Cicero · Marcus Tullius Cicero
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Now, though I suppose you have had all the news from your family or from messengers and rumour, I will give you a short account of everything I think you would rather learn from my letters. On the 4th of August, the very day the law about me was proposed, I started from Dyrrachium, and arrived at Brundisium on the 5th. There my little Tullia was waiting for me, on her own birthday, which; as it happened, was the commemoration day of Brundisium and of the temple of Safety near your house too. The coincidence was noticed and the people of Brundisium held great celebrations. On the 8th of August, while I was still at Brundisium, I heard from Quintus that the law had been passed in the Comitia Centuriata with extraordinary enthusiasm of all ages and ranks in Italy who had flocked to Rome in thousands. Then I started on my journey amid the rejoicings of all the loyal folk of Brundisium, and was met everywhere by deputations offering congratulations. When I came near the city, there was not a soul of any class known to my attendant,[108] who did not come to meet me, except those enemies who could neither hide nor deny their enmity. When I reached the Capenan Gate, the steps of the temples were thronged with the populace. Their joy was exhibited in loud applause: a similar crowd accompanied me with like applause to the Capitol, and in the Forum and on the very Capitol there was an extraordinary gathering.
Footnote 110: This the _Oratio cum senatui gratias egit_, and a few lines lower down he refers to another extant speech, the _Oratio cum populo gratias egit_. Messi non ferenda. Pompeius illam velle se dicit, familiares hanc. Consulares duce Favonio fremunt; nos tacemus et eo magis, quod de domo nostra nihil adhuc pontifices responderunt. Qui si sustulerint religionem, aream praeclaram habebimus; superficiem consules ex senatus consulto aestimabunt; sin aliter, demolientur, suo nomine locabunt, rem totam aestimabunt. Ita sunt res nostrae, “Ut in secundis fluxae, ut in advorsis bonae.” In re familiari valde sumus, ut scis, perturbati. Praeterea sunt quaedam domestica, quae litteris non committo. Quintum fratrem insigni pietate, virtute, fide praeditum sic amo, ut debeo. Te exspecto et oro, ut matures venire eoque animo venias, ut me tuo consilio egere non sinas. Alterius vitae quoddam initium ordimur. Iam quidam, qui nos absentes defenderunt, incipiunt praesentibus occulte irasci, aperte invidere. Vehementer te requirimus.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.