s would have approved my
judgment: still, it would have been appropriate to a library, and in
harmony with my pursuits. But Bacchae! What place is there in my house
for them? But, you will say, they are pretty. I know them very well and
have often seen them. I would have commissioned you definitely in the
case of statues known to me, if I had decided on them. The sort of
statues that I am accustomed to buy are such as may adorn a place in a
_palaestra_ after the fashion of gymnasia.[555] What, again, have I, the
promoter of peace, to do with a statue of Mars? I am glad there was not
a statue of Saturn also: for I should have thought these two statues had
brought me debt! I should have preferred some representation of Mercury:
I might then, I suppose, have made a more favourable bargain with
Arrianus. You say you meant the table-stand[556] for yourself; well, if
you like it, keep it. But if you have changed your mind I will, of
course, have it. For the money you have laid out, indeed, I would rather
have purchased a place of call at Tarracina,[557] to prevent my being
always a burden on my host. Altogether I perceive that the fault is with
my freedman, whom I had distinctly commissioned to purchase certain
definite things, and also with Iunius, whom I think you know, an
intimate friend of Arrianus. I have constructed some new sitting-rooms
in a miniature colonnade on my Tusculan property. I want to ornament
them with pictures: for if I take pleasure in anything of that sort it
is in painting. However, if I am to have what you have bought, I should
like you to inform me where they are, when hey are to be fetched, and by
what kind of conveyance. For if Damasippus doesn't abide by his
decision, I shall look for some would-be Damasippus,[558] even at a
loss.

As to what you say about the house, as I was going out of town I
intrusted the matter to my daughter Tullia:[559] for it was at the very
hour of my departure that I got your letter. I also discussed the matter
with your friend Nicias, because he is, as you know, intimate with
Cassius. On my return, however, before I got your last letter, I asked
Tullia what she had done. She said that she had approached Licinia[560]
(though I think Cassius is not very intimate with his sister), and that
she at once said that she could not venture, in the absence of her
husband (Dexius is gone to Spain), to change houses without his being
there and knowing about it. I am much gratified t