Letter 6073: I confess I've kept my pen idle for a while.

I confess that I have long held myself back from the pen; for nothing came up that I might write to you, while I was receiving from report the welcome assurance of your wellbeing as you approached. At last my affection has overcome my idleness. Therefore we resume the practice of bidding you good health, free now from all business. For after our withdrawal to Tibur we are now prolonging slow leisure at Rome. But we are by no means slack in the matters that must be seen to. For at home the gaps in the crumbling walls are being patched up, since the original builder set frequency of use ahead of solidity, and to him speed in making the place usable seemed of greater account than the security of those who would come after. You are constructing things new and meant to last for an age; for, as report has it, you have made certain works to rival those of Lucullus. Yet we for our part have not yielded to you in the magnitude of the outlay. For the cost is equal: to lay down solid work once, and to repair often what is falling away. Farewell. [The remaining lines of the source are editorial apparatus recording manuscript variants and lacunae in the codex, not part of the letter's text.]

20 Dia me ab stilo fateor temperasse; nihil enim quod scriberemas, emersit, salatis aatem vestrae laetam fidem de adventantiam sermone capiebam. tandem cessationem vicit adfectio. reparamus igitar dicendae morem salatis vacai omniam negotioram. post Tibartem qaippe secessionem Romae otia lenta prodacimas. sed non asqaeqaa- qae agendaram reram samas desides. nam domi corraptoram parietam discidia sar- 26 ciantar, qaia freqaentationem soliditati conditor primas antetalit et antiqaior ei visa est celeritas utendi qaam secaritas succedentiam. vos nova et aevam mansara moli- mini; siquidem sermo distalit, quaedam vos LacuUanis operibus aeqaanda fecisse. nec tamen vobis inpendii magnitadine cesserimas. par enim samptus est semel so- lida conlocare et saepe integrare rectdentia. vale. rarom] (77), periit in P exe/// P 15 maiore P 1 m. qnior ei nl«a] (77), /f////////,'///\sti P 26 quam securitma] (77), perUt in P et aeuum] (77), perUt in P molimina P 2 m. 27 //rmo P 28 sumptum (F) 29 conloc*T/////epe P ro- cedentift r*, cedentia P 1 m.j ctdentia P2 m. 174 SYMMACHI EPISTVLAE LXXI (LXXni.