[This is the second of three letters from July 11th.]
What is this about Hermogenes Clodius having said that Andromenes told him that he had seen my son at Corcyra? I supposed that you must have heard it. Didn't he then give any letter even to him? Or didn't he see him? Pray therefore let me know.
What answer am I to give you about Varro? You have the four parchment rolls in your hands: whatever you do I shall approve. It isn't after all a case of ‘fearing the Trojans.’* Why should I? But I am more afraid of his own disapprobation of the business. But since you undertake it—I shall sleep on both ears.*
About the ‘abatement’ I have answered your full and careful letter. Please therefore settle the business, and that too without hesitation or reserve. This ought and must be done.
Read Ad Atticum 13.24 in Latin here | Check the glossary here
Notes from the translator, E.S. Shuckburgh:
‘fearing the Trojans.’—I. e., public opinion, as often. See vol. i., p.90, etc.
I shall sleep on both ears—In alteram aurem, a proverb for undisturbed sleep, and so a quiet mind. It is used by Terence (Haut. 342), Plautus (Pseud. i. I, 121), and Pliny (Ep. 4.29). It was a Greek proverb also: ἐπ᾽ ἀμφότερα τὰ ὦτα καθεύδειν (Pollux, 2.84). It is also French: dormir sur les deux oreilles. I don't know of any English equivalent, but there is the converse, ‘to sleep with one eye (or ear) open.’