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Cicero · Letters to Atticus §13.48.1-13.48.2

Lepta's Inheritance and Porcia's Funeral Speech

Passage 379 of 461 · Latin

Summary

Cicero hopes Atticus will visit his villa while preparing for his friend Lepta's inheritance concerns. He also sends his revised panegyric on Porcia and requests other funeral orations.

§13.48.1heri nescio quid in strepitu videor exaudisse cum diceres te in Tusculanum venturum.
Yesterday, amidst the noise, I seem to have caught something or other when you were saying that you would come to your Tusculan villa.
quod utinam! iterum utinam! tuo tamen commodo.
Would that it were so! Again, would that it were so! Yet at your own convenience.
Lepta me rogat ut, si quid sibi opus sit, accurram; mortuus enim Babullius.
Lepta begs me that, if he should have any need, I should hasten to him; for Babullius is dead.
Caesar, opinor, ex uncia etsi nihil adhuc; sed Lepta ex triente.
Caesar, I suppose, is heir to a twelfth share, though nothing is official yet; but Lepta is heir to a third.
veretur autem ne non liceat tenere hereditatem, ἀλόγωσ omnino, sed veretur tamen.
He is afraid, however, that he may not be allowed to keep the inheritance—quite unreasonably, to be sure, but still he is afraid.
is igitur si accierit, accurram; si minus, non ante quam necesse erit.
If he sends for me, therefore, I shall hasten there; if not, I shall not go before it is necessary.
tu Pollicem, cum poteris.
You, send Pollex when you can.
§13.48.2laudationem Porciae tibi misi correctam.
I have sent you the panegyric on Porcia, corrected.
adeo properavi ut, si forte aut Domitio filio aut Bruto mitteretur, haec mitteretur.
I made such haste that, if by chance it should be sent either to his son Domitius or to Brutus, this version should be sent.
id si tibi erit commodum magno opere cures velim et velim M. Varronis et Olli mittas laudationem, Olli utique.
If it is convenient to you, I would like you to take great care of this; and I would like you to send me the panegyric by Marcus Varro and that by Ollius—Ollius's at any rate.
nam illam legi, volo tamen regustare. quaedam enim vix mihi credo legisse me.
For I have read the former, but yet I want to taste it again; for I can scarcely believe that I read certain parts.

Notes

  1. §13.48.1videor exaudisse — The verb videor (to seem) is used here in the personal construction with the perfect infinitive exaudisse, meaning 'I seem to have overheard/caught'.
  2. §13.48.1tuo tamen commodo — An ablative of manner or attendant circumstance expressing a qualification: 'yet at your own convenience'.
  3. §13.48.1ne non liceat — A clause of fearing introduced by ne after veretur. The combination ne non means 'lest ... not' or 'fearing that ... may not'.
  4. §13.48.1tu Pollicem — An elliptical expression typical of informal epistolary style. A verb of sending or attending to, such as mittas or cures, is omitted.
  5. §13.48.2cures velim — The hortatory or optative subjunctive velim governing another subjunctive cures without ut, a common construction for polite requests ('I would like you to take care').

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Atticus §13.48.1-13.48.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi057.humanitext-lat1:13.48.1-13.48.2

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

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