[sect. 2]
pantheris, etc.: Cicero's reply to the urgent and repeated requests of Caelius, gravely couched in official language, as if the capture of these panthers had been the most serious object of his provincial administration. Cf. also Octavio, Ep. XXXV.21n.
agitur mandatu meo: such a phrase as an official nught use in a report to his government, while ex [gap in text] decedere suggests the dignified retirement of those who felt aggrieved.
irisidiarum: with reference on the one hand to traps for panthers, and on the other to the lying in ambush of highwaymen, or the snares laid for the provincials by the money-lenders, whose iniquitous proceedings Cicero claimed to have suppressed.
sedulo: cf. Ep. XII.1n.
Patisco: an official engaged in securing panthers; cf. Fam. 8.9.3.
nesciebamus: epistolary imperf.; cf. Intr. 84c.
ipsis Megalensibus: the Megalensian games, lasting from Apr. 4 to 10, were managed by the curule aediles.