Letters to Atticus Passage 2

heri non multo post quam tu a me discessisti, puto, quidam urbani ut videbantur ad me mandata et litteras attulerunt a C. Mario C. f. C. n. multis verbis agere mecum per cognationem quae mihi secum esset, per eum Marium quem scripsissem, per eloquentiam L. Crassi avi sui ut se defenderem, causamque suam mihi perscripsit. rescripsi patrono illi nihil opus esse, quoniam Caesaris propinqui eius omnis potestas esset, viri optimi et hominis liberalissimi; me tamen ei fauturum. o tempora! fore cum dubitet Curtius consulatum petere! sed haec hactenus.

Yesterday, not long after you left me, I think, some men who looked like townsmen brought me messages and a letter from Gaius Marius, son of Gaius, grandson of Gaius. At great length he appealed to the kinship between us, to the Marius about whom I had written, and to the eloquence of his grandfather Lucius Crassus, asking me to defend him; he also gave me a full written account of his case. I replied that he had no need of that advocate, since all power lay with his kinsman Caesar, an excellent and most generous man, but that I would nevertheless support him. What times! Curtius will actually hesitate whether to stand for the consulship! But enough of this.

Hier, peu après ton départ de chez moi, je crois, certaines personnes qui paraissaient venir de Rome m’ont apporté des commissions et une lettre de Gaius Marius, fils de Gaius, petit-fils de Gaius. Il me suppliait longuement, au nom de notre parenté, de ce Marius dont j’ai écrit l’histoire et de l’éloquence de Lucius Crassus, son grand-père, d’assurer sa défense; il m’a aussi exposé sa cause en détail. Je lui ai répondu qu’il n’avait nul besoin d’un avocat, puisque tout le pouvoir appartenait à César, son parent, homme excellent et d’une très grande générosité; je lui donnerais néanmoins mon appui. Ô temps! En viendra-t-on au point où Curtius hésitera à briguer le consulat? Mais assez là-dessus.