This is Cicero's reply to a short, hasty letter written to him on a tablet (codicillus) by his brother Quintus. Instead of a short, hasty response, Cicero takes this time to send some news to his brother.
Written in the month of February AUC 700 (54 B.C.E.)
Marcus to his brother Quintus, Greetings:
(I) With an outcry your tablets demanded this letter; for certainly the matter itself and this day, on which you have set out, gave me no reason to write back; but, just as when we are in each other's presence speech is not absent for us, in the same way our letters ought to ramble from time to time.
(II) Therefore, [in other news,] the liberty of Tenedos was beheaded by its own political axe, since no one defended them besides Bibulus, Callidus, Favonius, and I; an honorable mention of you has been made by the Magnesians of Sipylus, when they said that you alone had resisted the demands of Lucius Sestius Pasa (an unknown person). On the remaining days [in the senate about this business], if there is anything which you may need to know, or also if there is nothing, I will write something everyday regardless; the day before the Ides (the 12th) I will not fail you nor Pompanius (Atticus of the first letter I posted).
(III) The poems of Lucretius are as you write: with many flashes of ingenuity, but also of great learning; but, when you come, I will think you a hero and not a [mere] man, if you read the Empedoclea of Sallustius.
No comments:
Post a Comment