- Ruggles Benjamin
- Hendricks William
- Yarnall of Virginia
- Wilson of Indiana
- M
rsFrye
Mr
Ruggles and Mr Hendricks, Senators from
Ohio and Indiana, introduced Mr Yarnull and Mr Wilson— Besides my Morning
walk, I rode about an hour before dinner; and am convinced that this is
the best of all Medicines for my health, though always attended with
great danger in the taking. Mrs Frye dined with us, and
Mr
Frye was here in the Evening but I did not know it. In the
tenth Book of the familiar Epistles there are 24 Letters of
Correspondence between Cicero and
Lucius Munatius Plancus. 2
to Furnius. 1 to Lepidus 1 to Trebonius. 1. to Ampius. 1. from Galba to Cicero. 3. from Asinius Pollio. 1 from Lepidus to
Cicero, and 1. from Lepidus to the Senate and People— These Letters were
all written in the last year of Cicero’s Life—while the War was waging
with Antony. Plancus had been one
of the favourites of Julius
Caesar, who had bestowed a large sum of money upon him.
After the Death of Caesar, he was Praetor in Transalpine Gaul, where he
commanded a large army. He was designated Consul with Decimus Brutus, the year after
Hirtius and Pansa. He was one of the Generals upon
whom they relied to put down the rebellion of Antony, and in this
Correspondence, he pledges himself in his Letters to the Senate and to
Cicero that he will inflexibly maintain the cause of the Country—
Notwithstanding all which he was treacherous— He first united his troops
with those of Lepidus, who acted the same double dealing part; and they
both joined Antony, after he had been beaten 420at
Mutina. Lepidus first and Plancus afterwards— There is a long Letter
from Plancus to the Senate, full of Apologies and professions of
patriotism—several to Cicero, charging Lepidus with perfidy, and calling
for reinforcements; and one in which he throws all the blame of Antony’s
escape, after the battle at Mutina, upon Octavius Caesar— He says—that Antony now lives, that
Lepidus is with him, that they have no despicable armies—their
hopes—their daring, are all attributable to young Caesar— And he
concludes by saying that if Caesar yet will do his duty or if the
African Legions will speedily come, the Republic will be safe in that
quarter. It was but a few days after that the second Triumvirate was
formed, and Plancus betrayed his Country like the rest— The Letter to
Trebonius, relates to him the Meeting of the Senate on the 19th. of December, when he delivered the third
Philippic— It was written however sometime afterwards for it mentions
the death of Servius
Sulpicius, Trebonius himself was shortly afterwards
treacherously murdered at Smyrna by Dolabella. Pollio was a Prefect in Spain, by the
appointment of Julius Caesar. But he declares his devotion to the
Country, and that from his experience of the miseries of absolute power,
he never would consent to such a state of things again— His third Letter
gives an account of the Battles at Mutina, where the Consuls Hirtius and
Pansa were both killed. The Letter from Lepidus to Cicero, promises
stoutly to defend the Republic against Antony, and then comes the Letter
to the Senate, protesting by all the Gods that he had been compelled by
a mutiny of his own army to join with Antony