Marcus Tullius Cicero→Titus Pomponius Atticus|c. 45 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Rome/Athens|AI-assisted
Your letters about our dear Attica bit me hard; yet those same letters healed me. For the comfort you gave yourself in that very same letter was reassurance enough to ease my distress. [2] You have made a brilliant sale of the Ligarius speech. Henceforth, whatever I write, I'll hand the auctioneer's puffery over to you. [3] As for what you write to me about Varro, you know that I used to write speeches, or something of that sort, in which I could nowhere weave Varro in. But after I began these more literary works [philologotera], Varro had by then given me notice that he was planning a really substantial and weighty dedication [prosphonesin] to me. Two years have gone by, and that fellow Callippides [Kallipides, the proverbial actor who ran on the spot without advancing], for all his ceaseless running, has not gone forward a single cubit, while I was preparing myself to repay him in his own coin, 'with the very same measure, and better' [auto to metro kai loion], if only I could; for Hesiod adds this rider too, 'if you can' [ai ke dynai]. Now that composition On Ends [peri Telon syntaxin, the De Finibus], which I am quite satisfied with, I have, as you wished, betrothed to Brutus, and you wrote to me that he was not unwilling. So let us transfer that Academic work [Akademiken, the Academica]—in which the speakers are men of high rank, but in no way scholars, and who talk far too acutely—over to Varro. For there are Antiochene doctrines in it, which that man strongly approves. Catulus and Lucullus we shall set down elsewhere, provided, though, that you approve of this; and I'd like you to write back to me about it. [4] About the Brinnius auction I have had a letter from Vestorius. He says that without any dispute the matter has been referred to me. They evidently supposed I would be at Rome, or at my Tusculan villa, on the 24th of June. So tell either your friend Sextus Vettius, my co-heir, or our friend Labeo, to put off the auction a little: I shall be at Tusculum about the Nones [the 5th]. You have Eros with Piso. Let us think with our whole heart about the gardens of Scapula. The day is at hand.
Your letters about our dear Attica bit me hard; but the same letters healed the wound. For the consolation you offered yourself in that same letter was firm enough to ease my anxiety. [2] The Ligarian speech is brilliant — you praise it so highly that I am tempted to revise it further. But I must not tinker too much. [3] I ask you to write to me about everything, especially about Attica's health. I am anxious, as you can well imagine.
valde me memorderunt epistulae tuae de Attica nostra; eaedem tamen sanaverunt. quod enim te ipse consolabare eisdem litteris, id mihi erat satis firmum ad leniendam aegritudinem. [2] Ligarianam praeclare vendidisti. posthac quicquid scripsero tibi praeconium deferam. quod ad me de Varrone scribis, scis me antea orationes aut aliquid id genus solitum scribere ut Varronem nusquam possem intexere. postea autem quam haec coepi filologw/tera , iam Varro mihi denuntiaverat magnam sane et gravem prosfw/nhsin . biennium praeteriit cum ille Kallipi/dhj adsiduo cursu cubitum nullum processerit, ego autem me parabam ad id quod ille mihi misisset ut ' autw=? tw=? me/trw? kai\ lw/i+on ,' si modo potuissem; nam hoc etiam Hesiodus ascribit, ' ai)/ ke du/nhai .' nunc illam peri\ Telw=n su/ntacin sane mihi probatam Bruto, ut tibi placuit, despondimus, idque <tu> eum non nolle mihi scripsisti. ergo illam )Akadhmikh/n , in qua homines nobiles illi quidem sed nullo modo philologi nimis acute loquuntur, ad Varronem transferamus. etenim sunt Antiochia quae iste valde probat. Catulo et Lucullo alibi reponemus, ita tamen si tu hoc probas; deque eo mihi rescribas velim. [4] de Brinniana auctione accepi a Vestorio litteras. ait sine ulla controversia rem ad me esse conlatam. Romae videlicet aut in Tusculano me fore putaverunt a. d. viii Kal. Quint. dices igitur vel amico tuo S. Vettio coheredi meo vel Labeoni nostro paulum proferant auctionem; me circiter Nonas in Tusculano fore. cum Pisone Erotem habes. de Scapulanis hortis toto pectore cogitemus. dies adest.
