Letter coll=F:book=8:letter=15 Letter XLVIII: ad familiares 8.15
Place of writing unknown; about March 9, 49 B.C.
[sect. 1]
tuum: opposed to nostro below.
nugax: adjectives in -ax are found relatively much more frequently in colloquial Latin; cf., e.g., Plaut. Pers. 410, 421; Capt. 959; Petron. 43; 132. Cicero in his own letters uses only one such adjective, tagax (Att. 6.3.1). In the letters to Cicero we find minax (Fam. 11.3.1); pugnax (Fam. 8.13.1 and 10.31.5); efficax (Fam. 8.10.3); sagax (Fam. 10.23.4), and nugax here.
commorit: for syncopation in the Letters, cf. Intr. 82.
The loss of v in the perfect tenses of moveo and its compounds is peculiar, since the lost letter is not the sign of the perfect system but belongs to the stem. Cf. Priscian, 10.3.16 (Keil, 2.508), upon this point.
temperatiorem: cf. hanc, Ep. XLVI.2n.
quid est? nunc tibi, etc., well! do our soldiers, who in the roughest and coldest sort of a country, in the most abominable winter weather, have promenaded through the war, seem to you to have dined on truffles? Caesar crossed the Rubicon Jan.10, 49 B.C.
, of the old calendar, but as the time of year was really late autumn, the season was not in itself unfavorable to military operations; but his troops had been obliged to make a difficult passage over the Apennines. In this campaign of two months Caesar had invested northern Italy, and made 30,000 men prisoners of war without a serious engagement. Upon quid est, cf. Intr. 98.
ambulando confecerunt and malis orbiculatis esse pasti look like proverbial expressions. The malum orbicalatum, a fine fruit so named from its shape, was regarded as a great delicacy.
gloriose omnia : sc. facta sunt.
quam sollicitus sum: this MSS. reading need not excite surprise in so colloquial a letter; cf. quam conversa, etc., Ep. XLVI.2n. See also Ter. And. 650, and Spengel on Ter. And. 45.
quae [gap in text] pertinet: the failure of Caelius to share in Caesar's glory is explained by nam me, etc.
quae (tibi): with reference to the general statements of the preceding sentence, especially the anxiety of Caelius.
expulisset : sc. Caesar.
id quod: with reference to the expulsion of Pompey from Italy.
nisi si: cf. nisi si, Ep. XIII.1n.