Tubero's wife and step-daughter[1]—for the speech is by this time very widely known—nor do I wish to annoy Tubero: for he is astonishingly sensitive. You certainly had a good audience! For my part, though I get on very comfortably in this place, I nevertheless long to see you. So I shall be with you as I arranged. I suppose you have met my brother. I am therefore anxious to know what you said to him. As to "reputation," I am not at all inclined to trouble myself, though I did say foolishly in that letter that it was "better than anything else." For it is not a thing for me to be anxious about. And don't you see how truly philosophical this sentiment is—"that every man is bound not to depart a nail's breadth from the strict path of conscience"? Do you think that it is all for nothing that I am now engaged in these compositions?[2] I would not have you feel distressed by that remark, which amounted to nothing. For I return to the same point again. Do you suppose that I care for anything in the whole question except not to be untrue to my past? I am striving, forsooth, to maintain my reputation in the courts! Not in them I trust! I only wish I could bear my home sorrows as easily as I can disregard that! But do you think that I had set my heart on something that has not been accomplished? Self-praise is no commendation: still, though I cannot fail to approve of what I did then,[3] yet I can with a good grace refrain from troubling myself about it, as in fact I do. But I have said too much on a trivial subject.
- ↑ Q. Ælius Tubero prosecuted Ligarius; we know nothing of his wife and step-daughter, or how it was proposed to bring them into the speech.
- ↑ The Academica and the de Finibus. Cicero means that his philosophical studies are not merely theoretical—they affect his view of life and of the value of fame.
- ↑ I.e., in the earlier part of his career, especially in the consulship.
