Letter coll=F:book=7:letter=23 Letter IV: ad familiares 7.23
Rome, 62 B.C.
M. Fadius Gallus was a personal friend of Cicero, to whom he wrote Fam. 7.23-27. Cf. Fam. 33.59 M. Fadium unice diligo summaque mihi cum eo consuetudo et familiaritas est pervetus. He was a man of artistic and literary tastes. Like Cicero, he wrote a eulogy of Cato. Cf. Ep. LXXXI. 2.
[sect. 1]
tantum quod: equivalent to commodum; cf. Att. 35.33.7. This usage, perhaps a colloquial one, became comparatively frequent in post-Augustan prose, e.g. navis Alexandrina, quae tantum quod appulerat, Suet. Aug.98.
Arpinati: Cicero inherited his villa at Arpinum from his father (de Leg. Agr. 3.8). He had fitted it up in imitation of the villa of Atticus at Buthrotum.
Aviani: as the sequel shows, Gallus had made certain purchases of Avianius for Cicero, and Avianius generously offered to delay recording them until it should suit Cicero's convenience to pay. Nomina facere is a commercial expression, meaning to set down items of debt in an account book.
rogare de die (sc. solutionis): to ask for credit (Tyrrell).
annua: sc. die.
mi Galle: cf. mi Pomponi, Ep. X n..