Cicero Ad Atticum XII.14
March 8, 45 BCE
Commentary by Max Freedlund: Revised by Jacques Bailly


Text

12.14
 Scr. Asturae viii Id. Mart. a. 709 (45).
CICERO ATTICO SAL.
[1] de me excusando apud Appuleium dederam ad te pridie litteras. nihil esse negoti arbitror. quemcumque appellaris nemo negabit. sed Septimium vide et Laenatem et Statilium; tribus enim opus est. sed mihi Laenas totum receperat.
 [2]  quod scribis a Iunio te appellatum, omnino Cornificius locuples est; sed tamen scire velim quando dicar spopondisse et pro patre anne pro filio. neque eo minus, ut scribis, procuratores Cornifici et Appuleium   praediatorem videbis.
 [3]  quod me ab hoc maerore recreari vis, facis ut omnia; sed me mihi non defuisse tu testis es. nihil enim de maerore minuendo scriptum ab ullo est quod ego non domi tuae legerim. sed omnem consolationem vincit dolor. quin etiam feci quod profecto ante me nemo ut ipse me per litteras consolarer. quem librum ad te mittam, si descripserint librarii. adfirmo tibi nullam consolationem esse talem. totos dies scribo, non quo proficiam quid sed tantisper impedior non equidem satis (vis enim urget),--sed relaxor tamen ad omniaque nitor non ad animum sed ad vultum ipsum, si queam, reficiendum idque faciens interdum mihi peccare videor, interdum peccaturus esse nisi faciam. solitudo aliquid adiuvat, sed multo plus proficeret, si tu tamen interesses. quae mihi una causa est hinc discedendi; nam pro malis recte habebat. quamquam <id> ipsum doleo. non enim iam in me idem esse poteris. perierunt illa quae amabas.
 [4]   de Bruti ad me litteris scripsi ad te antea. prudenter scriptae, sed nihil quod me adiuvarent quod ad te scripsit id vellem, ut ipse adesset. certe aliquid, quoniam me tam valde amat, adiuvaret. quod si quid scies, scribas ad me velim, maxime autem Pansa quando. de Attica doleo, credo tamen Cratero. Piliam angi veta. satis est me maerere pro omnibus.

Introduction
This very short letter is a good illustration of the typical content, importance, and interest of Cicero's letters: here we see a slice of his daily life. He is consumed with grief for his deceased daughter, but still has to continue with the grind of politics and business, etc. Cicero begins by asking Atticus to excuse him from a political function and also to pay a debt for him. Then the letter becomes more personal: Cicero responds to Atticus' consolation on the death of Cicero's daughter Tullia earlier that year, and also mentions a piece he has written about grief. He concludes by asking Atticus to keep him informed about the news and with good wishes for Atticus' daughter and wife.

Commentary

12.14 
Scr. Asturae viii Id. Mart. a. 709 (45).
CICERO ATTICO SAL.

Scr.: scripsit (Cicero is the subject). | Asturae: Astura was an island (it is no longer an island) on the coast of Latium in Italy. | viii Id. Mart. a. 709: refers to the 8th day before the Ides of March in the 709th year since the founding of Rome (i.e. 45 BCE). | SAL: short for salutem dixit, a standard way to begin a letter: the verb takes a dative and would be in the epistolary past (when Atticus reads the letter, what Cicero writes will be in the past, so Cicero casts it in the past).

[1] Much is unclear here, but the following seems safe to say. 1) The Appuleius mentioned here in §1 is the same Apuleius who is mentioned in 3 other letters, all within days of this one (ad Atticum 12.13, 12.15, and 12.17). 1a) In this letter, dederam ad te pridie litteras refers directly to ad Atticum 12.13, where Cicero wants to be excused from some business (we are never told exactly what it is: Shackleton Bailey says it is Appuleius' inauguration as augur, which Cicero was obliged to attend, a likely suggestion). He wants to be excused on the grounds of ill-health (which Cicero all but admits is a subterfuge: it is really because of his grief), but he needs to provide witnesses. 1b) The same parties (Appuleius, C. Septimius, L. Statilius, and Laenas) are also mentioned in 12.13, and there is also a similar sentence to one here ('no one will refuse it if you ask someone to bear witness,' denique nemo negabit se iuraturum quem rogaris). 2) Both in that letter and in ad Atticum 12.15, Cicero asks Atticus to take care of making excuses with Appuleius every day. 3) In 12.17, a few days after this letter, Cicero says that he has been told that 5 men made excuses for him with Appuleius, only one of whom, Laenas, is mentioned here.
As for the three possible witnesses named here, none are positively identifiable, but there are possibilities: 1) a Gaius Septimius is mentioned elsewhere in Cicero’s letters (Ad Atticum 2.24, 12.13, Ad Familiares 8.8), possibly the Praetor in 57 who supported recalling Cicero from exile; 2) Laenas is a name associated with the Popillius family, and this Statilius has no clear links to any otherwise known Statilius. It is not clear why specifically 3 witnesses are needed.

