Sidonius Apollinaris: EPISTULARUM LIBRI IX

Seronati, inquam: de cuius ut primum etiam nomine loquar, sic mihi videtur quasi praescia futurorum lusisse fortuna, sicuti ex adverso maiores nostri proelia, quibus nihil est foedius, bella dixerunt; quippe etiam pari contrarietate fata, quia non parcerent, Parcas vocitavere. rediit iste Catilina saeculi nostri nuper Aturribus, ut sanguinem fortunasque miserorum, quas ibi ex parte propinaverat, hic ex asse misceret.

Seronati, inquam: concerning whom, as soon as I even speak the name, it seems to me as if fortune, foreknowing the future, had played a trick; just as conversely our ancestors called battles — of which nothing is fouler — bella; for likewise, by a like contrariety of fates, because they spared none, they called the Fates Parcae. That Catiline of our age returned recently to Aturribus, that he might here mingle the blood and fortunes of the wretched, which there he had in part bestowed, with a coin.

2. scitote in eo per dies spiritum diu dissimulati furoris aperiri: aperte invidet, abiecte fingit, serviliter superbit; indicit ut dominus, exigit ut tyrannus, addicit ut iudex, calumniatur ut barbarus; toto die a metu armatus, ab avaritia ieiunus, a cupiditate terribilis, a vanitate crudelis, non cessat simul furta vel punire vel facere; palam et ridentibus convocatis ructat inter cives pugnas, inter barbaros litteras; epistulas, ne primis quidem apicibus sufficienter initiatus, publice a iactantia dictat, ab impudentia emendat;

2. know that in him, over days, the spirit of a long‑concealed madness is laid open: openly he envies, basely he forges, slavishly he is proud; he issues commands like a master, demands like a tyrant, condemns like a judge, calumniates like a barbarian; armed all day by fear, fasting from avarice, terrible from cupidity, cruel from vanity, he never ceases at once to either punish or commit thefts; openly, with laughers convened, he belches out fights among citizens, letters among barbarians; letters, not even sufficiently initiated at the first strokes, he proclaims publicly from vainglory, from shamelessness he edits;

3. totum quod concupiscit quasi comparat nec dat pretia contemnens nec accipit instrumenta desperans; in concilio iubet in consilio tacet, in ecclesia iocatur in convivio praedicat, in cubiculo damnat in quaestione dormitat; implet cotidie silvas fugientibus villas hostibus, altaria reis carceres clericis; exultans Gothis insultansque Romanis, inludens praefectis conludensque numerariis, leges Theodosianas calcans Theodoricianasque proponens veteres culpas, nova tributa perquirit.

3. he as if purchases all that he covets, neither giving prices, scorning them, nor accepting instruments, despairing; in council he commands, in counsel he is silent, in church he jests, at banquets he preaches, in the bedroom he condemns, in the court he dozes; daily he fills the woods with the fleeing, villas with enemies, altars with the accused, prisons with clerics; exulting over Goths and insulting Romans, mocking prefects and conspiring with numeraries, trampling Theodosian laws and proposing Theodoric’s, probing up old crimes, and seeking out new taxes.

4. proinde moras tuas citus explica et quicquid illud est, quod te retentat, incide. te exspectat palpitantium civium extrema libertas. quicquid sperandum, quicquid desperandum est, fieri te medio, te praesule placet.

4. therefore swiftly explain your delays and cut away whatever it is that detains you. The utmost liberty of the palpitant citizens awaits you. Whatever is to be hoped for, whatever is to be despaired of, it is pleasing that these things be done through you in the midst, that you please as praesul.

si nullae a republica vires, nulla praesidia, si nullae, quantum rumor est, Anthemii principis opes, statuit te auctore nobilitas seu patriam dimittere seu capillos. vale.

if there are no forces of the republic, no garrisons, if none, as the rumor runs, of the resources of Prince Anthemius, the nobility has resolved, with you as author, either to abandon the fatherland or their hair. farewell.

EPISTULA II

EPISTLE 2

Sidonius Domitio suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Domitius, greetings.

1. Ruri me esse causaris, cum mihi potius queri suppetat te nunc urbe retineri. iam ver decedit aestati et per lineas sol altatus extremas in axem Scythicum radio peregrinante porrigitur. hic quid de regionis nostrae climate loquar?

1. You accuse that I am in the country, when rather it is open to me to complain that you are now detained in the city. Now spring gives way to summer, and the sun, raised along the farthest lines, is stretched by a wandering ray into the Scythian axis. Here, what shall I say about the climate of our region?

cuius spatia divinum sic tetendit opificium, ut magis vaporibus orbis occidui subiceremur. quid plura? mundus incanduit: glacies Alpina deletur et hiulcis arentium rimarum flexibus terra perscribitur; squalet glarea in vadis, limus in ripis, pulvis in campis; aqua ipsa quaecumque perpetuo labens tractu cunctante languescit, iam non solum calet unda sed coquitur.

whose expanse the divine Opificium so extends, that we are the more subjected to the vapours of the western orb. What more? the world has become incandescent: Alpine ice is destroyed, and the earth is inscribed by the flexures of parchèd fissures; gravel fouls the shallows, slime the banks, dust the fields; even the very water, whatever perpetually slips along its tract, languishes with delayed flow—now the wave not only grows warm but is boiled.

2. et nunc, dum in carbaso sudat unus, alter in bombyce, tu endromidatus exterius, intrinsecus fasciatus, insuper et concava municipis Amerini sede compressus discipulis non aestu minus quam timore pallentibus exponere oscitabundus ordiris: 'Samia mihi mater fuit.' quin tu mage, si quid tibi salubre cordi, raptim subduceris anhelantibus angustiis civitatis et contubernio nostro aventer insertus fallis clementissimo recessu inclementiam canicularem?

2. and now, while one sweats in linen, another in silk, you half-robed outside, bandaged within, moreover pressed into the hollow seat of the municipium Amerini, not less than the pupils pale with fear you, yawning, begin to declare: 'My mother was Samian.' Nay rather you, if anything healthful to your heart, quickly withdraw yourself from the panting narrownesses of the city and, having been inserted into our companionship greedily like a voracious belly, do you deceive yourself that by the most clement retreat the dog-day inclemency is escaped?

3. sane si placet, quis sit agri, in quem vocaris, situs accipe. Avitaci sumus: nomen hoc praedio, quod, quia uxorium, patrio mihi dulcius. haec mihi cum meis praesule deo, nisi quid tu fascinum verere, concordia.

3. indeed, if it pleases, receive the situation of the field to which you are summoned. We are of Avitacus: this is the name of the estate, which, because it is my wife's, is dearer to me than my paternal [estate]. These things, with my people and under our praesul god, are in concord for me, unless you yourself dread some fascinum.

mons ab occasu, quamquam terrenus, arduus tamen inferiores sibi colles tamquam gemino fomite effundit, quattuor a se circiter iugerum latitudine abductos. sed donec domicilio competens vestibuli campus aperitur, mediam vallem rectis tractibus prosequuntur latera clivorum usque in marginem villae, quae in Borean Austrumque conversis frontibus tenditur.

the mountain on the west, though earthen, yet steep, pours forth beneath it lower hills as if from a twin stock, four drawn off from it about a iugerum in breadth. but until a fitting domicile — a vestibule’s plot — opens, the flanks of the slopes follow the middle valley in straight courses up to the margin of the villa, which is stretched with its fronts turned to the North and to the South.

4. balineum ab Africo radicibus nemorosae rupis adhaerescit et si caedua per iugum silva truncetur, in ora fornacis lapsu velut spontaneo deciduis struibus impingitur. hinc aquarum surgit cella coctilium, quae consequenti unguentariae spatii parilitate conquadrat excepto solii capacis hemicyclio, ubi et vis undae ferventis per parietem foraminatum flexilis plumbi meatibus implicita singultat. intra conclave succensum solidus dies et haec abundantia lucis inclusae, ut verecundos quosque compellat aliquid se plus putare quam nudos.

4. the bath clings by the roots of a wooded cliff from the Afric, and if coppice-wood is cut across the ridge, it is hurled by a sliding, as it were spontaneous, into the mouth of the furnace, striking the deciduous shrubs. Hence rises a tiled water-chamber, which by the corresponding parity of the unguentarium space is squared off, except for a capacious bench in a hemicycle, where also the force of the seething wave gurgles, entangled through the perforated wall in winding channels of lead. Within the kindled chamber a steady day and this abundance of enclosed light so compel each modest person that he deems himself more than naked.

5. hinc frigidaria dilatatur, quae piscinas publicis operibus extructas non impudenter aemularetur. primum tecti apice in conum cacuminato, cum ab angulis quadrifariam concurrentia dorsa cristarum tegulis interiacentibus imbricarentur, ita ut ministeriorum sese non impediente famulatu tot possit recipere sellas, quot solet sigma personas, fenestras e regione conditor binas confinio camerae pendentis admovit, ut suspicientum visui fabrefactum lacunar aperiret. interior parietum facies solo levigati caementi candore contenta est.

5. thence the frigidarium is expanded, which would not shamefully emulate pools built by public works. First, with the roof’s apex in a pointed cone, when the backs converging fourfold from the corners were overlain with crest-tiles laid imbricately, so that, the attendance of servants not impeding it, it can receive as many seats as the sigma is wont to hold persons, the founder placed two windows in the region adjoining the suspended chamber, so that the crafted coffered ceiling would open to the sight of those looking up. The inner face of the walls is content with the whiteness of the floor-smoothed caementum.

