Marcus Tullius Cicero→Titus Pomponius Atticus|c. 45 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Rome/Athens|AI-assisted
"After the news from you, Agamemnon" - not "that I should come" (for I would have done that too, had Torquatus not been here), but that I should write - "reached my ears, at once" I dropped what I was doing; I threw aside the work I had in hand, and hammered out the piece you had ordered. [The opening adapts lines of a tragedy, casting Atticus as the messenger from Agamemnon.] I should like you to learn from Pollex how our household budget stands. For it is a disgrace to us that he - whatever his merits - should be short of funds in this his first year. Afterward we shall manage things more carefully. The same Pollex is to be sent back.
TO ATTICUS, GREETINGS. Lepidus sent me a letter yesterday evening from Antium - for he was there. He has, in fact, the house we sold. He earnestly asks that I be in the Senate on the Kalends; he says that by doing so I shall greatly oblige both himself and Caesar. For my part I think it amounts to nothing. For Oppius would perhaps have told you something, since Balbus is ill. But all the same I preferred to come for no purpose rather than to be missed, if it should matter. I should be annoyed about it afterward. And so today at Antium, tomorrow before midday at home. I should like you, unless you have committed yourself otherwise, to be at my house on the day before the Kalends, along with Pilia.
[2] I hope you have settled matters with Publilius. For my part, on the Kalends I shall hurry back to my place at Tusculum; I prefer that everything with those people be transacted in my absence. I have sent you my brother Quintus's letter - one which replies to mine in a manner not quite gracious, to be sure, but still enough to satisfy you, as I at least judge. You will see for yourself.
First health to Attica (who I suppose is now in the country, so I wish her a full return to health) and to Pilia too. Let me know about Tigellius, if there is any news. According to a letter of Fadius Gallus, he is very down on me most unjustly for deserting Phamea, when I had undertaken his
case. It went against the grain with me to take it at all against the sons of Cn. Octavius; but for Phamea's sake I agreed. For, if you remember, when I was standing for the consulship, he sent a promise of any assistance he could render through you; and I appreciated it as much as if I had used it. He came to me and said the judge had undertaken to hear his case on the very same day that the jury were bound by the Pompeian law to settle that of our friend Sestius. For you know the days of those cases have been fixed by law. I answered that he could not but be aware of my obligations to Sestius. If he would choose any other day, I would not fail him. So then he left me in a temper. I think I told you about it. I did not bother myself about it of course, not thinking that a perfectly unwarrantable fit of anger of a stranger concerned me. However I told Gallus the next time I was in town what I had heard, without mentioning young Balbus. Gallus took the matter up, as he tells me. He says Tigellius asserts that I suspect him because of my bad conscience about my desertion of Phamea. Accordingly I commission you to find out what you can from young Balbus, but not to bother your head about me. It is quite a good thing to have somebody to hate with a will, and not to pander to everybody any more than to be asleep for everybody. Though upon my word, as you know, Caesar's party are obsequious to me more than I to them, if attention is obsequiousness.
'postea quam abs te, Agamemno,' non 'ut venirem' (nam id quoque fecissem nisi Torquatus esset) sed ut scriberem 'tetigit auris nuntius, extemplo' instituta omisi; ea quae in manibus habebam abieci, quod iusseras edolavi. tu velim e Pollice cognoscas rationes nostras sumptuarias. turpe est enim nobis illum, qualiscumque est, hoc primo anno egere. post moderabimur diligentius. idem Pollex remittendus ATTICO SAL. Lepidus ad me heri vesperi litteras misit Antio. nam ibi erat. habet enim domum quam nos vendidimus. rogat magno opere ut sim Kal. in senatu; me et sibi et Caesari vehementer gratum esse facturum. puto equidem nihil esse. dixisset enim tibi fortasse aliquid Oppius, quoniam Balbus est aeger. sed tamen malui venire frustra quam desiderari, si opus esset. moleste ferrem postea. itaque hodie Anti cras ante meridiem domi. tu velim, nisi te impedivisti, apud nos pr. Kal. cum Pilia. [2] te spero cum Publilio confecisse. equidem Kal. in Tusculanum recurram; me enim absente omnia cum illis transigi malo. Quinti fratris epistulam ad te misi non satis humane illam quidem respondentem meis litteris sed tamen quod tibi satis sit, ut equidem existimo. tu videbis.
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"After the news from you, Agamemnon" - not "that I should come" (for I would have done that too, had Torquatus not been here), but that I should write - "reached my ears, at once" I dropped what I was doing; I threw aside the work I had in hand, and hammered out the piece you had ordered. [The opening adapts lines of a tragedy, casting Atticus as the messenger from Agamemnon.] I should like you to learn from Pollex how our household budget stands. For it is a disgrace to us that he - whatever his merits - should be short of funds in this his first year. Afterward we shall manage things more carefully. The same Pollex is to be sent back.
TO ATTICUS, GREETINGS. Lepidus sent me a letter yesterday evening from Antium - for he was there. He has, in fact, the house we sold. He earnestly asks that I be in the Senate on the Kalends; he says that by doing so I shall greatly oblige both himself and Caesar. For my part I think it amounts to nothing. For Oppius would perhaps have told you something, since Balbus is ill. But all the same I preferred to come for no purpose rather than to be missed, if it should matter. I should be annoyed about it afterward. And so today at Antium, tomorrow before midday at home. I should like you, unless you have committed yourself otherwise, to be at my house on the day before the Kalends, along with Pilia.
[2] I hope you have settled matters with Publilius. For my part, on the Kalends I shall hurry back to my place at Tusculum; I prefer that everything with those people be transacted in my absence. I have sent you my brother Quintus's letter - one which replies to mine in a manner not quite gracious, to be sure, but still enough to satisfy you, as I at least judge. You will see for yourself.
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
'postea quam abs te, Agamemno,' non 'ut venirem' (nam id quoque fecissem nisi Torquatus esset) sed ut scriberem 'tetigit auris nuntius, extemplo' instituta omisi; ea quae in manibus habebam abieci, quod iusseras edolavi. tu velim e Pollice cognoscas rationes nostras sumptuarias. turpe est enim nobis illum, qualiscumque est, hoc primo anno egere. post moderabimur diligentius. idem Pollex remittendus ATTICO SAL. Lepidus ad me heri vesperi litteras misit Antio. nam ibi erat. habet enim domum quam nos vendidimus. rogat magno opere ut sim Kal. in senatu; me et sibi et Caesari vehementer gratum esse facturum. puto equidem nihil esse. dixisset enim tibi fortasse aliquid Oppius, quoniam Balbus est aeger. sed tamen malui venire frustra quam desiderari, si opus esset. moleste ferrem postea. itaque hodie Anti cras ante meridiem domi. tu velim, nisi te impedivisti, apud nos pr. Kal. cum Pilia. [2] te spero cum Publilio confecisse. equidem Kal. in Tusculanum recurram; me enim absente omnia cum illis transigi malo. Quinti fratris epistulam ad te misi non satis humane illam quidem respondentem meis litteris sed tamen quod tibi satis sit, ut equidem existimo. tu videbis.