. Kal._ instead of _a. d. II. Kal._, which
Tyrrell calls _audacius_ in Schutz. But absolute nonsense is not to be
kept even for a MS.

(1) Cicero says that he has been thirteen days at Brundisium. In the
next letter he tells Atticus he arrived on the 17th. That, in the Roman
way of counting, brings it to _prid._ (29th).

(2) Either the date at the end of the letter is wrong, or _prid._ must
be used here

(3) There is no such date properly as _a. d. II. Kal._ The day before
_prid._ is _a. d. III_.

In regard to dates we must remember that Cicero is using the prae-Julian
calendar, in which all months, except February, March, May, July, and
October, had twenty-nine days. These last four had thirty-one and
February twenty-eight.]

[Footnote 310: Cicero does not mean that young Marcus is to come to him
at once, but that, when Tullia's marriage portion is settled, Terentia
is to bring him with her if she comes. Really he didn't mean any of them
to come, at any rate for a long while. Piso is Tullia's husband.]

[Footnote 311: If Cicero's property was confiscated, it might be held
that the slaves went with it, and would be sold with it, and that his
manumission of them was an evasion, which could not hold good at law. If
his property was not confiscated, they were to remain in their status as
slaves. See Letter CXCII.]

LXII (A III, 7)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

BRUNDISIUM, 29 APRIL

[Sidenote: B.C. 58, AET. 48]

I arrived at Brundisium on the 17th of April. On that day your slaves
delivered me your letter, and some other slaves, on the next day but
one, brought me another. As to your invitation and advice to stay at
your house in Epirus, your kindness is most gratifying, and far from
being a novelty. It is a plan that would have exactly suited my wishes,
if I might have spent all my time there: for I loathe a crowd of
visitors, I can scarcely bear the light, and that solitude, especially
in a spot so familiar, would have been the reverse of disagreeable. But
to put up there as a mere stage in my journey! In the first place it is
far out of my way, and in the next it is only four days from Autronius
and the rest, and in the third place you are not there. Had I been going
to reside permanently, a fortified castle would have been an advantage,
but to one only passing through it is unnecessary. Why, if I had not
been afraid, I should have made for Athens[312]--there were
circumstances that made me much wish to g