Letters to Atticus/3.4
To Atticus at Rome[edit]
near Vibo, April 58 BC[edit]
I hope you will attribute my sudden departure from Vibo, whither I had asked you come, to my unhappiness rather than to fickleness. A copy of the bill for my ruin was brought to me, in which the correction of which I had been told was to the effect that I might legally remain anywhere beyond 400 miles. Since I was not allowed to go yonder,[1] I set out towards Brundisium before the day for carrying the bill had come, both to prevent Sica, in whose house I was staying, from being ruined,[2] and because I was prevented from residing at Malta. So now make haste to catch me up, if only I shall find any welcome there.[3] At present I receive kind invitations. But about the rest of my journey I am nervous. Truly, my dear Pomponius, I am very sorry I consented to live: in which matter you exercised the chief influence with me. But of these things when we meet. Only be sure and come.
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ To Malta. The propraetor of Sicily, C. Vergilius, opposed his going to Malta, which was in the province of Sicily, though it had a primus of its own (Planc. 40; Plut. Cic. 32).
- ↑ Because of entertaining the condemned man, a special proviso in this law (Dio, 38.17).
- ↑ In Epirus, believing that Atticus will understand that his going to Brundisium means that he will go to Epirus and as Atticus lives there, he naturally asks him to come to meet him. Epirus was, for certain purposes at least, in the province of Macedonia, and it depended on the governor, L. Appuleius Saturninus, what reception be would meet. His friend Plancius was quaestor.