B.C. 46, ÆT. 60 the hours of waiting seemed long. You know I am by no means a flatterer, and so I considerably understate my feelings.
CCCCLXVI (A XII, 3)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
Tusculum, 13 June
I regard you as the one man who is less of a flatterer than
myself, and if we both are sometimes such towards some one
else, we are never so to each other. So listen to what I say
in all plainness and sincerity. May I perish, my dear Atticus,
if, I don't say my Tusculan villa—where in other respects
I am very happy—but even "the islands of the blest" are
in my eyes worth an absence of so many days from you.
Wherefore let us harden ourselves to endure these three
days—assuming you to be in the same state of feeling as
myself, which is surely the case. But I should like to know
whether you are coming to-day immediately after the auction,
or on what day. Meanwhile I am busy with my books, and
am much inconvenienced by not having Vennonius's history.[1]
However, not to omit business altogether, that debt which Cæsar assigned to me admits of being recovered in three ways: first, purchase at the auction—but I would rather lose it, although, let alone the disgrace, that is as good as losing it. Secondly, a bond payable a year hence from the purchaser—but who is there I can trust, and when will that "year of Meton" come? Thirdly, accepting half down on the proposal of Vettienus.[2] Look into the matter therefore.*
- ↑ : A writer on early Roman history, see de Leg. I, 2.
- ↑ Apparently the property of some Pompeian who owed Cicero money was confiscated. From such confiscated properties as a rule debts and dowries were paid, the exchequer or the sector taking the balance. Cæsar had admitted Cicero's debt, which he says he may deal with in three ways. (1) He may purchase the estate at the auction, deducting the amount of his claim, and then sell it for what it would fetch, but probably there were other debts on it and he would get no balance; besides, to act as a sector (making money by one's friends' misfortunes)
