nd
feel certain that I am.

CLXXII (F VII, 18)

TO C. TREBATIUS TESTA (IN GAUL)

A VILLA IN THE AGER POMPTINUS, 8 APRIL

[Sidenote: B.C. 53, AET. 53]

I have received several letters from you at the same time, written at
various times, in which everything else gave me great pleasure; for they
shewed that you were now sustaining your military service with a brave
spirit, and were a gallant and resolute man. These are qualities which
for a short time I felt to be lacking in you, though I attributed your
uneasiness not so much to any weakness of your own spirit, as to your
feeling your absence from us. Therefore go on as you have begun: endure
your service with a stout heart: believe me, the advantages you will
gain are many; for I will reiterate my recommendation of you, though I
shall wait for the right moment of doing so. Be assured that you are not
more anxious that your separation from me should be as profitable as
possible to yourself than I am. Accordingly, as your "securities" are
somewhat weak, I have sent you one in my poor Greek, written by my own
hand.[708] For your part, I should wish you to keep me informed of the
course of the war in Gaul: for the less warlike my informant, the more
inclined I am to believe him.

But to return to your letters. Everything else (as I said) is prettily
written, but I do wonder at this: who in the world sends several
identical letters, when he writes them with his own hand? For your
writing on paper that has been used before, I commend your economy: but
I can't help wondering what it was that you preferred to rub out of this
bit of paper rather than not write such poor stuff as this--unless it
were, perhaps, some of your legal formulas. For I don't suppose you rub
out my letters to replace them with your own. Can it mean that there is
no business going on, that you are out of work, that you haven't even a
supply of paper? Well, that is entirely your own fault, for taking your
modesty abroad with you instead of leaving it behind here with us. I
will commend you to Balbus, when he starts to join you, in the good old
Roman style. Don't be astonished if there is a somewhat longer interval
than usual between my letters: for I intend being out of town in April.
I write this letter in the Pomptine district, having put up at the villa
of M. AEmilius Philemo, from which I could hear the noise of my clients,
I mean those you confided to me! For at Ulubrae it is certain that