§12.41.1nihil erat quod scriberem.
There was nothing for me to write.
scire tamen volebam ubi esses; si abes aut afuturus es, quando rediturus esses.
Yet I wanted to know where you were; if you are away or are going to be away, when you are to return.
facies igitur certiorem.
You will therefore let me know.
et quod tu scire volebas ego quando ex hoc loco, postridie Idus Lanuvi constitui manere, inde postridie in Tusculano aut Romae.
And as to what you wanted to know, namely when I am leaving this place, I have decided to stay at Lanuvium on the day after the Ides, and on the day after that in my Tusculan villa or in Rome.
utrum sim facturus eo ipso die scies.
Which of the two I am going to do, you will know on that very day.
§12.41.2scis quam sit φιλαίτιον συμφορά, minime in te quidem, sed tamen avide sum adfectus de fano, quod nisi non dico effectum erit sed fieri videro (audebo hoc dicere et tu ut soles accipies), incursabit in te dolor meus non iure ille quidem sed tamen feres hoc ipsum quod scribo ut omnia mea fers ac tulisti.
You know how prone to blame misfortune is—least of all indeed against you, but yet I am eagerly anxious about the shrine; and unless I see it, I do not say completed, but in the process of being built (I will dare to say this, and you will take it as you usually do), my grief will, though indeed unjustly, assault you; but yet you will bear this very thing that I write, as you bear and have borne everything of mine.
omnis tuas consolationes unam hanc in rem velim conferas.
I would wish you to direct all your consolations to this one object.
si quaeris quid optem, primum Scapulae, deinde Clodiae, postea, si Silius nolet, Drusus aget iniuste, Cusini et Treboni.
If you ask what I desire, first those of Scapula, next of Clodia, afterwards, if Silius is unwilling and Drusus acts unfairly, those of Cusinius and Trebonius.
puto tertium esse dominum, Rebilum fuisse certo scio.
I think there is a third owner, but I know for certain that Rebilus was one.
sin autem tibi Tusculanum placet, ut significasti quibusdam litteris, tibi adsentiar.
But if, on the other hand, my Tusculan villa pleases you, as you indicated in some letters, I shall agree with you.
hoc quidem utique perficies, si me levari vis, quem iam etiam gravius accusas quam patitur tua consuetudo, sed facis summo amore et victus fortasse vitio meo.
This indeed you will by all means accomplish, if you wish me to be relieved—me whom you already accuse even more severely than your custom allows, though you do so with the greatest love and conquered perhaps by my own fault.
sed tamen si me levari vis, haec est summa levatio vel, si verum scire vis, una.
But yet, if you wish me to be relieved, this is the greatest relief or, if you wish to know the truth, the only one.
§12.41.4Hirti epistulam si legeris, quae mihi quasi πρόπλασμα videtur eius vituperationis quam Caesar scripsit de Catone, facies me quid tibi visum sit, si tibi erit commodum, certiorem.
If you have read Hirtius's letter, which seems to me to be a sort of draft of that censure which Caesar has written about Cato, you will, if it is convenient for you, let me know what you thought of it.
redeo ad fanum.
I return to the shrine.
nisi hac aestate absolutum erit quam vides integram restare, scelere me liberatum non putabo.
Unless it is finished this summer, which you see remains intact, I shall not consider myself freed from guilt.