Letter 7040: We haven't yet reached the coast at Naples to see the crown jewel of your estate, but everything the Tyrrhenian Sea...
We haven't yet reached the coast at Naples to see the crown jewel of your estate, but everything the Tyrrhenian Sea touches is full of your name. To put it simply: you've inherited the fame of Lucullus [the famously extravagant Roman general whose Neapolitan villas were legendary]. Which makes me all the more surprised you can ever bring yourself to leave.
Unless you flee abundance out of fastidiousness, curing satiation with variety. But you've been away too long this time. By now the long spell of austerity must have rekindled your appetite. So why not come our way? Or if you prefer to linger and share our frugality, rest assured [Text breaks off in source.]
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Nondum Neapolitanum litus accessimus visuri arcem deliciamm tuarum, sed ta-
men omnia, quae Tyrrhenus adluit, nominis tui plena sunt. quid multa? successisti
in famam Luculli. qao magis miror, ad alia te nonnumquam posse transire; nisi
forte fastidio fugis copias et mutatione castigas satietatem. sed nimium hactenus ab-
fuisti; puto iam parsimoniae diuturnitate conciliatum tibi desiderium copiarum. quin so
ergo ad nos gradum promoves? aut si libenter illic nostrae immoraris frugalitati,
redeundum propere nobis est, quos non decet alienas adfectare delicias. vale.
9 explicit ad attioum incipit eiusdem ad decium PV 11 sym deeio V 12 amicum meum
campani ineip. denuo M 14 praeponant V 18 quaip P 20 adde] ego, ad PVM sacie-
Utem PM, societotem V 22 religioni PVM, eorr, M
fastigio PV sacietatem P actenus P l m. abfuisti] Af, adfuisti V, afuisti P 30 iani) nam V
quin] cul P l m. 32 est quos non decet alienas] VAf(//), ^^jjJilJiJji.;;iJjjuK% P dewilias V
uale] ua// P
xxxvn.
Related Letters
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I too embrace the old-fashioned form in my letter headings, and I am quite surprised that a copyist's error crept in.
The vintage from the Campanian estate has been sent to you as I promised; I hope it travels well and arrives in the...
You have been silent for a long time, but I must not imitate such an example.