If I did not have many strong personal reasons for friendship with you, I would go back to the beginning of the friendship between our fathers. I think that is what people should do when they have not themselves maintained an inherited friendship by any services of their own.
So I will be content with our own friendship. Relying on it, I ask you to protect me in my absence in whatever matters require it, if you believe that no service of yours will ever fade from my memory. Farewell.
DCXCVIII (Fam. VI, 16) AULUS POMPEIUS BITHYNICUS TO CICERO (AT ROME) SICILY (MARCH) If I had not personally many valid causes for friendship with you, I would have referred to the origin of that friendship which began with our fathers. But that is, I think, only to be done by those who have not kept up a paternal friendship by any good offices themselves. I shall be content therefore with our own personal friendship, in reliance on which I beg you to protect me in my absence, with the assurance that no kindness on your part will ever fade from my mind. Good-bye.
XVI. Scr. anno incerto (710, post Id. Mart.?) BITHYNICUS CICERONI SAL
Si mihi tecum non et multae et iustae causae amicitiae privatim essent, repeterm initia amicitiae ex parentibus nostris, quod faciendum iis existimo, qui paternam amicitiam nullis ipsi officiis prosecuti sunt: itaque contentus ero nostra ipsorum amicitia, cuius fiducia peto a te, ut absentem me, quibuscumque in rebus opus fuerit, tueare, si nullum officium tuum apud me intermoriturum existimas. Vale.
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If I did not have many strong personal reasons for friendship with you, I would go back to the beginning of the friendship between our fathers. I think that is what people should do when they have not themselves maintained an inherited friendship by any services of their own.
So I will be content with our own friendship. Relying on it, I ask you to protect me in my absence in whatever matters require it, if you believe that no service of yours will ever fade from my memory. Farewell.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
XVI. Scr. anno incerto (710, post Id. Mart.?) BITHYNICUS CICERONI SAL
Si mihi tecum non et multae et iustae causae amicitiae privatim essent, repeterm initia amicitiae ex parentibus nostris, quod faciendum iis existimo, qui paternam amicitiam nullis ipsi officiis prosecuti sunt: itaque contentus ero nostra ipsorum amicitia, cuius fiducia peto a te, ut absentem me, quibuscumque in rebus opus fuerit, tueare, si nullum officium tuum apud me intermoriturum existimas. Vale.