DCXXXIX (A XIII, 25, §§ 2 AND 3)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
Tusculum, 12 July
About Andromenes, I thought what you say was the case.
For you would have known and told me. Yet your letter
is so full of Brutus, that you don't say a word about yourself.
But when do you think he is coming? For I intend
to arrive in Rome on the 14th. I meant in my letter to tell
Brutus—but since you say that you have read it, I was
not perhaps quite clear—that I understood from your letter
that he did not wish me to come to Rome now out of compliment
as it were to himself. But since my arrival in town
is now approaching, pray take care that the Ides (the 15th)[1]
don't prevent him from being at Tusculum if that suits his
convenience. For I am not likely to want him at the
auction. In a business of that kind why are you not sufficient
by yourself? But I do want him at the making
of my will. This, however, I wish to be on another day,
that I may not appear to have come to Rome for that express
purpose. I have written to Brutus, therefore, to say that there
was not the occasion for his presence on the 15th, which I
had contemplated. So I should like you to direct the whole
of this business in such a way as to prevent our inconveniencing
Brutus in any particular, however small.
But pray, why in the world are you in such a fright at my bidding you send the books to Varro at your own risk? Even at this eleventh hour, if you have any doubt, let me know. Nothing can be more finished than they are. I want Varro to take a part in them, especially as he desires it himself: but he is, as you know,
"Keen-eyed for faults, to blame the blameless prone."[2]
The expression of his face often occurs to me as he per-*
