Humanitext Reader

Cicero · Letters to Friends §9.3.1

Announcing a Visit to Varro and the Value of Retreat

Passage 176 of 413 · Latin

Summary

Cicero writes a brief letter upon Caninius's departure, announcing his upcoming visit and reflecting on the comfort of scholarly retreat during the current national crisis.

§9.3.1etsi quid scriberem non habebam, tamen Caninio. ad te eunti non potui nihil dare.
Although I had nothing to write, yet I could not give nothing to Caninius as he was going to you.
quid ergo potissimum scribam? quod velle te puto, cito me ad te esse venturum;
What then shall I write above all?
etsi vide, quaeso, satisne rectum sit nos hoc tanto incendio civitatis in istis locis esse; dabimus sermonem iis, qui nesciunt nobis, quocumque in loco simus, eundem cultum, eundem victum esse.
That which I think you wish to hear, that I will come to you quickly; although look to it, I beg, whether it is right enough that we, during this so great conflagration of the state, should be in those places of yours; we shall give occasion for talk to those who do not know that for us, in whatever place we may be, there is the same culture, the same manner of life.
'quid refert? tamen in sermonem incidemus. valde id, credo, laborandum est ne, cum omnes in omni genere et scelerum et flagitiorum volutentur, nostra nobiscum aut inter nos cessatio vituperetur.
"What does it matter? We shall fall into talk anyway." Indeed we must, I believe, take great pains lest, while all men wallow in every kind of crime and disgrace, our leisure by ourselves or among ourselves should be blamed.
ego vero neglecta barbarorum inscitia persequar; quamvis enim sint haec misera, quae sunt miserrima, tamen artes nostrae nescio quo modo nunc uberiores fructus ferre videntur quam olim ferebant, sive quia nulla nunc in re alia adquiescimus, sive quod gravitas morbi facit ut medicinae egeamus, eaque nunc appareat, cuius vim non sentiebamus cum valebamus.
I indeed, neglecting the ignorance of the uncultivated, will pursue my studies; for although these things are wretched, which indeed are most wretched, yet our studies seem now in some way to bear richer fruits than they used to do, whether because we now find rest in no other thing, or because the severity of the disease makes us need medicine, and that medicine now appears, whose power we did not feel when we were well.
sed quid ego nunc haec ad te, cuius domi nascuntur glau=k' ei)s *)aqh/nas? nihil scilicet nisi ut rescriberes aliquid, me exspectares.
But why do I say these things to you, at whose house are born "owls to Athens"? Nothing indeed, except that you should write something back and expect me.
sic igitur facies.
So then you will do.

Notes

  1. §9.3.1Caninio. ad te eunti — Caninio is in the dative case, serving as the indirect object of potui nihil dare (or dare itself). The phrase ad te eunti is a present participle modifying Caninio. The period after Caninio in the text is a typographical or manuscript artifact. Note that eunti is the dative masculine singular of ire.
  2. §9.3.1non potui nihil dare — A double negation with non and nihil. In Latin, when a negative adverb and a negative pronoun are combined in this order, they express a strong affirmation ('I could not fail to give something', i.e., 'I had to give something'). If it were nihil non, it would mean 'everything', but non nihil means 'something/some'.
  3. §9.3.1quod velle te puto — The relative pronoun quod anticipates or stands in apposition to the following accusative and infinitive clause (cito me ad te esse venturum). Literally, 'that which I think you wish'.
  4. §9.3.1valde id, credo, laborandum est ne... — The verb laborandum est is a gerundive construction of the intransitive verb laborare. Although intransitive gerundives are usually impersonal and lack a subject, here the neuter pronoun id stands as the subject in the nominative, pointing forward to the following ne-clause ('this indeed must be labored for, lest...').
  5. §9.3.1glau=k' ei)s *)aqh/nas — An accusative form of the Greek proverb γλαῦκ’ εἰς Ἀθήνας ('owls to Athens'). Since Athens was already full of owls (the symbol of Athena), this represents a redundant or useless action ('carrying coals to Newcastle'). Combined with cuius domi ('at whose house'), it functions as a complimentary self-deprecation, implying that the recipient is already highly learned and does not need Cicero's reflections.

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Friends §9.3.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi056.humanitext-lat1:9.3.1

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