§10.20.1ita erant omnia quae istim adferebantur incerta, ut quid ad te scriberem non occurreret.
All the news brought from your quarter was so uncertain that it did not occur to me what I should write to you.
modo enim quae vellemus de Lepido, modo contra nuntiabantur; de te tamen fama constans nec decipi posse nec vinci; quorum alterius fortuna partem habet quandam, alterum proprium est prudentiae tuae.
For at one moment things we wished about Lepidus were reported, and at another the opposite; regarding you, however, there is a constant rumor that you can neither be deceived nor conquered; of which two things, fortune has a certain part in the one, while the other is peculiar to your prudence.
§10.20.2sed accepi litteras a conlega tuo datas Idibus Maiis, in quibus erat te ad se scripsisse a Lepido non recipi Antonium; quod erit certius, si tu ad nos idem scripseris.
But I received a letter sent by your colleague dated the Ides of May, in which it was stated that you had written to him that Antony was not received by Lepidus; which will be more certain if you write the same to us.
sed minus audes fortasse propter inanem laetitiam litterarum superiorum.
But perhaps you are less bold because of the empty joy of your previous letter.
verum, ut errare, mi Plance, potuisti (quis enim id effugerit?), sic decipi te non potuisse quis non videt? nunc vero etiam erroris causa sublata est;
But just as you could make a mistake, my Plancus (for who has escaped that?), so who does not see that you could not have been deceived?
culpa enim illa 'his ad eundem' vulgari reprehensa proverbio est. sin ut scripsisti ad conlegam, ita se res habet, omni cura liberati sumus nec tamen erimus prius quam ita esse tu nos feceris certiores.
Now, indeed, even the cause of mistake has been removed; for that fault is rebuked by the common proverb, 'twice against the same.' But if the matter stands as you wrote to your colleague, we are freed from all care; yet we shall not be so until you make us more certain that it is so.
§10.20.3mea quidem, ut ad te saepius scripsi, haec sententia est, qui reliquias huius belli oppresserit, eum totius belli confectorem fore; quem te et opto esse et confido futurum.
My opinion indeed is, as I have written to you more than once, that he who shall have crushed the remnants of this war will be the finisher of the entire war; which person I both pray that you may be, and trust that you will be.
studia mea erga te, quibus certe nulla esse maiora potuerunt, tibi tam grata esse quam ego putavi fore, minime miror vehementerque laetor.
I do not at all wonder, and I vehemently rejoice, that my zeal toward you, than which certainly nothing could have been greater, is as pleasing to you as I thought it would be.
quae quidem tu, si recte istic erit, maiora et graviora cognosces.
Indeed, if all goes well there, you will experience these things as greater and weightier.
iiii K. Iun.
May 29.