yourself too much, and are a better citizen than Philoctetes, who, on being wronged himself, was anxious for the very spectacle[541] that I perceive gives you pain. Pray hasten hither: I will console you and wipe all sorrow from your eyes: and, as you love me, bring Maruis. But haste, haste, both of you! There is a garden at my house.[542] [Footnote 533: Some bore, unknown to us.] [Footnote 534: The two boys seem to be receiving their education together at this time in the house of Quintus.] [Footnote 535: It is all but impossible to explain these words. Some editors transfer them to the sentence after _de Republica_. But they are scarcely more in place there. The Greek quotation is not known.] [Footnote 536: M. Marius, to whom Letter CXXVI is addressed.] [Footnote 537: C. Anicius, a senator, seems to have obtained from Ptolemy Auletes, by gift or purchase, his state sedan and its attendants.] [Footnote 538: The Pompeianum.] [Footnote 539: An unintellible word, meant apparently for Greek (perhaps _arce_ Ψυρίᾳ, see _Att._ xvi. 13), is in the text. The most probable conjecture refers it in some way to Arpinum, Cicero's hardy mountain birthplace.] [Footnote 540: The _de Oratore_.] [Footnote 541: The ruin of his country.] [Footnote 542: For us to walk and converse in. It hardly refers to a supply of vegetables, as some suggest.] CXXIII (A IV, 11) TO ATTICUS (AT ROME) CUMÆ (APRIL) [Sidenote: B.C. 55, ÆT. 51] I was delighted with your two letters which I received together on the 26th. Go on with the story. I long to know all the facts of what you write about. Also I should like you to find out what this means: you can do so from Demetrius. Pompey told me that he was expecting Crassus in his Alban villa on the 27th: that as soon as he arrived, they were going at once to Rome to settle accounts with the _publicani_. I asked, "During the gladiatorial exhibitions?" He answered, "Before they were begun." What that means I wish you would send me word either at once, if you know, or when he has reached Rome. I am engaged here in devouring books with the aid of that wonderful fellow Dionysius,[543] for, by Hercules, that is what he seems to me to be. He sends compliments to you and all your party. "No bliss so great as knowing all that is." Wherefore indulge my thirst for knowledge by telling what happened on the first and on the second day of the shows: what about the censors,[544] what about Appius,[545] what about that she-Appuleius of the people?[546] Finally, pray write me word what you are doing yourself. For, to tell the truth, revolutions don't give me so much pleasure as a letter from you. I took no one out of town with me except Dionysius: yet I am in no fear of wanting conversation--so delightful do I find that youth. Pray give my book to Lucceius.[547] I send you the book of Demetrius of Magnesia,[548] that there may be a messenger on the spot to bring me back a letter from you.