ROME
M.Tullius Cicero,son of Marcus,greets Ca.Pompeius,son of Cneius,Imperator.
IF you and the army are well I shall be glad.From your official despatch I have,in common with everyone else,received the liveliest satisfaction;for you have given us that strong hope of peace,of which,in sole reliance on you,I was assuring everyone.
But I must inform you that your old enemies--now posing as your friends--have received a stunning blow by this despatch,and,being disappointed in the high hopes they were entertaining,are thoroughly depressed.Though your private letter to me contained a somewhat slight expression of your affection,yet I can assure you it gave me pleasure:for there is nothing in which I habitually find greater satisfaction than in the consciousness of serving my friend;and if on any occasion I do not meet with an adequate return,I am not at all sorry to have the balance of kindness in my favour.Of this I feel no doubt--even if my extraordinary zeal in your behalf has failed to unite you to me--that the interests of the state will certainly effect a mutual attachment and coalition between us.To let you know,however,what I missed in your letter I will write with the candour which my own disposition and our common friendship demand.I did expect some congratulation in your letter on my achievements,for the sake at once of the ties between us and of the Republic.This I presume to have been omitted by you from a fear of hurting anyone's feelings.But let me tell you that what I did for the salvation of the country is approved by the judgment and testimony of the whole world.You are a much greater man that Africanus,but I am not much inferior to Laelius either;and when you come home you will recognize that I have acted with such prudence and spirit,that you will not now be ashamed of being coupled with me in politics as well as in private friendship.