6. non hic per nudam pictorum corporum pulchritudinem turpis prostat historia, quae sicut ornat artem, sic devenustat artificem. absunt ridiculi vestitu et vultibus histriones pigmentis multicoloribus Philistionis supellectilem mentientes. absunt lubrici tortuosique pugilatu et nexibus palaestritae, quorum etiam viventum luctas, si involvantur obscenius, casta confestim gymnasiarchorum virga dissolvit.

6. here the narrative is not shameful through the mere naked beauty of painters’ bodies, which, as it adorns the art, so it robs the artisan of grace. Absent are the ridiculous actors in costume and countenance, those falsely presenting Philistio’s furnishings with multicolored pigments. Absent are the slippery and tortuous in pugilism and the fetters of the palaestra; even the wrestlings of the living, if they are wrapped more obscenely, the chaste rod of the gymnasiarchs at once dissolves.

7. quid plura? nihil illis paginis impressum reperietur, quod non vidisse sit sanctius. pauci tamen versiculi lectorem adventicium remorabuntur minime improbo temperamento, quia eos nec relegisse desiderio est nec perlegisse fastidio.

7. what more? nothing printed on those pages will be found that it would have been holier not to have seen. few short verses, however, will detain the stranger-reader by a not-at-all improper restraint, for there is neither a desire to have left them unread nor a disgust at having read them through.

iam, si marmora inquiras, non illic quidem Paros Carystos Proconnesos, Phryges Numidae Spartiatae rupium variatarum posuere crustas; neque per scopulos Aethiopicos et abrupta purpurea genuino fucata conchylio sparsum mihi saxa furfurem mentiuntur. sed etsi nullo peregrinarum cautium rigore ditamur, habent tamen tuguria seu mapalia mea civicum frigus. quin potius quid habeamus quam quid non habeamus ausculta.

Now, if you inquire after marbles, not indeed Paros, Carystus, Proconnesus, the Phrygian, Numidian, Spartan crusts of varied rocks have been set there; nor do the rocks, scattered through the Ethiopian cliffs and purple precipices and dyed with genuine shell-purple, falsely boast to me. But although we are enriched by no rigor of foreign marbles, yet my huts, or mapalia, possess a civic chill. Nay rather, listen to what we have rather than to what we do not have.

8. huic basilicae appendix piscina forinsecus seu, si graecari mavis, baptisterium ab Oriente conectitur, quod viginti circiter modiorum milia capit. huc elautis e calore venientibus triplex medii parietis aditus per arcuata intervalla reseratur. nec pilae sunt mediae sed columnae, quas architecti peritiores aedificiorum purpuras nuncupavere.

8. to this basilica an outer appendix, a piscina externally or, if you prefer it Greekified, a baptisterium, is joined on the east, which holds about 20,000 modii. To this, for those coming forth from the heat having been bathed, a triple access to the middle wall is opened through arched intervals. And the middle supports are not pilae but columnae, which the more expert architects have called the purpuras of buildings.

in hanc ergo piscinam fluvium de supercilio montis elicitum canalibusque circumactis per exteriora natatoriae latera curvatum sex fistulae prominentes leonum simulatis capitibus effundunt, quae temere ingressis veras dentium crates, meros oculorum furores, certas cervicum iubas imaginabuntur.

into this pool, then, the stream drawn from the mountain’s brow and turned by channels about the outer sides of the natatory is discharged through six projecting pipes with heads fashioned to resemble lions; which, to those rashly entering, will conjure up the semblance of real racks of teeth, sheer furies of eyes, and definite manes of necks.

9. hic si dominum seu domestica seu hospitalis turba circumstet, quia prae strepitu caduci fluminis mutuae vocum vices minus intelleguntur, in aurem sibi populus confabulatur; ita sonitu pressus alieno ridiculum affectat publicus sermo secretum. hinc egressis frons triclinii matronalis offertur, cui continuatur vicinante textrino cella penaria discriminata tantum pariete castrensi.

9. here, if a throng about the master—whether domestic or of the guest-house—stands around, because by the clamor of the falling stream the alternations of mutual voices are less apprehended, the people whisper to one another's ear; thus, pressed by another's sound, public speech makes private discourse seem ridiculous. From here, on going out, the façade of the matronal triclinium is presented, to which a neighboring weaver’s pantry-cell adjoins, separated only by a camp-like wall.

10. ab ortu lacum porticus intuetur, magis rotundatis fulta + collyriis quam columnis invidiosa monolithis. a parte vestibuli longitudo tecta intrinsecus patet mediis non interpellata parietibus, quae, quia nihil ipsa prospectat, etsi non hippodromus, saltim cryptoporticus meo mihi iure vocitabitur. haec tamen aliquid spatio suo in extimo deambulacri capite defrudans efficit membrum bene frigidum, ubi publico lectisternio exstructo clientularum sive nutricum loquacissimus chorus receptui canit, cum ego meique dormitorium cubiculum petierimus.

10. From the east the porticus looks upon the lake, supported more by rounded collyria than by columns, the monoliths envious. On the vestibule side the roofed length lies open within, uninterrupted by middle walls, which, because it itself looks upon nothing, although not a hippodrome, at least by my right shall be called a cryptoporticus. These, however, by shaving off somewhat of their space at the outermost head of the deambulacrum, make a chamber well cold, where, with a public lectisternium erected, the most talkative chorus of clientela or nurses sings for the reception, when my companions and I shall have sought the dormitory’s sleeping-room.

11. a cryptoporticu in hiemale triclinium venitur, quod arcuatili camino saepe ignis animatus pulla fuligine infecit. sed quid haec tibi, quem nunc ad focum minime invito? quin potius ad te tempusque pertinentia loquar.

11. from the cryptoporticus one comes into the winter triclinium, which with its arched chimney the living fire has often stained with dark soot. But why tell you these things, you whom I now by no means invite to the hearth? Nay rather I will speak of matters pertaining to you and to time.

ex hoc triclinio fit in diaetam sive cenatiunculam transitus, cui fere totus lacus quaeque tota lacui patet. in hac stibadium et nitens abacus, in quorum aream sive suggestum a subiecta porticu sensim breviatis angustatisque gradibus ascenditur. quo loci recumbens, si quid inter edendum vacas, prospiciendi voluptatibus occuparis.

From this triclinium there is a passage into the diaeta or little dining‑room, to which almost the whole basin and every pond of the pool lie open. In this is a stibadium and a shining abacus, to the area or raised platform of which one ascends from the portico below by steps that are gradually shortened and narrowed. Reclining in this place, if you are free for anything between meals, you will be occupied with the pleasures of looking out.

12. iam si tibi ex illo conclamatissimo fontium decocta referatur, videbis in calicibus repente perfusis nivalium maculas et frusta nebularum et illam lucem lubricam poculorum quadam quasi pinguedine subiti algoris hebetatam. tum respondentes poculis potiones, quarum rigentes cyathi siticuloso cuique, ne dicam tibi granditer abstemio, metuerentur. hinc iam spectabis, ut promoveat alnum piscator in pelagus, ut stataria retia suberinis corticibus extendat aut signis per certa intervalla dispositis tractus funium librentur hamati, scilicet ut nocturnis per lacum excursibus rapacissimi salares in consanguineas agantur insidias: quid enim hinc congruentius dixerim, cum piscis pisce decipitur?

12. now if to you from that most resounding spring the drawn-off decoction of the waters is brought back, you will see in cups suddenly poured the stains of snow and fragments of mists and that slippery light of the goblets somewhat, as if by the richness of a sudden chill, dulled. then the draughts answering the cups — whose bowls grow rigid for each thirsty cupbearer, I will not call you greatly abstemious — would be feared. hence now you shall behold how a fisherman launches an alder into the sea, how he stretches seine-nets with corky barks or how lengths of rope are balanced on poles set at certain intervals, namely so that by nocturnal excursions over the lake the most rapacious salars are driven into kindred snares: for what could I say more fitting from this, when a fish is deceived by fish?

13. edulibus terminatis excipiet te diversorium, quia minime aestuosum, maxime aestivum. nam per hoc, quod in Aquilonem solum patescit, habet diem, non habet solem, interiecto consistorio perangusto, ubi somnulentiae cubiculariorum dormitandi potius quam dormiendi locus est.

13. when the edibles are finished an inn will take you in, because least sultry, most summery. For by this — that it opens only to the North — it has day, it does not have sun, an exceedingly narrow anteroom interposed, where the drowsiness of tiny bedchambers is a place for dozing rather than for sleeping.

14. hic iam quam volupe auribus insonare cicadas meridie concrepantes, ranas crepusculo incumbente blaterantes, cygnos atque anseres concubia nocte clangentes, intempesta gallos gallinacios concinentes, oscines corvos voce triplicata puniceam surgentis Aurorae facem consalutantes, diluculo autem Philomelam inter frutices sibilantem, Prognen inter asseres minurientem! cui concentui licebit adiungas fistulae septiforis armentalem Camenam, quam saepe nocturnis carminum certaminibus insomnes nostrorum montium Tityri exercent, inter greges tinnibulatos per depasta buceta reboantes. quae tamen varia vocum cantuumque modulamina profundius confovendo sopori tuo lenocinabuntur.

14. here now how pleasant for the ears to be sounded by the cicadas creaking at midday, the frogs bleating as dusk presses on, the swans and geese clamoring their nocturnal couplings, the untimely roosters crowing like hens, the songful crows with a triple voice saluting the crimson torch of the rising Aurora, and at dawn Philomela hissing among the bushes, Prognen chirping between the rafters! to this chorus you may add the pastoral Muse of the seven-holed pipe, which oft in nocturnal contests of songs the wakeful Tityri of our mountains exercise, sounding through the herds with little tinkling bells on the pastured flocks. these various voices and modulations of song, by sounding more deeply, will flatter and lull your sleep.

