Marcus Tullius Cicero→Titus Pomponius Atticus|c. 45 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Rome/Athens|AI-assisted
Tell me: do you really think it acceptable to publish in the first place without my authorization? Not even Hermodorus used to do that-the man who was in the habit of circulating Plato's books, the one from whom we get the saying, 'Hermodorus traffics in [Plato's] arguments.' And what about this-do you consider it proper that anyone should get it before Brutus, to whom, on your advice, I address my dedication? For Balbus wrote to me that he had transcribed from you the fifth book of the 'De Finibus' [On Ends, Cicero's treatise on the highest good]; in it I have not changed very much, but still some things. You, however, will do me a good turn if you hold back the rest, so that Balbus does not have an uncorrected text [adiorthota = 'uncorrected'] and Brutus a stale one [heola = 'stale, day-old']. But enough of this, lest I seem to be 'making a fuss over trifles' [peri mikra spoudazein]. And yet for me these matters are now of the greatest importance; for what else is there? As for what I wrote for Varro, on your advice I am in such haste to send it that I have already dispatched it to Rome to be copied out. If you want it, you shall have it at once; for I have written to the copyists that your people are to have the power of transcribing it, if you wish. But you must keep it back until I see you in person-which you are accustomed to do most scrupulously when I have told you to.
But how did it slip my mind to tell you? Remarkably, Caerellia, blazing-naturally-with zeal for philosophy, is making copies from your people: she has those very books, the 'De Finibus.' But I assure you (I may be mistaken, being only human) that she does not have them from my people; for they were never out of my sight. So far indeed were they from making two copies that they barely finished single ones. Still, I do not judge any of your people guilty of any fault, and I want you to think the same; for it was an oversight on my part that I did not say I did not yet wish them to go out. Ah, how long I have gone on about trifles! For about real business I have nothing to say.
About Dolabella I agree with you. The co-heirs, as you write, are at the Tusculan villa. As for Caesar's arrival, Balbus has written to me that it will not be before the Kalends of Sextilis [the first of August]. About Attica, excellent news, since it is milder and gentler and since she bears it good-naturedly [eukolos].
As for what you write about that scheme of ours-in which I yield nothing to you-the things I am acquainted with I thoroughly approve: the man, the household, the means. The main point is that I do not know the man himself, but I hear praiseworthy things, and most recently from Scrofa as well. There is the added consideration, if this counts for anything toward the matter, that he is of even nobler birth [eugenesteros] than his father. So we will discuss it face to face, and indeed with a mind inclined to approve. For there is the further point that-as I think you know, even more than not only you but even he himself knows-I love the father, and that deservedly and now for a long time.
The morning's letter I answered yesterday at once, now I am answering yours of the evening. I would rather Brutus had asked me to Rome. It
would have been fairer, as he is on the point of a sudden long journey, and upon my soul I should have much preferred that we should meet in Rome rather than in my house at Tusculum, now that the state of our feelings prevents us from living together at all, for of course you understand what constitutes good company.
There is no delay about the books dedicated to Varro. They are finished, as you have seen; there is only the correction of the copyists' mistakes. About those books you know I have had some hesitation, but you must look to it. The copyists have in hand, too, those I am dedicating to Brutus.
Carry out my instructions as you say. However what about that abatement? Trebatius says everybody is taking advantage of it. What do you suppose my debtors will do? You know the gang. So settle the matter accommodatingly. You would never believe how little I care about such things. I give you my solemn word for it, and I hope you will believe me, that the little I have causes me more annoyance than pleasure. For I am more grieved at having no one to leave it to than pleased at having enough for my own enjoyment. Trebatius tells me he told you so; but perhaps you feared I should be sorry at the news. That was certainly kind of you; but, believe me, I don't care about such things now. So get you to your conferences, hack away at it and finish the business; and in talking with Polla consider you are talking with that fellow Scaeva, and
don't imagine that those who are in the habit of taking what is not owing to them, will abate anything that is. Only be careful that they pay up to time and allow some latitude there too.
dic mihi, placetne tibi primum edere iniussu meo? hoc ne Hermodorus quidem faciebat, is qui Platonis libros solitus est divulgare, ex quo ' lo/goisin (Ermo/dwroj .' quid? illud rectumne existimas quoiquam <ante quam> Bruto, cui te auctore prosfwnw= ? scripsit enim Balbus ad me se a te quintum 'de finibus' librum descripsisse; in quo non sane multa mutavi sed tamen quaedam. tu autem commode feceris si reliquos continueris, ne et a)dio/rqwta habeat Balbus et e(wla Brutus. sed haec hactenus, ne videar peri\ mikra\ spouda/zein . etsi nunc quidem maxima mihi sunt haec; quid est enim aliud? Varroni quidem quae scripsi te auctore ita propero mittere ut iam Romam miserim describenda. ea si voles, statim habebis. scripsi enim ad librarios ut fieret tuis, si tu velles, describendi potestas. ea vero continebis quoad ipse te videam; quod diligentissime facere soles cum a me tibi dictum est. [2] quo modo autem fugit me tibi dicere? mirifice Caerellia studio videlicet philosophiae flagrans describit a tuis istos ipsos 'de finibus' habet. ego autem tibi confirmo (possum falli ut homo) a meis eam non habere; numquam enim ab oculis meis afuerunt. tantum porro aberat ut binos scriberent; vix singulos confecerunt. tuorum tamen ego nullum delictum arbitror itemque te volo existimare; a me enim praetermissum est ut dicerem me eos exire nondum velle. Hui, quam diu de nugis! de re enim nihil habeo quod loquar. [3] de Dolabella tibi adsentior. coheredes, ut scribis, in Tusculano. de Caesaris adventu scripsit ad me Balbus non ante Kal. Sextilis. de Attica optime, quod levius ac lenius et quod fert eu)ko/lwj . [4] quod autem de illa nostra cogitatione scribis in qua nihil tibi cedo, ea quae novi valde probo, hominem, domum, facultates. quod caput est, ipsum non novi sed audio laudabilia, de Scrofa etiam proxime. accedit, si quid hoc ad rem, eu)gene/steroj est etiam quam pater. coram igitur et quidem propenso animo ad probandum. accedit enim quod patrem, ut scire te puto plus etiam quam non modo tu sed quam ipse scit, amo idque et merito et iam diu.
