Thessalonica, July 21, B.C. 58
Your letter has filled me with hopes of Pompey’s intentions or professed intentions as regards me. For I think the elections have been held, and it is when they are over you say he has decided to have my affair brought forward. If you think me foolish for hoping, I only do what you bid me to do, and I know your letters generally are more inclined to restrain me and my hopes than to encourage them. Now please tell me plainly and fully what you see. I know it is through many faults of my own that I have fallen into this misery: and if fate mends my faults even partially, I shall be less disgusted both with my past and my present existence.
Ego propter viae celebritatem et cotidianam exspectationem rerum novarum non commovi me adhuc Thessalonica. Sed iam extrudimur non a Plancio (nam is quidem retinet), verum ab ipso loco minime apposito ad tolerandam in tanto luctu calamitatem. In Epirum ideo, ut scripseram, non ii, quod subito mihi universi nuntii venerant et litterae, quare nihil esset necesse quam proxime Italiam esse. Hinc, si aliquid a comitiis audierimus, nos in Asiam convertemus; neque adhuc stabat quo potissimum, sed scies.
Data XII Sextiles Thessalonicae.
XV
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. Thessalonicae XIV K. Sept. a. 696
Accepi Idibus Sextilibus quattuor epistulas a te missas, unam, qua me obiurgas et rogas, ut sim firmior, alteram, qua Crassi libertum ais tibi de mea sollicitudine macieque narrasse, tertiam, qua demonstras acta in senatu, quartam de eo, quod a Varrone scribis tibi esse confirmatum de voluntate Pompei. Ad primam tibi hoc scribo, me ita dolere, ut non modo a mente non deserar, sed id ipsum doleam, me tam firma mente ubi utar et quibuscum non habere. Nam, si tu me uno non sine maerore cares, quid me censes, qui et te et omnibus? et, si tu incolumis me requiris, quo modo a me ipsam incolumitatem desiderari putas? Nolo commemorare, quibus rebus
The amount of traffic on the roads and the daily expectation of a change of government have prevented me from leaving Thessalonica at present. But now I am forced to quit, not by Plancius—who wants me to stop—but by the nature of the place, which is not at all suitable to help one to bear such distress and misfortune. I did not go to Epirus as I said I should, since all the news and all the letters that have reached me lately have shown me that there was no necessity to remain very near Italy. If I get any important news from the scene of the elections, I shall betake myself to Asia, when I leave here. Where exactly, is not yet fixed: but I will let you know.
Thessalonica, July 21.