[sect. 2]
ita [gap in text] si, only in case that. Words which denote degree obtain often from the context the idea of limitation. Cf. Ep. XXXII. 2 a te rogabo, [gap in text] ita mihi des, si tibi ut id libenter facias ante persuaseris; in Cat. 3.16 tam diu (only so long); pro Flac. 34 dixit tantum: nihil ostendit, nihil protulit.
peregrinationis: young Cicero had just gone to Athens to prosecute his studies there, and as Cicero himself would be absent from Rome, he requested Atticus to pay the young man's expenses from the rental of certain houses.
quibus: referring forward to mercedes.
si [gap in text] conduceret, quod [gap in text] cogitabat: only a few weeks before this time, Cicero's son, growing restive under the paternal roof, perhaps because of the treatment which his mother had received, and because of his father's marriage to Publilia, had laid before his father two alternatives, either that he should be allowed to join Caesar in Spain, or that he should have a house of his own at Rome; (filium) velle Hispaniam, requirere liberalitatem, Att. 12.7.1.
Argileti: the Argiletum entered the Forum from the north, passing between the Curia and the Basilica Aemilia. Cicero evidently had houses (insulae) which he rented in the Argiletum and on the Aventine.
Bibulum, Acidinum, Messallam: rich young aristocrats, who were likewise to pursue their studies in Athens.
quanti: gen. of price.
ut sint [gap in text] solvant: the tenants failed to pay as promptly as Cicero wished; cf. Att. 15.17.1 quod scribis tibi deesse H S C, quae Ciceroni curata sint, velim ab Erote quaeras ubi sit merces iusularum.
jumento: i.e. equis.
