Marcus Tullius Cicero→Marcus Tullius Tiro|c. 47 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Patrae|AI-assisted
From your letter I hope that you are better, and I certainly wish it; do you take pains to attend to this end by every means, and beware of supposing that you are acting against my wish because you are not with me: you are with me, if you take care of yourself; and so I would rather have you serve your own health than my eyes and ears; for although I both hear you and see you gladly, yet this will be far more pleasant if you are well. I am idle here, because I myself write nothing, but I read most gladly; you there, if the copyists do not understand anything in my hand, will point it out to them: one passage altogether is more difficult, with an insertion, which not even I myself am accustomed to read easily, concerning four-year-old Cato. As for the dining-room, see to it, as you are doing: Tertia will be present, only provided that Publius has not been invited. That Demetrius of yours was never at all a Phalereus, but now he is plainly a Billienus; and so I make you his deputy: you shall keep an eye on him; and yet -- ; but nevertheless concerning those matters -- : you know the rest. But still, if you have had any conversation with him, you will write to me, so that a subject for a letter may arise for me and so that I may read your letter as long as possible. Take care, my Tiro, that you keep well: you can do nothing more pleasing to me than this. Farewell.
XXII. Scr. a.u.c. 708. TULLIUS TIRONI SUO SAL.
Spero ex tuis litteris tibi melius esse, cupio certe; cui quidem rei omni ratione cura ut inservias et cave suspiceris contra meam voluntatem te facere, quod non sis mecum: mecum es, si te curas; quare malo te valetudini tuae servire quam meis oculis et auribus; etsi enim et audio te et video libenter, tamen hoc multo erit, si valebis, iucundius. Ego hic cesso, quia ipse nihil scribo, lego autem libentissime; tu istic, si quid librarii mea manu non intelligent, monstrabis: una omnino interposito difficilior est, quam ne ipse quidem facile legere soleo, de quadrimo Catone. De triclinio cura, ut facis: Tertia aderit, modo ne Publius rogatus sit. Demetrius iste numquam omnino Phalereus fuit, sed nunc plane Billienus est; itaque te do vicarium: tu eum observabis; etsi—; verumtamen de illis—: nosti cetera. Sed tamen, si quem cum eo sermonem habueris, scribes ad me, ut mihi nascatur epistulae argumentum et ut tuas quam longissimas litteras legam. Cura, mi Tiro, ut valeas: hoc gratius mihi facere nihil potes. Vale.
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From your letter I hope that you are better, and I certainly wish it; do you take pains to attend to this end by every means, and beware of supposing that you are acting against my wish because you are not with me: you are with me, if you take care of yourself; and so I would rather have you serve your own health than my eyes and ears; for although I both hear you and see you gladly, yet this will be far more pleasant if you are well. I am idle here, because I myself write nothing, but I read most gladly; you there, if the copyists do not understand anything in my hand, will point it out to them: one passage altogether is more difficult, with an insertion, which not even I myself am accustomed to read easily, concerning four-year-old Cato. As for the dining-room, see to it, as you are doing: Tertia will be present, only provided that Publius has not been invited. That Demetrius of yours was never at all a Phalereus, but now he is plainly a Billienus; and so I make you his deputy: you shall keep an eye on him; and yet -- ; but nevertheless concerning those matters -- : you know the rest. But still, if you have had any conversation with him, you will write to me, so that a subject for a letter may arise for me and so that I may read your letter as long as possible. Take care, my Tiro, that you keep well: you can do nothing more pleasing to me than this. Farewell.
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
XXII. Scr. a.u.c. 708. TULLIUS TIRONI SUO SAL.
Spero ex tuis litteris tibi melius esse, cupio certe; cui quidem rei omni ratione cura ut inservias et cave suspiceris contra meam voluntatem te facere, quod non sis mecum: mecum es, si te curas; quare malo te valetudini tuae servire quam meis oculis et auribus; etsi enim et audio te et video libenter, tamen hoc multo erit, si valebis, iucundius. Ego hic cesso, quia ipse nihil scribo, lego autem libentissime; tu istic, si quid librarii mea manu non intelligent, monstrabis: una omnino interposito difficilior est, quam ne ipse quidem facile legere soleo, de quadrimo Catone. De triclinio cura, ut facis: Tertia aderit, modo ne Publius rogatus sit. Demetrius iste numquam omnino Phalereus fuit, sed nunc plane Billienus est; itaque te do vicarium: tu eum observabis; etsi—; verumtamen de illis—: nosti cetera. Sed tamen, si quem cum eo sermonem habueris, scribes ad me, ut mihi nascatur epistulae argumentum et ut tuas quam longissimas litteras legam. Cura, mi Tiro, ut valeas: hoc gratius mihi facere nihil potes. Vale.