Puteoli, May 11, B.C. 44
From Pompeii I came by sea to enjoy our friend Lucullus' hospitality on the 10th about nine o'clock in the morning. As I disembarked, I received your letter, which your messenger says was taken to Cumae, dated the 7th. I left Lucullus and reached Puteoli about the same hour the next day. There I received two letters, dated one the 7th the other
280alteram VII Idus Lanuvio datas. Audi igitur ad omnes. Primum, quae de re mea gesta et in solutione et in Albiano negotio, grata. De tuo autem Buthroto, cum in Pompeiano essem, Misenum venit Antonius. Inde ante discessit, quam illum venisse audissem in Samnium. A quo[[221]] vide quid speres. Romae igitur de Buthroto. L. Antoni horribilis contio, Dolabellae praeclara. Iam vel sibi habeat nummos, modo numeret Idibus. Tertullae nollem abortum. Tam enim Cassii sunt iam quam Bruti serendi. De regina velim atque etiam de Caesare filio. Persolvi primae epistulae, venio ad secundam.
[221]. a quo in Samnium MSS. The words were transposed by Wesenberg.
De Quintis, Buthroto, cum venero, ut scribis. Quod Ciceroni suppeditas, gratum. Quod errare me putas, qui rem publicam putem pendere e Bruto, sic se res habet. Aut nulla erit aut ab isto istisve servabitur. Quod me hortaris, ut scriptam contionem mittam, accipe a me, mi Attice, καθολικὸν θεώρημα earum rerum, in quibus satis exercitati sumus. Nemo umquam neque poëta neque orator fuit, qui quemquam meliorem quam se arbitraretur. Hoc etiam malis contingit, quid tu Bruto putas et ingenioso et erudito? De quo etiam experti sumus nuper in edicto. Scripseram rogatu tuo. Meum mihi placebat, illi suum. Quin etiam, cum ipsius precibus paene adductus
the 9th, from Lanuvium. So listen to my answer to them all. First, my thanks for what you have done in my affairs both in payment and in the business with Albius. Then with regard to your Buthrotum, when I was at Pompeii, Antony came to Misenum: but he was gone again to Samnium, before I heard he had come. See that you do not build much hope on him. So I must see to Buthrotum at Rome. L. Antonius' speech is horrible, Dolabella's splendid. Let him keep his money now, provided he pays on the Ides. I am sorry about Tertulla's[[222]] miscarriage. For we want a crop of Cassii as much as one of Bruti. I hope it is true about Cleopatra and about Caesar's son[[223]] too. I have finished your first letter, now I come to your second.
[222]. An affectionate diminutive of the name of Tertia, half-sister of Brutus, and wife of Cassius.
[223]. A child of Cleopatra, called Caesarion. Caesar denied the parentage.
The Quinti and Buthrotum we will leave till I come to Rome, as you say. Thanks for supplying my son's needs. You think I am wrong in thinking the republic hangs on Brutus: but it is a fact. There will be none, or he and his party will save it. You exhort me to send a written speech. You may take it from me, my dear Atticus, as a general axiom with regard to those matters, in which I have sufficient experience, that no one, whether poet or orator, ever thought anyone better than himself. This is so even in the case of bad ones: and what do you think it will be in the case of Brutus, who has talent and learning? Besides I have had experience of him lately over the edict. I had written one at your request. I liked mine, he liked his. Nay more, when I was induced by his entreaties to dedicate to him my book
282scripsissem ad eum "de optimo genere dicendi," non modo mihi, sed etiam tibi scripsit sibi illud, quod mihi placeret, non probari. Quare sine, quaeso, sibi quemque scribere.