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Epistulae ad Familiares, VI. xiv.

XIV

Cicero to the same

Rome, September 24, 46 B.C.

1 Rest assured that I am devoting all my energies, all my efforts, care, and zeal to the question of your recall; for not only have I always had the highest regard for you, but your brothers also, to whom I am as warmly attached as to yourself, are so singularly dutiful to you in their brotherly affection that they make it impossible for me to omit any act or opportunity that may prove my eager desire to serve you. But what I am doing and have done on your behalf, I should prefer your learning from their letters rather than from mine.

On the other hand I should like to give you my own account of my hopes, indeed my confident and certain assurance, of your restoration. If any man in the world is a coward in matters of importance involving any risk, and always more inclined to apprehend an unfavourable, than to hope for a favourable, issue, I am that man; and if this be a weakness, I admit that I am not free from it.

2 But for all that, pessimist as I am, when, four days before the Calends of the first intercalary month,[1] at your brothers' request I had made my way to Caesar early in the day (but not before I had suffered every kind of humiliation and annoyance in trying to approach him and securing an interview), when your brothers and relatives were prostrating themselves at his feet, and when I had stated all that the case and your critical position demanded, the impression left upon my mind when I went away,

  1. ↑ In this year (46) two extraordinary months, of twenty-nine and thirty-eight days respectively, were intercalated between November and December, in addition to the regular intercalary months of twenty-three days inserted between February and March. This year therefore consisted of 455 days.
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