Letter 7023: The Tiburtine villa that recently came into your possession deserves a more talented wordsmith than me.

The Tiburtine villa that recently came into your possession deserves a more talented wordsmith than me. Still, modest as my tongue is, I'll do my best to honor the place. What elegance in the layout of the rooms! What a view, looking out from the heights across the plains below! I'd say the Orchomenian goddesses [the Graces, worshiped at Orchomenos in Boeotia] themselves had taken up residence and worked to win you as the estate's master. So carry on as you've been doing -- restore what time has worn down. This is far easier than what they say Hesiod [the ancient Greek poet] managed when he shed old age and returned to youth.

Villa Tiburs, quae proxime in ius tuum venit, maioris ingenii praedicatorem re- quirit; ego tamen linguae modicus, ut potero, verbis honorem loco faciam. quid hic in positu aedium yenustatis estl quts sitt^ ex edito /It in plana iactus ocnlorum! frequentare has sedes Orchomenias dixerim deas atque eas sedulo adnisas, u^ te con- 30 ciliarent aedibus suis dominum. perge igitur, ut facis, et victis aevo redde novita- tem. multo hoc factu promptius, quam quod Hesiodum ferunt posito senio in virides annos redisse. interea gratulare nobis bonam valetudinem, quae ut tibi quoque lon- gum secundet, inter fastigia est votorum meorum. vale. 1 //erit P, ftierlt enim (J7) actntnmP2m. 3 edlliam {/) 5 longinquiore] Scioppiu$, longlnqiio ire Pr 7 signa om. T 9 litterarnm [r) 10 idusti r 13 accensum] luretua, aocewum PF sino nt] si modo F 21 repetas post Tiburtem inser. F 22 facias om. F caelum P, aed COTT, l m. e% edito late (1) 30 ut te] luretus, uiUe P 34 e6t] e in ra8. P XXI a. 398.