XXXIX
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. Asturae VIII Id. Mai. a. 709
Tabellarius ad me cum sine litteris tuis venisset, existimavi tibi eam causam non scribendi fuisse, quod pridie scripsisses ea ipsa, ad quam rescripsi, epistula.
to praise me for, if I have chosen this mode of diverting my thoughts as the most cultivated and the one most worthy of a man of learning. But, when I am doing everything I can to cast off my sorrow, do you make an end of what I see you are as much concerned about as myself. I regard it as a debt and I cannot lay aside my care, till I have paid it or see that I can pay it, that is, till I have found a suitable place. If Scapula's heirs are thinking of dividing his garden into four parts and bidding for them among themselves, as you say Otho has told you, then there is no chance for a purchaser; but, if they put them up for sale, we will see what we can do. For that place of Publicius', which now belongs to Trebonius and Cusinius, has been offered to me; but you know it is a mere building plot. I can't put up with it at any price. Clodia's gardens I like, but I don't think they are for sale. Though you dislike Drusus' gardens, I shall have to come back to them, unless you find something. The building does not bother me. I shall only be building what I shall build in any case, even if I don't have the gardens. I am as pleased with "Cyrus, Books IV. and V." as with the rest of Antisthenes' works, though he is ingenious rather than learned.[[78]]
[78]. Antisthenes was the founder of the Cynic School at Athens. He wrote a work in ten volumes, of which two, books 4 and 5, were called Cyrus.
XXXIX
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Astura, May 8, B.C. 45
As a postman arrived without any letter from you, I inferred the reason was what you mentioned yesterday in the letter I am answering. Still I
82Exspectaram tamen aliquid de litteris Asini Pollionis. Sed nimium ex meo otio tuum specto. Quamquam tibi remitto, nisi quid necesse erit, necesse ne habeas scribere, nisi eris valde otiosus.
De tabellariis facerem, quod suades, si essent ullae necessariae litterae, ut erant olim, cum tamen brevioribus diebus cotidie respondebant tempori tabellarii, et erat aliquid, Silius, Drusus, alia quaedam. Nunc, nisi Otho exstitisset, quod scriberemus, non erat; id ipsum dilatum est. Tamen adlevor, cum loquor tecum absens, multo etiam magis, cum tuas litteras lego. Sed, quoniam et abes (sic enim arbitror), et scribendi necessitas nulla est, conquiescent litterae, nisi quid novi exstiterit.