Letter 32

Owing to your having in familiar style, as you were quite entitled to do, dropped yawx pranomen in your letter to me, I was at first doubtful whether it did not come from Volum- nius the senator, with whom I am very intimate, but pre- sently the evTpaTreXia of the letter itself convinced me that it was yours.'^ In that letter I was delighted with everything except this : you are not shewing yourself a very energetic agent in maintaining my rights in my mines of (Attic) salt. For you say that, ever since my departure, everybody's dons mots, and among those even Sestius's/ are fathered on me. ' Pammenes, an Athenian rhetorician, of about the same age as Cicero, mentioned in OrcU. § 105, as a great admirer of Demosthenes. It does not seem certain that this is the same man. At any rate, whoever he was, he seems to have died, and his son to have had some difficulty in maintaining his right to his house, in which Cicero and Atticus had helped him. ^ twrpoTreXta, "gracious playfulness," suggesting his friend's cognomen Eutrapelus. •'' Though it cannot be proved, there is no reason why this may not refer to P. Sestius, Cicero s client of B.C. 56, and also the author of the speech which it gave Catullus a fit of the colic to read or hear read K VII, 32 TO p. VOLUMNIUS EUTRAPELUS 91 What ! do you allow that ? Don't you stand up for me? Don't you protest ? Why, I did hope that I had left my bons mots with such a clear stamp on them, that their style might be recognized at a glance. But as there is so much scum in the city, that nothing can be so graceless as not to seem graceful ^ to some one, do your best, an you love me, to maintain, on your solemn affidavit,^ that they are none of mine, unless sharp double meaning, subtle hyperbole, neat pun, laugh- able irapa TzpoaloKiav — unless everything else, in fact, which I set forth in the person of Antonius in my second book de Oratore^ shall appear en regie and really witty. For as to your complaints about the law courts I care much less. Let all the defendants, for what I care, go hang ! If Selius himself is eloquent enough to establish his freedom, I don't trouble myself. But my prerogative of wit, please let us defend by any amount of injunctions. In that department you are the only rival I fear : I don't think anything of the rest. Do you suppose I am laughing at you ? I never knew before that you were so sharp I But, by Hercules, joking apart, I did think your letter very witty and neatly turned. But those particular stories,* laughable as they in fact were, did not, all the same, make me laugh. For I am anxious that the friend to whom you refer should have as much weight as possible in his tribuneship, both for his own sake — for, as (Cat. 44). Though Cicero may have had every respect for him, he may also have thought poorly of his style of wit. Cicero's own faculty for wit- ticisms is often referred to, and at times got him into trouble, as in the camp of Pompey in B.C. 49-48 (2 Phil. § 30). For the poor style of Sestius's writing see Letter CCCXIV. ^ He uses two words, aicvOrjpov and venustum, which involve a play on words — "without Cytherea" and "Venus-like" — which cannot well be represented in English. * Sacramento, properly the deposit paid into court by the parties to a suit as security. ^ De Oratore, ii. § 235 seq., where, however, the speaker is not Antonius, but C. lulius Caesar Strabo Vopiscus. The de Oratore was composed in B.C. 55. * Ilia. Editors generally wish to insert some word here, such as Curionis or extrema, to make the meaning clear. But we must re- member that Cicero is answering a letter, and his correspondent would have no doubt of his meaning, though we are left to guess it. The next sentence shews that the reference is to Curio, of whose election Cicero therefore knows, which dates the letter as not earlier than December. See Letter CCXXV. 92 CICERO'S LETTERS B.C. 51, ^.T. 55 you know, he is a great favourite of mine — and also, by Hercules, for that of the Republic, which, however un- grateful to myself it may be, I shall never cease to love. You, however, my dear Volumnius, since you have begun doing so, and now see also that it gives me pleasure, write to me as often as possible about affairs in the city, about politics. I like the gossiping style of your letter. Farther- more, speak seriously to Dolabella, whom I see and believe to be very anxious for my regard, and to be most affectionately disposed towards me : encourage him in that disposition, and make him wholly mine ; not, by Hercules, that there is anything lacking in him, but as I am very much set upon it, I don't think I am shewing too much anxiety.