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Epistulae ad Familiares, VI. xi-xii.

man alive. And as to your restoration, I congratulate you upon it so whole-heartedly, that you would please me better by offering me your congratulations than by thanking me; I can well dispense with your doing the latter, and you can do the former without insincerity.

2 For the rest, now that your high character and merits have thrown open to you the way of return to your family, it befits your wisdom and magnanimity to forget what you have lost, and to reflect upon what you have recovered. You will live with your own people, you will live with us. You have gained more in prestige than you have lost in private property; though you would get more pleasure out of the former too, if only there were any commonwealth in existence.

Vestorius,[1] our common friend, writes to me that you say you are profoundly grateful to me. That you should speak out so frankly is very gratifying to me, and I have not the slightest objection to your doing so in the presence of others, and particularly of course in the presence of our friend Siro.[2] For it is my desire that anything I do should be commended most by those who have most discernment. I am anxious to see you as soon as possible.

XII

Cicero to Ampius Balbus[3]

Rome, September, 46 B.C.

1 I congratulate you, my dear Balbus, and my congratulations are sincere; nor am I so insensate as to wish you to have the temporary enjoyment of a false

  1. ↑ A banker of Puteoli.
  2. ↑ An Epicurean philosopher, who taught Virgil.
  3. ↑ See note on i. 3. 2.
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