Tusculum, November 54 BC

At Rome, and especially on the Appian road as far as the temple of Mars, there is a remarkable flood. The promenade of Crassipes has been washed away, pleasure grounds, a great number of shops. There is a great sheet of water right up to the public fish-pond. That doctrine of Homer's is in full play:

The days in autumn when in violent flood
Zeus pours his waters, wroth at sinful men

—for it falls in with the acquittal of Gabinius—

Who wrench the law to suit their crooked ends
And drive out justice, recking naught of Gods.^[1]

But I have made up my mind not to care about such things. When I get back to Rome I will write and tell you my observations, and especially about the dictatorship, and I will also send a letter to Labienus and one to Ligurius. I write this before daybreak by the carved wood lamp-stand, in which I take great delight, because they tell me that you had it made when you were at Samos. Good-bye, dearest and best of brothers.