Letter 4019: You excuse yourself for your long silence.

You make excuses for having been silent up to now. This fault is shared. For poor health, too, long kept me away from such an exchange. I think you must have shuddered once you read the bitter news about me. Return to a happier frame of mind: for, with the gods as the authors of it, I have restored my health. Let pardon, therefore, come easily to us both for our lapse in correspondence. Let us forgive one another in turn for that in which we both fell short. But why do you whisper to me about the scant shipments of African grain? Far be it that the present year should imitate the misfortune of the years before! Providence will block, as I hope, the grim pathways of disaster, once the sacred ears [of the emperor] have been informed and once a chastisement has been imposed upon those officials whose concern the importation of the food supply is. Nor does the season cut off hope; for the sea still lies open to lawful sailings, and autumn has not yet plunged headlong into winter. Yet amid all this it pleases me that you are seething with anxiety and that by dutiful fear you forestall necessity. A better outcome will reward your concern, and the fruit of your praise will bring it about that hereafter it shall be sweet to you to have feared.

Purgas, quod hucusque siluisti. communis haec culpa est. nam me quoque ab tali commercio diu infirma valetudo revocavit. inhorruisse te puto, postquam de me cognitu amara legisti. redi in habitum animi laetiorem: diis quippe auctoribus sani- tatem refovi. facilis igitur litterariae cessationis utrique venia sit. ambo nobis in- 25 2 vicem remittamus, quod ambo deliquimus. sed quid mihi insusurras frugis Africanae tenues commeatus? absit, ut praesens annus imitetur fortunam superiorum! inter- cludet, ut spero, providentia tristes casuum vias sacris auribus edocendis et castiga- 3 tione iudicum, quos alimentaria spectat invectio. nec spem dies obstruit; nam mare adhuc iustis cursibus patet et nondum in hiemem praecipitat autumnus. placet tamen 30 inter haec, quod inaestuas et pio metu antevertis necessitatem. remunerabitur curam tuam melior eventus, et laudis tuae fructus efficiet, ut sit tibi postea dulce timuisse. 4 pauca poacenti VM 5 recurrere coDspectuoi PV, reuisere coDBpectum Jlf 9 iadisti P 1 m. uel anU quid om. V //////// cessttionis V uticem V 26 quod] quia V deUquemus P 1 m. frugis om, (/^) LIBERnn. 117 LV a. 398—402. AD FLORENTINVM. PVM Dictam mihi a te salatem pari honore conpenBo. vellem atriqne nostrum saepe altemandi stili usus veniret, sed quia hoc longinqua ^non sinunt cadere pro voto 5 communi^ mpatientiae ratio satisfaciat. debet certe prompta esse inter nos morae mutuae venia. non eadem tamen facilitate purgabis, quod filii nostri Minervii nuptias aliorum potius relatu quam litteris tuis conperi. an veritus es, ne a te nomisma auro cusum desiderarem? potuit iacturam sportulae tacere verecundia mea, negationem gaudii amor nescit ignoscere. et tamen, tU sum placie/o in meos animo, spondeo remissionem 10 tibi huius offensionis, cum de nepote suscepto anteveneris scripto nuntiorum celeritatem. IN COIVIMVNE FRATRIBVS MINERVIO PROTADIO ET PrF FLORENTINO. LVI (LVH) a. 402? Et vestra concordia et mea per hos dies inbecillitas facit, ut vos unius paginae is salutatione coniungam. erit hoc aut probabile pro consortio vestri amoris aut ignos- cendum pro statu mei temporis. aestimabitis autem virium nostrarum fatigationem, cnm vos in subscriptione istius epistulae precaria manus moverit. ad hoc filii nostri Nemesii pia ad larem patremque properatio magis contestationem de me soUemnis officii quam satisfactionem desideravit. res postulat, ut salute praefata florentissimae 2 20 indoli eius testimonium feram, sed vereor, ne ostentare operam meam videar. quae plus iuveni bonarum artium contulisset, nisi fratemus casus fregisset cursum duorum. hoc tamen sincerissima fide dixerim, minutam quidem de altero parentis eius felicita- tem, sed posse istum suorum gaudio pro utroque sufficere. LVn (LViu).