Letter LXXIII: ad familiares 9.11
The villa of Atticus, at Ficulea, soon after April 20, 45 B.C. Upon Dolabella, cf. Intr. 56. This letter is written in reply to a letter of condolence which Dolabella had sent to Cicero on hearing of Tullia's death. Dolabella was at this time in Spain, acting as Caesar's legate.opinio nostra: on the expectation of a decisive battle in Spain, cf. de Hispania, Ep. LXX.3n. ut ... iuvari: Cicero does not reveal, either in this letter or in his letters to Atticus, the bitterness which we should expect him to feel on account of the heartless and mercenary treatment which Tullia had suffered at Dolabella's hands; cf. Ep. LVII n. fortunae ... putem: in a letter of sympathy to Titius (Fam. 5.16.2) Cicero writes: est autem consolatio pervulgata quidem illa maxime, quam semper in ore atque in animo habere debemus, homines nos ut esse meminerimus ea lege natos ut omnibus telis fortunae proposita sit vita nostra. Cf. also Fam. 5.17.3 te ut hortarer rogaremque ut et hominem te et virum esse meminisses, id est, ut et communem incertumque casum, quem neque vitare quisquam nostrum nec praestare ullo pacto potest, sapienter ferres et dolori fortiter ac fortunae resisteres. hilaritas illa nostra: the gaiety which Cicero showed in his letters to Fadius Gallus (Ep. IV.), to Trebatius, (Ep. XXIV.-- Ep. XXVI., Ep. XXVIII.), or to Paetus (Ep. LXI., Ep. LXIV., Ep. LXVII.). Cf. also Att. 1 2.40.3 hilaritatem illam qua hanc tristitiam temporum condiebamus in perpetuum amisi.
proelia te sustinere: Quintus, Cicero's nephew, who was with Caesar in Spain, was speaking ill of his uncle to Caesar.
