Translation:Letters to Friends/9.1

To M. Terentius Varro

Rome, 47 or 46 BC

Cicero says hello to M. Varro

From a letter sent by you which Atticus read to me I learned what you were doing and where you were; but when I would see you, I could not at all guess from the same letter. However, I'm becoming hopeful that your arrival is approaching. I wish this would be a comfort to me! As it stands, I am burdened by so many and such great matters that anyone not a complete idiot ought to hope for no relief. But nevertheless, perhaps you can help me in some matter, or I you. For know that, after I reached the city, I returned into good favor with old friends, that is with my books. Even so, I had not abandoned enjoyment of them because I was angry with them, but because I was somewhat ashamed of them; for I saw that I had not obeyed their commands, when I had got myself into the most chaotic matters with the most untrustworthy allies. They forgive me, call me back into our old relationship, and say that you, because you persisted in this, were wiser than I. For this reason, since I now enjoy them appeased, I seem obligated to hope that, if I see you, I will easily bring up the things which bear down upon me and the things which hang over me.

For this reason, whether at my villa at Tusculum or Cumae, whether it's preferred at mine or yours, or, what I'd like the least, at Rome, as long as we're together, I will make sure by all means that this seems most convenient for both of us.