Ad Atticum 3.20
Ad Atticum 3.20
Headnote
Cicero to Atticus, written from Thessalonica on the fourth day before the Nones of October (4 October) 58 BC. The salutation is unusually formal — Q. Caecilius Q. n. Pomponianus Atticus — a private joke about Atticus’s recent adoption in his uncle’s will (his uncle Caecilius having “performed his duty” by leaving him the inheritance). §2 turns to the substantive question of the restoration: in the package of recovered status (salus), nothing matters more to Cicero than the house on the Palatine demolished after the bill, on the site of which Clodius is even now building a Temple of Liberty. §3 specifies the legislative drafting: Sestius’s draft bill of recall is too cautious. The recall must name Cicero explicitly, and the question of the goods more carefully drafted. The first technical contribution Cicero makes from exile to the law that will bring him back.
As to its being so, and your uncle having performed his duty: that I most strongly approve. I shall say I rejoice over it, if I am still allowed to use the word. Wretched man that I am! How everything would now be as we wished, if I had not been deserted by spirit, by judgement, by the good faith of those I trusted! Which I will not add up, lest I add to my grief; but I know full well there comes into your mind what our life was, what its sweetness, what its dignity. For the recovering of which — by the gods — press on, as you do, and see to it that I keep the birthday of my return in your loveliest house, with you and with my own. To this hope and expectation which is set before me I had wished above all to wait at your side in Epirus; but the letters that come to me are such that I think it more convenient for us to remain in these same parts.
quod quidem ita esse et avunculum tuum functum esse officio vehementissime probo, gaudere me tum dicam, si mihi hoc verbo licebit uti. me miserum! quam omnia essent ex sententia, si nobis animus, si consilium, si fides eorum quibus credidimus non defuisset! quae conligere nolo ne augeam maerorem; sed tibi venire in mentem certo scio quae vita esset nostra, quae suavitas, quae dignitas. ad quae reciperanda, per fortunas! incumbe, ut facis, diemque natalem reditus mei cura ut in tuis aedibus amoenissimis agam tecum et cum meis. ego huic spei et exspectationi quae nobis proponitur maxime tamen volui praestolari apud te in Epiro, sed ita ad me scribitur ut putem esse commodius nos eisdem in locis esse.
As to the house, and Curio’s speech — it is as you write. In the whole question of safety, if only it shall be restored to me, everything will be contained; among the parts of it I prefer nothing to my house. But I leave you no specific charge: I commit myself wholly to your love and your good faith. That you have got yourself free of every other employment in the midst of so great an inheritance is very welcome to me. As for your promising your resources to my safety, that I may be helped by you in everything before all others — I see what a defence that is, and I understand both that you take up many parts of my safety yourself, and that you are able to sustain them, and that I need not ask you to do so.
de domo et Curionis oratione ut scribis ita est. in universa salute, si ea modo nobis restituetur, inerunt omnia; ex quibus nihil malo quam domum. sed tibi nihil mando nominatim, totum me tuo amori fideique commendo. quod te in tanta hereditate ab omni occupatione expedisti, valde mihi gratum est. quod facultates tuas ad meam salutem polliceris ut omnibus rebus a te praeter ceteros iuver, id quantum sit praesidium video intellegoque te multas partis meae salutis et suscipere et posse sustinere neque ut ita facias rogandum esse.
As to your forbidding me to suppose that anything has come into your mind which would seem from me towards you to have been done or omitted contrary to what was right — I shall yield to you and free myself of that care, but I shall owe you the more, the more your kindness towards me has been more lofty than mine has been towards you. Please write me what you see, what you understand, what is being done; and urge on all your circle for my safety. The bill of Sestius has neither standing enough nor caution enough: for it ought to be carried with my name in it, and the matter of my goods should be more carefully drafted; and I should be glad if you would attend to that. Sent the fourth day before the Nones of October, from Thessalonica.
quod me vetas quicquam suspicari accidisse ad animum tuum quod secus a me erga te commissum aut praetermissum videretur, geram tibi morem et liberabor ista cura, tibi tamen eo plus debebo quo tua in me humanitas fuerit excelsior quam in te mea. velim quid videas, quid intellegas, quid agatur ad me scribas tuosque omnis ad nostram salutem adhortere. rogatio Sesti neque dignitatis satis habet nec cautionis. nam et nominatim ferri oportet et de bonis diligentius scribi, et id animadvertas velim. data iiii Nonas Octobris Thessalonicae.