Humanitext Reader

Cicero · Letters to Atticus §8.12B.1-8.12B.2

Pompey's Demand for Domitius to Join Forces or Send Troops

Passage 186 of 461 · Latin

Summary

Pompey reproaches Domitius for changing his plans and staying at Corfinium, urging him to march immediately to Luceria to join him, or at least to send the cohorts from Picenum and Camerinum if others are hindering his own movement.

§8.12B.1valde miror te ad me nihil scribere et potius ab aliis quam a te de re publica me certiorem fieri.
I wonder very much that you write nothing to me, and that I am informed about the public affairs by others rather than by you.
nos disiecta manu pares adversario esse non possumus; contractis nostris copiis spero nos et rei publicae et communi saluti prodesse posse.
We cannot be a match for the enemy with a dispersed force; if our forces are united, I hope we can be of service both to the republic and to our common safety.
quam ob rem cum constituisses, ut Vibullius mihi scripserat, a. d. v Id. Febr. Corfinio proficisci cum exercitu et ad me venire, miror quid causae fuerit qua re consilium mutaris.
Therefore, when you had resolved, as Vibullius had written to me, to set out from Corfinium with your army on the fifth day before the Ides of February and to come to me, I wonder what cause there has been why you changed your plan.
nam illa causa quam mihi Vibullius scribit levis est, te propterea moratum esse quod audieris Caesarem Firmo progressum in Castrum Truentinum venisse.
For that reason which Vibullius writes to me is trifling—that you delayed for this reason, because you heard that Caesar, having advanced from Firmum, had come to Castrum Truentinum.
quanto enim magis appropinquare adversarius coepit eo tibi celerius agendum erat ut te mecum coniungeres, prius quam Caesar aut tuum iter impedire aut me abs te excludere posset
For the more the enemy began to approach, the more quickly you ought to have acted to join yourself with me, before Caesar could either obstruct your march or shut me out from you.
§8.12B.2quam ob rem etiam atque etiam te rogo et hortor, id quod non destiti superioribus litteris a te petere, ut primo quoque die Luceriam advenires, ante quam copiae quas instituit Caesar contrahere in unum locum coactae vos a nobis distrahant.
Therefore, again and again I ask and exhort you, which I have not ceased to beg of you in my former letters, that you should arrive at Luceria on the very first day, before the forces which Caesar has begun to collect, being gathered into one place, separate you from us.
sed si erunt qui te impediant ut villas suas servent, aequum est me a te impetrare ut cohortis quae ex Piceno et Camerino venerunt, quae fortunas suas reliquerunt, ad me nussum facias.
But if there are those who hinder you so that they may save their villas, it is fair that I obtain from you that you send to me the cohorts which came from Picenum and Camerinum, which have abandoned their fortunes.

Notes

  1. 8.12B.1a. d. v Id. Febr. — An abbreviation for *ante diem quintum Idus Februarias* (the fifth day before the Ides of February), referring to February 9. Calculated by counting inclusively.
  2. 8.12B.1quanto enim magis appropinquare adversarius coepit eo tibi celerius agendum erat — The correlative structure *quanto ... eo* expresses proportion ("the more ... the more..."). *tibi* is the dative of agent with the gerundive of obligation *agendum erat*.
  3. 8.12B.2nussum facias — The corrupt manuscript reading *nussum* is generally emended to *missum* (or *missas*, agreeing with the feminine plural accusative *cohortis*), forming the idiom *missum/missas facere* ("to send / dispatch") within the object clause introduced by *impetrare ut*.

Cite this passage

Cicero, Letters to Atticus §8.12B.1-8.12B.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0474.phi057.humanitext-lat1:8.12B.1-8.12B.2

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

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.