Book 3, Letter 12, Part 4 of 4. To Cicero on the Civil War

Dear Cicero,

On January 4^th, 49 BCE, you arrived outside Rome, returning from Cilicia, but you had to wait to enter on account of your potential Triumph. Around the same time, Caesar crossed the Rubicon. On the 12 of January, you wrote a letter to Tiro expressing the situation as you found it.

CCC

To Tiro

January 12^th, 49 BCE

“I arrived at the city walls on the 4^th of January. Nothing could be more complimentary than the procession that came out to meet me; but I found things in a blaze of civil discord, or rather, civil war.”

Then, on the 17^th, you wrote to Atticus, who was actually in Rome as this all occurred.

CCCII

To Atticus

January 17^th, 49 BCE

I have suddenly resolved to leave town before daybreak, to avoid all gazing and gossip, especially with my bay-decked lictors. For the rest, I don't know, by heaven, what to do now or in the future : such is the agitation into which I am thrown by the infatuation of our party's most insane decision. But what counsel should I offer you, you whose advice I am myself anxious to receive? What plan our Gnaeus (Pompey) has adopted, or is adopting, I don't know : as yet he is cooped up in the towns and in a state of lethargy. If he makes a stand in Italy, we shall all be together : if he abandons it, I shall have to reconsider the matter.”

The current global refugee crisis comes to mind as I read your next letter, for as you fled Rome, headed for your senate appointed position in Capua, you left your wife and daughter behind, while taking your son with you. You had to make decisions regarding their safety at a time when to flee was a sign of opposition to Caesar, but to stay was to risk remaining in a city when an occupying army marched in.

CCCV

To Terentia and Tullia

January 22^nd 49 BCE

I think, my darlings, you should carefully consider and reconsider what to do, whether to stay at Rome, or to join me, or to seek some place of safety. This is not a point for my consideration alone, but for yours also. What occurs to me is this : you may be safe at Rome under Dollabella's protection (Tullia's new husband), and that circumstance may prove serviceable to us in case of any violence or plunder commencing. But, on the other hand, I am shaken in this idea by seeing that all the loyalists have left Rome and have the ladies of their families with them. Again, the district in which I am now consists of towns and estates also which are in my power, so you could be a good deal with me, and, if you quitted me, could very conveniently stay in domains belonging to us. I cannot as yet quite make up my mind which of the two is the better course for you to take. Please observe for yourselves what other ladies of your rank are doing, and be careful not to be cut off from the power of leaving town when you do wish to do so. I would have you carefully consider it again and again with each other and with your friends. Tell Philotimus to secure the house with barricades and a watch. Also please organise a regular service of letter carriers, so that I may hear something from you every day. Above all, attend to your health, if you wish me to maintain mine.

Though this letter is quite formal, I find it rather touching that you should write to your wife in such a respectful manner. You do not write to give her commands, assuming control over her life, you write to her with a respect for her own faculties of decision making, trusting her to make the best choices she can regarding the safety and future of herself, and your daughter. I gladly read that in February they left Rome and made it to Formiae, where you sometime later joined with them. I read also, though with a grim sense of fatality, your description of Pompey's efforts to gather a force to oppose Caesar with, in your letter to Atticus dated February 8^th.

“As to our leader Gnaeus – what an inconceivably miserable spectacle! What a complete breakdown! No courage, no plan, no forces, no energy!

In the same letter, you reveal that Caesar has been in communication with you, urging you to promote peace, though you claim that his letter to you was dated before Caesar began his own violent proceedings.

It is at this point, Cicero, that I need to put aside your book of letters, and pick up Caesar's account of the Civil War. There are things I need to know from his point of view that will help me understand the broader story of the conflict, and though you consider him a selfish, greedy, unlawful tyrant, it also seems clear to me that you did not have a clear understanding of the whole picture yourself. In your letter to Atticus, dated January 23^rd (CCCVI), you describe the war thus:

It is only a civil war in the sense that it has originated from the unscrupulous boldness of one unprincipled citizen, not as arising from a division of sentiment between the citizens generally.

Cicero, I always prefer to take your side, to see you as the wisest of men, the diplomat forever urging peace and lawful stability, but I think that your belief that the general population were not divided, is a terrible blindness on your part. You know the story of Rome from the Gracchus brothers onwards, how can you possibly say that this civil war is only the product of Caesar's will, and not that of a century long conflict between the people and the senate? How dare you remain so ignorant, even while you were caught right in the middle of the war?

So, Cicero, it is at this point that I must take a pause in my letter to you regarding this time, and begin to read Caesar's account, since it is clear that you, as you willingly enough admit, are loyal to Pompey and to his cause, though you know that, right or wrong, it may be the cause of your own destruction.

With Gratitude and Respect

Morgan.