You used just the right amount of severity and of moderation in your letter to my son, and it was exactly as I should have wished it to be. Your notes, too, to the Tullii[[87]] were full of good advice. So either those letters will set things right or we shall have to try some other means. As to the money, I see you are making every effort, or rather you have done so already. If you manage it, I shall owe the gardens to you. Indeed, there is no other kind of property I should prefer, especially for the matter I have in hand. You remove my impatience by your promise, or rather your pledge, about the summer. There is nothing either that could be found more likely to solace my declining years and my sorrow. My eagerness for it impels me at times to urge you to haste. But I restrain myself, for I have no doubt that, as you know I want it very much, your eagerness more than equals mine. So I count the matter as already settled.
[87]. L. Tullius Montanus and M. Tullius Marcianus, who were at Athens with Cicero's son.
I am waiting to hear what your friends decide about the letter to Caesar. Nicias is as devoted to you, as he ought to be, and is highly delighted at your remembering him. I am extremely fond of
110vehementer diligo; nam et, quanti patrem feci, totum in hunc et ipsum per se aeque amo atque illum amavi, te vero plurimum, qui hoc ab utroque nostrum fieri velis. Si hortos inspexeris, et si de epistula certiorem me feceris, dederis mihi, quod ad te scribam; si minus, scribam tamen aliquid. Numquam enim derit.
II
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. in Tusculano IX K. Iun. a. 709
Gratior mihi celeritas tua quam ipsa res. Quid enim indignius? Sed iam ad ista obduruimus et humanitatem omnem exuimus. Tuas litteras hodie exspectabam, nihil equidem ut ex iis novi; quid enim? verum tamen ——.
IIa
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. in Tusculano VI K. Iun. a. 709
Oppio et Balbo epistulas deferri iubebis et tamen Pisonem sicubi de auro. Faberius si venerit, videbis, ut tantum attribuatur, si modo attribuetur, quantum debetur. Accipies ab Erote.