spe. Tu insta, confice. A nobis liberiorem 32 epistolam expecta.

VI Kalend. Feb.; M. Messalâ et M. Pisone coss.

Antony, who did not repay Cicero some money he had lent him.

32 A letter more fully and

VI.

openly disclosing circumstances, than that which he now ventured to send, from his distrust of the carrier.

(ATT. II. 4.)

Scr. in Tusculano, A.U.C. 694.

Cicero thanks Atticus for sending Serapion's book:-requests him to treat with Titinius:-expresses his pleasure that Clodius quits Rome :—can promise nothing about the completion of his geographical work:—asks for news from Rome:—his delight at Terentia's grove :-invites Atticus to his Formian or Pompeian Villa:-states, that he had given orders for the repair of his house-wall.

CICERO ATTICO, S.

FECISTI mihi pergratum, quod Serapionis librum' ad me misisti: ex quo quidem ego (quod inter nos liceat dicere) millesimam partem vix intelligo. Pro eo tibi præsentem pecuniam solvi imperavi, ne tu expensum muneribus ferres.

At quoniam nummorum mentio facta est, amabo te2, cura, ut cum Titinio3, quoquo modo poteris, transigas. Si in eo, quod ostenderat, non stat*, mihi maxime placet, ea, quæ male empta sunt, reddi, si voluntate Pomponiæ fieri poterit; si ne id quidem, nummi potius reddantur, quam ullus sit scrupulus. Valde hoc velim ante, quam proficiscare, amanter, ut soles, diligenterque conficias.

Clodius ergo, ut ais, ad Tigranem? Velim, Scepsii' conditione: sed facile patior. Accommodatius enim nobis erit ad liberam legationem tempus illud, quum et Quintus noster jam, ut speramus, in otio consederit, et, iste sacerdos Bonæ Deæ cujus modi futurus sit, sciemus. Interea quidem cum Musis nos delectabimus animo æquo, immo vero etiam gaudenti, ac libenti. Neque mihi unquam veniet in mentem Crasso 10 invidere, neque pœnitere, quod a me ipse non desciverim.

De geographiâ ", dabo operam, ut tibi satisfaciam : sed nihil certi polliceor. Magnum opus est; sed tamen, ut jubes, curabo, ut hujus peregrinationis aliquod tibi opus exstet.

Tu quidquid indagaris de republicâ, et maxime quos consules futuros putes, facito, ut sciam: tametsi minus sum curiosus. Statui enim, nihil jam de re publicâ cogitare.

Terentiæ saltum1 perspeximus. Quid quæris? præter quercum Dodonæam 13 nihil desideramus, quo minus Epirum ipsum possidere videamur.

Nos circiter Kalendas aut in Formiano 14 erimus; aut in Pompeiano. Tu, si in Formiano non erimus, si nos amas, in Pompeianum venito. Id et nobis erit perjucun dum, et tibi non sane devium 15.

6 Supply ire vult. Tigranes was king of Armenia; and Clodius is stated to be desirous to go as ambassador to his court.

7 Metrodorus Scepsius lost his life, when sent as ambassador by Mithridates to Tigranes. Cicero wishes Clodius a similar fate.

8 The libera legatio was a privilege allowed to citizens of rank, of passing their time abroad, accompanied with lictors and other insignia of honour. The time was limited to five years.

9 Clodius, who had intruded himself, in woman's clothes, into the company of the Vestals, while sacrificing to Bona

Dea.

Alluded to in the preceding letter.

10 Crassus was one of the lately-formed Triumvirate.

11 Cicero had promised a treatise on Geography, during his travels.

12 Terentia had been planting a grove at Cicero's country house; which consisted chiefly of oaks.

13 See Lempriere, under Dodona.

14 The Formianum (near Formia) was one of Cicero's numerous villas, laid waste subsequently by Clodius. 15 "And, in fact, it will not be out of your way. Mark the signification of sane.

De muro

16

imperavi Philotimo, ne impediret, quo minus id fieret, quod tibi videretur. Censeo tamen, adhibeas Vettium. His temporibus, tam dubiâ vitâ optimi cujusque, magni æstimo unius æstatis fructum palæstræ Palatinæ sed ita tamen, ut nihil minus velim, quam Pomponiam et puerum 18 versari in timore ruinæ.

17

Cicero assigns indolence as a reason why he has not completed a treatise on Geography he had promised; and mentions his intention of publishing ἀνέκδοτα, or Sketches" :-asks whether his brother Quintus has a prospect of being paid in Roman money, instead of Asiatic: and again alludes to the wall of his town house, on the Palatine Hill.

