[sect. 3]
cum [gap in text] oporteret: Cicero had reached an age when he might naturally expect to reap the fruit, in the way of influence, distinction, and friendships, of his years of work and study.
domesticis: to be joined more particularly with solaciis. Cf. amissis ornamentis, etc., Ep. LXXVI. 2.
quibus utor assidue: in 45 B.C.
Cicero wrote the Consolatio, Hortensius, de Finibus, and Academica. The Tusculanae Disputationes and the de Natura Deorum were partly written in the same year.
a portu: cf. in puppi, etc., Ep. LXVII. 3 and contraxi vela, Ep. V.2n.