Cupio equidem et iam pridem cupio Alexandream reliquamque Aegyptum visere et simul ab hac hominum satietate nostri discedere et cum aliquo
with hearty good-will and delight, for it will never enter my head to envy Crassus, or to repent of not having turned traitor to myself.
For the geography I will endeavour to satisfy you, but I won’t make any definite promise. It is a big piece of work: still I will do as I am told, and see to it that this little tour is not entirely unproductive for you. Let me have any political news you may worm out, especially who you think are likely to be consuls. However, I am not very anxious. I have made up my mind to forget politics for the time.
I have had a good look at Terentia’s woodlands, and can only say, that, if there was a Dodonaean oak there, I should feel as though I possessed the whole of Epirus. About the first of the month I shall be either in my place at Formiae, or at Pompeii. If I am not at Formiae, as you love me, come to Pompeii. I shall be delighted to see you, and it won’t be far out of your way. With regard to the wall, I have given orders to Philotimus to let you do anything you like: but I think you ought to call in Vettius. In these days, when every honest man’s life hangs in the balance, I set high store by the enjoyment of my Palatine palaestra for a summer, but not to the extent of wishing Pomponia and her boy to live in terror of a tottering ruin.
V
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Antium, April, B.C. 59
I am eager, and have long been eager to pay a visit to Alexandria and the rest of Egypt, and also to get away from here, where people are sick of seeing me, and return when they miss me a little: but
desiderio reverti; sed hoc tempore et his mittentibus
αἰδέομαι Τρῶας καὶ Τρῳάδας ἑλκεσιπέπλους.
Quid enim nostri optimates, si qui reliqui sunt, loquentur? an me aliquo praemio de sententia esse deductum?