Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Cic. Fam.]. | ||
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CXXV (F VII, 23)
TO M. FADIUS GALLUS
I had only just arrived from
is absolutely none of those purchases that I care to have. But you, being unacquainted with my habits, have bought four or five of your selection at a price at which I do not value any statues in the world. You compare your Bacchae with Metellus's Muses. Where is the likeness? To begin with, I should never have considered the Muses worth all that money, and I think all the Muses would have approved my judgment: still, it would have been appropriate to a library, and in harmony with my pursuits. But Bacchae! What place
is there in my house for them? But, you will say, they are pretty. I know them very well and have often seen them. I would have commissioned you definitely in the case of statues known to me, if I had decided on them. The sort of statues that I am accustomed to buy are such as may adorn a place in a palaestra after the fashion of gymnasia.
[Note]
What, again, have I, the promoter of peace, to do with a statue of Mars? I am glad there was not a statue of Saturn also: for I should have thought these two statues had brought me debt! I should have preferred some representation of Mercury: I might then, I suppose, have made a more favourable bargain with Arrianus. You say you meant the table-stand
[Note]
for yourself; well, if you like it, keep it. But if you have changed your mind I will, of course, have it. For the money you have laid out, indeed, I would rather have purchased a place of call at
kind of conveyance. For if Damasippus doesn't abide by hs decision, I shall look for some would-be Damasippus, [Note] even at a loss.
As to what you say about the house, as I was going out of town I intrusted the matter to my daughter Tullia :
[Note]
for it was at the very hour of my departure that I got your letter. I also discussed the matter with your friend Nicias, because he is, as you know, intimate with Cassius. On my return, however, before I got your last letter, I asked Tullia what she had done. She said that she had approached Licinia
[Note]
(though I think Cassius is not very intimate with his sister), and that she at once said that she could not venture, in the absence of her husband (Dexius is gone to
Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Cic. Fam.]. | ||
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