place
Patrae
also: Patris, Patrae, at Patrae, Patras
Major harbour city of Achaea (modern Patras, Greece), on the southern shore of the Gulf of Corinth; the main transit port between Italy and mainland Greece. In 46 BC it lay within the province of Achaea governed by Servius Sulpicius Rufus. M'. Curius operated his business there; Cicero used Curius's house during the civil war.
Reading notes
- Ad Atticum 11.16 §4 I, given these ills, am not unwilling to be at Patrae
Patrae (modern Patras) on the Achaian coast was a frequent waystation and wintering place for Romans crossing to and from Greece. The quoted correspondent reports himself content to remain there.
- Ad Familiares 7.28 §1 Patrae
Patrae (modern Patras), a port city on the north-western coast of the Peloponnese where M'. Curius had settled as a Roman banker and negotiator (businessman). Cicero teases him for preferring provincial Patrae to cultivated Rome.
- Ad Familiares 13.17 §1 at Patrae, in this most wretched war as on several earlier occasions, his whole house lay open to me
Patrae (modern Patras) was the main harbour-city of Achaea on the Gulf of Corinth, a natural stopping-point for sea-crossings between Italy and Greece. 'This most wretched war' refers to the civil war of 49--48 BC; Cicero passed through the region during his uncertain months between Pompey's camp and his eventual pardon by Caesar.
- Ad Familiares 16.1 §2 stay on a little at Patrae
Patrae, a port in Achaea, is where Cicero left the ailing Tiro in the care of local friends; the whole of book 16's opening run of letters concerns his recovery there.
- Ad Familiares 16.6 §2 bound for Patrae
Patrae (modern Patras) on the north coast of the Peloponnese, where Tiro had been left behind ill in the household of the banker Curius; Cicero routes letters to him through every traveller heading that way.