15. porticibus egresso, si portum litoris petas, in area virenti vulgare quamquam non procul nemus: ingentes tiliae duae conexis frondibus, fomitibus abiunctis unam umbram non una radice conficiunt. in cuius opacitate, cum me meus Ecdicius inlustrat, pilae vacamus, sed hoc eo usque, donec arborum imago contractior intra spatium ramorum recussa cohibeatur atque illic aleatorium lassis consumpto sphaeristerio faciat.

15. on leaving the porticoes, if you make for the harbour of the shore, in a green common area — and though not far, a grove: two enormous lindens with their foliage interwoven, their deadwood removed, together make one shade though not of one root. In whose opacitude, when my Ecdicius illumines me, we occupy ourselves with ball-play, but only until the trees’ contracted image, curtailed within the span of the branches and checked by its recoil, there makes a random sphaeristerium to be consumed by the weary.

16. sed quia tibi, sicut aedificium solvi, sic lacum debeo, quod restat agnosce. lacus in Eurum defluus meat, eiusque harenis fundamenta impressa domicilii ventis motantibus aestuans umectat alluvio. is quidem sane circa principia sui solo palustri voraginosus et vestigio inspectoris inadibilis: ita limi bibuli pinguedo coalescit ambientibus sese fontibus algidis, litoribus algosis.

16. but because I owe to you the lake in the same way a building is to be taken down, acknowledge what remains. the lake, flowing toward the East, runs on, and its foundations pressed into the sands of the domicile, stirred by the winds, steaming, moisten with alluvial flow. it is indeed about its beginnings voraginous in marshy soil and impassable to the foot of an inspector: so the absorbent fatness of the ooze coalesces with the surrounding cold springs and the slimy shores.

attamen pelagi mobilis campus cumbulis late secatur pervagabilibus, si flabra posuere; si turbo austrinus insorduit, immane turgescit, ita ut arborum comis, quae margini insistunt, superiectae asperginis fragor impluat.

Nevertheless the movable plain of the sea is widely cleft by wandering swells when the breezes have fallen calm; if a southern squall roars, it swells immensely, so that the crash of spray hurled aloft drenches the leafy crowns of the trees that stand on the margin.

17. ipse autem secundum mensuras quas ferunt nauticas in decem et septem stadia procedit, fluvio intratus, qui salebratim saxorum obicibus affractus spumoso canescit impulsu et nec longum scopulis praecipitibus exemptus lacu conditur; quem fors fuat an incurrat an faciat, praeterit certe, coactus per cola subterranea deliquari, non ut fluctibus, sed ut piscibus pauperaretur; qui repulsi in gurgitem pigriorem carnes rubras albis abdominibus extendunt: ita illis nec redire valentibus nec exire permissis quendam vivum et circumlaticium carcerem corpulentia facit.

17. he himself, however, advancing according to the measures which sailors report, seventeen stadia, having entered a river which, broken against the obstacles of rocks, foams and grows white with a frothy impulse and, not far from the cliffs, is enclosed in a lake; whether chance should drive it in or make it, it certainly passes by, forced to be poured away through subterranean channels, not to be spent by waves, but to be impoverished of fishes; which, repelled into the more sluggish whirlpool, extend red flesh with white bellies: thus a certain living, circuitous prison of corpulence is made for those not able to return nor permitted to go forth.

18. lacus ipse, qua dexter, incisus flexuosus nemorosusque, qua laevus, patens herbosus aequalis. aequor ab Africo viride per litus, quia in undam fronde porrecta ut glareas aqua, sic aquas umbra perfundit. huiusmodi colorem ab oriente par silvarum corona continuat.

18. the lake itself, on the right cut, sinuous and woody, on the left open, grassy, and level. the sea, green from the Afric wind, along the shore; for as foliage, stretched over the wave, sprinkles the gravel, so the shade bathes the waters. a like crown of woods continues this colour from the east.

per Arctoum latus ut pelago natura, sic species. a Zephyro plebeius et tumultuarius frutex frequenterque lemborum superlabentum ponderibus inflexus; hunc circa lubrici scirporum cirri plicantur simulque pingues ulvarum paginae natant salicumque glaucarum fota semper dulcibus aquis amaritudo.

Along the Arctic side, as nature to the sea, so the aspect. From the Zephyr a plebeian and tumultuous shrub, oft bent by the weights of boats gliding over it; around this the slippery tendrils of reeds are folded, and together the fat leaves of the marshes float, and the pale shoots of the grey-green willows are ever a bitterness amid sweet waters.

19. in medio profundi brevis insula, ubi supra molares naturaliter aggeratos per impactorum puncta remorum navalibus trita gyris meta protuberat, ad quam se iucunda ludentum naufragia collidunt. nam moris istic fuit senioribus nostris agonem Drepanitanum Troianae superstitionis imitari. iam vero ager ipse, quamquam hoc supra debitum, diffusus in silvis pictus in pratis, pecorosus in pascuis in pastoribus peculiosus.

19. in the middle of the deep a short island, where above naturally heaped millstones a meta protrudes, worn by the points of oar-impacts and by the naval gyres ground away, against which the pleasant shipwrecks of the players dash themselves. for the custom there with our elders was to imitate the Drepanitan contest of Trojan superstition. now indeed the very field itself, although in this respect beyond its due, is spread out, wooded, pictured in the meadows, rich in flocks on the pastures, and peculiar in its shepherds.

20. sed non amplius moror, ne, si longior stilo terminus, relegentem te autumnus inveniat. proinde mihi tribue veniendi celeritatem (nam redeundi moram tibi ipse praestabis), daturus hinc veniam, quod brevitatem sibi debitam paulo scrupulosior epistula excessit, dum totum ruris situm sollicita rimatur; quae tamen summovendi fastidii studio nec cuncta perstrinxit. quapropter bonus arbiter et artifex lector non paginam, quae spatia describit, sed villam, quae spatiosa describitur, grandem pronuntiabunt.

20. but I delay no longer, lest, if I mark out the end with a longer pen, autumn find you rereading. Therefore grant me the swiftness of coming (for you yourself will allow the delay of my returning); from here I will render an excuse, that the brevity owed to it the rather exceeded a little by an overly scrupulous letter, while it anxiously probes the whole situation of the farm; which, however, in a zeal to remove fastidiousness, did not touch all things through. Wherefore the good judge and artful reader will pronounce not the page, which describes the spaces, but the villa, which is portrayed as spacious, great.

vale.

farewell.

EPISTULA III

LETTER 3

Sidonius Felici suo salutem.

Sidonius sends his greeting to his own Felix.

1. Gaudeo te, domine maior, amplissimae dignitatis infulas consecutum. sed id mihi ob hoc solum destinato tabellario nuntiatum non minus gaudeo. nam licet in praesentiarum sis potissimus magistratus et in Lares Philagrianos patricius apex tantis post saeculis tua tantum felicitate remeaverit, invenis tamen, vir amicitiarum servantissime, qualiter honorum tuorum crescat communione fastigium, raroque genere exempli altitudinem tuam humilitate sublimas.

1. I rejoice that you, lord and elder, have attained the fillets of most ample dignity. But I rejoice no less that this was reported to me by the courier so appointed. For although in the present you are the foremost magistrate, and the patrician apex has, after so many centuries, returned to the Lares Philagrian by your very felicity, yet you show, most faithful man of friendships, how the summit of your honors increases by communal sharing, and by a rare kind of example you exalt your height with humility.

2. sic quondam Quintum Fabium magistrum equitum dictatorio rigori et Papirianae superbiae favor publicus praetulit; sic et Gnaeum Pompeium super aemulos extulit numquam fastidita popularitas; sic invidiam Tiberianam pressit universitatis amore Germanicus. quocirca nolo sibi de successibus tuis principalia beneficia plurimum blandiantur, quae nihil tibi amplius conferre potuerunt, quam ut si id noluissimus, transiremus inviti. illud peculiare tuum est, illud gratiae singularis, quod tam qui te aemulentur non habes quam non invenis qui sequantur.

2. thus once Quintus Fabius, master of the horse, preferred public favor to dictatorial rigor and to Papirian pride; thus also he exalted Gnaeus Pompey above his rivals, popularity never disdainful; thus Germanicus quelled Tiberian envy by a love of unanimity. Wherefore I do not wish that the chief benefices boast greatly to themselves of your successes, which could have conferred nothing upon you beyond this: that, had you not desired it, we would have passed by unwillingly. That is your peculiar quality, that singular grace, that you have neither those who emulate you nor do you find any who follow.

vale.

farewell.

EPISTULA IV

LETTER 4

Sidonius Sagittario suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Sagittarius, greetings.

1. Vir clarissimus Proiectus, domi nobilis et patre patruoque spectabilibus, avo etiam praestantissimo sacerdote conspicuus, amicitiarum tuarum, nisi respuis, avidissime sinibus infertur, et cum illi familiae splendor probitas morum, patrimonii facultas iuventutis alacritas in omne decus pari lance conquadrent, ita demum sibi tamen videbitur ad arcem fastigatissimae felicitatis evectus, si gratiae tuae sodalitate potiatur.

1. the most illustrious man Proiectus, noble of household and notable by father and paternal uncle, conspicuous also by his grandfather, a most outstanding priest, is being most eagerly borne into the bosom of your friendships, unless you reject him; and when the splendor of that family, the probity of his morals, the means of his patrimony, the alacrity of his youth together balance on one equal scale for every honor, only then will he seem to himself, raised to the citadel of highest felicity, if he may enjoy the fellowship of your grace.

