DII (F IX, 23)
TO L. PAPIRIUS PÆTUS (AT NAPLES)
Cumæ, 17 November
I arrived yesterday at my Cuman villa, to-morrow I shall
perhaps come to see you. But as soon as I know for
certain, I will send you word a little beforehand. However,
M. Cæparius, who met me on the road at the Gallinarian
wood,[1] told me you were in bed with the gout. I was sorry
to hear it, as in duty bound; nevertheless, I resolved to
come to you, for the sake not only of seeing you and paying
you a visit, but even of dining with you: for I don't suppose
you have a cook who is gouty also. Expect therefore
a guest, who is far from being a gourmet, and is a foe to
extravagant dinners.
DIII (A XII, 1)
TO ATTICUS (IN HIS SUBURBAN VILLA)
Arpinum, 24 November
On the eleventh day from my parting from you I write this
notelet on the point of quitting my villa before daybreak.
To-day I think of being at my house at Anagnia, to-morrow
at Tusculum: there I stay one day. On the 27th, therefore,
I start to meet you as arranged. And oh! that I
might hurry straight to the embrace of my Tullia and to
the lips of Attica! Pray write and tell me what those same
lips are prattling of, so that I may know it while I am
halting in my Tusculan villa: or, if she is ruralizing, what
- ↑ Along the Campanian coast, between the Volturnus and Cumæ.