Letter LXXVII: ad familiares 5.14
Rome, May 9, 45 B.C. Lucceius urges Cicero not to give himself up entirely to grief for the loss of his daughter. On Lucceius, cf. Ep. XVIII. introd. note.S. v. b. e. v.: i.e. si vales benest. Ego valeo, or si vales bene est. Valeo. Cf. Intr. 62. habeo certum: for scio certum; cf. Ep. LII.1. See also sic habeto, Ep. XXVI.1n . quae res: a natural substitute for quid from the pen of a lawyer. Cf. quae res for quod, Fam. 12.14.2. delectare: in the second pers. sing. Cicero uses the ending -re in the pres. subj., imperf. ind., and fut. ind., elsewhere the ending -ris. Two exceptions may be noted to the last statement: (1) in his earlier writings -re is also found in the imperf. subj.; (2) in verbs having no active form -re is also used in the pres. ind. Other cases of the use of forms in -re, as delectare here, are archaic or colloquial. quorum consuesti: the case of the relative is assimilated to that of its antecedent. Cf. Hor. Sat. 1.6.15 iudice quo nosti populo. animo: on the personification of animus, cf. Ep. LII.1n. 2
sicut hinc discesseras: as you did when you left here. hinc: i.e. from Rome after Tullia's death. tristitiae te tradidisti: alliterative. doleo quia: for doleo quod. Cf. Brix on Plaut. Trin. 290, “After verbs of emotion (e.g. doleo, gaudeo, suscenseo, paveo, piget, etc.), where later writers employ quod, Plautus uses quia, in conformity with colloquial usage.” See also Reisig-Schmalz, Lat. Syn. note 431g. angere: cf. delectare, 1. non possum: in a writer whose style is so condensed and careless as is that of Lucceius (cf. quorum consuesti, sicut hinc discesseras, and si quid nostra causa vis) such an asyndeton is not remarkable. sollicitudines: probably a genuine plural. Cf., however, Brix, Trin. 490, and Lorenz, Pseud. Introd. 57. elevare ... te postulat: postulo followed by the acc. and inf. is Plautine. Cf., e.g., Trin. 237 “numquam amor quemquam nisi cupidum hominem postulat se in plagas conicere”.
Si quid nostra causa vis: a phrase from the sermo urbanus (Böckel). Cf. Fam. 13.71. obtundere, to tire out (by talking or writing); a favorite word in Plautus and Terence. delectare: cf. delectare, above.
