Marcus Tullius Cicero→Titus Pomponius Atticus|c. 45 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Rome/Athens|AI-assisted
I have given Hirtius a really long letter, the one I wrote recently at my place in Tusculum. To the one you sent me I will reply another time. For now I prefer other matters. What can I say about Torquatus, unless something comes from Dolabella? And the moment it does, you will all know at once. I was expecting his couriers today, or tomorrow at the very latest; and the moment they arrive, they will be sent on to you. I am waiting to hear from Quintus, for as I was setting out from Tusculum on the eighth day before the Kalends, as you know, I sent couriers to him.
Now, to come back to the point: that 'inhibere' ["to hold back, check"] of yours, which had pleased me greatly, now thoroughly displeases me. For it is an entirely nautical term. I did, to be sure, know this, but I supposed that the oars were kept steady when the rowers were ordered to 'inhibere.' That this is not the case I learned yesterday, when a ship was being brought to land at our villa. For they do not hold the oars steady, but row in a different way. And that is the furthest thing from epoche [a Greek philosophical term, transliterated, meaning "suspension of judgment"]. For this reason you will arrange that it stand in the book just as it was. You will say this same thing to Varro, in case he has perhaps changed it. And there is nothing better than that line of Lucilius: 'that you check the chariot, as a good driver often does, and the horses.' And Carneades always makes the boxer's guard and the charioteer's reining-in similar to epoche. But the 'inhibitio' [holding-in] of the rowers involves motion, and indeed a rather vigorous one, of rowing that turns the ship toward its stern. You see how much more carefully I attend to these matters than to the gossip or to Pollio.
About Pansa, too, if there is anything more definite (for I believe it has been made public); about Critonius, if there is anything; and at any rate about Metellus and Balbinus.
I have my reasons for asking so persistently for your opinion about Varro. Some objections occur to me; but of those when we meet. Your name I introduced with the greatest pleasure and I shall do so more frequently, for I see for the first time from your last letter that you do not disapprove. About Marcellus Cassius had already written to me, and Servius sent some details. What a sad thing! I return to my former point. There are no hands in which I would rather have my writings than in yours, but I should prefer them not to leave your hands till we have agreed on it. I acquit your copyists of fault and I bring no charge against you; but there was something different that I did mention in a letter, that Caerellia had some things she could only have got from you. In Balbus' case I realize of course that you had to satisfy him; only I am sorry that Brutus should get anything stale or Balbus anything unfinished. I will send to Varro, as soon as I have seen you, if you agree. Why I have hesitated, you shall know, when I do see you.
I strongly approve of your calling in those debts which have been transferred to me. I am sorry you are being bothered about Ovia's estate. About Brutus it is a great nuisance, but such is life. The ladies, however, are not very considerate in being annoyed, though both of them observe the proprieties.
There was no necessity for you to dun my secretary Tullius; I should have told you, if there had been. For he has nothing of mine towards carrying out my vow. But he has some of my money, and that I am thinking of devoting to that purpose. So we were both right, I in telling you where it was, and he in denying he had it. But let us get hold of this same money also at once. I do not very much approve of a grove for mortals, as it is not much frequented; but there is something to say for it. However, let that too be as you like, since you decide everything. I shall come to town when I arranged, and I hope to goodness you will be there the same day. But, if anything prevents you, and lots of things may, the next day at any rate. For there are my co-heirs, and without your shrewdness I shall be done for. This is the second letter with no news of Attica. But that I take as a hopeful sign. There is one thing I have a grievance about, not against you, but against her, that she does not even send her regards. But pay my best respects to her and to Pilia, and don't hint that I am angry anyhow. I am sending Caesar's letter, in case you should not have read it.
ad Hirtium dederam epistulam sane grandem quam scripseram proxime in Tusculano. huic quam tu mihi misisti rescribam alias. [2] nunc alia malo. quid possum de Torquato, nisi aliquid a Dolabella? quod simul ac, continuo scietis. exspectabam hodie aut summum cras 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. [3] 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 e)poxh=? remotissimum est. qua re facies ut ita sit in libro quem ad modum fuit. dices hoc idem Varroni, si forte mutavit. nec est melius quicquam quam ut Lucilius, 'sustineas currum ut bonus saepe agitator equosque.' semperque Carneades probolh\n pugilis et retentionem aurigae similem facit e)poxh=? . inhibitio autem remigum motum habet et vehementiorem quidem remigationis navem convertentis ad puppim. vides quanto haec diligentius curem quam aut de rumore aut de Pollione. [3] de Pansa etiam si quid certius (credo enim palam factum esse), de Critonio, si quid esset certe ne de Metello et Balbino.
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I have given Hirtius a really long letter, the one I wrote recently at my place in Tusculum. To the one you sent me I will reply another time. For now I prefer other matters. What can I say about Torquatus, unless something comes from Dolabella? And the moment it does, you will all know at once. I was expecting his couriers today, or tomorrow at the very latest; and the moment they arrive, they will be sent on to you. I am waiting to hear from Quintus, for as I was setting out from Tusculum on the eighth day before the Kalends, as you know, I sent couriers to him.
Now, to come back to the point: that 'inhibere' ["to hold back, check"] of yours, which had pleased me greatly, now thoroughly displeases me. For it is an entirely nautical term. I did, to be sure, know this, but I supposed that the oars were kept steady when the rowers were ordered to 'inhibere.' That this is not the case I learned yesterday, when a ship was being brought to land at our villa. For they do not hold the oars steady, but row in a different way. And that is the furthest thing from epoche [a Greek philosophical term, transliterated, meaning "suspension of judgment"]. For this reason you will arrange that it stand in the book just as it was. You will say this same thing to Varro, in case he has perhaps changed it. And there is nothing better than that line of Lucilius: 'that you check the chariot, as a good driver often does, and the horses.' And Carneades always makes the boxer's guard and the charioteer's reining-in similar to epoche. But the 'inhibitio' [holding-in] of the rowers involves motion, and indeed a rather vigorous one, of rowing that turns the ship toward its stern. You see how much more carefully I attend to these matters than to the gossip or to Pollio.
About Pansa, too, if there is anything more definite (for I believe it has been made public); about Critonius, if there is anything; and at any rate about Metellus and Balbinus.
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
ad Hirtium dederam epistulam sane grandem quam scripseram proxime in Tusculano. huic quam tu mihi misisti rescribam alias. [2] nunc alia malo. quid possum de Torquato, nisi aliquid a Dolabella? quod simul ac, continuo scietis. exspectabam hodie aut summum cras 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. [3] 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 e)poxh=? remotissimum est. qua re facies ut ita sit in libro quem ad modum fuit. dices hoc idem Varroni, si forte mutavit. nec est melius quicquam quam ut Lucilius, 'sustineas currum ut bonus saepe agitator equosque.' semperque Carneades probolh\n pugilis et retentionem aurigae similem facit e)poxh=? . inhibitio autem remigum motum habet et vehementiorem quidem remigationis navem convertentis ad puppim. vides quanto haec diligentius curem quam aut de rumore aut de Pollione. [3] de Pansa etiam si quid certius (credo enim palam factum esse), de Critonio, si quid esset certe ne de Metello et Balbino.