Letter 7021: I'd just come back from the coast at Formiae to my house on the Caelian Hill [one of Rome's seven hills] when I...

Having recently returned to my house on the Caelian [hill] from the bay of Formiae, I learned that you had now been away from home for a long time. The errand was soon entrusted to Theophilus, our mutual friend and now the companion of my journey, that he should both carry to you, in the district of Tibur, the news of my return and deliver words of greeting. This man you, inquisitive as you are about my affairs, as though some public investigation into us had by decree been assigned to you, compelled by your questioning to make public what I had done while away. For this your letter confessed, which that same excellent man Theophilus brought back. [...] It was [a mark] of your kindness to inquire into the heights and the chief points of my doings -- whether frequent riding over field or sea had benefited my health, or whether any cultivation had been added to our lands, any luster to the buildings, any number to the flock, what abundance of provisions had flowed in, whether a voluntary moderation had girded the consular table, or whether I had ever exchanged Formiae for a city nearby or one more distant --; and was it even right for you to investigate what, far from the witnesses of my studies, my care had set down on the pages, whether my eyes, for the most part bent over the standing wax tablets [I was working at], and the signs of pallor, had betrayed me? My pen suffers you as an investigator. You teach friends the paths of suspicion, and, if it may be said, you hunt our writings by scent and by tracks. Do I demand to know what work of letters you carry on in the orchards of Tibur? Rumor has brought only this: that a bath has lately been built for you, for which a single firebrand is said to suffice to provide fuel for a proper warmth; and that you have been reading deeply, in much leisure, the authors of both tongues [Latin and Greek], of this you yourself were the informant. Yet I do not ask whether you have also written something; for I observe that you, kindled by the glory of conscience in your own work, wished to learn whether I too had done the same. But, letters now set aside, I should wish you to return, unless perhaps the modest expense of your bath urges you not to abandon your habit of thrift. Farewell. 18.

Proxime de Formiano sinu regressus in larem Caelium domo iamdiu abesse te conperi. datum mox negotium est Theophilo communi amico et nunc itineris niei socio, ut et ad te in Tibur/em agrum reditus mei nuntius pergeret et salutationis verba 30 perferret. hunc tu , nt es curiosus rerum mearum , quasi aliqua tibi in nos decreto publico inquisitio esset tributa, (/uaenYando palam facere coegisti, quae foris gesseram. nam hoc confessae sunt litterae tuae, quas idem vir optimus Theophilus reportavit. deaidera»] F, qua//////////// P 16 poposcisti. uale] F, poposc//////// P tionls Pr arcessar] Seioppiua, arcesseres PF, laeunam indieavi ///////////////////■®* ^ quaeritando] ego, uersando (/7), uersan// P, scrutaiido Mercer palam facere coegisti] (/7), /////////////eglsti P gesser&m nam hoc] (i7), gesse///////// P 32 idem uir] (77), periit in P theofllus P 182 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE P 2 faerit benignitatis tuae actuum meorum fastigta et capita disquirere — utrum crebra vectatio campi aut maris yaletudinem meam iuverit, an ullus agris nostris cultus, aedibus nitor, pecori numerus accesserit, quid adfiuxerit edulium copiarum, utrum consularem mensam succinxerit modus voluntarius, an umquam Formias vicina urbe aut longinquiore mutaverim — ; etiamne explorare te fas fuit, quid procul ab arbi- 5 tris studiornm meorum cura contulerit in paginas, utrum me operatum ceris stantes 3 plerumque oculi et palloris signa detexerint? exploratorem te stilus meus patitur. doces amicos suspicionum vias, et si dici potest, odore atque vestigiis scripta nostra venaris. num ego scire postulo, quid in Tiburtibus pomariis litterarii operis exer- ceas? solum hoc fama attulit, balineum tibi nuper extructum, cui torris unus ad 10 iusti caloris pabulum satisfacere narratur; lectitasse autem te in multo otio utriusque 4 linguae auctores, ipse index fuisti. ego tamen non quaero, an aliquid et scripseris; animadverto enim te conscientiae gloria proprii operis accensum voluisse cognoscere, an ego quoque idem fecerim. sed iam omissis epistulis velim redeas, nisi forte bal- nei tui brevis sumptus hortatur, ne deseras parsimoniae consuetudinem. vale. i& xvmi.