Rome, April, B.C. 46
All the same there are reports here that Murcus[[21]] has been lost at sea, that Asinius reached shore alive to fall into the soldiers'[[22]] hands, that 50 ships have been carried to Utica by this contrary wind, that Pompey[[23]] is nowhere to be found and never has been in the Baleares, as Paciaecus declares. But there is no definite authority for any of this. That is what people have been saying while you are away. Meanwhile there are the games at Praeneste. That's where Hirtius and all that crew are; and there are eight days of games! Picture their dinners and their extravagant goings on. Perhaps in the meantime the great question has been settled. What people they are! So Balbus is building: little he recks. But, if you ask me, is not life over and done with, when a man begins to look for pleasure rather than duty? In the meantime you slumber on. Now is the time the problem must be solved, if you mean to do anything. If you ask me what I think, I think "Gather ye roses."[[24]] But what's the good of going on? I shall see you at once, and I hope you
[21]. Statius Murcus, an officer in Caesar's army. He is mentioned again later in Fam. XII. 11, 1.
[22]. i.e. soldiers of Pompey, Asinius Pollio being another adherent of Caesar.
[23]. Cn. Pompeius, the eldest son of Pompey the Great.
[24]. Fructum may be the first word of some proverb; but probably the word is corrupt, as the sentiment seems rather at variance with that expressed just above.
6et quidem, ut spero, de via recta ad me. Simul enim et diem Tyrannioni constituemus, et si quid aliud.
III
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. in Tusculano III Id. Iun. a. 708
Unum te puto minus blandum esse quam me, et, si uterque nostrum est aliquando adversus aliquem, inter nos certe numquam sumus. Audi igitur me hoc ἀγοητεύτως dicentem. Ne vivam, mi Attice, si mihi non modo Tusculanum, ubi ceteroqui sum libenter, sed μακάρων νῆσοι tanti sunt, ut sine te sim tot dies. Quare obduretur hoc triduum, ut te quoque ponam in eodem πάθει; quod ita est profecto. Sed velim scire, hodiene statim de auctione, et quo die venias. Ego me interea cum libellis; ac moleste fero Vennoni me historiam non habere. Sed tamen, ne nihil de re, nomen illud, quod a Caesare, tres habet condiciones, aut emptionem ab hasta (perdere malo, etsi praeter ipsam turpitudinem hoc ipsum puto esse perdere) aut delegationem a mancipe annua die (quis erit, cui credam, aut quando iste Metonis annus veniet?) aut