DXXVI (F VI, 9)
TO T. FURFANIUS (PROCONSUL IN
SICILY)
ROME
No intimacy or friendship could be closer than
that which I have always had with Aulus Caecina.
For I was constantly in the society of that
illustrious and gallant man his father: and my
affection for this man also from his childhood has
been such as to make the intimacy between us close
as it is possible to have with anyone-partly because he seemed to me to give great
promise of supreme excellence, honesty, and
eloquence; and partly because he lived with me in
the most complete sympathy, not only from our
mutual services of friendship, but also from a
community of literary tastes. I need not write at
greater length. How bound I am to protect his
safety and property by every means in my power you
see. It only remains, since I know from many
circumstances what your sentiments are as to the
fortune of the loyalists and the disasters to the
Republic, that I should beg nothing of you except
that to the goodwill, which you are sure
spontaneously to entertain towards him, there may
be added a supplement proportionate to the value
which I know you have for me. You cannot oblige me
more than by doing this. Good-bye.
ROME
