§5.12.1negotium magnum est navigare atque id mense Quintili.
Sailing is a big business, and that too in the month of July.
sexto die Delum Athenis venimus.
On the sixth day we came to Delos from Athens.
Pr. Nonas Quintilis a Piraeo ad Zostera vento molesto, qui nos ibidem Nonis tenuit.
On the day before the Nones of July, we went from Piraeus to Zoster with a troublesome wind, which kept us in that very place on the Nones.
ante viii Idus ad Ceo iucunde; inde Gyarum saevo vento non adverso; hinc Syrum, inde Delum, utroque citius quam vellemus, cursum confecimus.
On the eighth day before the Ides we went pleasantly to Keos; thence to Gyaros with a wild but not adverse wind; from here to Syros, and thence to Delos, we finished our course in both cases more quickly than we could have wished.
nam nosti aphracta Rhodiorum; nihil quod minus fluctum ferre possit.
For you know the undecked vessels of the Rhodians; there is nothing that can bear the waves less.
itaque erat in animo nihil festinare nec me Delo movere nisi omnia ἄκρα Γυρέων pura vidissem.
Therefore I intend not to hasten at all, nor to move from Delos unless I see all the peaks of Gyrae clear.
§5.12.2de Messalla ad te statim ut audivi de Gyaro dedi litteras et id ipsum consilium nostrum etiam ad Hortensium cui quidem valde συνηγωνίων.
About Messalla, I sent a letter to you from Gyaros as soon as I heard the news, and that very plan of mine I also sent to Hortensius, with whom indeed I was very deeply sympathizing.
sed tuas de eius iudici sermonibus et me hercule omni de rei publicae statu litteras exspecto πολιτικώτερον quidem scriptas, quoniam meos cum Thallumeto nostro pervolutas libros, eius modi inquam litteras ex quibus ego non quid fiat (nam id vel Helonius, vir gravissimus, potest efficere, cliens tuus) sed quid futurum sit sciam.
But I am expecting your letters about the talk concerning his trial, and by Hercules, about the entire state of the republic, written indeed in a more political manner, since you are reading through my books with our Thallumetus; letters of such a kind, I say, from which I may know not what is happening (for even your client Helonius, a most serious man, can manage that), but what is going to happen.
cum haec leges, habebimus consules.
When you read this, we shall have consuls.
omnia perspicere poteris de Caesare, de Pompeio, de ipsis iudiciis.
You will be able to see everything clearly about Caesar, about Pompey, and about the trials themselves.
§5.12.3nostra autem negotia, quoniam Romae commoraris, amabo te, explica.
As for my business, since you are staying in Rome, pray, settle it.
cui rei fugerat me rescribere, de strue laterum, plane rogo, de aqua, si quid poterit fieri, eo sis animo quo soles esse; quam ego cum mea sponte tum tuis sermonibus aestimo plurimi.
As for the matter I forgot to write back about, the pile of bricks—I ask you plainly—and the water, if anything can be done, be of that mind which you usually are; which I value highly, both of my own accord and because of your conversations.
ergo tu id conficies.
Therefore you will complete it.
praeterea si quid Philippus rogabit quod in tua re faceres, id velim facias.
Besides, if Philippus asks anything which you would do in your own case, I should like you to do it.
plura scribam ad te cum constitero.
I will write more to you when I have settled down.
nunc eram plane in medio mari.
Now I am clearly in the middle of the sea.