Marcus Tullius Cicero→Gaius Cassius Longinus|c. 47 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Syria|Human translated
My letter would have been longer if it had not been requested of me at the very moment of the messenger's departure. It would also have been longer if I had had some trifle to discuss, for we can scarcely treat serious matters without danger. "Then can we joke?" you ask. Not very easily, by Hercules; but still we have no other escape from our troubles. "Where then," you ask, "is philosophy?" Yours is in the kitchen, mine is in the exercise ground. For I am ashamed to be a slave; and so I pretend to be busy with other things, so as not to hear Plato's reproach. No definite news from Spain, nothing at all new. I am sorry for my sake that you are away, but glad for yours. But the courier is pressing; so farewell, and love me as you have done since boyhood.
DXXIX (Fam. XV, 18) TO C. CASSIUS LONGINUS (AT BRUNDISIUM) ROME (JANUARY?) MY letter would have been longer, had not the messenger come for it when he was just on the point of starting for you. It would have been longer also if it had any persiflage in it, for we cannot be serious with safety. “Can we laugh, then?” you will say. No, by Hercules , not very easily. Yet other means of distraction from our troubles we have none. “Where, then,” you will say, “is your philosophy?” Yours indeed is in the kitchen, mine in the schools. For I am ashamed of being a slave. Accordingly, I pose as being busy about other things, to avoid the reproach of Plato . We have no Certain intelligence from Spain as yet — in fact, no news at all. For my sake I am sorry that you are out of town, for your own I am glad. But your letter-carrier is getting clamorous. Good-bye then, and love me as you have done from boyhood.
XVIII. Scr. Romae ineunte anno u.c. 709. M. CICERO S. D. C. CASSIO.
Longior epistula fuisset, nisi eo ipso tempore petita esset a me, quam iam iretur ad te; longior autem, si flÊaron aliquem habuissem, nam spoudãjein sine periculo vix possumus. "Ridere igitur," inquies, "possumus." Non mehercule facillime; verumtamen aliam aberrationem a molestiis nullam habemus. "Ubi igitur," inquies, "philosophia" Tua quidem in culina, mea in palaestra est; pudet enim servire: itaque facio me alias res agere, ne convicium Platonis audiam. De Hispania nihil adhuc certi, nihil omnino novi. Te abesse mea causa moleste fero, tua gaudeo. Sed flagitat tabellarius: valebis igitur meque, ut a puero fecisti, amabis.
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My letter would have been longer if it had not been requested of me at the very moment of the messenger's departure. It would also have been longer if I had had some trifle to discuss, for we can scarcely treat serious matters without danger. "Then can we joke?" you ask. Not very easily, by Hercules; but still we have no other escape from our troubles. "Where then," you ask, "is philosophy?" Yours is in the kitchen, mine is in the exercise ground. For I am ashamed to be a slave; and so I pretend to be busy with other things, so as not to hear Plato's reproach. No definite news from Spain, nothing at all new. I am sorry for my sake that you are away, but glad for yours. But the courier is pressing; so farewell, and love me as you have done since boyhood.
Human translation - ToposText / Shuckburgh
Latin / Greek Original
XVIII. Scr. Romae ineunte anno u.c. 709. M. CICERO S. D. C. CASSIO.
Longior epistula fuisset, nisi eo ipso tempore petita esset a me, quam iam iretur ad te; longior autem, si flÊaron aliquem habuissem, nam spoudãjein sine periculo vix possumus. "Ridere igitur," inquies, "possumus." Non mehercule facillime; verumtamen aliam aberrationem a molestiis nullam habemus. "Ubi igitur," inquies, "philosophia" Tua quidem in culina, mea in palaestra est; pudet enim servire: itaque facio me alias res agere, ne convicium Platonis audiam. De Hispania nihil adhuc certi, nihil omnino novi. Te abesse mea causa moleste fero, tua gaudeo. Sed flagitat tabellarius: valebis igitur meque, ut a puero fecisti, amabis.