Marcus Tullius Cicero→Marcus Tullius Tiro|c. 47 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Patrae|AI-assisted
Andricus came to me a day later than I expected, and so I spent a night full of fear and misery. Your letter made me no more certain about how you are doing, but even so it refreshed me.
I am cut off from every pleasure and from all my writing; I cannot touch any of it before I have seen you. Order the doctor to be promised whatever fee he asks. I have written to Ummidius about that.
I hear that your mind is anxious, and that the doctor says this is what is keeping you ill. If you care for me, wake up your learning and your cultivated spirit, the very qualities that make you dearest to me. Now you need to be strong in mind so that you can be strong in body. I ask you to do this both for your sake and for mine.
Keep Acastus with you, so that you can be looked after more conveniently. Preserve yourself for me. The day for my promise is near, and I will even bring it forward if you come.
Again and again, goodbye.
Andricus arrived a day later than I expected him, and accordingly I had a night of terror and unhappiness. Your letter does not make me at all more certain of your state, and yet it did revive me. I can take pleasure in nothing; can employ myself in no literary work, which I cannot touch till I have seen you. Give orders to promise the doctor any fee he chooses to ask. I wrote to that effect to Ummidius. I am told that your mind is ill at ease, and that the doctor says this is what makes you ill. If you care for me, rouse from their sleep your studies and your culture, which make you the dearest object of my affection. It is your mind that requires strengthening now, in order that your body may also recover. Pray do it both for your own and my sake. Keep Acastus with you to help to nurse you. Preserve yourself for me. The day for the fulfilment of my promise is at hand, and I will be true to it, if you only come. Good-bye, good-bye! 11 April, noon.
XIV. Scr. a.u.c. 700. TULLIUS TIRONI SAL.
Andricus postridie ad me venit, quam exspectaram; itaque habui noctem plenam timoris ac miseriae. Tuis litteris nihilo sum factus certior, quomodo te haberes, sed tamen sum recreatus. Ego omni delectatione litterisque omnibus careo, quas ante, quam te videro, attingere non possum. Medico mercedis quantum poscet promitti iubeto: id scripsi ad Ummium. Audio te animo angi et medicum dicere ex eo te laborare: si me diligis, excita ex somno tuas litteras humanitatemque, propter quam mihi es carissimus; nunc opus est te animo valere, ut corpore possis: id quum tua, tum mea causa facias, a te peto. Acastum retine, quo commodius tibi ministretur. Conserva te mihi: dies promissorum adest, quem etiam repraesentabo, si adveneris. Etiam atque etiam vale. III Idus h. VI.
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Andricus came to me a day later than I expected, and so I spent a night full of fear and misery. Your letter made me no more certain about how you are doing, but even so it refreshed me.
I am cut off from every pleasure and from all my writing; I cannot touch any of it before I have seen you. Order the doctor to be promised whatever fee he asks. I have written to Ummidius about that.
I hear that your mind is anxious, and that the doctor says this is what is keeping you ill. If you care for me, wake up your learning and your cultivated spirit, the very qualities that make you dearest to me. Now you need to be strong in mind so that you can be strong in body. I ask you to do this both for your sake and for mine.
Keep Acastus with you, so that you can be looked after more conveniently. Preserve yourself for me. The day for my promise is near, and I will even bring it forward if you come.
Again and again, goodbye.
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
XIV. Scr. a.u.c. 700. TULLIUS TIRONI SAL.
Andricus postridie ad me venit, quam exspectaram; itaque habui noctem plenam timoris ac miseriae. Tuis litteris nihilo sum factus certior, quomodo te haberes, sed tamen sum recreatus. Ego omni delectatione litterisque omnibus careo, quas ante, quam te videro, attingere non possum. Medico mercedis quantum poscet promitti iubeto: id scripsi ad Ummium. Audio te animo angi et medicum dicere ex eo te laborare: si me diligis, excita ex somno tuas litteras humanitatemque, propter quam mihi es carissimus; nunc opus est te animo valere, ut corpore possis: id quum tua, tum mea causa facias, a te peto. Acastum retine, quo commodius tibi ministretur. Conserva te mihi: dies promissorum adest, quem etiam repraesentabo, si adveneris. Etiam atque etiam vale. III Idus h. VI.