Marcus Tullius Cicero→Gaius Trebatius Testa|c. 49 BC|Cicero|From Rome|To Gaul|AI-assisted
See how much you count with me - and rightly, since I do not surpass you in affection. What I almost refused you when you were present, or at least had not given you, I could not bear to owe you when you were absent.
So, as soon as I began sailing from Velia, prompted by that city which loves you so warmly, I began writing out Aristotle's Topics. I send you the book, written at Rhegium, in as clear a form as the subject allowed. If some parts seem rather obscure, you should remember that no art can be grasped from books without an interpreter and some practice.
You need not go far for an example. Can your civil law be learned from books? Although there are many of them, it still requires a teacher and practical use. Still, if you read attentively and often, you will master everything by yourself at least well enough to understand it. But for the topical arguments themselves to occur to you when a question is proposed, you will gain that only through practice. I will keep you to that practice, if I return safely and find things safe there.
July 28, Rhegium.
DCCLXXIII (Fam. VII, 19) TO GAIUS TREBATIUS (AT ROME) RHEGIUM, 28 JULY: SEE how greatly I value you: and it is no more than your due, for I do not surpass you in affection. However, what I almost refused, or at any rate did not give you, when you were with me, I could not make up my mind to continue to owe you now that you are away. Accordingly, no sooner had I begun my voyage from Velia than I set to work to translate Aristotle 's Topica, having been reminded by the sight of a city so warmly attached to you. I send you this book from Rhegium written in as clear a style as the subject admitted. But if certain parts appear to you to be somewhat obscure, you must reflect that no art can be learnt out of books without some one to explain it and without some practical exercise in it. You will not have to go far for an instance. Can the art of you jurisconsults be learnt out of books? Though there are a great number of them, they yet require a teacher and actual practice. However, if you read this with attention and repeatedly, you will be able to grasp the whole subject by yourself — at least so far as to understand it. But that such loci communes should at once occur to your own mind upon any question being proposed, you can only secure by practice. To this, indeed, I shall keep you, if I get home safe and find things safe at Rome . 28 July, Rhegium .
XIX. Scr. Regii V. Kal. Sextili. a.u.c. 710. CICERO TREBATIO SAL.
Vide, quanti apud me sis; etsi iure id quidem, non enim te amore vinco; verumtamen, quod praesenti tibi prope subnegaram, non tribueram certe, id absenti debere non potui; itaque, ut primum Velia navigare coepi, institui Topica Aristotela conscribere ab ipsa urbe commonitus amantissima tui: eum librum tibi misi Regio scriptum, quam planissime res illa scribi potuit; sin tibi quaedam videbuntur obscuriora, cogitare debebis nullam artem litteris sine interprete et sine aliqua exercitatione percipi posse. Non longe abieris: num ius civile vestrum ex libris cognosci potest? qui quamquam plurimi sunt, doctorem tamen usumque desiderant: quamquam tu, si attente leges, si saepius, per te omnia consequere ut certe intelligas; ut vero etiam ipsi tibi loci proposita quaestione occurrant, exercitatione consequere, in qua quidem nos te continebimus, si et salvi redierimus et salva ista offenderimus. V. Kal. Sextil. Regio.
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See how much you count with me - and rightly, since I do not surpass you in affection. What I almost refused you when you were present, or at least had not given you, I could not bear to owe you when you were absent.
So, as soon as I began sailing from Velia, prompted by that city which loves you so warmly, I began writing out Aristotle's Topics. I send you the book, written at Rhegium, in as clear a form as the subject allowed. If some parts seem rather obscure, you should remember that no art can be grasped from books without an interpreter and some practice.
You need not go far for an example. Can your civil law be learned from books? Although there are many of them, it still requires a teacher and practical use. Still, if you read attentively and often, you will master everything by yourself at least well enough to understand it. But for the topical arguments themselves to occur to you when a question is proposed, you will gain that only through practice. I will keep you to that practice, if I return safely and find things safe there.
July 28, Rhegium.
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
XIX. Scr. Regii V. Kal. Sextili. a.u.c. 710. CICERO TREBATIO SAL.
Vide, quanti apud me sis; etsi iure id quidem, non enim te amore vinco; verumtamen, quod praesenti tibi prope subnegaram, non tribueram certe, id absenti debere non potui; itaque, ut primum Velia navigare coepi, institui Topica Aristotela conscribere ab ipsa urbe commonitus amantissima tui: eum librum tibi misi Regio scriptum, quam planissime res illa scribi potuit; sin tibi quaedam videbuntur obscuriora, cogitare debebis nullam artem litteris sine interprete et sine aliqua exercitatione percipi posse. Non longe abieris: num ius civile vestrum ex libris cognosci potest? qui quamquam plurimi sunt, doctorem tamen usumque desiderant: quamquam tu, si attente leges, si saepius, per te omnia consequere ut certe intelligas; ut vero etiam ipsi tibi loci proposita quaestione occurrant, exercitatione consequere, in qua quidem nos te continebimus, si et salvi redierimus et salva ista offenderimus. V. Kal. Sextil. Regio.