Letter 2061: I had hoped for the vacant plot of land near Naples that adjoins my property from yours, so that I might build a new...
I had wished for the empty ground at Naples that adjoins my own property from yours, so that I might raise up a new house; but you go shares with me in the Lucullan works [the celebrated villa estate at Naples], and, lest modesty make me refuse what is offered, you deny that what I confess was not mine seems to be within your own right. Allow me at least to owe you a debt of gratitude. For it is not lawful that I should recover in bad faith what I am able to take in good faith. You add, besides, enticements by which you provoke the builder's sickness in me: that a twin portico, curved with solid and uncorrupted workmanship, is laid out over many feet in its length; that the things I am building are nearby, and that, with the small business of construction which lies between, they can be joined together. Why do you labor against my modesty? I too do what you refuse: I am grateful for your gift. But I fear that, with the expense mounting, while we strive to make the old vie with the new, I may come to understand that you wish to grant greater things than I am able to restore.
LXI (LX), before the year 395.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Vacui apud Neapolim soli quod mihi ex tuo adiacet, ut aedes novas molirer,
optaveram; tu mecum opera Lucullana partins, et ne verecundia refutet oblatum,
15 negas tui iuris videri, quod ego meum fateor non fuisse. patere, ut saltem gratiam
tibi debeam. neque enim fas est mala fide me recuperare, quod possum bona sumere.
adicis praeterea lenocinia, quibus morbum fabricatoris inrites: geminam porticum so- 2
lido et incormpto opere curvatam multis in longitudinem pa^^ibus explicari; vicina
esse, quae constrao, et parvo aedificationis negotio, quod intervenit, posse misceri. quid
20 laboras adversum verecundiam meam? ego quoque facio, quod recusas: gratus sum
mnneri tuo. sed vereor ne accedent^ sumptu, dum vetera novis nitimur aemulari,
intellegam maiora te velle concedere, quam me posse reparare.
LXI (LX) ante a. 395.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern symmachus retranslated v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/qaureliisymmach00seecgoog
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