2 May 44 BCE: To Atticus (at Rome) from Cicero (at Puteoli)
Cicero worries about the quality of his son's schoolwork
I am sending you this letter on May 2nd, as I embark from Cluvius’ gardens in a little rowing boat. I have handed over the villa on the Lucrine lake, and its stewards and managers, to our dear Pilia. I myself am today intent upon our friend Paetus’ meal of cheese and salted fish.1 A few days in Pompeii, and then I sail back to the territories of Puteoli and Cumae. They are such very desirable locations, except for the multitude of people interrupting with visits, which almost makes one want to flee.
But to get to the point: oh, what a great aristeia from our dear Dolabella!2 It gained so much attention! Truly, I never stop praising him, and encouraging him. In all your letters you make clear, and rightly, how you feel about the matter and the man involved. It seems to me that our dear Brutus could even walk through the forum wearing a golden crown. For who would dare to injure him, when they remember the sight of the cross or the rock, especially when there was so much applause, and so much approval from the lowly?
Now, my Atticus, please help me with this. When I have done everything I need to for our Brutus, I hope to run off to Greece. It is very important for my son, or rather for myself—or, by Hercules, for us both, that I interrupt his studies with a visit. For in the letter of Leonides that you sent me, please, what is there that we should be so very happy about? I feel it is not satisfactory to praise him when the praise is for ‘as he is now.’ These are not the words of a confident tutor, but of a fearful one. What’s more, I ordered Herodes to write to me continuously, and have yet to receive a single letter from him. I fear that he has nothing to tell me which he thinks I would find pleasant to know. Thank you very much for writing to Xeno; it is a matter of my duty and my reputation to ensure that my son lacks nothing.
I hear Flaminius Flamma is in Rome. I wrote to him that I have asked you in a letter to speak with him about the business with Montanus; please makes sure that the letter I sent reaches him, and speak to him whenever is convenient for you. I think, if the man has any sense of shame, he will pay up, rather than pay late and with a fine.
About Attica, you have done me a great favour in ensuring I knew she had recovered before I knew she was unwell.
Read Ad Atticum 14.16 in Latin here | Check the glossary here
A meal that suggested simple tastes. It may be relevant that Paetus was an Epicurean.