Letter coll=F:book=8:letter=16 Letter L: ad familiares 8.16
Intimelium, April 16, 49 B.C.
This letter also appears in the collection of letters to Atticus, Att. 10.9A.
[sect. 1]
tuis litteris : in this letter, which has not been preserved, Cicero must have conveyed the impression that he intended to join the Pompeians.
nihil nisi triste: attributive acc. Cf. Intr. 83a; see also Stinner, 58, n. 2; Becher, 31.
perscripsti: for perscripsisti; cf. praedixe for praedixisse, below. Cf. Intr. 82.
Cicero: the earnestness of Caelius is shown by his use of the vocative Cicero twice in this letter. It occurs but once elsewhere in his letters.
oro obsecro: the use of such double expressions is especially common in colloquial language. The writer or speaker seeks to bring the idea home by coupling words or phrases which have essentially the same meaning. Cf., e.g., in this letter, salute et incolumitate, 1; atrox et saevum, 1; sciens prudensque, 5; insolentiam et jactationem, 5.
testificor: for the fondness of colloquial Latin for facere in various phrases, see Intr. 89. As for words compounded with facio, in early Latin their number was limited, but in the Vulgate there is a host of such verbs as beatificare, castificare, damnificare, and this formation gave rise in turn to certifier, notifier, etc., in the Romance languages, so that the formation supports the view that the Romance languages were derived not from literary but from colloquial Latin. Cf. also civitatem, Ep. LII.3n.; quicquid in buccam, Ep. LXIX.2n.
sententiam: a kind of prolepsis especially frequent in comedy; see Draeger, Hist. Syn. 11.498, and cf. Plaut. Trin. 373 scin tu illum quo genere gnatus sit? Plaut. Men. 247 ego illum scio quam carus sit cordi meo, etc. Caelius himself writes similarly (Fam. 8.10.3): nosti Marcellum quam tardus sit. In general, cf. Reisig-Schmalz, Lat. Syn. n. 554 and Ziemer's Junggrammatische Streifzge, 60 ff.
eandem rationem: i.e. as in the case of Domitius at Corfinium.
nihil cogitat: see note on nihil nisi triste, above.
exut: sc. ex urbe; for the reason of Caesar's anger, see Caes. B. C. 1.33.
intercessionibus: the tribune Metellus forbade Caesar's removal of the treasure from the temple of Saturn, and opposed all his plans in the senate.
mehercules: cf. mercule, Ep. XXV.3n.
