Marcus Tullius Cicero→Titus Pomponius Atticus|c. 46 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Rome/Athens|AI-assisted
As for your thinking that the firmness of my mind ought now to be made plain, and your writing that certain people are speaking about me more harshly than either you write or Brutus does, supposing some people think I am broken in spirit and disabled, let them know what writings, and of what kind, I am producing. I believe that, provided they are human beings, they will judge either that, if I have so recovered as to bring an unencumbered mind to writing on difficult subjects, I am not to be reproached, or that, if I have chosen this means of straying away from grief, one that is most befitting a free man and most worthy of a learned person, I ought even to be praised.
[2] But while I am doing everything I am able to do to relieve myself, you must accomplish that thing which I see you are laboring over no less than I am. This I think I owe, and I cannot be relieved unless I pay it, or see that I can pay it -- that is, unless I find a place of the kind I want. If the heirs of Scapula intend, as you write Otho told you, to put up those gardens for sale divided into four lots, there is of course no opening for a buyer; but if they are to be sold whole, we shall see what can be done. For that Publician property which belongs to Trebonius and Cusinius was brought to my attention. But you know it is just a bare plot. I do not approve of it on any account. Clodia's certainly please me, but I do not think they are for sale. As for Drusus's gardens, although you shrink from them, as you write, I shall nevertheless take refuge there if you find nothing else. The building does not trouble me, for I shall build nothing except what I would build even if I do not get those gardens. As for the 'Cyrus' [a work by Antisthenes], it pleased me much as the rest of Antisthenes does -- a man more sharp-witted than learned.
I have never asked you to fix a regular day for your letters: for I see the point you mention, and yet I suspect or rather I know there was nothing for you to write. On the 10th indeed I think you were away, and I am quite aware you have no news. However I shall write to you nearly every day: for I prefer to send letters to no purpose rather than for you to have no messenger to give one to, if there should be anything you think I ought to know. So on the 10th I got your letter with nothing in it. For what was there for you to put in it? However, the little
there was, was pleasant to me: if nothing else, it taught me you had no news.
But you say something or other about Clodia. Where is she then or when is she coming? I prefer her grounds to anyone's except Otho's. But I don't think she will sell: she likes the place and has plenty of money: and how difficult the other thing is, you are well aware. But pray let us make an effort to think out some way of getting what I want.
I think of leaving here on the 16th; but either for Tusculum or for Rome, and then on perhaps to Arpinum. When I know for certain, I will write.
quod putas oportere pervideri iam animi mei firmitatem graviusque quosdam scribis de me loqui quam aut te scribere aut Brutum, si qui me fractum esse animo et debilitatum putant sciant quid litterarum et cuius generis conficiam, credo, si modo homines sint, existiment me, sive ita levatus sim ut animum vacuum ad res difficilis scribendas adferam, reprehendendum non esse, sive hanc aberrationem a dolore delegerim quae maxime liberalis sit doctoque homine dignissima, laudari me etiam oportere. [2] sed cum ego faciam omnia quae facere possim ad me adlevandum, tu effice id quod video te non minus quam me laborare. hoc mihi debere videor neque levari posse nisi solvero aut videro me posse solvere, id est locum qualem volo invenero. heredes Scapulae si istos hortos, ut scribis tibi Othonem dixisse, partibus quattuor factis liceri cogitant, nihil est scilicet emptori loci; sin venibunt, quid fieri possit videbimus. nam ille locus Publicianus qui est Treboni et Cusini erat ad me adlatus. sed scis aream esse. nullo pacto probo. Clodiae sane placent sed non puto esse venalis. de Drusi hortis, quamvis ab iis abhorreas, ut scribis, tamen eo confugiam nisi quid inveneris. aedificatio me non movet. nihil enim aliud aedificabo nisi id quod etiam si illos non habuero. Ku=roj d e mihi sic placuit ut cetera Antisthenis, hominis acuti magis quam eruditi.
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As for your thinking that the firmness of my mind ought now to be made plain, and your writing that certain people are speaking about me more harshly than either you write or Brutus does, supposing some people think I am broken in spirit and disabled, let them know what writings, and of what kind, I am producing. I believe that, provided they are human beings, they will judge either that, if I have so recovered as to bring an unencumbered mind to writing on difficult subjects, I am not to be reproached, or that, if I have chosen this means of straying away from grief, one that is most befitting a free man and most worthy of a learned person, I ought even to be praised.
[2] But while I am doing everything I am able to do to relieve myself, you must accomplish that thing which I see you are laboring over no less than I am. This I think I owe, and I cannot be relieved unless I pay it, or see that I can pay it -- that is, unless I find a place of the kind I want. If the heirs of Scapula intend, as you write Otho told you, to put up those gardens for sale divided into four lots, there is of course no opening for a buyer; but if they are to be sold whole, we shall see what can be done. For that Publician property which belongs to Trebonius and Cusinius was brought to my attention. But you know it is just a bare plot. I do not approve of it on any account. Clodia's certainly please me, but I do not think they are for sale. As for Drusus's gardens, although you shrink from them, as you write, I shall nevertheless take refuge there if you find nothing else. The building does not trouble me, for I shall build nothing except what I would build even if I do not get those gardens. As for the 'Cyrus' [a work by Antisthenes], it pleased me much as the rest of Antisthenes does -- a man more sharp-witted than learned.
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
quod putas oportere pervideri iam animi mei firmitatem graviusque quosdam scribis de me loqui quam aut te scribere aut Brutum, si qui me fractum esse animo et debilitatum putant sciant quid litterarum et cuius generis conficiam, credo, si modo homines sint, existiment me, sive ita levatus sim ut animum vacuum ad res difficilis scribendas adferam, reprehendendum non esse, sive hanc aberrationem a dolore delegerim quae maxime liberalis sit doctoque homine dignissima, laudari me etiam oportere. [2] sed cum ego faciam omnia quae facere possim ad me adlevandum, tu effice id quod video te non minus quam me laborare. hoc mihi debere videor neque levari posse nisi solvero aut videro me posse solvere, id est locum qualem volo invenero. heredes Scapulae si istos hortos, ut scribis tibi Othonem dixisse, partibus quattuor factis liceri cogitant, nihil est scilicet emptori loci; sin venibunt, quid fieri possit videbimus. nam ille locus Publicianus qui est Treboni et Cusini erat ad me adlatus. sed scis aream esse. nullo pacto probo. Clodiae sane placent sed non puto esse venalis. de Drusi hortis, quamvis ab iis abhorreas, ut scribis, tamen eo confugiam nisi quid inveneris. aedificatio me non movet. nihil enim aliud aedificabo nisi id quod etiam si illos non habuero. Ku=roj d e mihi sic placuit ut cetera Antisthenis, hominis acuti magis quam eruditi.