21 June 44 BCE: To Tiro (at Rome) from Cicero (at Tusculum)
Cicero complains to Tiro that Atticus thinks he is always panicking
[This is the second of two letters from June 21st.]
Yes, finish the declaration if you can, although money of this sort does not need a declaration—but anyways. Balbus has written that he has had such a serious attack that he can’t talk. Antony can do as he likes about his law, if only I can spend time in the country. I have written to Bithynicus.
You must make up your own mind about Servilius, since you don’t look down on old age.1 For my part, our dear Atticus, because he once realised I was in a panic, thinks that that is always the case, and does not see how I have surrounded myself with the defences of philosophy. And by Hercules, because he is faint-hearted himself, he also makes a fuss!
But I want to keep up my old friendship with Antony (we have never fallen out), and I shall write to him, but not before I have seen you.2 But I’m not taking you away from your bond—one should deal with one’s own affairs first. I am expecting Lepta tomorrow, and [...] I shall need the sweetness of your conversation after the bitterness of his.
Read Ad Familiares 16.23 in Latin here | Check the glossary here
Footnote borrowed from Shackleton Bailey: ‘The elder Servilius Isauricus had recently died at a great age. Tiro seems to have relayed a talk with Atticus, who was afraid that Cicero might take fright at some current ‘scare’. Tiro may have added that Cicero ought not to worry and that he would very likely live to a ripe old age, like Servilius.’ He wouldn’t.
I am choosing to interpret this as being sarcastic.
cicero and atticus are so oldmarriedcouple