Cicero · Letters to Atticus §12.43.1-12.43.2

Travel Plans and Passion for the Shrine Site

Passage 317 of 461 · Latin

Summary

Cicero shares his travel plans and expresses his intense desire to acquire a site (such as Otho's, Clodia's, or Trebonius's) for his daughter's memorial shrine, urging Atticus to make every effort.

§12.43.1venerat mihi in mentem monere te ut id ipsum quod facis faceres.

It had occurred to me to advise you to do the very thing you are doing.

putabam enim commodius te idem istud domi agere posse interpellatione sublata.

For I thought you could do that same thing more conveniently at home, with interruptions removed.

ego postridie Idus, ut scripsi ad te ante, Lanuvi manere constitui, inde aut Romae aut in Tusculano; scies ante utrum †quod scies recte illam rem fore levamento, bene facis cumidesse† mihi crede perinde ut existimare tu non potes.

I have decided, as I wrote to you before, to stay at Lanuvium on the day after the Ides, and from there either in Rome or in my Tusculan villa; you will know beforehand which. †As for your knowing (or writing) that that matter will rightly be a consolation, you do well that it is so†; believe me, just as you cannot imagine.

res indicat quanto opere id cupiam, quom tibi audeam confiteri quem id non ita valde probare arbitrer.

The matter itself shows how greatly I desire it, since I dare to confess it to you, whom I judge not to approve of it so very highly.

sed ferendus tibi in hoc meus error.

But you must bear with this error of mine in this matter.

ferendus? immo vero etiam adiuvandus.

Bear with it? Nay, indeed, it must even be helped.

§12.43.2de Othone diffido, fortasse quia cupio.

I am distrustful about Otho's, perhaps because I desire it.

sed tamen maior etiam res est quam facultates nostrae, praesertim adversario et cupido et locuplete et herede.

But still the matter is even greater than my means, especially since the adversary is eager, wealthy, and an heir.

proximum est ut velim Clodiae.

The next best thing is that I should want Clodia's.

sed si ista minus confici possunt, effice quidvis.

But if those matters cannot be successfully settled, bring about anything whatsoever.

ego me maiore religione quam quisquam fuit ullius voti obstrictum puto.

I consider myself bound by a greater religious obligation than anyone ever was by any vow.

videbis etiam Trebonianos, etsi absunt domini.

You will also look into the Trebonian property, even though the owners are away.

sed, ut ad te heri scripsi, considerabis etiam de Tusculano ne aestas effluat; quod certe non est committendum.

But, as I wrote to you yesterday, you will also consider the Tusculan estate, lest the summer slip away; a thing which certainly must not be allowed to happen.

Notes

12.43.1fore levamento — fore is the contracted future infinitive (futurum esse). levamento is a dative of purpose/service, forming a double dative construction with an implied dative of reference (mihi, 'to me'). It means '[that the matter] would be a consolation [to me]'.
12.43.1quom tibi audeam — quom is an archaic spelling of cum, commonly used before the classical period and often retained in Cicero's private letters. Here it functions as a conjunction introducing a concessive ('although') or causal ('since') clause, taking the subjunctive present audeam.
12.43.2adversario et cupido et locuplete et herede — An ablative absolute construction consisting of a noun and adjectives/nouns without a participle (as the participle of esse is lacking). adversario serves as the logical subject, while cupido, locuplete, and herede act as logical predicates, meaning 'especially since the adversary is eager, wealthy, and an heir,' thus providing the reason or circumstance for the main clause.
12.43.2non est committendum — A passive periphrastic construction (gerundive + est) expressing necessity/obligation, here with the neuter relative pronoun quod (referring back to the clause ne aestas effluat) as its subject. The verb committere here means 'to allow (a bad thing) to happen' or 'to permit,' yielding the meaning 'which certainly must not be allowed to happen'.

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Atticus §12.43.1-12.43.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi057.humanitext-lat1:12.43.1-12.43.2

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