Letter 7016: Our friendship had led me to expect your visit.

The consideration of our friendship had given me hope of your arrival: I am almost ready to believe that I was mistaken, who hoped that you would come of your own accord into the sight of a father. Since, therefore, you do not know how to do the right thing without our urging, be entreated and hasten; and if proud Tibur [Tivoli] has filled you to satisfaction, exchange it for the pleasant Laurentine woods. And do not dread the prospect of a rough countryside: the sea is in view of those who hunt, the villa is skirted by a much-traveled road; and so the approach right to the very lairs of the wild beasts is level and open, and even if these things were lacking, our mutual conversation and the liberal exchange of letters would surely surpass the pleasures of Tarentum or Sicily. Therefore, if you too extend your hand to this opinion, add yourself to the number of those who keep to the country, and for a little while emulate the Catos and the Atilii, whom the plowshare and the plow-handle [...]