Marcus Tullius Cicero→Unknown|c. 53 BC|Cicero|From Rome|Human translated
There are not often people to whom I can give letters, nor do I have anything I want to write about. From your most recent letter I learned that no estate could be sold. Please see how the person you know I wish to have satisfied may be satisfied. That our daughter thanks you is no surprise to me; you deserve her thanks. If Pollex has not yet set out, see that you push him off as soon as possible. Take care of your health. The Ides of July.
CDXII (Fam. XIV, 6) TO TERENTIA EPIRUS, 15 JULY: It is not very often that there is anyone to whom I can entrust a letter, nor have I anything that I am willing to write. From your letter last received I understand that no estate has been able to find a purchaser. Wherefore pray consider how the person may be satisfied whose claims you know that I wish satisfied. As for the gratitude which our daughter expresses to you, I am not surprised that your services to her are such, that she is able to thank you on good grounds. If Pollex has not yet started, turn him out as soon as you can. Take care of your health. 15 July. [There is now a break in the correspondence for more than three months, in the course of which the fate of the Republic was decided. On the 7th of July, Caesar , after Pompey had pierced his lines and inflicted a defeat upon him, retreated into Thessaly . Pompey 's exultant followers forced him to follow, and on the 9th of August the battle of Pharsalia drove Pompey to his retreat and death in Egypt , and made Caesar master of the Empire. The fleet, indeed, still held out, and took those of the Pompeians who had not been in the battle or had escaped from it to Africa and Spain. But Cicero (who was with the fleet at Corcyra ) refused to join in continuing the war, and after staying some time at Patrae returned to Brundisium , having, it appears, received Caesar 's permission through Dolabella to do so. At Brundisium , however, he waited many months, not venturing to approach Rome till Caesar 's will was known. It is during his residence at Brundisium that the next thirty-three letters are written. The dates are according to the unreformed calendar — in advance of the true time as much perhaps as two months.)
VI. Scr. in castris Pompeii Idibus Quinctilibus a.u.c. 706. TULLIUS SUIS S. DICIT.
Nec saepe est, cui litteras demus, nec rem habemus ullam, quam scribere velimus. Ex tuis litteris, quas proxime accepi, cognovi praedium nullum venire potuisse; quare videatis velim, quomodo satisfiat ei, cui scitis me satisfieri velle. Quod nostra tibi gratias agit, id ego non miror te mereri, ut ea tibi merito tuo gratias agere possit. Pollicem, si adhuc non est profectus, quam primum fac extrudas. Cura, ut valeas. Idib. Quinct.
◆
There are not often people to whom I can give letters, nor do I have anything I want to write about. From your most recent letter I learned that no estate could be sold. Please see how the person you know I wish to have satisfied may be satisfied. That our daughter thanks you is no surprise to me; you deserve her thanks. If Pollex has not yet set out, see that you push him off as soon as possible. Take care of your health. The Ides of July.
Human translation - ToposText / Shuckburgh
Latin / Greek Original
VI. Scr. in castris Pompeii Idibus Quinctilibus a.u.c. 706. TULLIUS SUIS S. DICIT.
Nec saepe est, cui litteras demus, nec rem habemus ullam, quam scribere velimus. Ex tuis litteris, quas proxime accepi, cognovi praedium nullum venire potuisse; quare videatis velim, quomodo satisfiat ei, cui scitis me satisfieri velle. Quod nostra tibi gratias agit, id ego non miror te mereri, ut ea tibi merito tuo gratias agere possit. Pollicem, si adhuc non est profectus, quam primum fac extrudas. Cura, ut valeas. Idib. Quinct.