4])

TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS (IN GAUL)

CUMAE (MAY)

[Sidenote: B.C. 54, AET. 52]

I have up to now received two letters from you, one just as I was
leaving town, the other dated Ariminum: others which you say in your
letter that you have sent I have not received. I am having a fairly
pleasant time (except that you are not here) at Cumae and Pompeii, and
intend staying in these parts till the 1st of June. I am writing the
treatise of which I spoke to you, "On the Republic," a very bulky and
laborious work. But if it turns out as I wish, it will be labour well
bestowed, and if not I shall toss it into the very sea which I have
before my eyes as I write, and set to work on something else; since to
do nothing is beyond my power. I will carefully observe your instruction
both as to attaching certain persons to myself and not alienating
certain others. But my chief care will be to see your son, or rather
our son, if possible, every day at any rate, and to watch the progress
of his education as often as possible; and, unless he declines my help,
I will even offer to be his instructor, a practice to which I have
become habituated in the leisure of these days while bringing my own
boy, the younger Cicero, on. Yes, do as you say in your letter, what,
even if you had not said so, I know you do with the greatest
care--digest, follow up, and carry out my instructions. For my part,
when I get to Rome, I will let no letter-carrier of Caesar go without a
letter for you. During these days you must excuse me: there has been no
one to whom I could deliver a letter until the present bearer M. Orfius,
a Roman knight, a man that is my friend as well from personal
consideration as because he comes from the _municipium_ of Atella,[593]
which you know is under my patronage. Accordingly, I recommend him to
you with more than common warmth, as a man in a brilliant position in
his own town and looked up to even beyond it. Pray attach him to
yourself by your liberal treatment of him: he is a military tribune in
your army. You will find him grateful and attentive. I earnestly beg you
to be very friendly to Trebatius.

[Footnote 593: A _municipium_ of Campania nine miles from Naples.]

CXXXIX (F VII, 8)

TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)

ROME (JUNE)

[Sidenote: B.C. 54, AET. 52]

Caesar has written me a very courteous letter saying that he has not yet
seen as much of you as he could wish, owing to his press of business,
but tha