Humanitext Reader

Cicero · Letters to Friends §13.2.1

Request for Assistance with Housing for Avianius Evander

Passage 301 of 413 · Latin

Summary

Cicero earnestly requests the recipient to accommodate C. Avianius Evander, who lives in the recipient's shrine, regarding his residence, as Evander suddenly needs to move by the first of July.

§13.2.1C. Avianio Evandro, qui habitat in tuo sacrario, et ipso multum utor et patrono eius M. Aemilio familiarissime.
As for C. Avianius Evander, who lives in your shrine, I both associate with him a great deal, and am on most friendly terms with his patron, M. Aemilius.
peto igitur a te in maiorem modum, quod sine tua molestia fiat, ut ei de habitatione accommodes.
I therefore beg you particularly, so far as it may be done without annoyance to you, to accommodate him regarding his habitation.
nam propter opera instituta multa multorum subitum est ei remigrare K. Quintilibus.
For on account of many undertakings started by many people, it has become sudden for him to move back on the Kalends of July.
impedior verecundia ne te pluribus verbis rogem; neque tamen dubito quin, si tua nihil aut non multum intersit, eo sis animo, quo ego essem si quid tu me rogares.
I am prevented by bashfulness from asking you with more words; yet I do not doubt that, if it is of no or not much interest to you, you are of that mind in which I would be if you were to ask anything of me.
mihi certe gratissimum feceris.
You will certainly have done what is most pleasing to me.

Notes

  1. §13.2.1quod sine tua molestia fiat — The subjunctive fiat in the relative clause led by quod expresses restriction ("as far as it can be done...").
  2. §13.2.1K. Quintilibus — Abbreviation for Kalendis Quintilibus, meaning the Calends of July (July 1st). Quintilis was the name of the month of July during the Republican period, later renamed Iulius.
  3. §13.2.1tua nihil aut non multum intersit — Syntax of the impersonal verb interest ("it concerns/is of interest to"). The person concerned is expressed by the ablative feminine singular of a possessive pronoun (tua), and the degree of concern by neuter accusative pronouns (nihil, non multum).
  4. §13.2.1eo sis animo, quo ego essem si quid tu me rogares — eo sis animo is an ablative of quality, used here with the subjunctive present sis in a jussive/optative sense ("may you be of such mind"). quo is a relative pronoun establishing a correlation, and ego essem si... rogares forms a contrary-to-fact (or potential) conditional sentence ("which I would be, if you were to ask...").

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Friends §13.2.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi056.humanitext-lat1:13.2.1

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