Scr. in suburbano Mati VI Id. Apr. a. 710
Duas a te accepi epistulas heri. Ex priore theatrum Publiliumque cognovi, bona signa consentientis multitudinis. Plausus vero L. Cassio datus etiam facetus mihi quidem visus est. Altera epistula de Madaro scripta, apud quem nullum φαλάκρωμα, ut putas. Processit enim, sed minus. Diutius sermone eius sum retentus. Quod autem ad te scripseram obscure fortasse, id eius modi est. Aiebat Caesarem secum, quo tempore Sesti rogatu veni ad eum, cum exspectarem sedens, dixisse: "Ego nunc tam sim stultus, ut hunc ipsum facilem hominem putem mihi esse amicum, cum tam diu sedens meum commodum exspectet?" Habes igitur φαλάκρωμα inimicissimum otii, id est Bruti.
the first thing that comes into my head—recently, when at Sestius' request I paid Caesar a visit and was sitting waiting to be called in, he remarked: "Can I doubt that I am heartily detested, when Cicero sits waiting and cannot visit me at his convenience? Yet, if ever there was a good-natured man, he is one. However, I have no doubt that he detests me." That and more to the same effect. But to return to the point. Write me anything there is to write, not only important matters, but even petty details. I shall not let anything escape me.
II
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
From Matius' villa, April 8, B.C. 44
I had two letters from you yesterday. From the first I learned about the theatre and Publilius,[[187]] good signs of the unanimous feeling of the people. The applause given to Cassius I thought even overdone. The other letter was about Bald-pate,[[188]] though he is not so bald as you think. For he has advanced, though not very far. I have been detained too long by his talk. What I mentioned to you, perhaps a little obscurely, was like this. He said Caesar remarked to him, when I went to see him at Sestius' request and was sitting waiting: "Can I be foolish enough to think that this man, good-natured though he is, is friendly to me, when he has to sit and wait for my convenience so long." So you have in Bald-pate a bitter enemy of peace, that is to say, of Brutus.
[187]. i.e. the production of a mime by Publilius Syra.
[188]. Madaro = μαδαρῷ, "bald-pate," a pun on Calvena, Matius' agnomen. The reading and rendering of the rest of the sentence is doubtful.
220In Tusculanum hodie, Lanuvi cras, inde Asturae cogitabam. Piliae paratum est hospitium, sed vellem Atticam. Verum tibi ignosco. Quarum utrique salutem.