[1] de me excusando apud Appuleium dederam ad te pridie litteras. nihil esse negoti arbitror. quemcumque appellaris nemo negabit. sed Septimium vide et Laenatem et Statilium; tribus enim opus est. sed mihi Laenas totum receperat.

dederam: epistolary use of the pluperfect (when Atticus gets the letter it will be pluperfect). | negoti: partitive genitive with nihil, where English says "no X," Latin says "nothing of X." nihil negoti must mean something like "no big deal," "of no consequence." | quemcumque appellaris nemo negabit: Appellaris = appellaveris (the sentence structure is similar to a future-more-vivid condition). | tribus opus est: opus est “there is need of,” takes ablative. | receperat: recipio can mean "hold back," "recover," or "receive" money or proceeds or "undertake (an obligation)." Without knowing the nature of the business, it is hard to know what Laenas did: D.R. Shackleton Bailey translates totum receperat deliberately (?) ambiguously as "put the whole thing through."

[2] The second Appuleius mentioned in this letter is here called a praediator (one who purchases or sells real estate at auctions) and is quite likely a different Appuleius from the one in §1. An otherwise unidentifiable Junius has asked Cicero to pay Cornificius' debt, because, he says, Cicero had guaranteed payment of the debt. Cicero is perfectly willing to pay: Cornificius is rich and so has the funds to reimburse him. But Cicero asks Atticus to figure out when he signed on as a guarantor of the debt and whether it was for Cornificius the father (Quintus Cornificius, tribune of 69, applied for consulship along with Cicero in 63, though unsuccessfully) or his son (also Quintus Cornificius, augur in 47 or 46).

[2]  quod scribis a Iunio te appellatum, omnino Cornificius locuples est; sed tamen scire velim quando dicar spopondisse et pro patre anne pro filio. neque eo minus, ut scribis, procuratores Cornifici et Appuleium praediatorem videbis.
quod scribis: quod 'as to the fact that' (an accusative of specification introducing a statement of fact in the indicative: see A&G 571a). scribis takes indirect discourse (a Iunio te appellatum sc. esse). | velim: velim is often an optative subjunctive without the usual utinam (A&G 442b). | quando dicar spopondisse et pro patre anne pro filio: a tripartite indirect question. Fully spelled out, it would be quando dicar spopondisse et utrum pro patre dicar spopondisse an pro filio dicar spopondisse.

3. A shift of topic, from business to personal (Cicero's daughter Tullia recently died). Cicero claims to have been trying to help himself by reading all he could about the death of a loved one, but nothing helps. His pain is too great. So he has tried writing something himself and will send it if the copyists have finished it. Although able to maintain appearances, he feels guilty about it (it is untrue to his grief and his daughter), even though he knows not doing so would be worse. He longs for Atticus, but worries Atticus might find him not as he once was.

[3]  quod me ab hoc maerore recreari vis, facis ut omnia; sed me mihi non defuisse tu testis es. nihil enim de maerore minuendo scriptum ab ullo est quod ego non domi tuae legerim. sed omnem consolationem vincit dolor. quin etiam feci quod profecto ante me nemo ut ipse me per litteras consolarer. quem librum ad te mittam, si descripserint librarii. adfirmo tibi nullam consolationem esse talem. totos dies scribo, non quo proficiam quid sed tantisper impedior non equidem satis (vis enim urget),--sed relaxor tamen ad omniaque nitor non ad animum sed ad vultum ipsum, si queam, reficiendum idque faciens interdum mihi peccare videor, interdum peccaturus esse nisi faciam. solitudo aliquid adiuvat, sed multo plus proficeret, si tu tamen interesses. quae mihi una causa est hinc discedendi; nam pro malis recte habebat. quamquam <id> ipsum doleo. non enim iam in me idem esse poteris. perierunt illa quae amabas.

