fuerat ex ratione sumptus offensio, non appareret. Ille sic dies. Postridie ex Arpinati profecti sumus. Ut in Arcano Quintus maneret, dies fecit, ego Aquini, sed prandimus in Arcano. Nosti hunc fundum. Quo ut venimus, humanissime Quintus “Pomponia” inquit, “tu invita mulieres, ego arcivero viros.” Nihil potuit, mihi quidem ut visum est, dulcius idque cum verbis tum etiam animo ac vultu. At illa audientibus nobis “Ego ipsa sum” inquit “hic hospita,” id autem ex eo, ut opinor, quod antecesserat Statius, ut prandium nobis videret. Tum Quintus “En” inquit mihi “haec ego patior cotidie.” Dices: “Quid, quaeso, istuc erat?” Magnum; itaque me ipsum commoverat; sic absurde et aspere verbis vultuque responderat. Dissimulavi dolens. Discubuimus omnes praeter illam, cui tamen Quintus de mensa misit. Illa reiecit. Quid multa? nihil meo fratre lenius, nihil asperius tua sorore mihi visum est; et multa praetereo, quae tum mihi maiori stomacho quam ipsi Quinto fuerunt. Ego inde Aquinum. Quintus in Arcano remansit et Aquinum ad me postridie mane venit mihique narravit nee secum illam dormire voluisse et, cum discessura esset, fuisse eius modi, qualem ego vidissem. Quid quaeris? vel ipsi hoc dicas licet, humanitatem ei meo iudicio illo die defuisse.
Haec ad te scripsi fortasse pluribus, quam necesse fuit, ut videres tuas quoque esse partes instituendi et monendi. Reliquum est, ut, antequam proficiscare, mandata nostra, exhaurias, scribas ad me omnia, Pomptinum
expense, there were no signs of it. So passed that day. On the next day we started from Arpinum. A festival caused Quintus to stop at Arcanum, while I went on to Aquinum: but we lunched together at Arcanum. You know his place there. Well, when we reached it, Quintus said most politely, “Pomponia, you invite the ladies, I will ask the men.” Nothing, so far as I could see, could have been more gentle than his words or his intention or his expression. But before us all she answered “I’m only a stranger here”; just because Statius had been sent on in front to get dinner ready for us, I suppose. Says Quintus to me: “There you are. That’s what I have to put up with every day.” You may say there surely was not much in that. But there was a good deal: indeed she upset me myself; she answered with such uncalled for acrimony in word and look. I concealed my annoyance. We all took our places except her: but Quintus sent her something from the table, which she refused. In a word, it seemed to me that my brother was as good-tempered and your sister as cross as could be, and I have omitted a lot of things that aroused my wrath more than Quintus’. Then I went on to Aquinum. Quintus stayed at Arcanum, and came to me the next morning, and told me that she would not sleep with him and, when she was leaving, she was as cross as when I saw her. In fact, I don’t care if you tell her herself, that to my mind she behaved with a lack of courtesy that day.
I have said perhaps more than necessary about it to show you that it is your turn to do a little instructing and advising too. It only remains for you to fulfil all my commissions before you start, and send me an account of all of them, to rout Pomptinus out,
extrudas, cum profectus eris, cures, ut sciam, sic habeas, nihil mehercule te mihi nec carius esse nec suavius. A. Torquatum amantissime dimisi Menturnis, optimum virum; cui me ad te scripsisse aliquid in sermone significes velim.
II
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. in Pompeiano VI Id. Mai. a. 703
A. d. VI Idus Maias, cum has dabam litteras, ex Pompeiano proficiscebar, ut eo die manerem in Trebulano apud Pontium. Deinde cogitabam sine ulla mora iusta itinera facere. In Cumano cum essem, venit ad me, quod mihi pergratum fuit, noster Hortensius; cui deposcenti mea mandata cetera universe mandavi, illud proprie, ne pateretur, quantum esset in ipso; prorogari nobis provincias. In quo eum tu velim confirmes gratumque mihi fecisse dicas, quod et venerit ad me et hoc mihi, praetereaque si quid opus esset, promiserit. Confirmavi ad eam causam etiam Furnium nostrum, quem ad annum tribunum pl. videbam fore. Habuimus in Cumano quasi pusillam Romam. Tanta erat in his locis multitudo; cum interim Rufio noster, quod se a Vestorio observari videbat, strategemate hominem percussit; nam ad me non accessit. Itane? cum Hortensius veniret et infirmus et tam longe et Hortensius, cum maxima praeterea multitudo, ille non venit? Non, inquam. “Non vidisti igitur hominem?” inquies. Qui potui non videre, cum per emporium Puteolanorum iter
and, when you have left, to let me know, believing that there is nothing I hold dearer than yourself, nothing that gives me more delight. I bade that good fellow, A. Torquatus, a most affectionate farewell at Menturnae. I should like you to tell him I mentioned him in a letter.