DLXXVI (A XII,35, § 2)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
(In Sicca's suburban villa, 1 or 2 May?)
Before I left your house[1] last it never occurred to me that if a sum was spent on the monument in excess of some amount or other allowed by the law, the same sum has to be paid to the exchequer.[2] This would not have disturbed me at all, except that somehow or another—perhaps unreasonably—I should not like it to be known by any name except that of a "shrine." That being my wish, I fear I cannot accomplish it without a change of site. Consider, please, what to make of this. For though I am feeling the strain less than I did, and have almost recovered my equanimity, yet I want your advice. Therefore I beg you again and again—more earnestly than you wish or allow yourself to be intreated by me—to give your whole mind to considering this question.
DLXXVII (A XII, 36)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
Astura (2 May)
I wish to have a shrine built, and that wish cannot be rooted
out of my heart. I am anxious to avoid any likeness to a
tomb, not so much on account of the penalty of the law as
- ↑ During April Cicero seems to have been at or near Rome. See p. 227.
- ↑ A lex Cornelia of the dictator Sulla regulated the expenses of funerals (Plut. Sull. 35). It may—though it is not known—have also limited the amount to be expended on monuments. The recent lex Iulia may also have contained some regulation on the subject.
