I tell you, I seem plainly to have been relegated since I have been at the Formian villa. For there was no day, when I was at Antium, on which I did not better know what was being done at Rome than those who were at Rome. For your letters indicated not only what was happening at Rome but what in the commonwealth, and not only what was happening but even what was going to happen. Now, unless something has been caught from a passing traveller, I can know nothing. Wherefore, although I expect you yourself by now, yet to this boy, whom I have ordered to run back to me at once, give some weighty letter, full of all your acts and indeed of your opinions, and see that I know the day on which you set out from Rome. We wish to be at the Formian villa up to the day before the Nones of May. If you have not come there before that day, perhaps I shall see you at Rome. For why should I invite you to Arpinum? “A rough land but a good rearer of young men, nor can I myself see anything sweeter than my own land” trēchei’, all’ agathē kourotrophos, out’ ar’ egōge hēs gaiēs dynamai glykerotēron allo idesthai (Odyssey 9.27, on Ithaca). So much then. See that you keep well.