[sect. 2]
gratos optatosque: cf. firmo constantique, 2; dolorem cruciatumque, 2; sollicitudinis et doloris, 2; frugi severaque, 4; familiaribus et convictoribus, 5; and gratum acceptumque, 7; see also oro obsecro, Ep. L.1n.
rumores : more favorable reports mentioned in Tiro's letter, to which this epistle is an answer.
gratos [gap in text] esse [gap in text] non dubito: cf. Pollio, Fam. 10.31.5 illud me Cordubae pro cantione dixisse nemo vocabit in dubium Trebonius, Fam. 12.16.2 cui itos et caritate et amore tuum officium praestaturos non debes dubitore. Cf. also Ter. Hec. 326; Varr. Ling. Laot. 7.107. The infin. after non dubito is not found in Cicero (cf., however, a scarcely parallel passage in Cic. de Fin. 3.38). In all the cases cited the dependent verb precedes non dubito, and the writer in using the acc. and infin. has in mind a verb of thinking in general, and not the special phrase non dubito. When non dubito precedes, quin with the subj. is always used; cf. 7 of this letter. See also Schmalz, Ueber d. Sprachgebrauch d. Asinius Pollio, p. 88.
mi dulcissime Tiro : cf. mi Pomponi, Ep. X. n. and Intr. 88a.
in dies magis magisque : for the strict classical expression in dies magis (cf. Cic. pro Mil. 25).
bucinatorem: apparently not used in the figurative sense elsewhere.
successa: Mendelssohn cites, as parallel to this unusual participle, custodibus discessis from Caelius Antipater and sole occaso from Q. Claudius. Schwabe conjectures successe (for successisse) with considerable probability. Cf. decesse, Ep. XIX.2n.
