Letter · 29 June 44 BC · in Tusculano

Ad Atticum 15.25

Ad Atticum 15.25

Headnote

Cicero to Atticus from the Tusculan villa, 29 June 44 BC — Perseus dateline Scr. in Tusculano iii K. Quint. a. 710 (44). A one-section note, hurried and consultative. The plan to leave Italy under cover of the Dolabellan legation, on which 15.20 was so bleak, is now a logistical problem: when to sail, by what route, and whether the trip can be reckoned to last only to the Kalends of January. Cicero asks Atticus to throw his weight into the planning (“bend yourself to that concern; it is a great matter”), and wants the date of the Eleusinian mysteries because a winter voyage is hateful and the festival fixes the calendar at the Athens end. He still expects to see Brutus, and means to leave Tusculum on the day before the Kalends of July — 30 June. The daggered passage about Olympia and the mysteries is a textual crux; Cicero is plainly asking Atticus for a date, but the syntax in the manuscripts is broken.

On my journey, opinions vary; many come to me about it. But you, please, bend yourself to that concern. It is a great matter. Do you approve, if we are reckoning on the Kalends of January? My own mind is composed — provided, however, that there be no setback. And so that you may also know on what day Olympia falls, with the mysteries, that is. So that you may know.\ Chance will be the judge of our plan for the journey. So let us hold in doubt. A winter voyage is hateful, and that is the reason I had asked you for the date of the mysteries. Brutus, as you write, I expect I shall see. I want to leave here on the day before the Kalends.
de meo itinere variae sententiae; multi enim ad me. sed tu incumbe, quaeso, in eam curam. magna res est. an probas, si ad Kal. Ian. cogitamus? meus animus est aequus, sic tamen ut si nihil offensionis sit. † et tu etiam scire quo die Olympia cum mysteria scilicet. ut tu scires†, casus consilium nostri itineris iudicabit. dubitemus igitur. est enim hiberna navigatio odiosa, eoque ex te quaesieram mysteriorum diem. Brutum, ut scribis, visum iri a me puto. ego hinc volo pr. Kal.

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Ad Atticum 15.25

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