2. Optantii clarissimi viri nuper vita functi filiam, quod deo prosperante succedat, licet a matre pupillae in coniugium petierit obtinueritque, parum tamen votorum suorum promotum censet effectum, nisi assensum tuum super his omnibus seu sedulitate sua seu precatu nostrae intercessionis adipiscatur. namque ipse, quantum ad institutionem spectat puellae, in locum mortui patris curarum participatione succedis, conferendo virgini parentis affectum, patroni auctoritatem, tutoris officium.

2. The daughter of Optantii, a most illustrious man recently deceased, that she may, God prospering it, succeed—although she has been sought in marriage by the ward’s mother and has obtained the match—yet he regards the accomplishment of his wishes as little advanced, unless your assent on all these matters be attained either by your sedulity or by the prayer of our intercession. For he himself, insofar as the girl’s upbringing is concerned, succeeds to the place of her dead father in the sharing of cares, conferring upon the virgin a parent’s affection, a patron’s authority, and a guardian’s office.

3. quocirca, quia dignus es, ut domus tuae celeberrimam disciplinam etiam procul positorum petat ambitus, sicut decet bonarum partium viros, benignitate responsi proci supplicis verecundiam munerare et qui ita expetitus deberes illi expetere pollicendam, securus permitte promissam; quia sic te condicioni huic meritorum ratio praefecit, ut nec superstiti Optantio in liberos suos decuerit plus licere. vale.

3. Wherefore, since you are worthy that the most celebrated renown of your house should even from afar draw the suit of those placed, as becomes men of good parts, with kindness grant an answer to the modesty of the beseeching suitor, and, he who thus has sought promising to seek those very duties, securely permit what was promised; for thus the reckoning of merits has placed you over this condition, that it would not be fitting for Optantius, as survivor, to have greater license concerning his children. Farewell.

EPISTULA V

EPISTLE 5

Sidonius Petronio suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Petronius, greeting.

1. Iohannes familiaris meus inextricabilem labyrinthum negotii multiplicis incurrit et donec suarum merita chartarum vel vestra scientia vel si qua est vestrae (si tamen est ulla) similis inspexerit, quid respuat, quid optet ignorat. ita se quodammodo bipertitae litis forma confundit, ut propositio sua quem actionis ordinem propugnatura, quem sit impugnatura non noverit.

1. John, my familiar, has fallen into an inextricable labyrinth of manifold business, and until he inspects the merits of his papers by either your knowledge or anything similar to yours (if indeed there be any), he does not know what to reject, what to seek. Thus he is in a manner confounded by a bipartite form of the suit, so that he does not know which order of action his proposal will defend and which it will assail.

2. pro quo precem sedulam fundo, ut perspectis chartulis suis, si quid iure competit, instruatis, quae qualiterve sint obicienda, quae refellenda monstrantes. non enim verebimur, quod causae istius cursus, si de vestri manaverit fonte consilii, ulla contrastantum derivatione tenuetur. vale.

2. for which matter I pour forth a diligent prayer, that, having examined his papers, you instruct what, if anything by right pertains, is to be claimed, showing which things and in what manner are to be objected, which to be refuted. for we shall not fear that the course of that cause, if it has flowed from the fountain of your counsel, is held back by any derivation of the opposers. farewell.

EPISTULA VI

EPISTLE 6

Sidonius Pegasio suo salutem.

Sidonius sends greeting to his Pegasius.

1. Proverbialiter celebre est saepe moram esse meliorem, sicuti et nunc experti sumus. Menstruanus amicus tuus longo istic tempore inspectus meruit inter personas nobis quoque caras devinctasque censeri, opportunus elegans, verecundus sobrius, parcus religiosus et his morum dotibus praeditus, ut, quotiens in boni cuiusque adscitur amicitias, non amplius consequatur beneficii ipse quam tribuat.

1. It is proverbially held that delay is often the better course, as we have now experienced. Your monthly friend, long observed there, deserved to be reckoned among persons dear and bound to us also: fit, elegant, modest, sober, frugal, religious, and endowed with these moral gifts, so that whenever he is admitted to the friendship of any good man he seeks no greater benefit for himself than he bestows.

2. haec tibi non ut ignoranti, sed ut iudicio meo satisfacerem, scripsi. quam ob rem triplex causa laetandi, tibi prima, cui amicos sic aut instituere aut eligere contingit; Arvernis secunda, quibus hoc in eo placuisse confirmo, quod te probasse non ambigo; illi tertia, de quo boni quique bona quaeque iudicaverunt. vale.

2. I wrote this to you not as to one ignorant, but to satisfy my own judgment. Wherefore there is a threefold cause for rejoicing: the first for you, to whom it falls to establish or to choose friends thus; the second for the Arverni, for whom I affirm that this pleased him, which I do not doubt you approved; the third for those men, concerning whom every good man judged each good thing. Vale.

EPISTULA VII

LETTER 7

Sidonius Explicio suo salutem.

Sidonius sends his greeting to his Explicio.

1. Quia iustitia vestra iure fit universitati per conplura recti experimenta venerabilis, idcirco singulas quasque personas id ipsum efflagitantes in examen vestrum libens et avidus emitto, quam primum ambiens me discussionis, illos simultatis onere laxari; quod demum ita sequetur, si non ex solido querimonias partium verecundus censor excludas: quamquam et hoc ipsum, quod copiam tui iurgantibus difficile concedis, indicium sit bene iudicaturi. quis enim se non ambiat arbitrum legi aut pretio aliquid indulturus aut gratiae?

1. Because your justice by right becomes venerable to the universitas through many trials of what is right, therefore I willingly and eagerly send forth each and every person demanding that very thing into your examination, desiring as soon as possible, by my scrutiny, that they be loosened from the burden of enmity; which at last will follow thus, if you do not, O modest censor, exclude the complaints of the parties as unsubstantial: although even this very thing, that you grant an opportunity to those who contend with difficulty, is a token that you will judge well. For who would not desire an arbitrator to be swayed by law, or by some price, or by favor?

2. igitur ignosce ad tam sanctae conscientiae praerogativam raptim perniciterque properantibus, quandoquidem sententiam tuam nec victus ut stolidus accusat nec victor ut argutus inridet, veritatisque respectu dependunt tibi addicti reverentiam, gratiam liberati. proinde inpense obsecro, ut inter Alethium et Paulum quae veniunt in disceptationem, mox ut utrimque fuerint opposita, discingas. namque, ni fallor, supra decemvirales pontificalesque sententias, aegritudini huius prope interminabilis iurgii sola morum tuorum temperantia solita iudicandi salubritate medicabitur.

2. therefore forgive those who, by reason of the praerogative of so sacred a conscience, are rushing forward rashly and ruinously; since your sentence is neither accused by the vanquished as a fool nor derided by the victor as artful, and, in regard to truth, they who are devoted to you depend on your reverence and are freed by gratitude. Wherefore I earnestly beseech you that concerning what comes into dispute between Alethius and Paulus, as soon as oppositions have been set forth on both sides, you unbind them. For, unless I err, above decemviral and pontifical sentences the almost interminable bitterness of this quarrel will be healed only by the salutary moderation of your accustomed judging.

vale.

farewell.

EPISTULA VIII

EPISTLE 8

Sidonius Desiderato suo salutem.

Sidonius. To his Desideratus, greetings.

1. Maestissimus haec tibi nuntio. decessit nudius tertius non absque iustitio matrona Filimatia, morigera coniunx domina clemens, utilis mater pia filia, cui debuerit domi forisque persona minor obsequium, maior officium, aequalis affectum. haec cum esset unica iam diu matris amissae , facile diversis blandimentorum generibus effecerat, ne patri adhuc iuveni soboles sexus alterius desideraretur.

1. I sorrowfully announce this to you. Filimatia, a matron, died three days ago, not without due solemnity — a wife observant of custom, a gentle lady, a useful mother, a pious daughter, to whom, at home and abroad, as a person was due lesser obedience, greater duty, and equal affection. She, since for a long time she had been the only of a mother long lost, had by various kinds of blandishment easily brought it about that her father, still young, should not lack offspring of the other sex.

nunc autem per subita suprema virium caelibatu, patrem orbitate confodit. his additur, quod quinque liberorum parens immaturo exitu reddidit infortunatam fecunditatem. qui parvuli si matre sospite perdidissent iam diu debilem patrem, minus pupilli existimarentur.

now, however, by a sudden final loss of strength in death, and by her celibacy, she pierces the father with orphanhood. To these is added that the parent of five children made her fecundity unfortunate by an untimely death. Those little ones, if with their mother safe they had long since lost a father already feeble, would be regarded less as wards.

2. hanc tamen, si qui haud incassum honor cadaveribus impenditur, non vispillonum sandapilariorumque ministeria ominosa tumulavere; sed cum libitinam ipsam flentes omnes, externi quoque, prensitarent remorarentur exoscularentur, sacerdotum propinquorumque manibus excepta perpetuis sedibus dormienti similior inlata est. post quae precatu parentis orbati neniam funebrem non per elegos sed per hendecasyllabos marmori incisam planctu prope calente dictavi. quam si non satis improbas, ceteris epigrammatum meorum voluminibus applicandam mercennarius bybliopola suscipiet; si quid secus, sufficit saxo carmen saxeum contineri.

2. yet this one, if anyone does not lavish honor on corpses in vain, was not buried by the ominous ministrations of undertakers and sandapilers; but when all, even strangers, holding the burial-shroud itself and weeping, delayed, kissed, and detained her, she was carried in, received by the hands of priests and kinsmen, and placed upon perpetual couches like one sleeping. after these things, at the prayer of her bereaved parent I composed a funeral lament not in elegies but in hendecasyllables, carved upon marble while it was still warm. which, if you do not sufficiently disapprove, a bookseller mercenary will undertake to affix to the remaining volumes of my epigrams; if otherwise, a stone suffices to contain a song of stone.

