§15.16.1puto te iam suppudere, quem haec tertia iam epistula ante oppressit quam tu scidam aut litteram.
I think you are by now a little ashamed, since this third letter has already caught you before you could send even a sheet of paper or a single letter.
sed non urgeo; longiores enim exspectabo vel potius exigam.
But I am not pressing you; for I shall expect, or rather demand, longer letters.
ego si semper haberem cui darem, vel ternas in hora darem; is fit enim nescio qui ut quasi coram adesse videare cum scribo aliquid ad te, neque id kat' ei)dw/lwn fantasi/as, ut dicunt tui amici novi, qui putant etiam dianohtika\s fantasi/as spectris Catianis excitari; nam ne te fugiat, Catius Insuber, *)epikou/reios, qui nuper est mortuus, quae ille Gargettius et iam ante Democritus ei)/dwla, hic 'spectra' nominat. §15.16.2his autem spectris etiam si oculi possent feriri, quod quae velis ipsa incurrunt, animus qui possit ego non video.
For my part, if I always had someone to give them to, I would send even three in an hour; for somehow it happens that you seem to be present as if in person when I write something to you, and that not through the presentation of images, as your new friends say, who think that even mental images are excited by Catius's "spectres"; for, lest it escape you, Catius the Insubrian, an Epicurean who died recently, calls "spectres" what that famous Gargettian, and even before him Democritus, called "images." But even if eyes could be struck by these spectres, because the things you wish for run in of themselves, how the mind can be struck I do not see.
doceas tu me oportebit, cum salvus veneris, in meane potestate sit spectrum tuum, ut, simul ac mihi conlibitum sit de te cogitare, illud occurrat; neque solum de te, qui mihi haeres in medullis, sed si insulam Britanniam coepero cogitare, eius ei)/dwlon mihi advolabit ad pectus?
You will have to teach me, when you arrive safe and sound, whether your spectre is in my power, so that as soon as it pleases me to think of you, it presents itself; and not only concerning you, who cling to my very marrow, but if I begin to think of the island of Britain, will its "image" fly to my breast?
§15.16.3sed haec posterius; tempto enim te quo animo accipias.
But of these things later; for I am testing you to see in what spirit you take them.
si enim stomachabere et moleste feres, plura dicemus postulabimusque, ex qua ai(re/sei 'VI HOMINIBVS ARMATIS' deiectus sis, in eam restituare.
For if you are annoyed and take it hard, we shall say more and demand that from whatever school you have been ejected "BY ARMED MEN," you be restored to it.
in hoc interdicto non solet addi 'IN HOC ANNO.' qua re si iam biennium aut triennium est cum virtuti nuntium remisisti delenitus inlecebris voluptatis, in integro res nobis erit.
In this interdict, the words "IN THIS YEAR" are not usually added. Therefore, if it is already two or three years since you sent a message of farewell to virtue, seduced by the allurements of pleasure, the matter will be intact for us.
quamquam quicum loquor? Cum uno fortissimo viro qui, postea quam forum attigisti, nihil fecisti nisi plenissimum amplissimae dignitatis.
And yet, with whom am I speaking? With one most courageous man who, after you entered the forum, have done nothing but what was most full of the highest dignity.
in ista ipsa ai(re/sei metuo ne plus nervorum sit quam ego putarim, si modo eam tu probas.
In that very school of yours, I fear there may be more sinews than I thought, if only you approve of it.
'qui id tibi in mentem venit?' inquies.
"How did that come into your mind?" you will say.
quia nihil habebam aliud quod scriberem; de re p. enim nihil scribere possum; nec enim quod sentio is libet scribere.
Because I had nothing else to write; for of the republic I can write nothing, since it is not pleasant to write what I feel to those men.