Page:The Letters of Cicero Shuckburg III.pdf/121

 son's appointment as a Lupercus, and at Statius —that he may see his family overwhelmed with a double dishonour! I may add a third in the person of Philotimus. What unparalleled folly, unless indeed mine can beat it! But what impudence to ask a subscription from you for such a purpose! Granted that he did not come to a "fount athirst," but a "Peirene" and a "holy well-spring of Alphæus" —to drain you as though you were a fountain, as you say, and that, too, at a time when you are so seriously embarrassed! Where will such conduct end? But that's his affair. I am much pleased with my Cato: but so is Lucilius Bassus with his compositions.

fool" (2 Phil. § 8).]
 * [Footnote: The phrase nihil sapere is a common euphemism; it means "to be a