CICERO ATTICO, S.

QUOD tibi superioribus literis promiseram, fore, ut opus extaret hujus peregrinationis; nihil jam magnopere confirmo. Sic enim sum complexus otium, ut ab eo divelli non queam. Itaque aut libris me delecto, quorum habeo Antii festivam copiam: aut fluctus numero. Nam ad lacertos1 captandos tempestates non sunt idoneæ.

There are, according to Pliny, three kinds of the fish called lacertus; the largest, the colias; the middle-sized, the graculus; and the smallest,

A

scomber, which last is here alluded to. The Italians call it macarello; the English, mackarel; from the Latin macula, 'a spot.'

3

scribendo prorsus abhorret animus. Etenim yewypapixà, γεωγραφικά, quæ constitueram, magnum opus est; ita valde Eratosthenes, quem mihi proposueram; a Serapione, et ab Hipparcho, reprehenditur. Quid censes, si Tyrannio accesserit? et hercule sunt res difficiles ad explicandum, et ομοειδείς 4: nec tam possunt ἀνθηρογραφεῖσθαι, quam videbatur: et, quod caput est, mihi quævis satis justa causa cessandi est. Quin etiam dubitem, hîc, an Antii considam, et hoc tempus omne consumam; ubi quidem ego mallem Duumvirum, quam Romæ, me fuisse. Tu vero sapientior Buthroti domum parasti. Sed, mihi crede, proxima est illi municipio hæc Antiatium civitas. Esse locum tam prope Romam, ubi multi sunt, qui Vatinium' nunquam viderint! ubi nemo sit, præter me, qui quemquam ex vigintiviris vivum et salvum velit ? ubi me interpellet nemo, diligant omnes? hîc nimirum TONITEUTÉOV. Nam istic non solum non licet, sed etiam tædet. Itaque avéxdora 10, quæ tibi uni legamus, Theompompino "genere, aut etiam asperiore multo, pangentur. Neque aliud jam quicquam оλτEvoμa, nisi odisse impro

2 All three writers on Geography. See Lempriere.

8

Tyrannio was a celebrated scholar and schoolmaster: his first name was Theophrastus; but he received the name of Tyrannio from his severity. He was the instructor of Strabo, in his native place; and, after removing to Rome, taught a great number of noble boys; among whom were the children of Pompey, Lucullus. and the Ciceros. He is said to have collected above 30,000 books.

4 "Of a sameness of character." from iμou and sidos.

5 "Embellished-treated in a flowery style," from veos and γράφω.

The title of Duumviri was given to the petty magistrates

bos, et id ipsum nullo cum stomacho, sed potius cum aliquâ scribendi voluptate.

Sed ut ad rem, scripsi ad quæstores 12 urbanos de Quinti fratris negotio. Vide, quid narrent, ecqua spes sit denarii, an cistophoro 13 Pompeiano jaceamus. Præterea de muro, statue, quid faciendum sit. Aliud quid? etiam. Quando te profisisci putes, fac, ut sciam.

12 See Adams on the office of quæstor.

13 The cistophorus was an eastern coin, about a fifth less in value than the Roman denarius; and was so called, from having on it the figure of a casket-bearer. Cicero's

brother was somewhat unwilling to be paid, except in Roman money. Pompey had collected a large quantity of this eastern coin in Asia, for the purpose of paying his soldiers in the campaigns against Mithridates.

VIII.
(ATT. II. 8.)

Scr. in villá prope Antium, A.U.C. 694.

Cicero complains that the messenger had lost the letter Atticus had last written to him, and requests a copy :-states how cheering an account of affairs at Rome had been given by their young friend, Curio. Details the future progress of his journeys.

CICERO ATTICO, S.

EPISTOLAM quum a te avide expectarem ad vesperam, ut soleo, ecce tibi1 nuntius, pueros2 venisse Româ. Voco, quæro, ecquid literarum? negant. Quid ais, inquam, nihilne a Pomponio3? perterriti voce et vultu confessi

1 The tibi here is a pleonasm, serving, at the same time, to arrest the attention of the person addressed. So in English, the expression, "There's for you."

2 Slaves were called pueri; particularly those born in the master's house.

3 Cicero asks the slaves if

they had no letter from Pomponius Atticus. It may be surmised, that slaves speaking to or of their master, and noblemen speaking to slaves of their master, used the nomen of the person, as marking respect; while the citizens addressed one another by their cognomina or prænomina.