Cicero · Marcus Tullius Cicero
CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.
Sed ut ad rem, scripsi ad quaestores urbanos de Quinti fratris negotio. Vide, quid narrent, ecquae spes sit denarii, an cistophoro Pompeiano iaceamus. Praeterea de muro statue quid faciendum sit. Aliud quid? Etiam. Quando te proficisci istinc putes, fac ut sciam. rather than in Rome. You have been wiser in your generation and made a home for yourself at Buthrotum: but you may take my word for it that this township of Antium runs your borough very close. To think of there being a place so near Rome, where there are lots of people who have never seen Vatinius, where there is not a single soul save myself who cares whether any of our new commissioners are alive or dead, where no one intrudes upon me, though every one is fond of me. This, this is the very place for me to play the politician: for there in Rome, besides being shut out of politics, I am sick of them. So I will compose a private memoir, which I will read only to you, in the style of Theopompus, or even a still bitterer vein. My only policy now is hatred of the radicals: and that without rancour, indeed with some pleasure in expressing it. But to return to business, I have written to the city quaestors about my brother Quintus’ affairs. See what they have to say, and whether there is any hope of our getting current coin, or whether we must put up with Pompey’s pice.[61] Also decide what is to be done with the wall. Is there anything else I meant to say? Yes. Let me know when you think of going away. Footnote 61: The _cistophorus_ was an Asiatic coin, of which Pompey had deposited a large quantity in the treasury. Apparently there was some idea of using them for paying Quintus during his proconsulship.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.