tantum: i.e., only this much (as follows).
erunt in officio:will do their duty.
104. deerit: deesse, + dat., to be lacking, wanting, fail.
efficere: here, to manage.
105. per: in oaths, by.
vide ne puerum perditum perdamus:see that we do not ruin (i.e., financially, by your selling too much of your property) the boy, who has (already) been ruined (by the consequences of my exile).
106. cui: DAT. OF POSSESSION.
mediocri virtute opus est:there is need of (only) ordinary character = he will need only… i.e., if he can escape absolute poverty, he can manage well enough with just average character and a bit of luck.
107. consequatur: consequi, to follow, follow up, gain.
fac valeas: cp. cura ut valeas at the end of the preceding letter.
108. tabellarios: tabellarius, letter-carrier.
109. omnino: adv., wholly, completely, certainly, definitely.
exspectatio:wait, waiting.
110. d. a. d. VIK. Decemb.: = (litterae) datae ante diem sextum Kalendas Decembres, given (to the letter-carrier) on the 6th day before the December Kalends (= the first day of the month), i.e., Nov. 25. The first d. in such date formulations may also stand for datum or dabam. Many of Cicero’s letters were dated in this way, using more or less standard abbreviations.
Dyrrachi: loc.; Dyrrachium was on the west coast of the Balkan peninsula north of Epirus and approximately opposite the heel of Italy.
111. Dyrrachium…scribam (113): a postscript.
libera civitas: technically not subject to Rome, and hence a place where Roman exiles could live unmolested.
Cicero, 1st century B.C. Vatican Museums, Vatican State
Alinari/Art Resource, NY.
De Quinto fratre nihil ego te accusavi, sed vos, cum praesertim tam pauci sitis, volui esse quam coniunctissimos. Quibus me voluisti agere gratias, egi, et me a te certiorem factum esse scripsi. Quod ad me, mea Terentia, scribis te vicum vendituram, 100 quid, obsecro te—me miserum!—quid futurum est? Et, si nos premet eadem fortuna, quid puero misero fiet? Non queo reliqua scribere—tanta vis lacrimarum est—neque te in eundem fletum adducam. Tantum scribo: si erunt in officio amici, pecunia non deerit; si non erunt, tu efficere tua pecunia non poteris. 105 Per fortunas miseras nostras, vide ne puerum perditum perdamus. Cui si aliquid erit ne egeat, mediocri virtute opus est et mediocri fortuna, ut cetera consequatur. Fac valeas et ad me tabellarios mittas ut sciam quid agatur et vos quid agatis. Mihi omnino iam brevis exspectatio est. Tulliolae et Ciceroni salutem 110 dic. Valete. D.a.d. VI K. Decemb. Dyrrachi.
Dyrrachium veni, quod et libera civitas est et in me officiosa et proxima Italiae; sed si offendet me loci celebritas, alio me conferam, ad te scribam.
112. celebritas: crowded condition, because it was a major port for the traffic from Italy to Greece.
alio: adv., to another place, elsewhere.
114. S. D.: salutem dicit.
M. Mario:Marcus Marius, known only through a few of Cicero’s letters as a person of taste and refinement who led a quiet lifestyle and suffered from ill health; possibly one of the Marii of Arpinum, Cicero’s hometown, he had a villa at Stabiae near Cicero’s.
115. tenuit quominus…venires (116): kept you from coming; vbs. of hindering and preventing are followed by ne or quominus + subjunct.
116. ludos: Pompey produced lavish games in August, 55 B.C., in connection with the dedication of his new theater, Rome’s first permanent stone theater; the entertainments, which were so spectacular as to be mentioned a century later by Pliny the Elder, included plays, wild animal hunts, and athletic competitions.
tribuo: tribuere,to ascribe, attribute, give; sc. id.
118. posses: sc. venire.
119. utrumque: each of two, both.
laetor: laetari,to be glad about, take delight in.
et…te fuisse et…valuisse:both that you were…and that… both infs. are in appos. with utrumque.
121. apparatissimi: most sumptuous; sc. erant.
stomachi: stomachus,stomach, digestion, liking, taste. We would say “to your taste” and cp. the expression “I cannot stomach this.”
122. meo: sc. stomacho.
honoris causa…honoris causa (123): Cicero jokingly plays on two different meanings of honor; in the first instance he means for the sake of the honor, i.e., to honor Pompey on this occasion, and in the second, for the sake of their own honor, i.e., their (dwindling) reputation.
123. scaenam: scaena, stage, theater.
124. deliciae: lit., delights; but often, as here, the pl. is used in the sg. sense of pet, favorite, darling.
noster Aesopus:my friend Aesop; in his younger days Clodius Aesopus was the most famous tragic actor at Rome and a friend of Cicero’s.
