Marcus Tullius Cicero→Titus Pomponius Atticus|c. 46 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Rome/Athens|AI-assisted
As for the young Cicero [Cicero's son, Marcus], I am pleased on many counts. He has a suitable companion. But let us look first to the first installment, for the day is at hand and he is on his way. Write to me, please, what Celer reports about Caesar's dealings with the candidates -- whether he himself is thinking of the Field of Fennel or of the Campus Martius [a play on words: the fenicularium, a fennel-growing district in Spain, versus the Campus Martius in Rome where elections were held; i.e., whether Caesar means to campaign in Spain or return to hold the comitia at Rome]. And I should very much like to know whether there is any necessity for me to be at Rome for the elections. For both Pilia must be given her due, and Attica above all.
I should be perfectly comfortable here and become more and more so every day, if it weren't for the reason I mentioned in my former letter. Nothing could be pleasanter than this solitude, except for the occasional interruptions of Amyntas' son. How his chatter does bore one! All the rest is more charming than you can imagine, the villa, the shore,
the sea view, the hillocks and everything. But they don't deserve a longer letter, and I have nothing else to say, and I'm very sleepy.
de Cicerone multis res placet. Comes est idoneus. sed de prima pensione ante videamus. adest enim dies et ille currit. scribe, quaeso, quid referat Celer egisse Caesarem cum candidatis, utrum ipse in fenicularium an in Martium campum cogitet. et scire sane velim numquid necesse sit comitiis esse Romae. nam et Piliae satis faciendum est et utique Atticae.
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As for the young Cicero [Cicero's son, Marcus], I am pleased on many counts. He has a suitable companion. But let us look first to the first installment, for the day is at hand and he is on his way. Write to me, please, what Celer reports about Caesar's dealings with the candidates -- whether he himself is thinking of the Field of Fennel or of the Campus Martius [a play on words: the fenicularium, a fennel-growing district in Spain, versus the Campus Martius in Rome where elections were held; i.e., whether Caesar means to campaign in Spain or return to hold the comitia at Rome]. And I should very much like to know whether there is any necessity for me to be at Rome for the elections. For both Pilia must be given her due, and Attica above all.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
de Cicerone multis res placet. Comes est idoneus. sed de prima pensione ante videamus. adest enim dies et ille currit. scribe, quaeso, quid referat Celer egisse Caesarem cum candidatis, utrum ipse in fenicularium an in Martium campum cogitet. et scire sane velim numquid necesse sit comitiis esse Romae. nam et Piliae satis faciendum est et utique Atticae.