Latin Texts & Translations

DCXLVII (F XVI, 22)

TO TIRO (AT ROME) ASTURA (27 JULY)

I hope from your letter that you are better, at any rate I desire it. Devote your whole energies to that, and don't have any uneasy feeling that you are acting against my wishes in staying away. You are with me if you are taking care of yourself. Therefore I would rather you were doing duty to your health than to my eyes and ears. For though it gives me pleasure both to hear and see you, it will give me much more pleasure If you are well. I am being idle here, because I don't write without an amanuensis; but I find extreme pleasure in reading. As you are on the spot,

if there is anything in my handwriting which the copyists can't make out, please instruct them. There is at least one inserted passage somewhat difficult to decipher, which I often find it hard to make out myself-about Cato when he was four years old. ^[Note] Look after the dinner table, as you have been doing. Tertia will come so long as Publius is not there. ^[Note] Your friend Demetrius was never quite a Demetrius of Phalerum, but now he has become a regular Billienus. ^[Note] Accordingly, I appoint you my representative: you will look after him. Although, after all: about those men-you know the rest. However, if you do have any conversation with him, write and tell me, that I may have something to put into a letter, and may have as long a one as possible from you to read. Take care of your health, my dear Tiro: you can't oblige me more than by doing that.