Letter 3024: Here we are, idling in the countryside and enjoying autumn in all its variety.

Quintus Aurelius SymmachusUnknown|c. 377 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
friendship

Here we are, idling in the countryside and enjoying autumn in all its variety. After committing the new wines to their casks — crushed by foot and press until they ran free — we've been grinding Sicyonian olives in the trapetum [olive press], so the early fruit can be worked into green oil while it's still fresh. Meanwhile, the game-drives through the brushwood keep the hunt dogs busy, and the uncertain farmer runs from one task to the next. Some men use ladders [Text breaks off in source.]

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.

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