Humanitext Reader

Cicero · Letters to Friends §16.22.1-16.22.2

Urging Tiro to Rest and Instructions for Copyists

Passage 409 of 413 · Latin

Summary

Cicero urges Tiro to prioritize his health above all, shares details about his own reading activities and instructions for the copyists, and asks Tiro to keep an eye on Demetrius.

§16.22.1spero ex tuis litteris tibi melius esse, cupio certe.
I hope from your letter that you are better, and I certainly desire it.
cui quidem rei omni ratione cura ut inservias et cave suspiceris contra meam voluntatem te facere quod non sis mecum.
Take care to devote yourself to this matter by all means, and beware of suspecting that you are acting against my will because you are not with me.
mecum es, si te curas.
You are with me, if you take care of yourself.
qua re malo te valetudini tuae servire quam meis oculis et auribus.
Therefore, I prefer you to serve your health rather than my eyes and ears.
etsi enim et audio te et video libenter, tamen hoc multo erit, si valebis, iucundius.
For although I gladly both hear and see you, yet this will be much more pleasant, if you are well.
ego hic cesso, quia ipse nihil scribo, lego autem libentissime.
I am at leisure here, because I write nothing myself, but read most gladly.
tu istic si quid librarii mea manu non intellegent monstrabis.
If the copyists do not understand anything in my handwriting, you will point it out there.
una omnino interpositio difficilior est, quam ne ipse quidem facile legere soleo, de quadrimo Catone.
There is only one insertion that is rather difficult, which even I myself am not wont to read easily, concerning the four-year-old Cato.
de triclinio cura, ut facis.
Take care of the dining room, as you are doing.
Tertia aderit, modo ne Publius rogatus sit.
Tertia will be present, provided that Publius has not been invited.
§16.22.2Demetrius iste numquam omnino Phalereus fuit sed nunc plane Billienus est.
That Demetrius of yours was never at all a Phalereus, but now he is plainly a Billienus.
itaque te do vicarium tu eum observabis.
Therefore, I give you as my deputy; you shall keep an eye on him.
etsi—verum tamen de illis nosti cetera.
And yet—but however, you know the rest about them.
sed tamen si quem cum eo sermonem habueris scribes ad me, ut mihi nascatur epistulae argumentum et ut tuas quam longissimas litteras legam.
But yet, if you have any conversation with him, write to me, so that a subject for a letter may arise for me and that I may read the longest possible letters from you.
cura, mi Tiro, ut valeas; hoc gratius mihi facere nihil potes.
Take care, my Tiro, to keep well; you can do nothing more pleasing to me than this.
vale.
Farewell.

Notes

  1. 16.22.1cui quidem rei — Relative connection (nexus relativus) referring back to the idea in the previous sentence: "that you are getting better" (tibi melius esse).
  2. 16.22.1cave suspiceris — The imperative cave (from cavere) followed directly by the present subjunctive suspiceris (2nd person singular of suspicari) expresses a prohibition: "take care not to suspect" or "do not imagine". This is equivalent to cave ne suspiceris with the omission of ne.
  3. 16.22.1quod non sis mecum — The subjunctive sis in the quod clause expressing reason is used because it represents not an objective fact, but a subjective concern or reason that Cicero imagines Tiro might have in his mind ("because you are not with me").
  4. 16.22.2Phalereus...Billienus — A contrast between "Phalereus" (referring to Demetrius of Phalerum, the famous Athenian philosopher and statesman) and "Billienus" (a contemporary low-status or untrustworthy figure mentioned elsewhere in Cicero's letters), satirizing the unworthiness and vulgarity of this Demetrius.

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Friends §16.22.1-16.22.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi056.humanitext-lat1:16.22.1-16.22.2

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