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Epistulae ad Familiares, II. ix.

about. I congratulate you, but more than that, I can hardly find words to express my gratitude to you for having been elected in such a way as to give us, as you put it, "something to chuckle over for the rest of our days." So no sooner did I get the news, than I was transformed into that 'ero himself (you know the man I mean);^[1] and I played the parts of all those young 'eroes of whom that 'ero brags.

² I find it hard to express myself. But when I see you with fancy's eye in distant Rome, and talk to you as it were face to face, well, I may say

By the great Twin, your luck is in! You've scored a huge success.

I was so surprised at its happening that I fell back on the old tag,

This fact flung in my face—I'll not believe it!

Then I suddenly strutted forth "merry as merry could be"; and when they rated me for being almost off my head with excess of joy, in self-defence I quoted:

The heart's undue elation I. . .^[2]

To put it shortly, in laughing at him I nearly sank to the level of that 'ero myself.

³ But of this more fully, and much else about you and addressed to you, as soon as I get a spell of leisure.

As for yourself, my dear Rufus, I love you; it was you that fortune appointed to enhance my prestige, to be my avenger on those who hate, as well as on those who envy me, to make them sorry, some for their crimes, others for their follies as well.

↑ Hirrus, a man of ability and influence, notwithstanding Cicero's jibes, lispingly pronounced his own name as "Hillus," the vocative of which easily became "Ille," by which nickname he was known. We may infer from his letter that he was addicted to poetical quotations in his speeches.
↑ The end of the line (from a comedy by Trabea) is "summum esse errorem arbitror," "I regard as a most fatal error," which Cicero naturally leaves unquoted.

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[1] Hirrus, a man of ability and influence, notwithstanding Cicero's jibes, lispingly pronounced his own name as "Hillus," the vocative of which easily became "Ille," by which nickname he was known. We may infer from his letter that he was addicted to poetical quotations in his speeches.

[2] The end of the line (from a comedy by Trabea) is "summum esse errorem arbitror," "I regard as a most fatal error," which Cicero naturally leaves unquoted.

[1]

[2]