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Cicero · Letters to Atticus §12.32.1-12.32.2

Avoiding Publilia's Visit and Son's Allowance

Passage 304 of 461 · Latin

Summary

Cicero reports on the deadlock in negotiations with Silius and expresses his intention to retreat elsewhere to avoid an unexpected visit from his ex-wife Publilia and her family. He also proposes a plan to align his son's study-abroad expenses with his rental income and asks Atticus to manage the details.

§12.32.1Egnatius mihi scripsit.
Egnatius has written to me.
is si quid tecum locutus erit (commodissime enim per eum agi potest) ad me scribes, et id agendum puto.
If he speaks with you at all (for negotiations can be conducted most conveniently through him), you will write to me, and I think that is what we should do.
nam cum Silio non video confici posse.
For I do not see how the matter can be settled with Silius.
Piliae et Atticae salutem.
My greetings to Pilia and Attica.
haec ad te mea manu.
This I write to you with my own hand.
vide, quaeso, quid agendum sit.
Please see what needs to be done.
Publilia ad me scripsit matrem suam, †cum Publilio loqueretur†, ad me cum illo venturam et se una, si ego paterer.
Publilia has written to me that her mother, †when she was talking with Publilius†, would come to me with him, and she herself along with them, if I would allow it.
orat multis et supplicibus verbis ut liceat et ut sibi rescribam.
She begs in many supplicatory words that it may be allowed, and that I write back to her.
res quam molesta sit vides.
You see how troublesome the matter is.
rescripsi mi etiam gravius esse quam tum cum illi dixissem me solum esse velle; qua re nolle me hoc tempore eam ad me venire.
I wrote back that for me it is even more painful than at the time when I had told her that I wished to be alone; therefore, I do not want her to come to me at this time.
putabam si nihil rescripsissem illam cum matre venturam; nunc non puto.
I thought that if I had written nothing in reply, she would come with her mother; now I do not think so.
apparebat enim illas litteras non esse ipsius.
For it was obvious that that letter was not her own.
illud autem quod fore video ipsum volo vitare ne illae ad me veniant, et una est vitatio ut ego avolem.
But that very thing which I see will happen, I wish to avoid—namely, that they should come to me, and the only avoidance is for me to fly away.
nollem, sed necesse est.
I would rather not, but it is necessary.
te hoc nunc rogo ut explores ad quam diem hic ita possim esse ut ne opprimar.
I now ask this of you, that you find out up to what day I can remain here in such a way as not to be overwhelmed.
ages, ut scribis, temperate.
Deal with it, as you write, temperately.
§12.32.2Ciceroni velim hoc proponas, ita tamen, si tibi non iniquum videbitur, ut sumptus huius peregrinationis quibus, si Romae esset domumque conduceret, quod facere cogitabat, facile contentus futurus erat, accommodet ad mercedes Argileti et Aventini, et cum ei proposueris, ipse velim reliqua moderere quem ad modum ex iis mercedibus suppeditemus ei quod opus sit.
I should like you to propose this to Cicero, provided, however, that it does not seem unfair to you: namely, that he adjust the expenses of this journey—with which, if he were in Rome and renting a house, which he was thinking of doing, he would easily have been content—to the rents of Argiletum and the Aventine. And when you have proposed it to him, I would like you yourself to manage the remaining details, as to how we should supply him with what is necessary out of those rents.
praestabo nec Bibulum nec Acidinum nec Messallam, quos Athenis futuros audio maiores sumptus facturos quam quod ex eis mercedibus recipietur.
I will guarantee that neither Bibulus nor Acidinus nor Messalla, who I hear will be at Athens, will incur greater expenses than what will be received from those rents.
itaque velim videas primum conductores qui sint et quanti, deinde ut sint qui ad diem solvant et quid viatici, quid instrumenti satis sit.
Therefore, I should like you to see first who the tenants are and for how much, then that they are the sort of people who pay on the due date, and what is sufficient for travelling expenses and equipment.
iumento certe Athenis nihil opus est.
There is certainly no need of a draft animal in Athens.
quibus autem in via utatur domi sunt plura quam opus erat, quod etiam tu animadvertis.
But as for what he may use on the road, there are more things at home than were needed, which you also notice.

Notes

  1. 12.32.1ad me cum illo venturam et se una, si ego paterer — venturam is the future infinitive (with esse omitted) in an indirect statement, with matrem suam as its subject. After se una, the same infinitive venturam [esse] is understood, with the reflexive pronoun se (referring to Publilia) as its subject. The conditional clause si ego paterer is in the imperfect subjunctive due to the sequence of tenses (consecutio temporum) triggered by the historical main verb scripsit; in direct speech, it would have been a future indicative (si patieris) or a present subjunctive.
  2. 12.32.2sumptus huius peregrinationis quibus, si Romae esset domumque conduceret, quod facere cogitabat, facile contentus futurus erat, accommodet — The relative pronoun quibus refers to the antecedent sumptus and functions as the ablative complement of the adjective contentus. The conditional structure si Romae esset... contentus futurus erat represents a contrary-to-fact condition, where the protasis is in the imperfect subjunctive but the apodosis uses the indicative periphrastic form (future participle + erat). This construction emphasizes the high likelihood of what Cicero would have been content with if he had stayed in Rome and rented a house. accommodet is the subjunctive verb of the ut clause dependent on Ciceroni velim hoc proponas.

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Atticus §12.32.1-12.32.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi057.humanitext-lat1:12.32.1-12.32.2

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