The following point I will write to you in dark phrases: your cleverness will scent my meaning. My wife’s freedman (you know whom I mean) seemed to me lately from casual words of his to have cooked his accounts on the sale of the goods of the Crotonian tyrannicide.[[220]] I fear you have noticed something. Look into this matter yourself alone, and secure what is left. I cannot write all my fears. Take care that your letter flies to meet me. I write in haste on the march and with my army. Give my love to your wife and to your very charming little daughter.
[220]. T. Annius Milo, who assumed the name Milo in honour of the well-known athlete of Croton of that name. The freedman referred to is Phylotimus. From v, 8 it appears that he bought for Cicero at the sale of Milo’s property.
V
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. in castris V K. Quint. a. 704
Nunc quidem profecto Romae es. Quo te, si ita est, salvum venisse gaudeo; unde quidem quam diu afuisti, magis a me abesse videbare, quam si domi esses; minus enim mihi meae notae res erant, minus etiam publicae. Quare velim, etsi, ut spero, te haec legente aliquantum iam viae processero, tamen obvias mihi litteras quam argutissimas de omnibus rebus crebro mittas, imprimis de quo scripsi ad te antea. Τῆς ξυναόρου τῆς ἐμῆς οὑξελεύθερος ἔδοξέ μοι θαμὰ βατταρίζων καὶ ἀλύων ἐν τοῖς ξυλλόγοις καὶ ταῖς λέσχαις ὑπό τι πεφυρακέναι τὰς ψήφους ἐν τοῖς ὑπάρχουσιν τοῖς τοῦ Κροτωνιάτου. Hoc tu indaga, ut soles, ast hoc magis. Ἐξ ἄστεως ἑπταλόφου στείχων παρέδωκεν μνῶν κδʹ, μηʹ ὀφειλημα τῷ Καμίλλῳ, ἑαυτόν τε ὀφείλοντα μνᾶς κδ’ ἐκ τῶν Κροτωνιατικῶν καὶ ἐκ τῶν Χερρονησιτικῶν μηʹ καὶ μνᾶς κληρονομῆσαι χμʹ, χμʹ. Τούτων δὲ μηδὲ ὀβολὸν διευθετῆσθαι πάντων ὀφειληθέντων τοῦ δευτέρου μηνὸς τῇ νουμηνίᾳ. Τὸν δὲ ἀπελεύθερον αὐτοῦ ὄντα ὁμώνυμον τῷ Κόνωνος πατρὶ μηδὲν ὁλοσχερῶς πεφροντικέναι. Ταῦτα οὖν πρῶτον μέν, ἵνα πάντα σώζηται, δεύτερον δέ, ἵνα μηδὲ τῶν τόκων ὀλιγωρήσῃς τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς προεκκειμένης ἡμέρας. Ὅσας αὐτὸν ἠνέγκαμεν, σφόδρα δέδοικα· καὶ γὰρ παρῆν πρὸς ἡμᾶς κατασκεψόμενος
V
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
In camp, June 26, B.C. 50
You must certainly be at Rome now. If you are, I am glad of your safe arrival. So long as you were away from town, you seemed to me to be further off than if you were in Rome, for I heard less of my own business and less of the business of the state. So please send plenty of chatty letters on every kind of subject to meet me, though I hope, when you read this, I shall be well on my journey home. Above all write me on the subject I raised in my former letter. From the stuttering hesitation of my wife’s freedman in our meetings and talks I infer that he has been cooking his accounts a little in the matter of the sale of the Crotonian’s[[221]] goods. Investigate the matter with your usual care, but pay still more attention to this. When leaving the city of the seven hills he tendered an account of debts of some £100 and £200[[222]] to Camillus, and put himself down as owing £100 from Milo’s goods and £200 from the property in the Chersonese, and as having inherited two sums of £2,600,[[223]] of which not a penny had been paid, though all were due on the 1st of the second month. Milo’s freedman, Timotheus, the namesake of Conon’s father, he said, had never given a thought to the matter. Now first try and secure the whole amount, and secondly don’t overlook the interest from the afore-mentioned day. All the time I had to endure him, I was much upset. He came to me to spy out
[221]. i.e. T. Annius Milo.
[222]. 24 and 48 minae, worth a little over £4 each.