50quidem. Atque etiam illa causa est non veniendi. Meministi, quid ex te Aledius quaesierit. Qui etiam nunc molesti sunt, quid existimas, si venero?
De Terentia ita cura, ut scribis, meque hac ad maximas aegritudines accessione non maxima libera. Et, ut scias me ita dolere, ut non iaceam, quibus consulibus Carneades et ea legatio Romam venerit, scriptum est in tuo annali: haec nunc quaero quae causa fuerit. De Oropo, opinor, sed certum nescio. Et, si ita est, quae controversiae. Praeterea, qui eo tempore nobilis Epicureus fuerit Athenisque praefuerit hortis, qui etiam Athenis πολιτικοὶ fuerint illustres. Quae etiam ex Apollodori puto posse inveniri.
De Attica molestum, sed, quoniam leviter, recte esse confido. De Gamala dubium non mihi erat. Unde enim tam felix Ligus pater? Nam quid de me dicam, cui ut omnia contingant, quae volo, levar non possum?
De Drusi hortis, quanti licuisse tu scribis, id ego quoque audieram, et, ut opinor, heri ad te scripseram; sed quantiquanti, bene emitur, quod necesse est. Mihi, quoquo modo tu existimas (scio enim, ego ipse quid de me existimem), levatio quaedam est, si minus doloris, at officii debiti.
Ad Siccam scripsi, quod utitur L. Cotta. Si nihil conficietur de Transtiberinis, habet in Ostiensi Cotta
Besides there is this reason for not coming. You remember the questions Aledius asked you. They are annoying to me even now. What do you suppose they will be, if I come?
Arrange about Terentia as you say, and rid me of this addition—though not the weightiest—to my weighty griefs and sorrows. To show you that my sorrow is not prostration, you have entered in your Chronicle the date of the visit of Carneades and that famous embassy to Rome:[[66]] I want to know now the cause of its coming. I think it was about Oropus: but I am not certain. And, if that is so, what was the point in question? Further, who was the most distinguished Epicurean of the time and the head of the Garden at Athens; also who were the famous politicians there? I think you can find all those things in Apollodorus' book.
[66]. Three celebrated philosophers, Carneades, Diogenes, and Critolaus, came to Rome in 155 B.C. to plead against the fine of 500 talents imposed on Athens for raiding Oropus.
It is annoying about Attica; but, as it is a mild attack, I expect it will be all right. About Gamala I had no doubt. For why was his father Ligus so fortunate? Need I mention my own case, when I am incapable of getting relief, though everything I wish were to happen.
The price you mention for Drusus' gardens I too had heard, and had written about it to you, yesterday I think. Whatever the price is, what is necessary is cheap. In my eyes, whatever you may think—for I know what I think of myself—it relieves my mind of a bounden duty, if not of sorrow.