Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Cic. Fam.]. | ||
<<Cic. Fam. 7.12 | Cic. Fam. 7.13 (Latin) | >>Cic. Fam. 7.14 |
CLXX (F VII, 13)
TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)
Did you suppose me to be so unjust as to be angry with you from the idea that you were not sufficiently persevering and were too eager to return, and do you think that that is the reason of my long silence? I was certainly annoyed by the uneasiness of your spirits, which your first letters conveyed to me; but there was absolutely no other reason for the interruption of my own, except my complete ignorance of your address. Are you still, at this time of day, finding fault with me, and do you refuse to accept my apology? Just listen to me, my dear Testa! Is it money that is making you prouder, or the fact that your commander-in-chief consults you? May I die if I don't believe that such is your vanity
that you would rather be consulted by Caesar than gilded
[Note]
by him! But if both
reasons are true, who will be able to put up with you except myself, who can
put up with anything? But to return to our subject—I am exceedingly glad that
you are content to be where you are, and as your former state of mind was
vexatious, so your present is gratifying, to me. I am only afraid that your
special profession may be of little advantage to you: for, as I am told, in
your present abode
They lay no claim by joining lawful hands,
[Note]
But you are not wont
[Note]
to be called in to assist at a "forcible entry."
Nor have you any reason to be afraid of the usual proviso in the injunction,
"into which you have not previously made entry by force and armed men," for I
am well assured that you are not a man of violence. But to give you some hint
as to what you lawyers call "securities," I opine that you should avoid the
Treviri; I hear they are real tresviri capitales—deadly customers: I
should; have preferred their being tresviri of the mint!
[Note]
But a truce to
jesting for the present. Pray write to me in the fullest detail of all that
concerns you.
But Challenge right with steel.
4 March.
Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Cic. Fam.]. | ||
<<Cic. Fam. 7.12 | Cic. Fam. 7.13 (Latin) | >>Cic. Fam. 7.14 |