B.C. 45, ÆT. 61 will spend more than the sum to be received from these rents. Therefore, please investigate who the tenants are and what their rent is, and take care that the tenant is a man to pay to the day. See also what journey money and outfit will suffice. There is certainly no need of a carriage and horses at Athens. For such as he wants for the journey there is enough and to spare at home, as you observe yourself.
DLXVIII (A XII, 31, §§ 1-2)
TO ATTICUS (AT ROME)
Astura (29 March)
Sicca expresses surprise at Silius having changed his mind.
He makes his son the excuse, and I don't think it a bad
one, for he is a son after his own heart. Accordingly, I am
more surprised at your saying that you think he will sell, if
we would include something else which he is anxious to get
rid of, as he had of his own accord determined not to do
so. You ask me to fix my maximum price and to say how
much I prefer those pleasure grounds of Drusus. I have
never set foot in them. I know Coponius's villa to be old
and not very spacious, the wood a fine one, but I don't
know what either brings in, and that after all I think we
ought to know. But for me either one or the other is to be
valued by my occasion for it rather than by the market price.
Pray consider whether I could acquire them or not. If I
were to sell my claim on Faberius, I don't doubt my being
able to settle for the grounds of Silius even by a ready money
payment, if he could only be induced to sell. If he had
none for sale, I would have recourse to Drusus, even at the
large price at which Egnatius told you that he was willing to
sell. For Hermogenes can give me great assistance in finding
the money. But I beg you to allow me the disposition
of an eager purchaser; yet, though I am under the influence
of this eagerness and of my sorrow, I am willing to be ruled
by you.