At last I have full news of Attica; so please congratulate her again. Tell me all about Tigellius and that too as soon as possible; for I am feeling anxious. There is one thing I must mention. Young Quintus is coming to-morrow; but, whether to me or to you, I don't know. He wrote to me he was coming to Rome on the 25th. I have sent someone to invite him here. Though to be sure I must go to Rome now, for fear Caesar may forestall me.
LII
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Puteoli, Dec. 21, B.C. 45
To think that my formidable guest leaves no regret behind! For indeed it passed off splendidly. However, when he reached Philippus on the evening of the 18th, the house was so full of soldiers that there was hardly a room left for Caesar himself to dine in. Two thousand men if you please! I was much disturbed as to what was going to happen the next day; and Cassius Barba came to the rescue and gave me guards. A camp was pitched in the fields,
214agro, villa defensa est. Ille tertiis Saturnalibus apud Philippum ad h. VII nec quemquam admisit; rationes, opinor, cum Balbo. Inde ambulavit in litore. Post h. VIII in balneum. Tum audivit de Mamurra, vultum non mutavit. Unctus est, accubuit. Ἐμετικὴν agebat. Itaque et edit et bibit ἀδεῶς et iucunde, opipare sane et apparate nec id solum, sed
"bene cocto et
condito sermone bono et, si quaeris, libenter."
Praeterea tribus tricliniis accepti οἱ περὶ αὐτὸν valde copiose. Libertis minus lautis servisque nihil defuit. Nam lautiores eleganter accepi. Quid multa? homines visi sumus. Hospes tamen non is, cui diceres: "Amabo te, eodem ad me, cum revertere." Semel satis est. Σπουδαῖον οὐδὲν in sermone, φιλόλογα multa. Quid quaeris? delectatus est et libenter fuit. Puteolis se aiebat unum diem fore, alterum ad Baias.
Habes hospitium sive ἐπισταθμείαν odiosam mihi, dixi, non molestam. Ego paulisper hic, deinde in Tusculanum. Dolabellae villam cum praeteriret, omnis armatorum copia dextra, sinistra ad equum nec usquam alibi. Hoc ex Nicia.
and the house put under guard. On the 19th he stayed with Philippus till one o'clock and admitted no one: at his accounts, I believe, with Balbus. Then he walked on the shore. After two he took his bath. Then he heard about Mamurra without changing countenance. He was anointed and sat down to dinner. He was undergoing a course of emetics, so he ate and drank at his pleasure without fear. It was a lordly dinner and well-served, and not only that, but