Page:Loeb Classical Library L205N (1958).djvu/163

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
 
Epistulae ad Familiares, II. xi.-xii.

2 About the panthers,[1] the business is being carefully attended to according to my orders with the aid of those who hunt them regularly[2]; but it is surprising how few panthers there are; and they tell me that those there are bitterly complain that in my province no snares are set for any living creature but themselves; and so they have decided, it is said, to emigrate from this province into Caria. Still my people are busy in the matter, and nobody more so than Patiscus. All the animals caught will be at your service; but how many there are, I have no idea. Your aedileship, I do assure you, is of intense interest to me; this day itself reminds me of it, for I write this on the very day of the Megalensia.[3]

3 I should like you to spare no pains in writing to me fully about the whole political situation; for I shall regard the information you give me as the most trustworthy.

XII

M. T. Cicero, imperator, to the same

In Cilicia, 50 B.C.

2 I am indeed distressed about affairs at Rome; reports reach me of such stormy meetings, such a worrying Quinquatrian vacation.[4] For I have no news as yet of what followed; but nothing distresses me more than that amid all these worries, if there is anything to laugh at, I do not share the joke with you. Of course there are many things to laugh at, but I dare not commit them to paper. What worries me is that so far I have nothing in the way

  1. ↑ Which Caelius wanted for the show he had to give as aedile.
  2. ↑ "The shikarees." Tyrrell.
  3. ↑ i.e., the opening day, for this festival (in honor of Cybele, the Great Mother) lasted from the 4th to the 10th of April.
  4. ↑ Corresponding roughly to our Easter holidays, being held from March 19th to 23rd. The holiday this year was spoiled by the seditious meetings held by Curio in the role of demagogue.
129
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.