DCXXXIX (A XIII, 25, §§ 2 AND 3)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
TUSCULUM, 12 JULY
About Andromenes, I thought what you say was
the case. For you would have known and told me.
Yet your letter is so full of Brutus, that you
don't say a word about yourself. But when do you
think he is coming? For I intend to arrive in Rome
on the 14th. I meant in my letter to tell
Brutus—but since you say that you have
read it, I was not perhaps quite
clear—that I understood from your letter
that he did not wish me to come to Rome now out of
compliment as it were to himself. But since my
arrival in town is now approaching, pray take care
that the Ides (the 15th) 1 don't
prevent him from being at Tusculum if that suits
his convenience. For I am not likely to want him
at the auction. In a business of that kind why are
you not sufficient by yourself? But I do want him
at the making of my will. This, however, I wish to
be on another day, that I may not appear to have
come to Rome for that express purpose. I have
written to Brutus, therefore, to say that there
was not the occasion for his presence on the 15th,
which I had contemplated. So I should like you to
direct the whole of this business in such a way as
to prevent our inconveniencing Brutus in any
particular, however small. But pray, why in the world are you in such a
fright at my bidding you send the books to Varro
at your own risk? Even at this eleventh hour, if
you have any doubt, let me know. Nothing can be
more finished than they are. I want Varro to take
a part in them, especially as he desires it
himself: but he is, as you know, “Keen-eyed
for faults, to blame the blameless prone.”
2 The expression of his face
often occurs to me as he perhaps
complains, for instance, that in these books my
side in the argument is defended at greater length
than his own. That, on my honour, you will find
not to be the case if you ever get your holiday in
Epirus—for at present my works have to
give place to Alexion's business letters. But
after all I don't despair of the book securing
Varro's approval, and I am not sorry that my plan
should be persisted in, as I have gone to some
expense in long paper; 3
but I say again and again—it shall be
done at your risk. Wherefore, if you have any
hesitation, let us change to Brutus, for he too is
an adherent of Antiochus. What an excellent
likeness of the Academy itself, with its
instability, its shifting views, now this way and
now that! But, please tell me, did you really like
my letter to Varro? May I be hanged if I ever take
so much trouble again about anything! Consequently
I did not dictate it even to Tiro, 4 who usually takes down whole periods at a
breath, but syllable by syllable to Spintharus.
5
TUSCULUM, 12 JULY