quod: causal "because" or perhaps another quod 'as to the fact that' (see previous section). | facis ut omnia: facis 'do.' ut 'as,' and one must understand facis again with omnia. Fully spelled out, the thought might be something like facis omnia ut omnia facis. Atticus is "doing what Atticus does." | me mihi non defuisse: testis es takes indirect speech here. “You are witness that… ." | maerore minuendo: this gerundive is the ablative object of the preposition de. | domi tuae: locative. | quod ... legerim: nihil is the antecedent of quod. | quin etiam: 'in truth,' 'really.' | quod…nemo: supply fecit (from feci). The full thought would be feci illud quod ante me nemo fecit. | litteras: i.e. 'writing.' | consolarer: subjunctive in purpose clause. | quem librum: the book he wrote to console himself, Consolatio, is extant only in fragments. quem is a 'linking relative' which serves to connect this sentence to the last. | mittam ... si descripserint: a future more vivid conditional. | totos dies: accusative of duration of time. | non quo: non quo + subj. 'not so that,' is commonly used to express a rejected purpose. | quid: = aliquid, though there is no standard signal word such as nisi, num, or ne for clipping off ali-. | impedior non equidem satis: Cicero is impeded, blocked. The reader must help this to make sense (as often in these letters, which are written in a strong conversational style): likely being 'blocked' means his attention is held and his grief somehow less urgent for a time (though not long enough). | vis enim urget: nominative vis: Cicero says 'the strength/force' presses. The reader must fill in the rest of the thought: perhaps something like vis doloris mei enim urget. | ad omniaque: this has the same sense as et ad omnia: the preposition and its object are treated as one unit and so -que is attached to omnia, not ad. | non ad animum sed ad vultum ipsum: an antithesis of animum 'soul' (how Cicero feels inside) versus vultum 'appearance.' | si queam: a parenthetical remark, so we need not search for an apodosis. | reficiendum: gerundive with non ad animum sed ad vultum ipsum. | nisi faciam: a future-less-vivid protasis to a mixed conditional whose apodosis is idque faciens interdum mihi peccare videor, interdum peccaturus esse (videor). nisi faciam refers to Cicero's struggle to compose himself, to put on a brave face. | aliquid: adverbial accusative, “somewhat.” | multo plus proficeret, si…interesses: present contrary-to-fact condition. plus is adverbial modifying proficeret, while multo is ablative of degree of difference with plus. Impersonal use of proficeret 'progress would occur.' | una causa: unus, -a, -um means 'only' here, as it often does. | discedendi: gerund in genitive dependent on causa. | recte habebat: Latin habere + adverb can mean English 'be + adj.' thus recte habebat means 'it was suitable' (L&S s.v. habeo II.C.6.γ). | id ipsum: refers to the idea of seeing Atticus again. He longs for yet dreads it. | in me idem: in me "toward me." idem is predicate nominative modifying 'you,' i.e. Atticus.

[4] Here Cicero mentions that he wrote to Atticus about a letter from Brutus already, which must refer to ad Atticum 12.13, in which Cicero writes Bruti litterae scriptae et prudenter et amice multas mihi tamen lacrimas attulerunt. 'The letter Brutus wrote, although both wise and friendly, still brought me many tears.' Still, Cicero wishes Brutus were with him. Cicero closes by asking Atticus to keep him informed, particularly about Pansa, and with good wishes for Atticus' wife Pilia and daughter Attica.
Attica likely had a health problem, and the Craterus mentioned here is likely a doctor, also mentioned in a very recent letter (12.13: commovet me Attica; etsi adsentior Cratero 'I'm worried about Attica, but I agree with Craterus.' Attica's doctor is not named in 12.33, which mentions her health and a doctor's treatment, (likely Craterus as well).
The Pansa mentioned here is surely Gaius Vibius Pansa, who was soon to set out as governor of Cisalpine Gaul, and whose support Cicero values (see ad Familiares 6.12.2).

