Letter 5018: As all is well with you, all is well with me.

To Calpurnius Macer. As all is well with you, all is well with me. You have your wife with you, and your son; you enjoy your sea-view, your fountains, greenery, estate, and your charming villa. I cannot doubt that the latter is most charming, since it was the home of the man who was even happier there than when he became the happiest man on earth. * I am staying at my Tuscan house; I hunt and I study, sometimes in turns, sometimes both together, ** and I cannot as yet tell you whether I find it more difficult to catch anything or to compose anything. Farewell. [Note: Who this was is not known. Sulla according to some, Nerva according to others. In any case, some man had inhabited the villa, who (says Pliny) was happier in his retirement than when he had attained what, in common opinion, is the summit of earthly felicity. ] [Note: See letter i. 6.]

L To Calpurnius Macer. As all is well with you, all is well with me. You have your wife with you, and your son; you enjoy your sea-view, your fountains, greenery, estate, and your charming villa. I cannot doubt that the latter is most charming, inasmuch as it was the home of the man who was even happier there than when he became the happiest man on earth. * I am staying at my Tuscan house; I hunt and I study, sometimes in turns, sometimes both together, ** and I cannot as yet tell you whether I find it more difficult to catch anything or to compose anything. Farewell. (*) Who this was is not known. Sulla according to some, Nerva according to others. In any case, some man had inhabited the villa, who (says Pliny) was happier in his retirement than when he had attained what, in common opinion, is the summit of earthly felicity. (**) See letter i. 6.

C. PLINIUS CALPURNIO MACRO SUO S. Bene est mihi quia tibi bene est. Habes uxorem tecum, habes filium; frueris mari fontibus viridibus agro villa amoenissima. Neque enim dubito esse amoenissimam, in qua se composuerat homo felicior, ante quam felicissimus fieret. Ego in Tuscis et venor et studeo, quae interdum alternis, interdum simul facio; nec tamen adhuc possum pronuntiare, utrum sit difficilius capere aliquid an scribere. Vale.