Your letter gratified Annalis very much,as shewing that you took an active interest in his concerns,and yet assisted him with exceedingly candid advice.Publius Servilius the elder,from a letter which he said he had received from Caesar,declares himself highly obliged to you for having spoken with the greatest kindness and earnestness of his devotion to Caesar.After my return to Rome from Arpinum I was told that Hippodamus had started to join you.
I cannot say that I was surprised at his having acted so discourteously as to start to join you without a letter from me:Ionly say that,that I was annoyed.For I had long resolved,from an expression in your letter,that if I had anything I wished conveyed to you with more than usual care,I should give it to him:for,in truth,into a letter like this,which I send you in an ordinary way,Iusually put nothing that,if it fell into certain hands,might be a source of annoyance.I reserve myself for Minucius and Salvius and Labeo.Labeo will either be starting late or will stay here altogether.Hippodamus did not even ask me whether he could do anything for me.T.Penarius sends me a kind letter about you:says that he is exceedingly charmed with your literary pursuits,conversation,and above all by your dinners.He was always a favourite of mine,and I see a good deal of his brother.Wherefore continue,as you have begun,to admit the young man to your intimacy.
From the fact of this letter having been in hand during many days,owing to the delay of the letter-carriers,I have jotted down in it many various things at odd times,as,for instance,the following:
Titus Anicius has mentioned to me more than once that he would not hesitate to buy a suburban property for you,if he found one.In these remarks of his I find two things surprising:first,that when you write to him about buying a suburban property,you not only don't write to me to that effect,but write even in a contrary sense;and,secondly,that in writing to him you totally forget his letters which you shewed me at Tusculum,and as totally the rule of Epicharmus,"Notice how he has treated another":in fact,that you have quite forgotten,as I think,the lesson conveyed by the expression of his face,his conversation,and his spirit.But this is your concern.As to a suburban property,be sure to let me know your wishes,and at the same time take care that that fellow doesn't get you into trouble.What else have I to say?Anything?Yes,there is this:Gabinius entered the city by night on the 27th of September,and today,at two o clock,when he ought to have appeared on his trial for l?se niajest?,in accordance with the edict of C.Alflus,he was all but crushed to the earth by a great and unanimous demonstration of the popular hatred.Nothing could exceed his humiliating position.However,Piso comes next to him.
So I think of introducing a marvellous episode into my second book--Apollo declaring in the council of the gods what sort of return that of the two commanders was to be,one of whom had lost,and the other sold his army.From Britain I have a letter of Qesar's dated the 1st of September,which reached me on the 27th,satisfactory enough as far as the British expedition is concerned,in which,to prevent my wondering at not getting one from you,he tells me that you were not with him when he reached the coast.To that letter I made no reply,not even a formal congratulation,on account of his mourning.Many,many wishes,dear brother,for your health.
