my secretary Tullius for you to demand: if there had been I would have instructed you to do so. The fact is that he holds no money that was set apart for the vow, though there is something of mine in his hands. That sum I have resolved to transfer to this purchase. So we were both right—I in telling you where it was, he in denying it to you. But let us at once pounce upon this very money also. In the case of a shrine for human beings I don't think well of a grove, because it is not much frequented: yet there is something to say for it. However, this point too shall be settled in accordance with your opinion, as everything else is. I shall come to town the day I fixed: and I hope to heaven you will come the same day. But if anything prevents you—for a hundred things may do so—at any rate the next day. Why, think of the co-heirs, and of my being left to their tender mercies without your cunning! This is the second letter I have had without a word about Attica. However, I put a very hopeful construction on that. I don't lay the blame on you, but on her, that there isn't so much as a "kind regards." However, give my kindest, both to her and Pilia, and don't in spite of all hint that I am angry. I am sending you Cæsar's letter, in case you have not read it.
DCXXXIV (A XIII, 33, §§ 4, 5)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
Tusculum (9 July)
We were talking of Varro . . . talk of a wolf, you know.[1]
For he arrived at my house, and at such an hour of the day
- [Footnote: has married or is going to marry Porcia, daughter of Cato and widow
of Bibulus. Naturally the Cæsarians thought it a dangerous alliance, and especially his mother Servilia—the warm friend and perhaps mistress of Cæsar. Cicero says that it is a pity the two ladies are unfriendly to each other, but, he adds, they keep up appearances and do all that their respective positions demand.]
- ↑ Like our "talk of the devil." But I don't know what the fable alluded to is.
