Cicero Letters to Atticus, Vol. 1 of 3
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Some scanning errors (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand) · 4 illegible passages, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~130,000 words · 639 passages
Cite this work
- APACicero. (n.d.). Cicero Letters to Atticus, Vol. 1 of 3. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/cicero-letters-to-atticus-vol-1-of-3
- MLACicero. Cicero Letters to Atticus, Vol. 1 of 3. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/cicero-letters-to-atticus-vol-1-of-3.
- ChicagoCicero. Cicero Letters to Atticus, Vol. 1 of 3. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/cicero/cicero-letters-to-atticus-vol-1-of-3.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
The first of the three volumes of Cicero's letters to Atticus: the frankest correspondence to reach us from antiquity.
Context and history
Atticus was the friend of his whole life, a rich knight who never sought public office, and precisely for that reason Cicero writes to him as he writes to no one else: without posing, changing his mind halfway through a letter, asking advice and confessing fear. It is the principal source for the last years of the republic seen from within. NOTE TO THE READER: the catalogue also holds 'The Letters of Cicero', a different edition gathering the whole correspondence in chronological order — so the letters to Atticus appear there TOO. This is not an error: they are two distinct editions of the same material, differently translated and differently arranged. It is worth knowing, because the same letter may appear twice in different words, and a citation must say which edition it comes from.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
you will know all about Aufidius and Palicanus, without waiting for letters from me. Of those who are standing, Caesar is thought to be a certainty: the real fight is expected existimatur; qui sic inopes et ab amicis et existimatione sunt, ut mihi videatur non esse ἀδύνατον Curium obducere. Sed hoc praeter me nemini videtur. Nostris rationibus maxime conducere videtur Thermum fieri cum Caesare. Nemo est enim ex iis, qui nunc petunt, qui, si in nostrum annum reciderit, firmior candidatus fore videatur, propterea quod curator est viae Flaminiae, quae tum erit absoluta sane facile. Eum libenter nunc Caesari consuli accuderim.[1] Petitorum haec est adhuc informata cogitatio. Nos in omni munere candidatorio fungendo summam adhibebimus diligentiam, et fortasse, quoniam videtur in suffragiis multum posse Gallia, cum Romae a iudiciis forum refrixerit, excurremus mense Septembri legati ad Pisonem, ut Ianuario revertamur. Cum perspexero voluntates nobilium, scribam ad te. Cetera spero prolixa esse his dumtaxat urbanis competitoribus. Illam manum tu mihi cura ut praestes, quoniam propius abes, Pompei, nostri amici. Nega me ei iratum fore, si ad mea comitia non venerit. Atque haec huius modi sunt. Sed est, quod abs te mihi ignosci pervelim. Caecilius, avunculus tuus, a P. Vario cum magna pecunia fraudaretur, agere coepit cum eius fratre A. Caninio Satyro de iis rebus, quas eum dolo malo mancipio accepisse de Vario diceret. Una agebant ceteri creditores, in quibus erat L. Lucullus et P. Scipio et, is quem putabant magistrum fore, si bona venirent, L. Footnote 1: que cum (tum _Z_) erit—libenter nunc ceteri (nuntitere _M marg._: nunciteri _Z_) consuli (concili _Z_), acciderim (acciderunt _Z_) _M Z_^l: _the reading in the text is that of Boot_. to lie between Thermus and Silanus. But they are so unpopular and so unknown, that it seems to me to be on the cards to smuggle in Curius. Nobody else thinks so, however.…