Though it had not been quite settled in my own mind whether I should see you at Athens with some distress of feeling or rather with pleasure — since the wrong done to you would have grieved me, while your wisdom in bearing the wrong would have given me delight — still I should rather have seen you. For what there is of pain is not really much less for my not seeing you; while what there might have been of pleasure, certainly, had I seen you, would have been more. And so I shall not hesitate to take care that I see you when I can decently do it; in the meantime, what can be transacted by letter — and, as I think, brought to a finish — I shall transact.

etsi non satis mihi constiterat cum aliquane animi mei molestia an potius libenter te Athenis visurus essem, quod iniuria, quam accepisti, dolore me adficeret, sapientia tua, qua fers iniuriam, laetitia, tamen vidisse te mallem; nam quod est molestiae non sane multo levius est, cum te non video, quod esse potuit voluptatis certe, si vidissem te, plus fuisset. itaque non dubitabo dare operam ut te videam, cum id satis commode facere potuero; interea quod per litteras et agi tecum et, ut arbitror, confici potest agam.

Now, in the first place, I shall ask you to do nothing for my sake against your will, but to grant me, only on this condition — that you see it to matter much to me and not at all to you, on any side — if you have first persuaded yourself that you would gladly do it. With Patro the Epicurean I have everything in common, except that on points of philosophy I sharply disagree with him. But both at Rome, when he was paying his court to you and to all your circle, he was particularly attentive to me; and lately, when he had obtained what he wanted in the way of his own benefits and rewards, he counted me as nearly the first of his defenders and friends; and indeed by Phaedrus (who, when we were boys, before we had come to know Philo, was greatly approved by us as a philosopher, and was approved later also as a good man, charming and obliging) he was passed on and recommended to me.

nunc te illud primum rogabo ne quid invitus mea causa facias, sed id, quod mea intelleges multum, tua nullam in partem interesse, ita mihi des, si tibi ut id libenter facias ante persuaseris. Cum zzzPatrone Epicurio mihi omnia sunt, nisi quod in philosophia vehementer ab eo dissentio. sed et initio Romae, cum te quoque et tuos omnis observabat, me coluit in primis et nuper, cum ea quae voluit de suis commodis et praemiis consecutus est, me habuit suorum defensorum et amicorum fere principem et iam a Phaedro, qui nobis, cum pueri essemus, ante quam Philonem cognovimus, valde ut philosophus, postea tamen ut vir bonus et suavis et officiosus probabatur, traditus mihi commendatusque est.

This same Patro, then, having sent letters to me at Rome that I should make his peace with you and ask you to grant him that something-or-other of Epicurus’s ruined walls, I wrote nothing to you about it, because I did not want your plan of building to be obstructed by any recommendation of mine; and now, when I came to Athens, the same man having asked that I write to you again to the same effect, he prevailed for this reason: that it was settled among all your friends that you had given up that building project.

is igitur Patro cum ad me Romam litteras misisset, uti te sibi placarem peteremque ut nescio quid illud Epicuri parietinarum sibi concederes, nihil scripsi ad te ob eam rem, quod aedificationis tuae consilium commendatione mea nolebam impediri; idem, ut veni Athenas, cum idem ad te scriberem rogasset, ob eam causam impetravit, quod te abiecisse illam aedificationem constabat inter omnis amicos tuos.

If that is so, and if the matter is now of absolutely no consequence to you, I should like — in case some little offence has been given by the perverseness of certain men (for I know the tribe) — that you incline to mildness, whether on account of your own great humanity or even for the sake of my standing. For my part, if you ask what I myself feel, I do not see why he should press so hard, nor why you should resist, except that you can be allowed to give way much less than he can be allowed to make a fuss without cause. Although I am sure that Patro’s case and pleading are known to you: he says that he must protect his honour, his duty, the law of testaments, the authority of Epicurus, the entreaty of Phaedrus, the seat, the dwelling, the footprints of the greatest men. We may laugh, if we like, at the whole way of life and the system the man pursues in philosophy, if we want to criticise this insistence of his. But, by Hercules, since we are no great enemies to him and to the others whom such things please, I am not sure whether he ought not to be forgiven if he toils so hard over the matter; for even where he is in the wrong, he is in the wrong by foolishness rather than by depravity.

quod si ita est et si iam tua plane nihil interest, velim, si qua offensiuncula facta est animi tui perversitate aliquorum (novi enim gentem illam), des te ad lenitatem vel propter summam tuam humanitatem vel etiam honoris mei causa. equidem, si quid ipse sentiam quaeris, nec cur ille tanto opere contendat video, nec cur tu repugnes, nisi tamen multo minus tibi concedi potest quam illi laborare sine causa. quamquam Patronis et orationem et causam tibi cognitam esse certo scio; honorem, officium, testamentorum ius, Epicuri auctoritatem, Phaedri obtestationem, sedem, domicilium, vestigia summorum hominum sibi tuenda esse dicit. totam hominis vitam rationemque quam sequitur in philosophia, derideamus licet, si hanc eius contentionem volumus reprehendere; sed me hercules, quoniam illi ceterisque, quos illa delectant, non valde inimici sumus nescio an ignoscendum sit huic, si tanto opere laborat; in quo etiam si peccat, magis ineptiis quam improbitate peccat.

But not to say more — one must come to a stop at some point — I love Pomponius Atticus as a second brother. Nothing is dearer or more agreeable to me than he is. He (not that he is one of these people — for he is most polished in every liberal study, though he is very fond of Patro, as he was very fond of Phaedrus), this same Atticus has urged this on me as he has never urged anything — a man not at all ambitious, not at all importunate in asking — and he does not doubt that I could obtain it from you by a nod, even if you were planning to build. But now, if he hears that you have abandoned the building and yet that I have not obtained this from you, he will think, not that you are mean-spirited toward me, but that I have been neglectful toward him. I therefore ask you to write to your people that that resolution of the Areopagites — what they call a memorandum hypomnematismon — may, with your consent, be set aside. But I come back to where I began.

sed ne plura (dicendum enim aliquando est), Pomponium Atticum sic amo ut alterum fratrem. nihil est illo mihi nec carius nec iucundius. is (non quo sit ex istis; est enim omni liberali doctrina politissimus, sed valde diligit Patronem, valde Phaedrum amavit) sic a me hoc contendit, homo minime ambitiosus, minime in rogando molestus, ut nihil umquam magis, nec dubitat quin ego a te nutu hoc consequi possem, etiam si aedificaturus esses. nunc vero, si audierit te aedificationem deposuisse neque tamen me a te impetrasse non te in me inliberalem sed me in se neglegentem putabit. quam ob rem peto a te ut scribas ad tuos posse tua voluntate decretum illud Areopagitarum, quem u(pomnhmatismo illi vocant, tolli. sed redeo ad prima.

I would rather you persuaded yourself to do this for my sake gladly than that you simply do it; yet take this for certain — that if you do what I ask, it will be most welcome to me. Farewell.

prius velim tibi persuadeas ut hoc mea causa libenter facias quam ut facias; sic tamen habeto, si feceris quod rogo, fore mihi gratissimum. vale.

C icero by Claude

Ad Familiares 13.1

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