Nicholson and Cicero 63

Nicholson

In many ways, the ability to send and receive letters in Cicero’s day was not so very different from our own time. Modern mail is handled by more than one carrier and travels by many different means. Trucks and planes have replaced the horses and ships of the Roman era and today’s mail may arrive at its destination much sooner than in Cicero’s time, but we still share many of the same concerns. Privacy is still an issue which we resolve with tamper-evident security envelopes rather than personal wax seals. We worry about letters getting lost or mis-directed just as Cicero did, and modern mail carriers still return undeliverable letters to the sender just as they did in Cicero’s day. There is almost as much a chance that our mail, too, will occasionally end up in the wrong hands, viewed by unwelcome readers. Like Cicero, we are just as likely to sit by the window and anxiously await the arrival of the mail carrier, and when at last we receive that long-awaited letter from some far-away friend, we may rejoice as much as Cicero rejoiced when he held in his hand a letter from his good friend Atticus. Cicero would have been impressed by the fact that we can send a letter half-way around the world in just a few days, but it’s hard to imagine a modern letter-writer asking the mailman to relay some personal information to our friend when he delivers the letter we wrote. Cicero may have liked many aspects of modern mail service, but his version of the postal service has much to recommend it as well.

Andrea Harper



Atticus XIII. 52

This letter is interesting because it was written just 3 months before Caesar was killed. Cicero describes how worried he was when Caesar showed up at the villa of Philippus with 2000 bodyguards! Where was he going to put everyone when they showed up at his villa the next day? Apparently, Caesar’s friend, Cassius Barba, must have been concerned for Cicero as well. He provided him with a guard (custodes dedit) and helped him set up a camp for the soldiers in an empty field (castra in agro). You get the impression that the soldiers must have been a bit rowdy and out of control as they passed through Italy on their way to Rome. Cicero mentions that the only time they behaved themselves was when they passed the estate of Dolabella and lined up on the left and right of Caesar’s horse as they passed along the road. This orderly formation for the benefit of Dolabella may have been Caesar’s way of honoring (or appeasing) the man to whom he had promised a consulship before deciding to keep it for himself. At any rate, the unruly and disorderly procession of his ‘bodyguards’ could not have won Caesar very many friends among the general populace. It may be for this reason that Cicero was glad to see him go and pleased that he didn’t have to invite him back.
Andrea Harper