Humanitext Reader

Cicero · Letters to Friends §13.40.1

Recommendation of the Aurelius Brothers

Passage 335 of 413 · Latin

Summary

Cicero highly recommends the Aurelius brothers, with whom and with whose father he is on very intimate terms, praising them as worthy of the recipient's friendship and asking for them to be treated with honor.

§13.40.1L. et C. Aurelios L. filios, quibus et ipsis et patre eorum, viro optimo, familiarissime utor, commendo tibi maiorem in modum, adulescentis omnibus optimis artibus ornatos, meos pernecessarios, tua amicitia dignissimos.
I recommend to you in the strongest terms Lucius and Gaius Aurelius, sons of Lucius, with both of whom and with whose father, a most excellent man, I am on the most intimate terms; young men adorned with all the finest accomplishments, very close friends of mine, and most worthy of your friendship.
si ulla mea apud te commendatio valuit (quod scio multas plurimum valuisse), haec ut valeat rogo.
If any recommendation of mine has ever carried weight with you (and I know that many have carried the greatest weight), I ask that this one may carry weight.
quod si eos honorifice liberaliterque tractaris, et tibi gratissimos optimosque adulescentis adiunxeris et mihi gratissimum feceris.
And if you treat them with honor and liberality, you will both attach to yourself most grateful and excellent young men and do me a most agreeable favor.

Notes

  1. §13.40.1quibus et ipsis et patre eorum — The ablative relative pronoun quibus is governed by the verb utor. The correlative structure et... et... connects quibus ipsis (with themselves) and patre eorum (and with their father). The relative pronoun agrees in gender and number with the antecedent L. et C. Aurelios and is in the ablative case required by utor.
  2. §13.40.1adulescentis — Accusative plural of the third-declension noun adulescens. In classical Latin, the ending -is is frequently used for the accusative plural instead of -es. Here it stands in apposition to the direct object L. et C. Aurelios.
  3. §13.40.1quod si — A conditional clause introduced by the connective relative pronoun quod. Here quod refers to the preceding sentence as a whole, functioning to closely link the sentences with the meaning 'and if' or 'but if'.

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Friends §13.40.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi056.humanitext-lat1:13.40.1

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