Appendix C

The following letters to Tiro, with one from Quintus in regard to his manumission, are given here because of the difficulty of dating them. The indications of time are as follows. I. Those addressed to Tiro are earlier than that of Quintus, because they refer to a promised emancipation, while that of Quintus speaks of it as accomplished. II. The letter of Quintus is after the emancipation of his own freedman Statius, which apparently took place B.C. 59. III. Quintus is at a distance from Italy, and is looking forward to rejoin his brother and family. IV. Cicero is engaged on some more than ordinary literary work. V. Pompey is visiting Cicero in his Cuman villa. Now after his return from Asia (B.C. 58), Quintus was only twice thus distant, in B.C. 57-56 in Sardinia, and in B.C. 54-53 in Britain and Gaul. In both of these periods Cicero was engaged on literary work; in the former on the de Oratore, in the latter on the de Republica. There is really no means of deciding between these two. It is even possible that they might be placed some time during the proprietorship of Quintus in Asia (B.C. 62-59), during which Cicero was engaged, among other things, on a poem on his own times and a history of his consulship. Tiro--or M. Tullius Tiro, as he was called after his emancipation--was not a young man, and may well have been emancipated even in B.C. 59. According to Hieronymus, he died in B.C. 5 in his hundredth year. He was therefore little more than a year younger than Cicero himself. The illness of Tiro must have been an earlier one than that of which we shall hear much in B.C. 50-49.

I (F XVI, 13)

TO TIRO

(CUMÆ) 10 APRIL

I shall consider that I have everything possible from you, if I see you in good health. I am awaiting the arrival of Andricus, whom I sent to you, with the utmost anxiety. Do take pains to recover, if you love me: and as soon as you have thoroughly re-established your health, come to me. Good-bye.

10 April.

II (F XVI, 14)

TO TIRO

(CUMÆ) 11 APRIL

Andricus arrived a day later than I expected him, and accordingly I had a night of terror and unhappiness. Your letter does not make me at all more certain of your state, and yet it did revive me. I can take pleasure in nothing; can employ myself in no literary work, which I cannot touch till I have seen you. Give orders to promise the doctor any fee he chooses to ask. I wrote to that effect to Ummidius. I am told that your mind is ill at ease, and that the doctor says this is what makes you ill. If you care for me, rouse from their sleep your studies and your culture, which make you the dearest object of my affection. It is your mind that requires strengthening now, in order that your body may also recover. Pray do it both for your own and my sake. Keep Acastus with you to help to nurse you. Preserve yourself for me. The day for the fulfilment of my promise is at hand, and I will be true to it, if you only come. Good-bye, good-bye!

11 April, noon.

III (F XVI, 15)

TO TIRO

(CUMÆ) 12 APRIL

Ægypta arrived on the 12th of April. Though he brought the news that you were entirely without fever and were pretty well, yet he caused me anxiety by saying that you had not been able to write to me: and all the more so because Hermia, who ought to have arrived on the same day, has not done so. I am incredibly anxious about your health. If you will relieve me from that, I will liberate you from every burden. I would have written at greater length, if I had thought that you were now capable of taking any pleasure in reading a letter. Concentrate your whole intelligence, which I value above everything, upon preserving yourself for your own and my benefit. Use your utmost diligence, I repeat, in nursing your health. Good-bye.

P.S.--When I had finished the above Hermia arrived. I have your letter written in a shaky hand, and no wonder after so serious an illness. I am sending Ægypta back to stay with you, because he is by no means without feeling, and seems to me to be attached to you, and with him a cook for your especial use. Good-bye!

IV (F XVI, 10)

TO TIRO

CUMÆ, 19 MAY

I of course wish you to come to me, but I dread the journey for you. You have been most seriously ill: you have been much reduced by a low diet and purgatives, and the ravages of the disease itself. After dangerous illnesses, if some mistake is made, drawbacks are usually dangerous. Moreover, to the two days on the road which it will have taken you to reach Cumæ, there will have to be added at once five more for your return journey to Rome. I mean to be at Formiæ on the 30th: be sure, my dear Tiro, that I find you there strong and well. My poor studies, or rather ours, have been in a very bad way owing to your absence. However, they have looked up a little owing to this letter from you brought by Acastus. Pompey is staying with me at the moment of writing this, and seems to be cheerful and enjoying himself. He asks me to read him something of ours, but I told him that without you the oracle was dumb. Pray prepare to renew your services to our Muses. My promise shall be performed on the day named: for I have taught you the etymology of fides. Take care to make a complete recovery. I shall be with you directly. Good-bye.

19 May.

V (F XVI, 16)

Q. CICERO TO HIS BROTHER

(GAUL?)

As I hope to see you again, my dear Marcus, and my own son Cicero, and your Tulliola and your son, I am delighted about Tiro. He was much too good for his position, and I am truly glad that you preferred that he should be our freedman and friend rather than our slave. Believe me, when I read your letter and his I jumped for joy, and I both thank and congratulate you: for if the fidelity and good character of my own Statius is a delight to me, how much more valuable must those same qualities be in your man, since there is added to them knowledge of literature, conversational powers, and culture, which have advantages even over those useful virtues! I have all sorts of most conclusive reasons for loving you: and here is another one, either for what you have done, or, if you choose, for your perfect manner of announcing it to me. Your letter shewed me your whole heart. I have promised Sabinus's servants all they asked, and I will perform my promise.

END OF VOL. I.