13,000 sesterces
20,000 sesterces
As for his financial affairs, I often hear from him, and they are not in such a state as to prevent him from being anxious to pay you and from making efforts to that end: but if Q. Axius does not pay me in this my flight the £100 I lent his son, and pleads in excuse the state of the times, and if Lepta and others do the same, I confess I am always surprised to hear from Quintus that he is pressed for some £175. For of course you see his straits. However he has ordered the sum to be paid to your account. Perhaps you suppose that he is slow or close-fisted in money matters. No one is less so: but enough about my brother.
As for his son, the father has certainly always indulged him; but indulgence does not make him a liar or a miser or disloyal to his friends, though it does perhaps make him surly, haughty and aggressive. Accordingly he has these defects which are due to spoiling; but they are not intolerable, shall I say, as young men go nowadays. But the defects which, to
quae mihi quidem, qui illum amo, sunt his ipsis malis, in quis sumus, miseriora, non sunt ab obsequio nostro. Nam suas radices habent; quas tamen evellerem profecto, si liceret. Sed ea tempora sunt, ut omnia mihi sint patienda. Ego meum facile teneo; nihil est enim eo tractabilius. Cuius quidem misericordia languidiora adhuc consilia cepi, et, quo ille me certiorem vult esse, eo magis timeo, ne in eum exsistam crudelior.
Sed Antonius venit heri vesperi. Iam fortasse ad me veniet, aut ne id quidem, quoniam scripsit, quid fieri vellet. Sed scies continuo, quid actum sit. Nos iam nihil nisi occulte.
De pueris quid agam? parvone navigio committam? Quid mihi animi in navigando censes fore? Recordor enim, aestate cum illis illo Rhodiorum ἀφράκτῳ navigans quam fuerim sollicitus; quid duro tempore anni actuariola fore censes? O rem undique miseram!
Trebatius erat mecum, vir plane et civis bonus. Quae ille monstra, di immortales! Etiamne Balbus in senatum venire cogitet? Sed ei ipsi cras ad te litteras dabo. Vettienum mihi amicum, ut scribis, ita puto esse. Cum eo, quod ἀποτόμως ad me scripserat de nummis curandis, θυμικώτερον eram iocatus. Id tu, si ille aliter acceperit ac debuit, lenies. "Monetali" autem adscripsi, quod ille ad me "PRO COS." Sed, quoniam est homo et nos diligit, ipse quoque a nobis diligatur. Vale.