and spirit, that you will not be ashamed of being coupled with me in politics as well as in private friend. ship.

TO HIS WIFE AND FAMILY IN ROME1

(Fam. XIV., 2.)

THESSALONICA, B. c. 58.

I SEND this, my dear Terentia, with much love to you, and my little Tullia, and my Marcus.

I hope you will never think that I write longer letters to other people, unless it so happens that any one has written to me about a number of matters that seem

to require an answer. In fact, I have nothing to say, nor is there anything just now that I find more difficult. But to you and my dear little girl I cannot write without shedding many tears, when I picture to myself, as plunged in the deepest affliction, you whom my dearest wish has been to see perfectly happy; and this I ought to have secured for you; yes, and I would have secured, but for our being all so faint-hearted.

I am most grateful to our friend Piso 2 for his kind services. I did my best to urge that he would not forget you when I was writing to him; and have now thanked him as in duty bound. I gather that you think there is hope of the new tribunes; that will be a safe thing to depend on, if we may on the profession of Pompeius, but I have my fears of Crassus. It is true I see that everything on your part is done both bravely and lovingly, nor does that surprise me, but what pains me is that it should be my fate to expose you to such severe suffering to relieve my own. For Publius Vale

1 Written during his exile.

2 Tullia's husband.

rius, who has been most attentive, wrote me word, and it cost me many tears in the reading, how you had been forced to go from the temple of Vesta to the Valerian office.1 Alas, my light, my love, whom all used once to look up to for relief! - that you, my Terentia, should be treated thus; that you should be thus plunged in tears and misery, and all through my fault! I have indeed preserved others, only for me and mine to perish.

As to what you say about our house 2. or rather its site I for my part shall consider my restoration to be complete only when I find that it has been restored to me. But these things are not in our hands: what troubles me is, that in the outlay which must be incurred you, unhappy and impoverished as you are, must necessarily share. However, if we succeed in our object, I shall recover everything; but then, if illfortune continues to persecute us, are you, my poor dear, to be allowed to throw away what you may have saved from the wreck? As to my expenses, I entreat you, my dearest life, to let other people, who can do so perfectly if they will, relieve you; and be sure as you love me not to let your anxiety injure your health, which you know is so delicate.3 Night and day you are always before my eyes! I can see you making every exertion on my behalf, and I fear you may not be able to bear it. But I know well that all our hopes are in you; so careful of your

be

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very

1 Terentia's half-sister Fabia was a Vestal, and it is possible that she had taken refuge with her. The Valerian office was probably a bank, where she was required to make a declaration about her husband's property.

2 His house on the Palatine had been destroyed and a temple of Liberty built on its site.

3 Terentia is said to have lived to the age of 103.

health, that we may be successful in what you hope and are working for.

As far as I know there is nobody I ought to write to except those who write to me, or these whom you mention in your letters. Since you prefer it I will not move any further from here, but I hope you will write to me as often as possible, especially if we have any surer grounds for hoping. Good bye, my darlings, good bye.

TO ATTICUS IN ITALY, ON HIS JOURNEY TO ROME

It will be delightful if you come to see us here. You will find that Tyrannio2 has made a wonderfully good arrangement of my books, the remains of which are better than I had expected. Still, I wish you would send me a couple of your library slaves for Tyrannio to employ as gluers,3 and in other subordinate work, and tell them to get some fine parchment to make title-pieces, which you Greeks, I think, call "sillybi." But all this is only if not inconvenient to you. In any case, be sure you come yourself, if you can halt for a while in such a place, and can persuade Pilia to accompany you. For that is only fair, and

1 A town in Latium, on the Mediterranean, where one of Cicero's villas was situated.

2 His librarian.

3 Their duty would be to glue together the separate leaves of papyrus used in making up a roll.

4 A strip of parchment, on which the title of the book was written, was attached to the roll.

5 Atticus' wife.

Tullia is anxious that she should come. My word! You have purchased a fine troop!1 Your gladiators, I am told, fight superbly. If you had chosen to let them out you would have cleared your expenses by the last two spectacles. But we will talk about this later on. Be sure to come, and, as you love me, see about the library slaves.

TO CAESAR, IN GAUL

(Fam. VII., 5.) 2

ROME, B. C. 54.

CICERO greets Caesar, imperator. Observe how far I have convinced myself that you are my second self, not only in matters which concern me personally, but even in those which concern my friends. It had been my intention to take Gaius Trebatius with me for whatever destination I should be leaving town, in order to bring him home again honored as much as my zeal and favor could make him. But when Pompey remained home longer than I expected, and a certain hesitation on my part (with which you are not unacquainted) appeared to hinder, or at any rate to retard, my departure, I presumed upon what I will now explain to you. I begin to wish that Trebatius should look to you for what he had hoped from me, and in fact, I have been no more sparing of my promises of goodwill on your part than I had been wont to be of my

1 Atticus speculated in gladiators.

2 A letter of recommendation in behalf of C. Trebatius Testa, the jurist. We have seventeen letters of Cicero addressed to him, most of them written in a semi-humorous strain, and all indicating a close friendship between the two men.

own. Moreover, an extraordinary coincidence has occurred which seems to support my opinion and to guarantee your kindness. For just as I was speaking to our friend Balbus about this very Trebatius at my house, with more than usual earnestness, a letter from you was handed to me, at the end of which you say: "Miscinius Rufus, whom you recommend to me, I will make king of Gaul, or, if you choose, put him under the care of Lepta.1 Send me some one else to promote." I and Balbus both lifted our hands in surprise it came so exactly in the nick of time, that it appeared to be less the result of mere chance than something providential. I therefore send you Trebatius, and on two grounds, first that it was my spontaneous idea to send him, and secondly, because you have invited me to do so. I would beg you, dear Caesar, to receive him with such a display of kindness as to concentrate on his single person all that you can be possibly induced to bestow for my sake upon my friends. As for him I guarantee not in the sense of that hackneyed expression of mine, at which, when I used it in writing to you about Milo, you very properly jested, but in good Roman language such as sober men use that no honester, better, or more modest man exists. Added to this, he is at the top of his profession as a jurisconsult, possesses an unequalled memory, and the most profound learning. For such a man I ask neither a tribuneship, prefecture, nor any definite office, I ask only your good-will and liberality and yet I do not wish to prevent your complimenting him, if it so please you, with even these marks of distinction. In fact, I transfer him entirely from my hand, so to speak, to yours, which is

:

1 A friend of Cicero's, who was with Caesar in Gaul.