XVI
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Rome, June or July, B.C. 54
The bare fact that my letter is by the hand of an amanuensis will show you how busy I am. I have nothing to grumble about as regards the frequency of your letters, but most of them merely told me where you were. That they were from you showed, too, that you were well. The two of this sort which gave me the most pleasure were those dated almost simultaneously from Buthrotum: for I was anxious to know whether you had a good crossing. But it is more the regularity of this constant supply of letters which has pleased me than the richness of their contents. The one that your guest M. Paccius delivered was of importance and full of matter: so I will answer that. The first thing is that I have shown Paccius, both by word and by deed, the weight a recommendation from you carries. Accordingly he is among my intimate friends now, though I did not know him before.
Now for the rest. You mention Varro: I will try and get him in somewhere, if I can find a place. But you know the style of my Dialogues: just as in those On the Orator, which you laud to the skies, I could not let the interlocutors mention anyone except persons they had known or heard of, so here too in the dialogue On the Republic which I have begun, I
quam institui, disputationem in Africani personam et Phili et Laeli et Manili contuli. Adiunxi adulescentes Q. Tuberonem, P. Rutilium, duo Laeli generos, Scaevolam et Fannium. Itaque cogitabam, quoniam in singulis libris utor prohoemiis ut Aristoteles in iis, quos ἐξωτερικοὺς vocat, aliquid efficere, ut non sine causa istum appellarem; id quod intellego tibi placere. Utinam modo conata efficere possim! Rem enim, quod te non fugit, magnam complexus sum et gravem et plurimi otii, quo ego maxime egeo.
Quod in iis libris, quos laudas, personam desideras Scaevolae, non eam temere dimovi: sed fecit idem in πολιτείᾳ deus ille noster Plato. Cum in Piraeum Socrates venisset ad Cephalum, locupletem et festivum senem, quoad primus ille sermo habetur, adest in disputando senex, deinde, cum ipse quoque commodissime locutus esset, ad rem divinam dicit se velle discedere neque postea revertitur. Credo Platonem vix putasse satis consonum fore, si hominem id aetatis in tam longo sermone diutius retinuisset. Multo ego magis hoc mihi cavendum putavi in Scaevola, qui et aetate et valetudine erat ea, qua eum esse meministi, et iis honoribus, ut vix satis decorum videretur eum plures dies esse in Crassi Tusculano. Et erat primi libri sermo non alienus a Scaevolae studiis, reliqui libri τεχνολογίαν habent, ut scis. Huic ioculatorem senem illum, ut noras, interesse sane nolui.
have put the discussion in the mouths of Africanus, Philus, Laelius and Manilius, adding the youths Q. Tubero, P. Rutilius and the two sons-in-law of Laelius, Scaevola and Fannius. So I am thinking of contriving some way of mentioning him appropriately—for that I think is what you want—in one of the introductions. I am giving an introduction to each book, as Aristotle does in the work he called the Exoterics. And I only hope I may manage to get him in. For as you fully comprehend, I have set my hand to a subject of wide range and of some difficulty, which requires much leisure; and that is precisely what I have not got.
While praising those books, you miss the character of Scaevola from the scene. It was not without good reason that I removed him. Our god Plato did the same in his Republic. When Socrates called on that wealthy and cheery old soul Cephalus in the Piraeus, the old man takes part in the discussion during the introductory conversation; but after a very neat speech, he pleads that he wants to go to a divine service, and does not come back again. I fancy Plato thought it would have been inartistic to keep a man of that age any longer in so lengthy a discussion. I thought there was still more reason to be careful in the case of Scaevola, who was at the age and in the state of health in which you must remember he was, and was crowned with such honours that it would hardly have been proper for him to spend several days with Crassus at his villa at Tusculum. Besides, the talk in the first book was not unconnected with Scaevola’s pursuits: while the remaining books contained a technical discussion, as you know. In such I did not like the merry old man, you remember, to take a part.
De re Piliae quod scribis, erit mihi curae. Etenim est luculenta res Aureliani, ut scribis, indiciis. Et in eo me etiam Tulliae meae venditabo. Vestorio non desum. Gratum enim tibi id esse intellego et, ut ille intellegat, curo. Sed scis, qui. Cum habeat duo faciles, nihil difficilius.
Nunc ad ea, quae quaeris de C. Catone. Lege Iunia et Licinia scis absolutum; Fufia ego tibi nuntio absolutum iri neque patronis suis tam libentibus quam accusatoribus. Is tamen et mecum et cum Milone in gratiam rediit. Drusus reus est factus a Lucretio. Iudicibus reiciendis dies est dictus[[150]] a. d. V Non. Quinct. De Procilio rumores non boni, sed indicia nosti. Hirrus cum Domitio in gratia est. Senatus consultum, quod hi consules de provinciis fecerunt, Qvicvmqve posthac—, non mihi videtur esse valiturum.