Marcus Tullius Cicero→Titus Pomponius Atticus|c. 66 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Rome/Athens|AI-assisted
When I was at my place at Tusculum (this shall serve you in place of your own "When I was in the Ceramicus")—but in any case, while I was there, a slave-boy sent from Rome by your sister handed me a letter brought from you, and reported that on that very day, after midday, the man would be setting out who was making the journey to you. The result of this was that I write back something in reply to your letter, but, owing to the shortness of time, am forced to write only thus little. First, I promise you that our friend will be appeased, or even fully restored to favor. Although I was already doing this of my own accord before, I shall nevertheless now both act the more zealously and press the matter with him the more vigorously, because from your letter I seem to perceive how earnestly you desire it. I want you to understand this, that he has been very seriously offended; but, since I see no grave cause underlying it, I am thoroughly confident that he will keep to his duty and remain in our power. As for my statues and the Hermeraclae [herm-busts combining Hermes and Heracles], please, as you write, ship them when you most conveniently can, and any other object suitable to that place you well know of that you may find, and especially whatever shall seem to you appropriate to a wrestling-school and gymnasium. For I was sitting there when I wrote this to you, so that the very place put me in mind of it. Besides this, I commission you for some reliefs which I may set into the stucco of the little entrance hall, and two figured well-heads. Take care not to pledge your library to anyone, however keen a lover of books you may find; for I am reserving all my little vintage-gleanings to provide that resource for my old age. About your brother, I am confident matters stand as I have always wished and labored for. There are many signs of this, not the least being that your sister is pregnant. As for my election, I remember that I left the matter to you, and I have long since been declaring this to our mutual friends, who are expecting you, that I am not only not summoning you to me, but am even forbidding you to come, because I understand it to be much more to your interest that you do what must be done at this time, than to mine that you be present at my election. Accordingly I should like you to be of such a mind as if you had been sent to those parts on business of my own; and you shall both find me toward you, and hear it said of me, as if whatever shall have been gained were gained not only in your presence but through you. Tulliola sends you greetings, and calls me to account as her surety.
When I was in my house at Tusculum—that’s tit for tat against your “When I was in Ceramicus”—but when I really was there, your sister sent a man from Rome with a letter from you, and told me that some one was going to start for Greece that very afternoon. So for lack of time I must make a very short answer to your letter.
First I promise to patch up the quarrel between you and our friend, even if I cannot quite make peace. I should have done it before of my own accord: but now that I see from your note that you have set your heart on it, I’ll give my mind to it and try harder than ever to win him over. I would have you to know that he is very seriously annoyed with you: but, as I cannot see any serious ground for his annoyance, I hope I shall find him pliable and amenable to my influence.
Please do as you say about the statues and the Hermeraclae: and have them shipped as soon as you can conveniently, and any other things you come across that are suitable for the place—you know what it is like—especially for the Palaestra and Gymnasium. That’s where I am sitting and writing now, so my thoughts naturally run on it. I give you a commission too for bas-reliefs for insertion in the stucco walls of the hall, and for two well-covers in carved relief. Be sure you don’t promise your library to anyone, however ardent a suitor you may find for it. I am saving up all my little gleanings to buy it as a prop for my old age.
My brother’s affairs are, I trust, as I have always wished them to be and striven to make them. Everything points that way, and not the least that your sister is enceinte. As for my election, I’ve not forgotten that I gave you leave to stop away: and I’ve already warned our common friends, who expect you to come, that I’ve not only forborne to ask you to do so, but even forbidden it, knowing that present business is of much more importance to you than your presence at my election would be to me. I should like you to feel exactly as though it were my business which
had taken you away. And you will find and hear from others that my feelings towards you are just as they would be if my success, supposing I have any, were gained not only with you here, but by your aid.
My little Tullia is for having the law of you, and is dunning me as your representative.
Cum essem in Tusculano (erit hoc tibi pro illo tuo: "Cum essem in Ceramico ") verum tamen cum ibi essem, Roma puer a sorore tua missus epistulam mihi abs te adlatam dedit nuntiavitque eo ipso die post meridiem iturum eum, qui ad te proficisceretur. Eo factum est, ut epistulae tuae rescriberem aliquid, brevitate temporis tam pauca cogerer scribere. Primum tibi de nostro amico placando aut etiam plane restituendo polliceor. Quod ego etsi mea sponte ante faciebam, eo nunc tamen et agam studiosius et contendam ab illo vehementius, quod tantum ex epistula voluntatem eius rei tuam perspicere videor. Hoc te intellegere volo, pergraviter illum esse oftensum; sed, quia nullam video gravem subesse causam, magno opere confido illum fore in officio et in nostra potestate. Signa nostra et Hermeraclas, ut scribis, cum commodissime poteris, velim imponas, et si quod aliud oikeion eius loci, quem non ignoras, reperies, et maxime quae tibi palaestrae gymnasiique videbuntur esse. Etenim ibi sedens haec ad te scribebam, ut me locus ipse admoneret. Praeterea t tibi mando, quos in tectorio atrioli possim includere, et putealia sigillata duo. Bibliothecam tuam cave cuiquam des pondeas, quamvis acrem amatorem inveneris; nam ego omnes meas vindemiolas eo reservo, ut illud subsidium senectuti parem. De fratre confido ita esse, ut semper volui et elaboravi. Multa signa sunt eius rei, non minimum, quod soror praegnans est. De comitiis meis et tibi me permisisse memini, et ego iam pridem hoc communibus amicis, qui te exspectant, praedico, te non modo non arcessi a me, sed prohiberi, quod intellegam multo magis interesse tua te agere, quod agendum est hoc tempore, quam mea te adesse comitiis. Proinde eo animo te velim esse, quasi mei negotii causa in ista loca missus esses; me autem eum et offendes erga te et audies, quasi mihi, si quae parta erunt, non modo te praesente, sed per te parta sint. Tulliola tibi dicm dat, sponsorem me appellat.