[4] de Bruti ad me litteris scripsi ad te antea. prudenter scriptae, sed nihil quod me adiuvarent. quod ad te scripsit id vellem, ut ipse adesset. certe aliquid, quoniam me tam valde amat, adiuvaret. quod si quid scies, scribas ad me velim, maxime autem Pansa quando. de Attica doleo, credo tamen Cratero. Piliam angi veta. satis est me maerere pro omnibus.
de Bruti ad me litteris: litteris is the ablative object of de: Bruti and ad me are dependent on litteris. Marcus Brutus' letter is not extant. | scriptae: supply sunt. | nihil quod me adiuvarent: quod introduces a relative clause of characteristic (hence subjunctive adiuvarent). Quod must be a relative, and the antecedent is nihil, but it cannot be nominative with a plural verb adiuvarent (which may be why D. R. Shackleton Bailey offers adlevaret as a conjecture, even though the manuscript evidence has adiuvarent: some otherwise inferior manuscripts even have adiuvaret): so, if adiuvarent is what Cicero wrote, quod must be accusative, which could be an 'internal accusative' meaning something like 'there is no help which they can offer as help for me.' Such internal accusatives are common in English: I run a race, sing a song, or write a paper, and in all of those cases the noun just is the action of the verb, not really separate from it. | quod ad te scripsit id vellem, ut ipse adesset: like velim in §2, vellem is subjunctive of wish (aka 'optative' subjunctive: see A&G 441): the imperfect subjunctive of wish expresses an impossible wish about the past. id is direct object of vellem and also antecedent of quod, which is direct object of scripsit, and the nominal clause ut ipse adesset clause is in apposition to quod. | adiuvaret: potential subjunctive 'could help,' with aliquid "somewhat" as direct object/adverbial acc. | quod si: "but if." | scribas ad me velim: optative subjunctive velim with the semi-independent subjunctive scribas dependent on it. Present subjunctive is used for wishes capable of fulfilment. | Pansa quando: literally 'Pansa when': Pansa would soon be governor of Cisalpine Gaul, and so we should probably supply a subjunctive verb meaning 'depart.' The clause is an indirect question dependent on scribas. | Attica: Caecilia Pomponia Attica, Atticus’ daughter. | Cratero: a “celebrated doctor”, according to Shackleton Bailey. | Piliam: Atticus’ wife. | angi: inf. dependent on veta, which is imperative. | me maerere pro omnibus: this accusative plus infinitive phrase is the subject of satis est.

Vocabulary
adfirmo (1) – To declare
adsum, adesse, adfui – to be present
adiuvo (1) – to help
aliquis, aliquid – someone, something
amo (1) – to love
ango, angere – to torment, squeeze
animus, animi - Spirit
anne – (an + ne) whether…Or…
ante – before
antea – before
appello (1) – to call upon
apud – before, in the presence of
arbitror (1) – to believe, consider
autem - however
causa, causae – cause
certe – certainly
consolatio, consolationis – consolation
consolo (1) – to comfort, console
credo (3) – to trust, believe
describo (3) – to copy, transcribe
desum, deesse, defui – to fail, to be wanting
dico (3) – to say
dies, diei – day
discedo (3) – to disperse, go separately away
do (1) – to give
doleo (2) – to suffer, grieve
dolor, doloris - grief
domus, domūs – home
equidem – truly, indeed
etiam - even, also
excuso (1) – to make excuses
facio (3) – to do
filius, filii – Son
habeo (2) – to have, hold: with an adverb, habeo can mean 'be + adj.' (e.g. habeo bene = I am well)
impedio (4) – to hamper, hinder, hold fast
interdum – sometimes, occasionally; interdum ... interdum – at some times..., at other times...
intersum, interesse, interfui, interfuturus – to be present
litteras, litterarum – Letters, as missives or epistles
lego (3) – to read
liber, libri – book
librarius, librarii – scribe, copyist
locuples – rich, wealthy
maereo (2) – to mourn, grieve
maeror, maeroris – mourning, grief
malum, mali – injury, misfortune
maxime – especially
minuo (3) – to lessen
minus – less
mitto (3) – to send
multus, -a, -um – much, many
nego (1) – to refuse
negotium – difficulty, trouble
nemo – no one
nihil – nothing
nisi – if not, unless
nitor, niti, nisus sum – to struggle, make an effort
nullus, nullius – not any, none
omnino – altogether, entirely
omnis, omnis, omne – every, all
opus, operis – requirement
pater, patris – father
pecco (1) – to sin, transgress
pereo, perire, perii, periturus – to perish, pass away
possum, posse, potui – to be able
praediator, praediatoris – dealer in real estate
pridie – yesterday
procurator, procuratoris – agent, administrator
profecto – truly, certainly
proficio (3) – to accomplish, succeed (can be used impersonally – there is progress, progress is made)
prudenter – wisely
quamquam - although
quando – when
queo, quire, quivi, quitus – to be able
quicumque – whoever
quin – rather
quoniam - since
recipio (3) – to undertake, accept, assume
recreo (1) – to restore
recte – properly, correctly, suitably
reficio (3) – to repair, remake
relaxo (1) – to relieve
recte – rightly, properly
satis - enough
scio (4) – to know
scribo (3) – to write
solitudo, solitudinis – solitude, being alone
spondeo (2) – to promise, give assurance
talis, talis, tale – such a kind
tam – so much
tamen - however
tantisper - for such a long time; meanwhile
testis, testis - witness
totus, -a, -um – all, whole, entire
ullus, ullius – anyone
urgeo (2) – to press upon
valde – strongly
veto (1) – to forbid, oppose
video (2) – to see
vinco (3) – to overcome
vis, vis – strength, force
volo, velle, volui – to wish, to want
vultus, vultūs - face