Ad Familiares 7.23
Ad Familiares 7.23
Headnote
Cicero to Marcus Fadius Gallus, written at Rome late in 62 BC. (Perseus dates the letter “Scr. Romae ex. a. 692 (62) aut paulo post,” i.e. end of 62 or shortly after. Manuscript Familiares 7 collects the letters to Trebatius Testa and Fadius Gallus, men of Cicero’s wider circle.) Fadius Gallus, an old friend of Atticus’s tastes, has bought four or five statues for Cicero through one Damasippus and an “Avianius,” under the impression that he was doing him a service. Cicero declines, courteously but with comic firmness. He had wanted gymnasium-style ornaments to set up a wrestling-school in the colonnade of the Tusculan villa; instead Fadius has bought him Bacchae, which have no place in his house, and which Fadius has presumed to compare to the famous Muses of Metellus. Cicero will not have a Mars (“what use is that to me, the author of peace?”) and is glad there was no Saturn (Saturn brings debt: a pun on Saturn’s liturgical association with credit and the Saturnalia gift-tables). The closing paragraph turns to the practical matter of the house Fadius wished to take next door, the quiet humour giving way to the affectionate seriousness of a friend who wished to live with him.
I had only just got back from Arpinum when a letter from you was delivered to me, and from the same man I received a letter from Avianius, which contained this most generous offer: that, when he came, he would draw up the bills on whatever day I wished. Pray, put yourself in my place: is it the part of your modesty or of mine to ask first about the day, and then to demand more than a year? But everything would be easy, my dear Gallus, if you had bought the things I wanted and at the price I had wished. Even so, the very things which you write that you have bought will be not only ratified by me but pleasing to me; for I plainly understand that you have used not only zeal but love — that the things which delighted you, a man (as I have always judged) of the most refined taste in every kind of judgment, you bought up because you thought them worthy of me.
tantum quod ex Arpinati veneram cum mihi a te litterae redditae sunt, ab eodemque accepi Aviani litteras, in quibus hoc inerat liberalissimum, nomina se facturum, cum venisset, qua ego vellem die. fac, quaeso, qui ego sum esse te estne aut tui pudoris aut nostri primum rogare de die, deinde plus annua postulare? sed essent, mi Galle, omnia facilia, si et ea mercatus esses quae ego desiderabam et ad eam summam quam volueram. ac tamen ista ipsa, quae te emisse scribis, non solum rata mihi erunt sed etiam grata; plane enim intellego te non modo studio sed etiam amore usum, quae te delectarint, hominem, ut ego semper iudicavi, in omni iudicio elegantissimum, quae me digna putaris, coemisse.
But I should be glad if Damasippus stuck to his word; for of these purchases of yours I want, frankly, none. You, ignorant of my settled rule, took these four or five at a price for which I do not value the entire genus of statues at all. You compare those Bacchae of yours with the Muses of Metellus. What is alike? First, the Muses themselves I should never have valued so high, and should have done so with all the Muses approving; but yet they would have suited a library and matched our pursuits. For Bacchae, where in my house is the place? But they are pretty little things. I know them very well and have seen them often. I should have given you a list of statues known to me by name if I had liked them. For I am wont to buy statues that adorn for me, in the wrestling-school, a place after the likeness of a gymnasium. As for a Mars — what use is that to me, the author of peace? I am glad there was no Saturn; for I should have thought these two statues had brought me debt. I should rather there had been some Mercury; we could, I think, have settled with Avianius on more favourable terms.
sed velim maneat Damasippus in sententia; prorsus enim ex istis emptionibus nullam desidero. tu autem ignarus instituti mei, quanti ego genus omnino signorum omnium non aestimo, tanti ista quattuor aut quinque sumpsisti. Bacchas istas cum Musis Metelli comparas. quid simile? primum ipsas ego Musas numquam tanti putassem atque id fecissem Musis omnibus approbantibus, sed tamen erat aptum bybliothecae studiisque nostris congruens; Bacchis vero ubi est apud me locus? at pulchellae sunt. Novi optime et saepe vidi. nominatim tibi signa mihi nota mandassem, si probassem. ea enim signa ego emere soleo quae ad similitudinem gymnasiorum exornent mihi in palaestra locum. Martis vero signum quo mihi pacis auctori? gaudeo nullum Saturni signum fuisse; haec enim duo signa putarem mihi aes alienum attulisse. Mercuri mallem aliquod fuisset; felicius, puto, cum Avianio transigere possemus.