3. hoc enim epitaphion est:

3. for this indeed is the epitaph:

Occasu celeri feroque raptam
gnatis quinque patrique coniugique
hoc flentis patriae manus locarunt
matronam Filimatiam sepulchro.
o splendor generis, decus mariti,
prudens, casta, decens, severa, dulcis,
atque ipsis senioribus sequenda,
discordantia quae solent putari
morum commoditate copulasti:
nam vitae comites bonae fuerunt
libertas gravis et pudor facetus.
hinc est quod decimam tuae saluti
vix actam trieteridem dolemus
atque in temporibus vigentis aevi
iniuste tibi iusta persoluta.

Snatched by a swift and fierce setting
to her five sons and to father and husband
the weeping hands of the fatherland placed
the matron Filimatia in this tomb.
O splendor of her stock, the honor of her husband,
wise, chaste, comely, austere, sweet,
and to be followed even by the elders themselves,—
the kinds of discord that are thought to be so
you joined by the commodiousness of your manners:
for companions of a good life were
serious freedom and playful modesty.
Hence it is that we grieve the tenth
triennium of your safety, scarcely completed,
and in the seasons of a vigorous age
just things to you were unjustly paid.

Placeat tibi carmen necne: tu propera civitatemque festinus invise. debes enim consolationis officium duorum civium domibus afflictis. quod ita solvas deum quaeso, ne umquam tibi redhibeatur.

Whether the poem pleases you or not: you, hurry and visit the city. For you owe the office of consolation to two citizens whose houses have been afflicted. I beseech God that you may thus fulfil this, so that it may never be demanded back of you.

vale.

farewell.

EPISTULA IX

LETTER 9

Sidonius Donidio suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Donidius, greetings.

1. Quaeris, cur ipse iam pridem Nemausum profectus vestra serum ob adventum desideria producam. reddo causas reditus tardioris nec moras meas prodere moror, quia quae mihi dulcia sunt tibi quoque. inter agros amoenissimos humanissimos dominos, Ferreolum et Apollinarem, tempus voluptuosissimum exegi.

1. You ask why I myself, having long ago set out for Nemausum, prolong your desires by a late arrival. I render the reasons for the later return, nor do I delay to disclose my delays, for what is sweet to me is sweet to you also. Among the most pleasant fields and the most hospitable lords, Ferreolus and Apollinaris, I passed a most voluptuous time.

praediorum his iura contermina, domicilia vicina, quibus interiecta gestatio peditem lassat neque sufficit equitaturo. colles aedibus superiores exercentur vinitori et olivitori: Aracynthum et Nysam, celebrata poetarum carminibus iuga, censeas. uni domui in plana patentiaque, alteri in nemora prospectus, sed nihilominus dissimilis situs similiter oblectat.

To these estates belong adjoining rights, neighboring dwellings, between which the carrying-about wearies the pedestrian and is not adequate for the horseman. Hills higher than the houses are cultivated by the vine-grower and the olive-grower: you would reckon the ridges Aracynthus and Nysa, famed in the poets’ songs. To one house the prospect opens on the plains and stretches, to the other on the groves, yet a differing situation delights likewise.

2. quamquam de praediorum quid nunc amplius positione, cum restet hospitalitatis ordo reserandus? iam primum sagacissimis in hoc exploratoribus destinatis, qui reditus nostri iter aucuparentur, domus utraque non solum tramites aggerum publicorum verum etiam calles compendiis tortuosos atque pastoria diverticula insedit, ne quo casu dispositis officiorum insidiis elaberemur. quas incidimus, fateor, sed minime inviti iusque iurandum confestim praebere compulsi, ne priusquam septem dies evolverentur, quicquam de itineris nostri continuatione meditaremur.

2. although what more now concerning the position of the estates, when the order of hospitality remained to be reopened? first, with the most sagacious scouts assigned to this, who would secure the routes of our return, each house lay not only upon the tracks of public embankments but also upon paths twisted by shortcuts and pastoral byways, lest by any chance we slip past the ambushes of duties prepared. which we encountered, I confess, but very unwillingly were driven to give an oath immediately, that before 7 days should be completed we should ponder nothing of continuing our journey.

3. igitur mane cotidiano partibus super hospite prima et grata contentio, quaenam potissimum anterius edulibus nostris culina fumaret; nec sane poterat ex aequo divisioni lancem ponere vicissitudo, licet uni domui mecum, alteri cum meis vinculum foret propinquitatis, quia Ferreolo praefectorio viro praeter necessitudinem sibi debitam dabat aetas et dignitas primi invitatoris praerogativam.

3. therefore, in the morning as usual there arose between the parties, over the superior guest, a first and pleasant contention: which of our kitchens in particular should smoke ahead for our first courses; nor indeed could vicissitude put the lance equally on the division, although one house had with me the bond of proximity, the other with my people, for to Ferreolus, a man of prefectural rank, age and the dignity of the chief inviter gave, besides the duty owed to him, the prerogative of being first.

4. ilicet a deliciis in delicias rapiebamur. vix quodcumque vestibulum intratum, et ecce hac sphaeristarum contrastantium paria inter rotatiles catastropharum gyros duplicabantur, hac inter aleatoriarum vocum competitiones frequens crepitantium fritillorum tesserarumque strepitus audiebatur; hac libri affatim in promptu (videre te crederes aut grammaticales pluteos aut Athenaei cuneos aut armaria extructa bybliopolarum); sic tamen, quod qui inter matronarum cathedras codices erant, stilus his religiosus inveniebatur, qui vero per subsellia patrumfamilias, hi coturno Latiaris eloquii nobilitabantur; licet quaepiam volumina quorumpiam auctorum servarent in causis disparibus dicendi parilitatem: nam similis scientiae viri, hinc Augustinus hinc Varro, hinc Horatius hinc Prudentius lectitabantur.

4. straightaway we were carried from one delight to another. Scarcely had we entered any vestibule, and behold on this side pairs of sphaerists opposing one another doubled their whirling circles of revolving catastrophes, on that side amid the contests of gambling voices the frequent rattle of creaking fritilli and dice was heard; here books in abundance were ready at hand (you would have thought to see either grammatical book-shelves or Athenaean tablets or the piled armaria of bybliopolarum booksellers); yet so that those codices which were among the matrons’ chairs were found by a scrupulous stylus, those which were under the benches of the patria potestas were ennobled by the Latiaris cothurnus of eloquence; although some volumes of certain authors preserved an equality for diverse causes of speaking: for men of similar learning were read — here Augustine, there Varro, here Horace, there Prudentius.

5. quos inter Adamantius Origenes Turranio Rufino interpretatus sedulo fidei nostrae lectoribus inspiciebatur; pariter et, prout singulis cordi, diversa censentes sermocinabamur, cur a quibusdam protomystarum tamquam scaevus cavendusque tractator improbaretur, quamquam sic esset ad verbum sententiamque translatus, ut nec Apuleius Phaedonem sic Platonis neque Tullius Ctesiphontem sic Demosthenis in usum regulamque Romani sermonis exscripserint.

5. among whom Adamantius, Origen, Turranius Rufinus were diligently interpreted and inspected for the readers of our faith; likewise, and as was pleasing to each, we discoursed with differing judgments, asking why by some the proto‑mystics’ tract was reproached as if perverse and to‑be‑avoided, although it had been rendered word for word and sense so that neither Apuleius had thus transcribed Plato’s Phaedo nor Tullius thus transcribed Ctesiphon of Demosthenes into the use and rule of the Roman speech.

6. studiis hisce dum nostrum singuli quique, prout libuerat, occupabantur, ecce et ab archimagiro adventans, qui tempus instare curandi corpora moneret, quem quidem nuntium per spatia clepsydrae horarum incrementa servantem probabat competenter ingressum quinta digrediens. prandebamus breviter copiose, senatorium ad morem, quo insitum institutumque multas epulas paucis paropsidibus apponi, quamvis convivium per edulia nunc assa, nunc iurulenta varietur. inter bibendum narratiunculae, quarum cognitu hilararemur institueremur, quia eas bifariam orditas laetitia peritiaque comitabantur.

6. while each of us occupied himself with these studies as he pleased, behold also the archimagirus arriving, who warned that the time for curing bodies was pressing; whom indeed, as a messenger keeping the increments of the hours on the clepsydra, he judged to have entered suitably, departing at the fifth hour. we dined briefly yet copiously, in senatorial fashion, in which custom and institution many banquets are set upon a few side-tables, although the convivium varied its victuals now roasted, now piquant. meanwhile, during drinking, little narratives were begun, by the acquaintance of which we were made cheerful, for these, fashioned twofold, were accompanied by mirth and skill.

quid multa? sancte pulchre abundanter accipiebamur.

what more? we were received sacredly, beautifully, abundantly.

7. inde surgentes, si Vorocingi eramus (hoc uni praedio nomen) ad sarcinas et deversorium pedem referebamus; si Prusiani (sic fundus alter nuncupabatur), Tonantium cum fratribus, lectissimos aequaevorum nobilium principes, stratis suis eiciebamus, quia nec facile crebro cubilium nostrorum instrumenta circumferebantur. excusso torpore meridiano paulisper equitabamus, quo facilius pectora marcida cibis cenatoriae fami exacueremus.

7. then rising, if we were the Vorocingi (this the name of one estate) we took up our packs and returned to the lodging; if the Prusiani (thus the other farm was called), we turned out Tonantius with his brothers, the choicest princes of our noble peers, with their bed-cloths, because the implements of our couches were not readily carried about frequently. Having shaken off the meridian torpor we rode for a little while, by which we more easily whetted our withered breasts with the foods of supper-time hunger.

