Cicero · Letters to Friends §13.60.1

Recommendation of Regulus's Freedman Trypho

Passage 345 of 413 · Latin

Summary

Cicero strongly recommends Lucius Livineius Trypho, a freedman of his close friend Lucius Regulus, praising Trypho's loyal services during Cicero's difficult times and requesting the addressee's favor toward him.

§13.60.1L. Livineius Trypho est omnino L. Reguli, familiarissimi mei, libertus; cuius calamitas etiam officiosiorem me facit in illum; nam benevolentior quam semper fui esse non possum.

Lucius Livineius Trypho is indeed a freedman of Lucius Regulus, a very close friend of mine; whose misfortune makes me even more dutiful towards him; for I cannot be more well-disposed towards him than I have always been.

sed ego libertum eius per se ipsum diligo; summa enim eius erga me officia exstiterunt iis nostris temporibus, quibus facillime benevolentiam hominum et fidem perspicere potui.

But I love his freedman for his own sake; for his greatest services toward me appeared in those times of mine, in which I was most easily able to perceive the goodwill and loyalty of men.

Eum tibi ita commendo, ut homines grati et memores bene meritos de se commendare debent.

I recommend him to you in such a way as grateful and mindful men ought to recommend those who have deserved well of them.

pergratum mihi feceris, si ille intellexerit se, quod pro salute mea multa pericula adierit, saepe hieme summa navigarit, pro tua erga me benevolentia gratum etiam tibi fecisse.

You will do me a very great favor if he understands that, because he underwent many dangers for my safety and often sailed in the depth of winter, he has, in accordance with your goodwill toward me, done what is pleasing to you also.

Notes

13.60.1cuius calamitas — The relative pronoun cuius and the subsequent pronoun illum both refer to Lucius Regulus. In response to Regulus's misfortune (calamitas), Cicero states that while his internal goodwill (benevolentia) is already at its maximum, he is made even more active in performing actual duties (officiosior) for him.
13.60.1bene meritos de se — The perfect participle of the idiom bene mereri de aliquo ("to deserve well of someone", "to do a service to someone") is used substantively. The reflexive pronoun se refers to the subject of the main clause, homines grati et memores.
13.60.1pergratum mihi feceris — The future perfect feceris correlates with the future perfect intellexerit in the conditional clause, forming a formulaic epistolary expression to express polite gratitude or a request for a future action.

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Friends §13.60.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi056.humanitext-lat1:13.60.1

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