§12.31.1Silium mutasse sententiam Sicca mirabatur.
Sicca was wondering that Silius had changed his mind.
equidem magis miror quod, cum in filium causam conferret quae mihi non iniusta videtur (habet enim qualem vult), ais te putare, si addiderimus aliud a quo refugiat, cum ab ipso id fuerit destinatum, venditurum.
For my part, I wonder more at what you say you think—namely, that if we add some other condition which he shrinks from, he will sell, although he has put forward an excuse concerning his son, which does not seem to me unjust (for he has the sort of son he wants), and even though that very thing had been intended by himself.
§12.31.2quaeris a me quod summum pretium constituam et quantum anteire istos hortos Drusi.
You ask me what maximum price I would set, and by how much those gardens of Silius surpass those of Drusus.
accessi numquam; Coponianam villam et veterem et non magnam novi, silvam nobilem, fructum autem neutrius, quod tamen puto nos scire oportere.
I have never visited them; I know the Coponian villa, which is both old and not large, and has a famous wood, but I know the income of neither, which however I think we ought to know.
sed mihi utrivis istorum tempore magis meo quam ratione aestimandi sunt.
But to me, either of those is to be valued more by my own circumstances than by objective valuation.
possim autem adsequi necne tu velim cogites.
But I would like you to consider whether I can attain them or not.
si enim Faberianum venderem, explicare vel repraesentatione non dubitarem de Silianis, si modo adduceretur ut venderet.
For if I were to sell the Faberian debt, I should not hesitate about Silius's gardens, even by immediate payment, if only he could be induced to sell.
si venalis non haberet, transirem ad Drusum vel tanti quanti Egnatius illum velle tibi dixit.
If he did not hold them for sale, I would turn to Drusus, even at as high a price as Egnatius told you he wanted.
magno etiam adiumento nobis Hermogenes potest esse in repraesentando.
Hermogenes also can be of great help to us in ready money.
at tu concede mihi, quaeso, ut eo animo sim quo is debeat esse qui emere cupiat, et tamen ita servio cupiditati et dolori meo ut a te regi velim.
But please allow me to be of such a mind as he ought to be who is eager to buy; and yet, I am so subservient to my desire and my grief that I wish to be ruled by you.