§2.4.1epistularum genera multa esse non ignoras, sed unum illud certissimum, cuius causa inventa res ipsa est, ut certiores faceremus absentis, si quid esset, quod eos scire aut nostra aut ipsorum interesset.
You are not ignorant that there are many kinds of letters, but that one is the most proper, for the sake of which the practice itself was invented, namely, that we should inform those who are absent, if there is anything which it concerns either us or themselves that they should know.
huius generis litteras a me profecto non exspectas; tuarum enim rerum domesticos habes et scriptores et nuntios, in meis autem rebus nihil est sane novi.
You certainly do not expect letters of this kind from me; for as to your own affairs, you have members of your household as writers and messengers, while in my affairs there is indeed nothing new.
reliqua sunt epistularum genera duo, quae me magno opere delectant, unum familiare et iocosum, alterum severum et grave.
There remain two kinds of letters which please me greatly, the one familiar and jocular, the other serious and grave.
utro me minus deceat uti, non intellego.
Which of the two it is less fitting for me to use, I do not understand.
iocerne tecum per litteras? civem mehercule non puto esse, qui temporibus his ridere possit.
Shall I joke with you in a letter? By Hercules, I do not think anyone is a citizen who can laugh in times like these.
an gravius aliquid scribam? quid est quod possit graviter a Cicerone scribi ad Curionem nisi de re publica? atqui in hoc genere haec mea causa est, ut neque ea, quae sentio, audeam neque ea, quae non sentio, velim scribere.
Or shall I write something more serious? What is there that can be seriously written by Cicero to Curio except about the republic? And yet, in this genre, my situation is such that I neither dare to write what I feel, nor wish to write what I do not feel.
§2.4.2quam ob rem, quoniam mihi nullum scribendi argumentum relictum est, utar ea clausula, qua soleo, teque ad studium summae laudis cohortabor.
Therefore, since no subject for writing is left to me, I will use that concluding formula which I am accustomed to, and exhort you to the pursuit of the highest praise.
est enim tibi gravis adversaria constituta et parata incredibilis quaedam exspectatio; quam tu una re facillime vinces, si hoc statueris, quarum laudum gloriam adamaris, quibus artibus eae laudes comparantur, in iis esse laborandum. in hanc.
For a formidable adversary has been appointed and prepared for you—a certain incredible expectation; which you will most easily overcome by one thing alone, if you resolve that you must labor in those arts by which those praises, the glory of which you deeply love, are acquired.
sententiam scriberem plura, nisi te tua sponte satis incitatum esse confiderem; et hoc, quicquid attigi, non feci inflammandi tui causa, sed testificandi amoris mei.
On this subject I would write more, if I were not confident that you are of your own accord sufficiently motivated; and this, whatever I have touched upon, I have done not for the sake of inflaming you, but of testifying to my love.