DCLVII (A XIII, 40)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
Tusculum (7 August)
Really? Does Brutus say that Cæsar is going to join the
Optimates? That's good news! But where will he find them?
Unless he should by chance hang himself.[1] But what about
Brutus? You say, "It is no good." What became, then, of
that chef-d'œuvre of yours which I saw in his "Parthenon"—I
mean the Ahala and Brutus pedigree?[2] But what is he
to do?
That's excellent hearing! "Not even has the prime author of the whole black business[3] a good word to say of our nephew." Why, I was beginning to be afraid that even Brutus was fond of him. For that seemed the meaning of the sentence in his letter to me: "But I could wish that you had a taste of his conversations with me." But, as you say, of this when we meet. And yet, which do you advise me to do? Am I to hurry to meet him or to stay where I am? The fact is, I am glued to my books, and on the other
- ↑ The boni are all killed in the several battles of the civil war. Cæsar must go to the other world to find them.
- ↑ The "Parthenon" is a library or other room in the house of Brutus. Thus Atticus had such a room which he called Amaltheium (vol. i., p. 44), and Cicero an Academeia (vol. i., p. 12), and Augustus one which he called Syracusæ (Suet. Aug. 72). Atticus's chef-d'œuvre was a pedigree of the Iunian family, "which he made at the request of Brutus, from its origin to the present day, noting the birth of each man and the offices he had held" (Nepos, Att. 18). It enumerated among the ancestors Iunius Brutus, the expeller of the Tarquins, and C. Servilius Ahala, who killed Sp. Mælius for an alleged attempt at tyranny (2 Phil. § 26). This was one of the ways in which Atticus—who dabbled in ancient history and antiquities—gratified his great friends. Cicero means, "if Brutus submits to Cæsar, what is the use of his descent from these tyrannicides?" We may remember how this was used next year by the authors of libels (App. B. C. ii. 112).
- ↑ Hirtius, who had apparently induced young Quintus to join Cæsar. See vol. ii., pp. 366, 375.
