Cicero · Letters to Friends §6.17.1-6.17.2

Hopes for the Republic and a Promise to Live Together

Passage 117 of 413 · Latin

Summary

The author expresses his desire for the restoration of the republic and rejoices in the correspondent's promise to live with him afterwards, reaffirming the unique strength of their intimacy.

§6.17.1Cum ceterarum rerum causa cupio esse aliquando rem p. constitutam tum velim mihi credas accedere, id etiam quo magis expetam, promissum tuum, quo in litteris uteris; §6.17.2scribis enim, si ita sit, te mecum esse victurum.

While for all other reasons I desire that the republic may at some time be re-established, at the same time I would wish you to believe that there is added, as a reason why I should desire it even more, your promise, which you make in your letter; For you write that, if this should be so, you will live with me.

gratissima mihi tua voluntas est facisque nihil alienum necessitudine nostra iudiciisque patris tui de me, summi viri.

Your goodwill is most pleasing to me, and you do nothing that is foreign either to our intimacy or to the judgments about me passed by your father, that most eminent man.

nam sic habeto, beneficiorum magnitudine eos, qui temporibus valuerunt ut valeant, coniunctiores tecum esse quam me,. necessitudine neminem.

For you must understand this: that while those who, by the favor of the times, have had power so that they still have power, are more closely connected with you than I am in the magnitude of benefits, in intimacy no one is more closely connected.

quam ob rem grata mihi est et memoria tua nostrae coniunctionis et eius etiam augendae voluntas

Therefore, both your memory of our connection and your desire to increase it are pleasing to me.

Notes

6.17.1accedere — An infinitive acting as the object of credas, introducing indirect speech. Its grammatical subject is promissum tuum ('your promise').
6.17.1id etiam quo magis expetam — id is an appositive to the subject promissum tuum, and quo is a relative pronoun in the ablative of measure of difference ('by so much the more'). expetam is a subjunctive in the relative clause. The entire phrase functions appositively: 'as the very thing by which I should desire it even more.'
6.17.2nihil alienum necessitudine nostra iudiciisque — The adjective alienum ('foreign to', 'inconsistent with') governs the ablatives necessitudine and iudiciis.
6.17.2beneficiorum magnitudine — An ablative of respect ('in the magnitude of benefits') modifying the comparative coniunctiores.
6.17.2eius etiam augendae voluntas — A gerundive construction where the gerundive augendae agrees with the pronoun eius (feminine genitive singular, referring back to coniunctio). The whole phrase functions as an objective genitive modifying voluntas ('the desire to increase it').

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Friends §6.17.1-6.17.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi056.humanitext-lat1:6.17.1-6.17.2

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