DCCIX (A XIV, 9)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
PUTEOLI, 18 APRIL
I have learnt a good deal about public affairs
from your letters, a considerable batch of which I
received at the same time from the freedman of
Vestorius. However, to your questions I shall make
a short answer. I must premise that I am delighted
with the Cluvian estate. 1 As to your
question about the reason for my having sent for
Chrysippus—two of my shops have fallen
down and the rest are cracking. So not only the
tenants but the very mice have migrated. Other
people call this a misfortune, I don't call it
even a nuisance. Oh Socrates and Socratic
philosophers, I shall never be able to thank you
enough! Good heavens, how paltry such things are
in my eyes! But after all I am adopting a plan of
building on the suggestion and advice of
Vestorius, which will convert this loss into a
gain. Here there is a
great crowd of visitors and there will, I hear, be
a greater still. Our two consuls-designate
forsooth ! 2
Good God, the tyranny survives though the tyrant
is dead! We rejoice at his assassination, yet
support his acts! Accordingly, M. Curtius 3
criticises us with such severity that one feels
ashamed to be alive. And not without reason: for
it had been better to die a thousand deaths than
to endure the present state of things, which seems
to me likely to be more than a passing phase.
Balbus too is here and often at my house. He has
had a letter from Vetus, dated on the last day of
the year, announcing that "when he was investing
Caecilius Bassus, and was on the point of
compelling him to surrender, the
Parthian Pacorus arrived with an immense force:
that accordingly Bassus was snatched from his
hands, for which he blames Volcatius." 4
Accordingly, I think that a war there is imminent.
But that will be the affair of Dolabella and
Nicias. 5 Balbus also gives
better news from Gaul. 6 He has a letter dated
twenty-one days back announcing that the Germans
and the tribes there, on hearing about Caesar's
death, sent legates to Aurelius, who was put in
command by Hirtius, promising obedience. In short,
everything speaks of peace in those parts,
contrary to what Calvena said to me. 7
PUTEOLI, 18 APRIL
