[sect. 2]
tuos familiares: probably ironical, although it is true that Atticus was intimate with many of the prominent men in Rome (cf. Nep. Atticus, 35, 36, 38).
nobiles homines [gap in text] fore: referring probably to the aristocracy as a body; cf. voluntates nobilium, Ep. I.2 n, and the following significant utterance in regard to the attitude of the Optima tes from the de Petitione Consulatus, 33, written by Quintus to his brother a few months later, noli putare eos, qui sunt eo honore usi, non videre, tu cum idem sis adeptus, quid dignitatis habiturus sis: eos vero, qui consularibus
familiis nati locum maiorum consecuti non sunt, suspicor tibi, nisi si qui admodum te amant, invidere. Hortensius and Crassus may have been particulariy in Cicero's thoughts. Besides the feeling of distrust which certain members of the aristocracy cherished toward this novus homo, many of them were offended by his previous democratic tendencies as shown, for instance, in the prosecution of Verres, and by his willingness to rob the oligarchy of its power for the benefit of Pompey in the case of the Manilian law. Cf. de Pet. Cons. 4, 5; Sall. Cat. 23 end, and Intr. 4.
Ianuario [gap in text] Romae sis: the next letter to Atticus (Att. 3.32) was written in 63 B.C. The break in the correspondence is explained by the presence of Atticus in Rome or its vicinity.