n at some risk. I
shall write at greater length to you with a mind less preoccupied, when
my boy Cicero is, as I hope he will be, in a good state of health. Pray
be careful to let me know to whom I should give the letter which I shall
then send you--to Caesar's letter-carriers, for him to forward them
direct to you, or to those of Labienus? For where your Nervii dwell, and
how far off, I have no idea.[679] I derived great pleasure from your
letter describing the courage and dignity displayed (as you say) by
Caesar in his extreme sorrow. You bid me finish the poem in his honour
which I had begun; and although I have been diverted from it by
business, and still more by my feelings, yet, since Caesar knows that I
did begin something, I will return to my design, and will complete in
these leisure days of the "supplications,"[680] during which I greatly
rejoice that our friend Messalla and the rest are at last relieved from
worry. In reckoning on him as certain to be consul with Domitius, you
are quite in agreement with my own opinion. I will guarantee Messalla to
Caesar: but Memmius cherishes a hope, founded on Caesar's return to Italy,
in which I think he is under a mistake. He is, indeed, quite out of it
here. Scaurus, again, has been long ago thrown over by Pompey. The
business has been put off: the _comitia_ postponed and postponed, till
we may expect an _interregnum_. The rumour of a dictator is not pleasing
to the aristocrats; for myself, I like still less what they say. But the
proposal, as a whole, is looked upon with alarm, and grows unpopular.
Pompey says outright that he doesn't wish it: to me previously he used
not personally to deny the wish. Hirrus seems likely to be the proposer.
Ye gods! what folly! How in love with himself and without--a rival! He
has commissioned me to choke off Caelius Vinicianus, a man much attached
to me. Whether Pompey wishes it or not, it is difficult to be sure.
However, if it is Hirrus who makes the proposal, he will not convince
people that he does not wish it. There is nothing else being talked
about in politics just now; at any rate, nothing else is being done. The
funeral of the son of Serranus Domesticus took place in very melancholy
circumstances on the 23rd of November. His father delivered the funeral
oration which I composed for him. Now about Milo. Pompey gives him no
support, and is all for Gutta, saying also that he will secure Caesar on
his side. Milo is alarmed at this,