XXI
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
Scr. Asturae IV K. Sext. a. 709
Ad Hirtium dederam epistulam sane grandem, quam scripseram proxime in Tusculano. Huic, quam tu mihi misisti, rescribam alias. Nunc alia malo. Quid possum de Torquato, nisi aliquid a Dolabella? Quod simul ac, continuo scietis. Exspectabam hodie aut summum eras ab eo tabellarios; qui simul ac venerint, mittentur ad te. A Quinto exspecto. Proficiscens enim e Tusculano VIII Kal., ut scis, misi ad eum tabellarios.
Nunc, ad rem ut redeam, "inhibere" illud tuum, quod valde mihi adriserat, vehementer displicet. Est enim verbum totum nauticum. Quamquam id quidem sciebam, sed arbitrabar sustineri remos, cum inhibere essent remiges iussi. Id non esse eius modi didici heri, cum ad villam nostram navis appelleretur. Non enim sustinent, sed alio modo remigant. Id ab ἐποχῇ remotissumum est. Quare facies, ut ita sit in libro, quem ad modum fuit. Dices hoc idem Varroni, si
you suppose there was some aspiration which was left unfulfilled? Of course one should not praise one's own principles, but I cannot help praising my past life, and yet I can well enough feel indifferent about it, as indeed I do. But that is enough and more than enough about such a trifle.
XXI
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Astura, July 29, B.C. 45
I have sent a very bulky letter to Hirtius, which I wrote lately at Tusculum. This letter which you have sent, I will answer later. Just now I prefer other things. What can I do for Torquatus, unless I hear from Dolabella? As soon as I hear, you shall know at once. I am expecting messengers from him to-day or to-morrow at the latest; and, as soon as they come, they shall be sent on to you. I am expecting to hear from Quintus. For when I was starting from Tusculum on the 25th, as you know, I sent messengers to him.
To return to business, the word inhibere suggested by you, which at first took my fancy very much, I strongly disapprove of now. For it is exclusively a nautical word. That, however, I knew before; but I thought rowers rested on their oars, when told to inhibere. Yesterday, when a ship put in by my house, I learned that was not so. They don't rest on their oars, they back water. That is very different to the Greek ἐποχή. So change the word back to what it was in the book[[117]]; and tell Varro to do
[117]. Academica II. 94. Ἐποχή, of which the Latin rendering is here discussed, is the technical term in philosophy for "suspension of judgment."