Marcus Tullius Cicero→Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus|c. 43 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Mutina|AI-assisted
While I was waiting day after day for a letter from you, our friend Lupus suddenly told me to write to you if I had anything I wanted to say.
But I had nothing to write. I knew the official records were being sent to you, and I had heard that empty letter-chatter was unpleasant to you. So I followed brevity, with you as my teacher.
Know this, then: all our hope is in you and your colleague. About Marcus Brutus, we still have nothing certain. As you instruct me, I do not stop calling him by private letters to the common war. If only he were already here. We would fear less the internal sickness of the city, which is not slight.
But what am I doing? I am not imitating your Spartan brevity. A second little page is already beginning.
Win, and farewell.
June 18.
DCCCXCVIII (Fam. XI, 25) TO DECIMUS BRUTUS (AT CULARO?) ROME, 10 JUNE: As I was waiting day after day for a letter from you, our friend Lupus suddenly gave me notice to write to you if I wanted to say anything. But I, though I had nothing to say — for I knew the gazette was being sent to you, and I was also told that the chatter of a letter with nothing in it was disagreeable to you — have aimed at brevity, following your teaching. Be it known to you then that our every hope rests on you and your colleague. As to M. Brutus we have as yet nothing certain: but I never stop calling on him in my confidential correspondence to come and take his share in the war in which we are all engaged. Would to heaven he were already here! We should have less reason to fear the danger within the city, which is really serious. But what am I doing? I am not imitating your laconic style; I am already beginning a second page of paper. Victory and health to you! 18 June.
XXV. Scr. Romae XIIII. Kal. Quinctiles a.u.c. 711. M. CICERO S. D. D. BRUTO.
Exspectanti mihi tuas quotidie litteras Lupus noster subito denuntiavit, ut ad te scriberem, si quid vellem. Ego autem, etsi, quid scriberem, non habebam—acta enim ad te mitti sciebam, inanem autem sermonem litterarum tibi iniucundum esse audiebam—, brevitatem secutus sum te magistro. Scito igitur in te et in collega spem omnem esse. De Bruto autem nihil adhuc certi; quem ego, quemadmodum praecipis, privatis litteris ad bellum commune vocare non desino: qui utinam iam adesset! intestinum urbis malum, quod est non mediocre, minus timeremus. Sed quid ago? non imitor laxvnismÚn tuum: altera iam pagella procedit. Vince et vale. XIIII. K. Quinctil.
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While I was waiting day after day for a letter from you, our friend Lupus suddenly told me to write to you if I had anything I wanted to say.
But I had nothing to write. I knew the official records were being sent to you, and I had heard that empty letter-chatter was unpleasant to you. So I followed brevity, with you as my teacher.
Know this, then: all our hope is in you and your colleague. About Marcus Brutus, we still have nothing certain. As you instruct me, I do not stop calling him by private letters to the common war. If only he were already here. We would fear less the internal sickness of the city, which is not slight.
But what am I doing? I am not imitating your Spartan brevity. A second little page is already beginning.
Win, and farewell.
June 18.
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
XXV. Scr. Romae XIIII. Kal. Quinctiles a.u.c. 711. M. CICERO S. D. D. BRUTO.
Exspectanti mihi tuas quotidie litteras Lupus noster subito denuntiavit, ut ad te scriberem, si quid vellem. Ego autem, etsi, quid scriberem, non habebam—acta enim ad te mitti sciebam, inanem autem sermonem litterarum tibi iniucundum esse audiebam—, brevitatem secutus sum te magistro. Scito igitur in te et in collega spem omnem esse. De Bruto autem nihil adhuc certi; quem ego, quemadmodum praecipis, privatis litteris ad bellum commune vocare non desino: qui utinam iam adesset! intestinum urbis malum, quod est non mediocre, minus timeremus. Sed quid ago? non imitor laxvnismÚn tuum: altera iam pagella procedit. Vince et vale. XIIII. K. Quinctil.