Marcus Tullius Cicero→Titus Pomponius Atticus|c. -60 AD|Cicero|AI-assisted
What great expectation you stir in me about your conversation with Bibulus, what great expectation about your talk with the ox-eyed one, what great expectation even about that exquisite dinner party! So make sure you come to my thirsting ears. And yet I think there is nothing we should fear more now than that our friend Sampsiceramus, when he realizes he is being thrashed in everyone's gossip and when he sees that these measures can be overturned, may begin to run wild. For my part, I have become so enfeebled that I would rather endure this tyranny in the leisure in which we now waste away than fight even with the best hope of success.
As for writing, about which you so frequently urge me — nothing can be done. I have a basilica, not a villa, such is the throng of Formians. But I pass over the common crowd; after the fourth hour the rest are no longer a nuisance. Gaius Arrius is my nearest neighbor — indeed he is practically my housemate by now — who even says he will not go to Rome so that he can philosophize here with me all day long. And look, on the other side there is Sebosus, that familiar of Catulus. Where am I to turn? I would go straight to Arpinum, by Hercules, if I did not see that the most convenient place to await you was at Formiae, at least until the day before the Nones of May. For you see what sort of men my ears have been given over to. What a splendid opportunity, if anyone should now wish to buy my Formian estate from me while these fellows are at my house! And yet should I approve the motto: "Let us undertake something great, requiring much thought and leisure"? But still, you will get your due from me, and no labor shall be spared.
You have aroused the liveliest curiosity in me as to your talk with
Bibulus and your conversation with Juno, and about that “fast” dinner
too. So remember my ears are thirsting for news, and come quickly.
However, the thing I am most afraid of at the present moment is that our
friend the Pasha may run amuck as soon as he realizes that every one is
railing at him and laying it on to him, and that these new measures are
quite easy to upset. For myself, however, I have grown so slack that I
should prefer to waste my life in my present ease under a despotism than
to take part in the struggle however bright the prospect of success. As
for the writing, for which you so incessantly clamour, it is impossible.
My house is so crowded with the townsfolk that it is a
atque imparem basilica tribui Aemiliae. Sed omitto vulgus; post
horam quartam molesti ceteri non sunt. C. Arrius proximus est vicinus,
immo ille quidem iam contubernalis, qui etiam se idcirco Romam ire
negat, ut hic mecum totos dies philosophetur. Ecce ex altera parte
Sebosus, ille Catuli familiaris. Quo me vertam? Statim mehercule Arpinum
irem, ni te in Formiano commodissime exspectari viderem dumtaxat ad pr.
Nonas Maias; vides enim, quibus hominibus aures sint deditae meae. O
occasionem mirificam, si qui nunc, dum hi apud me sunt, emere de me
fundum Formianum velit! Et tamen illud probem: “Magnum quid aggrediamur
et multae cogitationis atque otii”? Sed tamen satis fiet a nobis, neque
parcetur labori.
quantam tu mihi moves exspectationem de sermone Bibuli, quantam de colloquio boopidos, quantam etiam de illo delicato convivio! proinde ita fac venias ut ad sitientis auris. quamquam nihil est iam quod magis timendum nobis putem quam ne ille noster Sampsiceramus, quom se omnium sermonibus sentiet vapulare et quom has actiones euanatreptous videbit, ruere incipiat. ego autem usque eo sum enervatus ut hoc otio quo nunc tabescimus malim enturanneisthai quam cum optima spe dimicare. [2] de pangendo quod me crebro adhortaris, fieri nihil potest. basilicam habeo non villam frequentia Formianorum +ad quam partem basilicae tribum Aemiliam+. sed omitto vulgus; post horam quartam molesti ceteri non sunt. C. Arrius proximus est vicinus, immo ille quidem iam contubernalis, qui etiam se idcirco Romam ire negat ut hic mecum totos dies philosophetur. ecce ex altera parte Sebosus, ille Catuli familiaris. quo me vertam? statim me hercule Arpinum irem, ni te in Formiano commodissime exspectari viderem dumtaxat ad pr. Nonas Maias; vides enim quibus hominibus aures sint deditae meae. <O> occasionem mirificam, si qui nunc dum hi apud me sunt emere de me fundum Formianum velit! et tamen illud probem: 'Magnum quid adgrediamur et multae cogitationis atque oti'? sed tamen satis fiet a nobis neque parcetur labori.
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What great expectation you stir in me about your conversation with Bibulus, what great expectation about your talk with the ox-eyed one, what great expectation even about that exquisite dinner party! So make sure you come to my thirsting ears. And yet I think there is nothing we should fear more now than that our friend Sampsiceramus, when he realizes he is being thrashed in everyone's gossip and when he sees that these measures can be overturned, may begin to run wild. For my part, I have become so enfeebled that I would rather endure this tyranny in the leisure in which we now waste away than fight even with the best hope of success.
As for writing, about which you so frequently urge me — nothing can be done. I have a basilica, not a villa, such is the throng of Formians. But I pass over the common crowd; after the fourth hour the rest are no longer a nuisance. Gaius Arrius is my nearest neighbor — indeed he is practically my housemate by now — who even says he will not go to Rome so that he can philosophize here with me all day long. And look, on the other side there is Sebosus, that familiar of Catulus. Where am I to turn? I would go straight to Arpinum, by Hercules, if I did not see that the most convenient place to await you was at Formiae, at least until the day before the Nones of May. For you see what sort of men my ears have been given over to. What a splendid opportunity, if anyone should now wish to buy my Formian estate from me while these fellows are at my house! And yet should I approve the motto: "Let us undertake something great, requiring much thought and leisure"? But still, you will get your due from me, and no labor shall be spared.
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
quantam tu mihi moves exspectationem de sermone Bibuli, quantam de colloquio boopidos, quantam etiam de illo delicato convivio! proinde ita fac venias ut ad sitientis auris. quamquam nihil est iam quod magis timendum nobis putem quam ne ille noster Sampsiceramus, quom se omnium sermonibus sentiet vapulare et quom has actiones euanatreptous videbit, ruere incipiat. ego autem usque eo sum enervatus ut hoc otio quo nunc tabescimus malim enturanneisthai quam cum optima spe dimicare. [2] de pangendo quod me crebro adhortaris, fieri nihil potest. basilicam habeo non villam frequentia Formianorum +ad quam partem basilicae tribum Aemiliam+. sed omitto vulgus; post horam quartam molesti ceteri non sunt. C. Arrius proximus est vicinus, immo ille quidem iam contubernalis, qui etiam se idcirco Romam ire negat ut hic mecum totos dies philosophetur. ecce ex altera parte Sebosus, ille Catuli familiaris. quo me vertam? statim me hercule Arpinum irem, ni te in Formiano commodissime exspectari viderem dumtaxat ad pr. Nonas Maias; vides enim quibus hominibus aures sint deditae meae. <O> occasionem mirificam, si qui nunc dum hi apud me sunt emere de me fundum Formianum velit! et tamen illud probem: 'Magnum quid adgrediamur et multae cogitationis atque oti'? sed tamen satis fiet a nobis neque parcetur labori.