"I have taken the trouble to send you Calpurnius, an intimate friend of mine, that you may know I am greatly concerned for your life and position."
On the same day Philotimus brought me a letter from Caesar of which this is a copy:
"CAESAR IMPERATOR TO CICERO IMPERATOR, GREETING.
"Although I had concluded that you would do nothing rashly or imprudently, nevertheless I have been so stirred by what people say that I thought it best to write to you and ask you in the name of our goodwill to each other not to go anywhere, now that fortune inclines my way, where you did not think it
etiam progrediendum tibi non existimasses. Namque et amicitiae graviorem iniuriam feceris et tibi minus commode consulueris, si non fortunae obsecutus videbere (omnia enim secundissima nobis, adversissima illis accidisse videntur), nec causam secutus (eadem enim tum fuit, cum ab eorum consiliis abesse iudicasti), sed meum aliquod factum condemnavisse; quo mihi gravius abs te nil accidere potest. Quod ne facias, pro iure nostrae amicitiae a te peto. Postremo quid viro bono et quieto et bono civi magis convenit quam abesse a civilibus controversiis? Quod non nulli cum probarent, periculi causa sequi non potuerunt; tu explorato et vitae meae testimonio et amicitiae iudicio neque tutius neque honestius reperies quicquam quam ab omni contentione abesse.
[Sidenote: _Scr. in Cumano V Non. Mai. a. 705_]
Adventus Philotimi (at cuius hominis, quam insulsi et quam saepe pro Pompeio mentientis!) exanimavit omnes, qui mecum erant; nam ipse obdurui. Dubitabat nostrum nemo, quin Caesar itinera repressisset--volare dicitur; Petreius cum Afranio coniunxisset se--nihil adfert eius modi. Quid quaeris? etiam illud erat persuasum, Pompeium cum magnis copiis iter in
necessary to go before anything was certain. For you will have done a serious injury to our friendship and consulted your own interest very little, if you show that you are not following fortune (for everything that has happened seems most favourable to me and most unfavourable to Pompey), nor yet following the right cause (for the cause was the same then, when you thought fit to hold aloof from it), but that you have condemned some act of mine, the greatest harm you could do me. Do not take such a step, I pray you by the right of our friendship. Finally what better befits a good and peaceful man and a loyal citizen than to keep out of civil disturbance. There are some who approved such a course, but could not follow it because of the danger. But you may examine the evidence of my life and the opinion given by my friendship[144]; you will find no safer or more honourable course than to keep quite clear of the quarrel.