Marcus Tullius Cicero→Titus Pomponius Atticus|c. 66 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Rome/Athens|AI-assisted
Letters are brought to us from you all too rarely, although you both can far more easily find people who are setting out for Rome than I can find people setting out for Athens, and it is more certain to you that I am at Rome than to me that you are at Athens. And so, on account of this uncertainty of mine, this very letter is shorter, because, since I was unsure where you were, I did not want that familiar conversation of ours to fall into other people's hands. The Megarian statues and the Herms, about which you wrote to me, I eagerly await. Whatever you have of the same kind that seems to you worthy of the Academy, do not hesitate to send it, and put your trust in our coffers. This is the nature of my pleasure; the things that are especially suited to a gymnasium are what I am after. Lentulus promises his ships. I ask you to attend to these matters carefully. Thyillus asks you, and I too at his request, for the Eumolpidae's ancestral records [the sacred lore of the priestly Eumolpid family at Eleusis].
Your letters are much too few and far between, considering that it is
much easier for you to find some one coming to Rome than for me to find
anyone going to Athens. Besides you can be surer that I am at Rome than
I can be that you are in Athens. The shortness of this letter is due to
my doubts as to your whereabouts. Not knowing for certain where you are,
I don’t want private correspondence to fall into a stranger’s hands.
I am awaiting impatiently the statues of Megaric marble and those of
Hermes, which you mentioned in your letter. Don’t hesitate to send
anything else of the same kind that you have, if it is fit for my
Academy. My purse is long enough. This is my little weakness; and what I
want especially are those that are fit for a Gymnasium. Lentulus
promises his ships. Please bestir yourself about it. Thyillus asks you,
or rather has got me to ask you, for some books on the ritual of the
Eumolpidae.
Nimium raro nobis abs te litterae adferuntur, cum et multo tu facilius reperias, qui Romam proficiscantur, quam ego, qui Athenas, et certius tibi sit me esse Romae quam mihi te Athenis. Itaque propter hanc dubitationem meam brevior haec ipsa epistula est, quod, cum incertus essem, ubi esses, nolebam illum nostrum familiarem sermonem in alienas manus devenire. Signa Megarica et Hermas, de quibus ad me scripsisti, vehementer exspecto. Quicquid eiusdem generis habebis, dignum Academia tibi quod videbitur, ne dubitaris mittere et arcae nostrae confidito. Genus hoc est voluptatis meae; quae gymnasiode maxime sunt, ea quaero. Lentulus naves suas pollicetur. Peto abs te, ut haec diligenter cures. Thyillus te rogat et ego eius rogatu Eymolpidon patria .
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Letters are brought to us from you all too rarely, although you both can far more easily find people who are setting out for Rome than I can find people setting out for Athens, and it is more certain to you that I am at Rome than to me that you are at Athens. And so, on account of this uncertainty of mine, this very letter is shorter, because, since I was unsure where you were, I did not want that familiar conversation of ours to fall into other people's hands. The Megarian statues and the Herms, about which you wrote to me, I eagerly await. Whatever you have of the same kind that seems to you worthy of the Academy, do not hesitate to send it, and put your trust in our coffers. This is the nature of my pleasure; the things that are especially suited to a gymnasium are what I am after. Lentulus promises his ships. I ask you to attend to these matters carefully. Thyillus asks you, and I too at his request, for the Eumolpidae's ancestral records [the sacred lore of the priestly Eumolpid family at Eleusis].
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
Nimium raro nobis abs te litterae adferuntur, cum et multo tu facilius reperias, qui Romam proficiscantur, quam ego, qui Athenas, et certius tibi sit me esse Romae quam mihi te Athenis. Itaque propter hanc dubitationem meam brevior haec ipsa epistula est, quod, cum incertus essem, ubi esses, nolebam illum nostrum familiarem sermonem in alienas manus devenire. Signa Megarica et Hermas, de quibus ad me scripsisti, vehementer exspecto. Quicquid eiusdem generis habebis, dignum Academia tibi quod videbitur, ne dubitaris mittere et arcae nostrae confidito. Genus hoc est voluptatis meae; quae gymnasiode maxime sunt, ea quaero. Lentulus naves suas pollicetur. Peto abs te, ut haec diligenter cures. Thyillus te rogat et ego eius rogatu Eymolpidon patria .