8. balneas habebat in opere uterque hospes, in usu neuter; sed cum vel pauxillulum bibere desisset assecularum meorum famulorumque turba conpotrix, quorum cerebris hospitales craterae nimium immersae dominabantur, vicina fonti aut fluvio raptim scrobis fodiebatur, in quam forte cum lapidum cumulus ambustus demitteretur, antro in hemisphaerii formam corylis flexilibus intexto fossa inardescens operiebatur, sic tamen, ut superiectis Cilicum velis patentia intervalla virgarum lumine excluso tenebrarentur, vaporem repulsura salientem, qui undae ferventis aspergine flammatis silicibus excuditur.

8. each guest had baths in the building, yet none in use; but when even to drink a little the copious throng of my attendants and servants, the convivial compotors whose hospitable kraters with rims too deeply immersed prevailed, had ceased, a ditch was swiftly dug by a neighboring spring or river, into which, when by chance a heap of burned stones was let down, the cavity, lined and kindled with hazel rods woven into the form of a hemisphere, was covered over — so, however, that with Cilician veils thrown above the open interstices of the rods, light being excluded, they were darkened to repel the leaping vapor, which is beaten out of the spray of the seething wave by flaming flints.

9. hic nobis trahebantur horae non absque sermonibus salsis iocularibusque; quos inter halitu nebulae stridentis oppletis involutisque saluberrimus sudor eliciebatur; quo, prout libuisset, effuso coctilibus aquis ingerebamur harumque fotu cruditatem nostram tergente resoluti aut fontano deinceps frigore putealique aut fluviali copia solidabamur: siquidem domibus medius it Vardo fluvius, nisi cum deflua nive pastus inpalluit, flavis ruber glareis et per alveum perspicuus quietus calculosusque neque ob hoc minus piscium ferax delicatorum.

9. here the hours were drawn out for us not without salty and jocular conversations; during which, with the breath of the crackling steam filled and wrapped around, a most healthful sweat was drawn forth; by which, as it pleased, we were plunged, the baked waters poured away, and by their heat loosening our rawness and drying it off, we were then strengthened by the cold of a spring or by the abundance of a well or river: for indeed the Vardo river runs through the middle of the dwellings, unless when swollen it paled with fallen snow, clear and tawny over gravel, flowing placid through its channel and full of pebbles, yet no less fertile in delicate fish.

10. dicerem et cenas et quidem unctissimas, nisi terminum nostrae loquacitati, quem verecundia non adhibet, charta posuisset; quarum quoque replicatio fieret amoena narratu, nisi epistulae tergum madidis sordidare calamis erubesceremus. sed quia et ipsi in procinctu sumus teque sub ope Christi actutum nobis invisere placet, expeditius tibi cenae amicorum in mea cena tuaque commemorabuntur, modo nos quam primum hebdomadis exactae spatia completa votivae restituant esuritioni, quia disruptum ganea stomachum nulla sarcire res melius quam parsimonia solet. vale.

10. I would even describe the dinners, and indeed the most richly oiled ones, were it not that the paper has set a limit to our loquacity which modesty does not employ; and their repetition would be pleasant to relate, were we not to blush to soil the back of the letter with our wet pens. But since we ourselves are also in the field and it pleases you to visit us straightaway under the help of Christ, more conveniently the dinners of friends will be recalled at my table and at yours, provided only that as soon as may be the completed intervals of the past week restore us to a vowed appetite, for nothing mends a disrupted gullet (stomach) better than frugality. Farewell.

EPISTULA X

EPISTLE 10

Sidonius Hesperio suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Hesperius, greetings.

1. Amo in te quod litteras amas et usquequaque praeconiis cumulatissimis excolere contendo tantae diligentiae generositatem, per quam nobis non solum initia tua verum etiam studia nostra commendas. nam cum videmus in huiusmodi disciplinam iuniorum ingenia succrescere, propter quam nos quoque subduximus ferulae manum, copiosissimum fructum nostri laboris adipiscimur. illud appone, quod tantum increbruit multitudo desidiosorum, ut, nisi vel paucissimi quique meram linguae Latiaris proprietatem de trivialium barbarismorum robigine vindicaveritis, eam brevi abolitam defleamus interemptamque; sic omnes nobilium sermonum purpurae per incuriam vulgi decolorabuntur.

1. I love in you that you love letters and strive to cultivate them evermore with the most lavish praises, the generosity of so great a diligence, through which you commit to us not only your beginnings but even our pursuits. For when we see in such a discipline the talents of the young grow, for the sake of which we too have withdrawn the hand of the rod, we reap the most copious fruit of our labour. Add this, that so great a multitude of the idle has grown, that unless even the very few among you vindicate the sheer propriety of the Latin tongue from the rust of common barbarisms, we shall soon bewail it as abolished and slain; thus the purple of noble speech will be faded by the neglect of the vulgar.

2. sed istinc alias: interea tu quod petis accipe. petis autem, ut si qui versiculi mihi fluxerint, postquam ab alterutro discessimus, hos tibi pro quadam morarum mercede pernumerem. dicto pareo; nam praeditus es quamquam iuvenis hac animi maturitate, ut tibi etiam natu priores gerere morem concupiscamus.

2. but thence elsewhere: meanwhile accept what you ask. You ask, however, that if any little verses should flow to me, after we part from one another, I pay them over to you as a certain wage for delays. I obey the said; for you are endowed, although young, with such maturity of mind that we even long to adopt the custom of those older than you in birth.

ecclesia nuper exstructa Lugduni est, quae studio papae Patientis summum coepti operis accessit, viri sancti strenui, severi misericordis quique per uberem munificentiam in pauperes humanitatemque non minora bonae conscientiae culmina levet.

A church recently built at Lugdunum, which by the zeal of Pope Patientis reached the summit of the enterprise, a holy man, vigorous, austere and merciful, who by abundant munificence lifts up for the poor and for humanity no lesser summits of good conscience.

3. huius igitur aedis extimis rogatu praefati antistitis tumultuarium carmen inscripsi trochaeis triplicibus adhuc mihi iamque tibi perfamiliaribus. namque ab hexametris eminentium poetarum Constantii et Secundini vicinantia altari basilicae latera clarescunt, quos in hanc paginam admitti nostra quam maxume verecundia vetat, quam suas otiositates trepidanter edentem meliorum carminum comparatio premit.

3. therefore at the request of the aforesaid bishop I inscribed upon the outer parts of this edifice a tumultuary song in trochaic triplets, still and now become familiar to me and to you. for the sides of the basilica neighboring the altar glow with the hexameters of the eminent poets Constantius and Secundinus, whom modesty most of all forbids to be admitted into this page of ours — a modesty that, tremblingly publishing its own leisures, is weighed down by comparison with better poems.

4. nam sicuti novam nuptam nihil minus quam pulchrior pronuba decet, sicuti, si vestiatur albo, fuscus quisque fit nigrior, sic nostra, quantula est cumque, tubis circumfusa potioribus stipula vilescit, quam mediam loco, infimam merito despicabiliorem pronuntiari non imperitia modo sed et arrogantia facit. quapropter illorum iustius epigrammata micant quam istaec, quae imaginarie tantum et quodammodo umbratiliter effingimus. sed quorsum ista?

4. for just as a newly wedded bride is adorned by no one less than a more beautiful matron of honor (pronuba), just as, if clothed in white, any dark man grows blacker, so ours, however small it is, when encircled by superior trumpets (tubis) and by better things, is made cheap by straw (stipula), so that instead of being called middling in place it is declared, with reason, the lowest and more despicable — and this not only makes for ignorance but also for arrogance. Wherefore their epigrams shine more justly than these, which we portray only imaginatively and, in a manner, shadow-like. But to what end these things?

quin potius paupertinus flagitatae cantilenae culmus immurmuret.

nay rather let the pauperish stalk of a beggarly cantilena murmur.

Quisquis pontificis patrisque nostri
conlaudas Patientis hic laborem,
voti compote supplicatione
concessum experiare quod rogabis.
aedes celsa nitet nec in sinistrum
aut dextrum trahitur, sed arce frontis
ortum prospicit aequinoctialem.
intus lux micat atque bratteatum
sol sic sollicitatur ad lacunar,
fulvo ut concolor erret in metallo.

Whoever here praises the toil of the pontiff and our father Patientis
may, by vow fulfilled through supplication, experience what you will ask granted.
The lofty temple gleams and is drawn neither to the left
nor to the right, but from the citadel of its brow
it beholds the eastward rising. Within light flashes and the roof is gilt;
thus the sun is incited to the coffered ceiling,
that it might wander of like color upon the tawny metal.

distinctum vario nitore marmor
percurrit cameram solum fenestras,
ac sub versicoloribus figuris
vernans herbida crusta sapphiratos
flectit per prasinum vitrum lapillos.
huic est porticus applicata triplex
fulmentis Aquitanicis superba,
ad cuius specimen remotiora
claudunt atria porticus secundae,
et campum medium procul locatas
vestis saxea silva per columnas.
hinc agger sonat, hinc Arar resultat.

marble, marked with varied brightness, runs across the chamber, the floor, the windows,
and beneath the variegated figures a fresh grassy crust, verdant, bends sapphire-like
pebbles through the green glass. to this a triple portico is attached, proud
with Aquitanian ornamentation, at the example of which the more remote
porticoes shut off the atria of the second, and a stony, wooded robe, set far off,
covers the middle field through the columns. hence the mound resounds, hence the Arar echoes.

hinc sese pedes atque eques reflectit
stridentum et moderator essedorum,
curvorum hinc chorus helciariorum
responsantibus alleluia ripis
ad Christum levat amnicum celeuma.
sic, sic psallite, nauta vel viator;
namque iste est locus omnibus petendus,
omnes quo via ducit ad salutem.

