DCXXXVII (A XIII, 24 AND 25, § 1)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
Tusculum (11 July)
What is this about Hermogenes Clodius having said that
Andromenes told him that he had seen my son at Corcyra?
I supposed that you must have heard it. Didn't he then
give any letter even to him? Or didn't he see him? Pray
therefore let me know. What answer am I to give you
about Varro? You have the four parchment rolls in your
hands: whatever you do I shall approve. It isn't after all a
case of "fearing the Trojans."[1] Why should I? But I am
more afraid of his own disapprobation of the business. But
since you undertake it—I shall sleep on both ears.[2]
About the "abatement" I have answered your full and careful letter. Please therefore settle the business, and that too without hesitation or reserve. This ought and must be done.
DCXXXVIII (F IX, 6)
TO M. TARENTIUS VARRO (With a copy of the Academica)
Tusculum (July 11?)
To demand a gift, even if a man has promised it,[3] is more
than even a nation will generally do, unless under great(Pollux, ii. 84). It is also French: dormir sur les deux oreilles. I don't know of any English equivalent, but there is the converse,
"to sleep with one eye (or ear) open."]
- ↑ I.e., public opinion, as often. See vol. i., p. 90, etc.
- ↑ In alteram aurem, a proverb for undisturbed sleep, and so a quiet mind. It is used by Terence (Haut. 342), Plautus (Pseud. i. I, 121), and Pliny (Ep. iv. 29). It was a Greek proverb also: [Greek: ep' amphotera ta ôta katheudein
- ↑ Varro had promised to dedicate some work to Cicero. See p. 289.
