Page:The Letters of Cicero Shuckburg III.pdf/116

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the hours of waiting seemed long. You know I am by no means a flatterer, and so I considerably understate my feelings.

CCCCLXVI (, 3)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

I regard you as the one man who is less of a flatterer than myself, and if we both are sometimes such towards some one else, we are never so to each other. So listen to what I say in all plainness and sincerity. May I perish, my dear Atticus, if, I don't say my Tusculan villa—where in other respects I am very happy—but even "the islands of the blest" are in my eyes worth an absence of so many days from you. Wherefore let us harden ourselves to endure these three days—assuming you to be in the same state of feeling as myself, which is surely the case. But I should like to know whether you are coming to-day immediately after the auction, or on what day. Meanwhile I am busy with my books, and am much inconvenienced by not having Vennonius's history.

However, not to omit business altogether, that debt which Cæsar assigned to me admits of being recovered in three ways: first, purchase at the auction—but I would rather lose it, although, let alone the disgrace, that is as good as losing it. Secondly, a bond payable a year hence from the purchaser—but who is there I can trust, and when will that "year of Meton" come? Thirdly, accepting half down on the proposal of Vettienus. Look into the matter therefore.*