part I

don't want a large income now and can be contented with little. I think at times of buying some gardens across the Tiber, especially for this reason: I don't see any other place that can be so much frequented. But what gardens, we will consider together; provided only that the shrine must be completed this summer. However settle with Apella of Chios about the columns.

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De Cocceio et Libone quae scribis, approbo, maxime quod de iudicatu meo. De sponsu si quid perspexeris, et tamen quid procuratores Cornifici dicant, velim scire, ita ut in ea re te, cum tam occupatus sis, non multum operae velim ponere. De Antonio Balbus quoque ad me cum Oppio conscripsit, idque tibi placuisse, ne perturbarer. Illis egi gratias. Te tamen, ut iam ante ad te scripsi, scire volo me neque isto nuntio esse perturbatum nec iam ullo perturbatum iri. Pansa si hodie, ut putabas, profectus est, posthac iam incipito scribere ad me, de Bruti adventu quid exspectes, id est quos ad dies. Id, si scies, ubi iam sit, facile coniectura adsequere.

Quod ad Tironem de Terentia scribis, obsecro te, mi Attice, suscipe totum negotium. Vides et officium agi meum quoddam, cui tu es conscius, et, ut non nulli putant, Ciceronis rem. Me quidem id multo magis movet, quod mihi est et sanctius et antiquius, praesertim cum hoc alterum neque sincerum neque firmum putem fore.

XX

CICERO ATTICO SAL.

[Sidenote: _Scr. Asturae Id. Mart. a. 709_]

Nondum videris perspicere, quam me nec Antonius commoverit, nec quicquam iam eius modi possit commovere. De Terentia autem scripsi ad te eis litteris, quas dederam pridie. Quod me hortaris idque a ceteris desiderari scribis, ut dissimulem me tam

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What you say about Cocceius and Libo I approve, especially as regards my serving on juries. If you have ascertained anything about my guarantee, I should like to know, and anyhow, what Cornificius' agents say, though I don't want you to take much trouble about the matter, when you are so busy. About Antony, Balbus and Oppius too have written to me saying you wished them to write, to save me from anxiety. I have thanked them. I should wish you to know however, as I have said before, that I was not disturbed at that news and shall never be disturbed at any again. If Pansa has set out to-day, as you thought, henceforth begin to tell me in your letters what you expect about Brutus' return, I mean about what day. That you can easily guess, if you know where he is at the time of writing.

As regards your letter to Tiro about Terentia, I beg you, Atticus, to undertake the whole matter. You see there is a question of my duty concerned, and you know all about that: besides, some think there is my son's interest. With me it is the first point that weighs most, as being the more sacred and the more important: especially as I don't think she is either sincere or reliable about the second.

XX

CICERO TO ATTICUS, GREETING.

[Sidenote: _Astura, March 15_, B.C. _45_]

You don't seem yet to see how little Antony disturbed me nor how little anything of that kind ever can disturb me now. About Terentia I wrote to you in the letter I sent yesterday. You exhort me and you say others want me to hide the depth of

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graviter dolere, possumne magis, quam quod totos dies consume in litteris? Quod etsi non dissimulationis, sed potius leniendi et sanandi animi causa facio, tamen, si mihi minus proficio, simulationi certe facio satis.

Minus multa ad te scripsi, quod exspectabam tuas litteras ad eas, quas pridie dederam. Exspectabam autem maxime de fano, non nihil etiam de Terentia. Velim me facias certiorem proximis litteris, Cn. Caepio, Serviliae Claudi pater, vivone patre suo naufragio perierit an mortuo, item Rutilia vivone C. Cotta, filio suo, mortua sit an mortuo. Pertinent ad eum librum, quem de luctu minuendo scripsimus.

XXI

CICERO ATTICO SAL.

[Sidenote: _Scr. Asturae XVI K. Apr. a. 709_]

Legi Bruti epistulam eamque tibi remisi sane non prudenter rescriptam ad ea, quae requisieras. Sed ipse viderit. Quamquam illud turpiter ignorat. Catonem primum sententiam putat de animadversione dixisse, quam omnes ante dixerant praeter Caesarem, et, cum ipsius Caesaris tam severa fuerit, qui tum praetorio loco dixerit, consularium putat leniores fuisse, Catuli, Servili, Lucullorum, Curionis, Torquati, Lepidi, Gelli, Volcaci, Figuli, Cottae, L. Caesaris, C. Pisonis, M'. Glabrionis, etiam Silani, Murenae, designatorum consulum. Cur ergo in sententiam Catonis? Quia verbis luculentioribus et pluribus rem eandem comprehenderat. Me autem hic laudat, quod rettulerim,

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my grief. Can I do so better than by spending all my days in writing? Though I do it, not to hide, but rather to soften and to heal my feelings, still, if I do myself but little good, I certainly keep up appearances.

My letter is shorter than it might be, because I am expecting your answer to mine of yesterday. I am most anxious about the shrine and a little about Terentia too. Please let me know in your next letter whether Cn. Caepio, father of Claudius' wife Servilia, perished by shipwreck during his father's life or after his death, and whether Rutilia died before or after her son C. Cotta.[59] They concern the