said,
"No." "Publius," says he, "is a candidate for the tribuneship." "You
don't mean it?" "Yes, I do," says he, "and at daggers drawn with Caesar.
His object is to rescind his acts." "What says Caesar?" said I. "He
denies having proposed any _lex_ for his adoption." Then he poured forth
about his own hatred, and that of Memmius and Metellus Nepos. I embraced
the youth and said good-bye to him, hastening to your letters. A fig for
those who talk about a "living voice"! What a much clearer view I got of
what was going on from your letters than from his talk! About the
current rumours of the day, about the designs of Publius, about "Iuno's"
trumpet calls, about Athenio who leads his roughs, about his letter to
Gnaeus, about the conversation of Theophanes and Memmius. Besides, how
eager you have made me to hear about the "fast" dinner party which you
mention! I am greedy in curiosity, yet I do not feel at all hurt at your
not writing me a description of the symposium: I would rather hear it by
word of mouth. As to your urging me to write something, my material
indeed is growing, as you say, but the whole is still in a state of
fermentation--"new wine in the autumn." When the liquor has settled down
and become clarified, I shall know better what to write. And even if you
cannot get it from me at once, you shall be the first to have it: only
for some time you must keep it to yourself. You are quite right to like
Dicaearchus; he is an excellent writer, and a much better citizen than
these rulers of ours who reverse his name.[227] I write this letter at
four o'clock in the afternoon of the Cerealia (12th April), immediately
after reading yours, but I shall despatch it, I think, to-morrow, by
anyone I may chance to meet on the road. Terentia is delighted with your
letter, _et Ciceron le philosophe salue Titus l'homme d'etat_.

[Footnote 226: Where the road from Antium joins the Appia. Cicero seems
to be on his way to Formiae, where he had intended to arrive on the 21st.
He must be going very leisurely.]

[Footnote 227: [Greek: Dikaiarchos] and [Greek: adikaiarchoi], a pun on
a name not reproducible in English: "just-rulers" and "unjust-rulers."]

XXXVII (A II, 10)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

APPII FORUM,[228] APRIL

[Sidenote: B.C. 59, AET. 47]

Please admire my consistency. I am determined not to be at the games at
Antium: for it is somewhat of a solecism to wish to avoid all suspicion
of frivolity, and yet suddenly