Letter 342

What a delightful letter of yours! (Even if the procession was a bitter business. Yet still it is no bitter thing to know everything, even about Cotta.) But what a splendid people, that on account of a hateful neighbor not even Victory is applauded! Brutus has been with me; and he very much approved of my writing something to Caesar. I had nodded my assent; but the procession puts me off. [2] And yet you actually dared to give it to Varro! I am waiting to hear what he makes of it. But when will he ever finish reading it through? About Attica I approve. There is something, too, in having one's spirits lifted, both by the spectacle and also by the belief in religious observance and by the reputation of it. [3] I should like you to send me my Cotta; I have Libo with me, and earlier I had Casca. Brutus reported to me, in the words of Titus Ligarius, that there is a mistake of mine, in that L. Corfidius is named in the speech for Ligarius. But, as they say, it is a mnemonikon hamartema [a slip of memory]. I knew that Corfidius was a very close friend of the Ligarii; but I now see that he died beforehand. So please give the task to Pharnaces, Antaeus, and Salvius, that this name be removed from all the copies.

Pollex, having arranged to meet me on the 13th of August, has done so at Lanuvium on the 12th: but he is a mere thumb, and not a pointing finger. So you must get your news from him himself. I have met Balbus: for Lepta, being anxious about the contract for the shows, took me to him. Well, he was in the place at Lanuvium, which he made over to Lepidus: and the first thing he said to me was, "I have just had a letter in which Caesar definitely asserts that he will be here before the Roman games." I read the letter. It dilated on my Cato, and he said that by reading it frequently he had increased his flow of language, and, when he read Brutus' Cato, he began to think himself eloquent. I learned from him that the formal acceptance of Cluvius' legacy was an unconditional acceptance within sixty days before witnesses. How careless of Vestorius not to tell me! I was afraid I should have to send for him: but now I must commission him to accept at my orders. So this same Pollex can take the message. I discussed Cluvius' gardens with Balbus too, and he was most obliging. For he said he would write to Caesar at once, but that Cluvius had subtracted from Hordeonius' legacy some £500 for Terentia, the cost of his tomb and a lot of other things, but nothing from my share. Please remonstrate with Vestorius. It is surely most out of place for Plotius the perfumer to send his own special messengers with full particulars to Balbus so long in advance, while Vestorius does not send me news even by my messengers. I am sorry about Cossinius; I was fond of him. I will make over to Quintus anything that may be left after paying my debts and making purchases, for which I am afraid I shall incur more debt. About the house at Arpinum I know nothing. There is no necessity to grumble at Vestorius, for to-night, after I had sealed this letter, my messenger came bringing a letter full of details and a copy of the will.

suavis tuas litteras! (etsi acerba pompa. verum tamen scire omnia non acerbum est, vel de Cotta) populum vero praeclarum quod propter malum vicinum ne victoriae quidem ploditur! Brutus apud me fuit; quoi quidem valde placebat me aliquid ad Caesarem. adnueram; sed pompa deterret. [2] tu tamen ausus es Varroni dare! exspecto quid iudicet. quando autem pelleget? de Attica probo. est quiddam etiam animum levari cum spectatione tum etiam religionis opinione et fama. [3] Cottam mi velim mittas; Libonem mecum habeo et habueram ante Cascam. Brutus mihi T. Ligari verbis nuntiavit, quod appelletur L. Corfidius in oratione Ligariana, erratum esse meum. sed, ut aiunt, mnhmoniko\n a(ma/rthma . sciebam Corfidium pernecessarium Ligariorum; sed eum video ante esse mortuum. da igitur, quaeso, negotium Pharnaci, Antaeo, Salvio ut id nomen ex omnibus libris tollatur.