Ad Atticum 16.12
Ad Atticum 16.12
Headnote
Cicero to Atticus, written at the Puteolan villa on or about 13 November 44 BC. The Perseus dateline reads Scr. in Puteolano vht Id. Nov. a. 710 (44), in which vht is plainly OCR-corrupt; Shackleton Bailey places the letter at the Ides of November (13 November). A single short paragraph, written in haste before he leaves the coast.
Cicero has been waiting for Atticus to write back about Ocella; Atticus has dithered (“muginaris”) and sent nothing, so Cicero has made up his own mind. He will be at Rome on the day before the Ides — better to be there in vain than to be needed and absent — and he is also afraid of being cut off if Antony moves. The letter closes on warmer notes: praise of Varro’s Heraclidean logos (which 16.11 mentioned he had not yet got hold of); more to come in person.