east have carried off, too secure, at any rate, the
delicate charm of that old-fashioned courtesy, and of a conversation
which is the essence of culture. But I did not like to invite a man of
weak health to a villa practically without a roof, and which even now it
would be a compliment to describe as unfinished. It would indeed be a
special treat to me to have the enjoyment of him here also. For I assure
you that the neighbourhood of Marius makes the sunshine of that other
country residence of mine.[538] I will see about getting him put up in
the house of Anicius. For I myself, though a student, can live with
workpeople in the house. I get this philosophy, not from Hymettus, but
from Arpinum.[539] Marius is feebler in health and constitution. As to
interrupting my book[540]--I shall take from you just so much time for
writing as you may leave me. I only hope you'll leave me none at all,
that my want of progress may be set down to your encroachment rather
than to my idleness! In regards to politics, I am sorry that you worry
yourself too much, and are a better citizen than Philoctetes, who, on
being wronged himself, was anxious for the very spectacle[541] that I
perceive gives you pain. Pray hasten hither: I will console you and wipe
all sorrow from your eyes: and, as you love me, bring Maruis. But haste,
haste, both of you! There is a garden at my house.[542]

[Footnote 533: Some bore, unknown to us.]

[Footnote 534: The two boys seem to be receiving their education
together at this time in the house of Quintus.]

[Footnote 535: It is all but impossible to explain these words. Some
editors transfer them to the sentence after _de Republica_. But they are
scarcely more in place there. The Greek quotation is not known.]

[Footnote 536: M. Marius, to whom Letter CXXVI is addressed.]

[Footnote 537: C. Anicius, a senator, seems to have obtained from
Ptolemy Auletes, by gift or purchase, his state sedan and its
attendants.]

[Footnote 538: The Pompeianum.]

[Footnote 539: An unintellible word, meant apparently for Greek (perhaps
_arce_ [Greek: Psuria], see _Att._ xvi. 13), is in the text. The most
probable conjecture refers it in some way to Arpinum, Cicero's hardy
mountain birthplace.]

[Footnote 540: The _de Oratore_.]

[Footnote 541: The ruin of his country.]

[Footnote 542: For us to walk and converse in. It hardly refers to a
supply of vegetables, as some suggest.]

CXXIII (A IV, 11)

TO ATTICUS (AT