Remetente desconhecido → Marcus Tullius Cicero
Tradução moderna em inglês
If you and Tullia are well, I am glad. Terentia has been somewhat unwell, but I know for certain she has now recovered. Everything else at your house is quite well. Although at no time should I have given you reason to suspect that I was urging you to do something for party reasons rather than for your own sake, now especially, with victory already clearly decided, I cannot possibly be thought to have any other motive than that of advising you for your own good, since I cannot in good conscience remain silent. You, however, my dear Cicero, if you will receive these words, please judge that they have been both thought and written by the best and most devoted spirit toward you, whether or not they meet your approval. You observe that Gnaeus Pompey is protected neither by the glory of his name, nor by that of his achievements, nor even by those royal and national clienteles he used to display so frequently; and that even what falls to the lot of the humblest person cannot be his: to escape with honor -- driven from Italy, having lost Spain, his veteran army captured, and now finally besieged, which I believe has perhaps happened to no Roman commander before. Consider therefore, with your wisdom, what either he can hope for or you. For in this way you will most easily determine what course of action is most advantageous for you. But I ask this of you: if he has now escaped this danger and hidden himself in his fleet, that you take thought for your own affairs and at last be a friend to yourself rather than to anyone else. You have done enough for duty, for friendship, and for the party and the republic you approved. What remains is that we should be where the republic now is, rather than follow that old one and so be in none at all. Therefore I wish, my most dear Cicero, that if Pompey happens to be driven from these places too and forced to seek other regions, you should withdraw either to Athens or to any quiet city. If you are going to do this, please write to me, so that I may fly to you if I possibly can. Whatever must be obtained from the commander regarding your dignity, given Caesar's humanity, it will be very easy for you yourself to obtain from him; and I think my prayers too will carry no small weight with him. It will also be consistent with your loyalty and humanity to see to it that the courier I have sent to you can return to me and bring me a letter from you.
Texto latino / grego
IX. Scr. Romae mense Maio a.u.c. 706. DOLABELLA S. D. CICERONI. S. v. g. v. et Tullia nostra recte v. Terentia minus belle habuit, sed certum scio iam convaluisse eam; praeterea rectissime sunt apud te omnia. Etsi nullo tempore in suspicionem tibi debui venire partium causa potius quam tua tibi suadere, ut te aut cum Caesare nobiscumque coniungeres aut certe in otium referres, praecipue nunc iam inclinata victoria ne possum quidem in ullam aliam incidere opinionem nisi in eam, qua scilicet te tibi suadere videar, quod pie tacere non possim; tu autem, mi Cicero, si haec accipies, ut, sive probabuntur tibi sive non probabuntur, ab optimo certe animo ac deditissimo tibi et cogitata et scripta esse iudices. Animadvertis Cn. Pompeium nec nominis sui nec rerum gestarum gloria neque etiam regum ac nationum clientelis, quas ostentare crebro solebat, esse tutum, et hoc etiam, quod infimo cuique contingit, illi non posse contingere, ut honeste effugere possit, pulso Italia, amissis Hispaniis, capto exercitu veterano, circumvallato nunc denique, quod nescio an nulli umquam nostro acciderit imperatori. Quamobrem, quid aut ille sperare possit aut tu, animum adverte pro tua prudentia; sic enim facillime, quod tibi utilissimum erit consilii, capies. Illud autem a te peto, ut, si iam ille evitaverit hoc periculum et se abdiderit in classem, tu tuis rebus consulas et aliquando tibi potius quam cuivis sis amicus: satisfactum est iam a te vel officio vel familiaritati, satisfactum etiam partibus et ei rei publicae, quam tu probabas. Reliquum est, ut, ubi nunc est res publica, ibi simus potius, quam, dum illam veterem sequamur, simus in nulla. Quare velim, mi iucundissime Cicero, si forte Pompeius pulsus his quoque locis rursus alias regiones petere cogatur, ut tu te vel Athenas vel in quamvis quietam recipias civitatem; quod si eris facturus, velim mihi scribas, ut ego, si ullo modo potero, ad te advolem. Quaecumque de tua dignitate ab imperatore erunt impetranda, qua est humanitate Caesar, facillimum erit ab eo tibi ipsi impetrare, et meas tamen preces apud eum non minimum auctoritatis habituras puto. Erit tuae quoque fidei et humanitatis curare, ut is tabellarius, quem ad te misi, reverti possit ad me et a te mihi litteras referat.