DCCXLV (A XV, 15)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
ASTURA, 13 JUNE
CONFOUND Lucius Antonius, if he makes himself
trouble some to the Buthrotians! I have drawn out
a deposition which shall be signed and sealed
whenever you please. As for the money of the
Arpinates, if the aedile. 1 L.
Fadius asks for it, pay him back every farthing.
In a previous letter I mentioned to you a sum of
110 sestertia to be paid to Statius. If, then,
Fadius applies for the money, I wish it paid to
him, and to no one except Fadius. I think that
amount was put into my hands, and I have written
to Eros to produce it. I can't stand the Queen:
and the voucher for her promises, Hammonius, knows
that I have good cause for saying so.
What she promised, indeed, were all things of the
learned sort and suitable to my character-such as
I could avow even in a public meeting. 2 As for Sara, besides finding him to
be an unprincipled rascal, I also found him
inclined to give himself airs to me. I only saw
him once at my house. And when I asked him
politely what I could do for him, he said that he
had come in hopes of finding Atticus. 3 The Queen's
insolence, too, when she was living in Caesar's
trans-Tiberine villa, I cannot recall without a
pang. I won't have anything to do therefore with
that lot. They think not so much that I have no
spirit, as that I have scarcely any proper pride
at all. My leaving Italy is hindered by Eros's way
of doing business. For whereas from the balances
struck by him on the 5th of April I ought to be
well off; I am obliged to borrow, while the
receipts from those paying properties of mine I
think have been put aside for building the shrine.
4 But I have charged Tiro to
see to all this, whom I am sending to Rome for the
express purpose. I did not
wish to add to your existing embarrassments. The
steadier the conduct of my son, the more I am
vexed at his being hampered. For he never
mentioned the subject to me—the first
person to whom he should have done so. But he said
in a letter to Tiro that he had received nothing
since the 1st of April—for that was the
end of his financial year. Now I know that your
own kind feeling always caused you to be of
opinion that he ought to be treated not only with
liberality, but with splendour and generosity, and
that you also considered that to be due to my
position. Wherefore pray see—I would not
have troubled you if I could have done it through
anyone else—that he has a bill of
exchange at Athens for his year's allowance. Eros
will pay you the money. I am sending Tiro on that
business. Pray therefore see to it, and write and
tell me any idea you may have on the subject.
ASTURA, 13 JUNE