DCLXIII (A XIII, 49)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
Tusculum (20 August)
First, health to Attica, whom I imagine to be in the country,
so I wish her much health, as also to Pilia. If there is anything
fresh about Tigellius, let me know it. He is—as
Fadius Gallus has written me word—bringing up a most unfair
accusation against me, on the ground that I left Phamea
in the lurch after having undertaken to plead his cause. This
cause, indeed, I had undertaken against the sons of Gnæus
Octavius, much against my will—but I did also wish well to
Phamea. For, if I remember rightly, when I was standing
for the consulship he sent me a promise through you to do
anything he could; and I was no less mindful of that
courtesy than if I had availed myself of it. He called on
me and told me that the arbitrator had arranged to take his
case on the very day on which the jury were bound by the
Pompeian law to consider their verdict on our friend Sestius.
For you are aware that the days in those suits have been fixed
by law. I replied that he was not ignorant of my obligations to
Sestius: if he selected any other day he chose, I would not
fail to appear for him. So on that occasion he left me in a
rage. I think I told you about it. I didn't trouble myself,
of course, nor did I think that the wholly groundless anger of
a man not in the least connected with me required any
attention from me. But the last time I was in Rome I told
Gallus what I had heard, without however mentioning the
younger Balbus. Gallus made it his business to go into the
matter, as he writes me word. He says that the allegation
of Tigellius is that I suspect him because I have it on my
conscience that I left Phamea in the lurch. Wherefore all
I ask you to do is to get anything you can from our friend
the younger Balbus, but not to trouble yourself about me.
It is a sop to one's dignity to have some one to hate without
restraint and not to be a slave to everybody (as the man was
