Letter XXX: ad Atticum 5.1

Minturnae, about May 7, 51 B.C. Cicero apparently left Rome May 1, spent a day at his Tusculan villa with Philotimus, his business agent, and Atticus (3), and went thence to Minturnae by the way of Arpinum and Aquinum (3). He reached his destination, Laodicea in Phrygia, July 31 (Att. 5.15.1). With 3-5 of this letter, cf. Ep. VI.1.

ego vero: these words imply that Cicero has in mind a remark in the letter of Atticus. Cf. Fam. 16.10.1.

ut [gap in text] ne: ut ne is frequent in Latin comedy in clauses both of result and of purpose, and the explanation would seem to be that originally ne had purely a negative force in the combination, e.g. faciemus ut, quod viderit, ne viderit, Plaut. M. G. 149; merito ut ne dicant, id est (mi in manu), Plaut. Trin. 105. Colloquial language, being conservative of old usages, retained this archaism and others after they had disappeared from general use in formal language. The separation of ut and ne is remarkable, but finds parallels, especially in Latin comedy: cf. ut quom opus sit ne in mora nobis siet, Ter. Ad. 354, and Plaut. M. G. 149 (above); in fact, the use of ut ne instead of ne makes it possible to put ne in the middle or near the end of the sentence, and thus secure the desired emphasis upon the negation. According to Seyffert-Millier (on Laelius, 305), ut ne frequently appears in the language of the laws where we should expect ne. This coincidence between the legal and colloquial style is due to the conservatism of each form of speech, and is especially noticeable in the letter from the jurist Sulpicius (Ep. LXXV.).