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my request that you should remain in Sicily as long as you desired it, adding that they would guarantee your doing so would not in the slightest degree affect your interests. Now that you have been informed what you are permitted to do, I think you ought to know what my own idea is.
2 When all this had been settled a letter was delivered to me from you, in which you ask my advice as to what I suggest you should do, whether you should settle down in Sicily or set out to finish off your arrears of business in Asia. Your discussing alternatives in this way did not seem to me to fit in with what Largus said. He spoke to me in such a way as to imply that you were not at liberty to remain in Sicily any longer, whereas you discuss the question as though that permission had been given you. But whether the latter or the former is the truth, my own opinion is that you ought to stay in Sicily. The proximity of the island to Rome will help you, whether in carrying your point by the frequent interchange of letters and messengers, or in expediting your return, when the matter is either arranged according to your request, as I hope it will be, or settled once for all in some other way. And that is why I am strongly of opinion that you ought to stay.
3 I shall recommend you with all earnestness to my friend T. Furfanius Postumus [1] and his legates, who are also my friends, when they arrive here; for they are all at Mutina. They are excellent fellows, fond of men like yourself, and very intimate with me. Whatever occurs to me to do which I judge to be in your interests, that I shall do on my own initiative. If there is anything I do not know, I have only to
- ↑ This Furfanius was a iudex in the trial of Milo, and had been threatened by Clodius. He was now governor of Sicily for the second time.