Letter 6069: We'd been away from the city only a few days when popular demand called us back for the theatrical games.

We were absent from our native city for only a few days, and at the theatrical games the acclamations of the citizens demanded our return. We are nevertheless even now residing in the suburban estate on the Ostian Way, delaying our return for a little while, lest we seem to have been waiting for entreaties. If I had wished to do this earlier in accordance with the judgment of your reverence, I would both have avoided the dangers that have since followed, and the expectation of me would have carried more dignity. But there was one consideration behind this plan: that I might not seem to have been driven from my place, and that a modest withdrawal might be turned into a mark of timidity. Concerning your Sicilian business, the holy Comazon wrote back, with me also consenting. That Nectarius is causing trouble regarding our Sicilian affair, the letters which Euscius recently sent will be evidence. I ask, therefore, that this man, ignorant of affairs, who shut up in his bedchamber nurses his idleness, be restrained by a written order from you, lest afterward you think otherwise of Euscius, should he defend our just cause more vigorously. I have sent the very letter of our man, so that you may assess from his character the insolence of his attempt, a man whom it is certain you do not wish to be reproved by you. I had asked in my earlier letters that you would adorn the side of my Puteoli residence, by which we go to the baths, with the arrangement of a gentler slope. If the matter has been postponed, I ask again that you do it; if it has been completed, write back, so that I may rejoice. Farewell. LXVII (LXVIII).

Paucis a patria diebus afuimus, et theatralibus ludis reditum nostrum suffragia civium poposcerunt. nos tamen etiam nunc suburbanum viae Ostiensis incolimus re- cursum tantisper morantes, ne preces expectasse videamur. quo si facere ex senten- tia religionis tuae ante voluissem, et vitassem periculosa, quae post secuta sunt, et expectatio mei plus dignitatis habuisset. sed una fuit huius consilii ratio, ne quibus- lo 2 dam loco pulsus viderer et verecunda discessio verteretur in notam timiditatis. de Siculo negotio vestro sanctus Comazon me quoque adsentiente rescripsit. circa rem uostram Siculam turbidum esse Nectarium, indicio erunt litterae, quas nuper Euscius misit. peto ergo, ut homo rerum nescius, qui cubiculo clausus otium fovet, scripto a vobis coerceatur, ne post de Euscio aliter sentiatis, si validius iusta nostra defenderit. is ipsam hominis nostri epistulam misi, ut temptamenti insolentiam de eius moribus 3 aestimetis, quem certum est a vobis nolle reprehendi. petieram superioribus scriptis, ut Puteolani praetorii mei latus, quo imus ad balneas, dispositione clivi mollioris ornares. si dilata res est, peto rursus, ut facias, si impleta, rescribe, quo gau- deam. vale. 20 Lxvn (Lxvin) .