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.

loeari mibi visns es, cum te scriberes obvia militum arma timuisse, credo, ne iter tuum in Campaniae longinqua sequeremnr. nam si ipse diu versatus in castris nonnihil timoris expertus es, quid ego togae adsnetus amaritudinis incidissem? sed non patior , ut tibi ad moram prosit simulata trepidatio. caret Appia tota militibus 15 transvectis omnibus, qui pacato Africae statu in obsequium divini principis reverte- runt quid quod etiam patria in rebus angustis vel opem bonorum vel societatem re- 2 quirit? neque enim praesentiam nostram sola prospera eius expectant; laudabilioris offidi est participare dubia cum civibus. sed iam spes melior urbis nostrae vultum serenat et alimonia interim proviso fulta subsidio etiam frugis Libjcae stipulatur ad- 20 ventum. vale. XXX vnn.