Marcus Tullius Cicero→Marcus Caelius Rufus|c. 50 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Rome|AI-assisted
I am on very close terms with Marcus Fabius, an excellent man and a most learned one, and I love him wonderfully, both for his remarkable talent and learning and for his exceptional modesty.
I want you to take up his business as if it were my own. I know you great advocates: a man apparently has to commit murder if he wants to use your services. But for this man I accept no excuse. If you love me, you will leave everything else when Fabius wants your help.
I am eagerly waiting and longing for Roman news, and above all I want to know what you are doing. Because of the severity of winter, no new information has reached us for a long time.
CCXLIV (Fam. II, 14) TO M. CAELIUS RUFUS (AT ROME) LAODICEA (FEBRUARY) I am very intimate with M. Fadius , a most excellent man and most accomplished scholar, and I am wonderfully attached to him, as well for his great talents and consummate learning, as for the singular modesty of his behaviour. Pray take up his business as though it were my own. I know you distinguished advocates: one must commit a murder if one wishes the benefit of your services: but in the case of this man I will accept no excuse. You will throw up every other engagement, if you love me, when Fadius desires your services. I am eagerly looking out and longing for news from Rome , and before all I desire to know how you are: for, owing to the severity of the winter, it is now a long time since any news found its way to us.
XIV. M. CICERO IMP. S. D. M. CAELIO AEDILI CURULI Laodiceae; med. Mart.(?) 50
M. Fabio, viro optimo et homine doctissimo, familiarissime utor mirificeque eum diligo cum propter summum ingenium eius summamque doctrinam tum propter singularem modestiam. Eius negotium sic velim suscipias ut si esset res mea. Novi ego vos magnos patronos; hominem occidat oportet qui vestra opera uti velit. Sed in hoc homine nullam accipio excusationem. Omnia relinques, si me amabis, cum tua opera Fabius uti volet. Ego res Romanas vehementer exspecto et desidero, in primisque quid agas scire cupio. Nam iam diu propter hiemis magnitudinem nihil novi ad nos adferebatur.
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I am on very close terms with Marcus Fabius, an excellent man and a most learned one, and I love him wonderfully, both for his remarkable talent and learning and for his exceptional modesty.
I want you to take up his business as if it were my own. I know you great advocates: a man apparently has to commit murder if he wants to use your services. But for this man I accept no excuse. If you love me, you will leave everything else when Fabius wants your help.
I am eagerly waiting and longing for Roman news, and above all I want to know what you are doing. Because of the severity of winter, no new information has reached us for a long time.
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
XIV. M. CICERO IMP. S. D. M. CAELIO AEDILI CURULI Laodiceae; med. Mart.(?) 50
M. Fabio, viro optimo et homine doctissimo, familiarissime utor mirificeque eum diligo cum propter summum ingenium eius summamque doctrinam tum propter singularem modestiam. Eius negotium sic velim suscipias ut si esset res mea. Novi ego vos magnos patronos; hominem occidat oportet qui vestra opera uti velit. Sed in hoc homine nullam accipio excusationem. Omnia relinques, si me amabis, cum tua opera Fabius uti volet. Ego res Romanas vehementer exspecto et desidero, in primisque quid agas scire cupio. Nam iam diu propter hiemis magnitudinem nihil novi ad nos adferebatur.