going to be made _legatus_ to Pompey on the 13th of September: I have
heard nothing about it, and I wrote to Caesar to tell him that neither
Vibullius nor Oppius had delivered his message to Pompey about my
remaining at home. Why, I know not. However, it was I who restrained
Oppius from doing so, because it was Vibullius who should take the
leading part in that matter: for with him Caesar had communicated
personally, with Oppius only by letter. I indeed can have no "second
thoughts"[629] in matters connected with Caesar. He comes next after you
and our children in my regard, and not much after. I think I act in this
with deliberate judgment, for I have by this time good cause for it,
yet warm personal feeling no doubt does influence me also.

Just as I had written these last words--which are by my own hand--your
boy came in to dine with me, as Pomponia was dining out. He gave me your
letter to read, which he had received shortly before--a truly
Aristophanic mixture of jest and earnest, with which I was greatly
charmed.[630] He gave me also your second letter, in which you bid him
cling to my side as a mentor. How delighted he was with those letters!
And so was I. Nothing could be more attractive than that boy, nothing
more affectionate to me!--This, to explain its being in another
handwriting, I dictated to Tiro while at dinner.

Your letter gratified Annalis very much, as shewing that you took an
active interest in his concerns, and yet assisted him with exceedingly
candid advice. Publius Servilius the elder, from a letter which he said
he had received from Caesar, declares himself highly obliged to you for
having spoken with the greatest kindness and earnestness of his devotion
to Caesar. After my return to Rome from Arpinum I was told that
Hippodamus had started to join you. I cannot say that I was surprised at
his having acted so discourteously as to start to join you without a
letter from me: I only say this, that I was annoyed. For I had long
resolved, from an expression in your letter, that if I had anything I
wished conveyed to you with more than usual care, I should give it to
him: for, in truth, into a letter like this, which I send you in an
ordinary way, I usually put nothing that, if it fell into certain hands,
might be a source of annoyance. I reserve myself for Minucius and
Salvius and Labeo. Labeo will either be starting late or will stay here
altogether. Hippodamus did not even ask me whether he could