Letter XLVI: ad Atticum 8.13
Formiae, March 1,49 B.C.librari manus : cf. Intr. 64. hic : i.e. Caesar. ille: i.e. Pompey. tramisisset : sc. the Adriatic. quam acutum, etc.: of course descriptive of Caesar.
villulas, nummulos: cf. Intr. 76. quam conversa res est: in Plautus the indicative was frequently used in what seem to be indir. questions, especially after certain imperatives and imperative questions (cf. Morris's Pseudolus, v.262, and E. Becker, De Syntaxi Interrogationum Obliqaarum, etc.). In this passage we have a survival of that usage after vide. Cf. “hoc sic (=si vis) vide, at alias res agunt,” Plaut. Pseud. 152. See also Intr. 84a and quam sollicitus sum, Ep. XLVIII. 1. hunc: i.e. Caesarem. The petty landed proprietors had dreaded Caesar because of his supposed revolutionary principles, his previous extravagance and bankruptcy in Rome, his former political associates, and his present followers. Cf. multitudo, Ep. XLV.4n. The dread of these people had been turned into affection by the generosity with which Caesar had treated the inhabitants of the captured towns (cf. Caes. B. C. 1.21-23), by the vigor with which he protected their own lives and property, and by his policy of not confiscating the estates even of his enemies. This letter may be well compared with Ep. XLVIII.1.
