strongly
approved.[70] I suppose you have heard that P. Clodius, son of Appius,
was caught in woman's clothes at Gaius Caesar's house, while the state
function was going on, and that he was saved and got out by means of a
maid-servant; and that the affair is causing immense scandal. I feel
sure you will be sorry for it.[71] I have nothing else to tell you. And,
indeed, at the moment of writing, I am in considerable distress: for a
delightful youth, my reader Sosthenes, has just died, and his death has
affected me more than that of a slave should, I think, do. Pray write
often. If you have no news, write just what comes uppermost.

1 January, in the consulship of M. Messalla and M. Piso.

[Footnote 66: From expressions in the following letters it seems certain
that this refers to money expected from Gaius Antonius; but we have no
means of deciding whether or no Teucris is a pseudonym for some agent.
Cicero had undertaken to be the advocate and supporter of Antonius, and
though as an actual _patronus_ in court he could not take money, he may
have felt justified in receiving supplies from him. Still, he knew the
character of Antonius, and how such wealth was likely to be got, and it
is not a pleasant affair.]

[Footnote 67: Money-lenders.]

[Footnote 68: The rich and cross-grained uncle of Atticus. See Letter
X.]

[Footnote 69: Cicero quotes half a Greek verse of Menander's, [Greek:
tautomaton hemon], leaving Atticus to fill up the other two words,
[Greek: kallio bouleuetai], "Chance designs better than we ourselves."]

[Footnote 70: Mucia was suspected of intriguing with Iulius Caesar.]

[Footnote 71: The chief festival of the Bona Dea (Tellus) was in May.
The celebration referred to here took place on the night between the 3rd
and 4th of December. It was a state function (_pro populo_), and was
celebrated in the presence of the Vestals and the wife of the consul or
praetor urbanus, _in ea domo quae est in imperio_. As Caesar was Pontifex
Maximus, as well as praetor urbanus, it took place in the _Regia_, the
Pontiff's official house (Plutarch, _Cic._ 19; Dio, xxxvii. 35).]

XVII (F V, 5)

TO C. ANTONIUS (IN MACEDONIA)

ROME, JANUARY

_M. Cicero wishes health to Gaius Antonius, son of Marcus, Imperator._

[Sidenote: B.C. 61, AET. 45]

Though I had resolved to write you nothing but formal letters of
introduction (not because I felt that they had much weight with you, but
to avoid giving those who as