moniis, cum eas audire, quod erat subodiosum, leve putassem. Sed abs te ipso, qui me accusas, unas mihi scito literas redditas esse, cum et otii ad scribendum plus et facultatem dandi maiorem habueris. 5. Quod scribis, etiam si cuius animus in te esset offensior, a me recolligi oportere, teneo quid dicas, neque id neglexi, sed est miro quodam modo adfectus. Ego autem, quae dicenda fuerunt de te, non praeterii: quid autem contendendum esset ex tua putabam voluntate statuere me oportere: quam si ad me perscripseris, intelliges me neque diligentiorem esse voluisse, quam tu esses, neque neglegentiorem fore, quam tu velis. 6. De Tadiana re, mecum Tadius locutus est te ita scripsisse, nihil esse iam quod laboraretur, quoniam hereditas usu capta esset. Id mirabamur te ignorare, de tutela legitima, in qua dicitur esse puella, nihil usu capi posse. 7. Epiroticam emptionem gaudeo tibi placere. Quae tibi mandavi et quae tu intelliges convenire nostro Tusculano, velim, ut scribis, cures, quod sine molestia tua facere poteris. Nam nos ex omnibus molestiis et laboribus uno illo in the meaning of odiosum, than a proposition which mitigates as sub. Cicero affects words compounded of sub in this sense. unas] unas litteras, one letter,' there being no ambiguity; but duae litterae would be two letters of the alphabet.' Two, three letters (epistles), &c., must be expressed by the num. distrib. binae, trinae, &c. 5. Quod scribis, &c.] You write that even if somebody is a little offended with you, my part ought to be to bring about a better feeling: I see what you mean; and I did my best to that end; but he feels the matter very deeply. I did not fail to say all that was needful about your case, but how far I should go in my efforts, I thought I should regulate by your wishes, which when you have communicated to me, you will see that I did not care to be more busy than you were yourself, and that on the other hand I shall not be more remiss than you would wish me to be.' The reference is to Lucceius. He mentions the name plainly afterwards (i. 11, 1, &c.; i. 14, 7). It is, however, possible that cuius animus might be explained as a reference to some general proposition in Att.'s letter. 'I have a right to look to you to mitigate any offence that may K Teneo was be taken.' See Ep. xiii. 3. 6. De Tadiana re] Tadius had somehow got into his hands the property of an heiress who was still a ward. He had held her property for the two or more years which would give a right to prescriptive ownership. When the property was claimed for the girl by her lawful guardians, Tadius, by the advice of Atticus, pleaded his prescriptive right. Cicero expresses his surprise that Atticus should not know that no prescriptive right can be acquired to the property of a ward under the care of her statutory guardians. 7. Epiroticam] Near Buthrotum, often mentioned afterwards. loco conquiescimus. 8. Q. fratrem cotidie exspectamus. Terentia magnos articulorum dolores habet. Et te et sororem tuam et matrem maxime diligit; salutemque tibi plurimam ascribit, et Tulliola, deliciae nostrae. Cura ut valeas et nos ames et tibi persuadeas te a me fraterne amari. II. TO ATTICUS, AT ATHENS (ATT. I. 6). ROME, A. U. C. 686; B. C. 68; AET. CIC. 38. De mutuo litterarum commercio, de domo Rabiriana Neapoli a M'. Fonteio empta, de animo Q. fratris in Pomponiam, de patris morte, de Tusculano ornando. CICERO ATTICO SAL. 1. Non committam posthac ut me accusare de epistolarum neglegentia possis. Tu modo videto in tanto otio ut par mihi sis. Domum Rabirianam Neapoli, quam tu iam dimensam et exaedificatem animo habebas, M'. Fonteius emit HS cccxxx. Id te scire volui, si quid forte ea res ad cogitationes tuas pertineret. 2. Q. frater, ut mihi videtur, quo volumus animo est in Pomponiam, et cum ea nunc in Arpinatibus praediis erat et secum habebat hominem xpnoτoμalñ, D. Turranium. Pater nobis decessit 8. articulorum dolores] 'rheumatism.' 1. Domum Rab.] Rabirius' house at Neapolis which you had already laid out and completed in your mind's eye, M'. Fonteius has bought for 130,000 sesterces' (£1100). For the Roman system of reckoning, see Roby's Latin Grammar, vol. i., Appendix D, §§ i. ii. viii., pp. 440, 441, 447. Domum Rabirianam implies that it was the family mansion; domum Rabirii would merely express that it was his dwelling. 