§9.26.1accubueram hora nona, cum ad te harum exemplum in codicillis exaravi.
I had reclined for dinner at the ninth hour, when I wrote out a draft of this letter on my tablets.
dices: 'ubi?' apud Volumnium Eutrapelum, et quidem supra me Atticus, infra Verrius, familiares tui.
You will say, 'Where?' At the house of Volumnius Eutrapelus; and indeed, Atticus was above me, and Verrius below me, both friends of yours.
miraris tam exhilaratam esse servitutem nostram? quid ergo faciam? (te consulo, qui philosophum audis) angar, excruciem me? quid adsequar? deinde quem ad finem? 'vivas,' inquis 'in litteris. '. an quicquam me aliud agere censes aut posse vivere, nisi in litteris viverem? sed est earum etiam 'non satietas sed quidam modus; a quibus cum discessi, etsi minimum mihi est in cena (quod tu unum zh/thma Dioni philosopho posuisti), tamen quid potius faciam, prius quam me dormitum conferam, non reperio.
Do you wonder that our state of servitude is so cheerful? What then should I do? (I consult you, who attend the lectures of a philosopher.) Should I pine away, should I torture myself? What should I achieve? And then, to what end? 'Live,' you say, 'in literature.' Do you think I do anything else, or that I could even live, unless I lived in literature? But even of that there is, not satiety, but a certain limit; when I have departed from it, although there is very little for me in dinner (which was the single problem you posed to Dion the philosopher), yet what else I should rather do, before I betake myself to sleep, I do not find.
audi reliqua: infra Eutrapelum Cytheris accubuit. §9.26.2'in eo igitur,' inquis, 'convivio Cicero ille,
"
quem aspectabant, cuius ob os Graii ora obvertebant sua?
"
non me hercule suspicatus sum illam adfore.
Hear the rest: below Eutrapelus reclined Cytheris. 'In that banquet, then,' you say, 'was the famous Cicero, "at whom men used to gaze, and to whose face the Greeks used to turn their own?"' By Hercules, I did not suspect that she would be there.
sed tamen ne Aristippus quidem ille Socraticus erubuit, cum esset obiectum habere eum Laida.
But yet, not even the famous Socratic Aristippus blushed when he was accused of having Lais.
'habeo,' inquit, 'non habeor a Laide' (Graece hoc melius; tu, si voles, interpretabere); me vero nihil istorum ne iuvenem quidem movit umquam, ne nunc senem; convivio delector; ibi loquor quod in solum, ut dicitur, et gemitum in risus maximos transfero. §9.26.3an tu id melius, qui etiam philosophum inriseris, qui cum ille, 'si quis quid quaereret,' dixisset, cenam te quaerere a mane dixeris? ille baro te putabat quaesiturum, unum caelum esset an innumerabilia.
'I possess,' he said, 'I am not possessed by Lais' (this is better in Greek; you, if you wish, will translate it); but as for me, none of those things ever moved me even as a young man, let alone now as an old man; I am delighted by a banquet; there I say whatever comes to my tongue, as they say, and I turn groaning into the greatest laughter. Or did you do better, who even mocked a philosopher, who, when he had said, 'if anyone had any question to ask,' you said that you had been looking for a dinner since morning? That blockhead thought you were going to ask whether there was one heaven or innumerable ones.
quid ad te? at hercule †cena non quid ad te tibi praesertim.
What is that to you? But, by Hercules, dinner is something to you, especially to you.
sic igitur vivitur: cotidie aliquid legitur aut scribitur; dein ne amicis nihil tribuamus, epulamur una non modo non contra legem, si ulla nunc lex est, sed etiam intra legem et quidem aliquanto.
Thus, then, we live: every day something is read or written; then, that we may not pay no attention to our friends, we feast together, not only not contrary to the law, if there is any law now, but even within the law, and indeed by a considerable margin.
qua re nihil est quod adventum nostrum extimescas; non multi cibi hospitem accipies, multi ioci.
Therefore, there is no reason for you to dread our arrival; you will receive a guest of not much appetite, but of much jest.