B.C. 47, ÆT. 59
Quintus is going on in the old way,[1] as both Pansa and
Hirtius have written to tell me—and he is also said to be
making for Africa with the rest.
I will write to Minucius at Tarentum and send him your letter: I will write and tell you if I come to any settlement. I should have been surprised at your being able to find thirty sestertia, had there not been a good surplus from the sale of the Fufidian estates. But my eager desire now is for yourself, to see whom, if it is in any way possible (and circumstances make it desirable), I am very anxious. The last act is being played: what its nature is it is easy to estimate at Rome, more difficult here.[2]
CCCCXXVIII (A XI, 15)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
Brundisium, 14 May
As you give me good and sufficient reasons why I cannot see
you at this time, I beg you to tell me what I ought to do.
For it seems to me that, though Cæsar is holding Alexandria,
he is ashamed even to send a despatch on the operations
there. Whereas these men in Africa seem to be on the
point of coming over here: so, too, the Achæan refugees[3]
seem to intend returning from Asia to join them, or to stay
in some neutral place. What therefore do you think I
ought to do? I quite see that it is difficult to advise. For
I am the only one (or with one other[4]) for whom neither a
return to the one party is possible, nor a gleam of hope
visible from the other. But nevertheless I should like to
- ↑ Abusing me. It does not seem likely that Quintus was contemplating rejoining the Pompeians in Africa.
- ↑ The text is corrupt.
- ↑ The Pompeians, who, instead of keeping with the Pompeian fleet, had taken refuge in Patræ and Sicyon, and had then crossed to Asia in hopes of meeting Cæsar and obtaining pardon. See p. 14.
- ↑ Decimus Lælius See pp. 19, 33.
