The Letters of Cicero Part 3

[Footnote 23: Pomponia, married to Cicero's younger brother Quintus. We shall frequently hear of this unfortunate marriage. Quintus was four years younger than his brother, who had apparently arranged the match, and felt therefore perhaps somewhat responsible for the result (Nep.

_Att._ 5).]

[Footnote 24: Atticus had estates and a villa near Buthrotum in Epirus,--_Butrinto_ in Albania, opposite Corfu.]

[Footnote 25: This is probably s.e.xt. Peducaeus the younger, an intimate friend of Atticus (Nep. _Att._ 21); his father had been praetor in Sicily when Cicero was quaestor (B.C. 76-75), the son was afterwards a partisan of Caesar in the Civil War, governor of Sardinia, B.C. 48, and propraetor in Spain, B.C. 39.]

[Footnote 26: The person alluded to is L. Lucceius, of whom we shall hear again. See Letters V, VII, VIII, CVIII. What his quarrel with Atticus was about, we do not know.]

[Footnote 27: Prescriptive right to property was acquired by possession (_usus_) of two years. But no such right could be acquired to the property of a girl under guardians.h.i.+p (_pro Flacco_, -- 84).]

II (A I, 6)

TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

ROME, DECEMBER

[Sidenote: B.C. 68, aeT. 38]

I won't give you any excuse hereafter for accusing me of neglecting to write. It is you that must take care that with all your leisure you keep up with me.

Rabirius's house at Naples,[28]for the improvement of which you have designs drawn out and completed in imagination, has been bought by M.

Fonteius[29] for 130,000 sesterces (about 1,040). I wished you to know this in case you were still hankering after it.

We may be quite satisfied, I think, with my brother's feelings towards Pomponia. He is with her at present in his villa at Arpinum, and has Decimus Turanius with him, who is great in _belles lettres_.

The date of my father's death was the 28th of November.

That is about all my news. If you light on any articles of _vertu_ suitable for a gymnasium, which would look well in the place you wot of,[30] please don't let them slip. I am so delighted with my Tusculan villa that I never feel really happy till I get there. Let me know exactly what you are doing and intending to do about everything.

[Footnote 28: C. Rabirius, whom Cicero defended in B.C. 63, when prosecuted by Caesar for his share in the murder of Saturninus (B.C.

100). He lived, we know, in Campania, for his neighbours came to give evidence in his favour at the trial.]

[Footnote 29: M. Fonteius made a fortune in the province of Gaul beyond the Alps, of which he was propraetor, B.C. 77-74. In B.C. 69 he had been accused of malversation, and defended by Cicero. After his acquittal he seems to be buying a seaside residence in Campania, as so many of the men of fas.h.i.+on did.]

[Footnote 30: Cicero's "gymnasium" was some arrangement of buildings and plantations more or less on the model of the Greek gymnasia, at his Tusculan villa.]

III (A I, 7)

TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

ROME, DECEMBER

[Sidenote: B.C. 68, aeT. 38]

All's well at your mother's,[31] and I keep an eye on her. I have undertaken to pay L. Cincius 20,400 sesterces[32] to your credit on the Ides of February. Pray see that I receive at the earliest possible opportunity what you say in your letters that you have bought and secured for me. I should also be very much obliged if you would, as you promised, think over the means of securing the library for me. My hope of getting the one enjoyment which I care for, when I come to retire, depends entirely on your kindness.

[Footnote 31: The mother of Atticus lived to be ninety, dying in B.C.

33, not long before Atticus himself, who at her funeral declared that "he had never been reconciled to her, for he had never had a word of dispute with her" (Nep. _Att._ 17).]

[Footnote 32: This sum (about 163) is for the works of art purchased for the writer by Atticus.]

IV (A I, 9)

[Sidenote: B.C. 67. Coss., C. Calpurnius Piso, M. Acilius Glabrio.]

The year of Cicero's election to the praetors.h.i.+p. It is the year also of Pompey's great commission by the _lex Gabinia_ against the Pirates. But Cicero does not seem as yet much concerned with "foreign politics."

TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

ROME

[Sidenote: B.C. 67, aeT. 39]

I get letters from you far too seldom considering that you can much more easily find people starting for Rome than I to Athens: considering, too, that you are more certain of my being at Rome than I of your being at Athens. For instance, it is owing to this uncertainty on my part that this very letter is somewhat short, because not being sure as to where you are, I don't choose my confidential talk to fall into strange hands.

The Megaric statues and the Hermae, which you mentioned in your letters, I am waiting for impatiently. Anything you have of the same kind which may strike you as worthy of my "Academia," do not hesitate to send, and have complete confidence in my money-chest. My present delight is to pick up anything particularly suitable to a "gymnasium." Lentulus promises the use of his s.h.i.+ps. I beg you to be zealous in these matters.

Thyillus begs you (and I also at his request) to get him some writings of the Eumolpidae.[33]

V (A I, 8)

TO ATTICUS (AT ATHENS)

ROME

[Sidenote: B.C. 67, aeT. 39]

All well at your house. Your mother and sister are regarded with affection by me and my brother Quintus. I have spoken to Acutilius. He says that he has not heard from his agent, and professes surprise that you should make any difficulty of his having refused to guarantee you against farther demands. As to the business of Tadius, the announcement in your letter that you have settled the matter out of court I saw gratified and pleased him very much. That friend of mine[34]--a most excellent man, upon my honour, and most warmly attached to me--is very angry with you. If I could but know how much you care about it, I should be able to decide how much trouble I am to take in the matter. I have paid L. Cincius the 20,400 sesterces for the Megaric statues in accordance with your letter to me. As to your Hermae of Pentelic marble with bronze heads, about which you wrote to me--I have fallen in love with them on the spot. So pray send both them and the statues, and anything else that may appear to you to suit the place you wot of, my pa.s.sion, and your taste--as large a supply and as early as possible.

Above all, anything you think appropriate to a gymnasium and terrace. I have such a pa.s.sion for things of this sort that while I expect a.s.sistance from you, I must expect something like rebuke from others. If Lentulus has no vessel there, put them on board anyone you please. My pet Tulliola claims your present and duns me as your security. I am resolved, however, to disown the obligation rather than pay up for you.

[Footnote 33: Thyillus (sometimes written Chilius), a Greek poet living at Rome. See Letters XVI and XXI. The Eumolpidae were a family of priests at Athens who had charge of the temple of Demeter at Eleusis. The p?t??a ????p?d?? (the phrase used by Cicero here) may be either books of ritual or records such as priests usually kept: p?t??a is an appropriate word for such rituals or records handed down by priests of one race or family.]

[Footnote 34: Lucceius, as in the first letter and the next.]