Cicero to Spinther -D.R.  Shackleton Bailey Cicero: Selected Letters 38, Penguin

Page 104

Accordingly, men of sense, of whom I hope I am and am considered to be one, have now completely to recast their views and sympathies. To cite Plato again. a very weighty authority with me; he tells us to push our political efforts as far as may be acceptable to our countrymen. but never to use force against parent or fatherland. He gives his reason for keeping out of public affairs as follows: finding the people of Athens almost in its dotage. and seeing them without government either of persuasion or compulsion. he did not believe them amenable to persuasion and regarded compulsion as a sacrilege. My situation was different. I was not dealing with a nation in its dotage, nor did I have a free choice whether or not to engage in public life. being inextricably involved. But I congratulated myself on having a cause to champion both expedient to myself personally and commendable to any honest man. An added incentive was Caesar's quite remarkable. in fact amazing. generosity towards my brother and myself. He would have deserved my support however he was faring. but in so brilliant a career of success and victory I should think him worthy of homage even if he were not the good friend to us that he is. For I would have you believe that. apart from yourself and your fellow-architects of my restoration. there is no man to whose good offices I acknowledge myself so deeply beholden - and am glad to do so.

Pages 106-107

You now know my reasons for defending each particular cause or case, and the general position from which I take such part in politics as I may. I should like it to be clear to you that my attitude would have been just the same if I had had a completely open and untrammelled choice. I should not be in favour of fighting such formidable power, nor of abolishing the pre-eminence of our greatest citizens, even if that were possible. Nor should I be for sticking fast to one set of opinions, when circumstances have changed and the sentiments of honest men are no longer the same. I believe in moving with the times. Unchanging consistency of standpoint has never been considered a virtue in great statesmen. At sea it is good sailing to run before the gale, even if the ship cannot make harbour; but if she can make harbour by changing tack, only a fool would risk shipwreck by holding to the original course rather than change and still reach his destination. Similarly, while all of us as statesmen should set before our eyes the goal of peace with honour to which I have so often pointed, it is our aim, not our language, which must alw.ays be the same.

Therefore, as I have just stated, my politics would be exactly what they now are, even if my hands were completely free. But since I am attracted to this standpoint by favours from some quarters and pushed to it by injuries from others, I am by no means loath to take and express the political views which I deem most conducive to the public welfare as well as my own. I take this line the more openly and frequently because my brother Quintus is Caesar's Legate, and because Caesar has always received my slightest intervention, even purely verbal, on his behalf with such display of gratitude as to make me feel that he is deeply obliged to me. I use all his influence, which is very powerful. and his resources, which you know to be very large. as though they were my own. In fact, I do not think I could have foiled the designs of evil men against me in any other way than by adding to the means of defence which have always been at my disposal the goodwill of the powers that be.