Letters to his brother Quintus/3.7
To Q. Tullius Cicero in Gaul[edit]
Tusculum, November 54 BC[edit]
At Rome, and especially on the Appian road as far as the temple of Mars, there is a remarkable flood. The promenade of Crassipes has been washed away, pleasure grounds, a great number of shops. There is a great sheet of water right up to the public fish-pond. That doctrine of Homer's is in full play:
- The days in autumn when in violent flood
Zeus pours his waters, wroth at sinful men
—for it falls in with the acquittal of Gabinius—
- Who wrench the law to suit their crooked ends
And drive out justice, recking naught of Gods.[1]
But I have made up my mind not to care about such things. When I get back to Rome I will write and tell you my observations, and especially about the dictatorship, and I will also send a letter to Labienus and one to Ligurius. I write this before daybreak by the carved wood lamp-stand, in which I take great delight, because they tell me that you had it made when you were at Samos. Good-bye, dearest and best of brothers.
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ Hom. Il. 16.385.