]

[Footnote 612: [Greek: sema de toi ereo] (Hom. _Il._ xxiii. 326).]

[Footnote 613: Because Atticus lent money.]

CXLIV (F VII, 9)

TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)

ROME (SEPTEMBER)

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

It is a long time since I heard how you were getting on: for you don't
write, nor have I written to you for the last two months. As you were
not with my brother Quintus I did not know where to send a letter, or to
whom to give it. I am anxious to know how you are and where you mean to
winter. For my part, my opinion is that you should do so with Caesar; but
I have not ventured to write to him owing to his mourning.[614] I would
rather you put off your return to us, so long as you come with fuller
pockets. There is nothing to make you hurry home, especially since
"Battara"[615] is dead. But you are quite capable of thinking for
yourself. I desire to know what you have settled. There is a certain Cn.
Octavius or Cn. Cornelius, a friend of yours,

"Of highest race begot, a son of Earth."

He has frequently asked me to dinner, because he knows that you are an
intimate friend of mine. At present he has not succeeded in getting me:
however, I am much obliged to him.

[Footnote 614: For the death (in September) of his daughter Iulia, wife
of Pompey.]

[Footnote 615: A nickname, it is said, of Vacerra (perhaps because he
stuttered), who had been a teacher of Trebatius.]

CXLV (F VII, 17)

TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)

ROME (SEPTEMBER)

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

From what I gather from your letter I have thanked my brother Quintus,
and can besides at last heartily commend you, because you at length seem
to have come to some fixed resolution. For I was much put out by your
letters in the first months of your absence, because at times you seemed
to me--pardon the expression--to be light-minded in your longing for the
city and city life, at others timid in undertaking military work, and
often even a little inclined to presumption--a thing as unlike your
usual self as can be. For, as though you had brought a bill of exchange,
and not a letter of recommendation to your commander-in-chief, you were
all in a hurry to get your money and return home; and it never occurred
to you that those who went to Alexandria[616] with real bills of
exchange have as yet not been able to get a farthing. If I looked only
to my own interests, I should wish, above all things, to have you with
me: