B.C. 45, ÆT. 61 array[1] on the 29th of December. It is enough to convince anyone of what you have recently begun to doubt, that "the good is desirable for its own sake."[2] For because he has relieved many of their misfortunes, and has shewn humanity in these evil times, he was attended by an extraordinary display of affection on the part of good men. I very much approve of your having stayed on at Brundisium, and I am very glad you have done so, and, by Hercules, I think that you will act wisely if you don't trouble yourself about vain things.[3] Certainly I, who love you, shall be glad if it is so. And pray, next time you are sending a packet home, don't forget me. I will never allow anyone, if I know it, to go to you without a letter from me.
DXLI (F XV, 19)
C. CASSIUS LONGINUS TO CICERO (AT ROME)
Brundisium (January)
If you are well, I am glad. There is nothing, by Hercules,
that I more like doing on this tour of mine than writing to
you: for I seem to be talking and joking with you in
person. Nor does this come to pass owing to Catius's
"images":[4] for which expression I will in my next retort on
you by quoting such a number of ill-educated Stoics, that you
will acknowledge Catius to have been a true-born Athenian.
That our friend Pansa left the city in military array with
such expressions of goodwill from everybody, I rejoice both
for his own sake and also, by Hercules, for the sake of all
our party. For I hope that people will understand how
odious cruelty is to everybody, and how attractive honesty, apparently a Stoic word.]
