Cicero Basics | Cicero in Detail
DCCXLV (A XV, 15)
To Atticus (at Rome)
Astura, 13 June
Confound Lucius Antonius, if he makes himself trouble some to the Buthrotians! I have drawn out a deposition which shall be signed and sealed whenever you please. As for the money of the Arpinates, if the aedile. L. Fadius asks for it, pay him back every farthing. In a previous letter I mentioned to you a sum of 110 sestertia to be paid to Statius. If, then, Fadius applies for the money, I wish it paid to him, and to no one except Fadius. I think that amount was put into my hands, and I have written to Eros to produce it.
I can't stand the Queen: and the voucher for her promises, Hammonius, knows that I have good cause for saying so. What she promised, indeed, were all things of the learned sort and suitable to my character-such as I could avow even in a public meeting. As for Sara, besides finding him to be an unprincipled rascal, I also found him inclined to give himself airs to me. I only saw him once at my house. And when I asked him politely what I could do for him, he said that he had come in hopes of finding Atticus. The Queen's insolence, too, when she was living in Caesar's trans-Tiberine villa, I cannot recall without a pang. I won't have anything to do therefore with that lot. They think not so much that I have no spirit, as that I have scarcely any proper pride at all.
My leaving Italy is hindered by Eros's way of doing business. For whereas from the balances struck by him on the 5th of April I ought to be well off; I am obliged to borrow, while the receipts from those paying properties of mine I think have been put aside for building the shrine. But I have charged Tiro to see to all this, whom I am sending to Rome for the express purpose. I did not wish to add to your existing embarrassments.
The steadier the conduct of my son, the more I am vexed at his being hampered. For he never mentioned the subject to me-the first person to whom he should have done so. But he said in a letter to Tiro that he had received nothing since the 1st of April-for that was the end of his financial year. Now I know that your own kind feeling always caused you to be of opinion that he ought to be treated not only with liberality, but with splendour and generosity, and that you also considered that to be due to my position. Wherefore pray see-I would not have troubled you if I could have done it through anyone else-that he has a bill of exchange at Athens for his year's allowance. Eros will pay you the money. I am sending Tiro on that business. Pray therefore see to it, and write and tell me any idea you may have on the subject.
Based on: Cicero. The Letters of Cicero; the whole extant correspondence in chronological order, in four volumes. Evelyn S. Shuckburgh. London. George Bell and Sons. 1908-1909, with paragraphs divided as they are in the Latin.
15.15
Scr. in Antiati Id. Iun. a. 710 (44).
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
L. Antonio male sit, si quidem Buthrotiis molestus est! ego testimonium composui quod cum voles obsignabitun nummos Arpinatium, si L. Fadius aedilis petet, vel omnis reddito. ego ad te alia epistula scripsi HS C_X_ quae Statio curarentur. si ergo petet Fadius, ei volo reddi, praeter Fadium nemini. apud me item puto depositum id scripsi ad Erotem ut redderet.
[2] reginam odi. id me iure facere scit sponsor promissorum eius Ammonius, quae quidem erant filo/loga et dignitatis meae ut vel in contione dicere auderem. Saran autem, praeterquam quod nefarium hominem, cognovi praeterea in me contumacem. semel eum omnino domi meae vidi. cum filofro/nwj ex eo quaererem quid opus esset, Atticum se dixit quaerere. superbiam autem ipsius reginae, cum esset trans Tiberim in hortis, commemorare sine magno dolore non possum. nihil igitur cum istis; nec tam animum me quam stomachum habere arbitrantur.
[3] profectionem meam, ut video, Erotis dispensatio impedit. nam cum ex reliquis quae Nonis Aprilibus fecit abundare debeam, cogor mutuari, quodque ex istis fructuosis rebus receptum est, id ego ad illud fanum sepositum putabam. sed haec Tironi mandavi quem ob eam causam Romam misi; te nolui impeditum impedire.
[4] Cicero noster quo modestior est eo me magis commovet. ad me enim de hac re nihil scripsit ad quem nimirum potissimum debuit; scripsit hoc autem ad Tironem, sibi post Kalend. Aprilis (sic enim annuum tempus confici) nihil datum esse. tibi pro tua natura semper placuisse teque existimasse id etiam ad dignitatem meam pertinere eum non modo perliberaliter a nobis sed etiam ornate cumulateque tractari. qua re velim cures (nec tibi essem molestus, si per alium hoc agere possem) ut permutetur Athenas quod sit in annuum sumptum ei. scilicet Eros numerabit. eius rei causa Tironem misi. curabis igitur et ad me si quid tibi de eo videbitur scribes.
M. TVLLI CICERONIS EPISTVLARVM AD ATTICVM LIBER QVINTVS DECIMVS
