Ad Atticum 1.2
Ad Atticum 1.2
Headnote
Cicero to Atticus, written at Rome a few days after Att 1.1 (the consulships of L. Julius Caesar and Marcius Figulus, named at the head, are the consuls of that year, dating the letter to 65 BC). A short note covering three things, each of large consequence. First: the birth of Cicero’s son Marcus, with Terentia safe (the joy in “filiolo me auctum” — “I have been increased by a little son” — is meant). Second: the bid for Catiline’s defence in the extortion trial, with judges already chosen and the prosecutor (P. Clodius, no less) making no objection — if Catiline is acquitted, he may be drawn into Cicero’s canvass. (In the event Catiline was acquitted but did not rejoin Cicero’s side, and the following year stood against him.) Third: the second of many appeals to Atticus to come back to Rome, this time for January 64, in time to help neutralize the great nobiles whom Atticus’s friendship can move.