3 June 44 BCE: To Atticus (at Rome) from Cicero (at Tusculum)
The Senate is going to give Brutus and Cassius grain commissions! (And this is bad!)
On the evening of the 2nd I received a letter from Balbus, telling me that the Senate will meet on the 5th, to appoint Brutus and Cassius with a commission for buying grain (in Asia and Sicily respectively) and sending it to Rome. What a wretched situation! To accept anything from that lot, and then, if they accept anything, for it to be this—the duty of a legate! And yet, I don’t know that it’s not better than sitting by the Eurotas.1 But fate will govern these affairs. Balbus says it will be decreed at the same time that praetorian provinces will be decreed both for them and for the other praetors. This is certainly better than the Persian Portico; for I don’t think any Sparta is further off than Lanuvium.2 You ask why I am laughing about such a situation—what else should I do? I am tired of crying over it.
Immortal gods! How the first page of your letter kept me in suspense! What’s this event involving weapons in your house? But I am glad that this storm cloud has passed over quickly. I am waiting eagerly to find out what you did on your sad and difficult advice-giving mission; for it is unsolvable. We are beset by every kind of force. For myself at least, Brutus’ letter (which you make clear you have read) so troubled me that, although previously I had no advice to give, grief of the spirit has made my thinking slower still. But more of this when I hear from you.
Right now I have nothing to write, and all the less because I doubt that you will receive this letter; it is unclear whether the letter-carrier will visit you. I am waiting eagerly for you letter.
Read Ad Atticum 15.9 in Latin here | Check the glossary here
The Eurotas is a river in Sparta. Brutus had named part of his estate at Lanuvium after it.
The Persian Stoa (or portico) was a building in the Spartan agora, originally built with spoils from the Battle of Plataea, to commemorate the Persian War. Brutus seems to have named another part of his estate at Lanuvium after it, continuing the Spartan theme. ‘for I don’t think any Sparta is further off than Lanuvium’ translates what Shackleton Bailey thinks ‘[Cicero] could at least have written’ (nullam enim Lacedaemonem longinquior quam Lanuvium existimaris), although he also says that ‘conjectures cluster like flies around this corrupt jest.’ Buzz buzz.