B.C. 45, ÆT. 61 not "asleep to everybody").[1] Yet, by heaven, as you know very well, those men[2] are rather acting as slaves to me, if to pay a man constant attentions is being a slave.
DCLXIV (A XIII, 50)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
Tusculum (22 August)
You gave me a hint in one of your letters, that I should set
about writing a letter to Cæsar on a larger scale. Balbus also
recently, at our meeting at Lanuvium, informed me that he
and Oppius had written to tell Cæsar that I had read his books
against Cato and warmly admired them. Accordingly, I
have composed an epistle to Cæsar to be transmitted to
Dolabella. But I sent a copy of it to Oppius and Balbus,
and wrote also to them, saying that they should only order
it to be transmitted to Dolabella, if they themselves approved
of the copy. So they have written back to say that they
never read anything better, and they have ordered my letter
to be delivered to Dolabella.
Vestorius has written to ask me to authorize the conveyance—as far as I am concerned—of the estate of Brinnius to a slave of their own for a certain Hetereius, to enable him to make the conveyance himself in due form to Hetereius at Puteoli.[3] If you think it is all right send that slave to me. For I presume that Vestorius has written to you also.
As to Cæsar's arrival, I have had the same information in a letter from Oppius and Balbus as from you. I am surprised that you have not yet had any conversation with
- ↑ The reading is doubtful. See p. 329.
- ↑ The Cæsarians.
- ↑ Cicero, as one of the heirs of Brinnius, was to join in a sale of the estate to Hetereius. To do that, without having the trouble of going to Puteoli personally, he was to convey it formally to a slave of the banker Vestorius sent for that purpose. It thus became the property of Vestorius himself, as the slave's master: and he then could convey it to Hetereius.
