Letter 6007: Your letter was delivered while I was at the seventh milestone on the Ostian road, and I immediately arranged...

Tabumius did not keep silent that I had been summoned, and perhaps you wonder that nothing about that matter was disclosed in my pages; but because I had resolved, for many and unavoidable reasons, to remain at home, I judged it a useless effort to carry to you reports that were void and feigned. I believe, however, that the considerations which have drawn me back from the plan of traveling are not unknown to your holy unanimity. For you know both that my health is broken, and you behold the loneliness of my only son, and you have learned of the swellings of the rivers to the point of dread of a flood; the ruins of the bridges too, and the slippages of the mountains, rumor, as I think, has not kept silent among you. From which it has come about that the others also requested leave, men whom a like summons had called out, except for Arcentius and Euangelus, of whom the vigor of youth exposed the one to uncertainties, and a heedless mind the other. I understand that you can be alarmed by the departure of a man who is no friend; but I urge that you cast off this scruple. For both many things have been arranged by my letters, and a charge has been given to those setting out, that the disparagement of our rival may be repelled. Therefore, free of cares, pursue your leisure, and revive me, as you deign to do, by the constancy of your writings. Farewell.