Humanitext Reader

Cicero · Letters to Atticus §13.2.1

Gratitude for Promptness and Callousness to Indignity

Passage 329 of 461 · Latin

Summary

Cicero expresses his gratitude for Atticus's promptness, remarks on his own growing callousness to public indignities, and writes that he is eagerly awaiting Atticus's letter despite expecting no new information.

§13.2.1gratior mihi celeritas tua quam ipsa res.
Your promptness is more pleasing to me than the matter itself.
quid enim indignius? sed iam ad ista obduruimus et humanitatem omnem exuimus.
For what could be more unworthy? But by now we have grown callous to such things and have stripped off all human feeling.
tuas litteras hodie exspectabam, nihil equidem ut ex iis novi; quid enim? verum tamen—
I was expecting your letter today, though indeed I expect nothing new from them; for what could there be? But yet—

Notes

  1. §13.2.1quid enim indignius? — The copula `est` is omitted with the interrogative pronoun `quid`. `indignius` is the nominative neuter singular comparative of the adjective `indignus` (unworthy, shameful), serving as the predicate.
  2. §13.2.1nihil ... novi — `novi` is the genitive neuter singular of the adjective `novus` (new), functioning as a partitive genitive (genitive of the whole) dependent on the pronoun `nihil` (nothing). Together they mean 'nothing of new' or 'nothing new'.
  3. §13.2.1ut ex iis — The conjunction `ut` is used here in a concessive sense ('although', 'even though'). `ex iis` ('from them') refers back to `tuas litteras` ('your letter', grammatically plural in Latin) in the preceding clause.

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Atticus §13.2.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi057.humanitext-lat1:13.2.1

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