Letter 7042: You were joking, I think, when you wrote that you'd been frightened by soldiers on the road -- a transparent excuse...
You were joking, I think, when you wrote that you'd been frightened by soldiers on the road -- a transparent excuse to keep us from following you deep into Campania. If even you, a man who spent years in military camps, felt some alarm, what would a soft civilian like me have suffered?
But I won't let a pretended scare serve as your excuse for staying away. The Via Appia [Rome's great southern highway] is completely clear now -- all the soldiers have passed through after the pacification of Africa, heading back to the emperor's service. Besides, the homeland in its hour of need deserves either the help of good men or at least their company.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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