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 DXCVII (A XII, 51)

TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)

Tiro is come back sooner than I hoped. Nicias has also arrived, and I hear that Valerius is coming to-day. However many they may be, I shall still be more alone than if you were here by yourself. But I expect you, at any rate after you have done with Peducæus. You however give some hints of an earlier date; but that must be as you find it possible. As to Vergilius, it is as you say. Yet what I should like to know is when the auction is to be. I see you are of opinion that the letter should be sent to Cæsar. Well! I was very much of that opinion also, and the more so that there is not a word in it unbecoming the most loyal of citizens, that is, as loyal as the state of the times permit, to which all political writers teach us that we must bow. But observe, I stipulate that your Cæsarian friends read it first. So please see to it. But unless you clearly understand that they approve, it must not be sent. Now you will detect whether they really approve or only pretend to do so. Pretence will in my eyes be equivalent to rejection. You must probe that question.

Tiro told me what you thought ought to be done about Cærellia: that it was unbecoming to me to be in debt; that you were in favour of an assignment: