§11.10.1ad meas incredibilis aegritudines aliquid novi accedit ex iis quae de Q. Q. ad me adferuntur.
To my incredible anxieties something new is added from those things which are brought to me concerning the two Quintuses.
P. Terentius meus necessarius operas in portu et scriptura Asiae pro magistro dedit.
My close friend Publius Terentius served as deputy director for the harbor dues and pasture tax of Asia.
is Quintum filium Ephesi vidit vi Idus Decembr. eumque studiose propter amicitiam nostram invitavit; cumque ex eo de me percontaretur, eum sibi ita dixisse narrabat, se mihi esse inimicissimum, volumenque sibi ostendisse orationis quam apud Caesarem contra me esset habiturus.
He saw the son Quintus at Ephesus on the sixth day before the Ides of December (December 8); and, on account of our friendship, cordially invited him; and when he inquired of him about me, he related that Quintus had told him that he was most hostile to me, and had shown him a roll of a speech which he was going to deliver against me before Caesar.
multa a se dicta contra eius amentiam. multa postea Patris simili scelere secum Quintum patrem locutum; cuius furorem ex iis epistulis quas ad te misi perspicere potuisti.
He said that many things had been said by himself against his madness; and that afterwards at Patrae the father Quintus had spoken many things with him with similar wickedness; whose madness you have been able to perceive from those letters which I sent to you.
haec tibi dolori esse certo scio; me quidem excruciant et eo magis quod mihi cum illis ne querendi quidem locum futurum puto.
I know for certain that these things are a grief to you; as for me, they torture me, and all the more because I think that I shall not have even an opportunity of complaining against them.
§11.10.2de Africanis rebus longe alia nobis ac tu scripseras nuntiantur.
Concerning the affairs in Africa, far different things are reported to us than what you had written.
nihil enim firmius esse dicunt, nihil paratius.
For they say nothing is stronger, nothing better prepared.
accedit Hispania et alienata Italia, legionum nec vis eadem nec voluntas, urbanae res perditae.
Spain is added, and Italy alienated, while neither the strength nor the goodwill of the legions remains the same, and affairs in the city are ruined.
quid est ubi acquiescam, nisi quam diu tuas litteras lego? quae essent profecto crebriores, si quid haberes quo putares meam molestiam minui posse.
What is there where I may find rest, except as long as I am reading your letters? Which would indeed be more frequent, if you had anything by which you thought my distress could be lessened.
sed tamen te rogo ut ne intermittas scribere ad me quicquid erit eosque qui mihi tam crudeliter inimici sunt, si odisse non potes, accuses tamen, non ut aliquid proficias sed ut tibi me carum esse sentiant.
But yet I ask you not to cease writing to me, whatever it may be, and those who are so cruelly hostile to me, if you cannot hate them, yet accuse them, not to achieve anything, but so that they may feel that I am dear to you.
plura ad te scribam, si mihi ad eas litteras quas proxime ad te dedi rescripseris.
I shall write more to you, if you reply to those letters which I recently sent to you.
vale.
Farewell.
xii K. Febr.
January 18.