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...

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 learned you'd been away from home for some time. I immediately gave our mutual friend Theophilus -- who happened to be my travel companion -- the task of riding out to your place in the Tiburtine countryside to announce my return and deliver my greetings. And you, nosy as you are about my affairs, as if you'd been appointed by public decree to investigate me, forced the poor man to lay bare everything I'd been doing while away. That much your letter confessed -- the one Theophilus brought back. It was kind of you, I admit, to inquire into the highlights of my activities: whether riding around the countryside or the seashore had helped my health, whether any progress had been made on my farms -- better cultivation, a fresher look to the buildings, more livestock -- what the food supply was like, whether the consular table had been kept modest by choice, whether I'd ever traded Formiae for a nearby town or a more distant one. You even had to find out what my private studies had produced, whether my eyes and pallor betrayed long hours at the wax tablets. I'll tolerate your snooping. You teach friends the art of suspicion, and if one can say it, you track down my writings by scent and footprint like a hound. But do I ask what literary project you're working on amid the orchards of Tibur? All I've heard from rumor is that you've recently built a bath so efficient that a single log is reportedly enough to heat it. As for your reading -- that you've been devouring Greek and Latin authors in deep leisure -- you told me that yourself. I won't ask whether you've also been writing anything. I can tell that you, burning with pride in your own secret work, wanted to find out whether I'd been doing the same. But enough about letters -- I'd rather you just came home. Unless, of course, the cheap heating costs of your little bath are what's keeping you loyal to the simple life. Farewell.

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.