Letter 317

I have received a letter of consolation from Caesar, dated the day before the Kalends of May at Hispalis [Seville]. As to what has been published about enlarging the city, I did not understand it. I should very much like to know. That my services are welcome to Torquatus I am glad to accept, and I shall not cease to increase them. [2] To the speech for Ligarius I cannot now add anything about Tubero's wife and stepdaughter (for it is already widely circulated), nor do I wish to give offense to Tubero, for he is wonderfully philadelphos [devoted to his family/brotherly]. You certainly had a fine show at the theater. [3] As for me, although I bear up here very easily, still I long to see you. And so, as I have arranged, I shall be there. I believe you have met my brother. I am eager, then, to know what you have accomplished. [4] About my reputation I am truly not at all troubled; though I wrote to you at the time, foolishly, "nothing could be better" -- for it is not a thing to be fussed over. And this maxim, "that in his whole life a man ought not to depart a finger's breadth from a right conscience" -- do you see how philosophos [philosophically] put? Or do you suppose that I keep such principles in hand to no purpose? I should not have wished you to be dedēchthai [pained/vexed], since there was no reason for it. For I come back round again to the same point. Do you think I care about anything in the whole business, except not to fail him? That is what I am after, of course -- to seem to hold fast to my judgments. Mē gar autois -- ["For not to them..." -- a Greek fragment, the sentence broken off]. I could wish I were as able to bear those domestic matters as I am to despise these. Do you suppose that I wished for something that has not been carried through? Of course one is not permitted to hold one's own opinion. But still, what was done at that time I cannot but approve -- and yet I can perfectly well not let it trouble me, as in fact I do. But too much about trifles.

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; and tell Varro to do the same, if he has altered it. One can't improve on Lucilius: "Pull up chariot and horses as a good driver oft does." And Carneades always compares the philosopher's suspension of judgment (ἐποχή) to the guard of a boxer and the pulling up of a charioteer. But the inhibitio of rowers implies motion, and indeed the rather violent motion of rowing to back the boat. You see how much more attention I pay to this than either to rumour or to Pollio. Let me know too about Pansa, if anything definite is known, and I suppose it has come out, about Critonius, if there is any news, and anyhow about Metellus and Balbinus.

a Caesare litteras accepi consolatorias datas pridie Kal. Maias Hispali. de urbe augenda quid sit promulgatum non intellexi. id scire sane velim. Torquato nostra officia grata esse facile patior eaque augere non desinam. [2] ad Ligarianam de uxore Tuberonis et privigna neque possum iam addere (est enim pervulgata) neque Tuberonem volo offendere; mirifice est enim filai/tioj . theatrum quidem sane bellum habuisti. [3] ego etsi hoc loco facillime sustentor tamen te videre cupio. itaque ut constitui adero. fratrem credo a te esse conventum. scire igitur studeo quid egeris. [4] de fama nihil sane laboro; etsi scripseram ad te tunc stulte 'nihil melius'; curandum enim non est. atque hoc 'in omni vita sua quemque a recta conscientia traversum unguem non oportet discedere' viden quam filoso/fwj ? an tu nos frustra existimas haec in manibus habere? Dedh=xqai te <eo> nollem, quod nihil erat. redeo enim rursus eodem. quicquamne me putas curare in toto, nisi ut ei ne desim? id ago scilicet ut iudicia videar tenere. Mh\ gar autoi=j --.' vellem tam domestica ferre possem quam ista contemnere. Putas autem me voluisse aliquid quod perfectum non sit? non licet scilicet sententiam suam. sed tamen quae tum acta sunt non possum non probare et tamen non curare pulchre possum, sicuti facio. sed nimium multa de nugis.