Lettres à Atticus Passage 1

occupationum mearum vel hoc signum erit quod epistula librari manu est. de epistularum frequentia te nihil accuso, sed pleraeque tantum modo mihi nuntiabant ubi esses, vel etiam significabant recte esse, quod erant abs te. quo in genere maxime delectarunt duae fere eodem tempore abs te Buthroto datae. scire enim volebam te commode navigasse. sed haec epistularum frequentia non tam ubertate sua quam crebritate delectavit. illa fuit gravis et plena rerum quam mihi M. Paccius, hospes tuus, reddidit. ad eam rescribam igitur et hoc quidem primum. Paccio ratione et verbis et re ostendi quid tua commendatio ponderis haberet. itaque in intimis est meis, cum antea notus non fuisset.

One indication of how busy I am is that this letter is in a copyist's hand. I make no complaint about the frequency of your letters, but most of them merely announced where you were, or even showed that things were well simply by being from you. Of this kind, two letters dispatched from Buthrotum at nearly the same time especially delighted me, for I wished to know that you had made a comfortable voyage. Yet this frequency of letters pleased me less through their fullness than through their regularity. The one delivered to me by Marcus Paccius, your guest-friend, was weighty and full of matter. I shall therefore answer it, beginning with this. I showed Paccius by argument, words, and action what weight your recommendation carried. Accordingly he is now among my closest associates, though previously he was unknown to me.

Voici déjà un signe de mes occupations: cette lettre est de la main d’un copiste. Je ne te reproche nullement la fréquence de tes lettres, mais la plupart se bornaient à m’annoncer où tu étais, ou même à indiquer que tout allait bien, puisqu’elles venaient de toi. En ce genre, deux lettres envoyées de Buthrote presque au même moment m’ont particulièrement charmé. Je voulais en effet savoir que tu avais navigué dans de bonnes conditions. Mais cette abondance de lettres m’a plu moins par sa richesse que par sa fréquence. Celle que m’a remise M. Paccius, ton hôte, était substantielle et pleine d’informations. Je vais donc y répondre, et d’abord sur ce point. J’ai montré à Paccius, par mes raisons, mes paroles et mes actes, quel poids avait ta recommandation. Il compte ainsi parmi mes intimes, alors qu’il ne m’était pas connu auparavant.