Letter LXVIII: ad Atticum 12.11
Tusculum, second intercalary month after Nov., 46 B.C.
(old Calendar); about Nov.24 (Julian calendar).
male de Seio:
male and
factum were formulae used of a friend recently deceased. Cf.
Att. 15.1A.1
O factum male de Alexione;
Att. 12.10 male mehercule de Athamante. Cf. also
Catul. 3.16 O factum male, 0 miselle passer;
Ter. Phorm. 751 malefactum. Of a joyous event
factum bene was used; cf.
Ter. And. 975. M. Seius, a Roman knight, was a common friend of Cicero and Atticus. On him, cf. Cic.
de Off. 2.58; Plin. N. H. 15.1.
Caesonius: cf.
Ep. I.1n.
Postumiam Sulpici (sc.
uxorem): the omission of words of relationship,
uxor,
filius,
filia (and
servus), is very rare in Latin prose, and Cicero allows it perhaps only in his earlier speeches and in the Letters. Cf., for the Letters,
Att. 12.20.2 Serviliae Claudi (sc. uxoris) pater; Att. 12.21.4 Oviae (sc. uxoris) C. Lolli. In Latin poetry the omission is common. Cf. Verg.
Aen. 3.319 “
Hectoris (uxor) Andromache”;
Ovid, Met. 12.622 “
Oileos (filius) Aiax”. See also
Tac. Ann. 4.11;
Plin. Ep. 2.20.2, etc.
domum ad se venisse: Cicero's divorce from Terentia must have occurred some months before this letter was written (cf.
Intr. 52), and Postumia was interested in Cicero's second marriage.
Pompei Magni filia: overtures were evidently being made for a marriage between Cicero and Pompey's daughter. Who the other lady was (
alteram illam) we do not know.
obsignata epistula:
signare,
consignare, and
obsignare are technical terms for affixing the seal to a letter.
commotiunculis: Attica was suffering from a
febricula; cf. Ep. LXIX. 2.
