§15.9.1te et pietatis in tuos et animi in rem p. et clarissimi atque optimi consulatus C. Marcello consule facto fructum cepisse vehementer gaudeo.
I vehemently rejoice that, by Gaius Marcellus having been made consul, you have reaped the fruit both of your piety toward your family, of your spirit toward the republic, and of your most illustrious and excellent consulship.
non dubito quid praesentes sentiant; nos quidem longinqui et a te ipso missi in ultimas gentis ad caelum me hercule tollimus verissimis ac iustissimis laudibus.
I do not doubt what those who are present feel; we, indeed, far away and sent by yourself to the most remote nations, by Hercules, raise you to the heavens with the truest and most deserved praises.
nam cum te a pueritia tua unice dilexerim tuque me in omni genere semper amplissimum esse et volueris et iudicaris, tum hoc vel tuo facto vel populi R. 4e te iudicio multo acrius vehementiusque diligo maximaque laetitia adficior cum ab hominibus prudentissimis virisque optimis omnibus dictis, factis, studiis, institutis vel me tui similem esse audio vel te mei.
For while I have loved you uniquely from your boyhood, and you have both wished and judged me to be most honorable in every respect, yet now, either by this deed of yours or by the judgment of the Roman people concerning you, I love you much more sharply and vehemently, and I am affected with the greatest joy when I hear from the wisest and most excellent men that, in all words, deeds, zeals, and institutions, either I am like you or you are like me.
§15.9.2unum vero si addis ad praeclarissimas res consulatus tui, ut aut mihi succedat quam primum aliquis aut ne quid accedat temporis ad id quod tu mihi et senatus c. et lege finisti, omnia me per te consecutum putabo.
But if you add one thing to the most illustrious achievements of your consulship, namely, that either someone succeeds me as soon as possible, or that no time is added to that which you and the senate, by decree and by law, have limited for me, I shall consider that I have obtained everything through you.
cura ut valeas et me absentem diligas atque defendas.
Take care of your health, and love and defend me in my absence.
§15.9.3quae mihi de Parthis nuntiata sunt, quia non putabam a me etiam nunc scribenda esse publice, propterea ne pro familiaritate quidem nostra volui ad te scribere, ne, cum ad consulem scripsissem, publice viderer scripsisse.
As for what has been reported to me concerning the Parthians, because I did not think that it ought to be written by me publicly even now, for that very reason I did not wish to write to you, not even on account of our intimacy, lest, if I had written to the consul, I should seem to have written publicly.