Letters to Atticus Passage 2

nausea iamne plane abiit? mihi quidem ex tuis litteris coniectanti ita videbatur. redeo ad Tebassos, Scaevas, Fangones. hos tu existimas confidere se illa habituros stantibus nobis? in quibus plus virtutis putarunt quam experti sunt. pacis isti scilicet amatores et non latrocini auctores. at ego, cum tibi de Curtilio scripsi Sextilianoque fundo, scripsi de Censorino, de Messalla, de Planco, de Postumo, de genere toto. melius fuit perisse illo interfecto, quod numquam accidisset, quam haec videre.

Has your nausea now entirely disappeared? Judging from your letter, I thought it had. I return to the Tebassi, the Scaevae, and the Fangones. Do you think they trust that they will retain those possessions while we stand firm? They supposed there was more courage in us than experience has shown. Those men are lovers of peace, of course, and not sponsors of brigandage. But when I wrote to you about Curtilius and the Sextilian estate, I was writing about Censorinus, Messalla, Plancus, Postumus, and the whole class. It would have been better for us to perish after Caesar's murder, which would never have happened, than to witness this.

Ta nausée a-t-elle maintenant complètement disparu? C’est ce qu’il me semblait pouvoir conclure de ta lettre. Je reviens aux Tebassi, aux Scaevae et aux Fangones. Crois-tu qu’ils espèrent conserver ces biens tant que nous resterons debout? Ils nous ont prêté plus de courage qu’ils n’en ont trouvé à l’épreuve. Ce sont, bien sûr, des amis de la paix et non les instigateurs du brigandage! Lorsque je t’ai écrit au sujet de Curtilius et du domaine de Sextilius, je parlais aussi de Censorinus, de Messalla, de Plancus, de Postumus, de toute cette engeance. Il aurait mieux valu périr lorsque César fut tué, ce qui ne serait jamais arrivé, que de voir cela.