CLVII (A IV, 17)
TO ATTICUS (ON HIS WAY TO ROME)
ROME (NOVEMBER)
At last the long-expected letter from you!
Back to Italy, how delightful! What wonderful
fidelity to your promise! What a charming voyage!
About this last, by Hercules, I was very nervous,
remembering the fur wrappers of your former
crossing. But, unless I am mistaken, I shall see
you sooner than you say in your letter. For I
believe you thought that your ladies were in
Apulia, and when you find that not to be the case,
what can there be to detain you there? Are you
bound to give Vestorius some days, and must you go
through the stale banquet of his Latin Atticism
again after an interval? Nay, fly hither and visit
(the remains) of that genuine Republic of ours! ..
1 Observe my strength of mind and my supreme
indifference to the Felician 2 one-twelfth legacy, and
also, by heaven, my very gratifying connexion with
Caesar—for this delights me as the one
spar left me from the present
shipwreck—Caesar, I say, who treats your
and my Quintus, heavens! with what honour,
respect, and favours! It is exactly as if I were
the imperator. The
choice was just lately offered him of selecting
any of the winter quarters, as he writes me word.
Wouldn't you be fond of such a man as that? Of
which of your friends would you, if not of him?
But look you! did I write you word that I was
legatus to Pompey,
and should be outside the city from the 13th of
January onwards? This appeared to me to square
with many things. But why say more? I will, I
think, reserve the rest till we meet, that you may, after all, have something to look
forward to. My very best regards to Dionysius, for
whom, indeed, I have not merely kept a place, but
have even built one. In fine, to the supreme joy
of your return, a finishing stroke will be added
by his arrival. The day you arrive, you and your
party will, I entreat you, stay with me.
ROME (NOVEMBER)
