Letter coll=F:book=9:letter=16 Letter LXI: ad familiares 9.16
Tusculum, July, 46 B.C.
L. Papirius Paetus, to whom are addressed Fam. 9.15-26, was a friend of long standing. We first hear of him through a collection of books which he presented to Cicero in 60 B.C.
(Att. 1.20.7; 2.1.12). Like Atticus, he was an Epicurean and held himself aloof from politics. The large fortune which he had inherited made it unnecessary for him to engage in business, and he was able to give himself up to the pleasures of a literary and social life. Cicero's letters to him testify to their intimate relations, and offer the best commentary upon his character and tastes. No better specimens of the sermo urbanus and no better proof of Cicero's wit and brilliancy as a letter-writer can be found than in the letters to Paetus.
[sect. 1]
amavi amorem: cf. occidione occisum, Ep. XXXIV.7n., and cura ut valeas meque ames amore illo tuo singulari, Fam.15.20.3.
Silius: probably P. Silius Nerva, to whom, when he was propraetor of Bithynia in 51 and 50 B.C.
, several letters of recommendation (Fam. 13.47, 61-65) are addressed.
bis: for fear that one might be lost.
eodem exemplo, to the same effect; as in Q. fr. 2.10 (12). 5. Exemplum without idem, when applied to letters, means 'a copy,' e.g. Caesaris lillerarum exemplum tibi misi, Att. 7.23.3.
quomodo: equivalent to quoquomodo, as in Fam. 14.14.1: quomodo quidem nunc se res habet, [gap in text] bellissime mecum esse poteritis.