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Your letters about our dear Attica bit me hard; yet those same letters healed me. For the comfort you gave yourself in that very same letter was reassurance enough to ease my distress. [2] You have made a brilliant sale of the Ligarius speech. Henceforth, whatever I write, I'll hand the auctioneer's puffery over to you. [3] As for what you write to me about Varro, you know that I used to write speeches, or something of that sort, in which I could nowhere weave Varro in. But after I began these more literary works [philologotera], Varro had by then given me notice that he was planning a really substantial and weighty dedication [prosphonesin] to me. Two years have gone by, and that fellow Callippides [Kallipides, the proverbial actor who ran on the spot without advancing], for all his ceaseless running, has not gone forward a single cubit, while I was preparing myself to repay him in his own coin, 'with the very same measure, and better' [auto to metro kai loion], if only I could; for Hesiod adds this rider too, 'if you can' [ai ke dynai]. Now that composition On Ends [peri Telon syntaxin, the De Finibus], which I am quite satisfied with, I have, as you wished, betrothed to Brutus, and you wrote to me that he was not unwilling. So let us transfer that Academic work [Akademiken, the Academica]—in which the speakers are men of high rank, but in no way scholars, and who talk far too acutely—over to Varro. For there are Antiochene doctrines in it, which that man strongly approves. Catulus and Lucullus we shall set down elsewhere, provided, though, that you approve of this; and I'd like you to write back to me about it. [4] About the Brinnius auction I have had a letter from Vestorius. He says that without any dispute the matter has been referred to me. They evidently supposed I would be at Rome, or at my Tusculan villa, on the 24th of June. So tell either your friend Sextus Vettius, my co-heir, or our friend Labeo, to put off the auction a little: I shall be at Tusculum about the Nones [the 5th]. You have Eros with Piso. Let us think with our whole heart about the gardens of Scapula. The day is at hand.
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
valde me memorderunt epistulae tuae de Attica nostra; eaedem tamen sanaverunt. quod enim te ipse consolabare eisdem litteris, id mihi erat satis firmum ad leniendam aegritudinem. [2] Ligarianam praeclare vendidisti. posthac quicquid scripsero tibi praeconium deferam. quod ad me de Varrone scribis, scis me antea orationes aut aliquid id genus solitum scribere ut Varronem nusquam possem intexere. postea autem quam haec coepi filologw/tera , iam Varro mihi denuntiaverat magnam sane et gravem prosfw/nhsin . biennium praeteriit cum ille Kallipi/dhj adsiduo cursu cubitum nullum processerit, ego autem me parabam ad id quod ille mihi misisset ut ' autw=? tw=? me/trw? kai\ lw/i+on ,' si modo potuissem; nam hoc etiam Hesiodus ascribit, ' ai)/ ke du/nhai .' nunc illam peri\ Telw=n su/ntacin sane mihi probatam Bruto, ut tibi placuit, despondimus, idque <tu> eum non nolle mihi scripsisti. ergo illam )Akadhmikh/n , in qua homines nobiles illi quidem sed nullo modo philologi nimis acute loquuntur, ad Varronem transferamus. etenim sunt Antiochia quae iste valde probat. Catulo et Lucullo alibi reponemus, ita tamen si tu hoc probas; deque eo mihi rescribas velim. [4] de Brinniana auctione accepi a Vestorio litteras. ait sine ulla controversia rem ad me esse conlatam. Romae videlicet aut in Tusculano me fore putaverunt a. d. viii Kal. Quint. dices igitur vel amico tuo S. Vettio coheredi meo vel Labeoni nostro paulum proferant auctionem; me circiter Nonas in Tusculano fore. cum Pisone Erotem habes. de Scapulanis hortis toto pectore cogitemus. dies adest.