M. Tullius Cicero, Letters to his Friends, DCLXXIV (F VII, 29)

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DCLXXIV (F VII, 29)

MANIUS CURIUS TO CICERO (AT ROME)
PATRAE, 29 OCTOBER

If you are well, I am glad; for I am yours by usus, Atticus's in full dominium. therefore the usufruct of me is yours, the ownership his. ¹ If indeed he puts us up for sale in one lot, he won t make much of us. But what an addition to my selling price will be my declaration that whatever I am or have, and whatever position I enjoy in the world, is all owing to you! Wherefore, my dear Cicero, persevere in your constant care for my welfare, and recommend me in a letter of introduction of the finest brand to the successor of Sulpicius. I shall thereby have greater facility in obeying your maxims, and of seeing you to my joy by the spring, and of breaking up my establishment and bringing my belongings safely home. But, my dear distinguished friend, do not shew this letter to Atticus. Let him continue to regard me as heart and soul his, and not as one who "whitewashes two walls out of the same pot." ² So, patron mine, good-bye to you, and give Tiro kind regards from me.

29 October.

1 Curius uses legal terms connected with the ownership of land-first in Greek and then in Latin. Usus (χρῆσις) is the holding of property of which the ownership belongs to another; dominium (κτῆσις) is full ownership; fructus or usus fructus is the right to the profit of the property which the man who has usus takes; mancipium is (1) property acquired by mancipatio, (2) the full ownership of such property.

2 A proverb for one who "blows hot and cold," who "sits on the hedge, or who tries "to serve two masters."

Cicero. The Letters of Cicero; the whole extant correspondence in chronological order, in four volumes. Evelyn S. Shuckburgh. London. George Bell and Sons. 1908-1909.

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M. Tullius Cicero, Letters to his Friends
Evelyn Shuckburgh, Evelyn S. Shuckburgh, Ed.

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DCLXXIV (F VII, 29)

M. Tullius Cicero, Letters to his Friends Evelyn Shuckburgh, Evelyn S. Shuckburgh, Ed.

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DCLXXIV (F VII, 29)

M. Tullius Cicero, Letters to his Friends
Evelyn Shuckburgh, Evelyn S. Shuckburgh, Ed.