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Cicero · Letters to Friends §13.53.1-13.53.2

Recommendation of Genucilius Curvus and His Hellespont Affairs

Passage 341 of 413 · Latin

Summary

Cicero recommends his close friend Lucius Genucilius Curvus to the recipient, requesting assistance in all matters within the limits of good faith, especially regarding his property rights and legal disputes in the Hellespont.

§13.53.1L. Genucilio Curvo iam pridem utor familiarissime, optimo viro et homine gratissimo.
I have for a long time been on terms of the closest intimacy with Lucius Genucilius Curvus, an excellent man and a most grateful person.
Eum tibi penitus commendo atque trado, primum ut omnibus in rebus ei commodes, quoad fides tua dignitasque patietur; patietur autem in omnibus; nihil enim abs te umquam, quod sit alienum tuis aut etiam suis moribus, postulabit.
I thoroughly recommend and entrust him to you, first, that you accommodate him in all matters, as far as your good faith and dignity will allow; and indeed they will allow in all matters; for he will never demand anything from you that would be foreign to your character or even to his own.
§13.53.2praecipue autem tibi commendo negotia eius, quae sunt in Hellesponto, primum ut obtineat id iuris in agris, quod ei Pariana civitas decrevit et dedit et quod semper obtinuit sine ulla controversia, deinde, si quid habebit cum aliquo Hellespontio controversiae, ut in illam dioi/khsin reicias.
But especially I recommend to you his business affairs which are in the Hellespont: first, that he may maintain that right over his lands which the state of Parium decreed and gave to him, and which he has always maintained without any controversy; second, if he has any controversy with any inhabitant of the Hellespont, that you refer it to that district (dioi/khsin).
sed non mihi videor, cum tibi totum hominem diligentissime commendarim, singulas ad te eius causas perscribere debere.
But I do not seem to myself, since I have recommended the whole man to you most diligently, to be obliged to write out his individual cases to you in detail.
summa illa est: quicquid offici, benefici, honoris in Genucilium contuleris, id te existimabo in me ipsum atque in rem meam contulisse.
The sum of it is this: whatever service, kindness, or honor you bestow upon Genucilius, I shall consider that you have bestowed it upon myself and upon my own interest.

Notes

  1. §13.53.1L. Genucilio Curvo — The verb utor governs the ablative case, which is why the person's name is in the ablative form L. Genucilio Curvo.
  2. §13.53.1quoad fides tua dignitasque patietur — The conjunction quoad ('as far as') expressing a restrictive condition is used here with the future indicative patietur. Despite the compound subject fides and dignitas, the verb is in the singular, agreeing with the nearest subject.
  3. §13.53.2id iuris — A partitive genitive construction, where the genitive iuris (from ius) depends on the neuter singular accusative pronoun id ('that of right').
  4. §13.53.2non mihi videor... debere — A personal construction of videor ('I seem to myself [to be obliged]', i.e., 'I do not think I ought to'), distinct from the impersonal videtur. The subject (implied ego) agrees with the main verb videor, which governs the infinitive debere.
  5. §13.53.2quicquid offici, benefici, honoris — A partitive genitive construction, in which the genitive forms offici, benefici, and honoris depend on the neuter compound relative pronoun quicquid ('whatever of service, kindness, or honor').

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Friends §13.53.1-13.53.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi056.humanitext-lat1:13.53.1-13.53.2

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