To be sure, I had given you the full story in a former letter: but I wanted you to understand clearly that I had not forgotten a remark in one of your letters, that if I took nothing else away from this province except Brutus’ good-will, that would be enough. Be it as you wish, provided it can be so
[203]. If the money was deposited in a temple.
sine peccato meo fiat. Igitur meo decreto soluta res Scaptio stat. Quam id rectum sit, tu iudicabis; ne ad Catonem quidem provocabo. Sed noli me putare ἐγκελεύσματα illa tua abiecisse, quae mihi in visceribus haerent. Flens mihi meam famam commendasti; quae epistula tua est, in qua non eius mentionem facias? | Aristophanes, Acharnians, 659| Itaque irascatur, qui volet; patiar. Τὸ γὰρ εὖ μετ’ ἐμοῦ, praesertim cum sex libris tamquam praedibus me ipse obstrinxerim, quos tibi tam valde probari gaudeo. E quibus unum ἱστορικὸν requiris de Cn. Flavio, Anni filio. Ille vero ante decemviros non fuit, quippe qui aedilis curulis fuerit, qui magistratus multis annis post decemviros institutus est. Quid ergo profecit, quod protulit fastos? Occultatam putant quodam tempore istam tabulam, ut dies agendi peterentur a paucis. Nec vero pauci sunt auctores Cn. Flavium scribam fastos protulisse actionesque composuisse, ne me hoc vel potius Africanum (is enim loquitur) commentum putes. Οὐκ ἔλαθέ σε illud de gestu histrionis. Tu sceleste suspicaris, ego ἀφελῶς scripsi. De me imperatore scribis te ex Philotimi litteris cognosse; sed credo te, iam in Epiro cum esses, binas meas de omnibus rebus accepisse, unas a Pindenisso capto, alteras Laodicea,
without loss of honour to me. So I have given judgement that the payment of the people of Salamis to Scaptius is good at law. The equity of this course I will leave to your consideration. I will not even appeal to Cato: but don’t think I have let slip your exhortations. They are fixed in my heart. With tears in your eyes, you told me to think of my reputation. Is there any letter of yours which does not touch on the topic? So let who will be angry. I can put up with it. “The right is on my side,” especially since I have bound myself to good conduct, with six volumes[[204]] for bail. I am glad you like the books so much, though there is one point of history which you question, that about Cn. Flavius, the son of Annius. He did not flourish before the days of the decemviri, since he held a curule aedileship, which was instituted long after their time. What good then did he do by publishing the official calendar? It is thought that at one time the calendar was not exposed in public, so that a privileged few might be the sole source of information as to days propitious for business. Moreover, several authorities maintain that this Cn. Flavius was the first man to publish the calendar and to draw up a digest of the forms of legal procedure. So don’t think that I, or rather my spokesman Africanus, invented a fiction. You took my remark about the actor’s mannerism, and suspected a satirical meaning:[[205]] but I wrote in all naïveté. You tell me that Philotimus wrote to you about my being hailed imperator; but I fancy that, now you are in Epirus, you have got my two letters about the business, one from Pindenissus after its capture, another from Laodicea, both
[204]. The De Republica.
[205]. That it was a hit at Hortensius.
utrasque tuis pueris datas. Quibus de rebus propter casum navigandi per binos tabellarios misi Romam publice litteras.
De Tullia mea tibi adsentior scripsique ad eam et ad Terentiam mihi placere. Tu enim ad me iam ante scripseras: “Ac vellem te in tuum veterem gregem rettulisses.” Correcta vero epistula Memmiana nihil negotii fuit; multo enim malo hunc a Pontidia quam illum a Servilia. Quare adiunges Saufeium nostrum, hominem semper amantem mei, nunc, credo, eo magis, quod debet etiam fratris Appi amorem erga me cum reliqua hereditate crevisse; qui declaravit, quanti me faceret, cum saepe tum in Bursa. Ne tu me sollicitudine magna liberaris.
Furni exceptio mihi non placet; nee enim ego ullum aliud tempus timeo, nisi quod ille solum excipit. Sed scriberem ad te de hoc plura, si Romae esses. In Pompeio te spem omnem otii ponere non miror. Ita res est, removendumque censeo illud “dissimulantem.” Sed enim οἰκονομία si perturbatior est, tibi assignato. Te enim sequor σχεδιάζοντα.
Cicerones pueri amant inter se, discunt, exercentur, sed alter, uti dixit Isocrates in Ephoro et Theopompo, frenis eget, alter calcaribus. Quinto togam puram