§prCum de palatio post multos annos honoratissimus, quippe iam consul, redisset ad patriam, villulam, quam pater reliquerat, introgressus his versibus lusit Luciliano stilo: §1Salve, herediolum, maiorum regna meorum, §2quod proavus, quod avus, quod pater excoluit, §3quod mihi iam senior properata morte reliquit: §4eheu nolueram tam cito posse frui!
When after many years he had returned from the palace to his homeland, highly honored—indeed already a consul—having entered the little villa which his father had left, he trifled in these verses in the Lucilian style: Hail, little inheritance, the kingdom of my ancestors, which my great-grandfather, which my grandfather, which my father cultivated, which, now elderly, he left to me by a hastened death: alas, I had not wished to be able to enjoy it so soon!
It is indeed a just succession to succeed a father, but for dutiful children it is a more pleasing order to be masters together with him.
Now labor and cares are mine; before, only pleasure was in my share, the rest belonged to my father.
A small inheritance, I confess, but no possession was ever small to the contented, and add also, to the like-minded.
§11ex animo rem stare aequum puto, non animum ex re.
I think it right that estate depends on the mind, not the mind on estate.
§12cuncta cupit Croesus, Diogenes nihilum: §13spargit Aristippus mediis in Syrtibus aurum, §14aurea non satis est Lydia tota Midae.
Croesus desires all things, Diogenes nothing; Aristippus scatters gold in the midst of the Syrtes, the whole of golden Lydia is not enough for Midas.
§15cui nullus finis cupiendi, est nullus habendi:
To him who has no end of desiring, there is no end of possessing.
§16ille opibus modus est, quem statuas animo.
That is the limit for wealth which you establish in your mind.
But learn how great this field of mine is, so that you may also know me and know yourself too, if you are able.
Although it is difficult to know oneself; as quickly as we read 'know thyself', just as quickly do we neglect it.
§21agri bis centum colo iugera, vinea centum §22iugeribus colitur prataque dimidio, §23silva supra duplum, quam prata et vinea et arvum; §24cultor agri nobis nec superest nec abest, §25fons propter puteusque brevis, tum purus et amnis; §26naviger hic refluus me vehit ac revellit, §27conduntur fructus geminum mihi semper in annum.
I cultivate two hundred jugera of arable land, the vineyard is cultivated with one hundred jugera, and the meadows with half as much, the woodland is more than double what the meadows, vineyard, and arable land are; we have neither too many nor too few cultivators of the field, a spring is near and a shallow well, and also a pure river; this navigable, ebbing river carries me away and brings me back, crops are always stored for me for two years.
§28cui non longa penus, huic quoque prompta fames.
He who has no long-lasting store of food has also starvation close at hand.