Dictator

‘Naturally. Who am I to lay down rules for you?’

‘Well then, I shall say that the Senate should not give its approval if you plan to send your troops to Spain or Greece to fight the armies of the republic. And I shall have much to say in defence of Pompey.’

At this he protested that these were not the sort of things he wanted said.

‘So I supposed,’ I replied, ‘and that is just why I don’t want to be present. Either I must stay away or speak in that strain – and bring up much else besides which I could not possibly suppress if I was there.’

He became very cold. He said I was in effect passing judgement against him, and that if I was reluctant to come across to him, others would be too. He told me I should think the matter over and let him know. With that he got up to leave. ‘One last thing,’ he said. ‘I should like your counsels, but if I cannot have them I shall take advice wherever I can, and I shall stop at nothing.’

On that note we parted. I don’t doubt our meeting has put him out of humour with me. It is becoming ever clearer that I cannot remain here much longer. I see no end to the mischief.

I did not know how to reply, and besides, I was frightened that any letter I sent would be intercepted, for Cicero had discovered that he was surrounded by Caesar’s spies. The boys’ tutor, Dionysius, for example, who had accompanied us to Cilicia, turned out to be an informant. So too, much more shockingly to Cicero, was his own nephew, young Quintus, who sought an interview with Caesar directly after his visit to Formiae and told him that his uncle was planning to defect to Pompey.

Caesar was at that time in Rome. He had pressed ahead with the plan he had outlined to Cicero and had summoned a meeting of the Senate. Hardly anyone attended: senators were abandoning Italy on almost every tide to join Pompey in Macedonia. But by an unbelievable stroke of incompetence, in his eagerness to flee, Pompey had forgotten to empty the treasury in the Temple of Saturn. Caesar went to seize it at the head of a cohort of troops. The tribune L. Caecilius Metellus barred the door and made a speech about the sanctity of the law, to which Caesar replied, ‘There is a time for laws and a time for arms. If you don’t like what is being done, save me your speeches and get out of the way.’ And when Metellus still refused to move, Caesar said, ‘Get out of the way or I shall have you killed, and you know, young man, that I dislike saying this more than I would dislike doing it.’ Metellus moved out of the way very swiftly after that.

Such was the man to whom Quintus betrayed his uncle. The first clue Cicero had about his treachery was a letter he received a few days later from Caesar, on his way now to fight Pompey’s forces in Spain.

En route to Massilia, 16 April

Caesar Imperator to Cicero Imperator.