December 45 BCE: To Publius Cornelius Dolabella (at Baiae) from Cicero (at Puteoli)
Cicero sends Dolabella a 'poor little speech'... a teeny tiny oratiuncula
I congratulate our favourite Baiae on its becoming, as you say, a healthy place; unless perchance it is fond of and flatters you and, so long as you are there, has forgotten its usual habits. If that is really so, it doesn't at all surprise me that sky and land are foregoing their usual evil effects.
My poor little speech for Deiotarus, for which you asked, I have with me, though I thought I had not. Accordingly I am sending it to you. Please read it with the understanding that it is a slight and weak case and not much worthy of being committed to writing. But I wished to send an old host and friend a small present—of loose texture and coarse thread—as his own presents usually are.*
As for yourself, I would have you show wisdom and courage, in order that the moderation and dignity of your bearing may throw discredit on the unfair treatment you have met with from others.*
Read Ad Familiares 9.12 in Latin here | Check the glossary here
Notes from the translator, E.S. Shuckburgh:
as his own presents usually are—Apparently native cloths or textures sent as presents to his friends at Rome.
the unfair treatment you have met with from others—Cicero means to refer to Antony, who had opposed Dolabella's consulship, for which Dolabella inveighed against him in the senate on the next Kalends of January.