2. Arpinatibus] The name of the estate of Quintus in Arpinum was Arcanum. χρηστομαθῆ] an adept in belles lettres, a man of excellent polite learning.' Pater nobis d.] This is a locus vexatissimus. Madvig, Boot, and others read discessit on the ground that Cicero would not have been so unfeeling as to announce his father's death in such curt terms. Boot urges that he is deeply moved at the death of his slave, Sositheus (Att. i. 12, 4): he might also have noticed Cicero's almost exaggerated expressions of grief for Lentulus (Att. iv. 6). But if we read discessit, we must also read pater noster discessit, 'my father left,' instead of pater nobis discessit, the ethical dative implying serious loss to oneself. Unless, indeed, we make a further change, and read a nobis discessit; and even then it is not proba ble that Cicero would write, my father has left' without mentioning whither he went, or why he thought the fact worth recording. But the chief argument against decessit is the alleged evidence of Asconius that Cicero's father did not die till the year 690 (b. c. 64). The passage of Asc. is, however, highly suspicious. In enumerating the competitors of Cicero for the consulship, Asc., in his commentary on the Or. in Toga Cand., writes:- Duos patricios P. Sulp. Galbam, L. Sergium Catilinam; quattuor plebeios, ex quibus duos nobiles, C. Antonium, L. Cassium Longinum; duo qui tantum non primi ex suis familiis magistratum adepti erant, Q. Cornificium et C. Licinium Sacerdotem. A. D. IIII. Kal. Decembris. Haec habebam fere quae te scire vellem. Tu velim, si qua ornamenta yuuvaoiúon reperire poteris, quae loci sint eius, quem tu non ignoras, ne praetermittas. Nos Tusculano ita delectamur, ut nobismet ipsis tum denique, cum illo venimus, placeamus. Quid agas omnibus de rebus et quid acturus sis fac nos quam diligentissime certiores. III. TO ATTICUS, AT ATHENS (ATT. I. 7). ROME, A. U. C. 686; B. C. 68; AET. CIC. 38. De matre Attici Caecilia, de pecunia L. Cincio constituta, de signis mittendis, de bibliotheca ab Attico conficienda. CICERO ATTICO SAL. 1. Apud matrem recte est, eaque nobis curae est. L. Cincio HS XXCD constitui me curaturum Idibus Februariis. Tu velim ea, Solus Cicero ex competitoribus equestri erat loco natus, atque in petitione patrem amisit. Could anything be more abrupt or irrelevant than the words in italics? I believe the passage of Asc. is unsound. Very possibly Asc. wrote omisit, as Mr. Harrison, of St. John's College, Cambridge, has suggested to me. It may have been customary in the professio to give the father's name with one's own. Cicero may have excited comment by omitting this customary formality. If then, as I think, we may dismiss the testimony of Asconius, there is no urgent reason for doubting that decessit is right, and means 'died.' Yet we may acquit Cicero of want of feeling; thus: let us suppose that he had already communicated the death of his father, in a letter to Atticus, now lost; that Atticus in a subsequent letter asked Cicero What did you say was precise date of your father's death?' and that Cicero here replies pater nobis decessit A. D. iv. Kal. Dec. 'The date of my poor (nobis) father's death was the fourth day before the kalends.' Nobis is itself a tender expression. Cp. ure mihi, Prop. iv. 7, 78. Editors do not sufficiently keep before their minds the fact that much that is difficult in these letters arises from the loss of the replies of Atticus. the Prof. A. Palmer has acutely suggested to me a difficulty which besets my attempt to explain decessit, died,' in a way compatible with Cicero's filial affection. If Cicero writes four days before the kalends of Dec.,' he is, of course, referring to Nov. 28 of the year 686, in which he is writing. Now, it is impossible that a letter could have come from Att. between that date and the end of the year. Either, therefore, my explanation is impossible, or this letter should be referred to the year 687. I do not see any reason against adopting the latter course. The question between discesserat and decesserat rises again in Fam. v. 14, 1, but there discesserat has the mss on its side. yuuvaσiwon] objets d'art,'' articles of vertu.' γυμνάσιον was the name given by the Greeks to the places where philosophers gave lectures. Cicero loved to lay out in the neighbourhood of his villas such places for philosophic discussion or for general conversation. These gymnasia consisted of a hall with seats called exedrae, and a colonnade (xystus), or a walk planted with trees for those who preferred to walk during the disquisition or conversation. 1. Apud matrem] Your mother and her household are getting on very well.' HS XXCD] This very sum, 20,400 quae nobis emisse te et parasse scribis, des operam ut quam primum habeamus, et velim cogites, id quod mihi pollicitus es, quem ad modum bibliothecam nobis conficere possis. Omnem spem delectationis nostrae, quam, cum in otium venerimus, habere volumus, in tua humanitate positam habemus. LETTERS OF THE SECOND YEAR OF CICERO'S CORRESPON DENCE. EPP. IV.-VII. A. U. C. 687; B. C. 67; AET. CIC. 39. COSS. C. CALPURNIUS PISO, M'. ACILIUS GLABRIO. THIS was the year in which the tribune L. Roscius Otho assigned special seats in the theatre to the equites, and in which the Lex Gabinia gave such large powers to Pompeius to act against the pirates. |