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When I was at my place at Tusculum (this shall serve you in place of your own "When I was in the Ceramicus")—but in any case, while I was there, a slave-boy sent from Rome by your sister handed me a letter brought from you, and reported that on that very day, after midday, the man would be setting out who was making the journey to you. The result of this was that I write back something in reply to your letter, but, owing to the shortness of time, am forced to write only thus little. First, I promise you that our friend will be appeased, or even fully restored to favor. Although I was already doing this of my own accord before, I shall nevertheless now both act the more zealously and press the matter with him the more vigorously, because from your letter I seem to perceive how earnestly you desire it. I want you to understand this, that he has been very seriously offended; but, since I see no grave cause underlying it, I am thoroughly confident that he will keep to his duty and remain in our power. As for my statues and the Hermeraclae [herm-busts combining Hermes and Heracles], please, as you write, ship them when you most conveniently can, and any other object suitable to that place you well know of that you may find, and especially whatever shall seem to you appropriate to a wrestling-school and gymnasium. For I was sitting there when I wrote this to you, so that the very place put me in mind of it. Besides this, I commission you for some reliefs which I may set into the stucco of the little entrance hall, and two figured well-heads. Take care not to pledge your library to anyone, however keen a lover of books you may find; for I am reserving all my little vintage-gleanings to provide that resource for my old age. About your brother, I am confident matters stand as I have always wished and labored for. There are many signs of this, not the least being that your sister is pregnant. As for my election, I remember that I left the matter to you, and I have long since been declaring this to our mutual friends, who are expecting you, that I am not only not summoning you to me, but am even forbidding you to come, because I understand it to be much more to your interest that you do what must be done at this time, than to mine that you be present at my election. Accordingly I should like you to be of such a mind as if you had been sent to those parts on business of my own; and you shall both find me toward you, and hear it said of me, as if whatever shall have been gained were gained not only in your presence but through you. Tulliola sends you greetings, and calls me to account as her surety.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Cum essem in Tusculano (erit hoc tibi pro illo tuo: "Cum essem in Ceramico ") verum tamen cum ibi essem, Roma puer a sorore tua missus epistulam mihi abs te adlatam dedit nuntiavitque eo ipso die post meridiem iturum eum, qui ad te proficisceretur. Eo factum est, ut epistulae tuae rescriberem aliquid, brevitate temporis tam pauca cogerer scribere. Primum tibi de nostro amico placando aut etiam plane restituendo polliceor. Quod ego etsi mea sponte ante faciebam, eo nunc tamen et agam studiosius et contendam ab illo vehementius, quod tantum ex epistula voluntatem eius rei tuam perspicere videor. Hoc te intellegere volo, pergraviter illum esse oftensum; sed, quia nullam video gravem subesse causam, magno opere confido illum fore in officio et in nostra potestate. Signa nostra et Hermeraclas, ut scribis, cum commodissime poteris, velim imponas, et si quod aliud oikeion eius loci, quem non ignoras, reperies, et maxime quae tibi palaestrae gymnasiique videbuntur esse. Etenim ibi sedens haec ad te scribebam, ut me locus ipse admoneret. Praeterea t tibi mando, quos in tectorio atrioli possim includere, et putealia sigillata duo. Bibliothecam tuam cave cuiquam des pondeas, quamvis acrem amatorem inveneris; nam ego omnes meas vindemiolas eo reservo, ut illud subsidium senectuti parem. De fratre confido ita esse, ut semper volui et elaboravi. Multa signa sunt eius rei, non minimum, quod soror praegnans est. De comitiis meis et tibi me permisisse memini, et ego iam pridem hoc communibus amicis, qui te exspectant, praedico, te non modo non arcessi a me, sed prohiberi, quod intellegam multo magis interesse tua te agere, quod agendum est hoc tempore, quam mea te adesse comitiis. Proinde eo animo te velim esse, quasi mei negotii causa in ista loca missus esses; me autem eum et offendes erga te et audies, quasi mihi, si quae parta erunt, non modo te praesente, sed per te parta sint. Tulliola tibi dicm dat, sponsorem me appellat.