DCLXII (F VII, 24)
TO M. FADIUS GALLUS (AT ROME)
TUSCULUM (AUGUST)
I find the traces of your affection whichever
way I turn: for instance, quite recently in the
matter of Tigellius. 1 I
perceived from your letter that you had taken a
great deal of trouble. I therefore thank you for
your kind intention. But I must say a few words on
the subject. Cipius I think it was who said, "I am
not asleep to everybody." 2 Thus I too, my dear Gallus, am not a slave
to everybody. Yet what, after all,
is this slavery? In old times, when I was thought
to be exercising royal power, 3 I was not treated with such deference as I
am now by all Caesar's most intimate friends,
except by this fellow. I regard it as something
gained that I no longer endure a fellow more
pestilent than his native land, 4 and I think
his value has been pretty well appraised in the
Hipponactean verses of Licinius Calvus. 5 But observe the cause of his anger with
me. I had undertaken Phamea's cause, for his own
sake, because he was an intimate friend. Phamea
came to me and said that the arbitrator had
arranged to take his case on the very day on which
the jury were obliged to consider their verdict in
regard to P. Sestius. 6 I answered that I could not possibly
manage it: but that if he selected any other day
he chose, I would not fail to appear for him. He,
however, knowing that he had a grandson who was a
fashionable flutist and singer, 7 left me,
as I thought, in a somewhat angry frame of mind.
There is a pair of "Sardians-for-sale" 8 for you, one more worthless than the
other. You now know my position and the unfairness
of that swaggerer. Send me your "Cato": I am eager
to read it: that I haven't read it yet is a
reflexion on us both.
TUSCULUM (AUGUST)