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Tell me: do you really think it acceptable to publish in the first place without my authorization? Not even Hermodorus used to do that-the man who was in the habit of circulating Plato's books, the one from whom we get the saying, 'Hermodorus traffics in [Plato's] arguments.' And what about this-do you consider it proper that anyone should get it before Brutus, to whom, on your advice, I address my dedication? For Balbus wrote to me that he had transcribed from you the fifth book of the 'De Finibus' [On Ends, Cicero's treatise on the highest good]; in it I have not changed very much, but still some things. You, however, will do me a good turn if you hold back the rest, so that Balbus does not have an uncorrected text [adiorthota = 'uncorrected'] and Brutus a stale one [heola = 'stale, day-old']. But enough of this, lest I seem to be 'making a fuss over trifles' [peri mikra spoudazein]. And yet for me these matters are now of the greatest importance; for what else is there? As for what I wrote for Varro, on your advice I am in such haste to send it that I have already dispatched it to Rome to be copied out. If you want it, you shall have it at once; for I have written to the copyists that your people are to have the power of transcribing it, if you wish. But you must keep it back until I see you in person-which you are accustomed to do most scrupulously when I have told you to.
But how did it slip my mind to tell you? Remarkably, Caerellia, blazing-naturally-with zeal for philosophy, is making copies from your people: she has those very books, the 'De Finibus.' But I assure you (I may be mistaken, being only human) that she does not have them from my people; for they were never out of my sight. So far indeed were they from making two copies that they barely finished single ones. Still, I do not judge any of your people guilty of any fault, and I want you to think the same; for it was an oversight on my part that I did not say I did not yet wish them to go out. Ah, how long I have gone on about trifles! For about real business I have nothing to say.
About Dolabella I agree with you. The co-heirs, as you write, are at the Tusculan villa. As for Caesar's arrival, Balbus has written to me that it will not be before the Kalends of Sextilis [the first of August]. About Attica, excellent news, since it is milder and gentler and since she bears it good-naturedly [eukolos].
As for what you write about that scheme of ours-in which I yield nothing to you-the things I am acquainted with I thoroughly approve: the man, the household, the means. The main point is that I do not know the man himself, but I hear praiseworthy things, and most recently from Scrofa as well. There is the added consideration, if this counts for anything toward the matter, that he is of even nobler birth [eugenesteros] than his father. So we will discuss it face to face, and indeed with a mind inclined to approve. For there is the further point that-as I think you know, even more than not only you but even he himself knows-I love the father, and that deservedly and now for a long time.
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
dic mihi, placetne tibi primum edere iniussu meo? hoc ne Hermodorus quidem faciebat, is qui Platonis libros solitus est divulgare, ex quo ' lo/goisin (Ermo/dwroj .' quid? illud rectumne existimas quoiquam <ante quam> Bruto, cui te auctore prosfwnw= ? scripsit enim Balbus ad me se a te quintum 'de finibus' librum descripsisse; in quo non sane multa mutavi sed tamen quaedam. tu autem commode feceris si reliquos continueris, ne et a)dio/rqwta habeat Balbus et e(wla Brutus. sed haec hactenus, ne videar peri\ mikra\ spouda/zein . etsi nunc quidem maxima mihi sunt haec; quid est enim aliud? Varroni quidem quae scripsi te auctore ita propero mittere ut iam Romam miserim describenda. ea si voles, statim habebis. scripsi enim ad librarios ut fieret tuis, si tu velles, describendi potestas. ea vero continebis quoad ipse te videam; quod diligentissime facere soles cum a me tibi dictum est. [2] quo modo autem fugit me tibi dicere? mirifice Caerellia studio videlicet philosophiae flagrans describit a tuis istos ipsos 'de finibus' habet. ego autem tibi confirmo (possum falli ut homo) a meis eam non habere; numquam enim ab oculis meis afuerunt. tantum porro aberat ut binos scriberent; vix singulos confecerunt. tuorum tamen ego nullum delictum arbitror itemque te volo existimare; a me enim praetermissum est ut dicerem me eos exire nondum velle. Hui, quam diu de nugis! de re enim nihil habeo quod loquar. [3] de Dolabella tibi adsentior. coheredes, ut scribis, in Tusculano. de Caesaris adventu scripsit ad me Balbus non ante Kal. Sextilis. de Attica optime, quod levius ac lenius et quod fert eu)ko/lwj . [4] quod autem de illa nostra cogitatione scribis in qua nihil tibi cedo, ea quae novi valde probo, hominem, domum, facultates. quod caput est, ipsum non novi sed audio laudabilia, de Scrofa etiam proxime. accedit, si quid hoc ad rem, eu)gene/steroj est etiam quam pater. coram igitur et quidem propenso animo ad probandum. accedit enim quod patrem, ut scire te puto plus etiam quam non modo tu sed quam ipse scit, amo idque et merito et iam diu.