Nunc, mi Attice, me fac ut expedias. Cupio, cum Bruto nostro adfatim satis fecerim, excurrere in Graeciam. Magni interest Ciceronis, vel mea potius vel mehercule utriusque, me intervenire discenti.
I hand over the villa and all there is in it to our dear Pilia, as I am setting out for Pompeii on the 1st of May. How I wish you could persuade Brutus to come to Astura!
XVI
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Puteoli May 3, B.C. 44
I despatch this letter on the 3rd, as I embark in a rowing boat from Cluvius' gardens, after handing over the villa at the Lucrine lake to Pilia with its servants and care-takers. Myself I am threatening our friend Paetus' cheese and herrings for that day; in a few days I am going to Pompeii and after that sailing back to my domains here at Puteoli and Cumae. What very attractive places they are, if it were not that one almost has to shun them on account of the crowd of visitors.
But to return to the point, what a magnificent stroke of our friend Dolabella! How it will make people open their eyes. For my part I keep on praising and encouraging him. You are right in what you say in every letter about the deed and about the man. To me it seems that our friend Brutus could walk through the forum with a golden crown on his head now. For who would dare to hurt him with the cross and rock before his eyes, especially when the rabble have shown such applause and approbation?
Now, my dear Atticus, do put things straight for me. I want to run over to Greece, as soon as I have quite satisfied Brutus. It is a matter of great concern to my son, or rather to me, or upon my word to both of us, that I should drop in upon
262Nam epistula Leonidae, quam ad me misisti, quid habet, quaeso, in quo magno opere laetemur? Numquam ille mihi satis laudari videbitur, cum ita laudabitur: "Quo modo nunc est." Non est fidentis hoc testimonium, sed potius timentis. Herodi autem mandaram, ut mihi κατὰ μίτον scriberet. A quo adhuc nulla littera est. Vereor, ne nihil habuerit, quod mihi, cum cognossem, iucundum putaret fore.
Quod ad Xenonem scripsisti, valde mihi gratum est; nihil enim deesse Ciceroni cum ad officium tum ad existimationem meam pertinet. Flammam Flaminium audio Romae esse. Ad eum scripsi me tibi mandasse per litteras, ut de Montani negotio cum eo loquerere, et velim cures epistulam, quam ad eum misi, reddendam, et ipse, quod commodo tuo fiat, cum eo conloquare. Puto, si quid in homine pudoris est, praestaturum eum, ne sero cum damno dependatur. De Attica pergratum mihi fecisti quod curasti, ante scirem recte esse quam non belle fuisse.