I think that rain lets me believe in the future, it allows
me to hope that tomorrow might be better than yesterday. Certainly
the hills will be greener, the dams will fill up at least part way
and the cattle will have something to drink for another month or so.
I
have been a bit despondent over some recent personal failures, but in
writing to you of Pompey, I have come to see my own life in
reflection. I am somewhat disgusted by Pompey's betrayal of you, and
of his lack of willpower in not facing up to his own failures with
more courage.
So,
I will face my troubles with more courage, knowing that they are tiny
by comparison. I will go on knowing that you, Cicero, fought harder
than I can possibly understand, for causes greater than my own, and
that even in the despair of exile, you had your good friend Atticus
to write to. To express all that was in your heart, to share with
him your private fears and woes, knowing that he would always support
you, even as you watched Pompey betray you.
It
is good that I can write to you Cicero, very good indeed.
Always,
with admiration and respect.
Morgan.
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