Letter 7023: The Tiburtine villa that recently came into your possession deserves a more talented wordsmith than me.
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus→Unknown|c. 377 AD|Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
property economics
The Tiburtine villa that recently came into your possession deserves a more talented wordsmith than me. Still, modest as my tongue is, I'll do my best to honor the place. What elegance in the layout of the rooms! What a view, looking out from the heights across the plains below! I'd say the Orchomenian goddesses [the Graces, worshiped at Orchomenos in Boeotia] themselves had taken up residence and worked to win you as the estate's master.
So carry on as you've been doing -- restore what time has worn down. This is far easier than what they say Hesiod [the ancient Greek poet] managed when he shed old age and returned to youth.
Villa Tiburs, quae proxime in ius tuum venit, maioris ingenii praedicatorem re-
quirit; ego tamen linguae modicus, ut potero, verbis honorem loco faciam. quid hic
in positu aedium yenustatis estl quts sitt^ ex edito /It in plana iactus ocnlorum!
frequentare has sedes Orchomenias dixerim deas atque eas sedulo adnisas, u^ te con- 30
ciliarent aedibus suis dominum. perge igitur, ut facis, et victis aevo redde novita-
tem. multo hoc factu promptius, quam quod Hesiodum ferunt posito senio in virides
annos redisse. interea gratulare nobis bonam valetudinem, quae ut tibi quoque lon-
gum secundet, inter fastigia est votorum meorum. vale.
1 //erit P, ftierlt enim (J7) actntnmP2m. 3 edlliam {/) 5 longinquiore] Scioppiu$,
longlnqiio ire Pr 7 signa om. T 9 litterarnm [r) 10 idusti r 13 accensum] luretua,
aocewum PF
sino nt] si modo F 21 repetas post Tiburtem inser. F 22 facias om. F caelum P, aed
COTT, l m.
e% edito late (1) 30 ut te] luretus, uiUe P 34 e6t] e in ra8. P
XXI a. 398.
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The Tiburtine villa that recently came into your possession deserves a more talented wordsmith than me. Still, modest as my tongue is, I'll do my best to honor the place. What elegance in the layout of the rooms! What a view, looking out from the heights across the plains below! I'd say the Orchomenian goddesses [the Graces, worshiped at Orchomenos in Boeotia] themselves had taken up residence and worked to win you as the estate's master.
So carry on as you've been doing -- restore what time has worn down. This is far easier than what they say Hesiod [the ancient Greek poet] managed when he shed old age and returned to youth.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.