VIII
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Formiae, Dec. 25 or 26, B.C. 50
There was no need for you to give such strong assurances about Dionysius. A hint from you would have satisfied me. But your silence gave me all the more reason for suspicion, because you are used to cement friendships with good-natured assurances, and because I heard that he used different language about us to others. However, your letter convinces me. So I behave to him exactly as you wish.
Your bad day too I had noted from a letter you wrote at the beginning of your feverishness, and I had calculated that under the circumstances you could conveniently meet me at the Alban villa on the 3rd of January. But please do nothing to affect your health. A day or two will make no difference.
Dolabella, I see, by Livia's will shares a third of her estate with two others, but is asked to change his name. It is a social problem whether it is proper for a young noble to change his name under a lady's will. But we can determine that on more scientific grounds, when we know to how much a third of a third amounts.
Iliad xviii, 309
Your guess that I should meet Pompey before coming to Rome has come true. On the 25th he overtook me near the Lavernium. We reached Formiae together, and were closeted together from two o'clock till evening. For your query as to the chance of a peaceful settlement, so far as I could tell from Pompey's full and detailed discourse, he does not even want peace. Pompey thinks that the constitution will be subverted even if Caesar is elected consul without