From here foot and eques withdraw themselves
the creaking and the charioteer (moderator essedorum),
from here a chorus of curved helciarii
with the banks answering “alleluia”
lifts to Christ a streamlike celeuma.
thus, thus sing, sailor or wayfarer;
for this is a place to be sought by all,
to which the road leads everyone to salvation.

5. Ecce parui tamquam iunior imperatis. tu modo fac memineris multiplicato me faenore remunerandum, quoque id facilius possis voluptuosiusque, opus est ut sine dissimulatione lectites, sine fine lecturias; neque patiaris, ut te ab hoc proposito propediem coniunx domum feliciter ducenda deflectat, sisque oppido meminens, quod olim Marcia Hortensio, Terentia Tullio, Calpurnia Plinio, Pudentilla Apuleio, Rusticiana Symmacho legentibus meditantibusque candelas et candelabra tenuerunt.

5. Behold, I obeyed as a younger to your commands. Only see that you remember I am to be remunerated to you with multiplied usury; and so that you may do this the more easily and the more pleasantly, it is necessary that you read without dissimulation, that you read without end; nor suffer that your wife, about to be happily led home, shortly divert you from this purpose, and be mindful, as if a town, that once Marcia for Hortensius, Terentia for Tullius, Calpurnia for Pliny, Pudentilla for Apuleius, Rusticiana for Symmachus held candles and candelabra for those reading and meditating.

6. certe si praeter oratoriam contubernio feminarum poeticum ingenium et oris tui limam frequentium studiorum cotibus expolitam quereris obtundi, reminiscere, quod saepe versum Corinna cum suo Nasone complevit, Lesbia cum Catullo, Cesennia cum Gaetulico, Argentaria cum Lucano, Cynthia cum Propertio, Delia cum Tibullo. proinde liquido claret studentibus discendi per nuptias occasionem tribui, desidibus excusationem. igitur incumbe, neque apud te litterariam curam turba depretiet imperitorum, quia natura comparatum est, ut in omnibus artibus hoc sit scientiae pretiosior pompa, quo rarior.

6. certainly if, beyond the oratorical companionship of women, you seek a poetic ingenium and the file of your mouth, polished by the grindstones of frequent studies, to be blunted no more but sharpened, remember that often Corinna completed a verse with her Naso, Lesbia with Catullus, Cesennia with Gaetulicus, Argentaria with Lucan, Cynthia with Propertius, Delia with Tibullus. Therefore it is plain that students are granted an occasion for learning through marriages, and an excuse for idleness is removed. Accordingly apply yourself, nor suffer the throng of the unskilled to rob you at home of literary care, for nature has arranged that in all arts the pomp of knowledge is the more precious the rarer it is.

vale.

farewell.

EPISTULA XI

EPISTLE 11

Sidonius Rustico suo salutem.

Sidonius. To his Rusticus, greetings.

1. Si nobis pro situ spatiisque regionum vicinaremur nec a se praesentia mutua vasti itineris longinquitate discriminaretur, nihil apicum raritati licere in coeptae familiaritatis officia permitterem neque iam semel missa fundamenta certantis amicitiae diversis honorum generibus extruere cessarem. sed animorum coniunctioni separata utrimque porrectioribus terminis obsistit habitatio, equidem semel devinctis parum nocitura pectoribus.

1. If, instead of the situation and the distances of regions, we were near one another and our mutual presence were not separated by the remoteness of a vast journey, I would permit nothing petty or singular to intrude upon the duties of an intimacy begun, nor would I cease, the foundations once laid, to raise up a contending friendship with diverse kinds of honors. But habitation, set apart on either side by more extended bounds, obstructs the union of minds, which, once bound, would do little harm to the hearts.

2. sed tamen ex ipsa communium municipiorum discretione procedit, quod, cum amicissimi simus, raritatem colloquii de prolixa terrarum interiectione venientem in reatum volumus transferre communem, cum de naturalium rerum difficultate nec culpa nos debeat manere nec venia. domine inlustris, gerulos litterarum de disciplinae tuae institutione formatos et morum erilium verecundiam praeferentes opportune admisi, patienter audivi, competenter explicui. vale.

2. But yet it proceeds from the very discretion of our common municipalities that, since we are most friendly, we wish to transfer to common guilt the rarity of conversation coming from the lengthy interposition of lands, since, as to the difficulty of natural things, neither fault nor pardon ought to be imputed to us. domine inlustris, I admitted, at an opportune time, brief letters composed about the instruction of your disciplina and preferring the verecundy of earnest morals; I heard them patiently, I explained them competently. vale.

EPISTULA XII

LETTER 12

Sidonius Agricolae suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Agricola, greetings.

1. Misisti tu quidem lembum mobilem solidum lecti capacem iamque cum piscibus; tum praeterea gubernatorem longe peritum, remiges etiam robustos expeditosque, qui scilicet ea rapiditate praetervolant amnis adversi terga, qua deflui. sed dabis veniam, quod invitanti tibi in piscationem comes venire dissimulo; namque me multo decumbentibus nostris validiora maeroris retia tenent, quae sunt amicis quoque et externis indolescenda. unde te quoque puto, si rite germano moveris affectu, quo temporis puncto paginam hanc sumpseris, de reditu potius cogitaturum.

1. You indeed sent a little craft, mobile and sound, roomy enough for a couch and already laden with fish; and moreover a helmsman skilled from afar, and rowers robust and nimble, who, when opposed to the stream, skim the river’s surface with the very swiftness with which it runs off. But you will grant me indulgence that I feign not to come as your companion to the fishing when you invite me; for nets of grief, far stronger, hold me on account of many of our lying‑down, which are to be mourned by both friends and outsiders. Hence I think that you too, if rightly moved by fraternal affection, at what point in time you took up this page, will rather be thinking of a return.

2. Severiana, sollicitudo communis, inquietata primum lentae tussis impulsu febribus quoque iam fatigatur, hisque per noctes ingravescentibus; propter quod optat exire in suburbanum; litteras tuas denique cum sumeremus, egredi ad villulam iam parabamus. quocirca tu seu venias seu moreris, preces nostras orationibus iuva, ut ruris auram desideranti salubriter cedat ipsa vegetatio. certe ego vel tua soror inter spem metumque suspensi credidimus eius taedium augendum, si voluntati iacentis obstitissemus.

2. Severiana, our common solicitude, first disturbed by the impulse of a lingering cough, is now also wearied by fevers, these growing heavier through the nights; on account of which she wishes to go out to the suburb; when at last we took up your letters, we were already preparing to go out to the little villa. Wherefore, whether you come or linger, help our prayers with your orisons, that the very vegetation may healthfully yield its breeze to one longing for the countryside. Certainly I, or even your sister, suspended between hope and fear, believed that her weariness would be increased if we had opposed the wishes of the one lying there.

3. igitur ardori civitatis atque torpori tam nos quam domum totam praevio Christo pariter eximimus simulque mediocrum consilia vitamus assidentum dissidentumque, qui parum docti et satis seduli languidos multos officiosissime occidunt. sane contubernio nostro iure amicitiae Iustus adhibebitur, quem, si iocari liberet in tristibus, facile convincerem Chironica magis institutum arte quam Machaonica. quo diligentius postulandus est Christus obsecrandusque, ut valetudini, cuius curationem cura nostra non invenit, potentia superna medeatur.

3. therefore by Christ beforehand we free both ourselves and the whole house from the heat of the city and from torpor, and at the same time we shun the moderate counsels of those sitting and dissenting, who, little learned and sufficiently zealous, most officiously destroy many languid persons. certainly by our companionship Justus is rightly admitted to friendship, whom, if he were permitted to joke in sad matters, I would easily convict as more formed by Chironian training than by Machaonian art. wherefore Christ must be more diligently sought and entreated, that to the health whose cure our care has not found he may minister by heavenly power.

vale.

farewell.

EPISTULA XIII

LETTER 13

Sidonius Serrano suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Serranus, greetings.

1. Epistulam tuam nobis Marcellinus togatus exhibuit, homo peritus virque amicorum. quae primoribus verbis salutatione libata reliquo sui tractu, qui quidem grandis est, patroni tui Petronii Maximi imperatoris laudes habebat; quem tamen tu pertinacius aut amabilius quam rectius veriusque felicissimum appellas, propter hoc quippe, cur per amplissimos fascium titulos fuerit evectus usque ad imperium. sed sententiae tali numquam ego assentior, ut fortunatos putem qui reipublicae praecipitibus ac lubricis culminibus insistunt.

1. Marcellinus togatus presented your letter to us, a man experienced and a friend of friends. Which, having first tasted of greeting in the opening words, in the remainder of its handling — which indeed is lengthy — contained praises of your patron Petronius Maximus the emperor; whom yet you call most happy more stubbornly or more amiably than more rightly and more truly, for this reason namely, because he was raised by the most illustrious titles of the fasces all the way to the empire. But to such an opinion I never assent, that I should deem fortunate those who stand upon the precipices and slippery summits of the res publica.

2. nam dici nequit, quantum per horas fert in hac vita miseriarum vita felicium istorum, si tamen sic sunt pronuntiandi qui sibi hoc nomen ut Sylla praesumunt, nimirum qui supergressi ius fasque commune summam beatitudinem existimant summam potestatem, hoc ipso satis miseriores, quod parum intellegunt inquietissimo se subiacere famulatui. nam sicut hominibus reges, ita regibus dominandi desideria dominantur.

