III (F XVI, 15)
TO TIRO
(CUMAE) 12 APRIL
Aegypta arrived on the 12th of April. Though he brought the news that you were
entirely without fever and were pretty well, yet he caused me anxiety by saying
that you had not been able to write to me: and all the more so because Hermia,
who ought to have arrived on the same
-- 386 --
day, has not done so. I am incredibly anxious about your health. If you will
relieve me from that, I will liberate you from every burden. I would
have written at greater length, if I had thought that you were now capable of
taking any pleasure in reading a letter. Concentrate your whole intelligence,
which I value above everything, upon preserving yourself for your own and my
benefit. Use your utmost diligence, I repeat, in nursing your health.
Good-bye.
P.S.—When I had finished the above Hermia arrived. I have your letter written
in a shaky hand, and no wonder after so serious an illness. I am sending
Aegypta back to stay with you, because he is by no means without feeling, and
seems to me to be attached to you, and with him a cook for your especial use.
Good-bye!
