Letter 302

You have done quite right about the aqueduct. Make sure whether I owe any pillar-tax at all. However, I think I heard from Camillus that the law had been changed. What better answer can we give Piso than that Cato's guardians are away? It was not only from the heirs of Herennius that he borrowed, but, as you know (for you were acting with me), from young Lucullus: and that money was taken in Achaia by his guardian. That is another point that has to be considered. But Piso is behaving generously, as he says he will not do anything voluntatem. Coram igitur, ut scribis, constituemus, quem ad modum rem explicemus. Quod reliquos coheredes convenisti, plane bene. Quod epistulam meam ad Brutum poscis, non habeo eius exemplum; sed tamen salvum est, et ait Tiro te habere oportere, et, ut recordor, una cum illius obiurgatoria tibi meam quoque, quam ad eum rescripseram, misi. Iudiciali molestia ut caream, videbis. The Tuditanus you mention, great-grandfather of Hortensius, I had never heard of, and I thought it was the son who was the ambassador, though he could not have been at the time. I take it as certain that Mummius was at Corinth. For Spurius, who died lately, often used to recite to me letters Mummius wrote to his friends from Corinth in clever verse. But I have no doubt he was a special legate to his brother, not among the ten ambassadors. Here is another point too that I have been taught, that it was not the custom of our ancestors to appoint among the ten ambassadors anyone who was related to the generals, as we in ignorance of, or rather in contempt for, the soundest institutions did in sending M. Lucullus and L. Murena and others to L. Lucullus. But it was most natural that he should be among the first of his brother's legates. What a lot of work you get through, attending to points like this, managing my affairs and bestowing nearly as much care on your own affairs as on mine!

Sp. Mummium putaram in decem legatis fuisse sed videlicet (etenim eu)/logon ) fratri fuisse. fuit enim ad Corinthum. misi tibi Torquatum. conloquere tu quidem cum Silio, ut scribis, et urge. illam diem negabat esse mense Maio, istam non negabat. sed tu ut omnia istuc quoque ages diligenter. de Crispo et mustela scilicet quom quid egeris. [2] quoniam ad Bruti adventum fore te nobiscum polliceris, satis est, praesertim cum hi tibi dies in magno nostro negotio consumantur.