Marcus Tullius Cicero→Unknown|c. -49 AD|Cicero|AI-assisted
I no longer urge or ask you to come home; rather I myself wish to fly from here and arrive somewhere "where I may hear neither the name nor the deeds of the Pelopidae." It is incredible how shameful everything I am involved in seems to me. You evidently foresaw long in advance what was threatening, when you fled from here. Although these things are bitter even to hear of, yet it is more tolerable to hear them than to see them. You were certainly not in the Campus when, at the second hour, after the quaestorian elections had been set up, the chair of Quintus Maximus, whom they called consul, was placed there. When his death was reported, the chair was removed. But the man who had taken the auspices for a tribal assembly then held a centuriate one, and at the seventh hour announced a consul who was to serve until the Kalends of January, which were to fall on the next morning. So you should know that in Caninius's consulship nobody ate lunch. Nothing bad happened during his consulship, however; for he was of such marvelous vigilance that during his entire consulship he never saw sleep. You find these things amusing; for you are not here. If you could see them, you could not hold back your tears. What if I should write the rest? For there are countless things of the same kind, which indeed I could not bear if I had not taken refuge in the port of philosophy and if I did not have our friend Atticus as the companion of my studies. Since you write that you belong to him by full title and mortgage, but to me by use and profit, I am content with that; for what is truly one's own is what one enjoys and uses. But more of this another time. Acilius, who has been sent to Greece with legions, owes me the greatest obligation -- for I defended him twice on a capital charge when his affairs were still intact -- and he is not an ungrateful man and respects me greatly. I have written to him about you most carefully and enclosed that letter with this one. I would like you to write and tell me how he received it and what he promised you.
XXX. Scr. Romae ineunte mense Ianuario a.u.c. 710. CICERO CURIO S. D.
Ego vero iam te nec hortor nec rogo, ut domum redeas; quin hinc ipse evolare cupio et aliquo pervenire, "ubi nec Pelopidarum nomen nec facta audiam." Incredibile est, quam turpiter mihi facere videar, qui his rebus intersim: ne tu videris multo ante providisse, quid impenderet, tum, cum hinc profugisti. Quamquam haec etiam auditu acerba sunt, tamen audire tolerabilius est quam videre. In campo certe non fuisti, cum hora secunda comitiis quaestoriis institutis sella Q. Maximi, quem illi consulem esse dicebant, posita est, quo mortuo nuntiato sella ablata est, ille autem, qui comitiis tributis esset auspicatus, centuriata habuit, consulem hora septima renuntiavit, qui usque ad Kalendas Ian. esset, quae erant futurae mane postridie: ita Caninio consule scito neminem prandisse; nihil tamen eo consule mali factum est; fuit enim mirifica vigilantia, qui suo toto consulatu somnum non viderit. Haec tibi ridicula videntur; non enim ades; quae si videres, lacrimas non teneres. Quid, si cetera scribam? sunt enim innumerabilia generis eiusdem, quae quidem ego non ferrem, nisi me in philosophiae portum contulissem et nisi haberem socium studiorum meorum Atticum nostrum; cuius quoniam proprium te esse scribis mancipio et nexo, meum autem usu et fructu, contentus isto sum; id enim est cuiusque proprium, quo quisque fruitur atque utitur. Sed haec alias pluribus. Acilius, qui in Graeciam cum legionibus missus est, maximo meo beneficio est—bis enim est a me iudicio capitis rebus salvis defensus—, et est homo non ingratus meque vehementer observat: ad eum de te diligentissime scripsi eamque epistulam cum hac epistula coniunxi, quam ille quomodo acceperit et quid tibi pollicitus sit, velim ad me scribas.
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I no longer urge or ask you to come home; rather I myself wish to fly from here and arrive somewhere "where I may hear neither the name nor the deeds of the Pelopidae." It is incredible how shameful everything I am involved in seems to me. You evidently foresaw long in advance what was threatening, when you fled from here. Although these things are bitter even to hear of, yet it is more tolerable to hear them than to see them. You were certainly not in the Campus when, at the second hour, after the quaestorian elections had been set up, the chair of Quintus Maximus, whom they called consul, was placed there. When his death was reported, the chair was removed. But the man who had taken the auspices for a tribal assembly then held a centuriate one, and at the seventh hour announced a consul who was to serve until the Kalends of January, which were to fall on the next morning. So you should know that in Caninius's consulship nobody ate lunch. Nothing bad happened during his consulship, however; for he was of such marvelous vigilance that during his entire consulship he never saw sleep. You find these things amusing; for you are not here. If you could see them, you could not hold back your tears. What if I should write the rest? For there are countless things of the same kind, which indeed I could not bear if I had not taken refuge in the port of philosophy and if I did not have our friend Atticus as the companion of my studies. Since you write that you belong to him by full title and mortgage, but to me by use and profit, I am content with that; for what is truly one's own is what one enjoys and uses. But more of this another time. Acilius, who has been sent to Greece with legions, owes me the greatest obligation -- for I defended him twice on a capital charge when his affairs were still intact -- and he is not an ungrateful man and respects me greatly. I have written to him about you most carefully and enclosed that letter with this one. I would like you to write and tell me how he received it and what he promised you.
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
XXX. Scr. Romae ineunte mense Ianuario a.u.c. 710. CICERO CURIO S. D.
Ego vero iam te nec hortor nec rogo, ut domum redeas; quin hinc ipse evolare cupio et aliquo pervenire, "ubi nec Pelopidarum nomen nec facta audiam." Incredibile est, quam turpiter mihi facere videar, qui his rebus intersim: ne tu videris multo ante providisse, quid impenderet, tum, cum hinc profugisti. Quamquam haec etiam auditu acerba sunt, tamen audire tolerabilius est quam videre. In campo certe non fuisti, cum hora secunda comitiis quaestoriis institutis sella Q. Maximi, quem illi consulem esse dicebant, posita est, quo mortuo nuntiato sella ablata est, ille autem, qui comitiis tributis esset auspicatus, centuriata habuit, consulem hora septima renuntiavit, qui usque ad Kalendas Ian. esset, quae erant futurae mane postridie: ita Caninio consule scito neminem prandisse; nihil tamen eo consule mali factum est; fuit enim mirifica vigilantia, qui suo toto consulatu somnum non viderit. Haec tibi ridicula videntur; non enim ades; quae si videres, lacrimas non teneres. Quid, si cetera scribam? sunt enim innumerabilia generis eiusdem, quae quidem ego non ferrem, nisi me in philosophiae portum contulissem et nisi haberem socium studiorum meorum Atticum nostrum; cuius quoniam proprium te esse scribis mancipio et nexo, meum autem usu et fructu, contentus isto sum; id enim est cuiusque proprium, quo quisque fruitur atque utitur. Sed haec alias pluribus. Acilius, qui in Graeciam cum legionibus missus est, maximo meo beneficio est—bis enim est a me iudicio capitis rebus salvis defensus—, et est homo non ingratus meque vehementer observat: ad eum de te diligentissime scripsi eamque epistulam cum hac epistula coniunxi, quam ille quomodo acceperit et quid tibi pollicitus sit, velim ad me scribas.