Page:Loeb Classical Library L205N (1958).djvu/245

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
 
Epistulae ad Familiares, III. viii.-ix.

which I should like to be put into your hands. You ask about the Parthians; I don't think there were any Parthians; Arabs there were, partially equipped as Parthians, but it is said that they have all returned. There is not a single enemy, they tell me, in Syria. I should be glad if you would write to me as frequently as possible about your own affairs and mine, and the whole political situation; and as to that, I am the more anxious because your letter informs me that our friend Pompey is going to Spain.

IX

To the same

Laodicea, 50 B.C.

1 At last, after all, I have read a letter worthy of Appius Claudius—a letter full of kindly feeling, courtesy, and consideration. Evidently the very sight of your urban surroundings has given you back your pristine urbanity. For the letters you sent me en route before you took ship from Asia, one about my vetoing the departure of the legates, the other about the stoppage of the building operations of the Appians,[1] I read with much pain. And so, conscious as I was of my unswerving goodwill towards you, I replied with a touch of temper. When, however, I read the letter you gave my freedman Philotimus, I recognized and understood that there were many in the province who were sorry that we entertain such feelings towards each other as we do; but when you approached the City, or rather as soon as you saw your friends, you discovered from them how loyal I had been to you in your absence, and how con-

  1. ↑ See iii. 7. 2 and 8. 2 ff.
211
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.