As to the table-stand which you had marked out for yourself: if it pleases you, you shall have it. But if you have changed your mind, I shall have it, of course. For that sum, indeed, I should much more gladly have bought a lodging at Tarracina, that I may not always be a trouble to a host. I see the fault is wholly my freedman’s, to whom I had given the most explicit instructions; and likewise of Iunius’s — whom I think known to you, Avianius’s friend. Some new bays I have set up in the little colonnade at the Tusculan villa. These I wished to adorn with paintings; for, if anything of that genre delights me, painting delights me. But yet, if these things must be kept by me, please let me know where they are, when they are to be sent for, in what form of carriage. For if Damasippus does not stick to his word, we shall find some pseudo-Damasippus or other, even at a loss.
quod tibi destinaras trapezophorum, si te delectat, habebis; sin autem sententiam mutasti, ego habebo scilicet. ista quidem summa ne ego multo libentius emerim deversorium Tarracinae, ne semper hospiti molestus sim. omnino liberti mei video esse culpam, cui plane res certas mandaram, itemque Iuni, quem puto tibi notum esse, Aviani familiarem. Exhedria quaedam mihi nova sunt instituta in porticula Tusculam. ea volebam tabellis ornare; etenim si quid generis istius modi me delectat, pictura delectat. sed tamen si ista mihi sunt habenda, certiorem velim me facias ubi sint, quando arcessantur, quo genere vecturae. si enim Damasippus in sententia non manebit, aliquem Pseudodamasippum vel cum iactura reperiemus.
As to what you write to me about the house, I had already, on setting out, given the matter to my Tullia; for I had received your letter at that very hour. I had also dealt with your Nicias, since he is on close terms (as you know) with Cassius. When I returned, however, before I read this latest letter of yours, I asked my Tullia what she had done. She said that she had dealt with Licinia (but I gather that Cassius is not on very close terms with his sister); and that she went on to say that she did not dare, with her husband away (Dexius has set out for Spain), to move house with him both absent and unaware. It is most pleasing to me that you have so highly valued the daily companionship of our manner of life — that you would take the house in such a way that you could live not merely near me, but plainly with me; and that you should be in such haste to move. But, on my life, I do not yield to you in being more eager for that than I am. I shall therefore try everything; for I see what is in my interest, what is in the interest of both of us. If I have done anything, I shall let you know. Please write back about everything, and let me know, if you think fit, when I am to expect you.
quod ad me de domo scribis iterum, iam id ego proficiscens mandabam meae Tulliae; ea enim ipsa hora acceperam tuas litteras. egeram etiam cum tuo Nicia, quod is utitur, ut scis, familiariter Cassio. ut redii autem prius quam tuas legi has proximas litteras, quaesivi de mea Tullia quid egisset. per Liciniam se egisse dicebat (sed opinor Cassium uti non ita multum sorore); eam porro negare se audere, cum vir abesset (est enim profectus in Hispaniam Dexius), illo et absente et insciente migrare. est mihi gratissimum tanti a te aestimatam consuetudinem vitae victusque nostri, primum ut eam domum sumeres, ut non modo prope me sed plane mecum habitare posses, deinde ut migrare tanto opere festines. sed ne vivam, si tibi concedo ut eius rei tu cupidior sis quam ego sum. itaque omnia experiar; video enim quid mea intersit, quid utriusque nostrum. si quid egero, faciam ut scias. tu et ad omnia rescribes et quando te exspectem facies me, si tibi videtur, certiorem.