Where is Roman Miss Manners when you need her?

[ricardienne]

Wouldn't it be in kind of bad taste to make jokey threats about beating when writing to a former family slave?

Comments

[camlina.livejournal.com]

Hah, you'd think.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

after clicking on LOAD next to ENGLISH on the right (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text;jsessionid=2E54C33B8F4D7084BC50D56742D642C4?doc=Cic.+Fam.+16.26&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0009)

DCCCXI (F XVI, 26)
QUINTUS CICERO TO TIRO
(TIME AND PLACE UNCERTAIN)
I have castigated you, at least with the silent reproach of my thoughts; because this is the second packet that has arrived without a letter from you. You cannot escape the penalty for this crime by your own advocacy: you will have to call Marcus to your aid, and don't be too sure that even he, though he should compose a speech after long study and a great expenditure of midnight oil, would be able to establish your innocence. In plain terms, I beg you to do as I remember my mother used to do. It was her custom to put a seal on wine-jars even when empty to prevent any being labelled empty that had been surreptitiously drained. In the same way I beg you, even if you have nothing to write about, to write all the same, lest you be thought to have sought a cover for idleness: for I always find the news in your letters trustworthy and welcome. Love me, and goodbye.

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doesn't seem so bad to me.