[496] Because Clodius was attempting to pull down Cicero's new-built house on the ground that the site was still consecrated. He was prevented by Milo (Dio, xxxix. 20).
[497] Something that Quintus had done, perhaps about water, on his estate which annoyed his fellow townsmen.
[498] ὁ δ' οὐκ ἐμπάζετο μύθων (Hom. Od. i. 271).
[499] We must suppose Atticus to have mentioned some money loss (see [last letter]), and to have added that, though a ruinous one, his tastes were simple, and he could live on simple fare. Cicero laughs at the affectation of the rich Atticus. Raudusculum, "a piece of bronze," was the ancient term for the piece of bronze money used in sales, per æs et libram (Varro, L. L. v. 163).
[500] μήπω μέγ' εἴπης πρὶν τελευτήσαντ' ἴδῃς, "Do not boast till you see a man dead"—a well-known line from a lost play of Sophocles, containing a sentiment elsewhere often repeated, especially in Herodotus's account of the interview of Solon and Crœsus.
[501] εἴη μοὶ οὖτος φίλος οἶκος, according to a probable restoration of the Greek words (instead of εἴη μισητὸς φίλος οἶκος, "I might even hate my town house in comparison"); cp. Hor. Od. ii. 6, 7.
[502] Fratris. The mother of Clodius, Cæcilia, was a daughter of Q. Cæcilius Metellus Balearicus (consul B.C. 123), father of the writer of this letter.
[505] Joined to the province of Cilicia by Cato in B.C. 58-57. What Cicero is recommending is a clear evasion. Lentulus is not to take Ptolemy back, but to go to Egypt and make it ready for him.