Caesar’s house, now he has not a footing even among twenty; and in the second place, one embassy is talked of, and another is given to him. That fat post for levying money is reserved for Drusus of Pisaurum, I suppose, or for the gourmand Vatinius, while this barren messenger’s job is given to him, and his tribunate too has to wait their convenience. Fire the fellow’s resentment please, as much as you can. My one hope of safety lies in their mutual disagreement: and from Curio I gather that there is a hint of such a thing. Arrius is beginning to rage at being robbed of his consulship: Megabocchus and the rest of that bloodthirsty band of youths are at daggers drawn with them. And God grant there may come a dispute about this augurship on the top. I hope I shall have occasion to send you some of my very best letters and plenty of them on these topics.
But I am anxious to know the meaning of that dark hint of yours, that even some of the board of five commissioners are speaking their minds. What on earth can it be? If there really is anything in it, things are in a better way than I thought. Please don’t imagine that I ask the question with a view to action, because my soul is yearning to take part in politics. I have long been sick of holding the helm, even when I was allowed to do so: and now, when I have been marooned and the helm torn from my grasp without waiting for me to surrender it, my only desire is to watch their shipwreck from the dry land. I could wish, as your friend Sophocles says,
“In peaceful slumber sunk
To hear the pattering raindrops on the roof.”
About the wall you will see what is necessary. I
mendum nos corrigemus, et tamen ad me Quintus HS CCIↃↃ IↃↃ scripserat, nunc[[64]] ad sororem tuam HS XXX. Terentia tibi salutem dicit. Cicero tibi mandat, ut Aristodemo idem de se respondeas, quod de fratre suo, sororis tuae filio, respondisti. De Ἀμαλθείᾳ quod me admones, non neglegemus. Cura, ut valeas.
VIII
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. Anti medio m. Apr. a. 695
Epistulam cum a te avide exspectarem ad vesperum, ut soleo, ecce tibi nuntius pueros venisse Roma! Voco, quaero, ecquid litterarum. Negant. “Quid ais?” inquam, “nihilne a Pomponio?” Perterriti voce et vultu confessi sunt se accepisse, sed excidisse in via. Quid quaeris? permoleste tuli; nulla enim abs te per hos dies epistula inanis aliqua re utili et suavi venerat. Nunc, si quid in ea epistula, quam ante diem XVI Kal. Maias dedisti, fuit historia dignum, scribe quam primum, ne ignoremus; sin nihil praeter iocationem, redde id ipsum.
Et scito Curionem adulescentem venisse ad me salutatum. Valde eius sermo de Publio cum tuis litteris congruebat; ipse vero mirandum in modum “reges odisse superbos.” Peraeque narrabat incensam