B.C. 67. Coss., C.
Calpurnius Piso, M. Acilius Glabrio.
B.C. 67. Coss., C.
Calpurnius Piso, M. Acilius Glabrio. |
The
year of
Cicero's election to the praetorship.
It is the year also of Pompey's great commission
by the
lex Gabinia
against the Pirates. But
Cicero does not seem
as yet much concerned with "foreign politics."
IV (A I, 9)
TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)
ROME
I get letters from you far too seldom
considering that you can much more easily find
people starting for
Rome than I to
Athens :
considering, too, that you are more certain of my
being at
Rome than I of your being at
Athens.
For instance, it is owing to this uncertainty on
my part that this very letter is somewhat short,
because not being sure as to where you
are, I don't choose my confidential talk to fall
into strange hands. The Megaric statues and the
Hermae, which you mentioned in your letters, I am
waiting for impatiently. Anything you have of the
same kind which may strike you as worthy of my
"Academia," do not hesitate to send, and have
Complete Confidence in my money-chest. My present
delight is to pick up anything particularly
suitable to a "gymnasium." Lentulus promises the
use of his ships. I beg you to be zealous in these
matters. Thyillus begs you (and I also at his
request) to get him some writings of the
Eumolpidae.
1
V (A I, 8)
TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)
ROME
All well at your house. Your mother and sister
are regarded with affection by me and my brother
Quintus. I have spoken to Acutilius. He says that
he has not heard from his agent, and professes
surprise that you should make any difficulty of
his having refused to guarantee you against
farther demands. As to the business of Tadius, the
announcement in your letter that you have settled
the matter Out of court I saw gratified and
pleased him very much. That friend of mine
2 —a most
excellent man, upon my honour, and most warmly
attached to me—is very angry with you.
If I could but know how much you care about it, I
should be able to decide how much trouble I am to
take in the matter. I have paid L. Cincius the
20,400 sesterces written for the
Megaric statues in accordance with your letter to
me. As to your Hermae of Pentelic marble with
bronze heads, about which you wrote to
me—I have fallen in love with them on
the spot. So pray send both them and the statues,
and anything else that may appear to you to suit
the place you know of, my passion, and your
taste—as large a supply and as early as
possible. Above all, anything you think
appropriate to a gymnasium and terrace. I have
such a passion for things of this sort that while
I expect assistance from you, I must expect
something like rebuke from others. If Lentulus has
no vessel there, put them on board anyone you
please. My pet Tulliola claims your present and
duns me as your security. I am resolved, however,
to disown the obligation rather than pay up for
you.
VI (A I, 10)
"Being in my Tusculan villa" (that's for your
"being in the Ceramicus")—however, I
being there, a courier sent by your sister arrived
from
Rome and delivered me a letter from
you, announcing at the same time that the courier
who was going to you started that very afternoon.
The result is that, though I do send an answer, I
am forced by the shortness of the time to write
only these few words. First, as to softening my
friend's feeling towards you, or even reconciling
him outright, I pledge you my word to do so.
Though I have been attempting it already on my own
account, I will now urge the point more earnestly
and press him closer, as I think I gather from
your letter that you are so set upon it. This much
I should like you to realize, that he is very
deeply offended; but since I cannot see any
serious ground for it, I feel confident that he
will do as I wish and yield to my influence. As
for my statues and Hermeracles, pray put them on
board, as you say in your letter, at your very earliest convenience, and anything else
you light upon that may seem to you appropriate to
the place you know of, especially anything you
think suitable to a palaestra and gymnasium. I say
this because I am sitting there as I write. so
that the very place itself reminds me. Besides
these, I commission you to get me some medallions
to let into the walls of my little entrance-court,
and two engraved stone-curbs. Mind you don't
engage your library to anyone, however keen a
lover you may find; for I am hoarding up my little
savings expressly to secure that resource for my
old age. As to my brother, I trust that all is as
I have ever wished and tried to make it. There are
many signs of that result—not least that
your sister is enceinte. As for my election, I don't
forget that I left the question entirely to you,
and I have all along been telling our common
friends that I have not only not asked you to
come, but have positively forbidden you to do so,
because I understood that it was much more
important to you to carry through the business you
have now in hand, than it is to me to have you at
my election. I wish you therefore to feel as
though you had been sent to where you are in my
interests. Nay, you will find me feeling towards
you, and hear of it from others, exactly as though
my success were obtained not only in your
presence, but by your direct agency.
Tulliola gives notice of action
against you. She is dunning me as your surety.
VII (A I, 11)
TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)
ROME
I was doing so before spontaneously, and have
been since greatly stirred by your two letters,
with their earnest expressions to the same effect.
Besides, Sallustius has been always at my side to
prompt me to spare no pains to induce Lucceius to
be reconciled to you. But after doing everything
that could be done, not only did I
fail to renew his old feelings towards you, but I
could not even succeed in eliciting the reason of
his alienation. On his part, however, he keeps
harping on that arbitration case of his, and the
other matters which I knew very well before you
left
Rome were causing him offence. Still,
he has certainly got something else fixed deeper
in his mind; and this no letters from you, and no
commissioning of me will obliterate as easily as
you will do in a personal interview, I don't mean
merely by your words, but by the old familiar
expression of your face—if only you
think it worth while, as you will if you will
listen to me, and be willing to act with your
habitual kindness. Finally, you need not wonder
why it is that, whereas I intimated in my letters
that I felt hopeful of his yielding to my
influence, I now appear to have no such
confidence; for you can scarcely believe how much
more stubborn his sentiment appears to me than I
expected, and how much more obstinate he is in
this anger. However, all this will either be cured
when you come, or will only be painful to the
party in fault.
As to the
sentence in your letter, "you suppose by this time
I am praetor-elect," let me tell you that there is
no class of people at
Rome so harassed by
every kind of unreasonable difficulty as
candidates for office; and that no one knows when
the elections will be.
3
However, you will hear all this from Philadelphus.
Pray despatch at the earliest opportunity what you
have bought for my "Academia." I am surprisingly
delighted with the mere thought of that place, to
say nothing of its actual occupation. Mind also
not to let anyone else have your books. Reserve
them, as you say in your letter, for me. I am
possessed with the utmost longing for them, as I
am with a loathing for affairs of every other
kind, which you will find in an incredibly worse
position than when you left them.
4
