Etsi, cum tu has litteras legeres, putabam fore ut scirem iam, quid Brundisi actum esset (nam Canusio VIIII Kal. profectus erat Gnaeus; haec autem scribebam pridie Nonas XIIII die post, quam ille Canusio moverat), tamen angebar singularum horarum exspectatione mirabarque nihil allatum esse ne rumoris quidem; nam erat mirum silentium. Sed haec fortasse κενόσπουδα sunt, quae tamen iam sciantur necesse est; illud molestum, me adhuc investigare non posse, ubi P. Lentulus noster sit, ubi Domitius. Quaero autem, quo facilius scire possim, quid acturi sint, iturine ad Pompeium et, si sunt, qua quandove ituri sint.
Urbem quidem iam refertam esse optimatium audio, Sosium et Lupum, quos Gnaeus noster ante putabat Brundisium venturos esse quam se, ius dicere. Hinc vero vulgo vadunt; etiam M'. Lepidus, quocum diem conterere solebam, eras cogitabat. Nos autem in Formiano morabamur, quo citius audiremus; deinde Arpinum volebamus; inde, iter qua maxime ἀναπάντητον esset, ad mare superum remotis sive omnino missis lictoribus. Audio enim bonis viris, qui et nunc
CICERO'S LETTERS TO ATTICUS BOOK IX
I
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Formiae, March 6, B.C. 49
Although, when you read this letter, I think I shall know what has been done at Brundisium, since Pompey left Canusium on the 21st of February and I am writing this on the 6th of March, fourteen days after his departure from Canusium, still I am in agonies of suspense as to what each hour may bring, and I am astonished that I do not even get a rumour. There is a strange hush. But perhaps this is much ado about nothing, when we must know all about it soon enough. But it does worry me that so far I have been unable to discover the whereabouts of my friend Lentulus and of Domitius. I want to know, that I may be able to find out what they are going to do, whether they are going to Pompey, and, if so, by what route and on what date.
Town, I am told, is now crammed full with our party. Sosius and Lupus, who, Pompey thought, would reach Brundisium before himself, are, it appears, sitting as magistrates. From here there is a general move: even M'. Lepidus, with whom I used to spend the day, thinks of starting to-morrow. I am lingering in my villa at Formiae to get news the sooner. Then I intend to go to Arpinum: from Arpinum I proceed to the Adriatic, choosing the least frequented route and leaving behind or even dismissing my lictors. For I am told that certain