Cicero · Marcus Tullius Cicero
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Intellexi ex tuis litteris te ex Turranio audisse a me provinciam fratri traditam. Adeon ego non perspexeram prudentiam litterarum tuarum? Ἐπέχειν te scribebas. Quid erat dubitatione dignum, si esset quicquam, cur placeret fratrem et talem fratrem relinqui? Ἀθέτησις ista mihi tua, non ἐποχὴ videbatur. Monebas de Q. Cicerone puero, ut eum quidem neutiquam relinquerem. Τοὐμὸν ὄνειρον ἐμοί. Eadem omnia, quasi conlocuti essemus, vidimus. Non fuit faciendum aliter, meque ἐπιχρονία ἐποχὴ tua dubitatione liberavit. Sed puto te accepisse de hac re epistulam scriptam accuratius. and you thought that it was nothing serious and that he had gathered as much from your people. This view seemed to be supported by a remark at the end of your letter that at the time of writing you had a touch of fever. However I was greatly surprised and pleased at your writing to me in your own hand under the circumstances. So I will say no more. For I hope considering your careful and temperate life—and to be sure Acastus bids me be confident—that you are now as well as I could wish. I am glad you got my letter from Turranius. Keep a very strict eye, as you love me, on the untimely designs of that cooker of accounts Philotimus. As to this legacy from Precius, which is a great sorrow to me—for I loved him indeed—don’t let the fellow lay a finger on it, small as it is. You will say that I want money for the outfit of my triumph. You shall see that following your advice I will not show foolish vanity in seeking a triumph, nor be phlegmatic enough to refuse it.
I gather from your letter that you heard from Turranius I had given over my province to my brother. Do you imagine that I overlooked the cautious tone of your letter? You wrote that you were doubtful. There could have been no reason for doubts, if there had been grounds for leaving a brother and such a brother in charge. I took your doubts for dogmatic rejection. You warn me on no account to leave the young Quintus. Your words repeat my dream. The same vision came to us both, as though we had talked it over. There was nothing else to be done, and your long doubt has relieved me of hesitation. But I fancy you must have already got a letter on this topic written in more detail. Ego tabellarios postero die ad vos eram missurus; quos puto ante ventures quam nostrum Saufeium. Sed eum sine meis litteris ad te venire vix rectum erat. Tu mihi, ut polliceris, de Tulliola mea, id est de Dolabella, perscribes, de re publica, quam praevideo in summis periculis, de censoribus, maximeque de signis, tabulis quid fiat, referaturne. Idibus Octobribus has dedi litteras, quo die, ut scribis, Caesar Placentiam legiones IIII. Quaeso, quid nobis futurum est? In arce Athenis statio mea nunc placet.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.