Letter 2060: I was living at my suburban estate, which lies beside the Appian Way, when your letter was delivered to me by a...

From: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus To: [Unnamed correspondent] Date: ~392 AD Context: Symmachus writes from his suburban villa on the Via Appia, reflecting on the bittersweet pleasure of rural leisure without his friend. I was living at my suburban estate, which lies beside the Appian Way, when your letter was delivered to me by a courier sent for this purpose. You know the property I mean -- where I have built a large house on a small plot of land. Here I was enjoying a sweet period of leisure -- if anything can truly be sweet without your company -- when I was briefly interrupted. But the interruption came in the form of your letter, which was better than any leisure. I have written back to you at once, reluctant to allow even a day to pass between your kindness and my reply.

Suburbanum praedium, quod viae Appiae adiacet, incolebam, cum mihi litteras tuas in hoc missus exhibuit. nosd rura, quae loquimur, ubi magnas aedes in an- 5 gustis finibus conlocavi. hie dulce otium — si quid afc^que te dulce est — paulisper exe^mus. nunc Vestalis festi gratia domum repeto incertus, maneamne cum civibus, an rursus in vicina concedam. tu quid agere decemas — nam certe iusto diutius 2 afuisti — , debeo cognoscere. vocat enim te in curiam nostram diis auctoribus quam- primum candidati mei designatio, cui supra omnes omamento eris, qui nos vel ad- 10 finitatis vel amicitiae officiis prosequentur. LX (LVIIII) ante a. 395.