Marcus Tullius Cicero→Titus Pomponius Atticus|c. 60 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Rome/Athens|AI-assisted
What expectation you stir up in me about the talk with Bibulus, what expectation about the conversation with the ox-eyed lady [Clodia], and what about that elegant dinner-party! Therefore see that you come in such a way as to a thirsty pair of ears. And yet there is now nothing that I think we ought to fear more than that our friend Sampsiceramus [Pompey], when he perceives that he is being thrashed in everyone's talk, and when he sees these proceedings to be easily overturned, may begin to rush headlong into ruin. As for me, I have been so weakened that I would rather be tyrannized over in this idleness in which we are now wasting away than fight on with the best of hopes. [2] As to the literary composition for which you so often urge me on, it cannot be done. I have a public hall, not a country house, owing to the throng of the people of Formiae +to which part of the hall the tribe Aemilia+. But I leave the common crowd aside; after the fourth hour the rest are not troublesome. Gaius Arrius is my next-door neighbor, or rather by now my very tent-mate, who even says that he refuses to go to Rome for this reason, that he may philosophize here with me whole days on end. And look, on the other side there is Sebosus, that friend of Catulus. Where am I to turn? By Hercules, I would go to Arpinum at once, were it not that I see you can most conveniently be awaited at the Formian house, at least up to the day before the Nones of May; for you see to what sort of men my ears have been surrendered. Oh marvelous opportunity, if someone, now while these men are at my house, should wish to buy the Formian estate from me! And yet shall I approve that resolve: 'Let us undertake some great thing, requiring much thought and leisure'? But nevertheless it shall be sufficiently done by us, nor shall any labor be spared.
You have aroused the liveliest curiosity in me as to your talk with Bibulus and your conversation with Juno, and about that “fast” dinner too. So remember my ears are thirsting for news, and come quickly. However, the thing I am most afraid of at the present moment is that our friend the Pasha may run amuck as soon as he realizes that every one is railing at him and laying it on to him, and that these new measures are quite easy to upset. For myself, however, I have grown so slack that I should prefer to waste my life in my present ease under a despotism than to take part in the struggle however bright the prospect of success. As for the writing, for which you so incessantly clamour, it is impossible. My house is so crowded with the townsfolk that it is a
public hall rather than a private house: and too small at that for the Aemilian tribe. But—to omit the common herd, for others don’t bother me after ten o’clock—C. Arrius is my next door neighbour, or rather he lives with me, declaring that he has forborne to go to Rome, expressly for the purpose of spending his whole day philosophizing with me here. Then on the other side there is Sebosus, Catulus’ intimate friend. Which way can I turn? Upon my word I would go to Arpinum straight away, if I did not see that Formiae is the most convenient place to wait for your visit: but only up to the 6th of May, for you see what bores my ears are condemned to endure. Now’s the time to bid for my Formian estate, while these people are pestering me. And in spite of this am I to make good my promise “Let me attempt something great, requiring much thought and leisure”? Still I will satisfy you and not spare my labour.
quantam tu mihi moves exspectationem de sermone Bibuli, quantam de colloquio boopidos, quantam etiam de illo delicato convivio! proinde ita fac venias ut ad sitientis auris. quamquam nihil est iam quod magis timendum nobis putem quam ne ille noster Sampsiceramus, quom se omnium sermonibus sentiet vapulare et quom has actiones euanatreptous videbit, ruere incipiat. ego autem usque eo sum enervatus ut hoc otio quo nunc tabescimus malim enturanneisthai quam cum optima spe dimicare. [2] de pangendo quod me crebro adhortaris, fieri nihil potest. basilicam habeo non villam frequentia Formianorum +ad quam partem basilicae tribum Aemiliam+. sed omitto vulgus; post horam quartam molesti ceteri non sunt. C. Arrius proximus est vicinus, immo ille quidem iam contubernalis, qui etiam se idcirco Romam ire negat ut hic mecum totos dies philosophetur. ecce ex altera parte Sebosus, ille Catuli familiaris. quo me vertam? statim me hercule Arpinum irem, ni te in Formiano commodissime exspectari viderem dumtaxat ad pr. Nonas Maias; vides enim quibus hominibus aures sint deditae meae. <O> occasionem mirificam, si qui nunc dum hi apud me sunt emere de me fundum Formianum velit! et tamen illud probem: 'Magnum quid adgrediamur et multae cogitationis atque oti'? sed tamen satis fiet a nobis neque parcetur labori.
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What expectation you stir up in me about the talk with Bibulus, what expectation about the conversation with the ox-eyed lady [Clodia], and what about that elegant dinner-party! Therefore see that you come in such a way as to a thirsty pair of ears. And yet there is now nothing that I think we ought to fear more than that our friend Sampsiceramus [Pompey], when he perceives that he is being thrashed in everyone's talk, and when he sees these proceedings to be easily overturned, may begin to rush headlong into ruin. As for me, I have been so weakened that I would rather be tyrannized over in this idleness in which we are now wasting away than fight on with the best of hopes. [2] As to the literary composition for which you so often urge me on, it cannot be done. I have a public hall, not a country house, owing to the throng of the people of Formiae +to which part of the hall the tribe Aemilia+. But I leave the common crowd aside; after the fourth hour the rest are not troublesome. Gaius Arrius is my next-door neighbor, or rather by now my very tent-mate, who even says that he refuses to go to Rome for this reason, that he may philosophize here with me whole days on end. And look, on the other side there is Sebosus, that friend of Catulus. Where am I to turn? By Hercules, I would go to Arpinum at once, were it not that I see you can most conveniently be awaited at the Formian house, at least up to the day before the Nones of May; for you see to what sort of men my ears have been surrendered. Oh marvelous opportunity, if someone, now while these men are at my house, should wish to buy the Formian estate from me! And yet shall I approve that resolve: 'Let us undertake some great thing, requiring much thought and leisure'? But nevertheless it shall be sufficiently done by us, nor shall any labor be spared.
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
quantam tu mihi moves exspectationem de sermone Bibuli, quantam de colloquio boopidos, quantam etiam de illo delicato convivio! proinde ita fac venias ut ad sitientis auris. quamquam nihil est iam quod magis timendum nobis putem quam ne ille noster Sampsiceramus, quom se omnium sermonibus sentiet vapulare et quom has actiones euanatreptous videbit, ruere incipiat. ego autem usque eo sum enervatus ut hoc otio quo nunc tabescimus malim enturanneisthai quam cum optima spe dimicare. [2] de pangendo quod me crebro adhortaris, fieri nihil potest. basilicam habeo non villam frequentia Formianorum +ad quam partem basilicae tribum Aemiliam+. sed omitto vulgus; post horam quartam molesti ceteri non sunt. C. Arrius proximus est vicinus, immo ille quidem iam contubernalis, qui etiam se idcirco Romam ire negat ut hic mecum totos dies philosophetur. ecce ex altera parte Sebosus, ille Catuli familiaris. quo me vertam? statim me hercule Arpinum irem, ni te in Formiano commodissime exspectari viderem dumtaxat ad pr. Nonas Maias; vides enim quibus hominibus aures sint deditae meae. <O> occasionem mirificam, si qui nunc dum hi apud me sunt emere de me fundum Formianum velit! et tamen illud probem: 'Magnum quid adgrediamur et multae cogitationis atque oti'? sed tamen satis fiet a nobis neque parcetur labori.