Humanitext Reader

Cicero · Letters to Atticus §3.14.1-3.14.2

Expectations from Pompey and Plans for Asia

Passage 61 of 461 · Latin

Summary

Cicero expresses his high expectations regarding Pompey, requests a clear assessment from Atticus, and explains his current stay in Thessalonica and his plan to head toward Asia.

§3.14.1ex tuis litteris plenus sum exspectatione de Pompeio quidnam de nobis velit aut ostendat.
From your letters I am full of expectation concerning Pompey, as to what indeed he wants or indicates regarding us.
comitia enim credo esse habita; quibus absolutis scribis illi placuisse agi de nobis.
For I believe the elections have been held; now that they are over, you write that he was pleased that action should be taken concerning us.
si tibi stultus esse videor qui sperem, facio tuo iussu, etsi scio te me iis epistulis potius et meas spes solitum esse remorari.
If I seem foolish to you for hoping, I do so at your bidding, although I know that you, in those letters of yours, were rather accustomed to hold me and my hopes back.
nunc velim mihi plane perscribas quid videas.
Now I would like you to write to me plainly what you see.
scio nos nostris multis peccatis in hanc aerumnam incidisse.
I know that we have fallen into this misery through our many mistakes.
ea si qui casus aliqua ex parte correxerit, minus moleste feremus nos vixisse et adhuc vivere.
If some fortune should correct them in any part, we shall bear it less painfully that we have lived and are still living.
§3.14.2ego propter viae celebritatem et cotidianam exspectationem rerum novarum non commovi me adhuc Thessalonica.
On account of the busyness of the road and the daily expectation of news, I have not yet moved from Thessalonica.
sed iam extrudimur non a Plancio (nam is quidem retinet) verum ab ipso loco minime apposito ad tolerandam in tanto luctu calamitatem.
But now we are being driven out, not by Plancius (for he indeed detains me), but by the place itself, which is least suited for enduring misfortune in such great grief.
in Epirum ideo, ut scripseram, non veni, quod subito mihi universi nuntii venerant et litterae qua re nihil esset necesse quam proxime Italiam esse.
I did not go to Epirus for this reason, as I had written, because suddenly all kinds of messages and letters came to me, because of which there was no necessity at all to be as close to Italy as possible.
hinc, si aliquid a comitiis audierimus, nos in Asiam convertemus; neque adhuc stabat quo potissimum sed scies.
From here, if we hear anything from the elections, we shall betake ourselves to Asia; nor is it yet settled where specifically we should go, but you will know.
data xii Sextilis Thessalonicae.
Given on the twelfth of August at Thessalonica.

Notes

  1. 3.14.1te me iis epistulis potius et meas spes solitum esse remorari — An accusative with infinitive (AcI) construction dependent on 'scio' (I know). The subject accusative is 'te' (you), and the deponent infinitive is 'solitum esse' (governing 'remorari', to be accustomed to hold back), which takes 'me... et meas spes' (me and my hopes) as its objects. The juxtaposition of 'te me' (two accusative pronouns) requires careful parsing to identify 'te' as the subject and 'me' as the object based on the context of Atticus previously cautioning Cicero.
  2. 3.14.1ea si qui casus — 'ea' is a neuter plural accusative referring back to 'nostris multis peccatis' (our many mistakes) in the previous sentence, serving as the direct object of the future perfect verb 'correxerit' (will have corrected). 'qui' is the indefinite adjective (used after 'si' instead of 'aliquis') modifying the masculine singular subject 'casus' (chance/fortune).
  3. 3.14.2neque adhuc stabat — The verb 'stabat' is used here impersonally to mean 'it was resolved' or 'it was settled.' The following indirect question 'quo potissimum' (whither preferably) functions as the logical subject of this impersonal construction.

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Atticus §3.14.1-3.14.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi057.humanitext-lat1:3.14.1-3.14.2

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