2. for it cannot be said how many hours of miseries the life of those so-called happy bears, if indeed thus they are to be pronounced who assume this name for themselves, like Sylla — namely those who, having overstepped law and common right, reckon supreme beatitude to be supreme power; by this very fact they are rather more miserable, because they little understand that they lie under the most restless servitude. for as kings are subject to men’s desires to dominate, so are the desires of domination themselves dominant over kings.

3. hic si omittamus antecedentium principum casus vel subsecutorum, solus iste peculiaris tuus Maximus maximo nobis documento poterit esse, qui quamquam in arcem praefectoriam patriciam consularemque intrepidus ascenderat eosque quos gesserat magistratus ceu recurrentibus orbitis inexpletus iteraverat, cum tamen venit omnibus viribus ad principalis apicis abruptum, quandam potestatis inmensae vertiginem sub corona patiebatur nec sustinebat dominus esse, qui non sustinuerat esse sub domino.

3. but if we omit the falls of former princes or of those who followed, this peculiar Maximus of yours alone will be able to be to us a very great document, who, although intrepid, had climbed into the prefectorial, patrician, and consular citadel and had again taken up—unfulfilled, as if with recurring bereavements—those magistracies which he had held, yet when he came with all his forces to the precipice of the chief apex, he suffered a certain vertigo of immense power under the crown and could not endure to be a lord who had not endured to be under a lord.

4. denique require in supradicto vitae prioris gratiam potentiam diuturnitatem eque diverso principatus paulo amplius quam bimenstris originem turbinem finem: profecto invenies hominem beatiorem prius fuisse quam beatissimus nominaretur. igitur ille, cuius anterius epulae mores, pecuniae pompae, litterae fasces, patrimonia patrocinia florebant, cuius ipsa sic denique spatia vitae custodiebantur, ut per horarum disposita clepsydras explicarentur, is nuncupatus Augustus ac sub hac specie Palatinis liminibus inclusus ante crepusculum ingemuit, quod ad vota pervenerat. cumque mole curarum pristinae quietis tenere dimensum prohiberetur, veteris actutum regulae legibus renuntiavit atque perspexit pariter ire non posse negotium principis et otium senatoris.

4. finally, inquire in the foregoing about the grace, power, and duration of the prior life and likewise about the somewhat different origin, whirlwind, and end of the principate, a little more than two months long: you will indeed find the man to have been more fortunate before than he would be called most-fortunate. Therefore that man, in whom formerly feasts, manners, pomp of money, letters, fasces, estates, and patronages flourished, whose very stretches of life were so guarded that by the ordering of hours the clepsydrae were set forth, he, called Augustus and enclosed under that guise within the Palatine thresholds, sighed before twilight at what his vows had attained. And since the mass of cares prevented him from being permitted to keep measured the former repose, he at once renounced the old rule by laws and perceived likewise that the business of a prince and the otium of a senator could not go together.

5. nec fefellerunt futura maerentem; namque cum ceteros aulicos honores tranquillissime percurrisset, ipsam aulam turbulentissime rexit inter tumultus militum popularium foederatorum; quod et exitus prodidit novus celer acerbus, quem cruentavit Fortunae diu lenocinantis perfidus finis, quae virum ut scorpius ultima sui parte percussit. dicere solebat vir litteratus atque ob ingenii merita quaestorius, partium certe bonarum pars magna, Fulgentius ore se ex eius frequenter audisse, cum perosus pondus imperii veterem securitatem desideraret: 'felicem te, Damocles, qui non uno longius prandio regni necessitatem toleravisti.'

5. nor did the things to come deceive the mourner; for although he had passed through the remaining courtly honors most tranquilly, he governed the very palace most turbulently amid the tumults of soldiers, of populares, of federates; and a new, swift, bitter exit made this manifest, which the perfidious end stained with blood — the end that for a long time had flattered Fortune — which struck the man like a scorpion with its last part. A learned man and, by merits of talent, a quaestor, certainly a large part of the good faction, Fulgentius used to say that he had often heard it from his mouth, when, hating the weight of empire, he longed for his former security: "happy are you, Damocles, who have not borne the necessity of kingship beyond one meal."

6. iste enim, ut legimus, Damocles provincia Siculus, urbe Syracusanus, familiaris tyranno Dionysio fuit. qui cum nimiis laudibus bona patroni ut cetera scilicet inexpertus efferret: 'vis', inquit Dionysius, 'hodie saltim in hac mensa bonis meis pariter ac malis uti?' 'libenter', inquit. tunc ille confestim laetum clientem quamquam et attonitum plebeio tegmine erepto muricis Tyrii seu Tarentini conchyliato ditat indutu et renidentem gemmis margaritisque aureo lecto sericatoque toreumati imponit.

6. for this man, as we read, Damocles, a Sicilian by province, a Syracusan by city, was a familiar of the tyrant Dionysius. And when, carried away by excessive praises, he extolled the goods of his patron as if inexperienced in other matters: "Do you wish," said Dionysius, "to feast today at this table upon my goods equally with my evils?" "Gladly," he replied. Then immediately he, having stripped the glad though astonished client of his plebeian cloak, clothed him in Tyrian or Tarentine murex‑dyed purple, enriched with the shell’s dye, and laid him, gleaming with gems and pearls, upon a gilt, silken, embroidered couch.

7. cumque pransuro Sardanapallicum in morem panis daretur e Leontina segete confectus, insuper dapes cultae ferculis cultioribus apponerentur, spumarent Falerno gemmae capaces inque crystallis calerent unguenta glacialibus, hinc suffita cinnamo ac ture cenatio spargeret peregrinos naribus odores et madescentes nardo capillos circumfusa florum serta siccarent, coepit supra tergum sic recumbentis repente vibrari mucro destrictus e lacunaribus, qui videbatur in iugulum purpurati iam iamque ruiturus; nam filo equinae saetae ligatus et ita pondere minax ut acumine gulam formidolosi Tantaleo frenabat exemplo, ne cibi ingressi per ora per vulnera exirent.

7. and when for the diner a Sardanapallicum loaf, made from Leontine grain, was set down according to custom, moreover banquets with cultured courses were presented on ever more cultured dishes, Falernian wine foamed in capacious cups and ointments were warmed in crystals with icy coolness; here a dinner, smeared with cinnamon and with frankincense, scattered exotic scents upon noses, and garlands of flowers, drenched with nard, dried the hair when poured around; suddenly a dagger, drawn from the ceiling, began to vibrate above the back of him reclining thus, which seemed destined to fall into the throat of the purpled man at any moment; for bound by a horse-hair thread and so menacing by its weight that, by its point, it checked the throat of the dread Tantalus as an example, lest morsels having entered by the mouth should issue through wounds.

8. unde post mixtas fletibus preces atque multimoda suspiria vix absolutus emicatimque prosiliens illa refugit celeritate divitias deliciasque regales, qua solent appeti, reductus ad desideria mediocrium timore summorum et satis cavens, ne beatum ultra diceret duceretque qui saeptus armis ac satellitibus et per hoc raptis incubans opibus ferro pressus premeret aurum. quapropter ad statum huiusmodi, domine frater, nescio an constet tendere beatos, patet certe miseros pervenire. vale.

8. whence, after mingled with tears were prayers and manifold sighs scarcely ended, and suddenly starting up he fled those riches and royal delights with the swiftness with which they are wont to be sought, brought back to the desires of the middling by fear of the highest and sufficiently wary that he might not call or reckon him blessed any longer who, shut in by arms and satellites and thereby robbed, lying pressingly upon the plundered wealth, crushed gold with iron, lest the morsels of food pass from mouths through wounds. wherefore as to a state of this sort, my lord brother, I know not whether it is fitting to strive to be among the blessed; it is certain, however, that one comes to the miserable. farewell.

EPISTULA XIV.

LETTER 14.

Sidonius Maurusio suo salutem.

Sidonius to his Maurusius, greeting.

1. Audio industriae tuae votisque communibus uberiore proventu, quam minabatur sterilis annus, respondere vindemiam. unde et in pago Vialoscensi, qui Martialis aetate citeriore vocitatus est propter hiberna legionum Iulianarum, suspicor diuturnius te moraturum; quo loci tibi cum ferax vinea est, tum praeter ipsam praedium magno non minus domino, quod te tuosque plurifaria frugum mansionumque dote remoretur.

1. I hear that your industry and shared prayers answer with a more abundant vintage than the barren year threatened. Whence also in the district of Vialoscense, which in Martial’s age was called Citerior because of the winter-quarters of the Julian legions, I suspect you will linger longer; there you have a fertile vineyard, and besides the estate itself a farm no less ample for the lord, which, by manifold dowries of crops and dwellings, detains you and yours.

2. ilicet si horreis apothecisque seu penu impleta destinas illic usque ad adventum hirundineum vel ciconinum Iani Numaeque ninguidos menses in otio fuliginoso sive tunicata quiete transmittere, nobis quoque parum in oppido fructuosae protinus amputabuntur causae morarum, ut, dum ipse nimirum frueris rure, nos te fruamur, quibus, ut recognoscis, non magis cordi est aut voluptati ager cum reditibus amplis, quam vicinus aequalis cum bonis moribus. vale.

2. And so, if you purpose to spend your time there with granaries and storehouses or larders filled, there until the arrival of the swallows or the storks, the slothful months of Janus and Numa, in fuliginous leisure or in tunic‑clad repose, the causes of our delays in the fruitful town will at once be little amputated; so that, while you yourself doubtless enjoy the country, we may enjoy you — for to us, as you acknowledge, the field with ample returns is no more dear to heart or to delight than a neighboring equal with good morals. Vale.