Letter 103.7

My teacher, when you rest and do what is useful for your health, I too am restored. Take your ease willingly and without guilt. This, then, is my judgment: you did right to give attention to curing your arm. I too did a little work today on my couch from about the seventh hour, for I got through nearly ten images. In the ninth I take you as my partner and helper, since it was less favorable to me as I pursued it. The image is this: on the island of Aenaria there is an inland lake, and in that lake another island, also inhabited. From there we are making an image. Farewell, sweetest soul. My Lady greets you.

Probably from Naples 139 A.D. To my master. When you rest and when you do what is good for your health, then am I, too, the better for it. Humour yourself and be lazy. My verdict, then, is: you have acted rightly in taking pains to cure your arm. I, too, have done something to-day since one o'clock on my couch, for I have been successful with nearly all the ten similes; in the ninth I call you in as my ally and adjutant, for it did not respond so readily to my efforts in dealing with it. It is the one of the inland lake in the island Aenaria; in that lake there is another island, it, too, inhabited. From this we draw a certain simile. Farewell, sweetest of souls. My Lady greets you.

ad M. Caesarem 3.7 [40 Hout; 1.32 Haines] Magistro meo. 1 Quom tu quiescis et, quod commodum valetudini sit, facis, tum me recreavi. Libenter et otiose age. Sentio ergo: Recte fecisti quod bracchio curando operam dedisti. 2 Ego quoque hodie a septima in lectulo nonnihil egi, nam εἰκόνας decem ferme expedivi. In nona te socium et optionem mihi sumo, nam minus secunda fuit in persequendo mihi. Est autem, quod in insula Aenaria intus lacus est; in eo lacu alia insula est et ea quoque inhabitatur. ἐνθένδ᾿ εἰκόνα ποιοῦμεν. Vale, dulcissima anima. Domina mea te salutat.