XI
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Cumae, May 4, B.C. 49
After sealing my former letter, I did not feel inclined to hand it to the person that I had intended, as he was a stranger; so it was not despatched on that day. Meantime Philotimus came and gave me
a te litteras reddidit. Quibus quae de fratre meo scribis, sunt ea quidem parum firma, se habent nihil ὕπουλον, nihil fallax, nihil non flexibile ad bonitatem, nihil, quod non, quo velis, uno sermone possis perducere; ne multa, omnes suos, etiam quibus irascitur crebrius, tamen caros habet, me quidem se ipso cariorem. Quod de puero aliter ad te scripsit et ad matrem de filo, non reprehendo. De itinere[150] et de sorore quae scribis, molesta sunt, eoque magis, quod ea tempora nostra sunt, ut ego iis mederi non possim. Nam certe mederer; sed, quibus in malis et qua in desperatione rerum simus, vides.
[150] itinere most editors: itine MZ: Quinto Tyrrell.
Illa de ratione nummaria non sunt eius modi (saepe enim audio ex ipso), ut non cupiat tibi praestare et in eo laboret. Sed, si mihi Q. Axius in hac mea fuga HS XIII non reddit, quae dedi eius filio mutua, et utitur excusatione temporis, si Lepta, si ceteri, soleo mirari, de nescio quis HS XX cum audio ex illo se urgeri. Vides enim profecto angustias. Curari tamen ea tibi utique iubet. An existimas illum in isto genere lentulum aut restrictum? Nemo est minus. De fratre satis.
De eius iuvene filio, indulsit illi quidem suus pater semper, sed non facit indulgentia mendacem aut avarum aut non amantem suorum, ferocem fortasse atque arrogantem et infestum facit. Itaque habet haec quoque, quae nascuntur ex indulgentia, sed ea sunt tolerabilia (quid enim dicam?) hac inventute; ea vero,
a letter from you. The conduct of my brother about which you write shows little firmness, but no chicanery, no treachery, nothing inflexibly opposed to goodness, nothing that cannot be turned where you will by a single conversation. In short all his relations, even those with whom he is so often angry, are nevertheless dear to him, and I to be sure am dearer than life. I do not blame him for writing in one strain about his boy to you and in another to the boy's mother. I am distressed by what you say about the journey and your sister, and the more so because the times are such that I cannot remedy the matter. For certainly I would have done so: but you see in what trouble I am, what desperation.