Humanitext Reader

Cicero · Letters to Friends §2.2.1

Condolences on the Recipient's Father and Continued Friendship

Passage 22 of 413 · Latin

Summary

The author laments the loss of the recipient's father, who was a great witness of his love, and expresses hope that their friendship needs no witnesses, wishing him prosperity in his inheritance and promising to love him as his father did.

§2.2.1gravi teste privatus sum amoris summi erga te mei patre tuo, clarissimo viro.
I have been deprived of your father, a most illustrious man, who was a weighty witness of my greatest love toward you.
qui cum suis laudibus tum vero te filio superasset omnium fortunam, si ei contigisset ut te ante videret, quam a vita discederet.
He would have surpassed the fortune of all men, not only by his own merits but indeed by you, his son, if it had fallen to his lot to see you before he departed from life.
sed spero nostram amicitiam non egere testibus.
But I hope that our friendship does not need witnesses.
tibi patrimonium dei fortunent; me certe habebis, cui et carus aeque sis et iucundus ac fuisti patri.
May the gods prosper your inheritance; you will certainly find me to be one to whom you are just as dear and pleasant as you were to your father.

Notes

  1. §2.2.1patre tuo — An ablative of separation or deprivation dependent on `privatus sum` (passive of *privo*, 'to deprive'). The phrase `gravi teste` at the beginning of the sentence acts as an appositive to `patre tuo`.
  2. §2.2.1superasset — Subjunctive pluperfect, forming the apodosis of a past contrary-to-fact conditional sentence with the protasis `si ei contigisset`.
  3. §2.2.1aeque sis et iucundus ac fuisti patri — The correlative comparison `aeque ... ac ...` means 'just as ... as ...'. `cui` is a dative relative pronoun referring to `me` and dependent on the adjectives `carus` and `iucundus`. `patri` is also a dative, depending on `fuisti` ('as you were to your father').

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Friends §2.2.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi056.humanitext-lat1:2.2.1

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