18 May 44 BCE: To Atticus (at Rome) from Cicero (at Sinuessa)
Cicero and Brutus disagree about style
[This is the first of two letters from May 18th.]
Yesterday I sent a letter to you as I was leaving Puteoli, and then I stayed over at my villa in Cumae. I saw Pilia there, in good health. In fact, I saw her not long after in Cumae; she had come for a funeral, and I also attended the funeral. Our friend Gnaeus Lucceius was burying his mother. So that night I stayed at Sinuessa and scrawled down this letter the next morning before setting out for Arpinum.
I have no news to either write to you or ask you about, unless maybe you think this matter is relevant at all. Our dear Brutus sent me the speech he delivered at the meeting on the Capitol, and asked me to correct it, honestly and unflatteringly, before he publishes it. It is the most beautifully written speech; in sentiments and language, nothing could be better. But if I had had that opportunity, I would have written it with more fire. But you know the purpose and role of the speaker, and so I was unable to correct it. For given the style our dear Brutus prefers, and what he judges to be the best style of oratory—he has attained it with this speech, which could not be any more elegant. But, rightly or wrongly, I have attempted something else. Yet I would like you to read the speech (unless you happen to have already read it) and tell me how you judge it. Although, I fear that, with your cognomen, you will slip towards being hyper-Attic in your judgement.1 But if you remember the thunderbolts of Demosthenes, then you will understand that it is possible to speak in perfect Attic style, and very powerfully. But we shall speak of this in person. For now, I did not want Metrodorus to go to you either with no letter, or with an empty one.
Read Ad Atticum 15.1A in Latin here | Check the glossary here