§2.1.1Kal. Iuniis eunti mihi Antium et gladiatores M. Metelli cupide relinquenti venit obviam tuus puer.
On the first of June, as I was going to Antium and eagerly leaving behind the gladiators of Marcus Metellus, your slave met me.
is mihi litteras abs te et commentarium consulatus mei Graece scriptum reddidit.
He delivered to me a letter from you and a memoir of my consulship written in Greek.
in quo laetatus sum me aliquanto ante de isdem rebus Graece item scriptum librum L. Cossinio ad te perferendum dedisse; nam si ego tuum ante legissem, furatum me abs te esse diceres.
In this I was glad that I had, some time before, given a book likewise written in Greek on the same subject to Lucius Cossinius to be carried to you; for if I had read yours first, you would say that I had stolen from you.
quamquam tua illa (legi enim libenter) horridula mihi atque incompta visa sunt, sed tamen erant ornata hoc ipso quod ornamenta neglexerant et, ut mulieres, ideo bene olere quia nihil olebant videbantur.
Although those writings of yours (for I read them gladly) seemed to me a little rough and unadorned, yet they were adorned by the very fact that they had neglected adornments, and, like women, they seemed to smell well for the very reason that they smelled of nothing.
meus autem liber totum Isocrati myrothecium atque omnis eius discipulorum arculas ac non nihil etiam Aristotelia pigmenta consumpsit.
My book, however, has used up the whole perfume-cabinet of Isocrates, all the cosmetic-boxes of his disciples, and not a little of the Aristotelian paint as well.
quem tu Corcyrae, ut mihi aliis litteris significas, strictim attigisti, post autem, ut arbitror, a Cossinio accepisti.
You touched upon this briefly at Corcyra, as you indicate to me in another letter, and afterwards, as I suppose, you received it from Cossinius.
quem tibi ego non essem ausus mittere nisi eum lente ac fastidiose probavissem.
I should not have dared to send it to you if I had not approved it slowly and fastidiously.
§2.1.2quamquam ad me rescripsit iam Rhodo Posidonius se, nostrum illud ὑπόμνημα cum legeret, quod ego ad eum ut ornatius de isdem rebus scriberet miseram, non modo non excitatum esse ad scribendum sed etiam plane deterritum.
Although Posidonius has already written back to me from Rhodes that when he read that memoir of ours, which I had sent to him so that he might write on the same subject more ornately, he was not only not stimulated to write but was even completely deterred.
quid quaeris? conturbavi Graecam nationem.
What more would you have? I have thrown the Greek nation into confusion.
ita vulgo qui instabant ut darem sibi quod ornarent iam exhibere mihi molestiam destiterunt.
Thus the crowd who were pressing me to give them something to adorn have now ceased to trouble me.
tu, si tibi placuerit liber, curabis ut et Athenis sit et in ceteris oppidis Graeciae; videtur enim posse aliquid nostris rebus lucis adferre.
You, if the book pleases you, will take care that it is both at Athens and in the other towns of Greece; for it seems able to bring some light to our achievements.
§2.1.3oratiunculas autem et quas postulas et pluris etiam mittam, quoniam quidem ea quae nos scribimus adulescentulorum studiis excitati te etiam delectant.
But as for the short speeches, I will send both those which you request and even more, since indeed those things which we write, stimulated by the studies of young men, delight you also.
fuit enim mihi commodum, quod in eis orationibus quae Philippicae nominantur enituerat civis ille tuus Demosthenes, et quod se ab hoc refractariolo iudiciali dicendi genere abiunxerat ut σεμνότερόσ τισ et πολιτικώτεροσ videretur, curare ut meae quoque essent orationes quae consulares nominarentur.
For it was convenient for me, since that fellow-citizen of yours, Demosthenes, had shone in those speeches which are called Philippics, and because he had separated himself from this somewhat aggressive court-style of speaking in order to appear more dignified and statesmanlike, to take care that my speeches also should be those which are called consular.
quarum una est in senatu Kal. Ianuariis, altera ad populum de lege agraria, tertia de Othone, quarta pro Rabirio, quinta de proscriptorum filiis, sexta cum provinciam in contione deposui, septima quom Catilinam emisi, octava quam habui ad populum postridie quam Catilina profugit, nona in contione quo die Allobroges indicarunt, decima in senatu Nonis Decembribus.
Of these, one was in the senate on the first of January, a second to the people on the agrarian law, a third on Otho, a fourth on behalf of Rabirius, a fifth on the sons of the proscribed, a sixth when I surrendered my province in an assembly, a seventh when I sent Catiline out, an eighth which I delivered to the people the day after Catiline fled, a ninth in an assembly on the day the Allobroges gave information, a tenth in the senate on the nones of December.
sunt praeterea duae breves, quasi ἀποσπασμάτια legis agrariae.
There are besides two short ones, as it were extracts of the agrarian law.
hoc totum σῶμα curabo ut habeas; et quoniam te cum scripta tum res meae delectant, isdem ex libris perspicies et quae gesserim et quae dixerim; aut ne poposcisses; ego enim tibi me non offerebam.
I will take care that you have this whole collection; and since both my writings and my achievements delight you, you will perceive from these same books both what I did and what I said; otherwise, you should not have asked for them; for I was not offering myself to you.