Letter coll=A:book=12:letter=11 Letter LXVIII: ad Atticum 12.11
Tusculum, second intercalary month after Nov., 46 B.C.
(old Calendar); about Nov.24 (Julian calendar).
male de Seio: male and factum were formulae used of a friend recently deceased. Cf. Att. 15.1A.1 O factum male de Alexione; Att. 12.10 male mehercule de Athamante. Cf. also Catul. 3.16 O factum male, 0 miselle passer; Ter. Phorm. 751 malefactum. Of a joyous event factum bene was used; cf. Ter. And. 975. M. Seius, a Roman knight, was a common friend of Cicero and Atticus. On him, cf. Cic. de Off. 2.58; Plin. N. H. 15.1.
Caesonius: cf. Ep. I.1n.
Postumiam Sulpici (sc. uxorem): the omission of words of relationship, uxor, filius, filia (and servus), is very rare in Latin prose, and Cicero allows it perhaps only in his earlier speeches and in the Letters. Cf., for the Letters, Att. 12.20.2 Serviliae Claudi (sc. uxoris) pater; Att. 12.21.4 Oviae (sc. uxoris) C. Lolli. In Latin poetry the omission is common. Cf. Verg. Aen. 3.319 Hectoris (uxor) Andromache; Ovid, Met. 12.622 Oileos (filius) Aiax. See also Tac. Ann. 4.11; Plin. Ep. 2.20.2, etc.
domum ad se venisse: Cicero's divorce from Terentia must have occurred some months before this letter was written (cf. Intr. 52), and Postumia was interested in Cicero's second marriage.
Pompei Magni filia: overtures were evidently being made for a marriage between Cicero and Pompey's daughter. Who the other lady was (alteram illam) we do not know.
obsignata epistula: signare, consignare, and obsignare are technical terms for affixing the seal to a letter.
commotiunculis: Attica was suffering from a febricula; cf. Ep. LXIX. 2.