[sect. 2]
si potes, etc.: for the quiet and isolation of Antium, cf. Att. 2.6 sic enim sum complexus otium, ut ab eo divelli non queam. Itaque aut libris me delecto, quorum habeo Anti festivam copiam, aut fluctus numero, nam ad lacertas captandas tempestates non sunt idoneae; [gap in text] mihi quaevis satis iusta causa cessandi est, qui etiam dubitem an hic Anti considam et hoc tempus omne consumam, ubi quidem ego mallem duum virum quam Romae me fuisse. Esse [to think that there is] locum tam prope Romam ubi multi sint qui Vatinium numquam viderint! ubi nemo sit praeter me qui quemquam ex vigintiviris vivum et salvum velit. Cf., however, Intr. 50.
Piliam: cf. in eius nuptus, Ep. XVI.7n.
medius fidius: for ita me deus fidius adiuvet.
ne: the emphatic particle.
tu emisti ludum praeclarum, you have bought a splendid band (of gladiators). Atticus would seem to have bought a troop of gladiators, whom he was at present having trained, that he might let them out (locare) to the aediles for the public games.
pugnare: of practice Contests.
duobus his muneribus liberasses: if we accept this reading, the meaning perhaps is: from the results of the two spectacles this year you might have set (them) free. For distinguished bravery and skill gladiators at the request of the people were sometimes presented with a rudis, or wooden sword, and allowed to retire from service. Cicero writes to Atticus a few days later: tu scribas ad me velim de gladiatoribus, sed ita, bene si rem gerunt; non quaero, male si se gesserunt, Att. 4.8 A.2. Boot believes that the gladiators have turned out badly, and that the passage is ironical: if you had been willing to let them out, you might have set them free (from slavery, for they would have been killed by their opponents).
diligenter: sc. cura or facias.
