k with I know not what
success, but with a care which nothing could surpass[190]." The binding and
adornment of the presentation copy for Varro received great attention, and
the letter accompanying it was carefully elaborated[191]. Yet after
everything had been done and the book had been sent to Atticus at Rome,
Cicero was still uneasy as to the reception it would meet with from Varro.
He wrote thus to Atticus: "I tell you again and again that the presentation
will be at your own risk. So if you begin to hesitate, let us desert to
Brutus, who is also a follower of Antiochus. 0 Academy, on the wing as thou
wert ever wont, flitting now hither, now thither!" Atticus on his part
"shuddered" at the idea of taking the responsibility[192]. After the work
had passed into his hands, Cicero begged him to take all precautions to
prevent it from getting into circulation until they could meet one another
in Rome[193]. This warning was necessary, because Balbus and Caerellia had
just managed to get access to the _De Finibus_[194]. In a letter, dated
apparently a day or two later, Cicero declared his intention to meet
Atticus at Rome and send the work to Varro, should it be judged advisable
to do so, after a consultation[195]. The meeting ultimately did not take
place, but Cicero left the four books in Atticus' power, promising to
approve any course that might be taken[196]. Atticus wrote to say that as
soon as Varro came to Rome the books would be sent to him. "By this time,
then," says Cicero, when he gets the letter, "you have taken the fatal
step; oh dear! if you only knew at what peril to yourself! Perhaps my
letter stopped you, although you had not read it when you wrote. I long to
hear how the matter stands[197]." Again, a little later: "You have been
bold enough, then, to give Varro the books? I await his judgment upon them,
but when will he read them?" Varro probably received the books in the first
fortnight of August, 45 B.C., when Cicero was hard at work on the _Tusculan
Disputations_[198]. A copy of the first edition had already got into
Varro's hands, as we learn from a letter, in which Cicero begs Atticus to
ask Varro to make some alterations in his copy of the _Academica_, at a
time when the fate of the second edition was still undecided[199]. From
this fact we may conclude that Cicero had given up all hope of suppressing
the first edition. If he consoles Atticus for the uselessness of his copies
of the first edition, it d