Att. 16.1Hūmānitātis vērō nūllum afferre maius testimōnium possum, quam quod adulēscēns īdem senī Sullae fuit iūcundissimus, senex adulēscentī M. Brūtō, cum aequālibus autem suīs Q. Hortēnsiō et M. Cicerōne sīc vīxit, ut iūdicāre difficile sit, cui aetātī fuerit aptissimus.Of his humanity indeed I can offer no greater testimony than that as a young man he was most agreeable to Sulla in his old age, and as an old man to the young Marcus Brutus, while with men of his own age, Quintus Hortensius and Marcus Cicero, he lived in such a way that it is difficult to judge to which age he was best suited. Att. 16.2Quamquam eum praecipuē dīlēxit Cicerō, ut nē frāter quidem eī Quīntus cārior fuerit aut familiārior.And yet Cicero loved him above all, so that not even his brother Quintus was dearer or more intimate to him. Att. 16.3Eī reī sunt indiciō praeter eōs librōs, in quibus dē eō facit mentiōnem, quī in vulgus sunt ēditī, sēdecim volūmina epistulārum, ab cōnsulātū eius ūsque ad extrēmum tempus ad Atticum missārum: quae quī legat, nōn multum dēsīderet historiam contextam eōrum temporum.Evidence of this, besides those books in which he mentions him, which have been published to the world, are the sixteen volumes of letters sent to Atticus from the time of his consulship right up to his last days: anyone who reads them would not much miss a continuous history of those times.
Att. 16.4Sīc enim omnia dē studiīs prīncipum, vitiīs ducum, mūtātiōnibus reī pūblicae perscrīpta sunt, ut nihil in eīs nōn appāreat et facile exīstimārī possit, prūdentiam quōdam modō esse dīvīnātiōnem.For everything about the ambitions of the leading men, the faults of the generals and the changes in the state is written out in such detail that there is nothing that is not made clear in them, and it can easily be supposed that good sense is in a certain way divination. Att. 16.4Nōn enim Cicerō ea sōlum, quae vīvō sē accidērunt, futūra praedīxit, sed etiam, quae nunc ūsū veniunt, cecinit ut vātēs.For Cicero not only foretold that those things would happen which came to pass while he was alive, but also, like a prophet, sang of those which are now being experienced.