Sinuessa, May 18, B.C. 44
Yesterday I sent off a letter to you as I was leaving Puteoli and stopped at my house at Cumae. There I found Pilia enjoying the best of health. Indeed, I saw her again shortly afterwards at Cumae. For she had come for a funeral, which I also was attending. Our friend Cn. Lucullus was burying his mother. So I stayed that day at Sinuessa, and there I have scribbled this as I am starting early in the morning of the next day for Arpinum. However, I have no news either to write to you or to ask from you, unless you think this is to the point. Brutus has sent me the speech he delivered in the meeting on the Capitol, and has asked me to correct it without regarding his feelings, before he publishes it. Now the speech is most elegantly expressed as regards its sentiments, and its language could not be surpassed. But myself, if I had pleaded that cause, I should have written with more fire. You realize what the theme is and what the speaker is. So I could not alter it. For considering the style our friend Brutus affects and the opinion he holds of the best style of oratory, he has attained it in its highest elegance in this speech. But rightly or wrongly I have aimed at something different. However, I should like you to read the speech, if you have not done so already, and to let me know your opinion, though I am afraid that your name will lead you astray and you will be hyper-Attic in your criticism. However, if you will recall Demosthenes' thunder-bursts, you will be able to realize that one can use considerable force even in
298posse vel ἀττικώτατα gravissime dici. Sed haec coram. Nunc nec sine epistula nec cum inani epistula volui ad te Metrodorum venire.
II
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. in Vesciano XV Kal. Iun. a. 710
XV Kal. e Sinuessano proficiscens cum dedissem ad te litteras devertissemque acutius,[[231]] in Vesciano accepi a tabellario tuas litteras; in quibus nimis multa de Buthroto. Non enim tibi ea res maiori curae aut est aut erit quam mihi. Sic enim decet te mea curare, tua me. Quam ob rem id quidem sic susceptum est mihi, ut nihil sim habiturus antiquius.
[231]. acutius is probably a corruption of ad and a proper name.
L. Antonium contionatum esse cognovi tuis litteris et aliis sordide; sed, id quale fuerit, nescio; nihil enim scripsisti. De Menedemo probe. Quintus certe ea dictitat, quae scribis. Consilium meum a te probari, quod ea non scribam, quae tu a me postularis, facile patior, multoque magis id probabis, si orationem eam, de qua hodie ad te scripsi, legeris. Quae de legionibus scribis, ea vera sunt. Sed non satis hoc mihi videris tibi persuasisse, qui de Buthrotiis nostris per senatum speres confici posse. Quod puto (tantum enim video) non videmur esse victuri, sed, ut iam nos hoc fallat, de Buthroto te non fallet. De Octavi contione idem sentio quod tu, ludorumque
the purest Attic style. But of this when we meet. At the present time all I wanted was that Metrodorus should not come to you without a letter or with a letter that had nothing in it.