Nullum a te desideravi diem litterarum; videbam enim, quae scribis, et tamen suspicabar vel potius intellegebam nihil fuisse, quod scriberes; a. d. VI Idus vero et abesse te putabam et plane videbam nihil te habere. Ego tamen ad te fere cotidie mittam; malo enim frustra, quam te non habere, cui des, si quid forte sit, quod putes me scire oportere. Itaque accepi VI Idus litteras tuas inanes. Quid enim habebas, quod scriberes? Mi tamen illud, quicquid erat,
first, and then Clodia's: after them, if Silius won't agree and Drusus acts unfairly, Cusinius' and Trebonius' property. I think there is a third owner: I know for certain that Rebilus was one. If however you prefer my place at Tusculum, as you hinted in a letter, I will agree. Get the thing finished somehow, if you want to see me consoled. You are blaming me already more severely than is your wont, but you do it most affectionately, and I suppose it is my fault for making you do so. However, if you wish to see me consoled, this is the best consolation, or rather, to tell the truth, the only one.
If you have read Hirtius' letter, which seems to me a sort of first sketch of the tirade Caesar has written against Cato, let me know what you think of it, if you can. I return to the shrine. If it is not finished this summer (and we have the whole summer before us), I shall not think myself free from guilt.
XLII
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Astura, May 10, B.C. 45
I have never asked you to fix a regular day for your letters: for I see the point you mention, and yet I suspect or rather I know there was nothing for you to write. On the 10th indeed I think you were away, and I am quite aware you have no news. However I shall write to you nearly every day: for I prefer to send letters to no purpose rather than for you to have no messenger to give one to, if there should be anything you think I ought to know. So on the 10th I got your letter with nothing in it. For what was there for you to put in it? However, the little
90non molestum fuit, ut nihil aliud, scire me novi te nihil habere.
Scripsisti tamen nescio quid de Clodia. Ubi ergo ea est aut quando ventura? Placet mihi res sic, ut secundum Othonem nihil magis. Sed neque hanc vendituram puto (delectatur enim et copiosa est), et, illud alterum quam sit difficile, te non fugit. Sed, obsecro, enitamur, ut aliquid ad id, quod cupio, excogitemus.
Ego me hinc postridie Id. exiturum puto, sed aut in Tusculanum aut domum, inde fortasse Arpinum. Cum certum sciero, scribam ad te.