Marcus Tullius Cicero→Titus Pomponius Atticus|c. 46 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Rome/Athens|AI-assisted
I received two letters from you yesterday, one handed over the day before to Hilarus, the other on the same day by a courier. And on that same day I learned from the freedman Aegypta that Pilia and Attica are doing perfectly well. As for your sending me Brutus's letter, I am grateful. He sent one to me as well, which was delivered to me on the thirteenth day. That very letter I have sent on to you, along with a copy of my own reply to it.
[2] As for the shrine: if you find no gardens for me—and you really must find some, if you value me as highly as you certainly do—I thoroughly approve of your reasoning about the Tusculan place. However prudent you are in your deliberations, as indeed you are, still, unless it were a matter of great concern to you that I should obtain what I so earnestly desire, this idea could never have occurred to you so happily. But somehow or other I want a much-frequented spot; so you must secure the gardens for me. The greatest amount of traffic is at Scapula's property, and besides there is its nearness to wherever you may be, so that I should not have to spend the whole day at the villa. For that reason, before you leave, I should very much like you to meet with Otho, if he is in Rome. If there is nothing to be done there—though you are accustomed to put up with my foolishness—I shall nevertheless go so far as to make you cross. For Drusus certainly wants to sell. If, then, there is no other option, it will be my own fault if I do not buy. Please see to it that I do not slip up in this matter. The only way of providing for it is if we can do something about the Scapula property. And I should like you to inform me how long you are going to be at your place near the city.
[3] With Terentia we need your good offices as much as your authority. But you will act as seems best to you. For I know that, if anything is in my interest, it is usually of greater concern to you than to me.
As a postman arrived without any letter from you, I inferred the reason was what you mentioned yesterday in the letter I am answering. Still I
expected something about Asinius Pollio's letter. But I am too apt to reckon your leisure by my own. However I give you leave not to think yourself bound to write, except in case of necessity, unless you have plenty of leisure.
About the letter carriers I would do as you suggest, if there were any pressing letters, as there were lately. Then, however, the carriers kept up to their time every day, though the days were shorter, and we had something to write about, Silius, Drusus, and other things. Now, if Otho had not cropped up, there is nothing; and even that nothing has been deferred. However it cheers me to talk with you when we are not together, and still more to read your letters. But, as you are not at home (for I think you are not), and there is no necessity to write, let there be a truce to writing, unless some new point arises.
a te heri duas epistulas accepi, alteram pridie datam Hilaro, alteram eodem die tabellario, accepique ab Aegypta liberto eodem die Piliam et Atticam plane belle se habere. quod mihi Bruti litteras, gratum. ad me quoque misit; quae litterae mihi redditae sunt tertio decimo die. eam ipsam ad te epistulam misi et ad eam exemplum mearum litterarum. [2] de fano, si nihil mihi hortorum invenis, <qui> quidem tibi inveniendi sunt, si me tanti facis quanti certe facis, valde probo rationem tuam de Tusculano. quamvis prudens ad cogitandum sis, sicut es, tamen nisi magnae curae tibi esset ut ego consequerer id quod magno opere vellem, numquam ea res tibi tam belle in mentem venire potuisset. sed nescio quo pacto celebritatem requiro; itaque hortos mihi conficias necesse est. maxima est in Scapulae celebritas, propinquitas praeterea ubi sis, ne totum diem in villam qua re ante quam discedis, Othonem, si Romae est, convenias pervelim. si nihil erit, etsi tu meam stultitiam consuesti .ferre, eo tamen progrediar uti stomachere. Drusus enim certe vendere vult. si ergo aliud non erit, mea erit culpa nisi emero. qua in re ne labar, quaeso, provide. providendi autem una ratio est si quid de Scapulanis possumus. et velim me certiorem facias quam diu in suburbano sis futurus. [3] apud Terentiam <tam> gratia opus est nobis tua quam auctoritate. sed facies ut videbitur. scio enim si quid mea intersit tibi maiori curae solere esse quam mihi.
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I received two letters from you yesterday, one handed over the day before to Hilarus, the other on the same day by a courier. And on that same day I learned from the freedman Aegypta that Pilia and Attica are doing perfectly well. As for your sending me Brutus's letter, I am grateful. He sent one to me as well, which was delivered to me on the thirteenth day. That very letter I have sent on to you, along with a copy of my own reply to it.
[2] As for the shrine: if you find no gardens for me—and you really must find some, if you value me as highly as you certainly do—I thoroughly approve of your reasoning about the Tusculan place. However prudent you are in your deliberations, as indeed you are, still, unless it were a matter of great concern to you that I should obtain what I so earnestly desire, this idea could never have occurred to you so happily. But somehow or other I want a much-frequented spot; so you must secure the gardens for me. The greatest amount of traffic is at Scapula's property, and besides there is its nearness to wherever you may be, so that I should not have to spend the whole day at the villa. For that reason, before you leave, I should very much like you to meet with Otho, if he is in Rome. If there is nothing to be done there—though you are accustomed to put up with my foolishness—I shall nevertheless go so far as to make you cross. For Drusus certainly wants to sell. If, then, there is no other option, it will be my own fault if I do not buy. Please see to it that I do not slip up in this matter. The only way of providing for it is if we can do something about the Scapula property. And I should like you to inform me how long you are going to be at your place near the city.
[3] With Terentia we need your good offices as much as your authority. But you will act as seems best to you. For I know that, if anything is in my interest, it is usually of greater concern to you than to me.
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
a te heri duas epistulas accepi, alteram pridie datam Hilaro, alteram eodem die tabellario, accepique ab Aegypta liberto eodem die Piliam et Atticam plane belle se habere. quod mihi Bruti litteras, gratum. ad me quoque misit; quae litterae mihi redditae sunt tertio decimo die. eam ipsam ad te epistulam misi et ad eam exemplum mearum litterarum. [2] de fano, si nihil mihi hortorum invenis, <qui> quidem tibi inveniendi sunt, si me tanti facis quanti certe facis, valde probo rationem tuam de Tusculano. quamvis prudens ad cogitandum sis, sicut es, tamen nisi magnae curae tibi esset ut ego consequerer id quod magno opere vellem, numquam ea res tibi tam belle in mentem venire potuisset. sed nescio quo pacto celebritatem requiro; itaque hortos mihi conficias necesse est. maxima est in Scapulae celebritas, propinquitas praeterea ubi sis, ne totum diem in villam qua re ante quam discedis, Othonem, si Romae est, convenias pervelim. si nihil erit, etsi tu meam stultitiam consuesti .ferre, eo tamen progrediar uti stomachere. Drusus enim certe vendere vult. si ergo aliud non erit, mea erit culpa nisi emero. qua in re ne labar, quaeso, provide. providendi autem una ratio est si quid de Scapulanis possumus. et velim me certiorem facias quam diu in suburbano sis futurus. [3] apud Terentiam <tam> gratia opus est nobis tua quam auctoritate. sed facies ut videbitur. scio enim si quid mea intersit tibi maiori curae solere esse quam mihi.