Letter 6014: You press me to stay with you at your villa near Formiae.

To Mauricus. You press me to stay with you at your villa near Formiae. Well, I will come on condition that you do not inconvenience yourself at all - a stipulation in which I consult my own interest as well as yours. For it is not the sea and the shore which will tempt me, but yourself and retirement, and leave to do as I please. Otherwise it were better to remain in town, for one ought to refer everything either to someone else's judgment or to one's own, and, as far as I am personally concerned, my taste is to desire nothing, unless it is perfect and flawless. * Farewell. [Note: He means - I would rather remain in Rome, entirely devoted to business, than go into the country, unless I can do there entirely what I like. One thing or the other : constant occupation or perfect freedom, I can't stand a mixture.]

L To Mauricus. You press me to stay with you at your villa near Formiae. Well, I will come on condition that you do not inconvenience yourself at all - a stipulation in which I consult my own interest as well as yours. For it is not the sea and the shore which will tempt me, but yourself and retirement, and leave to do as I please. Otherwise it were better to remain in town, for one ought to refer everything either to someone else's judgment or to one's own, and, as far as I am personally concerned, my taste is to desire nothing, unless it is perfect and flawless. * Farewell. (*) He means - I would rather remain in Rome, entirely devoted to business, than go into the country, unless I can do there entirely what I like. One thing or the other : constant occupation or perfect freedom, I can't stand a mixture.

C. PLINIUS MAURICO SUO S. Sollicitas me in Formianum. Veniam ea condicione, ne quid contra commodum tuum facias; qua pactione invicem mihi caveo. Neque enim mare et litus, sed te otium libertatem sequor: alioqui satius est in urbe remanere. Oportet enim omnia aut ad alienum arbitrium aut ad suum facere. Mei certe stomachi haec natura est, ut nihil nisi totum et merum velit. Vale.