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Epistulae ad Familiares, II. x.

X

M. T. Cicero, imperator, to the same

In camp at Pindenissus, November 14, 51 B.C.

1 Just see for yourself how letters fail to reach me! For nothing can induce me to believe that you have sent me no letter since your election to the aedileship, especially in view of its importance, and the hearty congratulations it demanded, in your case because it was what I hoped, in that of Hillus (pardon my lisp),[1] because I had not expected it. Anyhow you may take it as a fact that I have not received a single epistle from you since that splendid election of yours which threw me into ecstasies of delight; consequently I fear that my own letters may meet with the same fate. I assure you I have never sent home a single communication without its being accompanied by another to yourself; why, to me you are the dearest and most delightful fellow in the world. But (my lisp is gone) let us get back to business.[2]

2 It is just as you desired; for you say you could wish that I should be put to only just so much trouble as to secure me the laurel.[3] You fear the Parthians because you have no confidence in my forces. Very well, this is what happened. War with the Parthians is announced; reckoning on certain defiles and the natural trend of the mountains, I march my army to Amanus—an army well enough supported by auxiliaries and by the moral influence, if I may so call it, of my own prestige among people who did not know me personally. In these parts one con-

  1. ↑ Cicero is imitating Hirrus's lisp. See note a in the preceding letter, § 1.
  2. ↑ i.e., he can now pronounce the "r" in rem and redeamus.
  3. ↑ i.e., a triumph.
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