or the present.
Pray write to me in the fullest detail of all that concerns you.

4 March.

[Footnote 704:

"I will make fast the doors and _gild_ myself
With some more ducats."--SHAKESPEARE..
]

[Footnote 705: Ennius, _Ann._ 275. The phrase _manum consertum_ in legal
language meant to make a joint claim by the symbolical act of each
claimant laying a hand on the property (or some representation of it) in
court. But it also meant "to join hands in war." Hence its equivocal use
in this passage. _Consertum_ is a supine, and some such word as _eunt_
must be understood before it.]

[Footnote 706: Reading _at tu non soles_. I cannot explain Prof.
Tyrrell's reading _et tu soles_ in connexion with what follows.]

[Footnote 707: This elaborate joke is founded on a pun upon the name of
the Gallic _Treviri_ and the commissioners in Rome: (1) the _III viri
capitales_, who had charge of prisons, executions, etc.; (2) the _III
viri auro argento aeri flando feriundo_, "the commissioners for coining
gold, silver, and bronze." Also there is a reference to the meaning of
_capitalis_, "deadly," "affecting the life or citizenship."]

CLXXI (F VII, 14)

TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)

ROME (? MARCH)

[Sidenote: B.C. 53, AET. 53]

Chrysippus Vettius, a freedman of the architect Cyrus, made me think
that you had not quite forgotten me; for he has brought me a greeting in
your words. You have grown a mighty fine gentleman, that you can't take
the trouble of writing a letter to me--a man, I might almost say, of
your own family! But if you have forgotten how to write, all the fewer
clients will lose their causes by having you as their advocate! If you
have forgotten me, I will take the trouble of paying you a visit where
you are, before I have quite faded out of your mind. If it is a terror
of the summer camp that is disheartening you, think of some excuse to
get off, as you did in the case of Britain. I was glad to hear one thing
from that same Chrysippus, that you were on friendly terms with Caesar.
But, by Hercules, I should have preferred, as I might fairly have
expected, to be informed of your fortunes as frequently as possible from
your own letters. And this would certainly have been the case, if you
had been more forward to learn the laws of friendship than of suits in
court. But this is all jest in your own vein, and to some degree in mine
also. I love you very dearly, and I both wish to be loved by you a