I was expecting some news from Rome on the 27th. Then I should have given some orders to your men. Now I have only the same old questions. What is Brutus thinking of doing, or, if he has done anything, has any comment come from Caesar? But why do I ask about these things, when I care very little about them? I do want to know how our dear Attica is getting on. Though your letter (but that is quite out of date now) bids me be hopeful, still I am anxious for fresh news.
You see the advantage of being near at hand. Certainly let us settle about the gardens. We seemed to be talking to one another, when I was at Tusculum, so frequent was the interchange of letters. But that will be the same again soon. Meantime I have taken your hint and finished off some really quite clever books for Varro. But I am waiting for your answer to my questions: first, how you knew he wanted anything from me, when in spite of his voluminous writings he has never challenged me; and next, who it was of whom he was jealous, unless it may have been Brutus. If he is not jealous of him, he certainly cannot be of Hortensius or the speakers in the De Republica.
138publica loquuntur. Plane hoc mihi explices velim, in primis maneasne in sententia, ut mittam ad eum, quae scripsi, an nihil necesse putes. Sed haec coram.
XIX
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. in Arpinati prid. K. Quint. a. 709
Commodum discesserat Hilarus librarius IV Kal., cui dederam litteras ad te, cum venit tabellarius cum tuis litteris pridie datis; in quibus illud mihi gratissimum fuit, quod Attica nostra rogat te, ne tristis sis, quodque tu ἀκίνδυνα esse scribis.
Ligarianam, ut video, praeclare auctoritas tua commendavit. Scripsit enim ad me Balbus et[[113]] Oppius mirifice se probare, ob eamque causam ad Caesarem eam se oratiunculam misisse. Hoc igitur idem tu mihi antea scripseras.
[113]. et added by Vict.
In Varrone ista causa me non moveret, ne viderer φιλένδοξος (sic enim constitueram, neminem includere in dialogos eorum, qui viverent); sed, quia scribis et desiderari a Varrone et magni illum aestimare, eos confeci et absolvi, nescio quam bene, sed ita accurate, ut nihil posset supra, Academicam omnem quaestionem libris quattuor. In eis, quae erant contra ἀκαταληψίαν praeclare collecta ab Antiocho, Varroni dedi. Ad ea ipse respondeo; tu es tertius in sermone nostro. Si Cottam et Varronem fecissem inter se disputantes, ut a te proximis litteris admoneor,
I should like you to make this quite clear to me, especially whether you abide by your opinion that I should send him what I have written, or whether you think it is unnecessary. But of this when we meet.